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"Like the High Priest wanted," Anver grumbled.
"That!" I said. "Right now, I'm an initiate. I'm still an initiate for one more year, but this is what I'm good at. My Path is making people believe in my god. That is what it means to be a Priestess - or Priest - of Temptation. This is the only Path higher than Word, and it is reserved for your chosen few."
"For the five of you," Zeal agreed. "But I plan to use you longer than a few years, Nari. We are so weak now that we will never be able to recover in your lifetime. We simply need someone to start the process."
"No," I said, moving over to him again, so I could wrap my arms around his neck. "If I can learn five Paths, then I can do this. Let me try? Zeal, believe in us as much as we believe in you and just let us try?"
"I will let you do anything you want," he promised. "I chose you to be a tool. Instead, I've found something even better."
"Friends," Anver said softly. "It's a powerful thing."
"Exactly," Zeal said, leaning in until his lips met mine.
My mouth parted, and he kissed me gently, his tongue teasing mine. I leaned into it, giving him complete control, and the god's lips curled but he didn't pull away. His hand slid down my back, the kiss deepening. For just a moment, I forgot about saving him. I stopped caring about everything else but the next pass of our lips or tangle of tongues. That was when he finally leaned back. For a moment, I stood there, breathing just a bit too hard, and his eyes drank in the sight.
"I highly suggest you all drink the tears before someone leaves something in the basin you'd rather not ingest," he teased, letting his eyes slip down my body. "Because you menwillall drink, and my Priestess deserves a celebration. I have every intention of making it a very good one."
Talin cupped a handful of tears and lifted them. "Trust me, guys. Drink."
"Why?" Wraythe asked even as he obeyed.
Anver scooped up his own handful and swallowed it. "Talin, you drank before?"
"Yep."
"Nari?" Anver asked.
"She breathed them in," Zeal said.
"And I drank," Anver told the guys. "Zeal's ridden all of us who have."
"But you rode me before I drank," I pointed out.
"Because you, my Chosen, are special. You have the sight, but all that means is that you're always within my reach. I need them to take me in. They have to choose me. You were born to me. Well, to us." He meant the other gods.
"I can think of something I'd rather swallow than stale tears from a basin that's had countless hands in it," Ela joked.
"Drink," Zeal told him. "Because you, my golden one, would crack if I tried to love you. Soon, though. Very soon, you will be ready. You are all becoming so resilient. So much more than I ever expected, and I can only resist temptation so long." He thrust his hand out. "Where's the bottle?"
"Alcohol for a god," Ela said, passing it to him and then scooping up a handful of tears to slurp them back loudly.
Zeal lifted the port and gulped at it, then he passed it to me. "It won't be any easier next year, you know."
I took the bottle and lifted it in a mock toast. "I never asked for easy, Zeal. I asked forthem, and you gave them to me."
"And then broke all of you." His words were soft as he looked over to Ela. "I've used you, and I'm sorry, but I don't plan to stop."
"Use us," Anver said. "I'm with Nari on this. We didn't ask for easy."
"We asked for her," Wraythe assured him, "and you gave her to us."
"All of us did," Talin agreed. "Even if we didn't realize she was what we were asking for."
"I will push you," Zeal warned us.
"Then push," Ela said.
"I will hurt you," he tried this time.
