A rough scoffing noise left Drayce’s throat. “You sound like you admire her.”
“I don’t know how to feel about her,” Caelan admitted. “I respect her skills as a hunter and predator. You have to when you consider that she has killed a number of weaker gods and stood toe-to-toe with the oldest of the gods. She essentially drew them to a stalemate when they were all forced into the godstones.”
“True,” Drayce grudgingly conceded.
Caelan sighed against Drayce’s chest. “I feel like I’ve been pulled into someone else’s fight. They’re making me choose a side when all I see are fucking assholes.”
“Don’t pick a side.”
Lifting his head, he frowned at his lover. “I don’t think walking away is an option at this point. After everything we’ve gone through.” He shook his head. “The gods are loose now, and things will just get crazier. I feel like I need to do something.”
“What do you want?”
For once, someone was asking him an easy question. “To keep innocent people safe. To let them live their lives without worrying whether a fight that has nothing to do with them will steal away their future and their dreams.”
Drayce shrugged his shoulders, his body shifting under Caelan. “Then we let the other gods fight it out. You act as a wall to keep them contained in Green Spring.”
“As tempting as that sounds, what happens if Zyros and Lore manage to kill Tula, the Goddess of Life? Does all life on Thia end? Or does it mean that no new life is born? Or does she even matter? If she is destroyed, do we all keep going like we always have?”
“Dude, that’s a Rayne question,” Drayce groaned. “But you know…I was thinking—”
“That’s a scary concept,” Caelan snarked.
Drayce poked him and Caelan gave a very undignified and ungodlike squeak that only made Drayce snicker. “Remember, you started this. You have to deal with the consequences.”
“Okay, okay. What were you thinking?” Caelan prompted when he could catch his breath.
“When I was escaping the Shrine District with Eno, Adrian, and Davi, I realized that there were a lot of fucking gods running all over Thia at one time. And now, we’ve got like…seven.”
“Something like that,” Caelan agreed. “There could be more in hiding. Lore said that Zyros killed a lot of the others for their powers.”
“True, but just because those gods stopped existing, it doesn’t mean what they represented stopped existing. There might not be a God of Broken Toys anymore, but that didn’t stop me from having a lot of broken toys when I was a kid. Didn’t stop me from breaking your game controllers. There’s the Goddess of Kittens, right? I’ve held lots of kittens in my lifetime, and she’s gone.”
“I get your logic, but should we take that risk with the lives of everyone on Thia?”
Isn’t getting free of a tyrant worth any risk?
Both Caelan and Drayce jerked upright, separating to gaze around their hidden spot by the river. Caelan could have sworn the voice was from Caris, the Goddess of Fire, but he’d not heard the whisper of any of the gods since he’d entered the Ordas. Even Nyx who loved to pop in for unexpected torment had stopped the second they crossed the border.
“Please tell me you heard that,” Drayce demanded thickly.
Caelan’s eyes snapped to Drayce. “You heard it, too? I thought it was just in my head.” He looked over the area again, but there was zero physical sign of the goddess. Swallowing hard, Caelan stretched out his hand and placed it on Drayce’s bare forearm. He had an idea…
Yes, I’m quite sneaky. I found a lovely loophole in Zyros’s attempts to block me from her domain, Caris continued quite smugly.
Caelan huffed a laugh. Your connection to Drayce. Is that why you gave him wings?
No, this is a bonus. I gave him wings because my sweet dragon deserved to have wings.
He glanced at his fiancé, who smiled broadly and straightened his shoulders while lifting his chin a touch. Yes, he was practically glowing under Caris’s praise.
Are you saying that all life on Thia won’t die if we destroy Tula? Caelan inquired.
No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that we are patrons of certain aspects of existence, but we aren’t the source. If I were to die, fire wouldn’t cease to exist. Caris released a tiny sigh. That being said, I wouldn’t put it past Tula to vindictively steal all life on Thia as a final dying act. She is that kind of bitch. You’d have to stop her from trying that nonsense.
Fantastic. That was just fantastic.
What the fuck was he supposed to do?
I wasn’t there all those centuries ago when this started, Caris, Caelan murmured in his mind. I don’t know what justice looks like. Yes, Tula’s actions were cruel and mean, but after talking to Zyros, she doesn’t strike me as being innocent in this matter. I want to wash my hands of all of you, but if I were to walk away, innocent people will be hurt.