So when a dweller let out a horrified gasp, her eyes flicking almost comically between me and Yael, back and forth in rapid motion, it took me more than a few clicks to figure out what had caused her shock.
That’s right. Operation don’t-mess-with-Willa was in full effect. Fighting against dual urges to cover myself and turn a fiery red, I instead continued strolling along, boxed in between Yael and Aros. Siret trailed a little behind, that half-smirk seemingly permanent on his face. The closer we got to the Original Gods, and The Beginning classroom, the more the halls began to fill with scattered sols and dwellers. This section of Blesswood was a long hall of rooms, most of which were used for class or private study. I knew Coen and Rome were in advanced Topian studies just a few doors up from the triplets’ class.
A familiar looking giant of a sol let out a whistle as we moved closer to him. It took me a beat to figure out why he looked familiar, and it wasn’t until we were almost even that I recognised him. It was the monster whose lap I scrambled into the last time I had been at the arena. I’d jumped on him after witnessing a beheading only a foot from my face. It was the kind of thing which stayed with a person.
“Looking good, dweller,” he said, giving me a wink as we passed.
Of course, that was too much for Aros, who dropped some of his golden geniality and turned dark eyes on the sol. I thought he was going to stop and do more than just glare, but Siret nudged him, managing to keep us all walking, although Yael also took a turn giving Mountain Man a look, which had me biting the inside of my cheeks. I would not smile and give it all away.
“What the hell is going on here?” Yael finally asked. “I know Willa is big news, mostly because we haven’t killed her or run her off yet, but this level of interest is … something else. What has she done now?”
“Standing right here,” I snorted out, lifting our joined hands. “No need to talk about me like I’m a piece of naughty furniture you just traded a bunch of tokens for, only to realise it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.”
Yael shook his head, his dark hair sliding across his forehead. “A piece of furniture would talk less and be of more use to us. Something for you to consider, Rocks.”
“You would be so sad without me,” I stated. “Go on, admit it.”
His jaw worked back and forth and he was either trying not to smile or was currently biting his tongue off: either way, he ignored my last words and continued dragging me through the crowd of gawkers.
“Just freaking underwear,” I muttered, trying to tell myself that it wasn’t such a big deal.
Maybe I really did have a penchant for nudity, because the fact that everyone was now seeing most of my body didn’t bother me in the slightest. A female sol actually let out a shriek as she caught sight of me, tripping over her overly-long robe-styled dress and sprawling out in front of Aros. She was back up on her feet so quickly I wondered if she had springs attached to her or something. With a face as red as any I’d ever seen, she mumbled an apology and ran off down the hall.
Before anything was said about that weirdness, I heard my name being shouted from a distance. Tilting my head to the left, I was able to see around a few sols to find Rome and Coen marching along the hall. The Blesswood inhabitants parted for them as they breezed along, their stony eyes boring into me.
Pulling my hand free from Yael, I let it fall to rest against my bare hip, and when the twins were close enough, I drawled, “You shouted for me?”
Rome looked confused as he glanced at me, his eyes running down to my feet and back up, lingering on my midsection for a fraction of a click too long.
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on here?” I demanded, enjoying the play-acting part of my ruse. Although, a small part of me was starting to worry now that this was playing right into Rau’s plan for me.
Everything in the hall right then felt chaotic.
“Some sol was talking about a half-naked girl,” Rome finally said, his eyes on my face now.
I glared as hard as I could. “So naturally you assumed it was me.”
His hard features melted into a look of unease, and he glanced at his twin, probably hoping for some help, before replying with a sigh. “Well, you do have a habit of it.”
Don’t laugh. Trying to keep a straight face was seriously the hardest thing I had ever done, especially because Siret was over there with a slow grin pulling up the sides of his mouth.
“You five told me not to be naked in front of you anymore. You demanded it, actually. And I’m keeping that promise, fully clothed.” I did a spin and held both of my hands out, plain white underwear on very prominent display for all to see. All except them of course, as per their orders.
Rome’s eyes narrowed and he was back to staring at my navel area again. “You’re definitely not naked, but what the hell are you wearing?”
I wanted to whip my head around and glare at Siret, but I sensed that this was a ruse by the twins. They were smart. They were trying to trip me up in my lies. So I kept my face as neutral as I could. “It’s not my fault that I own like five articles of clothing. Get used to me wearing odd bits and pieces.”
His eyebrows rose, like nothing I just said made sense to him, and I was silently cursing Siret. “Why are you all still here? Class is starting.”
The hallway had started to clear as sols made their way into their rooms, and the dwellers scurried around to make sure everything ran smoothly.
“They’re all looking at her still,” Coen muttered, donning his death-eyes. Then he walked across the hall and straight into the Original Gods classroom, which was definitely not his Topian studies room.
“What’s he doing?” I asked, trying to figure out what I had missed this time.
Rome slipped an arm around me, half dragging me through the same doorway. “Keeping an eye on you. Something is up, we can feel it. It could be a Rau thing … all of this just feels weird. It feels like Chaos.”
Well, great. It looked like the Original Gods lesson had just become a hell of a lot more interesting. There were a few students already in the room, but thankfully Teacher Sing-Song was late, so there was no lilting welcome tune yet to make me want to hide under one of the desks and plug my ears. Rome pretty much dropped me into the seat beside Coen, the triplets fanning out in the three seats behind us. There weren’t usually spare seats in this class, which would mean that two of the regular sols would be forced to stand with the dwellers.
Something they would really enjoy.
The Abcurses, minus Siret, spent the time before the class started alternating between glaring at the students around us and talking in quiet whispers. They couldn’t understand all the looks, and I knew that they were worried about possible Rau-interference.