She releases a deep breath and lets her hands slip from her hips. “Okay, so I didn’t overstep the line of corruption?”
“No, you didn’t,” Derivius says.
“If you want to corrupt something, we can go to the—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” she warns me, and my smile widens.
I suppose naughty jokes aren’t appropriate in front of her friends.
I was only trying to lighten her anxiety.
Her worry is telling.
Her dance with Daddy dearest’s dark power has her fearful of messing with the power she’s grown to accept.
“How was my explanation only partially correct?” Amick asks again with far less patience.
“The two of you are overthinking this.” Derivius smirks, studying Thayla and Amick like puzzles he’s enjoying putting together far too much.
It’s bringing me great pleasure.
“First, the part that you got correct was she can declare the consequence for someone who’s wronged her directly. Us gods love a good tit-for-tat.” He winks at my laugh. The others don’t.
“That isn’t the only time, though. She can declare a consequence without bringing corruption into the equation if the consequence isn’t self-serving. Meaning, if it benefits others more than herself, or the benefits outweigh the harm, she can declare the outcome.”
Silence hangs from Amick’s and Thayla’s mouths while ahuhfalls from Creed, Kyzen, and myself. Doren doesn’t seem surprised, but Yemi, Rose, Sevryn, and Lambrit are.
“If that’s the case, this morning, she could have, in fact, said I’ll cut your hand off, and had been fine. The god losing his hand wouldn’t have benefited her, but it would’ve protected all the Attendants,” Kyzen concludes.
“Precisely. So, it’s my opinion, Thayla, you were actually much nicer this morning than you had to be. Good job.”
“I appreciate that.” She chuckles and so do I.
“Why isn’t that condition listed in any of the God of Consequences’ materials?” Amick asks, then he jerks his head like understanding just slapped him. “If the gods believed responsibility would always be taken out of their hands, they’d stop being responsible altogether.”
“Correct. We are selfish creations, aren’t we?” Derivius asks with a sarcastic laugh, then he laces his hands behind his back. “Now that that’s been addressed, what did Thayla do that’s now messing up Amick’s evidence?”
“What? I didn’t do anything to his evidence. I don’t even know what all evidence he has besides the bodies,” she states, once again placing her hands on those delicious hips of hers.
“Oh, on the contrary, angel. You unknowingly did some shit,” I sing-song and flinch when she raises her mug as though she’s going to chuck it at my ass.
“The bodies have been perfectly preserved. There’s a barrier surrounding them, so they haven’t decayed a day since they were left in the forest,” Creed says, and the mug in her hand drops as fast as her jaw does.
“What?” she and Yemi ask.
Bestie shoves herself up off the couch and moves beside Thayla with pure, unfiltered shock scripted across her brows.
This is so exciting.
This is my favorite kind of Chaos.
“Well, that is something,” Derivius says.
“I…there’s no way I did that. I was unconscious when they took us to Hellveilious. Are you sure it was me and not Yemi? Not trying to throw the blame on you or anything, but when that happened, I didn’t even know that was a power I had.”
“It’s not her power we sensed all over them. It’s undeniably yours,” Creed says low, nodding at her shaking head.
Yemi opens her mouth, but Amick beats her to it. “Your power more than likely released on its own and placed a protective barrier between their bodies and yours. It would seem it just…stayed.”
