“Persuasion made you say that?” Coen asked, the subtlest trace of sarcasm to his words.
I tried to answer him, but sweat was starting to break out over the back of my neck. “Ah … yeah … no—I mean no, he—”
I swayed, slowing to a stop as a frigid wind brushed over my shoulder. My stomach clenched sickeningly, and my mind chose that really convenient moment to grapple with all of the possible ways that the gods might be haunting me. I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes catching on the statues that stood tall, guarding over the temple.
“Quick question …” I reached out, my fingers tangling in material. Coen’s shirt. I gave it a tug, drawing him closer to me. It seemed fair, since he was always doing it to me. “Can the gods see out of those statues?”
“No, Dweller-baby. They’re statues.”
I released him, dipping my head into a short nod. There were no sassy retorts on my tongue, only bile.
Something was wrong.
Eight
My knees buckled first, dropping me to the ground as my fingers slipped from Coen’s shirt. Sweat was coating me and it felt like my breathing was shallow. I only liked that sort of breathing when I saw an Abcurse without a shirt. And not that it was really an important thought right at that moment, but those five wore way too many clothes.
“What’s going on, Willa?” Coen was already pulling me to my feet, and some of the weirdness lifted at his touch.
I took a staggering step closer to the statues, feeling a strange pull in their direction. “I think you’re wrong,” I murmured.
The others must have doubled back to us, because I could hear Siret’s laughter.
“Don’t even mention that to Yael,” he said. “We’ll never hear the end of it.”
Coen ignored his brother, capturing my hand and lacing our fingers together. “Rarely am I wrong, but I’ll bite … what do you believe I’m wrong about?”
I stood right below Staviti’s monument now, and I had to place my hand against the pillar below it. I needed to get closer. To feel the smooth marbled stone.
“The gods are in these statues,” I found myself saying.
The others stepped in to the side of us. No one responded to my statement. Instead, they tilted their heads back and looked up. Just as I was doing.
“I can feel him.” The words burst out of me and then, before I could say another thing, my legs were out from under me and I was gone from the temple.
We moved so quickly that my head spun, forcing me to close my eyes tightly and press against whoever was holding me. There hadn’t been time to see which of the Abcurses it was, but I knew it was one of them. The little scrap of soul left inside me was all content and happy.
The arms around me tightened, but we were slowing enough that I could open my eyes and look up. Coen. He toned down the god speed as we traversed the hallway to reach his room, and when those hard-as-stone eyes lowered to meet mine, I opened my mouth, and words started spewing out.
“I didn’t mean whatever I said that was wrong. I clearly said something wrong, because you have your scary face on. I also didn’t mean to almost faint. That was an accident. I take it back.”
The scary expression he was wearing didn’t lift and he didn’t speak until we were back in his room and the rest of the guys had joined us. I was back on my feet now, and as always, I found myself drifting across to my little space. I liked to check on my things. I’d never had things which just stayed put and weren’t sold off by a drunk mother. Just as I stepped in closer to my shelves, I let out a bit of a yelp, and then there were five massive bodies crowded around me.
“Rocks?” Siret questioned, his head swivelling to take in the space.
“Where the hell is my bed?” I demanded, jabbing my fingers toward the space where I had made them drag a mattress. Yes, it had been a piece of crap one from my bed in the dwellers’ dorms, but it was mine and I didn’t like my stuff disappearing.
Yael shook his head, his massive body seeming to relax from whatever raised arm position he had been in. His fighter pose. “We had it thrown out.”
“You … had it thrown out? What the hell is wrong with you all? Where am I going to sleep?”
My eyes dropped to the floor, which admittedly had a nice thick rug on it. It was probably softer than that mattress anyway.
I’d been so busy trying to work out my next bed that I’d missed whatever Yael had just said. Half of the sentence registered with me, though, and I spun around to blink stupidly at him.
“What did you say?” I asked.
He took a step closer to me, one of his hands curving around the back of my neck as he pulled me into his body. “I said, Willa-toy, that we don’t trust you to sleep on your own any longer. You’re just too good at getting into trouble. Especially with Karyn’s abilities, and now there’s a chance the Original Gods might be watching you. You’ll sleep with one of us every night.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I growled. “You expect me to believe that you five got rid of my mattress in the three clicks it took us to get back here? Seriously?”
I tried moving my head to see the others, but Yael tightened his grip on my neck, keeping my attention on him. His jaw was set, his eyes heavy on my face, a storm rolling over his expression.
He wasn’t going to answer me.
“Which one of you will I stay with?” I finally managed to ask, tearing my eyes away from Yael in an attempt to see the others again. I caught sight of Aros and Rome, both wearing a look of pain, as though sharing their beds with me was a horrible chore they needed to complete.
Before I could narrow my eyes and say something like, you all suck, I don’t even want to sleep in your really soft, cloud like god beds, Coen answered my question. “Probably a schedule will work best, you can rotate between the five of us. Normally I’d say you can choose and it won’t be a problem, but for Yael … it would definitely be a problem.”
Yael shrugged, drawing my attention back again. “Only a problem if she doesn’t choose me—which she would, because I would make her choose me.”
I jabbed him hard in the chest, something I found myself doing to this particular Abcurse a lot. His eyes turned cloudy again, brimming with darkness and turning the usual mossy green of his gaze into something frightening.
“No using your powers on me, Four,” I warned, my voice a little shaky. “If you do, I’ll choose you to sleep next to, and then I’ll accidentally-on-purpose stab you while you sleep.”
He wrapped his hand around my finger, and when I tried to pull my hand back, he kept it tightly pressed against his chest. He then lowered his head so our lips were inches apart. His voice was like a silken caress as he whispered, “You’d never stab me on purpose. You like me, Rocks. You like us all.”