“I’d rather he not.” My nose scrunches, but the hurt that crosses her face has a sigh slipping from my lips. “I’m not mad at him or you. I’m embarrassed. Obviously, my powers didn’t feel the need to push his off and I didn’t expect…internal revelationsto come over me. I wasn’t prepared for that, and I don’t like sitting in and examining myemotions.”
She quickly covers her snort, but I still cross my arms and stare at her. “I know, but really, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. We all know you and since yesterday you’ve been beating yourself up about this when you shouldn’t have been. We just didn’t call you out like Iric did. Plus, you are one of the most empathetic people I’ve ever met. You just have your own way of going about it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen, and you can tell Iric I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” she agrees as she holds her arms out for a hug.
I scoff but definitely give in to the comforting embrace. Truth be told, I don’t know what I am.
Am I upset he used his power on me? Yes.
Do I recognize that he didn’t mean to do that? Also, yes.
It’d feel hypocritical of me to flip my shit on him for not controlling his power when we were literally fixing something my power did without my consent or knowledge.
Plus, he didn’t hurt me. Everything that’s been explained about his power was just proven true. He doesn’t fix or heal. He reveals things we try to block out and brings them forward until they’re unignorable.
Fuck, the things he could drag up in a purposeful, one-on-one session.
That honestly petrifies me.
“Come on. Let’s go teach the Attendants some shit,” I say, and she chuckles as she pulls away from me.
We make our way down the hall that enters the Court, and she whispers-yells, maybe laughs, my name as I flip the Beginning Gods in the ceiling mural my middle finger.
I can confidently say now that one of them is Obliteration, and although I can’t see his face, I believe the other he’s fighting in the painting is the God of Boundaries.
Too bad they didn’t off each other in that moment. If that was a real moment in time.
My intention was to give all the Attendants a polite smile as I walked past them, but instead, a glare crosses my face as my gaze sets on Mara talking to Kyzen in the center.
Other than Gladian, none of his Valtrue is supposed to be here.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I say.
Yemi smirks at my ass as her pace picks up to keep up with mine.
“About to give us our first demonstration, huh?”
“Not funny, but possibly.”
She laughs, then purses her lips as Kyzen’s attention turns toward us. The tight smile he gives me doesn’t help the fury in my belly.
I swear to the fucking Valories, I’ll flip out if Mellcom or Jeremiah pop up in this Court.
“Everything okay?” he asks as we walk up, but I keep my focus on Mara. She looks…different today.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I’ll give you two a second.”
My eyes narrow as Kyzen backs away from us.
“That’s a shitty way of saying hello.”
