They needed to learn to deal.
I stood slowly, no longer content to have them towering over me. They had been going on about the pact and my boobs since we stepped into the room. All of them except Siret. He had simply crossed his arms and declared that my boobs were his favourite part of every sun-cycle on Minatsol, and that he was not okay with them being hidden. He was going to get slapped twice the very next time I found a chair so that I could reach his face. For now, however, I was content to let my rage flow free through words, with my right pointer finger jabbing at each of them in rapid succession. One after another as I tried to fit everything I wanted to say into one sentence.
“Firstly, I’m not always naked! Most people have never seen me naked and they never will.” Kind of a lie—a lot of people had seen me in some state of undress. In fact, most of the dining hall that morning had seen my nipples. “Secondly, none of you can tell me what to do with my body. If I want to be naked all the time, I’ll damn well be naked all the time.”
Aros groaned then. It was this low rumbling sound which had my voice wavering and my knees weakening. “She’s impossible. I swear to those asshole gods, she was sent here as part of our punishment.”
A twinge of hurt in my chest followed those words. Only a twinge because I did understand what he meant. Most people considered me to be nothing more than an annoyance. A nuisance. But I never wanted to be a punishment to those five. They were my guys. My people. The outcasts and misfits of the worlds. I just wished … my soul wasn’t tying us all together. Deep down my fear that they were secretly hoping and waiting to get rid of me would not fully dissipate.
Coen reached out a long arm and scooped me up, pulling me into a hug against his body. “You’re not a burden to us. He didn’t mean it that way, dweller-baby.”
Yael’s voice sounded from over his shoulder. “We actually like you. That never happens. You should consider yourself to be one of the more interesting people we’ve met in this world.”
“Thanks, Four.” My voice was muffled against Coen’s chest. I probably could have lifted my head and pulled back to speak but … why would anyone do that?
Yael’s voice was suddenly so much closer when he said. “One, Willa-toy. I am number one.”
I was set on my feet, and turned immediately to glare at Yael. Coen remained pressed against my back, and I let the sensations of his touch soothe all of my broken pieces. Breaking up a soul into several pieces was not a thing that I recommended, but when the reward was the Abcurses, well … I couldn’t complain too much. Yael was still giving me the look where he said he wasn’t moving until I changed his number, but I’d already been pushed around too much for one sun-cycle.
I took a step closer to him, mourning the loss of contact with Coen. “You are Four until such a time as I give you another number. So. Suck. It. Up.”
His nostrils flared just slightly, and I knew right then that I’d made a big mistake. Yael stalked closer to me and I wanted to stand my ground, but I couldn’t. He was too big. Too intimidating. And really, really hot when he was mad. His hair and eyes shimmered, and power gathered around him like a cloak. How I never suspected them to be gods in the first place was beyond me. They didn’t look like the shiny sols. They were so much more than that.
And shit … I’d just pushed him a little too far. Standing up for yourself was overrated anyway.
I ran, turning as fast as I could and diving between Rome and Siret to get out of the room. I couldn’t get far from them, because my soul started whining like a little girl, and everything was painful, but I could hopefully find somewhere to hide out until Yael calmed down. I was out the door and halfway down the hallway when a sol stepped out in front of me.
Karyn. Fakey. Bitch-face.
I skidded to a halt, backtracking a few steps. I’d been on edge ever since my last kidnapping; Fakey had been a fundamental part of that plan, and so she was Enemy Number One. Well, actually, Elowin had been Enemy Number One, since the whole plan to kidnap me had been hers in the first place, but she was dead now. Which pushed Fakey to the top of my hate-list.
“Well hello there, dirt-dweller.” Fakey’s voice was all sing-song. Light and airy to match her pretty face and shiny hair. Sols were genetically blessed, not like the gods but closer than dwellers. They were also assholes. Just like the gods.
“What do you want?” I didn’t bother with pleasantries.
She grinned, and there was nothing friendly about it. It was the grin of a girl who thought she knew everything about you, and looked down on all of it.
“You and I have unfinished business,” she snarled. “You messed with the wrong sol and now you’re going down.”
Two more sols approached then, stopping either side of her. The three of them were almost the same height, which was much taller than me. The one on the right had long, shiny red curls, and the one on the left was blonde. Both of them had huge eyes, in varying shades of cobalt.
Welcome to the mean-girls gang.
The ache in my chest was easing, and I knew that the Abcurses were coming my way, but I couldn’t turn away. I would face my attack head-on this time.
Fakey’s eyes flicked up over my head and then back down to me. “This is just a warning, dweller. You won’t have your bodyguards with you at all times and they can’t police everyone in this academy. Your life is about to get very difficult.”
She left, taking her friends with her and in almost the same instant, Yael’s arms wrapped around me. I found myself turning and pressing into him, already forgetting that I’d just run from him.
“What did she say, Willa-toy?” His low voice was comforting, and I lifted my head back to see him better.
He hadn’t used Persuasion on me, and he didn’t have to. I really wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell them all that Karyn was going to be a problem, that she was going to try and destroy us all. But I couldn’t. The boys would kill her. I knew that, and I would not have their punishment extended. The weakness they experienced here—and a knife in Siret’s chest—was enough to warn me into silence. I couldn’t go through everything that we had been through a moon-cycle ago all over again, so I would protect them with everything I had.
“She was just being a bitch,” I finally said. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
I forced my mind to go blank in an attempt to block my thoughts, but judging by the five sceptical expressions they wore, I wasn’t very successful. Thankfully, though, none of them challenged me. Instead, they simply stared down the hallway after Karyn. That was enough to tell me that my lies had totally not been bought.
Two