Page 132 of The Order of the Black Tapestry
“Rulers who seek to maintain peace, just as you were ordered to do when we first made you and your brothers the Sovereigns of Cathadonya,” Hellyne stated. “It seems you have forgotten that.”
Minos snapped his mouth shut.
Once more addressing every half-blood, she said, “Put down your metaphorical swords. Live and let live. Be satisfied with what you have. Cease fighting over what will never belong to you. Treat the humans better.” A pause. “Or don’t. And endurethe consequences.” With that silken threat, she disappeared in a rush.
I stumbled, my knees buckling. I blindly reached out and grabbed Khalida’s arm.
“You’re okay,” she soothed.
No, I wasn’t. At all. A freaking goddess had just spoken through me.
“The silver ring in your eyes is glowing,” Khalida told me.
I took deep breaths as the foreign energy inside me gradually subsided. It left a lingering though nonvisible mark, however. My skin remained hypersensitive, and my brain seemed to be operating a mile a minute.
Even stranger, the ‘call’ that had been plaguing me for weeks burned brighter. Sharper.Clearer. A divine call to listen, trust, and serve. I just hadn’t understood it before.
Talon slowly stalked toward me, balling up his hands as if wrestling back the urge to touch me. Unsurprising. I knew he wouldn’t do it in front of the Sovereigns. They were the type to use what mattered to youagainstyou.
“We heard no whisperings of a Sayer,” Theseus claimed, as stunned as his companions. I knew their shock wasn’t merely a case of Sayers not having been utilized by the primordials in a very long time. It was that I—ahuman—could act as a divine conduit. It rightfully should have killed me.
Minos ignored that. “You heard Hellyne. Leave. Do not return.”
The four trespassers exchanged hard looks and took one long glance at me. Then, as one, they pivoted on their heel. They made no slow, casual retreat. They moved at inhuman speed as they vanished into the forest.
Rhad turned to a nearby Phoenixian. “Go. Send word to us if they do not vacate the isle.”
The officiate nodded, his wings snapping out, and then took to the air.
All three Sovereigns focused on me. I tensed, and the Laelaps edged closer to me protectively. At the same time, a grating growl scraped at the back of Typhaos’ throat.
His lips thinning, Minos turned to Talon. “Bring her to the audience chamber. There are things to discuss.”
Yeah. Yeah, I supposed there was. Still, watching the Sovereigns march off the battlements, I had the thought that I could honestly set fire to their audience chamber and think nothing of it.
Talon crossed to me, his neck corded, his prominent jaw tight, his muscular back ramrod straight. His usually expressive face carefully inscrutable, he studied me from head to toe, likely searching for a sign that being a vessel for Hellyne had somehow harmed me.
“I’m all right,” I rasped, my throat sore—likely from the strain of having a goddess speak through it. My teeth still tingled from the power that had coated her voice.
“You don’t look it,” said Khalida.
“My head aches. Probably because it’s recovering from briefly homing the consciousness of a freaking goddess.”
“The half-bloods always claimed a human would never be strong enough to act as a vessel for the gods.” She hummed. “It seems they were wrong.”
Yeah. And I really didn’t know what that meant for me. Or if the exiled half-bloods would return. Or if the Sovereigns would obey Hellyne in not retaliating. Or what she’d meant by how the seven half-bloods would ‘endure the consequences’ if they disregarded her warnings.
I knew one thing for certain: If the primordials returned and yetanotherwar broke out between the gods and their descendants, we wereallscrewed. Every single one of us.
