“What rules?” I asked Emmy cautiously, ignoring the boys completely. I knew I had made her angry again, but as my exhaustion levels crept up, I lost my will to defend myself.
“Rule Number One,” she began immediately, also ignoring the others. “All perilous ideas must be cleared with your best friend first. Especially if they involve almost dying.”
“I could probably do that.” I scratched my head. I was getting nervous now. She sounded like she had a lot of rules to get through.
“Number Two.” She was beginning to calm down, but there was a suspicious glint in her eyes. She had expected me to put up a fight. “I was brought here to assist Cyrus, but I will ask to be assigned to you, instead, since you weren’t given a dweller. Technically, you weren’t even given a spot on the Peak, but there’s no reason not to give you a spot …”
“I get the point,” I cut across her before she could launch into a list of reasons I deserved to be where all the best sols were. “But what’s Number Two exactly?”
“We stick together. Like sap on a tree. No more leaving me behind.”
“That one might be a problem,” I admitted, thinking back to the way Yael had taken control of me in the pool. Behind me, a low chuckle sounded.
Emmy rolled her eyes. “I’ve been given quarters with Cyrus, since I’m supposed to be attending him for the next life-cycle. I can sleep there, and you can do all your freaky sex stuff at night time. Deal?”
“Was that one of the rules? I can only do freaky sex stuff at night time? Does that mean you can only do freaky sex stuff at night time as well? Does that mean you’re going to do freaky sex stuff with Cyrus?”
Emmy’s face turned the colour of a ripe berry, and when I saw that red spread down to her hands, I knew that I needed to back away fast. Between Cyrus and Emmy, I was starting to think that I was the least scary person on the mountain. I backed up and she levelled a stare on me that said what the hell are you doing?
“You’re scary,” I answered her look. “Your hands are red.” I pointed to the clenched fists in front of her.
She let out a sigh before flexing her fingers and shaking off the tension in her shoulders. “Cyrus and me … there … never. I will never touch that arrogant god.”
“Famous last words,” Siret added lazily. “Now that you’ve put it out into the universe …”
“Bring. It. On!” Emmy tilted her head up, giving us the most stubborn of her looks. Then she spun around and stormed off. “I’ll see you in the morning, Willa,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t forget the rules.”
I was seriously hoping that there was absolutely no reason for me to break the rules that night. And that there weren’t any additional rules that she hadn’t gotten around to telling me about.
“I’m going to need some dry clothes and a bed,” I said to the Abcurses. “And sleep. Lots of sleep.”
Looks were exchanged, and I realised that we had reached the dilemma of where to sleep. Since I’d died, we had all been sleeping in our howler pile, and I wondered if they would want to continue that now. Or if we were going to start separating.
The thought of that sent a feeling of unease through me.
“Let’s check out the arrangements,” Coen suggested, breaking through whatever tension held us.
I wasn’t moving one more step in my wet clothes, and Siret must have realised that because he moved close enough to run his hands across my body. The sodden mess disappeared and when I looked down, I was in a robe. Not a god robe though, this style was more like a coat, which crossed over the front and tied with a long cord. It was the colour of cream, softer than clouds, and so warm that my entire body relaxed and I almost fell asleep right there on the spot.
Yael didn’t bother changing—wet clothes didn’t bother him apparently. Actually, on closer inspection, it looked like they were almost dry. Really? I mean, he did throw off a lot of body heat …
I really had to stop thinking about swimming.
“Yeah, that would be great,” Rome grumbled.
I hurried ahead of them, opening the door that Coen pointed at, stepping into what I hoped was a bedroom. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a quintet of fighting gods. I felt like I had to be extra careful until I managed to keep it even. Right now, things weren’t balanced, and if I didn’t fix that soon, we were going to end up in all-out war.
Ah, the things I have to do for balance.
I focused on the room, realising that it pretty much just contained a bed. The most perfect bed in all of existence, possibly. Huge and decadent, with more pillows than twenty people could use and thick blankets that begged me to crawl under them. Before I could think it through, I was moving, the softness cushioning my knees as I scurried up to the end with the pillows. “Looks like Willa found her bed,” Coen drawled with a laugh.
I would have responded except I was too busy snuggling my way under the covers.
“Does anyone know who was next on the schedule?” I heard Coen ask. Always the responsible one, my Coen. He was falling back on the scheduling that had made our lives easier in the past. Things had changed so much since then, though.
“I think it was Aros’s turn next,” Yael said, crossing his arms. I could feel his eyes on me, and I tried not to think too hard about the swimming incident. Mostly because I was way too tired to swim at the moment, despite my new-found love for it.
“Aros and Coen,” I said sleepily. “We need some balance.”
I thought they were going to argue, but outside of some murmuring and shuffling of bodies, no one said anything. A warm hand brushed my hair back, and I snuggled into it, my eyes already closed.
“We’ll just clean up and be right back, dweller baby,” Coen murmured
“Mmkay,” I mumbled.
Darkness dragged me under, then, and I drifted off to sleep feeling safe, content, and very satisfied.
Eight
“Willa Knight! You were supposed to be up twenty clicks ago!”
The annoying voice was familiar, buzzing through the heavy sleep that was still attempting to hold me under. I was so warm and comfortable, heat pressing in on either side of me. I wiggled a little and tried to open my eyes, only to slam them shut again because it was too bright. A large hand rested against the bare skin just below my ribcage, beneath my sleep shirt. Another hand gripped my thigh, the hold somehow both sleepy and possessive.
“How attached are you to Dweller-Emmy?” Coen rumbled in my ear.
I pulled one of the pillows out from behind my head and blindly threw it in the general direction of Emmy’s voice. “I’m considering answering that unfavourably.”
The blankets over us started to shift, as though a bossy hand had grabbed them in preparation for something horrible. “I will rip them right off,” a bossy voice warned—undoubtedly the accompaniment to the hand. “I don’t even care how naked the three of you are under there.”
Before I could stop myself, my hands went out to either side to feel along Coen and Aros’s bodies. Disappointment hit me when I realised that both of them were wearing underwear, and the low chuckles that sounded in response to my thoughts had my body clenching.
“One,” Emmy started. “Two … I’m going to rip it off. Thre—”
“Wait!” I shouted, finally managing to peel my eyes open. I pulled myself up, squinting at my best friend. She looked the same as always, her clothing conservative, modest, and muted. Everything was the same, dull dweller black; I couldn’t even tell where her shirt ended and her pants began. Her hair was pulled up into a perfect braid. Not a thing out of place, except for the slight look of panic on her face.
“You’re supposed to meet Cyrus at dawn, Willa.”