“You hit me,” he said, without inflection. “I have not been struck for more life-cycles than I can remember.”
“I’m special,” I declared sarcastically. I actually was special, but not in a kick-the-gods-asses kind of way. More in the dropped-on-my-head-at-birth kind of way.
Cyrus lurched toward me so suddenly that I shrieked, attempting to leap back, but he already had his arms around me.
“You can’t be allowed to leave, dweller. I’m sorry.”
“You can’t take me to Rau,” I countered. “He wants to use me for something. Something which might destroy all the gods and Minatsol.”
I had already been warned of what would happen if there was a Beta of Chaos. Too much Chaos would result in the deaths of dwellers, sols, and gods alike. I knew I couldn’t be the actual Chaos Beta—that was impossible, I wasn’t even a sol. Even so, there was a chance he could still somehow tap into the curse within me and use it for some reason. That had to be why he wanted me. Why he wanted to tie us together. I couldn’t let that happen.
Before the Neutral god could answer, heat caressed my back, and I felt Rome and Coen’s hands on me. I was starting to recognise the five different energies of my guys. Rome’s was the coldest—hard and unyielding, the sheer strength of it scared me. Coen’s was sharp and biting, more intrusive—but the tingle of his power was enough to bring my blood to boil and turn my body on in ways I didn’t know were possible.
“She’s ours. Give her back to us.” Rome was the one stepping up now, and I had not expected that from him. He was the most reticent; the one I felt resented our connection more than the others.
When my wide eyes met his, he didn’t smile, but something softened there. He turned away to growl at Cyrus. “We want this soul-link.”
Those words were for me too; I knew it, and everything inside of me clenched and twisted and heated. I could feel Cyrus shifting. Pulling me higher up his body and further away from the others. I wasn’t even sure why, exactly, he was restraining me.
“I’ll make you five a deal,” he said over my head.
“Six,” I interrupted. “There are six of us here wanting to make a deal.”
“Hush, bargaining tool.” His shook me a little bit, and then went straight back to deal-making over my head. “If you steal something of mine back from Rau, I’ll bind her to the five of you again.”
“Deal,” Siret snapped, walking around the others and grabbing my arm.
He pulled hard enough to wrench me from Cyrus, and then he deposited me behind him, where several sets of hands pulled me even further back. Cyrus seemed to be watching all of us with a small smile on his face, which looked highly disturbing and sent a chill down my spine.
“What are we stealing back?” Yael questioned. He was on my left side, and Aros was on my right. Both had a grip on my arms, and I knew that I wasn’t getting free anytime soon.
“Not a what,” he admitted, managing to sound both sheepish and smug at the same time. “More like a who.”
“Okay …” Yael dragged out the word, clearly suspicious of Cyrus’s motives. “Who then?”
“My server. Steve.”
I blinked, and tried to contain my laughter, but it seemed as though I was the only one who found it funny. The others were all staring at Cyrus with sudden understanding on their faces. Coen and Rome exchanged a look, while Aros’s grip on me relaxed a little bit. Yael’s grip remained tight.
“I thought the gods didn’t care about their servers and that’s why there’s a whole damn cave of them outside this super-secret hideout of yours,” I said.
“Rau stole her, and she holds a lot of valuable information in her head.” Cyrus scowled, directing the look at me until I almost wanted to flinch back. “I don’t want him getting his hands on that information.”
“I almost thought you had a heart just then,” I grumbled. “Thanks for clearing up the misunderstanding.”
“That’s my job, doll. I clear up miscommunications. Miscommunications like you.”
“That’s enough,” Yael snarled, releasing my arm and taking a step forward.
Rome dropped a hand onto his shoulder, and both of them paused, staring at Cyrus, before Aros spoke through a deep breath.
“You might want to clarify what that meant, Neutral.”
“She’s a blip.” He switched his attention from one Abcurse to another, before settling his eyes back on me. “You haven’t figured it out yet, Willa Knight? You’re a mistake. Your very existence is an error. You’re not a dweller. There’s hidden power in you. But you’re not a sol, either, because you can’t access that power. You’re just … a miscommunication between races.”
“That’s fucked up.” Coen jerked forward, as though he might hit the Neutral god, but Cyrus held up a hand to stop him. It was probably the calm of the movement that had an effect. He didn’t look as though he was going to fight back.
Coen paused, on the edge of movement. “How do you know that?” he finally demanded.
“We all know it,” Cyrus replied dryly. “You five have been inside her mind just as I’ve been inside her mind. I’m not the only one who knows it.”
I could tell that a fight was going to break out, so I quickly spoke before anyone else could. “Do you know … what I am?” I asked hesitantly. “I mean, other than a mistake and stuff. Do you know specifically what I am?”
“No.” Cyrus shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. I caught a glimpse of the blood that marked his temple before he moved to one of the white couches and fell into it. “I just told you everything I know. Maybe your father was a sol. It has been known to happen, the sols and the dwellers coming together. It’s rare—and illegal, if I’m correct. Those sols change their damn laws every fifty or so life-cycles and it’s too tiring to keep up with them all, but, it has happened. Their offspring, for the most part, are considered dwellers. Maybe all of this time they’ve been mistaken.”
“I have no idea who my father was,” I heard myself saying. It seemed like a strangely intimate thing to be admitting. Even in front of the Abcurses, let alone Cyrus. “But I guess that doesn’t matter right now. We’ll steal back Steve. Right, guys?”
I glanced at the others, catching several sharp nods. Coen didn’t seem to agree. He had narrowed his eyes on Cyrus, the gem-green colour flashing darkly.
“She needs to be linked to us again,” he demanded. “Now. Before we leave. Not after.”
I expected Cyrus to argue, but he only motioned me over to the couch. I brushed past Aros, approaching the Neutral god and sitting down beside him. For some reason, that made his lips twitch in an almost-smile. He reached out, his hand landing on my shoulder, slipping closer to my neck. Somewhere behind me, I heard a sound. It was almost a growl. That made Cyrus’s lips twitch again.
He closed his eyes, his fingers tightened, and his power ripped through me. I cried out, my body arching up off the couch as agony spread through me with vicious speed. I knew, now, that my soul wasn’t actually separating into six different pieces, but that was exactly what it felt like. It felt like Cyrus had pushed his way inside my body and was now carefully and meticulously tearing it up from the inside out.
“Promise me,” I heard a voice grind out. Cyrus. “Promise you will collect my server and bring her back to the entrance of the cave.”
I opened my mouth to try, but the only sound that came out was a pained moan. I was falling back, my body going limp, but Cyrus’s grip only tightened, holding my body upright, forcing me to stay.
“Promise,” he demanded.
“I promise,” I croaked.
He released me, then, and I collapsed off the side of the couch. Hands scooped me up, and I curled myself around the warm body. It smelled like Aros. Like sunshine. Like heat. I shuddered, trying to press closer, trying to sooth the aftermath of pain that rocked through me.
“What the hell was that?” I heard Yael storm past us. He was almost shouting.
I wasn’t sure wh
at the big deal was—we had all wanted the link to be re-formed.
“That was a god’s oath,” Cyrus sighed out. “But I think you know that already. If she disobeys, she dies. I can’t kill the five of you, but she is protected by none. She is your weak link. Bring me back the server, and you will be allowed to return to Minatsol.”
“You’re wrong,” Yael said without an ounce of inflection, just this twisted, dead voice. “She is protected by us, and I don’t care what the consequences are, if you hurt her, if she receives so much as a single scratch—” My gulp cut him off, and with a twitch of his lips, he clarified, “A scratch which is somehow connected to you, then Staviti is going to need to create a new Neutral.”
Cyrus took that very unveiled threat with grace, simply nodding like he expected no less from them, and then with a flick of his hand, a gust of wind knocked into us. I swung my arm out, pushing his lamp over again, and I would swear I heard a burst of deep laughter before everything went up in a swirl of white wind. Actually, more than wind, much more in fact. It was like we were swept up in something cyclonic—it swirled and tore through us, lifting our feet from the ground, and then in almost the same click, we were back in Topia.
I practically jumped and shrieked for joy to see the five Abcurses around me, to feel the straining in my chest as our soul-link tried to force us together.
“We missed you too, Rocks.” Siret ruffled my hair, which no doubt would be so tangled that the only way to save it would be to shave it off by this point. Glancing down, I confirmed my thoughts: I was a mess. The green dress was torn and covered in so much blood and dirt it was barely recognisable. I’d be lucky to be able to salvage a small section to treasure. To place next to the purple scrap of Siret’s original piece.
“You gods are hell on a girl’s wardrobe,” I mused, trying to rub a huge streak of mud off my right sleeve.
Siret, who was still the closest, laughed out loud. “Well, considering I gave you most of that wardrobe out of the goodness of my own heart—”
“Is that why you’ve been making her clothes so tight?” Yael interrupted. “Just out of the goodness of your own heart?”
I intervened before Siret could reply. “More importantly: don’t we have a server to find? And is there any way we can retrieve Steve without encountering Rau?”
The twins stepped to the forefront then, shoulder to shoulder, acting like a wall to block the rest of the world out. Coen was the first to speak. “We definitely do not have a server to find. You are going to stay right here, far from Rau, under the protection of Seduction, Trickery, and Persuasion. We,” he gestured to himself and Rome, “will be finding Steve and bringing her back.”
I held his stare. Just like with Cyrus, these five did not scare me. Most of the time.
“We’re sticking together. Something bad always happens when we get separated.” I had my hands on my hips, which couldn’t be helped. The Abcurses were even more stubborn than me, so I had to visibly stand my ground.
Both of the twins opened their mouths to argue with me, but before they could, Yael stepped into my back, distracting us all. In my usual style of neediness, I found myself leaning back into him. His arm swept around my front, which was not his usual style, and he held me close. “We just went too many rotations not knowing if Willa was hurt or dead, I would also prefer it if none of our family split up. Not while we still have no idea what the hell Rau is up to, where the hell Staviti is, or whether D.O.D. is meddling behind the scenes here.”
“We can trust no one else right now,” Aros added.
The twins were silent for a click, and I fully expected them to be firm on their previous plan, so when Rome let out a deep breath and nodded his head, I almost fell over. I actually would have fallen over if Yael hadn’t had me anchored to his front, his strong arm still banding across me.
He released me, and the five gods moved into a line formation. I ended up in the centre between Yael and Aros. “This is the new plan, and I will not shift on it.” Coen was all business now. “We’ll take a stealth route to Rau’s main platform, Strength and Seduction will stay with Willa on the edge, the three of you keeping watch. The rest of us will retrieve Steve. Persuasion and Trickery could come in handy if we need a clean escape.”
I snorted, and he flashed those gorgeous eyes at me.
I shrugged. “That’s pretty much the same plan from before, you’ve just got me waiting on the sidelines a little closer.”
He winked at me then as a grin rippled across his face, and it was such an unexpected and cheeky gesture that I almost fell over my own feet. Before I could recover my equilibrium, I was being half carried by the two gods next to me, and we were running. Fast. Or they were running, and I was just kind of brushing the ground every few steps to make sure that it was still there. I had to close my eyes multiple times as the five jumped, ducked, and dived across the landscape of Topia. It was very natural: lots of trees, rock formations, curling vines, and blooming flowers. We dodged waterfalls, trickling brooks and raging torrents. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife, but I sensed that it was out there. Hiding. No doubt that Bestiary god had created all sorts of things.
Just as I had that thought, Siret let out a piercing whistle. With a jerk, I swung my head in his direction, wondering what he was whistling at.
He caught my eye. “Normally we’d just use our energy to form a doorway to Rau’s place, but he would know we were there if we did that, so this is the next quickest way to get there.”
Before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about, a flapping of wings could be heard beyond a pocket of dense rainforest to our right. I actually gasped out loud in a few choked breaths as five animals appeared on the horizon, their large, powerful wings flapping above their sleek bodies.
“What … where ...” I was a stuttering mess while my brain tried to figure out what I was seeing.
“These are the panteras; ancient beasts of flight.” Aros was practically glowing as he watched them.
I focussed closer on them, finding myself taking a few steps forward. They were definitely huge beasts, shaped almost like a sleek version of the bullsen. They were massive, with short, shimmering black fur—longer along their spine and at the base of their four legs. A flat, broad nose rested beneath large and intelligently gleaming eyes. Their wings carried them across Topia, before they silently dropped to land a few yards from us.
I felt the joy radiating from the Abcurses. They knew these animals. They liked them. I fell back a little as they crossed toward them, the guys moving slowly. Respectfully. When we were a few feet away, all of them inclined their heads slightly. With a start, I realised I was the only one not bowing, so I quickly lowered my head.
The five black beasts shuffled and snorted, before they took the final steps to bridge the gap between us. Coen and Rome reached for the two largest, their hands resting against the flat planes above each of the panteras’ eyes. “I’ve missed you, old friend,” I heard Rome murmur, his head pressed close to the beast’s furred face.
All of the Abcurses seemed to have a particular favourite, and as I watched, my cheek muscles ached a little. I realised I was grinning broadly—far too broadly for someone who had just been kidnapped, beat up, internally ripped to pieces a few times, and was probably going to die because Rau would find us when we tried to return Steve to that silver haired Neutral. But seeing the Abcurses as they celebrated being with those amazing animals. Seeing the bond between them all … it was pretty special.
Before I could embarrass us all by jumping up and down or sobbing my eyes out, Aros was turning and holding out a hand to me. I wasted no time in hurrying to his side, the throbbing ache of the soul-link lessening as I got closer.
“You can ride with me, if that’s okay with you.” His glow was almost blinding; being in Topia or with the panteras was strengthening his energy. “You’ll need to meet Jara first though. She needs to be acquainted with you before you can ride her.”
Jara nudge
d my side; she was waiting for me. My hand shook as I lifted it toward her, but I wasn’t afraid of the beautiful creature, even though she stood so many inches above my head.
“Hello, pretty one,” I crooned. “You’re amazing, you know that?” I was leaning in close to the warmth of the creature, my face against her fur as I murmured meaningless words over and over. I knew emotions were swimming in my eyes when I lifted them to Aros, I could feel those same emotions in my chest and throat. “I’ve been in the presence of so many gods lately, but these … they’re something so much more.”
He nodded, pressing into my free side, his other hand also running across Jara’s face. “They aren’t born of gods, nor of Staviti. They were on this world before the first god and they’ll be here long after we’re all gone.”
My hand stilled as I stared unblinking at him. “They’re the original inhabitants of Topia?”
“One of them,” Aros confirmed.
Siret chimed in then from where he stood close by. “They’re secretive, powerful, and generally hate the gods. Through a series of lucky events we made friends with this small pod, but most of them keep to themselves in the western lands. No gods tread there for fear of death.”
I wiped my hand across my mouth, trying to understand what they were saying. “How do sols not know about them?” I couldn’t understand why there was no reference to the panteras, to the fact that they predated Staviti on Topia.
Because we do not want them to know of us.
The low rumble of a voice drifted through my head, and I panicked briefly before I realised it had come from one of the creatures close to me.
“You talked in my head,” I said stupidly, before I swung my head around to Siret. “They can talk in my head?”
He nodded. “They can do that and so much more.” Before I could ask what the more was, his pantera lowered to its front knees, and he climbed on.
Jara did the same before us, and my panic set in again. I was totally going to die.
Persuasion (Curse of the Gods Book 2) Page 24