Her snort forces her pinched lips to curve into a grin, and I roll my eyes.
Her ass never gives up that easily with me.
I swear to the Valories she gets turned on by our spats.
I mean…I can’t say I don’t, but whatever.
My annoyance flares at the knock on the door, and I suppress my sigh when Kyzen goes to answer it.
Fuck, how can five minutes go by so fast?
Everyone other than Sevryn surrounds Thayla, and her shoulders bunch up. They obviously can sense that her Chaos is under control now. Earlier, they were giving her space that I think she both wanted and was offended by.
She forces her face to stay unbothered, but their undivided attention is doing nothing but overwhelming her again.
“Come here, Thayla, and look over this map.”
She doesn’t scoff, glare, or balk at my command as she gives her friends’ hands quick squeezes before snuggling to my side.
I suck in a harsh breath as the little tease brushes her soul up against mine.
“I’ll be honest with you all about a couple of things. One, I can’t read this map. I don’t know what I’m looking at. Two, I couldn’t focus much on what all you have and haven’t decided on. I heard Amick disagree with multiple things thrown out, but I didn’t comprehend shit.”
“You didn’t miss much. We’re still at square one. Now that we have Creed’s map of the Abandon, we may be able to see the safest route.”
“And quickest.”
“Amick,” Kyzen huffs and pinches his nose.
Her attention bounces between them, easily picking up on their disagreement that followed us into this conversation.
“What’s the biggest obstacle standing in our way of nailing down a plan?”
“Getting there without being detected. We want the element of surprise. K, Seduction, and Riven all know we’re coming. There’s no doubt in any of their minds, but the when is the question. If the five of us use our power to get there, we give ourselves away,” I tell her.
“Five? Oh fuck, Sevryn, I forgot you have a piece of shit father over there too.”
“That I do. We also don’t know if the God of Judgment relayed the message to him that I’m dead, but regardless, if I use my power over there too soon, he’ll know.”
“Lovely. I assume, Kyzen, that’s what you meant by safest?”
He nods, as does she before she carries on.
“So we need to—hold on. Wait. You all go to the Abandon to fight. You also go for…other reasons. How do you…”
Her words trail off, but she’s working it out in her mind.
The glare she aims at me is unholy.
She could earn the title Goddess of Death from that look.
“Am I just now working out that yourfatherknows every single time you go to the Abandon? And yet you still do it by yourself with no backup. Are you fucking kidding me, Creed?”
The desire to defend myself and my actions is strong.
The reality that one of our greatest fears has come true makes me take a ragged breath.
“From now on, I’ll go about it differently.”
