Before anyone could respond, there was another person strolling towards us through the pillars. Rau appeared in a sweep of red cloak, Wanda following meekly behind him. My first instinct was to hide, because Rau scared me in a way that I couldn’t quite explain. He acted so insane all the time with his maniacal laughter and his Chaos power, but there were moments … moments where I felt the deliberateness of him. The intention behind the madness. I didn’t like those moments, and I didn’t want him to be anywhere near me just in case I witnessed another of them. Unfortunately, I also didn’t want to run away. I didn’t want to give him that kind of power over me.
Before I had to make any hard life choices, lightning cracked across the sky above us, and dark clouds started to form. It was an interesting distraction because the world had been very sunny and calm up until that point. My eyes flicked between the male gods and the single server, and I wondered which one of them was responsible. Probably not the server.
Rau had caused a storm before, on Minatsol, but I didn’t think it was him this time. I might have gotten my answer when Siret let out a low snarl, and then punched Rau right in the face. The Abcurses were starting to lose control, and it seemed as though the atmosphere was losing control right along with them. It shocked me because that was the sort of behaviour I expected from Rome, or Coen. Maybe even Yael if he was feeling competitive. But Siret and Aros were different. Calmer. Laughter and love was how I categorised them in my head, so it was shocking to see such fury across his face, to hear the solid thud of his fists as they crashed into Rau. I didn’t like it, which might have explained the way I shrieked and tried to throw the jug of water on them, only to realise it was empty and all I had actually thrown was the jug.
Which smacked into Siret’s head.
He swung around with another snarl and I froze, both hands held out in front of me. “Shit! Sorry, I meant to hit Rau … and I meant to throw the water not the jug! And I’m … shit!”
Some of Siret’s anger faded away as he watched me panicking, before eventually his lips tilted in a small grin. He shook his head. “Maybe don’t try and help me next time, might be safer if you just cheer from the side.”
Cheer from the … I hurried forward to grab the jug again, this time to hit him on purpose, but before I could, Cyrus scooped me up.
“While you are tied to me, I would prefer you to refrain from violent activities. I don’t have time to be rescuing you.”
I truly realised something then: something which had been apparent from the first moment the Abcurses had appeared, but which I had been ignoring. I had probably been hoping that if I ignored it long enough, it wouldn’t end up being true. But it was. The link with them was gone. I couldn’t feel them at all anymore. No mental connection. No relaxing of my body when they were in close proximity. Nothing.
A tightening of my chest was the first sign of my rage and panic. Cyrus had done this, he had stolen from me one of the most important things in my world. I struggled against him until he set me down, and then I kicked at him, aiming for his balls again. He had clearly learned my one and only fight skill, because this time he easily side-stepped me.
“Don’t push me, dweller,” he warned quietly, grabbing my arms and lifting my feet from the ground again. “I am not like Abil’s sons. I care nothing for you.”
Jabbing him hard in the chest, which hurt as much as it did every time I jabbed a god, I put my best snarly face on. “Put me down you overgrown man-child. I’m a living being, not a ragdoll. You were the idiot who tied yourself to me without knowing a single thing about me, so now you have to suffer the consequences.”
And with that final statement, I managed to plant my foot against a nearby pillar, shoving against it, using my legs as leverage to move him away from me. My hope had been to overbalance him. I assumed that he would stumble back and hopefully drop me. I hadn’t realised how close to the edge of the marble platform we were, and since Cyrus hadn’t been expecting my shove, he stumbled in the wrong direction. Rome’s shout of “Willa!” echoed in my ears as the Neutral god, with me still held tightly against him, tumbled off the edge of the platform.
The fall lasted longer than I expected—we hadn’t really looked to be that far up—which meant that I had plenty of time to wonder if I was about to die. Would my death hurt the Abcurses? I guess it wouldn’t now since somehow asshole-silver-haired-god had removed my ‘link’ to them. Removed it and replaced it with one of his own. It did give me a sense of relief to know that if I was currently plummeting to my death, at least they wouldn’t feel any of it.
I needed them to be okay, but I was also panicking deep inside. Not being connected to them felt a little like I’d lost a limb, or an organ. The one beating inside my chest. Still, I couldn’t focus on that because I had to focus on the impact which was coming my way in five … four … three … two …
Just as I closed my eyes and sent out one final goodbye, Cyrus tightened his arms around me and it began to feel as though my body was being sucked through a tiny hole in the wall. Everything tightened around me, and I couldn’t breathe for a click, before we landed with a solid thud on a soft surface.
Holy shit! That was so close.
Somehow, Cyrus had managed to save us at the very last micro-click … because he was a god and he could do things like that. Which meant that he could have done something like that sooner, rather than almost letting us die. With a shriek of poorly-concealed outrage, I bolted upright, smacking him hard on the shoulder. “If you could just transport us like that, why the hell didn’t you do it sooner?”
The god, who was underneath me on what looked like a massive bed, just blinked up at me a few times. Those unusual but striking eyes seemed almost stunned, or at least confused.
Realising I was sitting on his broad chest, I quickly scrambled off, landing in a heap on the floor. By the time I was up on my feet, he was standing beside me, staring down at me, still with that same perplexed expression. Seriously, get a grip, I thought moodily, I’m not that weird.
“Why are you not afraid of me?” His question took me by surprise, while I was mentally measuring his height compared to the tallest Abcurse.
Which was, admittedly, a weird thing to be doing, but he seemed to be even taller than Rome. As he spoke, I focussed directly on his face, on that harsh landscape of beauty and terror. Unable to maintain eye contact any longer, I decided to stare at the wall just behind him. He was so potent, and I was uncomfortable being alone in the same space as him. I had no idea what being a Neutral really meant, or what power the role afforded him, but it was clear that he would have no problem bringing down a sentence on any one of the gods, and that made him a terrifying prospect. A terrifying prospect that I was oddly unafraid of.
Of all the other gods that I could have tied myself to, it just had to be the one who enforced all the rules. Because I was so good at following rules.