Page 241 of The Gods Order

The wind rolls over the ridge, carrying the scent of forest and flowers. She inhales deeply like the smell is familiar and comforting. Somehow, her silence feels…easy.

“I don’t even know where to start,” she admits with a quiet laugh.

“Start with what changed,” Amick says with patience he doesn’t really have. He’s feening to hear everything and more. “What did you walk out of that house knowing that you didn’t know walking in? Aside from the obvious.”

“The obvious as in her mom being the freaking Messenger?” Riven asks with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“That was a shocker,” she says, smirking. “Walking into the Eye of the Veil gave it away instantly, though.”

A disbelieving laugh bursts free from me.

“You mean to tell me, behind us, in that house, is the Eye of the Veil?” I ask.

“It sure is.”

That smile stays on her face as she describes the glass room that makes you feel like you’re standing in the sky. She explains every detail with so much animation that my heart warms. I honestly hope one day we get to see it.

That feels a little invasive, but I can’t lie and say I’m not utterly fascinated.

Slowly, worrisomely, that loving smile dims, and I squeeze her fingers.

“What?”

“She lied about the prophecy. To nearly everyone. All to protect me.”

We listen to every word that leaves her, and the more she speaks the more I understand.

For two hundred and twenty-five years, a desperate mother-to-be took the truth, carefully carved pieces away, and handed the gods something believable enough to satisfy them. To push them into action.

The fake prophecy wasn’t meant to deceive forever.

It was meant to buy time.

Time for a little girl carrying seven ties to be born and grow into a woman capable of surviving them. Time for four boys to decide the ultimate obliteration isn’t what they wanted out of life.

Had the realm known from the beginning that the prophecy spoke of someone bound to all seven powers…Thayla never would’ve reached adulthood. She surely wouldn’t have made it past the Veiling Day.

She wouldn’t have survived long enough to meet us.

The thought alone turns my stomach.

“Your mother is a genius,” Amick says, and she smirks over at him. “Just because the prophecy was told to her over two centuries ago doesn’t mean she had that long to prepare. She had to think and act quickly. The amount of planning that took in a short span of time is no small feat. Her telling Sabe the correct prophecy was brilliant.”

“Gods, I didn’t think so at first.” She laughs, shaking her head. “After she explained her reasoning, it made a lot more sense.”

“A lot of things make more sense,” I say low. “Tell us about the Starwoven.”

Her entire expression softens as her gaze scans the four of us.

“It’s…” She laughs once. “Gods, it’s beautiful.”

The awe in her voice seeps into my heart and soul. The way she looks at us with such devotion knocks the air out of me for a moment.

“The stars are the marks our souls leave behind on their way down here to our bodies.”

She glances toward the sky. I find myself doing the same even though the morning light has long since swallowed them from view.

My breathing grows uneven as she explains how her mom was able to shift the stars and show her the marks our souls left behind. All together in a formation around hers.