“He got lonely, he created the others—new and improved companions, without the glitches—to keep him company. Rau, Abil, Adeline, Terrence, Lorda, Ciune, Gable, Haven, and Crowe. I knew I loved Rau from the moment I laid eyes on him.”
She sighed. It was a dramatic and dreamy kind of sigh. “He was such a contradiction. So caring, so cruel!”
“So cruel,” I agreed.
“He was everything good and everything bad, do you understand?”
“So bad.” I nodded. “Totally understand.”
Help, I called out in my mind.
I had intended to call for one of the Abcurses, but the last thing I expected was an actual answer. In my head.
What do you need help with, Sacred One?
I squealed, jumping away from Pica. I spun around, trying to figure out where the voice had come from.
“Whatthehellwasthat?” I rushed out, my words running into each other.
“What was what?” Yael asked, glancing around.
“Nobody said anything, Will,” Emmy added, looking confused.
I glanced at Pica: she was pouting, her lip quivering. Had I ... upset her?
“Uh,” I scratched my head. “Are you okay?”
A tear quivered at the edge of her eye before plopping down onto her robe. She sniffed once, twice, and then broke. Suddenly the crazy woman was sobbing. She threw herself at me, her arms wrapping around my shoulders, her head falling against me as she cried.
“You pushed me!” she wailed.
I had no words. I lifted a hand, patting her awkwardly while directing a look toward the Abcurses.
Did I really?
Did you really what, Sacred One? The reply was instant, and I jumped away from Pica once again, leaving her to crumple to a heap on the ground, still wailing.
“What the hell!” I exclaimed, spinning around again. “Who keeps doing that!”
“Doing what?” Rome strode forward, grabbing my arms, forcing me to still, to focus on him. “What’s happening, Rocks?”
“Someone keeps speaking in my head! You five can’t hear her?”
“Your thoughts are still a little tangled,” Rome answered.
“It’s a female?” Siret was beside Rome, a frown twisting his face.
“It was ...” I paused, realisation slamming into me. That voice had been familiar. I sucked in one breath, and then another. “Donald,” I finally said, my wide eyes travelling over to Emmy. “It was Donald. Where is she?”
“Pica sent her somewhere,” Emmy replied, moving to help the god up from the ground.
Pica allowed herself to be helped up, her crying beginning to quieten. She wiped away her tears with a section of her sleeve, before patting Emmy on the cheek.
“What a lovely girl you are. Where is my Willy? I must apologise to her. Willy?”
I cringed, shaking my head at the Abcurses. “I’m not here.”
Siret smirked. “She’s going to find you in about one-eighth of a click—”
“Willy!” Pica had peeked beyond the Abcurses, finding me huddled before them. She wrapped her arms around me again, and I wondered if I should just go ahead and push her a third time, because things were always better in thirds.
“Sorry I pushed you,” I managed to force out.
“No, it was my fault.” She patted my cheek as she had patted Emmy’s. “Whatever you do to me is my fault, lovely girl. Now, shall we have some tea?”
“I ...” I shook my head. There would be time to tackle her frightening misconceptions later. For now, I needed to find my mother. “Yes, I would like tea. Can my server make it? Donald? You have her here somewhere, don’t you?”
“Oh, very well.” Pica swept away, clicking her fingers as she went. “Follow me, pumpkins!”
“Can I crush her now?” Rome asked, his mouth twisted down in a disgusted expression.
“She’s the Goddess of Love,” I replied. “There’s probably some kind of defence mechanism that kicks in when you try to hurt her, and you end up falling in love with her or something.”
“You pushed her over,” Aros countered. “Are you in love with her?”
“No. I want Rome to crush her.”
Aros grinned, pulling me under his arm as we moved to follow the trailing magenta material of Pica’s robes. “We’ll get you out of here soon, sweetheart, I promise.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” I replied with a sigh.
“She’s right,” Emmy agreed, before I even had a chance to voice my argument. “Staviti was going to kill everyone until Pica showed up, crazy with grief over Rau. She threatened to kill herself to join him, and Staviti looked like ...” She shook her head, her expression pitying. “He went white as a sheet, told her that he would leave, and then he made this ripping motion in the air, stepped into it, and disappeared. Cyrus told me that it was a pocket—Staviti is the only one who can create them in Minatsol.”
“So, this is potentially the one place that I’ll be safe from Staviti,” I concluded, as the others walked beside us silently.
“At least Rau isn’t a concern anymore.” Yael sounded tired, and I turned to watch him pull his hands through his hair. I wondered if they had been sleeping much for the past fourteen sun-cycles.
“Pica has been letting you all stay here?” I asked.
“For now,” Coen replied. “We told her that our parents abandoned us.”
“Did they?” I asked, surprised.
“No.” He laughed. “They’re hiding out in Cyrus’s residence, where they can be safe from Staviti.”
“I bet Cyrus is loving that,” I muttered, sneaking a look at Emmy out of the corner of my eye. “So many people getting all up in his business, touching all his things. He’s very particular about his things, isn’t he, Em?”
She turned to glare at me. “I’m not one of his things!”
I grinned. “I was talking about his actual things. You know, that row of books above his bed and the funny little shelf of penis-shaped ornaments in his closet.”
She stopped walking, her eyes blinking. “I … don’t remember that shelf at all.”
“Ah-ha!” I exclaimed, pointing a finger at her as several of the guys chuckled. “So you have been in his bedroom! Emmy-freaking-Knight, the brand-new Goddess of Giving it Up to the Neutral!”
Her face flamed red and she stalked past me, rushing over to where Pica was bent over a small round table of cups and saucers.
“Pica!” she exclaimed, when she got there, her raised voice carrying over to us. “Willy is upset! She said she missed you!”
“Oh, my Willy!” Pica straightened, turning about with urgency, searching me out. “I’m right here, darling! Come here. Come here into my arms. That’s a good girl.”
She was holding her arms out dramatically, trying to wave me into them.
“Can I pretend I’m dead again?” I asked quietly.
“I think not,” Coen replied. “You might just encourage her to resuscitate you in some weird way.”
“Gods help me,” I muttered back, bracing myself for another hug.
I was almost to her when there was a small popping sound and my mother appeared, just a few feet away. I stopped, turning to face her, my heart suddenly threatening to jump out of my chest. I wasn’t sure exactly what I had expected, but it certainly wasn’t for her to be the same person I’d been seeing since her death. The same … Donald.
“How may I serve you, Sacred One?” She directed the question to Pica.
I felt as though I would collapse, then. Loss was crashing through me all over again. It should have been different. I had brought back a part of her soul—it should have healed her. It should have changed something.
Mum? I called out, appealing to the voice in my head again.
Six people all turned to look at me. My Abcurses … and my mother.
“I’m sorry, Sacred One,” she said out loud. “I don’t understand the command.”
“She didn’t say anything,” Pica said, a smile lighting her face. “What a funny little server you are. I always liked the faulty ones better than the functioning ones. There’s something so … charming about a flaw. Now, tea, please.” She clapped her hands, waiting.
“Yes, Sacred One,” my mother replied, before popping out of existence.
Tea. Tea. Tea. Tea. Need the cup. Cup. Cup. Cup. Cup. Need the water. Water. Water—