A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 192: Ethan

So close-

     So close, so close, so close!

     "Keir, if you don't show up right now, I'm ditching your stupid plan and kicking you out of my house-"

     Somehow, it worked.

     "Relax, Princess," Keir stood in the air with me as Teria rested in my arms, having fallen back to sleep with enough spells. I wasn't quite sure what to do with her, since we needed her, but at the same time I didn't want to show all the cards so obviously. But I also really didn't want to stick her in a pocket dimension. "I'm here. It took you a while."

     "I had some important stuff on the side to take care of."

     "Me as well," he nodded, looking at the dark hole in the cave. Gods really chose to put their official entrances in the strangest places. "Are you ready?"

     "No, are you? You refused to tell me the rest of the plan for how this is going to go down if it works, and how it'll happen if it doesn't. I'm trusting you here," I narrowed my eyes, making sure he perfectly understood that. "But if you pull a Paivla and become my enemy suddenly, FYI, I'm going to mess you up even if you decide to partner with Thanos all of a sudden. You know I don't go down easily."

     "...just when I thought we made a little progress," Keir sighed, having brightened at the words "I'm trusting you" and fallen at the "but if you." It was a very fast rise and fall. "I told you, we're going to go in, negotiate, succeed, and leave."

     "Didn't you say something about Tiyana's guardian apostle having been roaming the area recently?"

     "I took care of that."

     My face scrunched skeptically.

     His shoulders rose as he looked around, somehow already fed up. "Didn't I just tell you that you're not the only one doing important things in life?"

     Every time I showed my distrust of him, since just a few days ago, he got frustrated easily. If we never brought it up, he was his usual self. Finding the triggers with him was easy - me avoiding them when I wasn't trying to was not.

     Trust.

     Surprisingly a big thing for a very suspicious guy.

     Or maybe, it was because he was so suspicious that he had trust issues, and people saw him as the "God of Darkness" and instantly had negative feelings that stopped them from getting to know his stunning personality.

     "Your thoughts are all over your face."

     "Just the way I like them. Saves oxygen."

     "Princess..."

     "Can we go? Are you sure there are no traps? Did you tell anyone besides me?"

     "Yes, yes, and no. I didn't even bother to message him in case Hearsay was reporting to Tiyana."

     "Hearsay?" I blinked, then flinched, remembering my encounter with that god with distaste. "Don't worry...I have my own dealings with him. He won't do anything for Tiyana that would jeopardize it with me." Probably.

     Keir turned around slightly in that dark, crowded space, looking skeptical with lowering brows. "And what kinds of dealings do you have with the god with the most stubborn neutrality of them all...?"

     "Don't worry about it."

     "No, it's precisely because you're you and you know nothing that I'm worried."