Page 66 of The Gods Veiling
Everyone in the room stiffens. Except for the one with two-colored eyes. His laughter rings throughout the room and the sound makes my chest flutter. I ignore that completely and sit in my smug satisfaction when the High Chancellor startles just a bit.
He doesn’t admit it, but he doesn’t have to. He straightens his shoulders and gathers the bottom of his robe, then hauls ass through the door.
Yeah, run along and stop the other Chancellors from prying into my business.
An incredibly tense and awkward beat of silence passes through the room. I let my eyes roam all over the men standing here staring at me. The longer they look without speaking, the antsier and pissier I grow. Especially when this foreign jerking in my chest keeps getting tauter.
“So—”
“I’m so incredibly pleased with how today is turning out. Well, not so much about getting you, little burden. I could’ve done without that. But all these surprises have been so refreshing.”
It takes me a moment to snap back to reality and understand what just came out of his mouth. He just called me a fucking burden. My sneer is immediate, and I open my mouth, but I’m cut off by the one with candy eyes.
“You can never accuse a god—especially one of his standing—of such things again.”
So much for introductions.
“First of all, you”—I point to the two-toned-eye asshole—“don’t call me a burden. I didn’t ask for this shit either. And you…” My finger swivels to the one with yummy chocolate hair. “I’ll say this once, Candyman. Don’t ever tell me what to do like that again.”
His head tilts to the side. “Why did you call me that?”
“Figure it out on your own.”
He stares through me like he’s struggling to process anything I just said. With a small laugh, the brother with the fake-ass welcoming smirk pats him on the shoulder. “Why don’t you three head back to the house? Allow me to speak with Thayla and her Attendant.”
“Yemi.”
“I’m sorry?” he asks, looking at me like he’s not sure if he got my name wrong or wondering if I’m having a medical emergency.
“You called her my Attendant. Her name is Yemi, and she’ll be addressed as such.”
Three of them glance between themselves. The fourth, well, he’s humming, walking around the room, making me incredibly nervous. I really don’t like the fact he called me a burden. That basically tells me where he stands.
The confusion contorting the others’ features only adds to my own, but I don’t ask. I’ll add it to my list of shit to figure out.
“Yemi it is then. You three head home.”
Candyman doesn’t bother responding. He turns on his heel and leaves like this is all beneath him, anyway. The humming one skips behind him. The last, the one who hasn’t spoken or taken his eyes off me, gives me one long-lasting glance before leaving the room as well.
Yemi goes to shut the door behind him, but the remaining brother holds his hand out to her to stop. “Would you give us a minute?”
“You don’t have to go anywhere.” I shake my head repeatedly at her, but she doesn’t bother picking hers up and looking at me. She just scurries out as she was asked to.
We’re going to work on that.
His power sweeps across the room as soon as the door clicks shut. My mouth dries out completely as my nerves take hold. I both mentally and physically prepare myself for whatever he’s about to say and do.
He takes a step closer to me but keeps enough distance between us that I don’t feel like he’s trying to corner me. I don’t trust the calm demeanor he has going on right now, though.
Plus, what Yemi warned keeps screaming in the back of my mind.
“Are you okay? Hurt or in any pain?”
Words are lost on me, maybe for the first time in my life. The unexpected softness of his question throws my mind even more into a tailspin.
“I’m fine. Is this some sort of bad god, good god thing? Because if so, I really don’t have it in me today to deal with it.”
He slides his hands into his pockets and flashes me a breathtaking smile. “Do you think I’m the good god or the bad?”
