Page 177 of The Gods Veiling
A watery laugh escapes me. How is this my life?
“I understand what a Godly Companion means. It’s a privilege and friendship beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. We’re inseparable. Or at least we’re supposed to be. I’ve read about the connections snapping into place, but I never felt something that strongly. So I don’t understand how this is true. Or how the guys are companions to Verlet. Or anything else surrounding the five of us. There’s too much going on, Seismet. I can’t handle much more.”
“You can handle far more than you believe, and you will.”
“Can you please enlighten me more than that?”
“Guiding you won’t be my responsibility, but another being’s. You’ll realize soon enough that many of us who play a role in your life will do very different things for you. My responsibility is to be your companion. Be here for you no matter what.”
“No matter what? So when I act batshit crazy and emotional and hold a deadly weapon to my pseudo brother’s heart that could’ve killed him with one wrong move, you’ll just be here for me, on my side?”
“Precisely. His life doesn’t matter to me. Yours does, though. How it would’ve affected you in the aftermath was my only concern. You’ve felt slivers of our connection. It isn’t my power that pulls us toward one another. We’ll never get the full connection until this creation is permanently removed from my body.”
My eyes drift to the contraption around his neck. When he returns to the meadows, it’ll be moved back to his glorious wings. That thought makes an inferno blaze to life inside of me.
Just another fucked-up example of how almost everything about Godsden is wrong.
“Tell me how to remove it and I will. You’ll never be trapped again.”
“Patience. Only time will remove it.”
Time…
Just the mention of it and my mind immediately goes to Kyzen. Gods, he can manipulate time. I don’t even know what god that domain is under. Well, obviously the God of Time, but I don’t have the first idea of who that is.
“There’re too many beings in my life, Seismet. It’s starting to get very, very difficult keeping up with it all.”
His deep laugh vibrates through me.“And there’s more to come. Don’t fret. I believe between Yemi and me, we’ll keep you straight.”
A small chuckle escapes me, and I finally muster up the strength to wipe the tears from my eyes.“I’m so glad Creed had the mind to say she couldn’t come. Gods, in my ignorance, I would’ve wanted to bring her so I wouldn’t be alone. That would’ve been awful.”I sigh and stare out across the vast, starry sky.“That was awful, Seismet.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
Yes. No. Maybe.
My fingers mindlessly rub up and down the back of his neck as I search for some stability. A thousand things race across my mind the moment I even allow myself a second to think about everything that happened.
So I settle on something completely different.
I choke on air when suddenly I’m being whipped in the face with storm-force winds. My eyes can’t stay open against the powerful gust, and I nearly go tumbling off Seismet when I lift my arm to shield my face.
Just as fast as whatever the hell that was started, it stops.
“That’s your answer to your pointless, off the topic thoughts. My power is blocking the wind for you. I can shield you or not. If you continue to ignore everything in your mind, I’ll drop it again.”
I sputter and cough as I try to catch my breath. My nose scrunches in a sneer as I glare at the back of the infuriating Veilatara’s head.
“First off, that was dangerous. I nearly tumbled off you. Second, stop invading my thoughts and allow me not to think about the shit show that is my life. You can’t force me to talk about anything before I’m ready.”
“I can and I will. I’m one of the only beings you’ll always have in your corner that won’t judge you no matter what comes out of your mouth or across your mind. Tease you, yes. Judge, never. If you don’t open up to me, you’ll open up to no one and this new life of yours will be so much harder than it needs to be.”
I close my eyes and tilt my head back. A subtle shift in energy has a small, fresh breeze of night air flowing around me. I take huge breaths until the panic in my chest lessens.
“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it with you. I just want the guys’ truth from them. I want to talk to them about everything, but I’m scared. The Abandon rattled me to my core and I’m more petrified about why I’m here now more than ever. I don’t want to tell them there’s a purpose to me being here. I don’t want them to shun me because there’s a god toying with my life, which in turn toys with theirs.
“I don’t want either of our truths to break what little relationships we’ve formed. They’re probably thinking the absolute worst of me right now because I hopped on your back and ran for the stars without talking to them. I could barely form a lucid thought outside of my own fear and hurt.”
“Are you thinking the worst of them right now?”
