The first was Abil, and I was certain that everyone in the room was beside themselves knowing that an Original God was there. He wore purple robes and he strode toward the long table with purpose, looking as though he wanted to get the dance started and ended as quickly as possible. Either he was a very good actor, or else this whole thing definitely hadn’t been his idea.
As he sat down, his eyes snapped to his sons, and he looked over each of them before noticing me. His brows furrowed a little as he examined me, but my attention was already moving to the next god. This one had silver hair and white robes, but I couldn’t remember what white anything was supposed to mean in the god-world. He was … breathtaking, there was no other way to describe him. He looked younger than Abil, and his eyes were an odd colour: pale, and cold—shot through with silver to match the hair that was pulled back from his face. He didn’t look like the kind of person you wanted to get into a fight with, despite his apparent youth—which did not give me a whole lot of confidence for this dinner. They were bringing in the badass gods. He didn’t even look at anyone as he came in: he simply strode through the door and took his seat, all in one fluid movement.
Brina was next, the slit in her robe parting around one of her legs as she walked, transforming her into an otherworldly vision of sensual grace. She grinned at my guys before taking a seat next to their father. Abil turned to her, and they started talking immediately, leaning toward each other. The silver-haired god was still ignoring everyone. He was showing his scary face to the tablecloth as though it had been the one to drag him to the hall and forced him to sit there.
The next three gods wore robes of green, brown, and yellow respectively. Two males and a female. I had the feeling they weren’t Original Gods, although I had no idea how I knew that.
“Beta’s for Vice, Bestiary, and Nature.” Yael informed me. “Watch out for nature. The Original God is not a bad guy, but his Beta is a bitch of the worst kind.”
My eyes remained locked on the female with short black hair. Her robes were a deep, rich khaki green, which seemed to match her eye colour.
“I thought green was your colour,” I whispered back. The room was deathly silent as everyone gawked at the gods.
He shrugged. “I’m more of a forest green.” His eyes ran across my dress as he said that, and I could tell he was still pleased with his creation. “And I’m also not one of the Original Gods. Not all gods have specific colours. Generally just the Originals – we have them because we demanded them.”
How surprising. No doubt Yael led that protest group.
“Who is the silver-haired guy?” I asked.
That particular god remained staring at the table, but I sensed that he was still aware of everything happening inside the room. It was in the way he turned his head minutely toward sounds, in the way his eyes moved across the tablecloth. It was disturbing—and Abil being all buddy-buddy with the Sorcery Beta was also disturbing, especially since I trusted Abil about as much as I trusted myself to walk through an arena obstacle course by myself without dying at least twice. And then there was the small fact that Brina was supposedly going to give me an experimental drug at some point. She had earned my distrust by association now.
Siret was grinning at me; it was a true smile of amusement.
“What?” I half snarled.
He just kept on grinning that stupid grin, before he finally said, “Your brain … it’s not like a normal brain. Not for a dweller, sol, or god. It’s fascinating. Scary—in an ‘I’m not sure if this is healthy’ kind of way, but still fascinating.”
I glared as hard as I could, but that soon hurt my ‘weird’ brain, so I went back to observing the gods and waiting for someone to answer me about the silver-haired one.
“That is the Neutral,” Coen informed me, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared around the room. His glare was truly terrifying, whereas mine probably had me looking a little mentally unstable. “He’s the god that’s called in as a mediator during our fights.”
An involuntary shudder ran through me at the thought of gods fighting. That would have to get messy. “Is it a bad sign that he’s here tonight?” I swallowed hard, before running my clammy hands across the lace of my dress. I immediately regretted the nervous gesture; I needed to act as tough as the Abcurses, who literally looked as though they couldn’t give a single shit about being in a room with the Neutral god.
Their blasé attitude lasted right up until the seventh god made his presence known. He had been standing across the way, conversing with some of the sol leaders—at least I assumed they were leaders. The one thing that I actually knew about the inner workings of Blesswood was that Elowin was the head of the Dweller Relations Committee, but she was dead now, so I’d gone back to knowing nothing at all about the inner workings of Blesswood. The seventh god had been mostly hidden behind a pillar, which meant that none of us could see his bright red robes.
“Goddammit!” I snarled, trying my best to mimic Rome this time. There were these low snarling sounds coming from his chest, which he totally pulled off. I sounded a little like a wounded jungle cat.
The boys were standing taller now, all of them closing in on me, surrounding me in a way that pretty clearly warned anyone off attempting to touch me. I wasn’t going to complain—I didn’t want Rau to touch me either, and I had no badass skills to enforce that sentiment. Unlike the Abcurses.
“Why is he here?” I murmured into Coen’s broad back, my body sinking closer to him. At least my soul fragments were happy: like drunk idiots; running, laughing, rolling in the mud.
Get it together, souls!
“Now she’s talking to her soul pieces.” Siret was back to being amused over my weird brain. “Can I keep her?” He turned pleading eyes on his brothers, only for Yael to spin in a flash and deliver a punch right into the centre of his chest.
“If anyone is keeping her, it’s me,” he snapped. “I won her fair and square.”
Oh for fuc—“Listen up, assholes. For the last time, I’m not a piece of furniture that you guys own, and can trade around when you feel like it—”
I was cut off mid-rant by Rome. “Quit fighting, you three, we need to keep our focus on the gods. This situation could get out of control in a click and none of us can be taken by surprise.”
The seven gods were seated now. Rau had taken his spot right on the end and was calmly looking in my direction. His slicked back dark hair, and those dark eyes were almost too creepy for me to focus on. I’d really appreciate it if he toned that down before he visited again. Actually, never visiting again would be an even better solution to my Rau problem.