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Talin looked inside - and quickly sat up. "Oh, shit," he breathed.
Wraythe chuckled once. "Have a bender last night or something?"
"Something," Talin agreed. "Kinda saw Zeal."
Neither Wraythe nor I moved. I wasn't even sure I breathed. He'd seen Zeal. He had a new mark. Did that mean that somewhere in Nari's lace was a symbol like that? If so, where, and why hadn't I seen it before?
But Talin was still inspecting his. "I'm pretty sure that's the symbol for the Temple of All Gods with..." His eyes lifted, shifting from me to Wraythe and back. "It's a five-headed snake. Five snakes that are combined over the symbol of all six gods?"
"Zeal's symbol is the snake," Wraythe said softly. "The four of us, and him?"
"I have no idea," Talin admitted, "but I can tell you that last night, the God of Temptation made me drink his tears, and he kissed me."
"Shit," I breathed, taking a step back to drop into one of his chairs. "So he's real?"
"Completely," Talin assured me. "And she doesn't do him justice when she describes him. The man is everything that anyone has ever wanted, and his eyes?" An unconscious smile found his lips. "They're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I think I lost myself in them."
"Oh, shit," I said again. "She's not making this up, we're not losing our minds, and this is fucking happening."
"Yeah," Talin said, "but I think Zeal has a plan."
"I fucking hope so, because the High Priest has the votes to force her to do the immersion test, and according to Anver, sounds like he plans to strip her marks first. This will be done alone, in a room, locked away from everyone else. Toprotect her privacy,of course."
"Fucking asshole isn't going to let her bathe in the tears again?" Talin snapped, understanding immediately.
"Yeah," Wraythe agreed. "Anver got that feeling too. Ela and I will be sent back to the Initiate hall, and Nari will get kicked out. No idea what they'll do with you, but the plan is to split us up."
"They can't," Talin gasped. "Zeal said that's the only thing that she cannot tolerate. He said that we can never walk away from her. Well, he said me, but I assume it's a general rule. He said even hitting her is better, and we can't even leave to cool off in an argument. He said Nariana only wants two things in life, and that's to be asked before a decision is made for her, and to not be abandoned."
"This is going to break her," I realized. "The fucking High Priest would rather fuck over our god's chosen than... what? What is this man at risk of losing?"
"Luxuries," Talin said. "Believe it or not, Eladehl, greed is one ofmanytemptations. The bigger question is how we can channel that into something that won't get Nari caught in the middle?"
"We can't," Wraythe said. "All we can do is hope that Zeal is strong enough to do something about this."
"Then believe," Talin told us. "Guys, he's real. He's every single thing she said he was, but there are no words for what it's like to be in his presence. It was like talking to an old friend, and yet teetering on the edge of an abyss at the same time. You just know that he could flick you over the edge so easily, but he doesn't want to."
"And he marked you," I said. "I don't know why, but that's new, and it feels like it's really important."
"The Blade," Wraythe said. "That's what he calls you. The Blade, and he put that on your sword arm."
Talin pointed to himself. "The Blade," then to Wraythe, "the Shield," and finally to me, "the Temptation."
"And Nari?" Wraythe asked.
"The Chosen One," Talin said. "But why do I have this and she doesn't?"
"Only Zeal knows," I said softly.
Because this wasn't something I could wonder about, try to explain away, or hope would vanish before I had to deal with it. This was real, and the only way it was going to get better was if I stopped wondering and just accepted it with every fiber of my being. We were trying to figure out what agodwas thinking. That was the most futile thing I could imagine. He was a god!
And he had to be real. If he wasn't, we were all fucked.
Chapter 57
Nariana
When the guys woke me up, they looked worried. Before I was even out of bed, they caught me up on everything that had happened. From Talin seeing Zeal and drinking his tears to Anver waking Eladehl up to let us know about the immersion test. When I was dressed, the four of us headed to the dining hall to grab a meal - because the guys were adamant that nervousness was not a good reason to avoid eating.
