I dropped the candlestick. I was so retired from god-fighting.
“Hello again, dweller.” He pushed back his scarlet cloak, revealing the red robe beneath. He was probably even wearing red underwear. Not that I really needed to picture his underwear.
“What? You’re ignoring us now?” Aros drawled, managing to sound offended, even though I knew he wasn’t.
Rome slammed the door behind him, closing out the smoke and the fire and the battle within. It made me nervous, because I was almost certain that the boys weren’t fireproof. I mean, they were gifted, but they weren’t invincible.
“Your father forbade me from speaking to you,” Rau replied, his eyes still focussed on me. “This little girl, however. Nobody gives a shit about you, do they? It’s beautiful, really. It wasn’t what I had planned. I left as soon as the curse hit you, so I didn’t realise that you had lived through it. I’m so sorry, little dweller. If I had known that you would survive it, I would have stayed.”
“Say what now?” I stuttered, as the door burst open behind us.
Coen and Yael stood there, covered in soot and blood, chests heaving.
“We’ve got a situation,” Coen announced, completely ignoring Rau.
Or … not completely ignoring Rau, because Rau wasn’t standing there anymore. He had disappeared, and the red smoke had disappeared with him. Elowin’s home was now utterly silent. Rau had taken away the chaos with him.
“What is it?” Rome asked, looking over Coen’s shoulder.
I actually had the better vantage point, because I could peer through the small gap between Coen’s and Yael’s torsos. It was a gap just barely big enough for me to glimpse Siret, crumpled up on the ground.
“Five!” I pushed Coen out of the way, stumbling back into the room.
The floor was blackened and grimy, and there were bodies strewn everywhere. I only made it a few steps before my feet were flying out from under me, but this time, I was flying forward and none of the guys could catch me in time, so I landed on my face. I crawled the rest of the way to Siret, reaching him by the time the others had already surrounded him.
There were tears streaming down my face, and I didn’t even know what was wrong yet. I pushed between two of the big legs standing around Siret, until I was crouched over him.
There was a knife sticking out of his chest, right on the left side.
Some mothereffing effer stabbed him in the heart.
I was caught between an intense wave of fury, and an equally intense pull of terror. Would he survive this? He was a sol! He had to survive this!
“Five?” I grabbed his face, trying to get him to open his eyes. His skin was still warm, but there was so much blood. I could feel it now, warm against my knees, soaking up into my pants. “Please … please open your eyes …”
He grimaced, his eyelids flickering, and his hand rose, catching mine. “Calm down, Soldier, I’m going to be fine.” He choked as he spoke, and a spot of blood landed right on the side of his mouth.
The terror fighting my rage won, and I started shuddering, my bones veritably knocking together with the thought that I could lose him.
“There’s a knife in your chest, you idiot!” I realised that screaming at him probably wasn’t going to help the situation, but I couldn’t seem to control myself.
He laughed—he actually laughed—and someone grabbed me off the floor, raising me up. I fought against them, but Yael stepped in front of me, his hands cupping my face.
“Calm,” he muttered, his moss green eyes flinching, as though he didn’t like using his power on me.
It swept through me with the force of a gentle breeze, wiping out my emotion and leaving me hollow. The sol holding me—Aros—bundled me tighter into his arms, and I only watched as Coen bent over Siret, blocking his chest from view. Siret groaned in pain, and a moment later, Coen flicked the blood-covered knife aside.
“We need to get him back to Topia,” Coen declared, hooking his hand beneath Siret’s arms, while Rome picked up his legs.
“You need to get him to a healer,” I countered calmly.
It felt strange, seeing this sol bleeding and limp in his brothers’ arms. As though I should have been doing something about it. As though it should have been tearing me up inside, or driving me halfway to insane with fear. I could feel the pings of emotion, barely sparking up inside me before hitting a barrier and fizzling into nothing.
“He’s going to be fine, Willa.” Aros spoke while carrying me out of the room, away from the mess that we’d all left inside.
I caught a glimpse of Elowin’s face before we made it clear of the doorway. Her head was bent at an awkward angle, her legs twisted beneath her. It looked almost accidental, as though she had tripped while falling backwards, and hit her head on something.
But maybe I was just fooling myself.
Maybe I was trying to convince myself that all of this had been an accident. Another product of my clumsy curse.
Nineteen