Strength (Curse of the Gods #4)(2)

“We’re going somewhere this sun-cycle?” I asked him hopefully.

He wasn’t by any definition the ‘leader’ of our group, but he was the grumpiest and the most responsible, so that somehow translated to him policing most of the rules … but he definitely wasn’t the leader. If the leader was anyone, it would definitely be me—

“We’re taking you to see our mother,” Coen said, interrupting my thought, and I suspected that it was deliberate.

He leaned forward, piling his plate with food. I quickly began to fill up my own plate before all the dishes emptied out. I had only ordered my part of breakfast before Yael had cut me off—I hadn’t had a chance to order for all the rest of them, too. Luckily, the server had brought several servings of each dish and several jugs of each beverage. She was now standing off to the side, I noticed.

I was torn. Coen had mentioned his mother with such a lack of care, as though we went to see her once every few sun-cycles for family dinner. The rest of the Abcurses went on eating as though nothing was happening. None of them were acknowledging the strangeness of the outing he was suggesting, which meant that they had all planned it without me, and definitely had ulterior motives. On the other hand, I really wanted to ask the server where she managed to get all this food from if she wasn’t cooking it herself, and what the hell dormires were.

Putting aside the mention of the Abcurses’ mother for now, I turned to Bush before she was called away to serve anyone else.

“So who makes all this food?” I asked her.

She blinked as though she had heard me, but her face remained stoically facing the table, waiting for any further orders.

“Bush,” I prompted, forcing her head to snap up and turn my way. “Who makes this food?”

“The pool,” she told me. “The Platter of Staviti is used for the food, and the Cup of Staviti is used for the beverages.”

“You mean the cup that—”

“Yes,” Rome cut across me. “That one.”

“But if we stol—”

“It’s a copy,” Aros answered, glancing up at me from his plate, his golden eyes holding mine, warning me to drop the subject in front of the server. “Staviti lost the original cup after being tricked by Abil—and then the original cup was stolen from Abil. Nobody knows where it is.”

I snorted, turning my attention back to my plate. “So mysterious. But—” I looked to the server again. “How can the pool and the platter and the cup make all this food?”

“The platter is placed in the pool and we ask for the food. It is the same with the cup.”

She flickered out, then, leaving her words behind for me to ponder.

“That’s what the cup does?” I asked the others. “It gives you … stuff to drink?”

“It holds the power of Creation,” Siret replied. “And it gives stuff to drink.”

“Okay then, so what is this pool?” I couldn’t let it go. I had been asking them questions for sun-cycles, about everything. Everything and anything that popped into my mind.

Maybe it was because I had become accustomed to just letting things go for most of my life. Especially the things that made no sense, despite how often senseless things happened, like clumsy curses colliding with my chest and the daily threats to my life. Not even my inability to conform and dwell in the dirt with the rest of my people made sense.

“It’s just water, Will,” Rome answered. “Staviti uses it to channel his Creation to make all our lives easier.”

“Not all of our lives,” I muttered back.

Siret chuckled. “It’s Topian water; it only works inside Topia. If he tried to use it for the sols in Minatsol, it wouldn’t work.” His calm voice was enough to capture my full attention.

My mind immediately forgot about dwellers and focused on another word … water.

That word had so many meanings to me now. Firstly, there was the mystery behind the sacred waters of Topia. The panteras had taken me to the stream and had asked me to drink from it, telling me that it would enhance my powers. They had also told me at the time that I’d been given the water before, that it wasn’t my first time. They were really cagey with the information, which meant that I was definitely taking a trip back to visit them as soon as I could.

“What’s on your mind, Soldier?” Siret asked, not picking up on my thoughts.

I blurted, “Water.”

There was a beat of silence, which gave me a click to look between my guys. The five Abcurses: five specimens of perfect, over-sized, godly sexiness—

“Your thoughts came back at a good time,” Coen remarked, as varying shades of amusement fell over each of their faces.

I glanced to my left, where Yael sat. There was something behind the amusement in his eyes. Something heated. I swallowed and glanced at the seat next to his, where Rome sat. The same heat was there, boiling behind his expression and setting my insides to squirming. The dark green depths were mesmerising, swirling as they watched me from across the table. Suddenly, my mind jumped to a very different kind of water.

I’d recently learned how to swim with Rome and Yael. There had been a lot of swimming, among other things, going on that night. None of us had acknowledged the fact that the pact had been broken. It didn’t seem like a breach in our friendship, but more of a natural progression in our relationship. I had acted out of character, spurred by grief over the death of my mother, but I didn’t regret it. Not for a click.