Page 172 of The Gods Order

Thayla grits her teeth. Not in anger at him, but whatever it is that’s bothering her right now.

“The power here is pulling on ours. I’m worried about one of us attempting to split our focus from all of you and separate the connection of their sight from the front door.”

His attention shifts from her to the double doors lying ahead that we need to get through. His lips tighten for a split second before his features smooth out once again.

“No problem. Plan B.”

“What the fuck is Plan B?” I ask.

“Riven,” he says. A mischievous smirk creeps across Riven’s lips and Amick frowns at him. “You’re to warp the appearance of the front door so we can sneak in. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Riven groans dramatically.

“Fine. Where’s the fun in that?”

“The fun is in not fucking me up,” Thayla says.

He puckers his lips at her as his forehead wrinkles.

I’m going to fuck him up.

“You two focus on what you’re doing now,” Amick says, ignoring Riven and focusing entirely on Thayla and Yemi. “Doren, don’t call your power forward until we’re all inside and Riven stops using his power. Understand?”

Everyone murmurs their agreement, and instead of Doren stepping forward and leading the way like we originally planned, Riven does.

I could drive my sword through his fucking back when he starts skipping ahead with a damn whistle leaving his lips.

The rest of our gazes scan the Dark Gods and Oblirians standing guard in front of the house and through the gardens. Like we assumed, there are more here now than there were when we lived here, but they stay unaware of us and Riven’s loud ass.

We pick up our paces to catch up with him as he takes the steps leading to the doors two at a time.

“You’re doing amazing, gorgeous,” Kyzen whispers. “Ignore him.”

“I’m going to fucking kill him when we get home,” she grunts.

I’m going to help.

He graces all of us with a bow as he reaches the top of the steps and finally waits for us. He has the fucking audacity to give us a taurnshit apologetic smile when we glare at him.

“Now you know for sure you got this, angel,” he says, leaning forward and laying his lips to her nose. “No more worrying. You’re a badass.”

I sneer at him, but refrain from saying shit when that does seem to be exactly what Thayla needed to hear. The tension in her shoulders relaxes as she nods to the front doors.

“Go do your thing, my little psycho.”

Kyzen, Gladian, and Sevryn step to my side as everyone else gets into their positions. The four of us give them our backs as we withdraw our swords and observe the guards’ movements.

Neither the creak of the door parting nor Riven’s giggle gains any attention, and a slow breath flows from my mouth.

“Come on,” Thayla orders.

Sevryn and Gladian fall back first, followed by Kyzen. I backpedal until Thayla’s hand lands against my shoulder. Only then do I turn and squeeze through the opening of the door. My fingers wrap around her wrist as I tug her right behind me.

My feet freeze two steps in the entry foyer, and I suck in a breath so sharp my chest cramps.

The lingering essence of my father’s power brushes across every one of my senses and my soul shivers.

Memories…so many fucking memories assault me at one time.