Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)

“Careful there, dweller. Your boyfriends wouldn’t like it if you messed up that pretty face.”

Everything inside of me seized up; he filled the space completely and I was immediately wary. He hadn’t been in the cart with us. I knew that for certain. There was no way to miss a mountain-sized sol. My breathing got rapid as I asked, “Are you stalking me? Why are you always around?”

I was mostly steady on my feet now; Dru had to bend himself almost in half to fit in the small back section. “I was riding up the front of the cart, so I was just checking that everyone was off before I went in.”

Swallowing hard, I fought against the rising tide of red that was creeping through my cheeks. I knew it was happening because my face felt like it was on fire.

“Well, great … then. Good work and stuff. See you later.”

I dashed out, catching my foot on the door before practically tumbling down the small steps that had been lowered off the side. Emmy caught me with ease, and before I could do more than mumble out a thank you, she had her hand around my elbow and was yanking me across a small courtyard. The pincer grip was strong with this one.

“You need to stay away from him,” she said firmly. “He’s bad news.”

No shit. “Do I need to remind you of the three sols you’ve been hanging around?”

She visibly shuddered, and that made me feel instantly better. At least she found them as repulsive as I did. Sols were generally shiny and blessed, but those three made my skin crawl.

As my eyes adjusted to being out in the light, I took stock of what was going on. We were somewhere I recognised: the Minateurs’ council chambers and training facility.

Small pockets of people were gathered around the entrance, conversing in loud booming voices. I recognised the sols on account of their general shininess and the confident way they commanded their own space. There was a dweller or two scattered in there also: they were the ones holding bags and folders, standing in the shadows of the blessed ones.

“There’s no way they’re going to let us into this meeting.” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but my annoyance at being there just kept seeping out in everything I said. “Can one of you tell me how I got into that cart when I was passed out?” I had no idea why I hadn’t asked that earlier. For some reason, I kept waiting for one of them to mention how I got there, but they kept acting like I should already know.

Which I really didn’t.

Case in point: Emmy and Evie both stared at me, their eyebrows bunching in close as they gawked as though I had suddenly grown a second head. “What are you talking about, Will?” Emmy finally asked, her hand flying out and resting against my forehead.

I let out a little growl. “I’m not sick. Stop looking at me like that.”

“You were a little out of it when we found you in the sol’s room,” Evie chimed in. “But you were definitely not passed out. We told you that we were headed to the meeting, and you said that you’d received a message naming you the third dweller representative, and that you were supposed to come with us. Emmy didn’t believe you, but you followed us right into the cart.”

Emmy nodded her own head then, as if to reiterate the point. “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met, Will, but I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the sols—and then you fell asleep before I could get any answers out of you, and we couldn’t wake you up.”

Flashes of images drilled into my brain, Cyrus’s face was so clear for a moment, and then it was gone again. What did he do to me? How long had it been since he switched the soul-link? And were the Abcurses okay?





Five





Dru approached before we could continue our conversation, dropping an arm over my shoulders and nudging Evie out of the way so that he could stand between us. He also dropped an arm over her shoulder, but she was so tiny that she basically started to get sucked into the space between his arm and his meaty torso.

“Evie?” I called out, perhaps louder than was really necessary.

I heard a muffled reply, before Dru announced, “She’s fine. The important question here is what are you doing here?”

I knew that he was talking to me, because he was staring at me, but I wasn’t quite ready to answer his question yet. Mostly because … I had no idea what I was actually doing there. Apparently, I had blacked out and then returned to consciousness without being aware of what I was doing, whilst actively plotting to join in on a very important meeting for the future of Blesswood—acting as a fake official dweller representative. Either Cyrus had somehow manipulated me into doing something while I wasn’t entirely aware of it, or else I had finally gone insane.

“She was invited,” I finally answered Dru, spurred into saying something simply to escape my thoughts. “She’s an official dweller representative.” I was motioning to Emmy, who was frowning at me.

“I was talking about you,” Dru clarified.

He sounded genial enough, as though we were old buddies and he was pleasantly surprised by my sudden, unwarranted appearance … but there was something more in his eyes. Something that glimmered. Something that didn’t belong there—and I couldn’t place what it was. Anger, maybe? Suspicion. Yes, probably suspicion.

It was suspicious, after all. I wasn’t an official representative, I hadn’t been invited—I shouldn’t have even known about the meeting—and yet there I was, standing right outside a building with stone columns lining a front courtyard and giant oak doors leading into a huge hall teeming with sols. It seemed as though the most important sols of Blesswood had not been the only people fortunate enough to be invited to the meeting.

“I’m here because …” I fumbled for an answer as I stared past the doors, following the robes of the people as they passed into the crowd and began to clump into little groups, conversing with each other in hushed little whispers. “Someone put an enchanted necklace on me, because my soul was trying to eat me, and then I passed out. Because it hurt, you know? Anyway, when I woke up, I wasn’t really aware of waking up. I don’t remember it at all, but apparently that version of me really wanted to come to this meeting, so I just walked into the cart. I don’t think the other sols cared enough to count how many dirt-dwellers were in the other seat. We were probably just one big, dirty blur to them.”

Dru chuckled. “I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth—but I have to admit, it’s almost worth it to never get a direct or honest answer from you.”

“I just told you everything,” I deadpanned.

“Right.” He chuckled again, before allowing me to escape from beneath his arm.

I reached around for Evie’s arm, and pulled her out too, almost expecting her to have suffocated at some point—though she looked more or less the same, with only a few extra inches of frizz added to her hair.