I wanted to shout I hate space, don’t give me space any more, but that seemed like a weird thing to do, so I settled for saying, “Stop reading my thoughts!” Although, to be fair, they seemed to be picking up on less lately. Or at least they were mentioning it less. “Alright, I’ll tell you what happened. I was in my cupboard, because I’ve totally claimed it as my little wallowing hole, and Fakey ambushed me again. This time it wasn’t to kill me, though, she just wanted to see my mental torture when she informed me that her friend was also a Fakey, and she was currently masquerading as buck-naked-Willa, off to have sex with my sols.”
My explanation was a nervous rush: stumbling, and punctuated with lots of jabbing fingers as I got fired up again. “I couldn’t find Siret or Yael, then when I came into your room she was standing over you, naked … well, sort of. She had boots on.” A snort of laughter fled from me, and I lifted my hand to stifle it. Aros looked a little confused, and I tried to continue. “Bare ass and boots.” Another snort of laughter, and before I knew it the giggles were slipping out no matter how hard I pressed my lips together.
When Aros began to laugh as well, his low, deep chuckles washing over me, I lost my train of thought as some very inappropriate emotions filled me. Things like longing and need and lust. Holy crap. The laughter had to stop or I was going to jump him, and then their pact would be broken, and then there would be more fist fights. Karyn would get what she was hoping for by default.
This visual of Siret’s bloody and bruised face was enough to have my laughter dying off and my tone becoming sombre. “She touched you, her hand was in your pants for just a fraction of a click. I charged over and threw whatever was in that jar in her face, and she took off. She was laughing though, and then cursing. It was weird.”
Aros lifted the container to read the label. “It’s helix. The sols use it in the arena. It’s spread over the sacred sand to allow the blood to absorb and not leave a residue.” Oh … that’s how they did that. “It can be painful and ticklish to the skin though,” he continued. “Especially if you get a direct undiluted dose.”
I snorted. “She got that. She’s just lucky I didn’t have a knife on me. She was going to be the second person I stabbed by accident on purpose.”
Aros was up then, dumping the glass in the trash bucket. He was back in moments, fully dressed and ready to go. “You need to put some clothes on, Rocks. It’s time to find the others.”
I stood slowly, blinking as I tried to think of the appropriate thing to say. “Are you okay, Three? I mean … she was touching you while you slept.”
Something unusual swept through his eyes and the colour melted into a wash of smoky gold. “She wouldn’t have gotten far. I was already half-awake when she entered the room … I guess, at first, I thought it was you.”
My mouth was literally hanging open as I stared at him with eyes so wide that I could feel my eyebrows up near my hair line.
“You were letting her go because you thought it was me.” My tone sounded a little dead. I was probably too far into shock to display any actual emotion.
His expression got very hard to read as he too shut down his emotions. “I was waiting to see what you would do, but I would have stopped you before any pact was broken.”
I growled low. It rumbled up through my chest. I had totally been spending too much time with Emmy. “You idiots should be able to tell that those girls aren’t me. We need some way to make sure. Like a code word. Or a secret handshake. Or … I don’t know. But we need something.”
Aros scooped me up then, depositing me down near his clothing. “Find something to wear, we can talk on the way.”
“Don’t ignore me!”
He let out a sigh. “We don’t need any secret code or handshake. I already have Karyn’s energy locked down now, she’ll never be able to fake it with us again. Which is probably why she sent her friend to do the job.”
Oh. Oh. Well, I guess that made sense. “So now you’ll know Fakey The Second too?”
Aros nodded. “Yep, now I’ll know her too. We just need to make sure she doesn’t get to my brothers before we get a chance to fill them in.”
“How come you don’t know my energy then? Shouldn’t you be able to tell just from knowing my energy?”
That weird look was back on his face again, and I thought for sure that I would have to hurt him for some answers, but he surprised me by saying, “Your energy is impossible to read now. It changes all the time. Which is why these sols with the gift for illusion are getting away with this all the time.”
Uh … say what now? “Why would my energy change? That’s not normal, right?”
Aros shook his golden head. “No, it’s not. Yours has been doing it ever since Rau hit you with his curse. It’s like everything about you now is completely random. Including your energy.”
Well, great! Thanks a lot Rau, I hope you die from a disease which causes your brains to melt out through your ears. As I continued to plan the Chaos god’s death in my head, Aros was ushering me toward his clothing. I scrambled through his stuff, until finally I found a soft white shirt, which I slipped over my head. It fell to my knees, like a plain white dress.
“Let’s go!” I demanded. “Take me to the others.”
I was already moving, heading for the door. Aros fell into step beside me, his body decked out in all black, including ass-kicking boots, just like the pair that Fakey had been wearing, except bigger and obviously meant for males. He looked hot and lethal. I looked homeless.
“I need to get some more clothes,” I muttered as he led me through the hall. “Pants and boots.”
I felt his fingers brushing over my neck before his hand settled on my shoulder. He pulled me closer to him and I relaxed into his warmth. Into the strange sense of completeness that I felt whenever they touched me. “We can get you whatever you want, dweller. You just have to ask.”
Hell yeah! Sounded like I had my own personal wish-granters. I was going to try it out the very next sun-cycle. I’d start by asking each of them for one thing, just to see which one was the easiest to get stuff from. This could be a fun new game, and I needed a fun new game since my latest ‘walk around the academy in my underwear’ game had been such a disaster.
Aros laughed again, and I realised that I’d made him laugh multiple times since crashing his party with Fakey The Second. I liked that. Too much.
“So where are we going?” I asked, to distract myself from his laughter. “Are the boys in … Topia?” I lowered my voice then, not that anyone was around. It was late in the night now, and only a few lanterns were lit to keep it from being pitch black.
“No, they’re near the temple.”
That seemed weird. “Why would they go to the temple? Are they praying to themselves or something?” I chuckled at my own joke, but this time Aros only shook his head at me.