When I woke up in the morning, it was almost a relief, and I didn’t feel rested at all.
I supposed that there was another way that Rau’s curse had changed me. Another truth that I was hiding from the Abcurses. But they didn’t need to know about the way my body misbehaved every time they touched me. I mean … nobody really needed to know about that. I shot up in bed, trying to wipe the guilty look off my face. Please don’t have heard my thoughts. Luckily, Siret was still asleep on the couch. I swung my feet to the ground and padded over to him, poking him in the shoulder.
He didn’t stir.
I huffed out a nervous breath, sitting down on the low table beside the couch, notching my chin in my hand and poking him again, although the movement was pretty lazy this time. His gold-tipped hair was swept to the side, curling slightly against the pale pillow beneath his head. He was actually kind of beautiful, when he wasn’t insulting me. He cracked one eye open, the cat-like irises flashing with warring green and yellow-gold. His other eye cracked open while I just stared at him, trying to dredge up the words to explain that I hadn’t just been sitting there, watching him sleep, like a creep.
His arms shot out, curving around me and pulling me off the table and onto his chest.
“Go back to sleep,” he muttered, his voice gravelly.
“Er.” I turned my head to the side, so that his chest wasn’t smothering me. “No.”
He reached around my face, holding his hand over my mouth. “Yes. Shh.”
I tried to wiggle out of his arms, but Rome decided to choose that moment to barge into the room. Siret cracked one of his eyes open again, and I twisted around just enough to see Rome’s eyebrows inching up, his massive arms crossing over his chest.
“At least you’re not naked,” he said to me, before turning his eyes on Siret, his expression melting into a glare. “Let’s go, we need to be at the arena in three clicks.”
“Three?” Siret launched off the couch, sending me tumbling. And of course, since the clothing I wore was about five sizes too large, most of my butt managed to fall out of the pants.
Rome grinned. “I spoke too soon.”
Coen, Yael, and Aros chose that moment to barge through the door of Siret’s room; I frantically scrambled to get my pants up and shirt down. Why do these things always happen to me? Why? Aros crossed over to me, leaning over to offer me a hand up. I froze as the full length of his body came into view. Whoa. His goldenness was extra-blinding; he was dressed in some sort of battle gear which consisted of a gold-tinted breastplate, arm bands, and braces over the front of his thighs. I knew my jaw had fallen open, but he looked like a warrior, or a god. A really hot warrior-god.
Wrenching my gaze from his, I placed my hand into his outstretched one. My eyes catching on each of the other Abcurses. They all wore similar armour, in shades which complimented their natural colouring.
They’re going to be gods. I had absolutely no doubt that these five were on the path to Topia.
But … how were they going to do that with me attached like an ugly sixth limb?
“Don’t you worry about it, Rocks,” Aros said as he deposited me safely to my feet. “Our path to Topia was rocky long before Rau decided to add some chaos.”
His words reminded me of the dream, and I found myself blurting without thought. “So speaking of souls … what happened to mine?”
Siret shook his head. “No one was speaking of souls, and yours is the same speck of nothing that all dwellers carry around.”
By the time I turned away from him, Yael was in my face. Well, his chest was in my face. “Why would you ask about your soul?” he demanded. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to hear our thoughts now, would you, dweller?” It wasn’t really a question. More of an accusation.
Clearing my throat and fighting for composure, I shook my head a few times. “No, definitely not. I just kind of … wentintoromesheadlastnight.”
The last lot was one big word I spoke as fast as I possibly could. Silence reigned supreme, then Yael spun to face his crusher brother with one eyebrow raised and a snarl on his lips.
Rome didn’t even flinch. I would totally have flinched. Maybe he could give me lessons. Something told me that I would need them. And by something, I meant the thousands of flinch-worthy glares that I’d already gotten since arriving in Blesswood.
“I would have told you if I had felt her there,” he said, his tone drawling like that much should have been obvious.
“Two clicks to the trials,” Siret reminded the room, and I was running out of time to get answers.