I gulped loudly. “Do you think he’s going to be mad?” My tentative question had Aros laughing even harder, and he didn’t answer it, which was a little worrying.
Aros turned back to see if his brothers needed help—Siret and Yael were through, and Coen brought down another chunk of rock, but he was also through. So that left Rome. I might have held my breath while I waited for him, but somehow his huge body slipped through easily. He was way too graceful for a muscled giant, which was so unfair. He needed to share some grace with me.
Once we were all inside, Rome hauled Cyrus up again and then we were in the living area. I pointed out where the bed was in the next room and the Neutral god was dropped there. The rest of us sat across the white couches, around the smouldering fire.
“He won’t be out much longer,” Rome started to say without preamble. “We need a plan now.”
My eyes flicked toward the alcove, which separated us from his room. “How is he even out at all? I mean, he’s a big scary god, and I don’t have any muscle tone.”
Yael, who was on my right side, shifted forward on the couch before angling his body toward me. “Haven’t you noticed that you, on occasion, produce energy of more than a dweller? That you have strength of more than a dweller?”
I nodded a few times. I had definitely noticed that, but it was so random that it was still difficult to tell if it was me, or something the Abcurses had done.
Yael continued. “You hit him hard, Rocks. It’s not easy to knock a god out.” He ruffled my hair as he added, “Proud of you.”
I pushed his hand away and scowled. “You’ll be next if you keep it up.”
He laughed. “We expect you to try and knock into us, usually by accident, so we’re always on our guard.”
I elbowed him in the ribs, hoping to prove him wrong, but he was ready, deflecting my blow with little more than a swipe of his hand. “Asshole.”
He sobered up then. “I miss hearing that in my head; it seems awfully quiet without your constant and inane chatter.”
I swallowed hard, trying to moisten my dry lips. “I wondered if you all might be … relieved. You know, that you weren’t tied to a weak, clumsy-cursed dweller any longer.”
I was staring at my hands, willing myself not to crack apart inside. I knew that the link wasn’t something that any of us had asked for, but for me it was something I ended up cherishing. It was hard for me to tell if the guys felt the same way.
Coen was suddenly on his feet, and the fierceness of his expression just about sucked all the air from my lungs. He held me captive for what felt like an eternity, our silent conversation filled with pain and heartache and truth.
He had just parted those perfect lips—I was hanging onto the edge of my seat waiting for him to speak—when a voice boomed from the doorway between the bedroom and lounge room.
“What the hell just happened?” Cyrus was beyond mad. There was so much fury on his face, his cheeks tinged with a dark red, his eyes flaming as he stalked toward our group. He was still shirtless, his muscles bunched up as he clenched his fists by his side.
His focus was on me, and I knew I needed to deal with it before an all-out god-war erupted. I was up and over the back of the couch before Yael could stop me—and he did at least lunge for my arm. I landed in front of Cyrus, intercepting him.
“You need to break our soul-link,” I demanded. “I know you can do it, you said you were going to break it and hand me over to Rau.” My fists were clenched and I could feel my nails cutting into my palms as I shook them at him.
Cyrus had stopped moving. His eyes were a glittering vortex of darkness as he dragged his gaze across me. “I do not take orders from you, dweller. You are nothing more than a possession.”
The Abcurses were right behind me now, so I spun around and held a hand up. Silently telling them to hold the heck up. To give me a moment.
Cue multiple growls and curses, but they did all briefly pause. I spun back to Cyrus, who hadn’t moved. There was a mocking grin on his face, some of the darkness fading from his eyes.
“You hit me,” he said, without inflection. “I have not been struck for more life-cycles than I can remember.”
“I’m special,” I declared sarcastically. I actually was special, but not in a kick-the-gods-asses kind of way. More in the dropped-on-my-head-at-birth kind of way.
Cyrus lurched toward me so suddenly that I shrieked, attempting to leap back, but he already had his arms around me.
“You can’t be allowed to leave, dweller. I’m sorry.”
“You can’t take me to Rau,” I countered. “He wants to use me for something. Something which might destroy all the gods and Minatsol.”
I had already been warned of what would happen if there was a Beta of Chaos. Too much Chaos would result in the deaths of dwellers, sols, and gods alike. I knew I couldn’t be the actual Chaos Beta—that was impossible, I wasn’t even a sol. Even so, there was a chance he could still somehow tap into the curse within me and use it for some reason. That had to be why he wanted me. Why he wanted to tie us together. I couldn’t let that happen.
Before the Neutral god could answer, heat caressed my back, and I felt Rome and Coen’s hands on me. I was starting to recognise the five different energies of my guys. Rome’s was the coldest—hard and unyielding, the sheer strength of it scared me. Coen’s was sharp and biting, more intrusive—but the tingle of his power was enough to bring my blood to boil and turn my body on in ways I didn’t know were possible.
“She’s ours. Give her back to us.” Rome was the one stepping up now, and I had not expected that from him. He was the most reticent; the one I felt resented our connection more than the others.
When my wide eyes met his, he didn’t smile, but something softened there. He turned away to growl at Cyrus. “We want this soul-link.”
Those words were for me too; I knew it, and everything inside of me clenched and twisted and heated. I could feel Cyrus shifting. Pulling me higher up his body and further away from the others. I wasn’t even sure why, exactly, he was restraining me.
“I’ll make you five a deal,” he said over my head.
“Six,” I interrupted. “There are six of us here wanting to make a deal.”
“Hush, bargaining tool.” His shook me a little bit, and then went straight back to deal-making over my head. “If you steal something of mine back from Rau, I’ll bind her to the five of you again.”
“Deal,” Siret snapped, walking around the others and grabbing my arm.
He pulled hard enough to wrench me from Cyrus, and then he deposited me behind him, where several sets of hands pulled me even further back. Cyrus seemed to be watching all of us with a small smile on his face, which looked highly disturbing and sent a chill down my spine.
“What are we stealing back?” Yael questioned. He was on my left side, and Aros was on my right. Both had a grip on my arms, and I knew that I wasn’t getting free anytime soon.