Never walk into a room at the local bar while your mum is entertaining. I’d learned that lesson the hard way. There were just some things you couldn’t un-see.
“I will handle Donald and watch over Emmy.” Cyrus’s voice was loud—he clearly didn’t care about rousing the attention of the pitchfork-wielding servers. “But you should think on whether the best course of action is for you to run into Rau’s little trap here. You don’t understand your powers yet. Feels like a great way to get yourself killed. Again.”
“Are you stalking us?” I bit out, wondering why he was always around.
His eyes flicked to Emmy, before coming back to rest on me. Ah, he was stalking someone.
He was right, though, about getting myself killed again. We didn’t know if I could die or not and going up against Rau was a huge risk, but I knew he wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted. We needed a secret weapon.
The chains.
“We need Crowe’s chains,” Coen said at the same time as the idea occurred to me. “I’ll be right back.”
He took off so fast that it was almost like he disappeared.
“Don’t let my mum or Emmy get hurt,” I said, locking my eyes on Cyrus. “You’ve been a mostly unreliable bastard since I met you. Random as hell. Choosing sides where you see fit. But this is something I’m trusting you on.”
For once, there was nothing hidden in his face. He almost looked … dependable. “I will protect them, Willa.”
Realising that I didn’t have much of a choice, I turned to Emmy. “Stay safe and stay out of sight,” I told her before pulling her in for a hard hug.
Her face was pale and drawn when she pulled back. She was going to argue more, I could tell, but Cyrus scooped her up before she could say anything. Her worried face morphed into one of pure astonishment; it was almost comical. It wasn’t until the Neutral god was nearing the top of the stairs again that I could see her fire return as she started to argue with him. By this time, though, we were too far away to hear what she was saying. No doubt it would be colourful.
“Focus here, Soldier,” Siret said, bringing my attention back to Rau and his quest for sol domination. Every single sol was now in his line. It filled the hall entirely. I noticed the gods now, standing along the sides of the hall, appearing to be mostly bored, even though they really should have been worried about their sols dying. If their sols died, so did they, according to Staviti’s new rules.
Maybe none of them believed it, or maybe it wasn’t even true.
“You first, Bestiary,” Rau ordered, gesturing toward the female at the start of the line. She had long chocolate brown hair, reaching her mid-back. It was dead straight, not a flyaway strand to be seen. Her skin was a similarly brown shade, and she had flashing blue eyes that locked onto Rau, like he was prey. She stepped forward confidently.
“I like her,” I said sadly. “She has sass.”
“You’ve never even met her, and she probably hates dwellers,” Yael reminded me.
“True, but that doesn’t mean we can let Rau kill her.”
Rome wrapped an arm around me, probably for comfort, and also to keep me from running off. They knew me very well. “Just wait for Pain,” he told me, pulling me even closer. “He’ll be back soon.”
He would, I knew that without a doubt. But would it be in time to save the Bestiary sol?
Rau watched as she stalked toward him, her hands lifting up in front of her like she was summoning energy into them. Behind the Chaos god, storm clouds started to gather, and I tried not to freak out. I’d been caught in one of his storms before. If this was anything like that one, everyone on top of the cliff was about to be swept out into the ocean.
Lightning cracked the ground where the sol was standing, but she managed to jump back just in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp. She slapped her hands together and the ground shook beneath our feet before a small fissure appeared and a bunch of creatures poured out of the rocks.
“Gah!” I jumped back even though I was nowhere near the animals. “Are those … sleepers?”
“Yes, their breeding grounds are usually found deep within mountains,” Aros informed me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat before wiping my damp hands across my shirt.
This movement seemed to draw the Abcurses’ attention away from the multitude of poisonous, eight-legged, multi-eyed, scary-ass creatures that were swarming en masse toward a relaxed Chaos god. They ran their gazes across me. Starting at the top of my mussed sex-hair, right down over my shirt, and finishing on the single boot I wore. Aros had already seen me in this chaotic state, but the others were finally noticing.
“Are you wearing underwear, Soldier?” Siret asked me, his eyes centred on my chest.
I shook my head hard. “No time for that, I had to make do with what I had.”
He just shook his head, his expression almost pained. “This is not the sort of attire you want to fight a god in.”
“Might give her an advantage,” Aros said, his eyes practically the colour of melted gold as they met mine. “I’d definitely lose.”
Rome’s voice sounded strained. “One: we do not want Rau looking at her like that. Ever. Two: we would all have to kill him on the spot, and that would just get messy.”
Killing a god wasn’t something they could easily achieve, but we all knew what he meant. “We have the chains now, Willa,” Yael reminded me. “Killing just got a hell of a lot easier.”
My attention was drawn back to the scene on the cliff again. Rau was still just standing there, the first lot of sleepers about to reach him.
“There have to be thousands of them,” I murmured. We didn’t have them in the seventh ring—one of the few good things about living in the outer areas of Minatsol. But I’d heard the stories. The venom in one bite was strong enough to kill ten sols. That’s how deadly they were.
Warmth moved down my spine; I recognised the Trickery straight away, and barely even flinched. I didn’t turn from the scene to see what Siret had clothed me in. It really didn’t matter, it had to be better than what I’d had on.
“Got it.” Coen’s low voice caused me to jump. I spun around to find him looking a little windswept, the engraved chains in his hands, before a scream from behind had us all whipping back toward where Rau and the Bestiary sol were facing off. Fire had ripped across the top of the cliff, engulfing all of the deadly creatures, as well as the Bestiary sol who controlled them. Before anyone could say anything, I snatched the chains off Coen and dove for the doorway.
Strong arms wrapped around my biceps, halting me mid-step.
“No, Willa!” Yael snapped. “You’ll get yourself killed running in like that. Give the chains to us.”
With a shake of my head, I wrapped both arms tightly around them. “No. I’m the only one who has a chance of getting close enough to Rau to use them. I need to stop this now.”
I knew there was no way they were going to let me just walk over to him, but I couldn’t listen to the screams of that sol for another click and not do something.
Freeze them. The thought pushed through my mind with force, almost seeming to slam into the Abcurses. I knew the only reason I got away with it was because the last thing they expected was for me to use my powers against them. So they had no shields against me. Freeze them! I mentally screamed this time.
All sounds faded away.
Even the birds that had been screeching in the sky went quiet. I managed to wiggle myself out of Yael’s hold. Thankfully, he’d been trying to swing me around, so his grip was loose. Taking in the scene, I scrambled into the hall. Everyone was frozen. Not just the Abcurses, but all of the sols, gods, and … even Rau.