“Someone go get Sevryn,” he grits out.
“What?” Kyzen asks.
“Go get Sevryn!”
Kyzen’s gone in a flash and I frantically stroke Creed’s soul. I do everything I can think of to do to calm it. I’ve never felt it react this wildly.
It’s desperate to break free from him.
“What’s—shit,” Sevryn says as he and Yemi pop into the kitchen. “What the fuck happened?”
“Your father happened. He’s killing innocent people. A lot of them. His power’s bleeding through their prayers and souls.”
Sevryn’s eyes grow wide, clouding over with a level of fear I’ve never seen from him. He wasn’t even this scared in Hellveilious.
“No,” he whispers. “Where? I have to get to them.”
“You can’t go face your father. Are you serious?”
“He’s killing them because of me, Yemi! I have to go.”
He grips his roots and paces back and forth. No matter what Yemi mumbles at him, he doesn’t slow his steps and constantly states he’s going. He has to.
“This is my fault. All my fault.”
“What is?” Amick asks.
“This is why I got sent to Hellveilious. When you all…when I thought you left me, I kept my head down for years, then I started working on my own plan. My own rebellion. I was gathering the people who didn’t want to be in the Abandon. Those who were there because they’d been taken from the lower regions, kids, just anyone who wanted to leave but couldn’t.
“I was trickling them through the stronghold. A few at a time. Not in the numbers that would really get noticed from either side. The others, I helped them congregate in different hiding places. One day, my father caught me moving a group. I refused to tell him where the others were. That’s when he sent me to Hellveilious.”
My jaw drops as my men—aside from Creed—stare at him in both disbelief and pride.
Fuck. He got wrongfully punished for trying to do the right thing.
Doubly fuck. There are actually innocent people in that horrible place.
“How long ago was this?” Yemi asks.
“Five years ago. I have to help them. I put them into this mess when I got caught and left them stranded there without any direction on what to do. Fuck…if he found all of them.”
He slams his eyes shut as he pulls at his hair.
Creed grunts as he grips the counter and tries to pull himself up. I hold him around his waist, lending him some help as he breathes through his power’s persistence.
Gods, he’s struggling.
“Then let’s go. We don’t have long. Everyone go get geared up. Except you, Yemi.”
“What the fuck do you mean except me? I’m going.”
“No,” all of us bark and she decides it’s me she’s turning her glare on.
“Thayla.”
“Any other time, I’d be different,” I say, stepping closer to her and gripping her hands. “This is a calculated attack and more than likely a trap of some kind. We know that. If his dad gets an inkling that his son’s in a Valtrue and you’re his Binder, he’ll turn his attention to you. So he can use you to hold over Sevryn.”
Her jaw goes slack. “You don’t know that for sure. I can help.”
