“Three?” Siret launched off the couch, sending me tumbling. And of course, since the clothing I wore was about five sizes too large, most of my butt managed to fall out of the pants.
Rome grinned. “I spoke too soon.”
Coen, Yael, and Aros chose that moment to barge through the door of Siret’s room; I frantically scrambled to get my pants up and shirt down. Why do these things always happen to me?Why?Aros crossed over to me, leaning over to offer me a hand up. I froze as the full length of his body came into view.Whoa.His goldenness was extra-blinding; he was dressed in some sort of battle gear which consisted of a gold-tinted breastplate, arm bands, and braces over the front of his thighs. I knew my jaw had fallen open, but he looked like a warrior, or a god. A really hot warrior-god.
Wrenching my gaze from his, I placed my hand into his outstretched one. My eyes catching on each of the other Abcurses. They all wore similar armour, in shades which complimented their natural colouring.
They’re going to be gods.I had absolutely no doubt that these five were on the path to Topia.
But …how were they going to do that with me attached like an ugly sixth limb?
“Don’t you worry about it, Rocks,” Aros said as he deposited me safely to my feet. “Our path to Topia was rocky long before Rau decided to add some chaos.”
His words reminded me of the dream, and I found myself blurting without thought. “So speaking of souls … what happened to mine?”
Siret shook his head. “No one was speaking of souls, and yours is the same speck of nothing that all dwellers carry around.”
By the time I turned away from him, Yael was in my face. Well, his chest was in my face. “Why would you ask about your soul?” he demanded. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to hear our thoughts now, would you, dweller?” It wasn’t really a question. More of an accusation.
Clearing my throat and fighting for composure, I shook my head a few times. “No, definitely not. I just kind of … wentintoromesheadlastnight.”
The last lot was one big word I spoke as fast as I possibly could. Silence reigned supreme, then Yael spun to face his crusher brother with one eyebrow raised and a snarl on his lips.
Rome didn’t even flinch. I would totally have flinched. Maybe he could give me lessons. Something told me that I would need them. And bysomething, I meant the thousands of flinch-worthy glares that I’d already gotten since arriving in Blesswood.
“I would have told you if I had felt her there,” he said, his tone drawling like that much should have beenobvious.
“Two clicks to the trials,” Siret reminded the room, and I was running out of time to get answers.
Stepping forward, I snapped my fingers a few times in Yael’s direction. “Hey, can you seriously focus for like one click. What the hell happened to my soul?” If he answered my damn question, he’d have a much better idea of why I was in his brother’s head. It was clearly all connected. “What did Rau do to me?”
The persuasive sol gracefully twisted in my direction, and part of me instantly regretted snapping my fingers at him. I’d seen some of the villagers do that to call the bullsen up and always thought it looked like a nifty trick. Possibly, Yael wasn’t fond of being called up like a wild beast.
He stepped into me, and my eyes fell to his lips. Lips which were kissing me only last night.No, Willa. No more kissing sols.
That was probably a mantra I would have to repeat a few times; couldn’t quite get it to sink in.
“Rau hit you with a curse that was designed for one of us. A powerful curse which was most likely intended to cause chaos. He wanted to shake up the natural order even more, giving himself more power, and thereby gathering enough power to find his Beta.” Yael spoke matter-of-factly, but his eyes were ice-cold.
“The more powerful you are, the more you can sense the sols with the gifts strong enough to ascend to Topia,” Rome added.
“Or steal your godhood,” Siret chimed in.
Yael growled low before picking up the conversation again. “Yes, as I said, it’s important that gods can sense these sols, and Rau has had that power stripped from him by Staviti. He wants it back.”
I tried to breathe around my confusion and panic. “So it was a curse meant for one of you guys and it hit me … it splintered my soul and now you all carry it inside. Like in your heart pocket or some crap.”
Heart pocket?Really, Willa?
Siret took pity on me. “Souls aren’t like a bag of tokens. It’s not like some got slipped into our pockets when we weren’t looking. Your energy, the essence of what makes youWilla, is now woven with the energy of each of us.”
So he was saying …
“I’m never getting those parts of my soul back, am I?” I was not going to be able to demand that they simply empty their pockets and hand me my soul back. It was all mixed up with their messy-ass souls, getting tainted by the sol-ness of their stupid, superior selves.
A disembodied voice rang through Siret’s room then, sounding entirely robotic and sexless. “Gods have arrived to the arena, all sols have one click to make it inside. This is mandatory.”
The Abcurses started moving. I noticed that Siret was now dressed in his own pretty set of armour plates, black and gold to reflect his hair. “Come on, Rocks. We’re going to the arena, you better haul ass to keep up.”
