The realm went into lockdown right after the Power Worthiness Test, and Derivius warned us Amick would face the Beginning Gods in a trial.
I’m fucking worried about that.
And just when it felt like we might breathe—everything shattered again.
In a rare moment of peace, Creed dropped to his knees, bellowing in pain.
Without warning, the God of Pain began slaughtering innocents in the Abandon. Sevryn had been trying to free them, and that’s what got him sent to Hell.
We couldn’t help them.
The God of Pain unleashed everything. On them and on Sevryn.
Then…Obliteration struck.
Corrupted power slammed into me like a blade through my stomach, stealing the air from my lungs. I swear I would’ve died if V hadn’t arrived when he did.
He pulled us out and dropped me into the hot spring.
When I surfaced, gasping, someone was already there.
A stranger.
Willow Vito.
And she said she was here to help.
Which, in my experience, usually means everything is about to get worse.
Thayla
1
Who the…
Gut-wrenching pain sears through my body, and a pure, unfiltered scream erupts from my chest.
The air in my lungs flees me. Fast and unforgiving.
I curl in on myself as far as I can without submerging my face in the water, and ripples flow around me from my uncontrollable shaking.
The guys bellow my name, and their panic thrashes across my soul, but I can’t focus on them.
My powers continue to war with the tainted one attempting to weave itself through me as if they know this foreign, deadly addition doesn’t belong. They’re doing everything they can to fight it off without a care in the realm about the pain it’s causing me.
It’s killing me.
“Time to get this power out of you, Thayla. V, if you will?”
The stranger, goddess, maybe—whoever she is—Willow, holds out her hand, and my agony deepens my confusion.
If he will, what? How does she…
My eyes widen, and a grunt tears through my clenched teeth as V’s power washes over us, leaving the Binding sitting in her palm.
“W-what is happening? What are you going to do with that?”
“I’m not going to do anything. You are.”
