I turned to Coen, then. “You should go as well. Emmy will stay with me while I see if I can heal my mum. Apparently, she’s a free agent now.”
“What’s wrong with your mum?” Emmy interrupted, drawing closer to me.
Her concern brought my own worries back to the forefront of my mind.
“Something happened when we brought her here.” My voice shook as the guilt of what I’d done hit me again. “Something about her transition into Minatsol messed with her … with whatever Staviti did to turn her into a server. The healers couldn’t help, so I’m going to see if I can.”
Coen did that rumbly chest thing, which always got my attention. “It’s too dangerous for you to be wandering around here alone. The sols we’ve been saddled with aren’t the only assholes gunning for you, Willa.”
I waved him off. “You know I can burn a god. I’ll be fine.”
His jaw went rigid and I knew there was nothing I could say to convince him. I was just about to concede when a large man entered the room, a scowl twisting his features.
“I’ll escort Willa and Emmy,” Cyrus said without preamble. “No one will bother them if I’m around.”
What the hell is going on here? Were these rooms some kind of central hub for people to pop in and out of at random?
“Fuck no. Not happening.” Coen didn’t even hesitate. “I trust you less than I trust Staviti. Let’s not forget what happened the last time you were alone with her.”
Cyrus threw his hands into the air. “I’ve explained that to you all multiple times. You’re going to have to let it go at some point.”
I almost laughed out loud then. He was talking about us ‘letting go’ of him killing me in the same way one might talk about accidentally borrowing someone’s clothes and tearing them.
The rest of the Abcurses drifted closer to Emmy and me, forming a wall behind us. “We will never let it go,” Siret said, somewhat calmly. “We work with you because there is no other choice. But what you did … there is no forgetting.”
“Okay, okay.” I held both hands up. “We don’t have time for this, and whether we like it or not, we’re on the same team right now. We’ve managed to stay hidden from Rau and Staviti, we’ve managed not to die … again … so we’re all good. Right now my focus is on Donald, and since it’s my choice, I’m going to go with Cyrus and Emmy. You five …” I swung around to see them. “Go and fix your sols. Make them better.”
The five sols were about six feet away, and they heard me clearly. The Pain and Strength sols flipped me off. Trickery just swung around, her purple hair flying in a pretty arc behind her. The other two looked bored. Like they were past giving a shit.
Yael started to protest, but I cut him off. “Please,” I said. “Let it go just this once.”
His teeth clinked audibly as he slammed his mouth shut, his face unyielding.
“Straight there and back,” he finally relented. “No detours, and if anything weird happens with your mum, you get your ass right back to us. Understood?”
I exaggeratedly saluted him. “Yes, sir.”
Before anyone else could start protesting again, I blew them a kiss, linked my arm through Emmy’s, and then dragged her out of the room. I didn’t look back to see if Cyrus followed, because I really didn’t care.
As we started to walk, my stomach protested. I’d fallen asleep before I’d managed to eat, so of course now my body was reminding me of its current food-deprived state. Hopefully I’d be able to eat as soon as I healed my mum. I couldn’t focus on anything before I did that.
Fourteen
Cyrus caught up to us when we entered the main hall. Up till that point, I’d been silently dragging Emmy along, unable to carry out any conversation with all of my worry. When Cyrus joined us in the uncharacteristically quiet hall, he broke that silence.
“How was your trip to Topia?” he asked, sounding casual. “Did you get what I needed?”
I shrugged. “Funnily enough, the panteras didn’t have anything of yours. They said you must have been mistaken.”
They hadn’t exactly said that, but … whatever.
Cyrus didn’t react. No anger, no annoyance, no slow boil of disbelief followed by fury … in fact, his eyes were very clear. Less bloodshot than usual. Maybe he really had cut back on the drinking.
“Hmmm,” he murmured. “I could have sworn there was something there for me. Maybe I left it somewhere else.”
I doubted he had been confused like that about anything. Which made me wonder if he’d set the entire thing up just to get me to the panteras. I mean, I never would have expected that much help from Cyrus, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d tried to be of use. In his own, unique way—a way that usually wasn’t that helpful.
“Did you learn anything while you were there?” Emmy asked me.
“Actually, I did.” I halted for a moment, so I could focus on what I was about to say. “Can you tell me anything about the history of Minatsol’s royal family? How long ago was that? Oh, and … what happened to destroy the monarchy?”
Emmy just blinked a few times at me. A quick look at Cyrus told me he was doing the same thing. I barely resisted an eyeroll. “Come on, I like to learn things every now and then.”
Emmy recovered enough to snort laughter at me. “Willa, you literally fell asleep during history class every single rotation. You never missed a nap.”
True. Very true.
“It just never felt relevant. Plus, it was always so sol and god focused. I really didn’t care to listen about how great the world used to be for dwellers—since everyone was one in the old times—only to now be living in a world where we were relegated to nothing more than slaves. Where our world was slowly being leeched of life, and the expectation was that one sun-cycle there would be nothing left of Minatsol.”
Emmy shook her head. “You’re missing the point, though, Will. You learn about the past to change the future. Nothing stays the same, ever, but the past often repeats itself. History can teach us a lot. Important things.”
“So teach me these important things then. I want to know about the monarchy.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “Cyrus has an entire library just off his office. I doubt he’s ever stepped foot in there because I’m almost positive he can’t read, but that’s a good place to start looking.”
Cyrus smiled. An actual real smile. His eyes were locked on Emmy. “You amuse me little dweller,” he said slowly. “You would have made a very interesting god.”
I caught the slight flush of pink to Emmy’s cheeks before she turned away. “A god is the last thing I want to be,” she murmured, before her voice grew louder. “Come on, the infirmary is this way.”
She continued on without looking to see if we were following. I narrowed my eyes on Cyrus as he fell in behind her.
“Stop smiling,” I muttered to him. “It’s creeping me out.”
The smile turned into laughter, and I threw my hands into the air and hurried my steps to fall in next to Emmy. Creepy Cyrus was not someone I wanted to be alone with.
Emmy led us through the maze of training rooms and out into the elements. We passed down to another level of the mountain—where the dining hall was located—and then further down still, to another main hall. It was on the western edge of the cliff, positioned far back from the trail, so that you had to pass through a tunnel of rooms to get to it. I could see the ocean through the large, round windows spanning the rock wall.
“Patients respond positively to fresh air and sunlight,” Emmy explained when she saw me gawking at the view. “It’s very peaceful here.”
There was a peaceful feel to the room, and I wanted to spend more time enjoying the water beyond, but my mum needed my help.
Two healers met us near a front desk.
“Can we help you?” the first one asked. She was a pretty woman with strawberry blonde hair hanging in ringlets past her shoulders.