Huge dark eyes regarded me.Anything is possible. In regards to the Neutral energy, it will all depend on the strength of the vessel. On the strength of the heart. Cyrus is much more than just his energy. Have faith, young friend.
“You should have said something,” a hard voice cut in from the side.
I’d temporarily forgotten that Willa and her guys were there, and I was a little surprised to see Yael and Siret standing close by.
Yael was the one who’d spoken, and he took a step even closer. “If you lose control of your power, Neutral, all of us will be fucked. That isn’t something you should be waiting to tell us.”
Cyrus crossed his arms, arching a single eyebrow in Yael’s direction. “Something you should have figured out for yourselves, isn’t it? Everyone knows I am born of the Topian energy.”
Yael threw his hands in the air, massive bicep muscles framing either side of his head. “There’s more than one thing going on right now. And to be honest, I don’t think about you much Cyrus, so your power isn’t on my mind a lot. Just tell us next time.”
Cyrus’s power bristled across his skin. He didn’t like being reprimanded, but when Yael’s head swung toward Willa, who was standing next to her impressive fire, I felt Cyrus calm down.
He understood why the Abcurses were so upset. Anything that put Willa in danger was a sore point with them.
“I will be upfront in the future,” Cyrus conceded. “I was mainly waiting to see if the pantera had been effected, but so far they are as normal.”
Energy washed over the entire cave then and I found myself plastered back against Cyrus, his arm banding protectively around me. Yael and Siret were in my line of vision and I noticed that while they also looked worried, there was amusement in their gazes as they watched Cyrus and me.
Pantera are affected.A chorus of voices echoed in my head. It sounded like the entire herd were speaking to us.We have lost five of our members.
There was a heavy moment. A mourning feel to the air.
They disappeared, unable to remain with us. They said they felt … different. That they were being called away. We haven’t seen them since.
Willa rushed toward Leden—the pantera she had bonded with—her face creased in sadness. “What can we do?” she cried, burying her head in Leden’s neck.
The Abcurses closed in behind her, looking casual as anything, but it was clear that they were on high alert.
Leden’s answer was lost to anyone but Willa, as they began to communicate in silence—the small sounds that Willa released were the only indication that they were even having a conversation. Eventually, she turned, and her eyes flicked between the Abcurses before finding me.
“We have to prepare for a fight,” she finally announced. “It’s clear that something has happened to upset the balance of the worlds, and I’m pretty sure that whatever it was … it has something to do with us. Maybe it’s my power, maybe it’s the fact that I somehow brought Emmy back to life, or maybe it’s that I returned from the imprisonment realm and dragged my mother with me—”
“I’m sensing a theme here,” Cyrus noted dryly. “When you said it has something to do withus,you meant it wasyourfault, right?”
I glanced back over my shoulder at him and his eyes met mine briefly before he looked back to Willa, his hand tightening in its grip on my waist. He was pretending not to see the warning in my eyes.
“Whatever’s happening isnotyour fault,” I spoke up, before one of the Abcurses could jump in to defend her.
I shoved Cyrus’s arm away in my censure, taking a step forward. He also took a step forward, his hands finding my shoulders and dragging me back to rest against his front again. He was warm and strong, a solid force to ward off the creepy vibes I was getting from the cave, so I didn’t try to break away again. I wasn’t sure that I really had the strength to stay away from Cyrus, and I didn’t think that I wanted to, deep down.
“I should go and see them …” Willa muttered, almost to herself.
I was confused, and Cyrus was clearly confused—judging by the fact that he didn’t immediately voice an opinion. The Abcurses, however, picked up on her meaning immediately, possibly hearing an errant thought in her head.
“Hell no,” Rome grunted, as the others shook their heads.
“They could be hostile.” Siret seemed to agree with his brother, his brow furrowing. “That’s why they left the rest of the herd and exiled themselves.”
“Willa,” I said sternly, forcing her eyes back to mine. “This isnotyour fault, and you don’t have to put yourself in danger to fix it.”
“It might give us an advantage over Staviti, if there’s going to be a battle,” she explained, appealing to all of us. Beside her, Leden made ahummingsound of approval. “I doubt that he even cares about the servers malfunctioning. He probably sent them straight to the banishment cave. If we can figure out what’s happening to the magic of Topia, we can use that knowledge against him.”
I could feel my brows shooting up in surprise, but I tried to quickly wipe the emotion from my face. Everyone was quiet for a click, mulling over what she had said, but then Aros finally spoke.
“She’s right—we do need to figure out what’s going wrong with the magic of Topia, and it will arm us well in a battle against Staviti. But if we don’t get her back to Pica within the next rotation, that woman is going to take the crazy up a notch and we need her on our side—and reasonably stable. She’s our best weapon right now.”
“We’ll go,” I quickly offered, before I could think too hard about it.
