Page 69 of The Gods Veiling
“I have no clue. Thayla?” His tone is laced with worry.
His hand lands on my shoulder, and I flinch away.
“Don’t touch me.” The bite in my words has Yemi shifting away and him releasing me. I slam my eyes shut to stop the spinning and curse Derivius for everything he’s worth.
Why the hell would trying to take my soul back hurt me and not him?
“Do you need me to call a Healer?”
I sit on my heels and tip my head to the ceiling. “I just want out of this room.”
Out of this damn region.
“Are you sure you can walk? I can carry you,” he offers.
“Yes,” I grit out.
“Yes to carrying you or?”
“Yes to I’m okay. Fuck,” I groan and glare at hisgorgeous, concerned face.
“Okay then. We can go home. Any other conversations can be had there.”
I’m not talking for the rest of this damned day. I’m done.
All I can muster up is a single nod, but it turns right into a shake of my head when they both attempt to help me up. I don’t want anyone to touch me right now. My skin is crawling with pins and needles. I’m burning up from both embarrassment and fear.
The reality of the control they may have over me is slapping me in the face. The last thing I want anyone to know is they have power over me through my soul. Well, Yemi doesn’t, but she doesn’t care for me, so I have no clue if she’d tell them.
What if they decide to tug on it and it brings me to my knees? Or worse, what if they can do more damage than that?
What if they use this against me anytime I say or do anything they don’t like?
Fuck no. This will be staying with me.
The three of us are awkwardly silent as we make our way out the door when I get to my unsteady feet. They keep glancing at me like I’m about to fall over and I heat with humiliation.
A small sense of relief washes through me as I spot my bag sitting on the floor. Someone must have delivered it here and the reminder of home brings me a tiny amount of joy.
“I can carry that,” I say as Yemi beats me to picking it up.
“It’s my job,” she states flatly. I go to tell her no, but her stare stops me. “When we get out of here, we have to walk through the Assembly. There are a lot of people still hanging around, so allow me to fulfill my role.”
I arch a questioning brow, but she gives me nothing else. She pulls her shoulders back and takes a step behind me. Kyzen doesn’t comment, but he’s observing the interaction closely enough that I decide not to say anything else. I have to force myself not to rub my chest like I really want to so I don’t draw his attention to it.
At the end of the hall, we approach a marbled wall and my footsteps fall still. In both directions, there’s nothing and I’m utterly confused about what’s going on.
“Just keep going,” Yemi mutters behind me.
“Keep going where? There’s no door.”
Kyzen smirks down at me. “It’s an illusion.”
With that, he keeps going straight through the wall and I stagger back, bumping into Yemi, who lets out an oomph.
“Shit, sorry…I’m not walking through a wall.”
“You are if you want to get out of here. It doesn’t feel like a real wall. It feels like you’re walking through the wind. Instead of a building with too many stairs, the Goddess of Illusion put these walls in place. It creates privacy while also making getting around simpler. You’ll walk right outside.”
