Thayla’s still as a statue and I’m too…humiliated to glance down at her. Her power pulses beneath my fingertips, but she’s doing a much better job of keeping it locked away than I am.
We have to teach her not to do that. The more she restrains herself, the more it’s always going to fight her.
I’m two against one.
She’s seven against one.
I mean, yeah, it’s seven small pieces from what I can sense but still…
She’ll lose every time.
“In the cave, your power didn’t just wrap around me and my emotions. It wrapped around my power. It settled my powers.”
Yes…the first time I touched those sweet, sweet, deadly seven.
“That’s correct. Our little secret. Before it was our secret, though, angel, it washersecret. I was the Goddess of Seductions secret weapon. That feeder I nullified with my Harmony had adomain under her, but she didn’t want to work or be in the Charging Chamber.
“Shesensed instantly that my Harmony embedded itself not only into that woman’s emotions, but her actual power. I made it more cooperative. Because of that, she fed at her max capacity. Whether she wanted to or not.
“In my young, dumb mind, I told myself I helped her. I thought I had done something spectacular. Especially when the Goddess of Seduction kneeled beside me with this large, proud smile on her ugly fucking deceiving face. I remember even asking her if that lady was okay now or if she was still sad.
“She wiped the tears off my cheeks and told me I made that woman the happiest person in the realm. She then explained to me that my Harmony side is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen, but sometimes, people take beauty and turn it into something ugly.Sheturned it into something ugly.”
“Riven, it isn’t—”
“She said, ‘If your father finds out you can harmonize powers—strengthen, soothe, or subdue them—then he’s going to place you with the Oblirians, and you’ll have to fight.’”
I pause. My throat works overtime to swallow the air that’s stuck. My shallow inhale is too fast.
Too full of her scent.
“You don’t want that, do you? You’d much rather be here and make everyone happy, right?”
My tongue tickles from mimicking that bitch’s words and tone.
My fingers twitch against soft skin.
“The choice was simple. It was so simple.” A quiet laugh breaks from me. “Of course I wanted to be there. With her. With all of them. They were so nice.”
The body beside me scoots too close.
It’s too hot.
Alas, I must barrel on.
“They spoiled me. Pampered me. Brought me gifts, food, and the best clothes. But then—”
I squeeze my eyes shut and tap my fists against my head.Lightly.
“THEN—they talked about me when they thought I couldn’t hear them. The very beings I wasempowering. They said I was the sickest of them all. Even the God of Death and Killer of Time didn’t do what I did. What I did was both addictive and disgusting. What was disgusting?”
I grip my stomach, bending over as a harsh chuckle belts out of me.
“What was I doing that was disgusting?”
My laughter echoes around me as I grip my roots, then fling my arms out beside me. The beautiful melody runs through my mind, and I hum happily along with its tune.
“Hey, hey. Come back to me.”
