Strength (Curse of the Gods #4)(46)

“I wouldn’t have any kind of hope for anything when it comes to him,” Emmy said.

She turned and began to stomp back down the stairs. Siret was at my side again, fashioning another cloak for me before I could take even a single step.

“Thank you.” I turned to him, reaching out for his hand. As soon as our skin touched, my thoughts immediately returned to the kiss that had just been interrupted. How his lips had pressed insistently against mine, how his tongue had driven into my mouth with enough purpose that we should have ended up naked and swimming.

“Please stop,” Yael groaned, appearing at my other side. “You’re going to cause an embarrassing situation out here for everyone to see.”

I bit down on my lip, turning to head after Emmy.

Either Emmy was deliberately taking us the longest way possible to find Cyrus, or else Cyrus was using all of his godly talents to avoid her, because it took us thirty clicks to finally track him down.

“What are you doing?” I asked, as soon as I saw him.

My words seemed to startle him, but that was only his fault, because he had startled me. He was floating. Or, more accurately, hovering. He skimmed across a small pond, west of the main platform at the top of the mountain. His feet didn’t touch the water, even though small ripples spread out from where he floated, as though he was actually wading through the water. As he turned in the direction of our group, Emmy crossed her arms and let out a huff.

“I thought we had scheduled in a break from drinking for the next four rotations.”

Cyrus arched his left eyebrow at her. “The schedule said to take a ‘drink break’, not a ‘break from drinking’.”

His foot slipped on the last word and I watched as an arc of water shot across the pond in our direction. I was pulled out of the way just before it splashed me, but no one helped Emmy. She ended up drenched, dripping wet from head to toe.

My body was so tense that my muscles were starting to ache from the force of being held so tightly. Emmy was already on a knife’s edge when it came to the Neutral God. She seemed to be one incident away from murdering him in his sleep. The water-drenching might have snapped her final thread of control. She didn’t speak or move, other than the slight twitch in the corner of her eye. Not that she would succeed if she did try to murder him—seeing as he was immortal. Might have been fun to see her try, though.

Cyrus, who had finally recovered from his alcohol-induced stumble, actually looked slightly apprehensive. I’d never seen him show an ounce of unease, even when in the presence of other gods, but something in Emmy’s expression was throwing him off.

“Uh … sorry,” he muttered, moving closer to us, while still remaining out of reach, hovering over the water. “It was an accident.”

Emmy lifted a hand. I flinched.

Run, Cyrus.

I was mentally urging him on because I’d only seen Emmy this angry a few times in my life, and there was nothing that could make me stick around when she snapped like that. Your only chance was to hide until she cooled down.

“I. Quit.”

She said those words without emotion. No inflection at all. Every one of us gasped. Okay, that was a lie—I was the only one who gasped. But dwellers couldn’t quit. It wasn’t a thing. They didn’t get to just decide not to do their jobs anymore. That was like deciding not to live anymore. There weren’t any other options. Life or death, dweller or death. It was the same thing.

“Emmy!” I rushed forward, reaching her in a moment. “What are you saying?”

She wiped her face, shaking off the excess water. “You heard me, Will, I refuse to take any more orders from him.” She stomped to the water’s edge. “You no longer control me, Cyrus. I will take my punishment, but I’m done with you.”

Then with a huff, she spun around and stormed off.

Anger rose in me again. I swung myself toward Cyrus. My hands were shaking as I waved them at him. “You will fix this, Cyrus. So help me. Otherwise I am going to … uh … I’m going to do something really bad and annoying. Every single time you close your eyes you’ll fear that this is the night I strike.”

He wasn’t looking at me, despite my threat. His eyes were directed along the path Emmy had just taken, even though she was no longer visible.

When he finally turned back to me, his expression was one of pure astonishment. “No one quits me.”

I let out a derisive laugh. “Cyrus, you’re a real asshole most of the time. Don’t try and tell me that this is the first time someone has told you to go fuck yourself.”

He glided across the water, his feet finally standing firm on dry land. He was beside me now, towering over me. Heat washed down my spine. The Abcurses moved closer, clearly uncomfortable with Cyrus’s sudden proximity.

Cyrus leaned down to me. “I’ve never let anyone get close enough to ‘quit’ me before. The dweller does not know who she is messing with. There is no way she’s leaving.”

I reached out and grabbed a fist full of his shirt, yanking his face even closer to mine, since I assumed the intense eye-contact he had going on was supposed to be some kind of intimidation tactic. “If you don’t go and apologise to her right now, I’m going to make you wish you’d never been born … created … whatever the hell you are. That’s my sister. I don’t care if she’s a dweller, or a bug. I don’t care if she just quit you. If you mess with her, you mess with me. If you mess with me, you mess with the Abcurses. She might be a dweller, but I think you understand just how annoying all of us can be, when we want to be.”