Page 18 of The Gods Veiling
His sneer is cruel, but Mellcom’s hand to his chest holds back any more retorts he may want to say. “Go get packed. I need to talk to her.”
I glare at him as he stomps from the room and it’s only when I hear his door slam do I turn my scowl back to Mellcom.
“Talk. Now.”
“Lambrit, give us a minute.”
“No. Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of him. Own your actions, Mellcom.”
He grits his teeth and his fists ball at his sides. “I entered you into the Veiling. I had no choice.”
“What does that even mean? There’s always a choice.”
“No, not always, Thayla.”
“Had no choice or chose wrong? That’s two different things. I want the whole truth, Mellcom. NOW.” My shout rattles the windows.
“A god told me to.”
A cold sweat breaks out across my skin and Lambrit flinches beside me. He pulls himself together far faster than I do. “A god spoke to you? When?”
Mellcom’s taurnshit remorseful gaze answers the silence. It tells me a thousand words, and the breath that whooshes out of me leaves my lungs empty.
“After the last Veiling.”
He nods. “I was visited twice. The night before the last Veiling and the night after. I was instructed the night before to get up and go enter you. I thought I was having a crazy dream and couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. That morning, my head pounded from the dream replaying repeatedly. It had me paranoid, angry, confused…
“After what you said that morning in the arena, I decided enough was enough. It was a lucid dream, my fears just getting the best of me, and the gods would never truly want you now. I swore I wouldn’t make you train at the arena any longer. I only continued to make you go because Dad told me to. He’s the one who’s always said you needed to be just as ready as everyone else. I was going to give in to what you’ve been asking and train you privately.
“That night, though, I had the second dream. Unlike the first where I only heard the voice, this time I woke up in the middle of the arena in the dead of night alone. I wasn’t physically there, but mentally. That’s when the god approached me.” He holds his hand up, halting Lambrit from asking his question.
“It was most certainly a god. I could feel his power. It was the strongest sensation I’d ever felt. Even mentally, it brought me to my knees. He told meyou had to enter the next Veiling. I explained as cryptically as I could that you weren’t interested in gaining your power. He said this was nonnegotiable. His only compromise was he’d make sure I’d be chosen as well so you wouldn’t go alone.”
“Let me guess, you’ve prayed every day since that Jeremiah would be chosen as well?”
He doesn’t respond, but his locked jaw tells me all I need to know.
“Who was the god?” Lambrit asks.
“I don’t know. He didn’t formally introduce himself.”
“Let me get this straight—You took instructions from an unknown god about entering me into the Veiling. As well as bargaining a way in yourself plus Jeremiah’s ass, when our parents made us promise we never would. Are you fucking kidding me, Mellcom? What are you leaving out?”
“For fuck’s sake, Thayla, get over what our parents said,” he bellows as he throws his hands up, causing everything inside of me to go cold. “There’s no credible reason for yours or their disdain toward the gods. The Valories took the power from the people but left it for the Beginning Gods and others of their choosing. That was their decision as the creators and now the gods are trying to make it right by the Veiling’s. So who the fuck am I to question a god when they give me a message?”
“Messages aren’t laws, Mellcom. Nor did you have to keep this from her, but you chose to. My upbringing is far different from either of yours, but these beliefs are something all your parents shared for a reason. You should’ve talked to Thayla about this,” Lambrit says firmly.
The remorse that had been etched into Mellcom’s features fractures. Behind that mask, a truth peeks out that I catch. He doesn’t try to cover it up when he meets my stare and the weight behind his realwhyhe didn’t say anything slams into me.
“Gods. Our parents…” I murmur. “That’s the truth of why you did it. You didn’t enter me because the god told you to, you damned liar. You did it to gain your power and find your dad. I was just your way to Godsden.”
He places his hands on his hips and sighs deeply. My heart drops, as does his head. The truth lingers in the air like toxic fumes, choking me until I’m dragging in ragged breaths.
“Our parents. We can find all our parents now.”
I snatch at my roots and my voice bellows out of me. “That’s the opposite of what they told us to do, Mellcom.”
His closed off, blank stare stabs through me. He doesn’t care. He’s standing behind his decision.
