Of course, the smarter choice was to go to Brightspire and deposit Yesuntei’s powers there before someone could kill him and gain both his and Yesuntei’s powers.
A large, firm hand landed on Tyche’s shoulder and squeezed. Tyche yelped and jumped to his right. He twisted around with his fists raised to find Shey staring at him with a shockedexpression, his hand still hanging in the air where it had been on Tyche’s shoulder.
“Oh, yeah,” Tyche muttered. Heat suffused his cheeks, and he lowered his fists. “Sorry. You surprised me. I’m used to you being a voice and a thick wall between us.” He lifted a finger and swirled it in the air toward Shey’s head. “I’m still adjusting to you having a face, too.”
Shey’s bark of laughter echoed through the forest, scaring birds a second time. Tyche rolled his eyes at himself and edged closer to the human. His finger extended, he poked Shey’s stomach and chest.
“Huh. You are real. I was in that prison so long; I was half convinced you were a hallucination.”
“No, you weren’t.”
Tyche grinned and shook his head. Maybe he also liked that Shey had no problem seeing through his bullshit. “No, I wasn’t.”
Shey lifted his hand and held it there, allowing Tyche to watch its very slow descent until it landed on Tyche’s shoulder. His heart fluttered as Shey squeezed, and his breath caught in his throat. So silly.
“All I was going to say was that we shouldn’t worry about long-term plans for now. Our focus should be on finding a town. Food. A dry place to sleep.”
“Coffee,” Tyche moaned.
Shey chuckled. “Yes, good coffee would be nice too. After that, we can figure out where to go next and how to destroy the people who hurt Yesuntei and all the others.”
“These are very good plans. Just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
Tyche grabbed the front of his blood- and dirt-encrusted shirt, holding it out from his body. “Who the hell is going to take us in looking like a pair of escaped psychopaths on a killing spree?”
Shey lifted the hand from Tyche’s shoulder, and Tyche immediately missed the warmth and weight of his touch. Shey waved his hand at Tyche. “Details. We’ll figure that out when the time comes. Let’s get out of this forest first.”
Preferably before Scarella and her minions pulled their heads out of their asses and chased them down…
CHAPTER 24
Shey Thrudesh-Vo
Tyche was a god.
He was traveling with a fucking god.
How in the world had his life become so strange?
Oh, Tyche hadn’t come out and said the words, and the little sneak wouldn’t admit to it unless he was cornered, but Shey knew it. Hefeltit. Too many magical things happened around Tyche that didn’t make any sense. The only thing that did make sense was that Tyche was a god.
How the fuck is that the next logical step?
Magic came in three forms in this world: gods, dragons, and god-blessed acolytes like himself. Shey was the first to admit that he knew just a handful of dragons, but he couldn’t imagine Tyche being one of them. Okay, so maybe Drayce being a dragon was also a stunning surprise, but Tyche wasn’t Drayce. Besides, if he were a dragon, there was no way in hell he would have needed Shey to break out of that place.
Could his magic be god gifted? Maybe, but again, if he’d gotten his magic from one of the major gods, he should have been able to level the facility and leave at any time.
That left the minor gods that everyone had long ago forgotten about in favor of following the major gods and even worshipingthe Godstone of Erya. Was it possible that they were still alive? And if that were true, what was Tyche the god of exactly? The magic he appeared to do was so small and subtle yet incredibly broad-reaching. He’d somehow broken the mechanism on his cell, but he hadn’t been able to heal Yesuntei. As they’d escaped, Tyche would whisper warnings to go one way or another. To pause or charge ahead as if he could see a glimpse of the future. It was as if the stars had all aligned for them to make a somewhat smooth escape.
Was it possible that he could see the future?
That didn’t seem likely. If that were the case, he should have been able to foresee his own capture and avoid it.
Shey kept his mouth shut and scrubbed his hand across his face as they trudged through the forest. The temperature was climbing, burning off any early-morning coolness to hammer them with heat and humidity. They were walking north. It was as good a direction as any. The one option that was stupid was to go east—the direction of the facility they had escaped from.
It was just as unlikely that Tyche was a god as it would be for him to be a dragon. Tyche was at least six inches shorter than him, with a slender, wiry frame and a mass of brownish-red hair that hung in various lengths around his head and down his back. He wasn’t bad-looking—but then, Shey had always seen him through bars. Tyche wasn’t at his best.
