“Should we do something about all of this?” I heard Yael ask.
We were in our own little group near the apparently-sealed entrance, and while I couldn’t see the Chaos happening in the centre of the room, I could hear it. I could hear people shouting at each other. I could hear things breaking, tearing and shattering.
“It could drain us completely,” Coen answered. “Rau is fresh out of Topia. Overpowering his magic won’t be possible with how depleted we are right now.”
“Why don’t you put the dweller down and we can talk?” That had been Aros’s voice … but there was something in the way he said it that gave me pause. And it seemed as though I wasn’t the only one who noticed the change in his tone.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rome snapped, pulling me off his shoulder and setting my feet against the ground.
I had barely gained my feet before he was nudging me behind his back. Blocking me from … his brothers? Aros, Coen, Siret, and Yael were all standing together, facing Rome. They looked furious.
“Wait—” I tried to push past Rome, but he shot his arm out. “You’re being affected!” I told them, stepping back from Rome’s arm, keeping my eyes on the others. “You’re all being affected by Rau’s Chaos right now. Just cut it out and we’ll be fine.”
“Cut it out?” Rome was spinning now, and they were all facing me.
Wait, shit. They were all turning their Chaos-addled tempers on me. Why wasn’t I also being affected? I backed up several steps, until I felt a wall at my back. Right where the entrance door should have been. One by one, they each donned a look of heavy suspicion, like I was the one acting weird instead of them.
“Yes, cut it out! You need to snap out of it before you go all angry-gods on each other and we fail the second round. What if there’s a third round? Shit. What if there’s a fourth round?” I was almost hissing the words. I might have been starting to panic.
I did not want to be the only person in a room full of Chaos-puppets. Hell no. I did not sign up for that. Not that there was anything I did sign up for … other than the whole beingsent-to-Blesswood thing. I signed up for that by way of an elaborate ruse to graduate school. And if I signed up for that … I supposed by association I had also signed up for the Abcurse brothers, which meant that I had also signed up for a whole world of god-related chaos that would make me wish I’d lost the ability to sign up for things a long, long time ago.
“You need to calm down, Willa,” Coen said to me, that suspicious look still on his face. He was talking to me as though he thought I was about to explode.
That might have been because I was about to explode—but that was his fault! It was their fault! I had no idea how to deal with five Chaos-drugged beings with the strength and power of the Abcurses. I was not a match for even one of them, let alone all of them.
“You need to not tell her what to do,” Yael snarled at Coen, suddenly turning his attention from me to his brother.
“Yeah!” I started to turn on Coen too, before shaking my head and backing off. “I mean no. Well yeah, you do need to not tell me what to do. But we can talk about that late—”
“You need to back off,” Coen snarled at Yael, ignoring me completely. His hands crashing into Yael’s chest, sending him stumbling back several steps. “I saw her first.”
“Actually,” Siret interrupted, his voice a low growl. “I saw her first.”
“Actually!” I raised my voice above all of them, trying to get their attention. “There was a healer back in the seventh ring who definitely saw me first, although I’m pretty sure she regrets helping my mother give birth to me. Or if she didn’t before, she will once she hears about all the great work I’ve been doing in Blesswood.”
They could hear each other just fine, but they didn’t seem to want to listen to me, which made me mad all over again. The five of them were closing in on each other, pushing and growling and arguing over who had seen me first, which was a ridiculous thing to argue over. I knew the moment the real fighting began to break out, because I could hear the thud of a punch being thrown—specifically, Aros’s punch—into Coen’s face. I couldn’t jump into the middle of them, so I started running back toward the tables, thinking that I could maybe find a jug of water that hadn’t been smashed over someone’s head already. My brilliant plan was to throw some water on the Abcurses, and if that didn’t work … I could start hitting them with the empty jug.
My brilliant plan did not take into account all of the other people.
I had barely even reached the closest table before arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling my feet off the ground.
“Be nice and quiet now, and I won’t need to involve anyone else. We can settle this just between you and me.” I didn’t recognise the voice. It was low and soft, but somehow still dangerous.
“Um …” I twisted around, catching a flash of ice-blue eyes and light-blond hair before he jostled me in his arms, forcing me to face forward again.
“That was a stupid ultimatum,” I told him, trying to remain calm. “I want to involve other people.”
“No you don’t, Willa. Rau is waiting for you, and the Abcurses are in no shape to fight him right now. Look at them … his Chaos shouldn’t be affecting them this much, but they’ve allowed themselves to weaken too much. They’re only a small step above sols right now. You’ll be hurting them if you drag them into this.”
I stared down at the arms wrapped around my waist, and then I lifted my head to my guys. It was so much worse than it had been only half a click ago. They seemed to have separated into the triplets against the twins, and the triplets were starting to gain the upper hand. It seemed that not even Rome’s strength was a match for an extra Abcurse. But they were only fighting with their fists at this stage. I needed to find a way to stop them before they started fighting with their powers. They would destroy each other.
And then heal.
And then start again.
“Fine.” I tried pressing against the arm holding me up. “I’ll walk out there myself. You can stop hugging me now. I’m not the hugging type.”
“Too bad,” he grunted. He pulled me up a little higher, and then he was striding toward the door the gods had disappeared out of.
The door unsealed itself at his approach, and before I could even blink we were on the other side and Rau was in my face. Literally. Blond-guy hadn’t put me down yet, so I seemed to have gained a few inches in height, and Rau standing directly in front of me put us on the same level. I could actually see the little tendrils of darkness threading through the pupils of his eyes. He was that close. And then he was touching my face.