Page 187 of The Gods Order

I don’t know what he knows.

He studies me for a long moment before his attention shifts to the dirt at my feet. My gaze stubbornly follows.

“I was on my knees right there when he came to me in my dreams.”

I nod.

“That’s right. The mystery god who just conveniently came to you and told you to enter me into the Veiling. Which you didn’t listen to the first time around and instead, made my life even more of a living hell for a year after that.”

“Your life wasn’t a living hell,” he says far too calmly. “I did everything I did to prepare you for the life I knew we’d be entering.”

“You had no fucking clue what kind of life was waiting for us. You did it for control.”

“A little, yes,” he admits and I rear back like he hit me. My sneer is unkind, but his face stays as smooth as marble. “I didn’t tell you everything that was said that night in my dream. It’s all irrelevant now, but yes, I did some of the things I did to control you because he told me the consequences of you falling for the wrong things. The more I could control you, the better I could protect you. I failed. You still fell into the wrong hands.”

My ears ring. The consequences…

“Who was the god, Mellcom?” I ask low.

His lips flatten.

“The Beginning God of Consequence.”

Silence crashes over me.

No. No, that…

That doesn’t make sense. Meridamus?

I search his face for the smug grin. For the tell. For anything that says he’s throwing names around just to see what sticks.

I find nothing.

“I swear to you, I didn’t know it was him when I told you about my dream after the Veiling,” he adds. “I didn’t know for sure until after Seductions and I opened a line of communication with the Goddess of Seduction and the God of Obliteration.”

Meridamus. His name pounds through my skull.

He was the one…

Mellcom has no clue who Meridamus really is.

“So you don’t know this for sure still. You only know what they’re telling you?” I ask, then hold my hands up. “What did his voice sound like? Have you seen or heard from him since then? Has he come to you again?”

“No, I haven’t seen or heard from him since then. His voice was deep and almost whimsical. It echoed around in my mind. I told you the morning of the Veiling it was unmistakably powerful and it sent me to my knees.”

Oh gods. No. It makes too much sense.

The barrier wasn’t around him.

He was using a great deal of his power…

Mellcom wouldn’t have been able to tell if he never actually saw him.

No.

“Also, there’s no denying it. After I told Obliteration and Seduction everything that was said, the consequences that could come from not listening, they knew exactly who the god was.”

My stomach knots. Meridamus hasn’t hinted at this not once.