Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)

“Actually that makes perfect sense.” I took a shaky step toward the cart, bracing myself for what I’d find inside.

Zac seemed to relax as soon as I made it clear that I was going to go with him, and he pulled the canvas back further for me. Laid out across the benches were several wrapped bodies, shapeless white figures, all stacked up on top of each other. The smell was awful, now that my nose wasn’t full of dust.

“Just … try not to make any sounds, okay?” Zac seemed almost embarrassed that he was forcing me to hide in a cart full of dead people, even though he was technically saving my life, and probably putting himself in danger to do it.

It made me realise that I should probably be a little more grateful, so I quickly pushed into the opening and then reached out and caught his hand before he could close the canvas on me.

“Thanks.” I tried to sound sincere, instead of sick-to-my-stomach. “I won’t blow your cover, I promise. And as soon as we reach the ninth ring, you can get rid of me. I’ll find my own way back to Blesswood.”

His dark eyes widened for a moment. “You’re from there? You were serving in Blesswood? That’s a long way to travel, just to dump a dweller. It would have been easier if they’d killed you and waited for someone to come and collect the body. I don’t do the Blesswood pickup myself, but my brother works the sol-cities. There’s another guardian temple right in the middle of Tridel. So why didn’t they just kill you?”

“Well,” I shook my head, a laugh bubbling out, “turns out I’m not so easy to kill. By the way, you’re a weird guy, Zac.”

“Says the dweller walking around the abandoned lands all on her own before sunset,” he replied dryly, quickly securing the canvas and disappearing.

I looked around, trying to find somewhere to sit before the cart started moving—but I was too late, and one of the wrapped bodies was jostled off the seat before I could move, landing right at my feet with a sickening thud. I tried not to scream, or anything pathetic and girly like that, but a sound might still have slipped out, because the little wooden window facing toward the front of the cart slid back.

“Did you just squeal?” Zac asked.

“No,” I snapped back. “Do I look like the kind of girl that squeals?”

“Little bit, actually.”

I reached forward and slammed the little wooden window closed again. “Asshole.”

“This asshole saved your life,” he sang back to me, apparently all cheerful and friendly, now that we were moving again.

“You don’t really have many friends, do you?” I shouted back, stepping over the body and crouching into the only unoccupied corner of the bench it had fallen off.

“It’s a lonely profession, this.” He slid the window back again, so that he could talk to me.

“That’s because you drive dead people around. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but dead people aren’t that responsive. They’re not fun to show affection to.”

“Especially the ones that died of flame-rash.”

I jumped clean off the bench again, accidently landing on the chest of the body that had rolled off earlier. I edged away, backing myself against the canvas lining. I was three clicks away from jumping out of the damn cart and taking my chances with the guardians.

“You squealed again,” Zac decided to inform me, laughing. “I was only kidding about the flame-rash. The guardians only want the dwellers that they can turn into pleasing little puppets for the gods. There’s nothing pleasing about a flame-rash death.”

“You want to make more friends?” I spoke through gritted teeth. “Then here’s a tip: quit talking about gods-dammed flame-rash. That stuff is nasty.”

“Noted.” He suddenly sobered up, and I saw one of his eyes peeking through the window at me, before turning away. “You can sit down. None of the bodies are contaminated. If you pull the panel off the front of the seat, you’ll be able to crawl into the storage space beneath. We’ll be there in two clicks.”

“We haven’t gone very far,” I said aloud, while internally I was cursing Dru and Karyn for dropping me so close to the secret guardian-hideout.

“Who’s Dru?” Zac asked.

Okay, maybe not that internally.

“Some ballbag,” I replied.

“Aww. Is he your boyfriend? Did you guys get into a fight? Is it because you were being a bad dweller and pissing off the sols?”

“Seriously?” I groaned, crouching back onto the bench seat. “Who taught you manners? Please tell me it was one of the dead people. That would make so much sense.”

He didn’t reply, and I realised why a moment later, when the movement of the cart started to slow. I pulled my legs up to the bench, curling my arms around and trying to turn myself into a little ball of invisibility. I could hear muted voices, and then louder conversation as we approached.

“Zachary,” a man spoke up, his voice so raspy it made my skin scrawl, “you’re late.”





Seven





“One of the wheels broke, I had to fix it.” I could hear Zac speaking as he jumped down. I expected him to come to the opening of the cart immediately, but his voice was travelling further away the more he spoke. “I brought seven from the ninth ring. All clean deaths. Only one over the age of thirty-five—”

“Take it back,” the husky-toned man replied. “The Sacred Ones don’t like wrinkles. You know that.”

I wrapped a hand over my mouth, catching the derisive snort before it erupted out of me, and then eased up toward the still-open window, trying to peek out without being seen.

“I told them that,” Zac was replying. “His family. They insisted. These people think that I’m transporting the bodies to the cemetery caretaker, but someone started a rumour that my cart takes the bodies of the people that the gods have favoured, while the other cart from the cemetery takes the bodies that the gods have frowned upon.”

“They think the gods care about whether they are good?” The raspy voice sounded angry.

I could see him now, walking beside Zac. He was cloaked in heavy black cloth, the sleeves pushed up to the elbows, displaying long, pale arms. The hood was drawn over his face, but I wouldn’t have been able to make out his features anyway, because he was facing away from me, approaching another group of hooded people. They all stood gathered at the entrance to a worn-down temple, the stones cracked beneath the sweep of their dark robes. There were only three torches lit, set into brackets against the pillars out the front of the temple, so there wasn’t enough light to make out their features. I could only decipher the pale blur of their faces beneath the hoods.

Zac and the guardian were too far away for me to hear anymore, so I drew back from the window, staring down at the body on the floor of the cart. It was almost annoying, that these bodies were about to go exactly where I needed to go, whereas I would have to find my way back through all the rings to Emmy, before taking the cave entrance to Topia. Which would probably kill me, because I wasn’t attached to a god while entering.