Page 75 of The Gods Order

My pissed-off, annoyed gaze collides with Val’s, and the slew of curses on my tongue dies. His face holds a tender understanding, and his small smile speaks to me although he doesn’t utter a thing.

“It’s okay. Let’s give it another go,” he says.

My head tilts to the side.

“Interesting, isn’t it.” Meridamus chuckles under his breath. “It’s both frustrating and fascinating how power works the way it does.”

“Meridamus,” Val warns, but he goes ignored.

“Your power is fighting you and you know exactly why. Even if you’re too stubborn to acknowledge it.”

“It’s not being stubborn when I just figured it out for myself, asshole,” I grit through my teeth.

“What’s happening?” Yemi asks as she pushes herself up and out of her bubble of power. She looks much better.

I tear my gaze from her, though, when Meridamus laughs lightly once again.

“She isn’t struggling because she doesn’t understand the lesson or because her instincts don’t understand what the power of Boundaries is supposed to do.”

I open my mouth to tell him to shut the hell up, but Yemi’s question leaves her first.

“Then what’s going on?”

“This is going on,” he says, waving his hand between Val and me. “Her power is fighting her because the source of your domain—one of hers—is standing two feet from her and she’s resisting her instinct. Resisting her power’s urge to reach for him.”

“My power isn’t reaching for anyone,” I say.

“Yes, it is. And you know it.”

“Enough, Meridamus,” Val says.

The guilt in his gaze tells me he realized what was happening since my first failed attempt, but he wasn’t going to say anything.

Because of this.

Because it opens up a line of emotional communication that I don’t want to have yet.

“It’s not enough. She keeps trying to force her power to focus on the exercise while her instincts are focused on you. You continue to allow it.”

“Yes, I do. She and her power will eventually figure it out.”

Meridamus scoffs at him.

“Pretending there isn’t a deeper connection between her, her power, and you and yours while trying to teach her your domain is idiotic. It’s never going to work.”

He swings his light brown gaze my way and my temper rises. It pisses me off that he can look both so concerned and fed up at the same time.

“Your power not only recognizes that he’s its source, but it also knows the same blood in his veins is in yours. Power may react to your emotions, but it doesn’t understand your emotions. It couldn’t care less that you don’t want anything to do with him—with us. It only wants to be closer to where it came from. And you’re not allowing it to.”

My fists ball at my sides. Even Kyzen stepping fully into my space doesn’t lessen how painfully clenched they are.

“I recognize plenty that he’s the God of Boundaries and this particular domain comes from him.”

He snaps his fingers and points at me.

“That right there. You separate the two. You’ve established that consciously and subconsciously. Father. God of Boundaries. That isn’t how it works. He is one and the same. Your father and the God of Boundaries. You can’t categorize him any other way.”

His words come out brutally blunt. There’s no hint of judgment or cruelty, though. Just straightforward, undeniable fact.