Strength (Curse of the Gods #4)(34)

“Ten disks she’s waiting in your room,” Rome grunted.

“Twenty disks she’s around the corner,” Aros countered.

“Thirty she’s—” Siret started, but he was cut off as we rounded the corner and a flurry of blond hair attacked my face, arms wrenching me away from Coen.

“Stop. Doing. Things. That. Give. Me. Chest-pains,” Emmy ordered, each word punctuated by a too-painful squeeze.

I thought she was hugging me, but when she drew back, there was a coat wrapped around my shoulders. Apparently, I had been hugging her and she had only been trying to give me a coat. She must have been squeezing me to let me know that she wanted to be released. For some reason, I found that funny. A giggle slipped past my lips, and Emmy cut herself off mid-chastisement, her eyes narrowing dangerously on my face.

“I’ve decided that we need new sister rules,” she told me, folding her arms over her chest.

“Uh…” Rome shifted nervously behind me. “Should we maybe … go … somewhere else?”

“No,” four other voices all argued, before Aros added: “That’s up to Willa.”

“What rules?” I asked Emmy cautiously, ignoring the boys completely. I knew I had made her angry again, but as my exhaustion levels crept up, I lost my will to defend myself.

“Rule Number One,” she began immediately, also ignoring the others. “All perilous ideas must be cleared with your best friend first. Especially if they involve almost dying.”

“I could probably do that.” I scratched my head. I was getting nervous now. She sounded like she had a lot of rules to get through.

“Number Two.” She was beginning to calm down, but there was a suspicious glint in her eyes. She had expected me to put up a fight. “I was brought here to assist Cyrus, but I will ask to be assigned to you, instead, since you weren’t given a dweller. Technically, you weren’t even given a spot on the Peak, but there’s no reason not to give you a spot …”

“I get the point,” I cut across her before she could launch into a list of reasons I deserved to be where all the best sols were. “But what’s Number Two exactly?”

“We stick together. Like sap on a tree. No more leaving me behind.”

“That one might be a problem,” I admitted, thinking back to the way Yael had taken control of me in the pool. Behind me, a low chuckle sounded.

Emmy rolled her eyes. “I’ve been given quarters with Cyrus, since I’m supposed to be attending him for the next life-cycle. I can sleep there, and you can do all your freaky sex stuff at night time. Deal?”

“Was that one of the rules? I can only do freaky sex stuff at night time? Does that mean you can only do freaky sex stuff at night time as well? Does that mean you’re going to do freaky sex stuff with Cyrus?”

Emmy’s face turned the colour of a ripe berry, and when I saw that red spread down to her hands, I knew that I needed to back away fast. Between Cyrus and Emmy, I was starting to think that I was the least scary person on the mountain. I backed up and she levelled a stare on me that said what the hell are you doing?

“You’re scary,” I answered her look. “Your hands are red.” I pointed to the clenched fists in front of her.

She let out a sigh before flexing her fingers and shaking off the tension in her shoulders. “Cyrus and me … there … never. I will never touch that arrogant god.”

“Famous last words,” Siret added lazily. “Now that you’ve put it out into the universe …”

“Bring. It. On!” Emmy tilted her head up, giving us the most stubborn of her looks. Then she spun around and stormed off. “I’ll see you in the morning, Willa,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t forget the rules.”

I was seriously hoping that there was absolutely no reason for me to break the rules that night. And that there weren’t any additional rules that she hadn’t gotten around to telling me about.

“I’m going to need some dry clothes and a bed,” I said to the Abcurses. “And sleep. Lots of sleep.”

Looks were exchanged, and I realised that we had reached the dilemma of where to sleep. Since I’d died, we had all been sleeping in our howler pile, and I wondered if they would want to continue that now. Or if we were going to start separating.

The thought of that sent a feeling of unease through me.

“Let’s check out the arrangements,” Coen suggested, breaking through whatever tension held us.

I wasn’t moving one more step in my wet clothes, and Siret must have realised that because he moved close enough to run his hands across my body. The sodden mess disappeared and when I looked down, I was in a robe. Not a god robe though, this style was more like a coat, which crossed over the front and tied with a long cord. It was the colour of cream, softer than clouds, and so warm that my entire body relaxed and I almost fell asleep right there on the spot.

Yael didn’t bother changing—wet clothes didn’t bother him apparently. Actually, on closer inspection, it looked like they were almost dry. Really? I mean, he did throw off a lot of body heat …

I really had to stop thinking about swimming.

“Yeah, that would be great,” Rome grumbled.

I hurried ahead of them, opening the door that Coen pointed at, stepping into what I hoped was a bedroom. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a quintet of fighting gods. I felt like I had to be extra careful until I managed to keep it even. Right now, things weren’t balanced, and if I didn’t fix that soon, we were going to end up in all-out war.