“Your role in the realm is the confusion you’ve already been experiencing. Just as I told you that day in the meadow, you five are right in the middle of it and there will be a time you must pick the side you want to stand on. Only, in your case, picking a side isn’t a one-time thing. It’s constant. Righting the wrongs or making the wrongs worse. Each decision you make shifts something else.”
“Enough, Seismet! This instance.”
Power washes across the hot spring in a wave that has the water flowing and the meadow grass flattening. Everything thunders within me as the massive, incredibly formidable Veilatara stand muzzle to muzzle with one another.
“The two of you go. I will take this conversation from here,”V orders gently, but more firmly than I’ve ever heard him speak.
“Seismet.”
“I’m sorry, Thayla. I shouldn’t have approached this conversation this way. I shouldn’t have approached it at all. It’s not my responsibility.”
“No, it’s okay. Are you okay? Are you and Verlet okay?”
“Don’t fret over us. We’ll be fine.”
He gallops off without a glance in my direction. Verlet stays in stride beside him and the fierce worry that I caused a fight between them eases.
They wouldn’t run off together if they were mad at each other, right?
“What the fuck just happened?” Riven asks.
All of us shake our heads and stare at V.
He hoots a quiet hum, almost like a sad sigh, as he ruffles his feathers out and nestles down on the hot spring’s edge.
“I understand since your arrival, Thayla, everything for all of you has felt heavy and confusing. You don’t know what it is you’re really doing or how much it actually matters.”
“Yeah, exactly. So can you explain that and what Seismet just said?” I plead.
“To an extent. Seismet lost himself for a moment because he’s been too focused on forcing something into fruition that’s not meant to happen yet.”
“You mean completing our connection? He snapped just now because he’s been zeroing in on me and my emotions.”
“Yes.”
I close my eyes and sigh as I lean my head on Amick’s shoulder. No, I know it’s not my fault for Seismet’s crack in attitude because he’s the one eavesdropping constantly but still…
I need to get a better rein on myself.
“We’ve always known our existence never should’ve been. Our father broke countless realmly rules bringing us about. That doesn’t explain throwing Thayla into this mix.” Amick says.
Gods, he’s got that right. I was born just a simple little no one…
I sit straight up, wide-eyed from the scattered thoughts shooting across my mind. I don’t even know if they all fit together, but something does.
“V, you told me my parents’ greatest desire was a child. The Valories promised to give them me in exchange for their dedication to righting the realm. Granted, allowing my mom the ability to get pregnant before her time doesn’t seem like a great compromise, but whatever, besides the point.
“Seismet said our role had something to do with constantly picking a side to either right the wrongs or make the wrongs worse. Did I somehow inherit their responsibility? What wrongs is he talking about? To me, there’s a shit ton wrong. We can’t really be responsible for fixing that alone, right? Or is it—”
“Calm yourself, my Vedae.”
My lungs empty. Creed, Kyzen, and Riven, who were still standing around, finally come take a seat with Amick and me.
Kyzen laces his fingers with mine, and I squeeze as I try to slow the rapid thoughts still running through my brain.
“First, it wasn’t just a desire for your parents to have you because they were ready for a child before their time. Your mother was infertile, Thayla. She never should have had any children at all.”
The wind gets knocked out of my chest and my mouth parts.
