Yeah.
That’s how I ended up sucker-punching a sacred sol on my second sun-cycle of being one of the Luckiest Dwellers in the World. He shot out of his seat, capturing my hand as I began to draw it back again. All three of the brothers were on their feet now, crowding around me. I had no idea what was about to happen, but the whole world froze when the teacher’s voice rang out, loud and cold and shrill.
“DWELLER!”
I froze, my eyes on the ground. There were three sets of shoes, all pointed toward my boots, only a few inches away. The grip on my wrist tightened, and I felt one of them moving against my side.
“Forget …” It was Yael, and the word had been whispered into my ear, though it rang around the room with the tenor of travelling magic. “Forget everything you just saw …”
The room became still, and I finally glanced up, meeting the eyes of Aros, who stood directly before me.
“You win,” he whispered, as the class began to stir back into motion.
“Yay,” I mumbled, my tone flat.
I needed my head examined.
Emmy was going to murder me, which hardly made sense as a punishment for almost having gotten myself killed.
“Dweller?” The teacher again. She sounded confused, this time. “What are you doing?”
“H-he left his … paper behind,” I spoke up, edging past Yael and breaking into the aisle. “I—I’m in the wrong classroom. I’m so sorry!” I dove for the doorway, escaping through before any of them could grab me and question me.
I ran through the maze of corridors, trying to read each of the numbers above the doors, even though I was moving too fast to read much of anything, let alone pay attention to where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get out of there; away from the Abcurse triplets. Away from the fear and the danger.
Away from the fact that I might have actually enjoyed it.
The rest of my second sun-cycle at Blesswood passed without incident. And by ‘without incident,’ I mean that I tripped three times, almost stabbed a dweller with a pencil, and accidentally started a tiny little fire in the kitchen. Gods, the way that Jerath had reacted you’d think I had burned the entire academy down. The fire had been barely two feet tall. Anyway, the point was that there were no more Abcurse sightings for the whole sun-cycle. They hadn’t been in any more classes, or at dinner that night.
Rumours abounded about what those boys got up to when they disappeared, but all I could think was that the gods were finally giving me a break. I hoped that the break continued … otherwise something told me that next time I crossed paths with one of those shiny, golden assholes, there wouldn’t be any more contests to break the rules. The only breaking which would happen, would be me.
Six
Early the next morning, Emmy was in lecture mode.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Will. Why did you have to challenge them? Why would you call attention to yourself? Sometimes I wonder how much of your curse is god-given, and how much is your insatiable need to stir up your sun-cycle. Your boredom is going to be the death of you!”
She’d been at it since just after the early bells. I’d spilled on the ‘classroom incident’ while we got ready, and now I wished I’d kept it to myself.
“How can you just take the abuse, Em? It’s not in me to lie down and let them crush me. I’ll stay out of their way as much as I can, but if they come at me, I’m going to fight back.”
I was totally kidding. I couldn’t ‘fight back’ against five massive sols even if my life depended on it, but I talked a good game. Talk was my thing, and I was working at perfecting it.
With a huff, Emmy pushed back her mass of silvery hair, artfully twirling it up into a neat knot on top of her head. I roughly gathered my own off my back and threw a few clips in there, hoping the curls would hold. No time for top-knots. I had some dorm rooms to sneak in and out of. Plus, I would only be covering it all in a cap.
I was fully decked out in Atti’s old clothing; Emmy had done me a solid and stitched up the hem and waist on the pants last night, so they fit reasonably well. I took a quick look in the mirror: there was no pretty gloss, shadow or powder on my face; my hair was hidden beneath the cap; and a dark, baggy shirt attempted to hide my boobs. The outfit was paired with boy-pants and my usual boots. I was as male as I was going to get without any actual magic.
“I’m heading out now,” I announced, interrupting Emmy as she started on her next lecture. “I want to make sure I’m done before any of them return.” I hoped like hell that Rome wasn’t in his room. He’d know that I was coming this time and with a little luck, he wouldn’t be there.