Page 332 of The Gods Order

Twenty years since she’d last seen both of her parents in the same place.

Without thinking, I slip my fingers through hers and give her hand a gentle squeeze. She doesn’t look away from them.

“Go join them, little goddess,” I whisper.

She shakes her head once.

“Not yet. I want them to enjoy this. I…want to enjoy this.”

I bring her hand to my lips and kiss each knuckle. The bond in my heart, plus where our souls are tied together, throbs with her awe.

I’m still getting used to both sensations. We all are.

Unfortunately, there’s no one who can give us advice on what we’re experiencing. Amick picked Doren’s brain about the Starwoven bond, and while it helped us understand parts of it, we quickly realized we weren’t quite the same as him and his Starwoven Valtrue.

Something he knew from the moment he heard about Thayla’s soul being attached to ours.

The Starwoven bond is a recognition between souls. An intense connection. One that strengthens once it’s sealed. But the souls themselves don’t actually intertwine.

Ours do.

When Creed split our souls and wove them with Thayla’s, he didn’t just strengthen our bond. He created and completed a whole other connection as well. That changes everything.

The first few days after stepping out of the Gods Binding, I couldn’t tell where my feelings ended and my brothers’ or hers began. Her happiness would wash through me before I realized it wasn’t mine. Her grief over the fallen Defenders would settle in my chest like a boulder.

And then there was the love.

Gods, the love.

I knew how deeply I loved her. But feeling the depth of Creed’s, Riven’s, and Amick’s unwavering loyalty, devotion, joy alongside my own…it was something entirely different.

We love the same woman with the same intensity, but in our own ways.

And I feel their love for me. Their love for each other.

There’s no hiding anything from any of us anymore.

Val finally sets Anylah on her feet, and they simply stare at one another for a long moment. Then, together, they turn toward their daughter.

“Thayla girl.”

Her fingers slip from mine as Anylah reaches for her.

Three quick strides carry Thayla into their embrace, and they fold around her.

My brothers and I don’t interrupt. We simply watch as twenty years of grief, anger, fear, and longing melt from all three of them.

The relief pouring through our bond steals my breath.

Not just because I feel it from Thayla…

I feel it from every soul tied to mine.

“Daddy!”

The shrill cry shatters the quiet. Our attention snaps toward the house just as a stampede of little feet barrels through the doorway.

Ellian barely has time to laugh before half a dozen children launch themselves at him, knocking him flat onto his back beneath a pile of squeals and tiny limbs.