“Don’t you move, Will. Don’t move a freaking muscle or I will kill you. Drawing the attention of any sol is a bad thing; drawing the attention of those five sounds like it’ll be catastrophic.”
She had a point, but I was a pro at catastrophic. With that in mind, I took a deep breath and stepped off the wall.
Four
No one noticed.
No one!
Where was my clumsy curse when I needed to make a scene? I had no idea what to do short of stripping off my own clothes and running naked through the gaps in the tables. But how could that help the shaking recruits out there? Just as my hands went to my shirt, fists clenching the sides, another short, tinkling bell rang out, and the scent of food drifted in through a set of now-open doors.
Siret waved a hand then, and the room shifted. I blinked twice to make sure I was seeing things clearly.How in the hell?All of the recruits were back against the wall, fully dressed. It was as if none of the last few clicks had even happened. My mouth was open, like right open. A damn flying mantis could have walked right in there with no problem.
“He tricked us,” I muttered, managing to speak around my shock. As if he had heard my words, Siret shifted his body in my direction, and those shimmery golden-green eyes slammed against me. Hard.
Nowsomeone noticed me?
I was grabbed from behind; either Emmy or Atti yanked me back against the wall, probably trying to save my life. If Siret or his brothers retaliated to my tiny attempt at making a stand against dweller-abuse … well, it would probably be the second time this sun-cycle those bullsen balls would try to kill me. How many times would it take for them to succeed?
A line of resident dwellers brought forth the sols’ dinner, looking completely oblivious and unaffected. I braved a glance from under my lashes, and managed to breathe deeply when there were no jewel-like eyes staring in my direction. Like most men, the Abcurse demons had one true love.
Food.
Emmy kept two eyes on me for the rest of the dining time. No other humiliation was dished out for the dwellers, if you discounted the normal shitty way they were treated. Trays thrown at them when the sols were done eating, barked orders for more drinks and food, mutterings about dirt-dwellers and their ineptitude at all things.All things.
The recruits were supposed to observe this first dinner, learning everything it was possible to learn before being expected to dive right in for the next dinner. Thankfully, there were plenty of other resident dwellers who stood with me and Emmy, waiting for a summons. Not all of them had active duties in here, so we didn’t stand out.
Right up until I heard a shout.
“Hey, Rocks, we’re going to need some help over here!”
I froze, before slowly defrosting enough to face Emmy.
“What should I do? If I ignore them will they come over here and kill me?” I was whispering frantically under my breath, trying to make myself as small as possible against the wall.
“Are they talking to you?” Atti asked, his voice going a bit high-pitched at the end. “What is ‘rocks?’ Why are they singling you out?”
Great freaking question. What the hell did they want with me?Come on, gods, this just isn’t funny anymore.
“Are you deaf, Rocks?”
I let out a little shriek, before plunging forward and head-butting the hard chest of a sol that had appeared to stand before me.
I hit him with a solid thud, but his body didn’t even shift an inch. I, on the other hand, was shot back against the wall where I crumbled like a bag of … you guessed it …rocks. Looking up through messy hair, I knew I was staring at one of the Abcurse brothers, but not one I had seen before. He was golden. There was no other way to describe him. Rich, golden hair, the colour of the sun as it crests the sky in the early morning. His skin was also sun-kissed, his eyes like newly-cut topazes, the yellow jewel which was mined in the fourth ring. He was prettier than his brothers. Like really freaking gorgeous. No shiny sol would ever compare to this one; and that made me very wary.
He grinned at me, displaying his perfect white teeth, and there were suddenly all these warm feelings around my heart. Like happiness had sprouted throughout my body and was spreading like a weed.
He offered me his hand, and I knew from the gasps along the line of resident-dwellers that he was paying far more attention to me than a sol normally did to a dweller. Ignoring it—sure it was a trap—I pulled myself up and pressed back against the wall. The sol reached out then, dropping one of his hands against the wall. “No need to throw yourself at me, sweetheart.” His low, lilting words drifted into my ear. “If you ask nicely, I’m sure we could sort something out … Why don’t you give it a try? My name is Aros … go ahead, sayplease, Aros—”
Before I could stutter out some asinine reply, a voice cut across the room. “Hey, Seduction, get your ass back over here! We don’t need Rocks anymore.”
Siret dismissed me as the rest of the sols laughed like it was the funniest thing any Minatsol inhabitant had ever said. Aros drew back, his smile dimming to a half-smirk. “Guess I’ll see you around, dweller.”
Then he was gone, taking all his warmth and energy with him. I sagged against the wall, chest heaving in and out as I fought for air. Atti turned sympathetic eyes on me, his brow creased as he dropped a hand briefly on my shoulder. “I’m really sorry, Willa. Those five are trouble and any dweller who catches their eye hasn’t lasted very long in Blesswood. As soon as they turn their attention to one of us, they make it their mission to destroy …” He trailed off, seeing the look of horror on my face, and then tried for something a little more supportive. “If you can manage it, stay as far from them as you can. Don’t let them see you, and they’ll eventually get bored and turn their attention to someone else.”
I didn’t reply. I was still trying to catch my breath. His advice was great, someone just needed to tell my clumsy curse and the gods, because they clearly weren’t done amusing themselves with my misfortunes yet. Emmy remained quiet, choosing not to mention the encounter as we dragged ourselves back to our dingy little dweller cave. She was trying to be considerate, because she knew me well enough to know that I definitely didn’t want to analyse what had happened. She asked me once if I was okay, and I grunted out a reply. That was the extent of our conversation for the night, and I quickly fell onto the second bed in her room, even though I was pretty sure there was a room in the male dweller section withWill Knightwritten above the door. I pulled the blankets over my head, screwed my eyes closed, and forbade the Abcurse brothers from haunting me until sunrise.
The next morning, all dweller recruits were up with the sound of bells, indicating first light—which of course we couldn’t see from our concrete tomb.
