“Yes, they are, but the agreement doesn’t specify your home. It specifies they must spend time withyou. They did that, then they came to where you are. They’re still within the terms of their agreement, while simultaneously having a hearing that will free them from that agreement. Is that not what the agreement states?”
My gaze moves over to the Goddess of Accord. Her jaw tightens, and my mind and mouth buzz.
“Yes.”
“Did you agree on giving them forty-eight hours to present ten signatures to meet the demands under the Law of Doppia Disaccord?”
“Yes.”
“They presented twelve. Plus the High Chancellor’s. Totaling fourteen with Derivius’s signature. Did they not?”
“Yes, they did,” she grits out.
“Therefore, they have satisfied the terms—the terms you put in their agreement—and the terms you set for this hearing. Under your rule and your law, that absolves them from the agreement made on their behalf, doesn’t it?”
Her gaze takes on a deadly seriousness. I don’t shy away from it.
Call it stupid or brave. I don’t know.
I’ll be either for my men.
“I do not have to absolve them from their agreement.” Rellannaver slowly rises from her chair and leans forward.
“And we aren’t fucking going to,” Kira adds in.
He goes ignored.
“If you do not, the five of you who signed—not including Derivius—will face the aftermath of going against your word. Your own law and agreement.”
“You dare threaten us? The Beginning Gods?” she asks me low.
“Threaten? No. Warn you that reality has been given permission to respond? Yes.”
Faster than I can blink, she starshoots to the center with us. She takes three purposeful, measured strides toward me. My men move as one, blocking her path to me.
Derivius appears not a second later.
“You will not touch her.”
“Get out of my way, Derivius.”
“No!” His firm bark echoes through the chamber. “You will absolve them from this agreement. They have done everything that has been asked of them, plus some. Defying your own agreement will strip your power, and you know as well as I do, there aren’t too many beings sending you any extra prayers here lately.”
“How dare you?”
“How dare I? How dare you? You and Calista. These are your children standing behind me, for fuck’s sake! For once in your life, Rellannaver, be a mother. Do the right fucking thing. Keep your word, although it means absolutely nothing.”
Her gasp is short-lived, and I lay my hand on Creed’s arm, moving him over just enough so I can see.
I thought maybe in the fractured glimpse I get of Accord, I’d see…something. Regret, hurt, anything that would tell me there’s a little bit of remorse in her for how she treated Derivius and Riven.
But no.
She’s glaring at him like he’s nothing more than scum beneath her shoe.
“I am the Goddess of Accord. I always keep my word when it comes to my agreements.”
“Funny,” Derivius huffs. “We have very different definitions of eternity.”
