Page 40 of The Gods Order

“That she did.”

The five of us spin on our heels.

Derivius sits on his small throne with his fingers laced together in his lap and a bright smile—the brightest I’ve seen in a while—on his face. He runs his gaze across the entire structure for a fleeting second, then peers back at us.

“I felt it the second you all passed the threshold. It’s strange sensing you in my house of worship without one of you calling for me. It’s been a while.”

He stands and takes the small steps toward us with his arms open for hugs. I jump straight into his embrace.

“Got to admit I’m jealous. She hasn’t made us a temple.”

He chuckles as he pats me on my back.

“I do believe it should be you four making her a temple.”

“Thank you, Derivius. My exact thoughts.”

His smile softens on her as she takes a…timid step forward. I’m not sure why she’s still off with him after taking that pesky emotional barrier down.

“Little troublling. How are you holding up?”

“Well, it’s been over thirty-six hours without sleep. We’ve uncovered countless secrets, and I haven’t punched anyone or turned anyone into ash, so I’d say pretty spectacular.”

He tilts his head. “What do you mean thirty-six hours without sleep?”

“Right, you don’t know. Well, we didn’t just wake up and head to the Sanctum. We were already up for hours going through the restricted room, trying to dig up all the secrets you Beginning Gods have been keeping. That’s what led us to finding the original Gods Binding and my father.”

His mouth gapes open and I snicker under my breath.

I don’t think Amick wanted him to know that.

“Oh.” He clears his throat and nods. “Okay then. That makes a lot more sense.”

“How so?” Amick asks. Suspiciously.

“To be honest, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how you all figured it out this fast. None of you have even whispered about a plan of going into the restricted room or anything of the sort.”

“That’s because we didn’t plan it. Lam-the-man did that all on his own,” I say with a huge smirk.

I’m still very impressed by my good friend’s disregard for the rules.

“Huh,” he hums. “That makes a lot more sense as well. Very good, Lambrit.”

My exact thoughts.

Thayla tsks at the two of us. “Don’t start praising him for doing something so dangerous. He’s going to think it’s okay to do shit like that all the time without us.”

Err. Yeah. I don’t like the thought of that.

The restricted room is one thing. It’s easy enough to reach him there.

But somewhere farther, deadlier…

I’ll have a chitchat with him.

“Very well, understood,” Derivius says as he dips his head. “So what’s brought my five favorite gods here to see me? I can assume, but we know what they say about assumptions.”

“We need you to set up a meeting between us, Val, and Meridamus,” Thayla says, not wasting a second easing into this request.