I close my eyes and bite my trembling bottom lip.
“When did they take such a horrible turn?”
His sigh flutters through my mind.
“Shortly after the Goddess of Seduction decided she wasn’t satisfied with having only one Beginning God by her side.”
“So all of this is that bitch’s fault?”
“Not completely. Maybe in Derivius’s eyes and his version of the events. It is true, she wanted power over her counterparts and in her mind, the way to get that was to have control over the men. The God of Obliteration, though, realized what he could gain from controlling the entire realm. Including the Valories.
“Once the two of them passed the line of corruption, there was no coming back for them. Both Suma and Derivius always flirted with the line, depending on their wants and motivations, but neither truly crossed over. Creation and Accord, well…the two of them are both good and bad in their own ways. They don’t always agree with Obliteration. Accord disagrees more than Creation, but there have been many times they should have stood up rather than give in to him.”
“And what of the God of Boundaries? He’s the Valories favorite goody two-shoes, who always follows the fucking rules?”
“He’s made his own mistakes as well.”
“Yeah, I’d say. Like hiding away while all this taurnshit went down.”
“He did what he thought was right. They all thought they were doing what was right,”he whispers.
Silence descends across the temple.
It doesn’t stretch long. Barely a breath. But it’s enough.
Enough for the words to settle.
Enough for them to mean something.
Enough for something deep in my chest to go very, very still.
My fingers twitch as vibrations slither through my body. My pulse stutters like my heart doesn’t quite know how to feel about what it just heard.
They thought they were doing what was right.
The words echo, hollow and wrong.
The realm.
The power stolen.
Unjust murders.
Dark Gods. Oblirians.
The Veilatara.
His own species.
The Attendants.
The manipulation of gods standings and pairings.
My men.
Me.
My chair crashes behind me with a sharp, violent crack, then completely disappears as I surge to my feet. My hands fly up, like I can physically throw the rage out of my body, but it only makes it worse. The heat burns hotter under my skin, making every inch of me vibrate out of control. My stomach rolls so fiercely, I could puke.
