As I shifted slightly, I realised that I needed a bathroom break.Immediately. My bladder was at the bursting point. I wiggled around to get my hands on the rough ground—my head was pillowed on a shirt, which thankfully was not mine. I still wore Aros’ shirt, and it was now dry and toasty warm. Realising there was not enough space on either side of me to get up without using Siret for leverage, I attempted to use my stomach muscles to pull myself up. Of course, I didn’t really have any stomach muscles, so all I managed to do was flap around like an idiot.
A heavy arm draped across me and I almost peed myself.Come on, gods. This is so not funny.A flash of light from outside drew my attention and before I could say anything, the three sols around me were up on their feet and standing in front of me. I understood why the moment the red robes came into view.
Rau stood there, no expression on his face, just the tiniest of fires burning in his eyes. “I will have my Beta,” was all he said, and as Aros, Yael, and Siret started for him, he shot out a blast of energy that materialised in front of him as a sphere of loosely-held smoke. It rose above us all, circling around the top of the cave, lit from within the sphere by some kind of milky, glowing light. My eyes took a while to adjust to the glare, and even though I was terrified, I stumbled forward in the hope that I could help the Abcurses if they were in trouble. This glow couldn’t kill them, right? What was it even doing? Their huge shadows were all I had to aim for, so I headed toward the one shaped like Siret, since he was the closest.
The intensity of the glow shot up again, and I was worried that my current blindness was moments from becoming permanent. I continued pushing my way forward, hoping that I wasn’t about to stumble into the fire.
There was a roar in the direction of the doorway, and this one I recognised as Rome. The giant sol was not happy, and I would not like to be in his way when he lost it. I kind of hoped that Rau got crushed. Deciding I needed to get to Siret sooner, I started to sprint, which of course had my feet tripping up against some of the spare firewood, propelling my body forward and sending me flying into the darkness. Because of the momentum I had built up sprinting to get to Siret, I managed to launch impressively high into the air, my body sailing across the cave, the glare of light becoming so intense that even with my eyes squeezed tightly closed, I was still blinded. My mind reacted by trying to repel the force, shutting down all of my senses. I had only half a click to see Siret’s horrified face. He was reaching for me, but it was too late.
A surge of something hot pierced my heart, branding me painfully as my breath was cut off. I tried to choke back some air as I began losing height, plummeting toward the ground, but there was no air to be had. I prepared myself for impact; I should have hit the ground long ago, but for some reason my fall continued on.
Why couldn’t I breathe?And why did my chest feel like something had sliced it in two, and now a hot branding iron was slowly burning a path through my heart? Had I been hit with a god-bolt or something? Was there such a thing as a god-bolt?
“Willa!”
Someone was shouting my name, but it scarcely registered as I continued to slowly die, or whatever was happening to me. When my body finally hit the ground, I was barely conscious enough to even feel the impact. It didn’t even feel that rocky, and it smelled good. Like summer sun-cycles.
Aros …
Well, at least if I was going to die, I was going to do it in the arms of a golden sol. With that thought, my heart stuttered one last time and then everything went dark.
Shouting was the first thing my subconscious registered. “How did Rau even make it past you two?” Yael was angrier than I had ever heard before, his voice thundering around the room.
I was afraid to open my eyes and bring attention to myself.What happened?Had I fallen asleep again? Why did my chest ache andcrap …Rau had been there! And a weird, glowing smoke-ball. The Abcurses had been about to fight him, and I had … tripped? Fallen? Did Ifly?
My eyes snapped open and I was up on my feet in an instant. Everything spun around me but that didn’t stop me from scanning my surroundings, my heart rate only settling when I realised there were five sols standing in a wall of muscle across the front of the cave. Rau had not hurt any of them.Safe.My Abcurses were safe. I mean—someone else’s Abcurses. Their mother’s Abcurses.
They all had their backs to me, forming a line of defence between me and the outside world. Aros, Yael, and Coen were shirtless now, and I realised I had been laid across the soft surface of their clothing. Looking down at myself, I blinked a few times as I tried to remember what had happened after I had tripped over the firewood.
My hand dropped to rest against my chest, right above my heart. The pain had been excruciating, I wasn’t surprised that my mind had blocked it out. Right then, as the memories crashed back into me, my stomach heaved and I leaned over to dispel whatever small amounts of food had been left in my body. Thankfully it had been awhile between meals, so there wasn’t much for me to lose.
I felt the five Abcurses as they moved toward me …what the crap?I literally could feel them. In my chest, their energy moved closer and I had no idea how that was possible. As soon as they were around me, the pain stopped. One moment I was suffering, and the next, I was standing confusedly, feeling completely normal.
“Rocks?” Siret’s hand was on the back of my neck, turning me around to face him. “You okay?”
He was holding out one of the shirts from the ground and a hollowed-out rock filled with water. I didn’t ask about the rock. It held the perfect imprint of a pair of knuckles. So I wasn’t getting into a fight with Rome anytime soon.
“Thanks,” I muttered, taking the rock and the shirt.
I wasn’t sure what the shirt was for, but I made good use of the water to wash out my mouth, before walking past them to the entrance of the cave. I needed fresh air. I needed to see that the world was still whole and beautiful, and not burning to the ground in a fit of godly rage. I took a few steps and then stopped as a small thrum of pain fissured through my chest. I frowned, dropping the shirt and curling all of my fingers around the rock, as though I needed something to brace myself with. I took another step, and it happened again. I sucked in a deep breath and shook my head, hurrying to the mouth of the cave. The pain grew worse, and then it suddenly disappeared. Aros was at my side.
“Do you feel any different?” he asked me, his stunning features dark with emotion.
Maybe he was concerned, or suspicious. Maybe he was trying to determine whether Rau’s ball of smoke and light had altered me in a dangerous way. The question was … if ithad, what were they going to do about it? Would they put me down, like a rogue bullsen?
“I’m sore,” I admitted, shaking my head and turning away from him.
I should have known that blocking him out wasn’t a thing that would happen. He simply plucked me from my feet, pulling me against his body, and turned his face back to the inside of the cave.
“Let’s go,” he announced. “We should get her back to Blesswood and have someone look at her.”
“We can’t involve anyone else in this,” Coen returned, appearing in my line of sight and taking the lead. “No one can know about Rau and … and what happened.”
Aros fell into step behind him. “I wasn’t talking about that. She might have bruised ribs or something. She might get sick. We have no idea what he hit her with.”
Coen didn’t reply, but I wasn’t even listening anymore. I was facing Aros, my chin tucked against his shoulder, my hands looped behind his neck. The knuckle-imprinted rock was banging lightly between his shoulder blades with every step. I didn’t want to let it go for some reason. He was holding me with one arm, his hand settling into my waist as he stuck me against his front, a little off to the side so that he could walk easily. My legs were just kind of dangling. I considered wrapping them around his waist, just to be a little more comfortable, but decided against it. I was too numb to do anything. Too numb to ask questions. Not that it stopped them from springing up inside my head.
What the hell was that ball of light and smoke?
