None of them have time to get up or move before our bedroom door flies open.
“What’s wrong? V said Thayla received a message.”
I snort at the undertone of excitement in Lambrit’s tone, then immediately groan when black spots dance behind my eyes.
“Fuck, I’m so dizzy.”
With grace and ease, Creed turns me over until I’m positioned sitting between his legs. He leans against the bed frame and brushes my hair from my eyes as my body shimmies down until my head rests against his heart.
“Kyzen, go get her some water.”
The thought of drinking water makes me cringe, but my dry mouth begs me for it.
“Thay, you okay?” Lambrit asks as he approaches the end of the bed.
The excitement is gone from his voice, and I give him a small smile.
“I can see now why Mellcom claimed his head was pounding the whole next day after his dream. My skull feels like it’s splitting open.”
“One of the gods spoke to you?” His eyes grow wide.
“Which one?” Riven asks darkly.
I shake my head against Creed’s chest, soaking up the feeling of his soul completely soothing mine. That quote, rope, as we’ve named it, is consumed by all things him.
Kyzen appears at my side, glass of water in hand, but as I try to reach for it, he pulls it back.
“Let me.”
He doesn’t allow me to chug the entire cup in one go as I normally would. The small sips he lets me take are just enough to fix my dry mouth and the swirling in my mind.
I clear my throat, gaining everyone’s attention. “A god didn’t speak to me. It was…I don’t know. Pictures. I did hear Derivius’s voice, but he wasn’t speaking to me. It was a repeat of what he said when we left.” I tell them what he said, and their brows crease.
“I didn’t bring it up before now because at the time it didn’t seem like he was giving me an ominous message, but more so encouragement. I’m trying to piece everything together, but I don’t understand why I was shown a moment, years and years ago, of Lambrit and me in the library back in Oddian.”
“We spent a lot of time in the library. Anything more specific than that?”
I release a breath and settle deeper into Creed. My eyes draw down as I both latch onto that picture in my mind and try to remember what it was we read that day that would be relevant now.
“You had just read something to me, and I hopped up from the floor and started reenacting the scene. I was laughing. So were you, sort of. You kept shushing me and reading. I kept reenacting.”
He taps his fingers against his lips, trying to recall it as well. This was honestly a lifetime ago. In the moving picture in my mind, we were teenagers.
“You also did that a lot. Especially when I read things with an adventurous storyline,” he snorts and I groan.
I push myself out of Creed’s lap and sway as I get my balance after I sling my legs over the side of the bed.
“I was doing this.”
I proceed to twirl in my spot and plunge my arm through the air as though I’m sword fighting. I had no intention of falling like I did in the past, but sure enough, I spin too hard and my legs come out from underneath me.
Before my head hits the ground, a hand is tucked in my hair and Riven’s laughing eyes gaze into mine.
“Beautiful show. Ten out of ten.”
I snort, but Lambrit’s unrestrained laughter steals our attention.
“Gods, how do you not remember that book, Thay? You hated it at first. You kept trying to stop reading it, but I told you, you hadn’t even got to the exciting part yet. The female made you mad, and you were done. Remember? It was the mortal love story about the woman whose ship had wrecked at sea. She fell in love with the pirate who saved her, but one day she woke up and he had left her on the shore. She swore she’d hunt the sea until she found him. It made you mad that she was chasing a man down after he left her.”
