Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)

Once I had finished reasoning that out in my head, I felt much better about tightening my grip and clinging to his strength.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but judging by the direction of the voices, whoever was down here was back in the same secret meeting place that everyone seemed to use. Rome and I squeezed in behind the shelves that we had used to spy on the previous secret dweller meeting; he was forced to contort himself into a painful-looking shape to fit inside, but he managed it. Standing on my tiptoes, I found a nice little gap to peek through, and if Rome hadn’t managed to slip his free hand over my mouth, the gasp which I released when I saw the scene would have definitely blown our cover.

It was Emmy. And Fred. And Scrawny Dweller Number Two. Plus Slimy Dweller Number Three.

Emmy plus three guys? What the hell was happening? What were the worlds coming to?

Okay, so they weren’t having four-way sex or anything, and I was in no way curious about how she was going to manage sex with three guys at all. I mean, why would I need to know that?

My eyes strayed to Rome and my heart began to perform a complicated pattern of stopping and starting. He was so huge he was like three guys all on his own. Which made sense, since you don’t get to be the god of strength at a hundred pounds soaking wet. Which was definitely all that Scrawny Dweller Number Two was.

He was barely as tall as Emmanuelle—my best friend and sister who needed a serious lesson in how to pick a rebound guy. Or guys. Not one of her companions could hold a candle to Atti, which, come to think about it, was probably the reason she chose them.

Another sliver of my heart broke for her. I’d been losing slivers at a pretty frequent rate as I watched her grieve over the past moon-cycle—or not grieve, which was even worse.

She was shedding pieces of herself in her quest to run from the pain, and I needed all the pieces of Emmy. I needed her to be whole and bossy and smart. We were a team and I would not let her take herself out of the game like this.

“Didn’t think the dweller had it in her.” Rome whispered this in my ear and I found myself pressing closer to him, soaking up his warmth and the way our soul-link purred like a kitten at the contact. “Do you know who those three sols are?”

I was immediately paying attention—well, most of me, bar that small part still pressing against Rome. “Who?” I breathed.

“You’ve got the sons of three very powerful sols right there. Their fathers are all competing for the position of Vice Chancellor here at Blesswood, while the current Vice Chancellor takes over the role of Chancellor.”

Sols? Those creepy slimeballs were sols? I should have known. Only a sol would have a name like Fred.

Rome’s words reminded me that our school was in the midst of a change. The fight where Emmy had lost her love was the same fight that had seen the end of the last Chancellor of Blesswood. Afterwards, there had been pure chaos—much to Rau’s delight, I was sure.

In the end, Yael had used his Persuasion to calm the fighting down, but now there was a significant race to bring new leadership to the top academy in Minatsol, which of course meant that every sol with an ounce of power was crawling out of their rat hole, and had entered their name into the race.

They all wanted a chance. They all thought that running Blesswood would increase their own chances of becoming a god when they died. Or grooming future gods and thereby receiving power for their family in that way.

“When do they make the final decision?” My voice got a little loud, and I thought I saw Emmy pause, but then she just went back to quietly chatting with one of the trio. The other two were pressed very close to her. Actually, all four were standing in a tight circle, and too many parts of their bodies were touching. A lot of touching.

Before Rome could answer, I let out a great huff, and pushed my way free from the bookshelves.

This crap with Emmy had gone on long enough.





Two





“And that would be my sister, Willa,” Emmy announced, her voice suddenly raised enough to carry all the way over to me. I froze, but she kept talking. “You three know Willa, I’m assuming?”

“Everyone knows that … girl,” one of the guys replied, glancing over Emmy’s shoulder to lock his eyes on me.

The fact that he was talking about me with even a small amount of disdain meant that Rome hadn’t been able to un-wedge himself enough to follow me—or else he was deliberately not following me, which actually made more sense. If I wasn’t forced to live inside myself and back up my own decisions I probably wouldn’t follow me either.

“Okay, first,” I announced, holding up my hand and raising a finger into the air, “Yes, I am a girl. You don’t need to sound unsure about the fact.” I delivered that to the guy who had spoken, before fixing my eyes to the back of Emmy’s head. She still hadn’t even turned around. I was ignoring the other two guys completely. “And second, how the hell did you know it was me?”

“You’re loud,” the guy replied, speaking for Emmy.

I flicked my eyes back to him, and then summoned my best glare. He was tall, skinny, and wearing wire-framed glasses that appeared too narrow for his eyes. His shoulders were slightly stooped, but he had a look of quiet capability about him. It annoyed me.

“She also has a somewhat distinctive blunder—it’s not quite a walk, but it does seem to propel her forward,” another of the guys added.

I cut my glare to him and found him just as unimpressive as the first. He was the same height, but a little stockier, with shockingly blonde hair and a thoughtful frown. The third guy remained quiet, a little darker in appearance, with sooty hair and dusky skin. I didn’t need to examine him, because I knew exactly who he was. That was Fred, the idiot who apparently wasn’t an idiot at all, because his father had a chance at becoming the next Vice-Chancellor.

And he was a sol.

And Emmy was still brushing arms with him.

“That’s enough,” Emmy said quietly, just as Fred opened his mouth to say something—probably to add an insult to those I had already received. She turned around, then, and I could see that her expression was tired, her shoulders dropping forward. “I guess we’re done here for the sun-cycle. Let’s go, Willa.”

She didn’t wait for any of the guys to say anything, and they didn’t seem inclined to speak of their own accord, so I planted my feet against the ground and resisted when Emmy reached me and attempted to drag me away.

I knew something was going on, and I knew that it was something I wouldn’t approve of. Considering I broke more rules than even the Abcurse brothers—and that was not a feat to be underestimated—I was assuming that Emmy was hiding something very big, and very bad. The only problem was, I had no idea how to force it out of her. She was in a fragile state. I didn’t want to push her away on top of everything else.