So not cool.
I jerked away from his hand, and he smiled his signature creepy smile before backing up a few steps. “I’m not going to hurt you, Willa.” He seemed to be considering me. Examining me. “You don’t need to be afraid of me. I’d like it if we could be …” He seemed to consider his next word, and when it came out of his mouth, his smile had gained a whole new level of creepiness. “Friends.”
“Yeah, no.” I shook my head as much as I could while still trying to basically assimilate myself into the guy behind me so that I wouldn’t be as close to Rau as I was. “Firstly, I’m not afraid of you. I just like hugging Blondie here.” I heard the snort from behind, but thankfully he didn’t counter by pointing out that not five clicks earlier I had professed to dislike hugs as a whole. “I’m a hugger now. It’s my new thing. Only sols though. I don’t hug gods. And I’m not friends with gods either.” I stopped short of saying the Abcurses don’t count, because they’re pretending to be sols, because I didn’t want the sol behind me to find out that piece of information.
But … he already knew, didn’t he? He had alluded to it after he had grabbed me.
Which meant that …
“Silly girl.” Rau was laughing again. I was starting to think that he was always laughing. He didn’t even need to say things to scare people: all he had to do was laugh that creepy laugh. “That ‘sol’ you’re hugging is the god Razi. He’s the Envy Beta. And I will point out, he doesn’t like it when people show favouritism.”
“Well if it makes him feel any better, I like him much better than you, which is favouritism in his direction. Sounds like something an Envy Beta could get behind, am I right?” I tried to shift my head to Blondie, but he only tightened his arms, keeping me facing Rau—who was now losing the creepy smile in favour of a creepy scowl.
Somehow I found myself in a stare-off with Chaos personified. My breath caught in my chest as he continued to hold my eyes captive. I wanted to blink, to tear my gaze away, but I couldn’t. The only other thing which seemed to take even a sliver of my notice, outside of god-of-the-creeps, was an uncomfortable sensation low in my stomach. At first I thought it was simply the tight band of muscles holding me prisoner, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t because of Razi, as the sensation was only increasing. Soon, it was all I could focus on, and with that I was finally able to tear my gaze away from Rau.
I glanced down, as far as I could, expecting to see a dozen or so knives protruding from my abdomen, but there was nothing there. Just golden arms. No evidence of what was ripping me apart.
“It has started,” Rau said, turning away. His cloak swished behind him as he added. “Bring her, we need to be in Topia.”
“No!” My scream took even me by surprise. As soon as they had started to move, the pain in my gut was almost superseded by the pain in my chest. I was leaving the Abcurses. Leaving them while they were trying to beat each other to death. I couldn’t go, I had to help them. Instinct was telling me that I was the only one who could.
I kicked out, struggling with all of my strength. Which was nothing compared to the strength of a god. Still, I had to try. The pain between my chest and stomach was starting to merge, spreading across my entire abdomen, filling me with a hot energy that felt like it was melting my insides. I barely noticed as glass started to shatter around me, windows and sconces exploding as Rau moved through the hall. What the hell? Why was he still causing so much chaos? He had what he wanted, which was apparently some one-on-one time with me in Topia.
“I don’t want to be a Jeffrey,” I found myself sobbing, even though I hadn’t been actively thinking that.
“Will this kill her?” Razi sounded uncertain now.
I could feel his grip relax a little, although his strides remained strong and sure. He was about two feet behind Rau, keeping pace with the Original God. Rau didn’t bother to stop, or turn, he just replied casually over his shoulder. “This will not kill her. This is a metamorphosis.”
A meta-what-the-hellosis? Seriously, if I wanted to think and hear big words, I would have just hung around Emmy for a few rotations.
“You know they will come after her,” the Envy Beta added, almost as an afterthought. “I’ve never seen them act that way before, and … no one knows what they are capable of.”
Now this was more like the sort of conversation I was interested in having. Learning about the Abcurses was a slow, almost painful process. They were not hugely forthcoming with information, and I tended to live in the moment, not really looking forward or backwards. I loved the status quo we had established, minus the pact and their need to beat the shit out of each other. I didn’t want to upset an already volatile dynamic by prying into their lives on Topia. Although … if someone happened to be casually talking about them in front of me. Well … what’s a girl to do but listen?
“I do not fear them, they are not more powerful than the Originals.” Rau sounded confident, but the tone of his voice changed just enough to indicate that it might have been a bit of an act. The Abcurses were like no other, and it clearly worried the gods.
“We know that Staviti and Abil regularly punish them to weaken their powers. That’s why they sent them away, and made their time on this backward world so much longer than usual.”
Razi was so busy sprouting off his opinion that he was completely taken by surprise when Rau whipped around and gripped him tightly around his throat. I tumbled to the ground in an unceremonious heap, quickly rolling out of the way as the two gods went head-to-head.
“You would do well to remember who you are,” Rau snarled out the words. “You’re under my command while we’re here on Minatsol, so don’t push me. I can already feel you weakening.”
I was far enough away now to get up, my legs wobbly beneath me as I tried to pull myself together. The pain was crippling, like nothing I had ever felt before, and I wasn’t sure I could actually run.
Rau quickly set me straight on that. “I wouldn’t even bother, Willa. If you don’t make it to Topia soon, the pain will destroy you.”
“I don’t understand,” I heaved out, my hands resting on my knees. “What’s happening to me?”
He just shook his head, pulling his cloak tighter around me. “All I can tell you is that you are changing. I feel the energy morphing your insides. None of this makes sense … my curse should not be reacting like this. It really should have killed you. You’re a dweller, and it was designed for a god. So what are you, little creature? How is it that you have captivated five gods? How do you wield the energy without effort?”
What the freaking hell was he talking about? And when would this pain end?