It had been a dull but constant sound back where we’d emerged from the secret door, but now that I was closer to the trees, it was deafening. I spun around, facing the small and scraggly woodland. The sound was familiar, now that I paid attention to it, and I ducked through the treeline to come alongside the top of a very steep waterfall. I glanced down and then took several hasty steps backward. Those rocks didn’t look comfortable. I quickly walked back to the guys and then … walked straight past them, marching in the other direction.
“Can you just admit you have no idea where you’re going?” Yael groaned, following behind me.
“I could,” I returned thoughtfully, as though actually considering his feedback. “Or you could just tell me where to go.”
He reached out and snagged an arm around my waist, pulling me in against his side in a quick and efficient movement. I dangled there, my feet above the ground, somehow managing to cross my arms stubbornly over my chest.
“We need to go through a pocket,” he told me, twisting on the spot and disappearing with me. I ended up clutching at him, my fingers tangling in his dark green robes.
Over the last seven sun-cycles, they had begun to wear their god-colours again, while I mostly just wore white. I was a neutral, without the neutral powers, or the neutral badassary—
“Not a word,” Yael interrupted my thoughts, setting me back down on my feet.
I glanced around us briefly, taking in—you guessed it—another marble platform, before snapping my attention back to his face. “Not a word what?”
“Badassery.” His eyes rolled briefly as the others all popped into existence around us. “It’s not a word.”
“Amended,” Siret broke in.
“Amended what?” I asked him, beginning to get frustrated.
“The legitimacy of badassery being a word. I just amended it. It’s now an official record in the tome of Known Words and Meanings.”
My smile was so sudden and so wide that it actually started to hurt my face. I ran the few steps toward where Siret stood, flinging myself against him. He caught me easily, chuckling as he drew me up against his chest, his arms tight around my back.
“Added,” Rome grunted moodily.
“Added what?” I asked over Siret’s shoulder. “And can you guys speak in full sentences please?”
“Added to the Known Words and Meanings record.” He was still talking moodily. “I added shweed.”
“How did you?” I broke out of Siret’s arms, happiness and disbelief bubbling up in me. “Your power is Strength!”
“I know.” He reached out, grabbed Siret by the back of the neck, and squeezed. “Add it,” he ground out. “Don’t make me look bad.”
Siret shrugged out of the hold, shoving his brother in the chest, though Rome didn’t budge much.
“All you had to do was ask,” he groused.
Love. This was without any doubt my definition of love. My fabricated words were something that frustrated even Emmy, the way I made up words and messed with the original meanings of everything. The Abcurses, however, barely even blinked an eye. They just rolled with whatever came out of my mouth.
“You guys love me,” I chirped, overly happy. My moods had been fluctuating quite widely, and it looked like this sun-cycle’s emotion was euphoria.
Before any Abcurse could speak—and I was really curious to know what they were going to say because a range of emotions were written across their faces—a light purr of a voice drifted across the marble platform to us. “Well, hello there.”
If seduction had a sound, it would have been this women’s voice. Smooth, slightly rich and throaty. This was a person who could hit the high and low notes in any ballad. Reaching out, I pushed Rome and Siret to the side, standing there like a moron. All I could do was stare at the god before me.
Two
Adeline was everything a God of Beauty should have been, plus more. She was just over six feet tall, her hair a mass of golden waves, stopping right above her tiny waist. Her flawless skin was somehow both pale and golden at the same time, as though she had never been touched by the sun, but still a healthy glow wanted to shine through from the inside out. Her eyes were a pale amber; golden, like the gold of Aros’s eyes, but with a hint of pink, making the colour darker and deeper. Those eyes fixed on me, making me feel both terrified and welcome all at once—but maybe I wasn’t so much welcome as I was going to stay anyway because she was pretty amazing to look at. She had a perfect hourglass shape, and it seemed to be accentuated by the way her robes draped about her; I wasn’t even sure that her shape would have been possible for any of the mortals to obtain. It was magical, in the literal sense.
Basically, she was every male’s fantasy … except for the five men around me, because they were her sons. Thank the gods.
“Hello, Mother.” Coen’s voice was … softer than usual. Gentle, even. He was the first to move, crossing the two steps to her side and wrapping her up in one of his amazing hugs.
The rest followed soon after, all of them standing close to their stunning mother. I remained apart from them, staring at the six of them together. Adeline was definitely where the golden sheen of my Abcurses came from. Abil was the dark and ruby tones.
It would have been impossible for Adeline and Abil to have ugly children.
“Willa,” Aros called to me, holding out a hand.
Swallowing roughly, I nervously smoothed my white robe down, crossing to where they stood. I wasn’t the girl you took home to meet the parents. In my village, it would have been considered the worst luck ever to end up with me as part of your family. It had been suggested more than once that I should refrain from sex forever, just in case I accidentally procreated. One of me was enough. This was the first parent I had met in this sort of situation, and I had no idea how I was supposed to react.
“Willa.” The way she said my name evoked so many warm, fuzzy feelings inside of me.
Her power was Beauty, and there was something utterly enchanting about seeing something so perfectly beautiful.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s really nice to meet you …” What the hell was I supposed to call her? Adeline? Tower of Perfection? Mumma Abcurse?
“Adeline,” she finished for me, sensing the unasked question. “Please, call me Adeline.”
“We need to get Willa out of sight,” Rome told her. “Let’s not linger up here any longer.”
She nodded, and with a sweep of her robes, she spun, leading the way to one of those white stone doors. Unsurprisingly, it opened into a living quarter, though this one was even more spectacular than the others that I had seen. The first room was white, with very pale splashes of colour tastefully scattered around.
I had a feeling that I might be able to get along with this woman, and by ‘a feeling’ I meant that I was sure I was going to follow her around with my mouth hanging open, on account of how perfect she was. I was also pretty sure that she wasn’t going to like me very much, especially when I inevitably knocked over one of her pretty vases or bled on one of her perfectly woven rugs, or set fire to the fluttering tapestry covering one of the walls.
Everyone filed into the main seating area and I ended up squished onto a couch with two giant gods. Siret had claimed one side, with Aros claiming the other. As usual, they immediately invaded my space—also as usual, I loved every click of it.
When the seven of us were seated, Adeline leaned back into her chair and took a moment to cast her gaze over her five sons.
“I have missed you all immensely,” she said in her sultry voice. “Abil filled me in on what you’ve been going through.” She leaned forward in her chair then—some of the demureness disappeared and I was almost a little surprised to see a flame burning in her eyes. “I am so sorry I wasn’t here. Rest assured, you now have my full support for whatever you have planned next.”
Her gaze flicked to me for a moment, that look measuring and assessing, before she turned to Coen, who had started to talk.
“Our main priority right now is Willa,” he was saying. “Whatever we decide to do, there can be no fallout for her. She remains safe, or things will get very messy.”