Two
Cyrus
Iwasn’t going to stand around and argue about whether she was a god or not. Not when I knew that I was right.
“I’ll prove it,” I told Emmy, holding up a finger.
She looked at my finger as though she was trying to figure out how to forcibly detach it. I turned and strode out of the room, not waiting for a response. My weapons closet was tucked behind a false door, hidden within a crevice of the cave. It was there that I went, as Emmy waited in the other room. I knew that the only reason she hadn’t stalked after me was because she was too angry or confused to move.
For some reason, I enjoyed her heightened emotions, the way she stiffened up—right from the feet to the neck. It made me want to pick her up and shock the movement back into her body, to heat her blood and press her in places just to see her give in to the pressure of my touch ... but that wouldn’t help to prove my point.
I grabbed what I needed and then strode back to her, watching as she turned on her heel, whipping about to face me. I pulled the crossbow up, balanced it, and took aim.
“Wait!” she screamed, holding both of her hands up, her eyes wide and terrified. I took a step closer. She took several shaky steps backwards. “Wait ...” she repeated, as though attempting to calm a crazed person. “Cyrus ... I don’t think it will work. Please don’t do this. I believe you, whatever you say, just don’t shoot me with that thing to prove your point. I swear, I believe you!”
I frowned, glancing down at the crossbow. “Did I pick the wrong weapon? I figured this would be preferable. More comfortable, for a dweller.” I wasn’tactuallygoing to shoot her, but she didn’t need to know that.
For a fraction of a click, the snarl started to tip up the side of her mouth again, but she quickly managed to get herself back under control. Gods, she was cute.
“It isn’t the nicest way to die,” she reminded me.
I set the crossbow aside. “Yes, I suppose that makes sense.”
She relaxed then, the tension draining out of her shoulders, the anger flooding back into her face. I raised my right hand, directing my energy toward her.
“I will do it this way instead,” I conceded.
She started forward, as though to rush me, but had barely taken two steps before I willed her to faint. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, but I quickly caught her, pulling her up into my arms and carrying her over to the couch. I set her down, and then crouched beside her, waiting for her to wake up and be a little less argumentative about her new, godly state. I hadn’tactuallykilled her to prove my point, but she wouldn’t know the difference between fainting and dying at this stage—for a god in Topia, it was all more or less the same if they were mortally wounded. Unless one of Death’s weapons had been used, of course. I could hear Donald approaching behind me, her shuffle distinctive.
“This is what happens to people who barge in on me while I’m in the shower,” I announced, allowing my voice to carry.
The expected gasp met my statement—but it wasn’t one of abject horror, or fear. It had been a sound of ... disbelief. Excitement, even. My brow furrowed, and I turned away from Emmy, who had already begun to stir. Donald had dropped the folded towels that she had been holding, her wide eyes fixed on me, filled with wonder and gratitude. For a moment, I glanced at the folded towels now spilled over the ground. I had sent my own server away, safely out of reach of Staviti, but that meant that Donald had taken over her duties.
“What?” I asked her. I wasn’t usually confused, and it irritated me to be unsure of the meaning of her reaction.
“You would make me a Sacred One?” she breathed out in reverence. “Thank you, Sacred Asshole.Thank you. I will do exactly as you have asked.”
She bowed, her waxy face caught in what threatened to be a permanent expression of ecstatic wonder. I watched her gather the towels and walk away, too shocked to take the time needed to clear up the misconception. I turned back to Emmy instead, slipping my hand beneath her head to prop her up a little. Her hair slid silkily over my wrist, and I was momentarily distracted by the way a curl tried to wrap around my arm. She murmured something and I leaned in closer to hear her, my attention riveted to her lips, trying to make out the word that she was forming.
K ... i ... l ... l.
“Kill,” she rasped, her eyes slowly opening, her pupils expanding as she locked onto me. “I am going tokillyou!”
I held up my finger again. She grabbed it. I grabbed her wrist with my other hand. She thrust her palm into my nose, breaking it almost instantly. I reeled back, propping myself up on the floor, holding my robe to my nose to stem the blood. It was healing already, but that didn’t change the fact that she had done it. And it hadhurt. Sort of. Well, itwouldhavehurt if my power hadn’t naturally risen to absorb the pain—a protective reflex I had developed. She seemed to be almost as surprised as I was, pulling her hand up in front of her face and staring at it incredulously.
“I’m a god,” she muttered in disbelief.
“That’s what I was trying to say.” I dropped the section of robe I had been holding to my nose, glancing down at the small patch of blood.Great, now I would have to change. “The only question is,whatare you a godof?”
“That’s not the only gods-damned question!” she protested, jumping to her feet. I waved my hand casually, forcing her legs to buckle so that she fell back down to the couch again. She growled out a sound, but didn’t try to stand again. “That’s not the only question,” she repeated, narrowing her eyes on me. “How is it possible for Willa to do this? How did this happen?”
I slowly rose until I was standing before her, taking the two steps needed to box her legs in against the couch.
“How Willa managed it isn’t anywhere near as important a question as how Staviti is going to react when he realises what has happened—if he doesn’t already know. We need to figure out what your power is before that happens, so that you’re not left completely defenceless.”
“I didn’t bring myself back from the dead. Shouldn’t we be making a plan to protect Willa?”
“You are the evidence,” I explained, leaning over a little—since she was too preoccupied with our dilemma to remember that she didn’t want to be anywhere near me. “Staviti’s war against Willa has already begun. Abil and Adeline, Pica, and myself—we have all joined the fight. Staviti didn’t retreat because he was beaten. He retreated because he’s intelligent, because he realised that Willa has an army at her back, and if he’s going to defeat her, he will need an army of his own.”
