“Okay,” I announced immediately, trying to keep my voice down. “I’m so ready. Let’s do this. I’ll take Point.” I strode forward, but someone snagged the back of my dress, halting my progress.
“Nice try,” Coen grumbled, sliding me backwards. “You’re still staying right here. I’m going in with Trickery and Persuasion.”
He stepped around me and Aros dropped his hands onto my shoulders, pulling me back into his body. He was warm, his chest hard against my back. I wanted to curl around him and … no, dammit! I quickly wrenched myself out of his arms and stalked over to Rome instead, who definitely wasn’t going to start cuddling me. I also gave Aros a narrowed-eyed glare for good measure. He smirked at me, a spark in his golden eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing.
“I don’t like this,” I said to Rome’s chest. He was standing about a foot in front of my face. “We should all go in together.”
“Bit late,” he remarked dryly.
I spun around, and sure enough … Yael, Siret, and Coen had already disappeared.
Bastards!
“Ah.” Aros chuckled. “Good to have you back, sweetheart.”
“You’re a bastard, too,” I said, aloud this time.
“I’m sorry,” a shocked voice snapped all of our heads toward the space between the columns that Yael, Siret, and Coen had just disappeared through only half a click ago. “Did I approach at a bad time? I will leave and return at a more appropriate time. Forgive me, Sacred Ones.”
We all stared at the form right there before us. It was a female server wearing the weird one-piece cloth that the female servers all wore, with her bald head and waxy skin on display. I lunged at her without thinking, grabbing onto both of her arms.
“Got you!” I exclaimed triumphantly. “It was me! I got you! Before anyone else!”
She reared back, a mechanical sort of choking sound escaping from her. It was as though she had rehearsed the sound after hearing one of the gods use it, but still hadn’t quite perfected it, and didn’t understand what it was supposed to mean.
“Ah, Willa …” Rome sounded amused and exasperated all at once. “You might want to check it’s the right server before you smash a rock over her head and kidnap her.”
Cue rehearsed choking sound.
“What’s your name?” I asked the server quickly, just as footsteps sounded, thudding toward us against the marble.
“Steve, Sacred One,” she replied. “I was alerted that the master had visitors, so I came to attend to them. The master does not often have visitors.”
“That’s because the master is a dick,” I told her, as Coen appeared, followed closely by Siret and Yael.
“Told you I saw one,” Yael huffed out, pointing to Steve.
“I caught her.” I turned my stare from one Abcurse to another, until each of them had suffered my glare. “And in less than three clicks, too. While you three were off gallivanting—”
“Gallivanting?” Siret interrupted on a snort. “Did Cyrus teach you that word? I’ll kill him.”
“Actually … Emmy did.” I deepened my frown, brandishing Steve, who was my tool for dominance in this situation. “But that’s not the point. The point is that I caught Steve. All on my own. Without any help. You shouldn’t make me wait and be the look-out next time. I can clearly do a better job than all five of you put together.”
“Steve offered herself up, didn’t she?” Coen asked. He wasn’t even asking me. He was asking Rome.
“Basically walked into Willa’s arms and said ‘take me!’” Rome answered easily, reaching over me and grabbing a hold of Steve. He pulled her around to stand in front of him, ignoring the fact that I held on stubbornly to her other arm. “Steve.” He had to bend at the waist a little to see her face. “I’m going to release you from Rau’s hold, but I have to do it the old-fashioned way. As soon as you’re free, I need you to open a doorway into your master—your real master’s cave. And then before you do anything else, I want you to open another doorway to Blesswood. We can’t open any doorways ourselves, because our magic will be traced. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sacred One,” Steve quickly replied.
Rome then reached forward, and I finally noticed a small collar tucked under the edge of her skin suit. He gripped the collar in both hands and closed his eyes. I expected a burst of energy, or maybe some sort of light … except that would have required power that they weren’t allowed to use in Topia. So what was he going to do?
I got my answer when he let out a low rumble of air, and in a movement so quick I almost missed it, he jerked both of his hands in opposite directions and snapped the collar right off her neck.
Steve slumped forward, before straightening and shaking herself off.
She was all business then. “Thank you, Sacred One. I feared I would never serve my true master again. I will open a doorway for you now, but I will need my arm.”
Rome, who had released her after he broke the collar, looked confused. “I don’t have your damn—oh … Willa, you can let the server go now.”
Crap, I’d been holding on the entire time. I quickly released her, and stepped back for good measure. Giving her all the personal space she needed to make a doorway. Whatever that meant. I assumed it was how the gods all managed to just pop in and out of Blesswood Academy without ever being seen. She closed her eyes and was still. I waited for something to happen. For an actual doorway to appear, or a hole to rip through the sky. Maybe another great big flying beast. Anything, really. But nothing happened, and eventually, she simply held out her hand.
“You guys go first,” Aros murmured.
Coen nodded and stepped past Rome, touching Steve’s hand. One click he was standing there, and the next click, he wasn’t. It was that simple. And that frightening. Rome was next, followed by Siret, and Yael. Aros had to force me forward, because my feet didn’t want to lift from the marble. He also had to force my arm up, and my hand to Steve’s, but just before he touched my skin to hers, he dropped his face beside mine and whispered my name.
“Willa.”
I turned, and his lips were on mine.
I was there one click, and gone the next.
When I landed, it was on my knees, the breath rushing out of my chest. My lips were still burning from the too-brief kiss, and I was pretty sure that I was going to either jump Aros when he landed beside me, or punch him in the face for continuing to use his powers on me. Except he wasn’t … not really. He was just being himself. That made it doubly annoying.
The fact that my body was craving everything his was promising … that wasn’t his fault either. It was none of their faults that I felt an irresistible pull to them. It was my fault, for forming a soul-link to them. And for being attracted to them in the first place. And for having no self-control.