by Jaymin Eve
Behind me, Yael chuckled.
“A secure location,” Cyrus repeated.
Emmy recovered some of her poise then, rising again to her feet. For someone who was a proud, card-carrying member of the dweller-club, I don’t think she realised how much she acted like a sol at times. She was strong, smart, and capable. If she had been born a sol, she would have made it to Topia. I had no doubt at all of that.
“When will I be able to see her again?”
Cyrus took a step closer, towering above her. “Tomorrow. She’ll be at the Sacred Sands arena.”
Emmy opened her mouth again, but Cyrus did his disappearing act and she was alone. She blinked a few times in rapid succession, and I could see that her hands were tightly clenched at her sides. In a move I totally did not expect, she turned back, grabbed the lamp again, and threw it with all of her strength at the wall. It shattered, crashing with a racket to the floor.
“Fuck!” she cursed, and I almost jumped. Emmy didn’t curse a lot, and I was torn between amusement and worry.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from her as she continued to stare at the wall, until finally, with a sigh, the physical anger deflated out of her and she crossed over to the broken lamp. There was no way she would have been able to sleep with that mess on the floor, so it came as no surprise to me when she dropped down and started gathering up the pieces.
Before she could put them into the rubbish bin, though, there was a distinct whirling sound, and she let out a low shout, falling back onto her butt. I practically had my face pressed into the glass now, trying to figure out what just happened.
Emmy reached out again, and lifted the lamp up off the floor.
Holy gods.
It was perfect: not a scratch or mark on it. Considering that it had been in fifty pieces not a click ago …
I’d seen someone repair a lamp like that before. A lamp I had broken. Cyrus. It was the only possible explanation. I jerked my head up, clipping the side of Yael’s jaw. He’d clearly been closer than I thought.
“Ouch.” I rubbed the spot while he just shook his head at me. “What is Cyrus up to?” I asked, thankful that the pain was fading fast. “What does he want with Emmy?”
Yael and Rome exchanged a glance, and I lowered my hand from my head in case I needed to use it for physical violence.
“Calm down, Rocks.” Rome shook his head at me. “Cyrus won’t hurt your friend. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, though.”
I didn’t trust the Neutral God, but I also didn’t think he planned on hurting Emmy. Not yet, anyway. I’d just have to keep an eye on him … somehow. By the time I turned back to the mortal glass, Emmy was in bed, and the lamp was on the small table. I doubted that she was asleep after all of that weird, but I also didn’t need to keep watching her. She was okay for now, and that was the most important thing.
Unsure about how I was feeling, I handed the glass back to Yael. “We should get some sleep,” I decided. “Tomorrow we need to fight a bunch of sols.”
I was trying really hard not to think about that, because I wasn’t sure how I could participate. Given that my only strength was the occasional burst of uncontrollable fire, I was more worried about accidentally burning someone to death than accidently dying myself. I’d have to think of other creative ways to win. Like running. Or hiding. Or discovering the power of invisibility—which would obviously be the ideal scenario.
The two gods stood and I followed, tilting my head back to take them both in. “So, how is the bed situation going to work?”
I figured that there was no point in dancing around the issue. Lines had been drawn by the five of them while I had been listening-in, somewhat uninvited, and now the lines were starting to blur. My near-constant nakedness was probably a significant contributor to the issue, but the rest was entirely their fault. They didn’t have to walk around looking all perfect and … godly. I was just a poor, lowly dweller. That’s what it was. That’s why I couldn’t stop wondering if I was going to be allowed to sleep on top of one of them.
It was hero-worship.
Shadows danced across Yael’s face, giving him an air of mystery. “You’re going to be in the middle of us, and we’re going to make sure that Rau and Staviti don’t steal you away in the night.”
Right … in the middle. I could almost feel the sparks of Chaos wreaking havoc inside my chest, and it felt as though the room had just grown several degrees warmer. I wanted to fan my face, but that would be too obvious, so instead I turned and scurried across to the huge bed. I needed to focus, before the feeling of Chaos turned into actual Chaos and I managed to set fire to one of the Abcurses.
The decadent piece of furniture had definitely been created for the gods—probably by Staviti himself, though it was hard to imagine him decorating the interiors of marble rooms. It took me more than one try to scramble up over the side and move up near the pillows. I sprawled out on the cloud-like mattress, revelling in the feel of sheets spun from the softest of silk. Rome’s long shirt tangled around my legs as I rolled over, staring up at the marble ceiling. There was a small, open dome right above the bed that I hadn’t noticed before. I could spot the stars dotting the sky, and the faint ripple of glass that protected the room from the elements.
When I lifted my head, I realised that Rome and Yael were both still standing at the end of the bed, staring down at me. They seemed uneasy, and the strangeness of our grouping finally hit me in that moment. Rome and Yael were the least likely to break the girl-brother pact, at least when they were paired together. Yael was too competitive to share, and Rome was the easiest to rile into an argument. Especially an argument about me.
The others had somehow chosen this grouping with my discomfort firmly in mind, and that annoyed the hell out of me.
“Are you both going to sleep standing up?” I grumbled, propping myself up on my elbows. “Is this some kind of weird, true-god sleeping position? Does it keep your heads upright so that you can easily look down on everyone?”
“What got into her just now?” Rome asked Yael, turning his head to the side to talk to his brother, while his eyes stayed fixed on me. His posture was wary.
“No idea.” Yael’s voice was low, as though I might not hear him if he tricked me into thinking that the conversation was a private one. “It was very sudden. But mortal women are supposed to have mood swings. Did she not eat enough? Should I put some bread in her mouth before it gets worse?”
“Is that why you all have such good posture?” I pressed on, my voice getting louder—possibly to drown out Yael before he said anything else about what mortal women were like. “Because you sleep standing up like you might wrinkle your powerful reputation by laying down?”
“Too late.” Rome’s eyebrows shot up a little. “It got worse.”
“I think she’s nervous about sleeping with both of us.” Yael placed his hands on the end of the bed and bent down a little, his eyes catching mine. “Are you nervous, Willa-toy?”
I grabbed one of the pillows and tossed it at his face. “No, I’m not nervous. I’m …” Upset that I won’t be sleeping on top of anyone. “Hungry.”
“You just ate.” Yael was smirking now.
“You also just projected your thoughts,” Rome added dryly.
I grabbed the other pillow, but Yael shot forward and wrestled it off me, tossing it over the side of the bed and settling his weight onto me, his hands wrapping my wrists and pulling them up beside my head. The gesture was more playful than restraining, but my body didn’t really care, because his body was slowly sinking down into mine and I could feel the hardness of his stomach and chest crushing against me, as well as the nudge of his hips as I tried to fight free.
“Guess we’re sleeping without pillows tonight.” Rome’s gruff voice halted my efforts to struggle free for a click. “And she has nothing left to throw at us, so get the fuck off her, Persuasion.”
Yael’s smile flashed onto his face again, a dark gesture made even darker by the
narrowing of his eyes and the tightening of his grip.
“Sweet dreams, Willa-toy,” he muttered, rolling off me and settling at my side, one of his arms folded behind his head.
Rome had a stony look on his face. He sank down onto the bed after kicking his shoes off, claiming my other side. I glanced over at Yael’s feet as he also kicked his shoes over the side of the bed. He was leaving his shirt on, but Rome’s had already been stripped away, and I was starting to tense up, wondering if they were going to undress completely.
Wait—why the hell would they undress completely?
A warm palm landed on my thigh, stilling me. I’d been fidgeting, without even realising it.
“You need to sleep,” Yael told me, the gentle tone so unlike him that it gave me further pause. “And we need to feel you safe with us. Worry about the other stuff tomorrow.”
He squeezed my leg, and while I knew that it was to emphasise his words, I was struggling to find any moisture in my mouth. All I could think about was pulling my foot up along the bed to bend my knee, and whether it would force his hand to move further up my leg.
That was gravity.
Gravity couldn’t get in trouble for breaking the pact. Right?
“That was nice advice and everything,” Rome drawled, “but she’s not listening.”
“Will we restore the soul-link?” I squeaked out, trying to change the subject.
Rome rolled on to his side then, facing me. He propped his head up on one hand, staring down. He didn’t seem to be focussing on what Yael was doing, instead he reached over and slowly pulled the hem of his shirt down my body. It had ridden up a lot, and I was minus underwear, so I was about to flash my goods to the world. Again. Yael didn’t move his hand, though, so half of the shirt was back at knee level, but his half remained high on my thigh.
“We can restore the soul-link as soon as Cyrus comes back,” Rome told me, and I was briefly confused until I remembered that I’d asked the question.
I shook my head. “Is it possible to have the link returned between us six, but also keep it with the semanight stone? That way I can still have some distance … if needed.”
Yael’s hand clenched tighter around my thigh, and I started to worry that I was going to bruise.
“We’ll see,” was all he said.
I didn’t argue further. There was a time and place, and right now was neither. I was too distracted. I vaguely entertained the idea of burrowing under the blankets and pretending that they weren’t there.
Rome’s palm landed on my stomach, spanning right across it and causing me to jerk a little. “Go to sleep, Willa.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to find some equilibrium. I knew I was fidgeting again, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. Being back with my guys after so long apart had me desperate to wrap myself around them and never let go.
Heat flickered across my face, and I heard Rome mutter, “She’s going to set the room on fire again.”
Intention.
I needed to sort out my Chaos intentions before I destroyed Topia. The only problem was that I couldn’t think of what my intentions were. I just kept picturing the two Abcurses on either side of me, and wondering if they were going to take any more layers off.
“Shit.” Yael’s curse had my eyelids snapping open.
I scrambled up on the bed as my eyes flicked between the two of them. Over and over. Back and forth. Eventually, I got too dizzy to continue.
Rome and Yael were standing on either side of the bed now and I was standing on the mattress, right in the centre. I still only came to Rome’s height.
“You’re staring, Willa.” Rome lifted one eyebrow, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
I couldn’t breathe. It was getting really hot, and it wasn’t because of my little fire accident.
It was because of my … other little incident.
“You … you two need pants,” I finally choked out. My voice sounded a little high and strained.
“We had pants,” Yael drawled. “They disappeared.”
Fuck. Double, triple … a million fucks.
They weren’t even trying to cover themselves. They were just standing there casually, and I just continued to stare. I’d seen Aros once before: that image was burned into my memories. Now I had two more to add.
“You have no sun-lines.” What the hell is wrong with you, Willa?
Rome actually laughed. Out loud. “On Topia, clothing is a formality. Most gods don’t wear much under their robes.”
It was like I had been born to live there.
“I’m going back to bed,” I decided. This was too much for my dweller brain. It was going to short out.
“At least you didn’t use fire this time,” Yael said as I slid back under the covers. “You’re learning to control the Chaos.”
Rome muttered, “She could have burned something very important.”
I wanted to be grateful that I hadn’t set fire to anything very important, and that I seemed to have developed another Chaos trick: the instant nudity trick. Unfortunately, it was hard to think about all the things I was trying to be grateful about. I needed to keep thinking about my new trick so that I didn’t have the penis gallery in my head.
Just when my heart rate was almost back to normal, I felt them shifting around on either side of the bed. I had closed my eyes only half a click ago as an act of self-preservation, but now I cracked one of them open again. I had no idea where the clothing had come from, but Yael had a new pair of pants on, and he was tossing a second set over to Rome.
I quickly closed my eyes again and took a deep, shaky breath as they settled back to the bed, their bare arms pressing in against mine. At least they had pants on, and they had left just enough warm, golden skin for me to cuddle up to.
Just as soon as they fell asleep and I was able to do it undetected.
“Don’t even think about it.” The reprimand was a rough sound, vibrating through the half-bared body to my left. Rome. “You put your hands on me tonight and I’ll break the stupid pact and take every damn consequence they give me.”
My eyelids flew open again—both of them this time, and I blinked back up at the dome in the ceiling, my mind spinning too fast to form a reply. The fireplace was still emitting enough light to fill the room, and I wondered if anyone was going to put out the fire—surely three bodies in a bed together would heat up pretty quickly.
Yael released a heavy breath, shifting beside me, and I worked to quieten my mind, to pull a shutter over my thoughts and gain some privacy.
“What are the consequences?” I asked suddenly, because gaining control over my mind apparently meant losing control over my mouth.
“A broken face,” Rome stated plainly.
“Dick,” Yael amended. “A broken dick.”
“Yeah, more likely,” Rome agreed.
“What?” I continued to blink up at the dome in the ceiling, since it seemed like a perfectly safe place to direct my attention. “They would actually do that?”
“I would.” Yael sniffed, sounding almost insulted that I doubted their ability to fight over me. “That’s what matters. Strength would, too. Probably twice, just because he likes breaking things.”
Rome snorted, but it sounded like an agreement.
“Let me get this straight.” I struggled to keep myself from sitting up and looking at them both. “If someone breaks the rules—which, if I remember correctly, were nothing sexual—then they get their … ah …”
“Dick,” Yael supplied helpfully.
“Dick,” I repeated, shifting around uncomfortably. “Yeah. That. They get that broken.”
“That’s correct.” Rome let out a sigh. “Is this conversation going anywhere, or did you just want us to know that you have a problem with the word dick?”
“I didn’t want to break any pact rules by talking about body parts!” I defended myself, a little louder than was really necessary. “That’s too sexual.”
“Point,” Rome
groaned. “If there is one, you need to get to it.”
I immediately surged up from my spot and scrambled to the edge of the bed, right over Rome’s legs. I made a haphazard grab for the pillow on the floor, ready to throw it in his face much harder than I had thrown it the first time—but arms wrapped around my waist and tugged me back.
I landed hard against a bare chest, my hands captured again and bundled up together over my stomach as I tried to get my breath back. I was laying on top of Rome, facing the dome in the ceiling again, the back of my head against his chest and the heat of him burning up through the entire length of my body.
“I can’t sleep like this,” I croaked out. “I need my hands.”
“You don’t need your hands to sleep.” Rome’s voice was in my ear, lower and softer than it had been all night.
“Sorry, Willa-toy,” Yael’s face was suddenly looming above mine, his hand brushing over the side of my face. “But we’re really going to need you to sleep now.”
A quick flash of anger spread through me, but it was followed by an even quicker flash of exhaustion. It settled against my senses with a heavy intention, pulling darkness over my eyelids and piling weight into my limbs.
He was using Persuasion to knock me out.
What.
A.
Dic—
Twelve
The warmth woke me first. I was surrounded by it, as though I had fallen asleep in the bather and the warm water still licked against my skin. But … I wasn’t in water. My eyes flew open and I tensed. I was still sprawled across Rome’s bare chest. He had both arms wrapped around me, and at some point I must have turned so that my face was snuggled in between his shoulder and neck. The warmth was starting to make sense now, and the scent, because all I could smell was spice and god. Holy fires in hell. It was really hot in here now, and as sparks of Chaos lit up my chest, I fought against my urge to press myself tighter to him.
“I know you’re awake,” his deep voice rumbled all around me. He knew I was awake and hadn’t loosened his grip on me. That was a win.
I still had my nose pressed against his smooth skin. “Did you hold me all night?” Somehow, through no fault of my own, my hand was running up and down his side, gently tracing the hard planes of his body.