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"Does she love me? Can she?"
"Yes, she can," he promised. "She will not loveonlyyou, though. I have spent too many years cultivating her to be more. I used what little power I had left to whisper the smallest temptations so that this path would end up here. When you decided that you wanted nothing more to do with the temple, I thought it would all be lost, so I encouraged her to find you."
I could only bob my head as I let that all sink in. "You set this all up?"
"Think of it more like pieces falling against each other. I lined you up as well as I could, but I cannot control which way you fall. I can guess, but not control. But do not miss half the picture. I lined you up to have more than just her. I promise there were other options for her partner than just Eladehl, and yet he matched both her and you so well. Wraythe may be a complication, but you and he seem to work well enough."
"What do you mean, 'a complication'?" I asked.
"You and him. Not Nari. I assure you, that man is more devoted to her than you could ever be. The trouble is that he's distracted by it. She'll need that, though. Her solid ground to hold on to when everything else turns upside down. Eladehl will encourage her to give in to temptation. You? I chose you because you will make sure that she never does it without thinking. The four of you are a beautiful set." Then he turned to lean against the wall beside me. "And the truth is that I may have selected you for other reasons."
"Such as?" I asked.
Zeal looked over, his kaleidoscope eyes holding mine. "I liked you four the best. I'm a god, not a statue. I don't use people like pieces on a game board. I..." He paused for a moment. "I liked you four the best. She is the focus, the one who cannot be replaced, but I wanted..."
"What?" I pressed.
"Friends," he finally said. "More, even. If you are the last people I get to interact with, I wanted it to mean something more than just an attempt to survive. I wanted it to also be enough to let me be forgotten in peace."
"She's going to save you," I told him. "Zeal, she's adamant about that. As soon as she realized that you needed her help, she threw herself into this. She's in there learning how to fight so she can be what you need. But you haven't told her what that is."
"Because I don'tknow," he snapped. "Don't you get that? I can guess, just like you. I have more information, and I have a lot more experience, but it's still just a guess. No different than you guessing that Yana would act a certain way, or the High Priest. You used your experience, your knowledge of them, and the likely outcomes to make aguess." Zeal leaned his head back against the wall. "And I'm trying to guess how to make people believe in gods again. Not an easy task."
"What's the current working theory?" I asked him.
He chuckled. "Miracles to make them talk. Talk to make them remember. Temptations to make them pray, answered prayers to make them believe, and priests to remind them all that this is real. To make that happen, I first need to get my priests back, which means I need to give them an icon to follow."
"Nari," I guessed.
"Nari," he agreed. "But what you don't understand is how little faith I have right now. Most people do not believe in me."
I turned so my shoulder rested against the wall. It was a casual enough pose for anyone who saw me. The kind of thing that wouldn't look too out of place for a man waiting on someone else. Considering I was facing the door, it made even more sense.
"You have seven of us now. Doesn't that change anything?" I asked. "I mean, you said you had power again."
"Some," Zeal said. "Look, this is like sinking you underwater, giving you a straw to breathe through, and telling you that you'll be fine. Yes, you can survive, but if you fall asleep, you're dead. If you lose the straw, you're dead. It's air, but not nearly enough. That is where I am now. I have enough power to help, but not to do much. I'm a hamstrung god, Talin. I'm little more than a man. Less, in some ways. Even a man can talk to the people around him, but Ican't!"
Without thinking, I caught his wrist. "We're trying," I assured him.
Zeal's eyes dropped down to my fingers on his lace-covered skin. I tried to pull my hand back, but he caught it, now holding me by the wrist. For a moment, neither of us moved. Then, he licked his lips and pulled in a deep breath.
"The lines on your back have a piece of her soul in them. The lines on my skin have a piece of yours. The bond goes both ways, and I promise I know how you feel. It is torture to be so close, but never know if you'll make that last inch. To see them, to talk to them, and yet to always be held just a breath away. You can smile, laugh, and pretend to be so strong that it doesn't matter, but that piece of soul is still there, still calling you back to its home. Sometimes, it's the simplest things that make it easier to tolerate. Like a hand on an arm."
So I moved a little closer, leaning my shoulder against his. "Do you know where we are on your skin?" I asked.
"You're here." He reached up to touch a spot on his shoulder, right beside his neck. "Wraythe is on my arm, just below the elbow. Eladehl is exactly where you'd expect."
"Your dick?" I joked.
"The base." He glanced over with a boyish smile. "Nariana is all over. Each Path in a different place. And she does care about you, Talin. She didn't want to just yet, but she still does. She loves those other two, though."
"I know." The words came out sounding like a complaint. Then again, they were.
He let his fingers trace the skin along my arm. "She's happy about you and Eladehl. It makes her feel less selfish. The trick will be to make sure she doesn't turn her attention to Wraythe so she's not in her best friend's way."
"Eladehl's, you mean?"
Zeal nodded. "Right now, he's the closest friend she has. He is a lover, but more of a friend. That is what makes their bond so strong. They're comfortable romantically, but inseparable because of their trust. The rest will come. The trust is what it will be built on. You, however, don't have that.Yet.The more she sees you trying, the faster it will happen. Make real attempts, not false ones. Things like Lurel telling her that you don't share, and yet you are. They mean something to her."
