Page 115 of The Gods Veiling
It’s a relief I’m not the only female but also nerve-wracking that I now will be training with godly men.
As soon as we make our way to the end of the tunnel-like hallway, Yemi scoots out and disappears around a corner. To my shock, Creed grips my elbow and pulls me up between him and Kyzen. I have half a mind to snatch it away, but he drops it on his own before I even bother.
My nerves make me feel mouthy, but any retort I wanted to say gets lodged in my throat when almost every head turns to us as we stroll in like we own this place.
Okay, the guys walk confidently. I’m mentally reminding myself how to put one foot in front of the other.
My nails bite into my palms. This is the exact kind of attention I didn’t want on me when I arrived. It’s like I jinxed myself.
“About time,” a voice thunders and bounces off the walls.
My eyes merely glance over the many men and handful of women until they land on the biggest man I’ve ever seen in my life. I swear each of his steps into this center cause the ground to vibrate. Even if the tree trunks for arms he has didn’t tell me who he was, the energy he gives off would scream, ‘I’m stronger than all of you.’
The God of Strength isn’t just a title. This man is the living embodiment of it.
He starts with pinning a glare to my left, which means it’s aimed at either Creed or Riven. Then they drift to me, and a cruel smirk crosses his face.
My heart races. It isn’t just because of the intensity in his eyes, but because of the bodies that just joined him.
The touch of Mellcom’s and Jeremiah’s attention has been branded on my skin for a very long time. I’ve always been able to feel when they’ve caught sight of me.
Right now, they’re practically burning me with their gazes, but I don’t drop Gladian’s stare. Even once his eyes move from mine, I don’t look at either of them.
Gladian scans the whole crowd of us. A sneer slowly starts forming and his features twist into premature disappointment.
“Let’s see what the Gods Court makes of this group.”
Fuck, that doesn’t sound good.
Thayla
16
“Men on one side, females on the other.”
Every other group starts fumbling around like a fire’s been lit at their feet at Gladian’s sharp order. My Valtrue and I don’t move.
I flinch when a gentle hand is placed on my lower back. Both Kyzen and Creed lean in at the same time.
“Go stand over there with the females. He’s going to walk around and size everyone up,” Creed says.
“Don’t show him weakness but also don’t challenge him. He loves the thrill of that and will feed into it. His attention is going to be on you because of us. We’ll be right across from you,” Kyzen adds.
“Does he not like you all?”
“We get along as fine as we need to. It comes down to the fact that we’re strong, even though our strength isn’t physical like his. It’s in his nature to demonstrate he’s the strongest. We pose a challenge for him that he hasn’t been able to conquer yet. Now, him having a completed Valtrue as well as us, he views it as another thing to prove. We don’t allow him to provoke us, and it drives him crazy. We respect him because of his standing, but we don’t allow him to push us around.”
Great. So the God of Strength has an ego problem and wants to show everyone he and his Valtrue are better than everyone. Not to mention, half his Valtrue are two men who can provoke me faster than lightning strikes.
All I can do is grunt back to Kyzen as I move toward the already forming line of females.
Wordlessly, two of them step apart and allow me to stand between them. None of us speak to one another, but we share quick nods, then face the line of men across from us.
Gladian doesn’t waste his breath on introductions as he starts making his way down the men. His version of sizing them up, it’d seem, is to look them over from head to toe, hold their gazes, then move to the next.
His face shows nothing as he turns from the last of the men and crosses the small space to the first female at the end. Luckily, I’m closer to the opposite side.
Irritation rises in my chest due to the lack of time he spends on the females compared to our counterparts. Our numbers are already half of theirs and it’s obvious he doesn’t see us as worthy enough to get any extended time of his attention.
