My bellow echoes around the room as I sling all the shit off the table in front of me. Each piece hits the ground like thunder banging in the sky. I grip my roots so hard, my scalp screams in pain.
“No. Fuck no. They would’ve…” I gasp for breath, shaking my head. “They would have told me. If my powers could’ve fixed this, they would’ve fucking told me.”
No one speaks.
Which makes it so much worse.
My gaze flicks wildly between them. Amick, Riven, Lambrit, over to Creed and Sevryn. Back to Yemi, Rose, Havar, Nero, Iric. If Kyzen and Doren were over here, I’d seek them out as well.
My eyes beg for someone to agree with me.
“Why wouldn’t they tell me?” I whisper.
Their silence is suffocating.
“Because you would’ve fixed it.”
I whip my attention to Havar.
“That’s literally the whole fucking point.”
“I know it is, but the Veilatara are creatures of purpose and the overall well-being of the realm and of their kind. This is only an assumption based on my understanding of them, but it more than likely had a lot to do with timing. If they had told you the moment you realized you had a touch of all seven powers, and you started stripping the contraptions off them, you would’ve made them vulnerable.
“Like the passage said, not all Veilatara are guardians. Some prosper by solely providing for the realm. I see that relationship with Verlet’s herd. He walks around them, watching over them,ready to defend them at any moment. Just like Seismet did to Ike that day he whipped that youngling. The Beginning Gods could’ve retaliated, re-strapped them, killed some of them, or gone after you for freeing them. There are a number of reasons, and up until recently, you nor any of us were in any position to actually protect them.”
My eyes slam shut and my foot taps to the tempo of my racing thoughts and heavy breaths.
Fuck.
He’s right.
“They’re safer strapped right now and they know that.” I sigh, running my hands down my face. “The moment I start breaking the restraints, the Beginning Gods are going to feel that shift and notice the lack of power coming from them.”
He nods. So does everyone else.
Well, except for Riven. He seems as upset as me.
“Is…everything okay in here?”
I peek to the side at Doren’s concerned face as he approaches us with three more books in his hand.
“Everything’s okay,” Yemi says, but she’s looking at me, not him. I give her a clipped dip of my head. “Are you doing okay? What else did you find?”
“Some more mentions of the Binding, but I also came for you. Will you come help me with something for a moment?”
She hums, making her way to him as I bend down and snatch up one of the texts I knocked to the ground. I noticed both Amick and Lambrit flinch out of the corner of my eye.
Neither dares to say anything.
“So what’s the plan?” Riven asks, leaning across the table and staring at me. “We’re going to go confront our trifling Veilatara and ask them why the hell they didn’t share this with us before now, right?”
A chuckle escapes me despite my pissy mood.
“We’re sure as shit going to say something to them. Once we’re done here.”
He huffs.
“Verlet is getting no hugs from me for a whole week.”
