Page 220 of The Gods Order

“He might not remember me.”

The devastation in her quiet words wraps around my soul and squeezes. The thought of V never remembering her, any of us, brings me more anguish than I realized it would. Maybe this whole time I was being naïve, but I truly thought that when Verlet and Seismet said Creed wasn’t letting his soul go, then that meant there was hope for V to return to us.

The V we know. The one who knows us.

“The number of times you’ve expressed that if something happened to Thayla’s soul, you’d heal it. The pieces in us would help heal it. Yet, you’ve never expressed—not one time—that she’d never be the same person again if that’d happen. We’d never be the same people if it happened to one of us.”

“Because it’s irrelevant.”

“Irrelevant?” I ask sharply. “That detail is far too grand to be irrelevant, Creed.”

“It means nothing to me because I’d spend a thousand lifetimes making her fall in love with me all over again,” he shouts, and Thayla’s body slowly relaxes against him.

His gaze collides with hers as he cups both her cheeks.

“If that were to ever happen to you, I’d remind you. I’d remind you of everything because I know your soul better than I know my own. As do they. We’d be there to remind each other.”

Silence descends across the room as the five of us glance at one another.

The four of us would spend our last breaths reminding her of how much we love her. She’d do the same for us in a heartbeat.

“We’ll do the same for V,” Riven says. “When he returns, we’ll figure out what of his past life is gone. Then, not only will we remind him, but we’ll also be here for him with whatever the future holds. We already know he’s going to be a smart-ass since the herd shared their knowledge with him.”

Thayla lets out a choked snort as she laces her fingers through the hand he reaches out to her. She nods, mumbling her agreement.

“From what Verlet and Seismet said, it’s going to be a few days before we see them again since they’re bonding.”

“Bonding?” Creed’s eyes widen on me like he can’t believe I forgot to mention that. I didn’t forget. I didn’t want to take the announcement from Thayla. “The second Vedarya is a female?”

“Yeah.” She laughs lightly. “I didn’t do that subconsciously or anything like that. Male or female was the last thing on my mind. To be honest, I didn’t even know I was creating two. My intentions were set on not letting his kind die with him.”

“Your power knew,” I say, offering her a small smile. “It knew you weren’t just saving a species by creating two more creatures. You needed to ensure their future.”

“Fuck,” Riven says, covering his mouth as he chuckles. “You all know this means there’s going to be little baby Vedarya flying around in…oh, shit. I don’t know how long that process takes.”

Everyone turns their attention to me.

“I don’t know.” I shrug.

Multiple whats ring around the room and I purse my lips at each of them.

“I’m not a walking Athenaeum. I don’t have the answer for absolutely everything.”

“Yeah, but this? Surely, this is something you’ve researched,” Thayla says.

“Well, of course I’ve researched it. Extensively. But the process itself is sacred and has never been recorded from start to finish. As far as I know, the first generation of Vedaryas are the only ones to produce offspring before they quit.”

“Why did they quit? They had to have known that by not producing, it was accelerating their chances of extinction,” Kyzen says.

“Havar would actually be the perfect person to verify this, but it’s my belief that creatures have to feel safe before they’re willing to bring young into the realm. If they already sensed the threat against their lives, biologically, their bodies wouldn’t allow them to.”

“If the true point of their bonding right now is that—”

“Gods, it’s weird thinking about V having…nope, I can’t even say it.” Riven gags, pulling a laugh from Thayla rather than any sass for cutting her off.

“I was literally thinking the same thing but was going to push through my statement.” She chuckles. “If that’s what they are doing right now, then they feel safe enough to do so.”

“That’s simply my hypothesis,” I say.