“I think there was something in my drink,” I groaned out. The pieces were finally slotting into place. “It was only water though. And god-lady wasn’t anywhere near it.”
Brina had still managed to screw with me, though. I jumped to my feet, swaying a few times as the walls spun. The moment I could walk without falling, I stormed off. Before the Abcurses or Jade could react, I was already halfway to the table of the gods. When I reached Brina, I skidded to a stop in front of her. She didn’t move, or even flinch. What? I wasn’t scary enough? I’d show her scary!
A half-smile then graced her stunning face as she tilted her head to the side.
“What did you do to me?” I demanded, both hands gripping the edge of the table. Mostly so that I didn’t fall over. Scary soon, I promised myself. For now, just stay upright.
“I gave you a little bit of charcoal powder,” she told me, that smile still in place.
“Oh. That doesn’t sound so bad.” For a moment there, I actually felt guilty for overreacting, but then the room spun again, and one of the glasses on the table right in front of me exploded. And then another.
Behind me, I heard a commotion as the glasses on the other tables began to explode, raining glass against my back. I could feel the little pieces pinging against my dress. I backed away from the table in front of me, shielding my face with my hands as the other gods all jumped to their feet.
“What the hell is charcoal powder?” I asked her, at the same time as Abil spoke.
“Cease, Rau!” His voice boomed, vibrating through the room, and drowning out my question.
If it had been silent before, it was an altogether new kind of silence now. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a single sol left inside the room who was daring to even breathe.
And then Rau started to laugh.
It was loud and long, and a sound that would surely haunt me until my dying moment. I could see his teeth as his mouth hung open, and his eyes had widened until his expression was painted in the kind of crazy that Emmy wore whenever another person scored higher than her on a test back in school.
“Alright, alright.” He held his hands up, displaying his palms. He was looking directly at me. And then … suddenly … everything was back to normal.
My vision wasn’t going haywire anymore. The glasses had stopped exploding, Abil’s distractingly perfect face stopped turning red, and Brina looked … disappointed. She was glancing from Rau, to me, and back again. She sat back down heavily, grabbing one of the goblets that hadn’t exploded—since it was made of some kind of metal—and took a massive drink of whatever was in there.
“Charcoal power would have revealed your sol-gift,” she announced, smacking the goblet back onto the table. “If you had possessed one.”
She thought I was some kind of secret sol? Wasn’t she supposed to be helping with Rau’s curse? What the hell was going—
“What the hell is going on?” Rome demanded, his voice a growl as he came up beside me, facing off with Brina—though his attention didn’t last on her for long before swinging to Rau. “What did you do to her?”
“I’ll tell you,” Rau answered, his high-pitched voice as grating on my nerves as ever. He spread his arms out, and with the gesture his smile spread even further. I could swear that the floors started vibrating. “I was giving the little dweller a taste of a real Original God.”
And then the room exploded into action.
I flinched back, but there was nowhere for me to go. I was suddenly surrounded on all sides by an Abcurse. My head was completely clear, but now every other sol in the room was acting the same way I had been. They were laughing and tripping over each other, shouting obscene things at each other. They were—shit—they were fighting already. One of them had picked up a plate of food and tossed it straight at Aedan. I wanted to pump my fist into the air and cheer, but that was hardly appropriate, so instead I attempted to push between Stone Boulder Number One and Stone Boulder Number Two—otherwise known as Rome and Yael. I didn’t succeed, though Rome did shift aside enough that I could come between them before his arm and Yael’s arm shot over my torso in a cross, preventing me from going any further.
The gods had been affected just the same as the sols, though Abil and the neutral silver-haired guy were on their feet, looking immune and pissed-off. Rau jumped over the table, his bulky form somehow managing the stunt in a nimble way, though his red robes knocked to the ground anything that hadn’t already been knocked to the ground. For a moment, I thought that he was coming for me, but he only grinned at me in a maniacal way and then passed by the six of us to walk directly through the middle of his Chaos toward the exit to the hall.
“Round two!” he announced, shouting the words over his shoulder.
Fourteen
Almost as soon as the word two was out of his mouth, something hard and cold shattered against the back of my head, and I watched dizzily as glass tumbled over my shoulders.
I temporarily blacked out, but as soon as the darkness had swept through my mind, it was drained out by Rome picking me up and tossing me over his shoulder. Somehow, with my head upside down, the looming threat of fainting dropped right out of me. I wearily lifted my body as the Abcurses started after Rau, my head coming up just in time to watch the gods at the table all moving quickly toward the entrance they had come through.
Abil was visibly controlling two of the gods that seemed to want to dive back into the Chaos.
“He’s gone,” I heard Siret growl. “And he’s sealed the door behind him.”
I watched as the last god—the silver-haired Neutral—closed the door behind their back entrance. It shifted before my eyes, merging into the wall. The handle disappeared, and I knew then … that second rounds were definitely worse than first rounds.
“Put me dow—”
“No.” Rome grunted the word more than spoke it, and his hand pulled up, landing a sharp smack right on my butt. “Be a good little curse and stay up there where you can’t hurt anyone.”
“Don’t you mean where I can’t get hurt?” I grumbled.
“Yeah. That too.”
“Should we do something about all of this?” I heard Yael ask.
We were in our own little group near the apparently-sealed entrance, and while I couldn’t see the Chaos happening in the centre of the room, I could hear it. I could hear people shouting at each other. I could hear things breaking, tearing and shattering.
“It could drain us completely,” Coen answered. “Rau is fresh out of Topia. Overpowering his magic won’t be possible with how depleted we are right now.”
“Why don’t you put the dweller down and we can talk?” That had been Aros’s voice … but there was something in the way he said it that gave me pause. And it seemed as though I wasn’t the only one who noticed the change in his tone.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rome snapped, pulling me off his shoulder and setting my feet against the ground.
I had barely gained my feet before he was nudging me behind his back. Blocking me from … his brothers? Aros, Coen, Siret, and Yael were all standing together, facing Rome. They looked furious.
“Wait—” I tried to push past Rome, but he shot his arm out. “You’re being affected!” I told them, stepping back from Rome’s arm, keeping my eyes on the others. “You’re all being affected by Rau’s Chaos right now. Just cut it out and we’ll be fine.”
“Cut it out?” Rome was spinning now, and they were all facing me.
Wait, shit. They were all turning their Chaos-addled tempers on me. Why wasn’t I also being affected? I backed up several steps, until I felt a wall at my back. Right where the entrance door should have been. One by one, they each donned a look of heavy suspicion, like I was the one acting weird instead of them.
“Yes, cut it out! You need to snap out of it before you go all angry-gods on each other and we fail the second round. What if there’s a third round? Shit. What if there’s a fourth round?” I was almost hissing the words.
I might have been starting to panic.
I did not want to be the only person in a room full of Chaos-puppets. Hell no. I did not sign up for that. Not that there was anything I did sign up for … other than the whole being-sent-to-Blesswood thing. I signed up for that by way of an elaborate ruse to graduate school. And if I signed up for that … I supposed by association I had also signed up for the Abcurse brothers, which meant that I had also signed up for a whole world of god-related chaos that would make me wish I’d lost the ability to sign up for things a long, long time ago.
“You need to calm down, Willa,” Coen said to me, that suspicious look still on his face. He was talking to me as though he thought I was about to explode.
That might have been because I was about to explode—but that was his fault! It was their fault! I had no idea how to deal with five Chaos-drugged beings with the strength and power of the Abcurses. I was not a match for even one of them, let alone all of them.
“You need to not tell her what to do,” Yael snarled at Coen, suddenly turning his attention from me to his brother.
“Yeah!” I started to turn on Coen too, before shaking my head and backing off. “I mean no. Well yeah, you do need to not tell me what to do. But we can talk about that late—”
“You need to back off,” Coen snarled at Yael, ignoring me completely. His hands crashing into Yael’s chest, sending him stumbling back several steps. “I saw her first.”
“Actually,” Siret interrupted, his voice a low growl. “I saw her first.”
“Actually!” I raised my voice above all of them, trying to get their attention. “There was a healer back in the seventh ring who definitely saw me first, although I’m pretty sure she regrets helping my mother give birth to me. Or if she didn’t before, she will once she hears about all the great work I’ve been doing in Blesswood.”
They could hear each other just fine, but they didn’t seem to want to listen to me, which made me mad all over again. The five of them were closing in on each other, pushing and growling and arguing over who had seen me first, which was a ridiculous thing to argue over. I knew the moment the real fighting began to break out, because I could hear the thud of a punch being thrown—specifically, Aros’s punch—into Coen’s face. I couldn’t jump into the middle of them, so I started running back toward the tables, thinking that I could maybe find a jug of water that hadn’t been smashed over someone’s head already. My brilliant plan was to throw some water on the Abcurses, and if that didn’t work … I could start hitting them with the empty jug.
My brilliant plan did not take into account all of the other people.
I had barely even reached the closest table before arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling my feet off the ground.
“Be nice and quiet now, and I won’t need to involve anyone else. We can settle this just between you and me.” I didn’t recognise the voice. It was low and soft, but somehow still dangerous.
“Um …” I twisted around, catching a flash of ice-blue eyes and light-blond hair before he jostled me in his arms, forcing me to face forward again.
“That was a stupid ultimatum,” I told him, trying to remain calm. “I want to involve other people.”
“No you don’t, Willa. Rau is waiting for you, and the Abcurses are in no shape to fight him right now. Look at them … his Chaos shouldn’t be affecting them this much, but they’ve allowed themselves to weaken too much. They’re only a small step above sols right now. You’ll be hurting them if you drag them into this.”
I stared down at the arms wrapped around my waist, and then I lifted my head to my guys. It was so much worse than it had been only half a click ago. They seemed to have separated into the triplets against the twins, and the triplets were starting to gain the upper hand. It seemed that not even Rome’s strength was a match for an extra Abcurse. But they were only fighting with their fists at this stage. I needed to find a way to stop them before they started fighting with their powers. They would destroy each other.
And then heal.
And then start again.
“Fine.” I tried pressing against the arm holding me up. “I’ll walk out there myself. You can stop hugging me now. I’m not the hugging type.”
“Too bad,” he grunted. He pulled me up a little higher, and then he was striding toward the door the gods had disappeared out of.
The door unsealed itself at his approach, and before I could even blink we were on the other side and Rau was in my face. Literally. Blond-guy hadn’t put me down yet, so I seemed to have gained a few inches in height, and Rau standing directly in front of me put us on the same level. I could actually see the little tendrils of darkness threading through the pupils of his eyes. He was that close. And then he was touching my face.
So not cool.
I jerked away from his hand, and he smiled his signature creepy smile before backing up a few steps. “I’m not going to hurt you, Willa.” He seemed to be considering me. Examining me. “You don’t need to be afraid of me. I’d like it if we could be …” He seemed to consider his next word, and when it came out of his mouth, his smile had gained a whole new level of creepiness. “Friends.”
“Yeah, no.” I shook my head as much as I could while still trying to basically assimilate myself into the guy behind me so that I wouldn’t be as close to Rau as I was. “Firstly, I’m not afraid of you. I just like hugging Blondie here.” I heard the snort from behind, but thankfully he didn’t counter by pointing out that not five clicks earlier I had professed to dislike hugs as a whole. “I’m a hugger now. It’s my new thing. Only sols though. I don’t hug gods. And I’m not friends with gods either.” I stopped short of saying the Abcurses don’t count, because they’re pretending to be sols, because I didn’t want the sol behind me to find out that piece of information.
But … he already knew, didn’t he? He had alluded to it after he had grabbed me.
Which meant that …
“Silly girl.” Rau was laughing again. I was starting to think that he was always laughing. He didn’t even need to say things to scare people: all he had to do was laugh that creepy laugh. “That ‘sol’ you’re hugging is the god Razi. He’s the Envy Beta. And I will point out, he doesn’t like it when people show favouritism.”
“Well if it makes him feel any better, I like him much better than you, which is favouritism in his direction. Sounds like something an Envy Beta could get behind, am I right?” I tried to shift my head to Blondie, but he only tightened his arms, keeping me facing Rau—who was now losing the creepy smile in favour of a creepy scowl.
Somehow I found myself in a stare-off with Chaos personified. My breath caught in my chest as he continued to hold my eyes captive. I wanted to blink, to tear my gaze away, but I couldn’t. The only other thing which seemed to take even a sliver of my notice, outside of god-of-the-creeps, was an uncomfortable sensation low in my stomach. At first I thought it was simply the tight band of muscles holding me prisoner, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t because of Razi, as the sensation was only increasing. Soon, it was all I could focus on, and with that I was finally able to tear my gaze away from Rau.
I glanced down, as far as I could, expecting to see a dozen or so knives protruding from my abdomen, but there was nothing there. Just golden arms. No evidence of what was ripping me apart.
“It has started,” Rau said, turning away. His cloak swished behind him as he added. “Bring her, we need to be in Topia.”
“No!” My scream took even me by surprise. As soon as they had started to move, the pain in my gut was almost superseded by the pain in my chest. I was leaving the Abcurses. Leaving them while they were trying to beat each other to death. I couldn’t go, I had to help them. Instinct was telling me that I was the only one who could.
I kicked out, struggling with all of my strength. Which was nothing compared to the strength of a god. Still, I had to try. The pain between my chest and stomach was starting to merge, spreading across my entire abdomen, filling me wit
h a hot energy that felt like it was melting my insides. I barely noticed as glass started to shatter around me, windows and sconces exploding as Rau moved through the hall. What the hell? Why was he still causing so much chaos? He had what he wanted, which was apparently some one-on-one time with me in Topia.
“I don’t want to be a Jeffrey,” I found myself sobbing, even though I hadn’t been actively thinking that.
“Will this kill her?” Razi sounded uncertain now.
I could feel his grip relax a little, although his strides remained strong and sure. He was about two feet behind Rau, keeping pace with the Original God. Rau didn’t bother to stop, or turn, he just replied casually over his shoulder. “This will not kill her. This is a metamorphosis.”
A meta-what-the-hellosis? Seriously, if I wanted to think and hear big words, I would have just hung around Emmy for a few rotations.
“You know they will come after her,” the Envy Beta added, almost as an afterthought. “I’ve never seen them act that way before, and … no one knows what they are capable of.”
Now this was more like the sort of conversation I was interested in having. Learning about the Abcurses was a slow, almost painful process. They were not hugely forthcoming with information, and I tended to live in the moment, not really looking forward or backwards. I loved the status quo we had established, minus the pact and their need to beat the shit out of each other. I didn’t want to upset an already volatile dynamic by prying into their lives on Topia. Although … if someone happened to be casually talking about them in front of me. Well … what’s a girl to do but listen?
“I do not fear them, they are not more powerful than the Originals.” Rau sounded confident, but the tone of his voice changed just enough to indicate that it might have been a bit of an act. The Abcurses were like no other, and it clearly worried the gods.
Persuasion (Curse of the Gods Book 2) Page 19
