Fakey started to sob. Not just normal sobbing, but huge, open-mouthed, ugly-crying sobs.Holy father of the gods.That was a terrible look for me. I had to remember to never cry like that.
There was even snot. Running down my … her …itsface.Wipe your damn face you stupid idiot!
Siret’s chuckles washed over me, the effect of his laugh actually calming my anger.
“We should have known straight away that this wasn’t you.” Aros wasn’t even bothering to mask his sarcasm as his eyes travelled over Fakey, right from her snivelling face to her feet.
Yael nodded, his voice surprising me, since he had been mostly quiet since I burst into the room. “Nothing crazy happened the whole time she was with us … that really should have been our first indication.”
Emmy started shaking Fakey then, and I had to reach out and halt my friend before she rattled Fakey’s brains too much to get any useful information. “Can you see me, Fake Willa?” I asked. There was no response. No recognition of the fact that I had spoken at all.
“She’s a sol,” I said to Emmy. “Probably one gifted in illusion, or disguise. Maybe trickery? Siret can do this sort of thing. Is it possible for her to have a gift like his?”
“Oh yeah, a definite possibility,” Atti jumped in, his voice sounding from behind our little group. “Those are all pretty rare gifts, but I can still think of two or three who are in Blesswood right now with some variation of Trickery. A few more in the community. I’ve only heard about them, though, I don’t actually know them myself.”
Well, great. He’d have to make himself so much more useful if he really thought he was going to get it on with my best friend.I was standing right beside Emmy, close enough to touch fake me, and it was so weird staring into my own face from this angle. I was seeing things that I had never noticed before. A little birth mark right above my right eyebrow, and the weird silvery strands littered throughout my hair. My eyelashes were dark and stuck together from all the dampness, my nose was red from bawling like a baby, and there was colour high in my cheeks.This is so wrong.
I focused on the task, trying to ignore our identical faces. “Ask her what Elowin did to me.” I nudged Emmy. “Why am I invisible and what the hell was she supposed to be doing? How long was she going to pretend to be me?”
Emmy jumped in immediately, shooting off those questions one after another. Fake Willa’s face crumbled. For a moment, it looked like the ugly cry was about to come back, but then she let out a dramatic sigh and all tears evaporated. Actually, the entire frantic expression evaporated, leaving only boredom and impatience.Whoa. Thatwasscary. It was almost like she just couldn’t play the part any longer.
Her voice was even different when she spoke, more toneless. “I’m actually glad you caught me out. The thought of continuing to pretend to be that stupid dweller for one more click was actually painful.”
My fist shot out and I punched her right in the nose. The crunch of cartilage and the spurt of blood was immediate and satisfying. And what did you know, my face was much more attractive when bleeding, rather than crying.
I watched her clutching at her face, trying to stem the flow of blood. I sighed, looking heavenward for a moment. I should probably apologise. It was unfair to surprise-punch people.
“Sorry I hit you. I thought you were going to keep talking, and I panicked.”
Of course, she didn’t reply, because she couldn’t even hear me. The Abcurses, however, were losing it as though theyhadheard me. All five of them were choking on laughter. Well, except for Rome, who only cracked a smile, but that was close enough for him.
“There’s our little dweller.” Yael grinned, looking satisfied at the fact that I’d punched my own image in the face, which was a little bit weird, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it.
Meanwhile, Fake Willa was darting her head around frantically, trying to figure out what had just hit her.
“Answer my damn questions,” Emmy said again, drawing her gaze.
She sneered, droplets of red flinging from her face as she shook her head. “You’re all going to pay for this. This was supposed to be an easy job! Distract the Abcurses with some simple seduction—clumsy-like, dweller-style—and then when I got the signal, I would cause an argument, act like my heart was breaking and then quietly slip away. It would have seemed as if the stupid dweller ran away.”
I’m sorry … did she just say seduce my sols?My hand moved before I could think about it, and this time, my punch landed on her right cheek, snapping her head to the side.
“Holy hell that was satisfying!” I jumped up and down a little on my feet, totally ready to have another go. I could do it. I could take her. Especially while I was invisible and she couldn’t punch me back. Actually, that was probably the only time I could take her.
One of the guys reached out then and hauled me back, fitting my spine to their chest. Somehow, they all knew where I was now, like they were tuned into me. I tilted my head up, looking at them upside-down. It was Aros. Our eyes met and I froze.
You can see me?
He laughed. “Now that we know this is some sort of Trickery, we just look with more than our eyes. Our gifts are multi-functional.”
Naturally. Ugh. Annoying, multi-talented sols.
“Why is Willa invisible?” Emmy started in on Fakey again, and this time the imposter didn’t hesitate to answer. I think she was afraid that I’d hit her from nowhere again.
“There should be something on her,” Fakey snapped, stepping back from everyone and brushing off her clothing as her mirage rippled, transforming right in front of us. “Something which is rendering her invisible to any gifted being. That was the easiest way to ensure that no one of importance saw her kidnapping.”
I should have started looking for the device as soon as she mentioned it, but I was too busy staring at her. At Fakey, who had looked like me a moment ago, but now looked completely different. She was standing taller, her body thinner—almost painfully thin, though she managed to make it look graceful, somehow. Her hair was a silky black curtain around her face, her features delicate, but tight, as though she didn’t smile very often.
The longer I stared at her, the more ‘herself’ she seemed to become, until I was taking an involuntary step away from her. Her light-blue eyes skipped right over me, the icy shade of colour making my skin crawl. I was thankful that she wasn’t quite as adept as the Abcurses at seeing through my invisibility, because I really didn’t want her to become the kick-ass female in the room. I wanted all of my backbone from a moment ago to come flooding back into me, but it seemed to have skipped away as soon as the sol in front of me had manifested.
