Abil shrugged, his purple robes shifting across his broad shoulders. “I came to tell you that Staviti has called a meeting of all the gods, at the crest of the sun this afternoon. He wishes to discuss the new protocols for Betas. He wants the worlds back in order.”
It felt like Minatsol was so far removed from my current world, but I still had Cyrus checking on Emmy for me. I knew that she was safe—though he hadn’t reported about the rest of Blesswood. I had no idea what was going on back there. I expected that things were going to be rough while the sols tried to exert their dominance. Dwellers were rebelling, servers were attacking, gods were acting out of character. Elowin had been right when she had told me that I was upsetting a balance that could destroy everything.
She had been right, but I couldn’t help but feel that the worlds needed some upsetting. Things hadn’t been functioning well for a long time. The old way only worked for a small percentage of the population. I hated to think of everyone who was being caught up in this anarchy.
“When you say everyone is called for this meeting …” Adeline distracted me from my worried thoughts.
Abil nodded. “Yes, every single god must attend.” He turned to his sons. “There’s no hiding from this, you need to go and deal with whatever Staviti has planned. He won’t try anything with all of us there, especially Adeline.” His eyes flicked across to her. “But we need to know what he has planned, and there is only one person he will possibly give that information to.”
The goddess in the room let out a breathy sigh, before she schooled her face back into pure, calm perfection. “I will see what I can find out. We will protect our family.” She smiled at me. “Every single member of it.”
My chest got tight and I struggled to suck in my next breath of air as I tried to make sense of the emotional overload I was experiencing. There had been something just before that too, something that Abil had said …
“What the hell is a soul-bond?” My words seemed extra loud in the silence that followed Adeline’s statement, but I wasn’t letting anyone leave this room without an answer.
Because I could totally stop them, I thought wryly.
Adeline spoke first. “It’s a rare connection that only gods can share. It’s rare because we don’t like to share our power or energy with anyone, we’re greedy that way. A soul-bond ties you to someone, giving you access to their energy and life-force. Abil believes that the link you share with my sons has transformed into something deeper. More permanent. Something that cannot be broken in death.”
No one around me looked to be worried, but for some reason I felt like freaking out. Unbreakable. That was … a big deal. Like big big deal. What if we all got sick of each other one sun-cycle? What if I tripped and headbutted Yael in the bal—
“Breathe, Will.” Rome’s huge hands were on my shoulders, his thumbs lifting to trace gently across my cheeks.
“Did you all know about this?” I asked, still breathless.
Five heads shook, and I suddenly felt terrible because none of them appeared to be upset, and I was clearly having a breakdown. I’d been tied to them for so long now that I couldn’t imagine my life without them, but in the back of my mind I had been operating under the knowledge that Cyrus would be able to break the bond if we needed him to.
“That’s why I don’t have to be near any of you now, but I can still always feel my connection to you,” I said slowly. “It has nothing to do with the semanight stone.”
Abil gave me a look that was similar to the way I imagined he stared at a bug. “You should consider yourself absolutely blessed to be tied to my sons. There is no other in any world like them. You need to start learning your place, dweller.”
Three
I was still processing this new development when Abil gave his next command.
“You know what you have to do.”
He then strode out of the residence, only pausing halfway through the doorway, looking back at Siret.
“I’ll get it done,” Siret replied, nodding once.
He didn’t look particularly excited; his face was utterly blank, his arms hanging down by his sides and his posture casual. He looked so utterly unexcited that I started to grow suspicious. The only time Siret looked like he wasn’t up to something was when he was up to something big.
The other guys all began to stir into motion as Abil left. They stood and muttered to each other, Coen and Yael crowding their mother and arguing over the details of what sounded like a plan of action on how to extract information out of Staviti. Adeline looked like a woman who was very good at pretending to listen. She was nodding and making small sounds of understanding at all the right moments, while expertly examining the sleeve of her robe. I was pretty sure that she had a plan figured out before they even started arguing, but she was trying to be sensitive and humour them. Or she knew that they weren’t going to entertain any plan but their own.
Well … she wasn’t wrong about that.
As for me, I was fixated on Siret.
Mostly because Siret was fixated on me.
Whatever his father had told him, it had something to do with me, because he had turned his gaze to me almost immediately after Abil left and hadn’t shifted it since. Rome was standing just behind me, his hand low on the curve of my back. I had no idea when he had put it there—even though that was something I probably should have noticed. I had probably been too busy having a staring contest with Siret, but now I was completely aware of the big hand burning through my robes. I couldn’t actually see him, since I was still turned toward Siret, but I could hear him grumbling things that might have passed as contributions to Coen and Yael’s discussion, so he must have been turned to face them.
“What did Abil mean?” I asked Siret. “Why do you have a secret mission that nobody else has? And why are you staring at me?”
Siret grinned, and the others stopped talking for a click.
“He’s supposed to disguise you,” Rome said, turning so that more of his body heat fell across my back. “So that we can bring you to the meeting.”
“Disguise me as what?” I asked, growing a little bit nervous.
“Anything.” Siret shrugged, claiming the distance between us in a single, casual step, stopping in front of me. His hands lifted to my cheeks, tilting my head up to his. “Just as long as Staviti doesn’t recognise you.”
“I could be a tree,” I blurted, without thinking. Siret’s eyes were close. Way too close. He was so close I was blurting things about trees and thinking about kissing him.
“Trees don’t move.” His smile had grown. “We need you to stick with us. That requires moving.”
“I could be a robe.” This had been another idea blurted without thinking. Okay. That was a lie. I had thought about it. I had thought about sticking with them, which had led me to thinking about sticking on them, which had led me to thinking about stripping them naked and touching everything on them … and now I was off-topic. I could admit that.
“You can’t be a robe,” Rome grunted, in the same voice that a mother used while telling their child that they weren’t allowed to stay up past bedtime.
“Way to ruin all my fun,” I groused quietly.
“Trust me.” Siret grabbed my arm, drawing me away from the others. “This will be fun.”
I glanced back at the others, as though I needed to say a proper goodbye to them even though I was only being dragged out of the house to get a disguise … and not going on a perilous quest that I may never return from. They looked back at me as though they felt the same way, though, so I didn’t feel as pathetic when I gave a little finger wave just before I was pulled through the door.
“I could be a bug,” I told Siret. “Those are small, and they can move.”
“They can also get stepped on,” Siret reminded me.