Page 5 of The Gods Order

An hour later, Lambrit came to me asking for a devastating favor. He wanted me to turn his parents to ash.

Then he asked for my guidance and blessing. He wanted Laney to live with the Akovas. It was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want to abandon her.

But he was right. She needed stability, a childhood, and protection. Living with either of us was too dangerous right now.

I had to accept that.

After he left, I sat at the hot spring with V for a long moment before we went to the healing villas where Mr. and Mrs. Armend lay. V walked me through how to make trinkets for Laney and Lambrit—something they could keep for the rest of their lives.

Turning them to ash was devastating and beautiful.

Unbeknownst to me, my men were there the entire time, silently supporting me. Creed, Amick, and Kyzen took over at the very end while Riven held me.

A week passed, and it was time to take Laney to the Akovas. She was excited and ready. I was not. She didn’t want my help with organizing her room and instead ran off with her new girlfriends.

I didn’t know what to do with myself.

So…I ran off to the hot spring.

Iric was the last one I expected to follow me. He opened up about why he stole the Goddess of Creation’s Binding—not just because I needed it, but because he wanted revenge for what she’d put the Attendants through for years.

After his honesty, I was ready to be honest too. I opened up about everything—Mellcom, Jeremiah, the emotional and physical abuse they put me through, how I normalized it. My parents. I finally decided it was time to let go. He walked me through how to make that possible.

Once he left, telling me I only had a few more things to work through, I asked V to get the guys. I admitted that the only reason I’d kept my hair long was because my mom’s hair was long. That didn’t matter anymore.

Together, the four of them cut it to the perfect length.

Rose then told me Lambrit had been sneaking out every night and she was worried. V eased our fears a little by saying he’d been going to the Athenaeum to clear his thoughts.

Well…he was doing more than that. He showed up at our house late at night, frantic, and told us he needed us. He’d broken into the restricted room and needed help going through what he found. Amick, surprisingly, jumped right into assigning roles.

We spent hours searching through the information.

Havar found a passage explaining why the Veilatara were locked up and how freeing them was possible.

I can free them.

I’ve had the ability to free them, and Seismet and Verlet never told me.

Yemi found a barrier protecting a book.

It knocked both of us on our asses, but we got it free.

It was a book the God of Boundaries had written and hidden. Inside, a picture of a door caught my eye—and I realized the “nightmares” I’d been having weren’t nightmares at all. The Messenger had been trying to warn me about Mellcom’s betrayal and had shown me the very doors in the book.

Those doors were in the Sanctum. The ones always assumed to lead to the Beginning Gods’ bedrooms.

We didn’t think we could get inside because they were locked. Then I remembered the key Doren gave me at the Lost Sea.

Those doors put up hellish fights. Every time I unlocked one, it turned to vapor and traveled to the last door at the end of the hall.

I had to unlock each one, facing a new challenge every time.

The last door before the final one burned a ring into my palm. I thought for sure the final door would kill me. It took a lot of power, but I survived.

An empty white room greeted us at first, but one last door led to another room.

That room was not empty.