Page 220 of The Gods Veiling
“That’s quite all right. I’ll stand.”
He lays his hand on my shoulder and leads me closer to the tree line. His finger taps me to the beat of my hum, and I smile happily.
Just like old times.
“This should be far enough. I’ll have an amazing view from here.”
I shimmy my ass in my seat and get comfortable. Big DD nods at me and I pull some of my power back. It’s a little depressing, but as his familiar chaos joins in on my fun, I sigh in contentment.
“Do we want a gradual burn or a big boom? Oh, that’s a silly question. We’re going to blow this motherfucker up.”
Derivius attempts to hold his finger up at me, but I’m already lighting the match to the cloth I stuffed in another one of my mixtures. My laugh has the poor defenseless animals behind me screeching, but my cheering drowns them out.
My flaming bottle goes sailing through the air and I kick my feet as I count the seconds.
My heart pounds in an erratic rhythm when the glass shatters against the side wall of the house. Everything within me comes to life as the flames spread instantly with the impact.
I wiggle my fingers, weaving my chaos around the fire and moving it toward the front.
Blue, lime green, pink, purple, and red explode outward and inward. The crash of the front door bursting off its hinges and all the windows erupting with clouds of rainbow smoke have me standing.
I clap and bow simultaneously. “Bravo. That was—whew.”
I snatch Derivius by his shoulder and duck us down when what looked like a pan goes flying over our heads. It’d seem my explosion hit the kitchen first.
We look toward the forest, then at each other. Then we die laughing.
It’s a chaotic symphony that makes my heart happy.
The sounds taper off after a while as I plop back down in my chair, pull out a snacky from my pack, and watch my masterpiece burn.
“Are you feeling better?”
“What do you mean? I’ve felt amazing this whole time.”
He sighs softly and once again lays his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t you dare do it.”
“I don’t want to, you know that. You’re hiding behind your chaos right now, though, Riven. If you can’t contain it, I’m going to have to.”
My body trembles in rage and I grind my teeth. “Why do I always have to be contained or set loose?”
“You know good and well that’s not what I meant.” He bends in front of me, blocking me from enjoying my show. “What happened to Thayla—”
“Don’t say her name.”
He exhales harshly. “What happened to her today is affecting you and you’re responding the way you know how. That’s fine. To an extent. After Gladian’s house burns down, then what, my boy? You still have to see him and his Valtrue. As well as her. You’ll have to face her. Those marks aren’t going to go away.”
“I’ll tell her she’s never allowed to take her shirt off.”
“That won’t make them go away.”
I stare through him.
He’s killing my mood.
I command some of my chaos to come to me and it settles begrudgingly in my belly. “There. Happy? I’d like to be alone now. I vow not to destroy Godsden today.”
