Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)

I reached out and brushed my fingers across his image, and his eyes began to glow.

“Come home to us,” was the last demand I heard before their images flickered and disappeared.

A small whimper escaped before I could stop it, my body slumping into the rocks. The pain was almost too much, but I knew I could deal with it. They weren’t dead, even though it felt like all the worlds were working to keep us apart now.

Straightening, I smoothed my expression as best as I could, tucking the pain away as I turned to the panteras. Except only Leden remained now, the others had disappeared.

You are stronger than we expected, for one so young. As hard as it is to believe, your sufferings were gifts, in a way. They formed a being far more exceptional than simple genetics ever could.

“Can you tell me more about how I have tasted the water before this sun-cycle?” Couldn’t hurt to ask, on the off-chance that my mother had fried the brain cells that remembered my childhood.

All I can tell you is that you did not absorb the water in the same way as Staviti. You are unique.

Like the Abcurses. For some reason that made me happy, and I didn’t feel a need to push for more information.

“Can’t leave you anywhere, doll. You really should just stick by my side.”

The deep, rich voice echoed through the cave, and I immediately dropped into a semblance of a fighting position, a curse falling from my lips. He was my escort?

Cyrus was propped against the wall nearby, looking smug and amused. “Are you going to hit me?” His grin grew even broader as he straightened and strode gracefully toward me. “After everything I’ve done for you.”

A red haze started to edge across my side vision, and I was fighting hard to keep myself from charging him. “What you’ve done for me? You mean besides the part where you broke my soul-link to the Abcurses? Twice! Then you pretended this necklace could take the curse.” I reached down and yanked it up, just in case he had forgotten. “Or when you started controlling me and causing Chaos and fires and squished bodies!”

The last part left me in a shriek and I couldn’t stop myself any longer. I let out a war-like cry and sprinted as fast as my clumsy little legs could take me, somehow avoiding two large rocks, which would have tripped me up before I started.

Cyrus didn’t even move, he just threw his head back and laughed so loudly the entire cave seemed to shake around us. He wasn’t even remotely taking me seriously. Focussing on his chin, hoping I could reach it, my fists were already lifting when my right foot hit a particularly loose patch of rocks and I started to slide out. I tried to straighten, my arms going out to the sides in a steadying motion. My right foot tangled in my left then and I was plunging forward. And since my arms had been way up above me, there was no chance I was going to get them down in time to stop my face breaking the fall.

Cyrus was a beat too slow to catch me, since he’d had his head back laughing when I tripped, but he noticed just in time to step into me. Which meant that instead of my head slamming into the hard rocks, it crashed right into his crotch. He let out a bit of a yelping groan, before both of us went down in a heap.

I was stunned for a click, darkness dancing across my vision. What the hell was in his pants? Steel ballbags?

Another chuckling groan from above, and I realised I’d said that out loud when he replied. “If you don’t get your face off my dick, Willa, you’re going to find out.”

I gasped when I realised I was still fully face down, on an area that seemed to be enjoying the attention. With another gasp, I rolled over, and lay on my back, breathing in and out quickly. I knew that my face would be bright red. Or whatever colour was even redder than red because holy shit.

Why did these things keep happening to me? A shadow washed over my face, but my hand was firmly over my eyes, hiding me from the world. After a click, knowing there was no way to delay any longer, I removed my palm from my burning face, and looked up at Cyrus. He was still wearing that stupid grin.

“Stop looking at me like that!” I hissed at him, trying to bring some normalcy back to the situation.

Before I could say another thing, a second shadow appeared and Cyrus went flying through the air. I jumped to my feet far quicker than I should have been able to from flat on my back, my head swivelling left and right rapidly as I tried to figure out who was attacking us.

The only being standing close by was Leden. And even though it was very difficult to tell on the pantera’s face, she sort of looked like she was grinning.

Whoops, she said. Slipped.

Cyrus let out a snort as he peeled himself off the wall and crossed back to us. I noticed that he had two distinct-looking hoof marks on his chest, just visible above the line of his shirt.

Leden had kicked him for me? I let out an internal cheer, before reaching out and giving her a one-armed hug around the neck. “I owe you one,” I whispered into her throat.

He’s not a bad god. But all of the gods, at varying times, need to be taught a lesson in respect.

Cyrus’s expression was back to a more neutral style as he stopped near me, looking almost unharmed except for the fading marks. I knew they’d be completely gone in a click.

“Maybe we should start again,” he tried, sounding just a tad less arrogant. “I think you might have the wrong idea about my involvement in your life dramas.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, finally realising how little I was wearing. Sure, underwear was actually better than my usual bouts of nudity, but I was still pretty skimpily dressed. Alone. With the Neutral God whose Neutral Dick had been briefly having non-neutral feelings.

Lucky I had my new friend.

“You already know why I helped Rau initially. I didn’t know you then. I cared nothing for the problems of a dweller, and Rau had something I needed.”

I nodded, telling him to continue. I definitely remembered all of that clearly.

“I called you doll because you were so weak, fragile … nothing of substance.”

My eyes were narrowing, fists clenching beneath my crossed arms. “You better be getting to the point where I don’t want to punch you again.”

A half-smirk. “Well, if you remember correctly, you didn’t punch me, you dropped your face into my di—”

“Not the point!” I interrupted quickly, feeling the heat climbing into my cheeks again.

He gave me a break then, continuing with his story. “I was wrong. You’re not exactly the doll I expected,” he finally admitted. “You have substance, Willa Knight. I see now why the Abcurses have threatened more gods in the past few moon-cycles, than they have in their many life-cycles before that.”

Oh, was I actually going to find out how old they were?

Before I could push, he changed direction. “They are feared by many. Loved by very few,” he added, probably noticing the interest in my gaze. “The fact that you made it to their inner circle. You’re no ordinary being.”