No matter how much I breathe or tangle the blades around my fingers and center myself, the emotional release that Seismet taught me with my Chaos will not work.
Something is blocking these fucking feelings from bursting out of me.
I swear to the gods my skin is about to rip apart.
My head whips to the side at the sound of a limb cracking, and my eyes widen. I had no doubt in my mind that one of, if not all of, my men were going to follow me.
That is not one of my men.
“Iric,” I say as he approaches and takes a seat in the grass beside me.
“Thayla. It’s a beautiful day today.”
I snort and stare at him like he’s lost his mind. He smirks as his eyes roam over the hot spring, but he doesn’t say anything else. My body squirms as I wait for his power to brush against my skin, and the longer we sit here in silence without it doing so, the more fidgety I grow.
“I didn’t steal the Goddess of Creation’s Binding because I knew you needed it. I did it because it felt like just a little piece of revenge I could get in that moment.”
Surprise takes shape over my face. That was legitimately the last thing I expected him to say.
“Well, you did a little of both, I suppose. I did need it, and you took something important from her.”
He grunts. “Not important enough. She’ll care more that her precious Attendants are gone than that thing. There’s no telling how long it’ll take her to realize it’s gone. Which yes, is a good thing for us overall, but I’m not satisfied with that.”
A quiet chuckle escapes me despite how serious his tone is.
“I never would’ve pegged you for someone who cares for revenge, Iric.”
“I probably never would’ve been someone who cared for it if not for her. She is my living nightmare. The emotion that festers rather than fades.”
That comment hits me square in the heart and my chest pinches.
“Do…you want to talk about it?”
He lets out a low laugh and arches his brow at me.
“Do you want to hear about it?”
“Yeah. I have no problem at all admitting I’m nosy as shit.”
He shakes his head, and like me, tangles the meadow grass around his fingers. I don’t push or pry as his eyes grow distant.
“I don’t know if you know this or if your Valtrue even knows this about her, but she’s obsessed with creating connections between people.”
My brows scrunch together. “Like romantic connections?”
He hums. “She’d forged a connection between the Attendants and would watch their behavior. Because of that connection, you’d basically skip over the whole getting to know each other, friends, dating, all that and jump straight into being in love.”
“Oh…oh gods, that’s fucked up. Did she—” I stop myself, instantly realizing that’s far too personal to just ask flat out.
“She tried with me, yes. My power wouldn’t allow the connection to solidify. So she decided I would be the one who broke it down for her and tell her exactly what was wrong with the connections. She couldseethey weren’t perfect. No matter how much I’d try to resist, my power would snatch the emotions out of the Attendants. What it came down to was she was forcing together people who essentially had nothing in common and figuring it should just work because she said so.”
I scoff. “Crazy bitch is obsessed with perfection.”
“That she is,” he agrees, nodding. “The more I tried to tell her it was never going to work because these people weren’t compatible, the more irate she’d grow. The more Attendants she’d force a connection with. Then, when she was dissatisfied with the connection, she’d rip it away.”
“But…that was a good thing, right? Then they weren’t forced to be connected anymore.”
His lips tighten into a fierce frown.
