It was Emmy. Coen was at her side in an instant, and even her unflappable confidence faded under his glare. “Did you figure out where she is?” he asked, his voice a rumble of menace.
She nodded quickly. “Yes, Atti gained entrance to her office. He found her address in Soldel. She apparently put in for some time off and is no longer in Blesswood.”
Coen turned his back on her, dismissing her in one motion. “We need to find her now, and her companions.”
Sounded like Fake Willa was still on the run too. All of them skipped out of Blesswood; they already had this little escape planned. I was afraid they were going to bail then, leaving me behind, but thankfully they hadn’t forgotten about our connection. I was sucked from Siret’s mind the moment Aros put his hands on me.
I shot up in the bed, my heart pounding as I tried to bring my mind back to itself. It was so disorienting being in someone else’s mind, even just for a little while.
“You’re fine, Willa …” The seductive sol started to say, but before he could finish, I had already lunged from the bed, prepared to storm out of the room.
A plan which went badly astray as my legs tangled in the bed sheets and I took a head-first dive into the floor. Or I would have, at least, if Yael hadn’t been there to scoop me up. I wiggled against him, wanting to stay mad, but as always … I just couldn’t. My stupid, co-dependant soul just wanted me to like them. That was my story and I was not budging from it.
“You okay, Willa-toy?” Yael’s moss-green eyes missed nothing as he let me stand on my own feet. “You’re looking flustered, even for you.”
Breathing in and out, wanting to scream and yell, I decided there was no point. They had made their choices, and to some degree, I understood them. I didn’t like that they had decided without me, but I understood that it wasn’t exactly a conversation that we all needed to have together. And the conversation itself made sense, even it if was hurtful. We couldn’t actually get involved romantically. It was impossible because there wasn’t a single one of them that I preferred over the others, which would mean that … well, it would mean that I would be getting involved with all of them. It was taboo enough for a dweller to get involved with a sol in Minatsol in the first place, let alone five of them.
So instead, I just pointed to the front door. “Need to use the bathroom.”
It was the only thing I could think of to get a moment awake to deal with what had happened. In Siret’s head, I had been mainly angry, but now that I’d had a moment to think things through a little more calmly, I found that I was a mix of emotions. None of which I wanted the Abcurses to know about. Thank the gods Emmy was still in the room. She stood near the door and when I got close, she linked her arm through mine.
“She’ll be fine with me,” she declared over her shoulder to the five sols, all of whom were closing in on us. She looked a little bit confused.
Coen shook his head just once, and I knew that there was going to be a fight.
“We can protect her, dweller.” He had that look again. The murder one. “She needs us.”
I was one click away from rushing outside and slamming the door in their faces, but even though he’d declared it in that way, he was still right. I couldn’t separate myself from them.
“I can pee alone, guys. You can wait right outside.”
Coen kicked the door open and stepped out. “Come on,” he said bluntly, striding down the hall in the direction of the bathing chamber.
Emmy and I hurried after him, my best friend whispering to me as we went. “We aren’t allowed to use their bathing chambers, Willa. We’ll get in trouble; they’ll send us back to our village.”
I snorted, and she shook her head, realising what she’d been saying. “Right, no one is taking you from the Abcurses.” Her voice got even lower. “They’re a little scary, Will. Are you sure—”
Her words were cut off by Coen swinging to the right and opening the door to the bathing chamber. He disappeared inside and by the time we reached the entrance, he was striding back out. “All clear. I’ll be right here.” He glanced down at me, a frown on his face. “Shout out if you need help. Don’t be a hero, dweller-baby.”
I narrowed my eyes until they were surely no more than slits and tried my best to mentally shout every ounce of my annoyance at him. He shocked the hell out of me by slightly tipping his head back and laughing: a deep rocking laughter that sent shock waves of a strong emotion through me. He was beautiful. Perfect. Just like his brothers. And they didn’t want me. A lot of my anger fled then, because I was used to accepting this sort of disappointment. It wasn’t their fault; they had done far more for me than anyone else ever had. I should have known and I should have seen it coming. I needed to be okay with it. I was okay with it.