Strength

by Jane Washington

  Well … she wasn’t wrong about that.

  As for me, I was fixated on Siret.

  Mostly because Siret was fixated on me.

  Whatever his father had told him, it had something to do with me, because he had turned his gaze to me almost immediately after Abil left and hadn’t shifted it since. Rome was standing just behind me, his hand low on the curve of my back. I had no idea when he had put it there—even though that was something I probably should have noticed. I had probably been too busy having a staring contest with Siret, but now I was completely aware of the big hand burning through my robes. I couldn’t actually see him, since I was still turned toward Siret, but I could hear him grumbling things that might have passed as contributions to Coen and Yael’s discussion, so he must have been turned to face them.

  “What did Abil mean?” I asked Siret. “Why do you have a secret mission that nobody else has? And why are you staring at me?”

  Siret grinned, and the others stopped talking for a click.

  “He’s supposed to disguise you,” Rome said, turning so that more of his body heat fell across my back. “So that we can bring you to the meeting.”

  “Disguise me as what?” I asked, growing a little bit nervous.

  “Anything.” Siret shrugged, claiming the distance between us in a single, casual step, stopping in front of me. His hands lifted to my cheeks, tilting my head up to his. “Just as long as Staviti doesn’t recognise you.”

  “I could be a tree,” I blurted, without thinking. Siret’s eyes were close. Way too close. He was so close I was blurting things about trees and thinking about kissing him.

  “Trees don’t move.” His smile had grown. “We need you to stick with us. That requires moving.”

  “I could be a robe.” This had been another idea blurted without thinking. Okay. That was a lie. I had thought about it. I had thought about sticking with them, which had led me to thinking about sticking on them, which had led me to thinking about stripping them naked and touching everything on them … and now I was off-topic. I could admit that.

  “You can’t be a robe,” Rome grunted, in the same voice that a mother used while telling their child that they weren’t allowed to stay up past bedtime.

  “Way to ruin all my fun,” I groused quietly.

  “Trust me.” Siret grabbed my arm, drawing me away from the others. “This will be fun.”

  I glanced back at the others, as though I needed to say a proper goodbye to them even though I was only being dragged out of the house to get a disguise … and not going on a perilous quest that I may never return from. They looked back at me as though they felt the same way, though, so I didn’t feel as pathetic when I gave a little finger wave just before I was pulled through the door.

  “I could be a bug,” I told Siret. “Those are small, and they can move.”

  “They can also get stepped on,” Siret reminded me.

  “Yeah but you’re not actually turning me into a real bug. So I can’t actually get stepped on.”

  Siret wasn’t pulling me into another stone house, as I had expected. Instead, he was leading me into a marble gazebo with vines snaking up the pillars and covering the three stone benches within. There was a small marble fountain at the centre, with a few birds perched on the edge, grooming themselves in the spray of water.

  “If I turn you into a bug and someone runs into you, they’re going to realise there’s an invisible force walking around, and they’ll set off an alarm.” Siret sat me down on the bench and stood before me, unnecessarily trapping my knees between his legs, as though I would try to escape at some point. “That’s not something we want right now.”

  “What do we want right now?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and arching a brow at him.

  “We want subtlety.” He grinned, planting a hand on the back of the bench, beside my right shoulder, bending over until his face was looming over mine.

  “And you’re the King of Subtlety,” I snorted.

  “You’re going to be a goddess.” He ignored my insult altogether.

  “Maybe I’m already a goddess,” I murmured, pushing up on the seat a little bit and brushing my lips over his with the words.

  He grunted, his hand shifting from the back of the bench to my shoulder, his fingers somehow finding their way beneath my robe to the skin of my collarbone.

  “A specific goddess,” he clarified, his thumb tracing the outside of my collarbone before dipping down further, the rest of his fingers digging into my skin.

  “You already know who you’re going to disguise me as …” I was working to keep the accusation out of my tone, to keep my voice soft and breathy as I continued speaking against his lips.

  His thumb inched down lower, almost pressing into the top of my breast now, his breath heavier against my lips.

  “Yes …”

  “Asshole!” I declared, pushing him away. “What the hell are you assholes hiding from me?”

  He groaned, falling back from me and slumping into the seat opposite mine, putting the fountain between us. “That was mean.”

  “Who did you pick and what are you hiding?” I demanded.

  “Don’t be mad okay, Will? It was the only way.”

  “What was the only way?” I was standing now, my hands planted against my hips as I stared down at Siret over the top of the fountain. “Why did you take me out of the room to disguise me? I swear to the gods …” I was already striding from the Gazebo, ready to storm back into the marble house, but Siret was quicker.

  He grabbed me, pulled me back into his chest and lifted me until my feet left the ground. “Calm down, Soldier. Just calm down and I’ll explain everything.”

  “You have until I count to five, Five.”

  “You can’t be serious.” He froze, his frustrated breath rushing out against the top of my head.

  “One,” I replied.

  “Willa.”

  “Two.”

  “For the love of Staviti. Rome taught you this trick, didn’t he?”

  “Three.”

  He jostled me further up and then suddenly tipped me over his shoulder, his hand coming down hard on my ass. A loud smacking sound assaulted my ears, and I could almost feel his sudden grin.

  “You hit me,” I said, dumbfounded. “On my ass.”

  “I spanked you,” he clarified, “and I’ll do it again if you keep counting.”

  “I can’t believe you—”

  “Or talking,” he added, cutting me off. “In fact, I might do it again regardless of what you do or say.”

  “I’m going to kick you right in the—” I started threatening, but he cut me off again.

  “You can’t; you’re hanging over my shoulder.”

  “RIGHT IN THE BALLBAGS!” I shouted out, probably loud enough to alert the next floating platform. “Just as soon as you put me down. So … put me down!”

  “Not a chance.” There was a definite smile in his voice, and that was all the warning I got before his hand was coming down on my backside again. Hard. “Now here’s what’s happening, before you threaten me again. Aros is … persuading … a certain goddess to stay on her platform for this meeting, so that you can attend the meeting as her.”

  “I was pissed off before. Now I’m … worse. Now I’m dangerous.”

  “Cute.” His hand landed on my ass again, but this time it was soft. A caress. The skin there was burning slightly, and I might have been wiggling against him as though I wanted his hands beneath my robe, but that had nothing to do with anything.

  Because I was pissed.

  Dangerous.

  “So fucking cute,” Siret muttered, and then he was setting me on my feet and pushing me back against the fountain.

  I had barely a moment of warning before his mouth was on mine, his fingers moulding to the side of my face. He drew me up, into the kiss, and then sent me down, spiralling with a need that was almost too much to control. His tongue was against mine, claiming my mouth and scattering my
attention. I was pressing into him, needing to have every inch of myself covered by him.

  I couldn’t remember what we had been fighting about anymore.

  I couldn’t even remember why I was there.

  Siret was kissing me and I needed more. I needed the robes gone. I needed skin against skin. I needed …

  I needed …

  “Wait a gods-dammed-click,” I growled out, tearing my mouth from his. My breaths were only small, gasping noises. I could feel my face growing hot. I could barely stand. My mind was muddled, but a growing fury was pushing its way back in. “How exactly is Aros persuading this goddess to stay on her platform?”

  He didn’t answer me, he just recaptured my mouth and I was still disorientated enough that he managed to distract me again. In moments of clarity, I decided that whilst finding out Aros’s plan was very important and pertinent, I could wait another few clicks.

  I opened my lips further and at the same time pressed my body up and into Siret’s. We were so close together, I could feel every hard line. Every muscle. His strength was almost overwhelming, and it reminded me of how very different I was to the Abcurses. A difference I was starting to like … a lot. Because they might be physically stronger than me, but I had my own strengths, and … I was not letting any of them get away with their underhanded bullsen shit any longer.

  It took every ounce of my strength to push through the fog in my mind and formulate a plan. One which involved me being able to continue this very enjoyable task of kissing one of my boys. I was starting to think I’d do anything to always be kissing one of them.

  There was no space between us, so I let one of my hands trail down his side, pushing and gliding across his robes, feeling the lines of his body. Siret made a sound from deep in his throat, and I forgot for a micro-click where I had been going with my plan. His arm was wrapped tightly around me and all I wanted was to taste and breathe in the scent of him.

  Plenty of time for this later, I forcefully reminded myself, regaining some of my focus. My hand continued down, over his hip and along the top of a rock-hard thigh. My centre ached, I wanted him to shift his position and place that thigh between my legs …

  Focus!

  My hand snaked between us and just as I was about to wrap my fingers tightly around him, he let out a low laugh against my lips and twisted his body out of reach. I gasped and fell forward, completely missing my mark. We were standing a few inches apart now, our breathing hard, his eyes burning into mine with a glowing intensity.

  “How did you know?” I pouted between the deep breathing I was doing.

  He laughed again, but those eyes remained at almost full glow. “We’re connected, remember? Not to mention your first instinct when you’re cornered is to fight dirty …”

  “I only have so much power to use against you,” I admitted.

  Siret made that noise again, although this time it sounded like it came from even deeper. I stepped into him, needing to feel his body against mine. This time there was no ulterior motive—I clearly couldn’t hide my intentions from these five, they knew me too well. Nope, all I wanted was to touch him. He lifted me against his body and I let out a low breath, melting against him.

  “You’re wrong, you know,” he murmured close to my ear.

  “Huh?” I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, my brain was mimicking my body. Both were mush.

  “You have more power against us than any other being in the worlds. It’s almost scary the things we would do for you, Willa. You never have to worry about Aros and what he’s doing right now. Everything we do is to keep you safe.”

  “So he’s not over on some marble platform seducing a goddess?” I’d been planning to force the information from Siret, but now I hoped he would just tell me.

  Our bodies shook as he laughed hard.

  “How about I change you first, and then we can go and see,” he suggested.

  That seemed like a great plan to me, so I nodded, and he pulled back. Just as he was about to set me down, I lifted my upper body and settled my lips against his again. This time it was short and sweet, the kiss just a brief touch of skin before I pulled away.

  “That power goes both ways,” I told him. “I won’t let anyone hurt you five. I promise.”

  The certainty of that statement came from deep in my … soul, maybe. There was a ring of finality about it, like a promise that I could and would not break. I didn’t know what my new energy was, the one that was lingering just below the surface, but whatever I ended up being, I would use that power to keep my family safe.

  Siret didn’t say much after that, but his face was different than usual. No less beautiful. No less god-like. There was just a softness there as he cupped my cheeks in his hands, a softness that I hadn’t seen before. No laughter, just a lot of emotion.

  His energy washed across me; it was similar to the way it felt when he changed my clothes, but so much stronger. My head went shaky … almost fuzzy for a moment, and it felt like I was swaying on my feet, even though I knew I wasn’t moving. Mild pain rocked over my skin, like he was inflicting a billion little cuts across my body. The very fine kind which took a click to hurt.

  Heat grew with that tingling pain, and just when I was worried that it was going to be too much to handle, Siret let out a grumble of annoyance before releasing my face.

  “That will do, even though I much prefer you in your original form.”

  Opening my eyes, I realised that he didn’t tower over me quite as much as he had before. So, I was taller. My fingers looked long and slender, and my skin was very pale. Normally I was a golden tan, because I had been outdoors most of my life, but whichever god I was now disguised as had that sort of porcelain perfect skin that didn’t have a birth spot or blemish to be seen.

  Siret noticed me trying to inspect his disguise, so he led me a little further along the platform, to a section of marble so polished that I could see my reflection in it.

  I blinked a few times. “Whoa.”

  Siret moved closer, standing next to me, both of us reflected in the marble. “You’re now Sienna, God of Revelry.”

  I’d guessed as much. It certainly explained the new attire I wore, which was very reminiscent of the robes my mother had favoured when she was heading out for the night. White, with a strap on one shoulder, the other bare. It was cut tight across my breasts, half of my very slender waist was showing, and the short skirt swished high on my thighs. I wore flat shoes at least, but they had laces that crisscrossed right up my calves.

  “Where are the rest of my clothes?” I demanded.

  “This is what she wears,” he told me. “We can’t have Staviti being suspicious of us yet, so the details have to be exact. We need to figure out what he’s up to, first. Let mother work her magic on him.”

  I knew that wasn’t magic in the god sense he was talking about.

  “Tell me why Staviti will not be suspicious of …” I threw a hand out, waving it toward the marble. “All of this.”

  Sienna had straight, black hair that hung to just above her butt. It was thick and shiny with a fringe cut above dark, rich blue eyes and to-die-for cheek bones. All of the black hair should have clashed with the white skin, but it didn’t. She was stunning, exotic, the exact sort of woman that men around the two worlds would fall all over themselves to touch.

  I didn’t like it. It made me feel insecure, needy, and pathetic. I wanted to rip every strand of her black hair out and that was insane, because this wasn’t even really her. It was me … disguised. Ugh. Stupid men.

  Siret seemed to choose his words carefully. “She is the one god who is overlooked a lot. Treated almost like she’s nothing more than a …”

  “Whore?” I guessed as he trailed off.

  He nodded, not looking all that happy about it. “Because life is a party for her, she doesn’t take things very seriously. That’s her power. Revelry. Flitting between whatever she feels like at any given moment, never settling down.”

>   None of that sounded any different to the rest of the gods. They were always having parties, randomly killing dwellers like my mother and disposing of their servers when they sneezed at the wrong time. Sienna didn’t seem any different.

  I was starting to feel a little sorry for her, though. They called my mum a whore in our village, and I always thought it was an unfair label, considering she wasn’t having sex on her own. The men on Minatsol never seemed to get the same labels, and I had no doubt it was going to be the same in the god world.

  “Ready to go and find Aros?” he asked me, and I remembered that the Seduction God was off doing something to keep the real Sienna from attending Staviti’s call.

  Spinning away from my reflection, I nodded jerkily. “Yes. Take me there now, and don’t you dare tell him I’m coming.”

  I’d work on my trust issues another sun-cycle, right now I needed to see with my own eyes what they had planned. Siret pulled me in, but his touch wasn’t the same. It was a little colder, a little more distant. He wasn’t holding me against him, but simply … holding onto me. I glanced up at his face, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. I wound my arms around him to get closer and caught his cringe. He didn’t like my new appearance.

  He turned on the spot and everything blinked out of existence, materialising around me again a micro-click later in the form of yet another marble platform. This one was more cluttered, with furniture strewn everywhere—both whole and broken—along with contained fire pits scattered about and sparkly matter flitting through the air, collecting on the marble ground. It looked as though a party had torn through the platform and disappeared, leaving behind only chaos. There was a single stone house directly in the middle of the platform, surrounded by odd-looking statues and animal ornaments. My mouth fell open a little as I gazed up at the design of the residence. It was in the style of the skyreachers back in Minatsol, with level upon level stacked up toward the sky—except unlike the Minatsol skyreachers, each level was a different shape, making the design impossible to achieve without some kind of magic.