Page 65 of The Gods Order

Small smirks cross their lips. Then, without explanation, the God of Boundaries lifts his hand and a barrier flashes into existence around us.

Like the one separating us from the Abandon and Hellveilious, this one shimmers faintly. Unlike those, my awareness of it isn’t accompanied by warmth. The full weight of it presses against my spine.

Meridamus raises a teasing brow before lifting his own hand. Power curls around his body like smoke caught beneath water, deep bronze in color. It crawls across his skin until every inch of him is covered.

He steps closer to the barrier and presses his palm against its surface.

My eyes widen and my mind races. His bronze glow slides along the boundary before spilling to the ground like water down a waterfall. It is—but isn’t—stopping the power.

Yemi straightens beside me. “It redirected it.”

“What?” I ask.

“His boundary is redirecting the power rather than stopping it completely,” she murmurs.

“Yes,” Val says.

Confusion colors my thoughts. “Why, though? Ours usually just stop things.”

“Because that’s what you want them to do.”

Before I can respond, he drops the barrier. The pressure against my back vanishes, and then the sounds around us fade.

The meadow keeps moving. Grass and limbs bend beneath the wind. Meridamus says something. Yemi shifts beside me, but absolute silence crashes over me so entirely my chest tightens.

She grips my arm and says something, but I hear nothing. I tell her that, but her forehead wrinkles and her lips mouth, “What?”

Then sound slams back into existence all at once.

My head flinches at the onslaught.

“What the hell?” I breathe.

Val remains calm and steady.

“Sound barriers are rarely meant to silence everything equally.” He gestures to Yemi. “You created a barrier around you and your friends so no one outside could hear, but you couldn’t hear anything outside either. Boundaries can separate far more selectively.”

As he speaks, another barrier settles around us. This time, I hear his words, Yemi breathing, the grass moving around my feet, but the distant ruffling in the forest vanishes. Then those return, and Yemi’s breathing disappears instead. I blink hard.

“What is happening?” I ask, peering at her.

Her eyes widen like she’s shocked to hear my voice. Our attention whips toward Val as he clears his throat.

I fucking guess all sound is back now.

“You’re not creating silence. You’re deciding what sound is allowed to interact with a space.”

The silence that settles around us is completely by our own design this time.

“That’s…way more precise than what I did,” Yemi whispers.

“Of course it is,” Meridamus says. “He’s had several thousand more years to practice.”

Holy fuck…thousands of years.

The realization hits me.

My head twitches and Val sneers at Meridamus, faking—maybe not—offense. “That wasn’t the point of the demonstration.”