Nothing.
He couldn’t see me.
How was this possible? What else had Elowin done?Hold up… Emmy and Atti had been able to see me just fine, so had a few other dwellers I’d smashed into when I was running through the halls.Dwellers could see me!Maybe that was the key to this, I was only invisible to sols. There was no one else around to test my theory on, but for now it would have to suffice.
“Hey, Rome … Siret … Aros … any of you!” I started shouting their names, but none of them turned to me.
You are all dumbasses!I shouted as loud, mentally, as I could, and there was an immediate reaction.
Yael growled, wrapping his right hand around the back of Fake Willa’s neck. “What’s with the name calling, dweller?”
Okay, mental link still in place, but it wasn’t that much use to me. They just thought it was this imposter speaking. I needed to figure out why I was selectively invisible.What had that bitch-face done to me?I also should probably use the mental-link to let the Abcurses know that I was standing right behind them, but I kind of wanted to see what else Fake-Willa had to say for herself. Or myself.
She blinked her big, stupid eyes up at my Abcurses. “Guys, can you all just please back up? I’m feeling a little weirded out right now.” She had my teeth grinding as she tried to slip out from the middle of them. Before she could escape, though, Rome let out a grumble. It shook his huge chest, and possibly even the floor that we were standing on.
His hand wrapped around her throat, the other under her arm as he lifted her into the air. The movement was considerably more violent than when Yael had reached for her. Even I was surprised. Rome had never attacked me like that before.
He growled out five low words. “Who. The. Fuck. Are. You.”
His brothers started forward, as if to wrest Fake Willa from him, but he turned his head slightly, never taking his eyes from Fakey. “This is not our Willa,” he snapped. “Can’t you sense the difference? She reeks of Trickery’s energy.”
Siret laughed. It was a mean, rasping sound. “Not even close to my power, don’t ever get confused about that … but thereissomething there. Goddamn those asshole gods.” He closed in on Fake Willa, who was going a bit red in the face. I had a feeling she couldn’t actually breathe. “You’re good,” he sneered. “I’ll give you that. I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but now that Rome has pointed it out, I can see you didn’t quite get Willa right.”
Damn right she didn’t. Took you idiots long enough.
Five heads spun around, and I knew that they had heard me and this time they knew it wasn’t from the girl clutched in Rome’s heavy grip. A girl who was now clawing at his arm and gasping for air, both actions that were being largely ignored by the Abcurses.
“Willa?” Aros frowned, his eyes flickering around the room.
Siret stepped over to stand beside the golden sol, his back to Rome and fake Willa. “Where are you, Soldier?” He held one hand out. Aros did the same. Both of them standing there with a hand toward me.
I stepped up to them and placed my hands into their outstretched ones. Siret yanked me into him, his body wrapping around me pretty well considering he couldn’t see me at all. Aros made a small sound of annoyance, but didn’t fight as my hand was torn from his.
As I sank into Siret, everything inside of me sighed. It was a literal sigh of relief from finally being back with the Abcurses. Closing my eyes, I let myself go limp; it had been a long sun-cycle. Very long. My body was done. Siret supported my weight with ease, and I knew he was gearing to pick me up when Coen stepped out from behind his twin and said in my direction, “What happened to you, dweller?” His flat, heavy words and the look on his face were crazy-scary. It was that death-look again, the one he’d given me in the arena. Only this one was about a million times worse.
Elowin. Kidnapped and locked me down in this magical stone room. I couldn’t reach any of you mentally. Managed to break out by smashing the lock on the door. It was weakened by all the spells.
The room virtually rumbled then, and turning from Siret, I realised why. Rome had dropped fake Willa right on her fake ass before slamming his fist against a nearby pillar. The room shook, dust sprinkling down from above.
Heavy footsteps sounded and I spun my head back the other way to see Emmy and Atti sprinting into the room.
“Willa! Stop running off on me!” She was shouting as she skidded to a halt right in front of me. “Swear to the gods every time I turn my back on you, you’re disappearing. Iwillchain you down.”
Yael was in her face before she could say another word, and even though she didn’t step back, wariness still crossed her features.
“What?” she muttered, her eyes flicking across to Atti’s for half a click. She might not have even noticed that she did it, but I noticed. I had a feeling Atti didn’t think she wasuptightanymore.
Yael drew her attention with his words. “You can see Willa?”
Emmy turned her gaze back to me. “What is he talking about, Will?”
Wiggling my way free from the absolutely blissful comfort of Siret, I faced my best friend. “I’m apparently invisible to sols. They can’t see or hear me. Our mental connection is okay, though, so they know that’s a fake Willa there.” I pointed to the ground where the imposter was still sprawled.
Granted, she was trying to crawl away, but Rome planted one foot on her back, making sure that she wasn’t going to actually get anywhere.
Emmy’s face went red, which was always a bad sign. If the red had just been on her cheeks, I wouldn’t have worried, but it was everywhere. Her forehead, her chin, her neck, and even the backs of her hands. She was about to explode. Two steps around the Abcurses and she had kicked off Rome’s foot and hauled up Fake Willa by the neck of her fake shirt.
“Who the hell are you?” she snarled. “What did they do to Willa? Why is she invisible to sols?”
