Page 235 of The Gods Veiling
“Agreed and so do I.”
Her mouth slackens as she does a double take between Amick and me. She stutters a few incoherent sounds before slamming her mouth shut.
“What?” she finally breathes.
“Yesterday after you left Amick’s office, we talked about this. We’re not okay and we’re never going to be okay with you seeing or dating another god. That’s because we want to be with you.”
“We? As in both of you…and you’ve already discussed this. How would that even work?”
I defer to Amick for that explanation. “The logistics are quite simple. You have your own relationship with Kyzen and your own with me. We covered the issue of jealousy and that’s not going to be a problem between the two of us. I’m sure there will be some societal pressures and issues since this isn’t normal, but we’re not of the norm, so that’s nothing new. We’ll treat this as any other relationship is treated and learn as we go.”
The more she looks between us, the redder her face grows, and the more labored her breathing becomes. Her hands tremble as she grips her blanket and snatches it off her legs.
My body freezes as she practically races off her bed and heads toward her door. Amick’s now blank face watches her as she goes, and I scoot to the edge of the bed.
Shit…we fucked up.
She halts before walking out of the room and turns back to us. Her eyes are pinched shut when she spins around and she releases a loud exhale.
“Don’t take my reaction as me rejecting either of you. That’s not what I’m doing at all. I just don’t know if this is my greatest forbidden fantasy coming true or the start of a nightmare.” She opens her glossy eyes and bounces them between us. “I promise I’m not turning this down. I…we need to have our Valtrue meeting first, then the two of you need to reconsider this after that.”
I don’t know what to say.
She observes us as we sit silently, confused. “Are you mad?”
“No, not mad at all. Concerned is the better word.”
She looks at me for a long, tense second. “Yeah, same.”
With that, she does leave the two of us sitting in her room without her. I’m still trying to process exactly what happened when the bed moves as Amick stands and I follow suit.
“This is about to be a very serious conversation.”
“Yes, I did pick up on that. She’s never so fidgety. She almost seemed fearful of our reaction to her reaction. Did I read that correctly?”
“Yeah, you read it right.”
His brows scrunch together as he strides to her door with me hot on his heels. As we enter the kitchen, we come face-to-face with a standoff. Except it isn’t a normal standoff.
There’s a look of desperation in Thayla’s eyes as she peers up at Creed and he stares down at her without a hint of challenge. He glances at us and his shoulders slump.
“I’ll get Riven. Coffee’s already on the ottoman.”
I take a step forward and the scents in the kitchen hit me at once.
It smells like the Akovas’ house.
Cooking is something Creed is naturally better at than all of us, but that’s also because it’s become his nervous habit. He cooks when he’s stressed, angry, nervous, you name it.
He can go one or two ways when he reaches a certain point. Healing life back into the body through food is the healthier version of his coping mechanisms.
Thayla doesn’t take a seat. Instead, she paces in front of the bookshelves. Everything about Creed’s and her behaviors right now has my mind going crazy.
Did something happen between the two of them last night?
“This better be good since my beauty rest is getting interrupted. I had an eventful day yesterday and I’m exhausted.”
Riven plops down on the opposite couch and slings his arm over his eyes. Thanks to that, he misses the daggers Thayla’s shooting him.
