“What’s in your hand?” Amick asks, not giving Derivius or me a chance to say anything else.
Granted, I didn’t notice anything in his hand. I was too focused on staring at his eyes. Namely, his black eye. My heart hurts now that I know the truth of how that happened. I’m sure he and Creed feel awful about what they accidentally did.
“This,” he says exasperatedly as he taps the parchment on the counter, “is the bad news. The Goddess of Seduction sensed her Binding again. K sent me a decree ordering me to come see if you’ve located it.”
“Well, tell him fuck no,” Riven says.
“I can’t do that, son. If I tell him no, he’s sending out guards to accompany you because he knows the Binding is on the move.”
“And if you tell him yes?” Amick asks.
Derivius’s lips pinch together. “Then you have a week from today to meet him at the barrier. Ingood faith, he’ll cross over to our side.”
“The barrier? Why would we meet him there and not at his temple? And what does the side matter?” I ask.
Amick’s features harden as he keeps his intense gaze on Derivius.
“He can’t harm us in his temple. It’s written in the arrangement they made for us. There are no rules if we step through the barrier to the Abandon. It’s one of the many reasons why we don’t like to go and fight unless necessary. If he were to catch us, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. He’s trying to intimidate us. Show us that the barrier doesn’t truly keep him from reaching us and he’s always been the one to decide to stay on his side.”
Derivius nods once. “He’s testing us. He wants to see if we all followed the rules he laid out.”
“Well, you definitely have. You knew the whole time where it was but didn’t tell us.” I scoff.
“Correction, I did not know where the Binding was. I can assure you, if I did, I would’ve retrieved it way before now for myself. I knew the God of Discovery was alive and hiding somewhere, and he could find it.”
Well…that proved to be true.
Amick’s anger grows swiftly, burning through my soul like a poison. It’s so much easier to spot his over everyone else’s. It’s a sensation he’s not used to feeling, therefore it’s far more potent to me.
This whole situation has thrown his carefully crafted plan right out the window. Our what would’ve been over a month timeline of him observing the Binding and figuring out how to release the power, just got chopped to a week.
If he doesn’t or hasn’t got the answer from his book on the Binding by now, I don’t know if he’ll be able to at this point.
My harsh exhale makes my lips flap together, and everyone’s gaze moves to me.
“So what do we do now?”
“We go home and use our time wisely. Havar, go hook the Veilatara. We’ll be flying.”
Amick’s command cuts through the living room like a sword and my chest burns as though it struck me. I watch his back as he stomps past Derivius, and into our room. He slams the door so hard I jump, then take a step in that direction.
“Give him a minute,” Kyzen mumbles as he latches onto my wrist.
“He’s mad. Like really, really mad. I’ve never felt it so intensely.”
“Yeah.” He sighs. “I know.”
“I’ll go warn Gladian,” Creed grunts, sparing us a glance before following behind Havar out the door, then Yemi and Sevryn quietly excuse themselves.
I playfully push Lambrit when he murmurs I’m welcome for the swim lessons back in the day and Rose gives me an apologetic smile that I wave off as they disappear down their hall as well.
I wonder if they’re about over this adventure yet.
“Riven tells me you went overboard. You doing okay?” Derivius asks as Kyzen and I join them in the kitchen.
Riven’s sweet and innocent smile isn’t going to work on me. He’s still in some shit.
“I really think you gave me Riven’s nickname and honestly, I should be calling you that. All you Beginning Gods do is stir some shit up.”
