As soon as taking Yemi away was mentioned, chill bumps broke out across my skin and my chest pulled tight like it was preparing to rip open.
“Is there a reason for that?” Nero asks.
“Yes.”
Iric’s one word leaves zero room for argument or follow-up.
“So, it’s two to two,” Riven announces.
Doren shakes his head as his worried eyes bounce to everyone in the carriage.
“I don’t have a preference aside from I want to be where my Binder is.”
“Three to one,” Riven again cheers like this score keeping is the best role he’s ever been given.
I shoot him a glare to shut up.
“It wouldn’t matter if it was four to zero. It’s Yemi’s decision where she’s going to live. End of fucking story. Plus, Doren, I can’t believe aftereverything, you’d want to go there. I can assure you, shit hasn’t gotten better.”
“I had the intention of staying under the radar for a while and slowly integrating back into society once we all were together.”
“Maybe there will be a compromise or something—”
“You know, Thayla, we must have been wrong about the fourth bedroom not appearing. It obviously wasn’t because Iric was in Hellveilious but because Nero didn’t want a room there. That makes the most sense now.”
Nero glares at Sevryn either for his words or for cutting him off, but I don’t feed into the taurnshit. Sevryn’s trying to stir this up now when I’m actually freaking the hell out about Yemi leaving me.
“The continuation of this conversation is utterly pointless and quite frankly, it’s giving me a headache. So, if no one has anything remotely important to discuss, then I kindly ask for silence.”
Amick’s fingers flex against my side and I sense his annoyance growing stronger in my chest.
My poor genius.
I feel like I got his hopes up, only for these assholes to crush that.
There’s plenty that needs to be said and discussed. I know for a fact Amick has about a million questions he wants to ask Doren, but I don’t know if he’s resisting that because of the two newcomers or if his mind is elsewhere.
Now isn’t the time anyway.
“I need to know how you ended up here and for how long. You wouldn’t have gone through the proper processing or I would’ve known.”
“How would you have known?”
Creed stares at Amick, not in anger, but I swear almost like a plea, requesting him not to do this right now. Iric’s steady gaze roams over them, not at all bothered that his opportunity to answer was cut off.
A hush falls over the carriage as Creed sighs and rests his elbows on his knees with his fingers laced together.
“The door we walked through to get into the carriage is the only one not laced with my power. The crime determines what door you pass through. Upper and middle levels, a piece of their soul separates from them as soon as they pass through the threshold, then it attaches to me as it goes to the pool.
“Lower-level criminals lose their whole souls. Again, a shred will connect to me, then go to the pool. If a pure soul had passed through any door, I would’ve known and I would’ve come.”
“That’s why you didn’t know about us. We had to be brought through there,” I murmur.
“And me. The door we took was the same my father marched me through when he brought me here,” Sevryn adds, and his entire Valtrue whips their heads toward him.
“What do you mean?”
Doren’s question is a soft breath that fractures the scowl on Sevryn’s face. He doesn’t respond other than a shake of his head, though.
