The two gods’ laughter across from us sends a bone-deep sensation through me. I don’t know if I’m full of fury or fear.
Maybe both.
Whatever it is, it’s nearly uncontainable.
“Little troublling? What’s wrong?”
I can’t get my mind to work as Kirabaddon stops laughing and smiles at me with a sickly sweet grin.
“Imagine the things you could do with that rage, Thayla. Your Obliteration would be unmatched.”
“One day, Kirabaddon, you will experience my Obliteration, firsthand.”
My voice is bitter and low, a whisper on the wind that makes his smile grow.
“I sure hope so. I can’t wait to see how powerful you become.”
The breath is knocked from my lungs as something stabs right through my stomach.
My head slowly tilts down as I gasp for air.
My hands shake and pass through the stream of dark power pouring into my body. The ground beneath me vibrates as I sink to my knees.
“No!”
My men bellow as they surround me, doing everything but nothing at the same time to stop the flow of the power seeping into me from Kirabaddon’s Binding.
A blast of white light blinds us all for a fleeting second, severing the connection to me, and I fall to all fours.
“V!”
His hoots cut through the air like lightning striking the ground and a blaze of wind from his wings sends Kirabaddon and Seveous soaring through the air.
Black wings burst from the God of Obliteration’s back, and a battle cry tears through his lips.
That’s the last thing I see before I’m snatched through a starshoot and dropped into searing hot water.
I breach the surface, struggling to catch my breath and screaming as the very wrong, very dark power travels through every drop of blood and cell in my body.
“Do not get in the hot spring with her,”V commands.
I whip around, only calming enough to realize that my men are on their knees at the edge and V stands before them, wings spread and power keeping them from reaching me. Alive and okay.
“Where’s Sevryn?” I shriek, both from worry and this unrelenting pain.
“Get out of the hot spring, Thayla,” Riven shouts.
“Do not get out of the hot spring. I starshot Sevryn to his Valtrue. Everything is okay. This, I swear on my life.”
“No, the fuck it’s not. Get the hell out of the water, Thayla. Now.”
The bubbles around me intensify, and only now do I realize that’s why Riven’s losing his absolute shit.
Something is very,verywrong with the water.
Panic clamps around my chest as the power in this sacred pool swells, stronger—heavier—by the second. I’m going to suffocate, even though my head’s above the surface.
Pressure builds inside me. A scream lodges in my throat, and I clench my fists, then slam my eyes shut. I brace for my body to combust.
