He frowned, pressing his lips together, refusing to reply.
“So annoying that you want to maybe see her naked?” I continued, enjoying the way his eyes flared for an instant. “Yeah, I thought so. Can we consider this moment dealt with now? Can I see the secret library?”
He scowled, flicking his hand. “You may borrow the book, but you may not enter the library.”
“How is she going to get the book, then?” Emmy asked, folding her arms over her chest.
“I never said that you couldn’t go into the library,” Cyrus grumbled, pushing past us and leaving the room. We stood there in shocked silence.
“He likes your butt,” I told my sister, when it seemed like she wasn’t going to stop staring after him.
She shook her head, striding for the doorway in a strikingly similar manner to Cyrus’s recent exit. “I’ll get you the book and meet you back in your rooms.”
“Thank you,” I told her, before catching her arm and drawing her into a hug before she could storm off. “Thank you for everything.”
She relaxed for a moment, wrapping her arms around me, and then she sniffed and drew back, her eyes flicking to my mother.
“You need to find a way,” she told me. “Your mum might know something about what you are. She might be the missing piece in all of this.”
The missing piece.
I stared after Emmy as she walked away, her words echoing in my head. I had thought that I already knew who the missing piece was, but Emmy was right. If anyone knew what made me different, it would be the woman who gave birth to me.
After a few clicks alone in the room, with my mother unresponsive on the bed and the view of the ocean lulling me into a false sense of calm, I finally roused myself into action, leaving the healing ward and heading in the direction of the god-residences. I waited in the rooms for Emmy to bring the book—a tome as big as my head—and then I hurried back to the training alcoves, where I found each of the Abcurses huddled together in one of the small rooms, their sols gathered in another. I waited in the entry for an extended click, wondering what was happening. The sols seemed to be arguing, the Strength student gesturing wildly toward the Abcurses, the Seduction student speaking back in a low tone, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
I approached the circle of Abcurses, squeezing between Yael and Siret, until I was in the centre of them.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, as a quietness settled over our huddle, each of their eyes flicking down to me.
“Something isn’t right,” Aros murmured, the gold in his gaze swirling lightly. “Staviti’s energy is all over this place. It happened suddenly, while you were gone.”
“What?” I backed up a little, but only managed to bump into Coen, whose hands landed on my shoulders, spinning me around.
“We were debating whether we should get you out of here or not.”
“I can’t leave, not until I’ve found a way to heal my—”
“You won’t be any use to Donald if you’re the reason Staviti has come down to the Peak,” Yael interrupted. “He hasn’t shown himself, hasn’t announced anything to the sols or gods. He’s hiding his presence.”
“Where are the ...” I trailed off, repeating the question inside my head, directing it to the five of them. Where are the chains?
Coen swore, pulling me forwards—though he turned at the last moment, propelling me ahead of him, his hand switching to the back of my neck, directing me to the doorway.
“We need to make sure he didn’t come for them,” he announced, the others following closely behind us.
“YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE,” one of the girls screeched, forcing our group to halt and our heads to turn.
It was the Trickery sol: her purple hair almost seeming to stand on end in agitation.
“We aren’t learning anything,” she spat, the others fanning out behind her. “This is bullsen shit. You five are supposed to be helping us become better, but you’re too busy babysitting this dweller slut—”
My hand was suddenly before my face, my palm facing out, and power was surging down my arm. Maybe it was the stress over my mother, or the possibility that Staviti might have followed us out of Topia—that he might have allowed us to take the chains into Minatsol only to sneak after us and steal them back. Or maybe I just didn’t like being called a ‘dweller slut’. Whatever the reason, my power was suddenly exploding into the world, and it was too late for me to stop it. The Trickery sol was bent over, her hands covering her face, a scream floating back to where I stood.
I rushed over to her, guilt flooding into me and snapping my energy back into my body with a heavy pull that had my head spinning. My legs were shaking as I bent beside her, my hand on her shoulder. She flinched away from me, and the Seduction and Strength sols crouched beside her, drawing her back from me.
“I’m sorry.” I tried to get close again, but the Trickery sol kicked out at me.
“Stay the fuck away from me!” she shouted, though her voice was strangely muffled.
“I don’t even know what I did,” I pleaded, searching her body for scorch marks, or any sign of fire damage.
She lowered her hands from her face, revealing two bloodshot eyes and a ...
“Well … I did not expect that.” Siret was behind me, his voice somewhat amused.
“You ... oh.” That had come from Rome, also sounding amused and a little horrified.
I swallowed, torn between an absurd urge to laugh, and an even stronger urge to cry. A strangely manic emotion was trickling through me—possibly a result of the sudden rush of power and adrenaline, but just as likely a result of the absurd vision before me.
Dickhead.
I had been thinking it just a micro-click before I lashed out at the girl, along with a range of other insulting curses. I had been thinking it, and then ... I had manifested it.
There she stood: purple-haired, red-eyed, with a penis protruding from her forehead. A real, live penis.
“How do you know it’s alive?” Siret was really enjoying this moment. I could already tell I’d improved his sun-cycle immensely with my ability to make a literal dickhead.
“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. I was squinting at it, trying to see if I recognised it.
I was hoping that it didn’t look like it belonged to any of my guys. It was too small to be Rome’s, and it wasn’t anywhere near as nice-looking as Siret’s or Yael’s.
“Nice looking?” Yael choked out.
“You mean you ... you ... manifested a cock, and it isn’t even one of ours?” Coen’s tone was hard, almost pissed-off.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” the Trickery sol screamed, her hands darting up towards the thing dangling from her face.
Every single one of us flinched.
“Oh gods.” The Strength sol had her hand over her mouth. She looked a little sick. “Please stop touching it.”
“Why?” The Trickery sol was growing pale, her eyes widening in panic. “Is it doing something?”
“It’s not doing anything,” I assured her, even though I was actually avoiding looking directly at it. “But still probably don’t touch it. You might get pregnant ... and I think that would make me the father of your baby.”
The sol began to wail, then. Long, loud, and mournful.
“Ahhh.” I broke away from the guys, kneeling in front of her again. “Please stop, just let me try to fix it, okay? I’m sure I can.”
“Really?” Rome asked from behind me, sounding doubtful.
“Shh!” I shot him a look over my shoulder, before re-focussing on the sobbing girl. “I’m sorry, okay? I wasn’t aware that this was something I could do. I mean, they don’t exactly teach you about penis-manifestation in the dweller schools. It’s more about cleaning and bowing and scrubbing pans. Will you let me fix it?”
“FIX IT!” she screamed in response, her hands balling up into fists.
“Alright, jeez. Calm down, it’s just a penis. We all have them.”
“You do?” the Seduction sol asked, her eyebrows shooting up.