Strength (Curse of the Gods #4)(8)

Coen cleared his throat again. I was beginning to interpret that sound as don’t ask, Willa, you don’t want to know.

Adeline jumped in to explain. “Sienna had a brief liaison with Aros.” She shot Aros a look that seemed oddly disapproving, but Aros had wiped his expression blank, and was looking from me, to Coen, and back.

Oh.

OH.

Him and Coen. Seduction and Pain working together. Suddenly, everything made sense.

“You hid the sacred and special and irreplaceable—” I began, before Siret cut me off.

“It’s very much replaceable, Staviti could make them all sun-cycle long—”

“You gave the very sacred and special and irreplaceable cup that I stole,” I barrelled over Siret, “to your ex-girlfriend. That makes sense. I mean, why wouldn’t you? That makes sense. That’s okay. I’m okay with that.” I reached out, snatched the glass off Coen that he hadn’t had a chance to drink yet, and tipped it down my throat.

Siret didn’t even wait—he just handed over his glass as soon as I was done with Coen’s. The barest arch of Adeline’s perfect right eyebrow was the only reaction she showed.

“I’m really not okay with it,” I told her, practically bouncing out of my seat at this point. I felt like my slippers had grown wings. That even I had grown wings. I suddenly felt as though I could have stepped into the actual burning sun and it wouldn’t have been able to harm me at all. I was light. I was fire. I was invincible.

“She thinks she’s light,” Aros muttered to Siret. “If she jumps off the platform, it’s on you.”

“I’m not okay with that at all,” I continued, speaking only to Adeline. “She sounds irresponsible, with her … name. It’s an irresponsible name. She shouldn’t be in charge of the cup. Sienna,” I mocked, making a face. “Terrible name. Never trust a Sienna. I bet she doesn’t even know how to cook a fowl.”

“You don’t know how to cook a fowl either,” Rome told me, sounding like he was holding back an unwilling laugh.

“I cook a great fowl,” I lied, springing out of the chair and planting my hands on my hips. “I bet she can’t even make her own animal-conscious jewellery—”

“What,” Coen interrupted, “the hell is animal-conscious jewellery, and when have you ever made it?”

“This one time I found some shackles in an old bullsen stable and I sold them as bracelets to one of the boys in our school—he wanted a gift for Emmy. She made him return them to me though, and I had to give back the sweets he gave me. Anyway, stop trying to change the subject. I bet Sienna can’t even make a bed.”

“I’ve seen you try to make a bed.” Yael decided to join the conversation. “You put the pillows down the wrong end.”

“I thought you would like to sleep and look out of the window at the same time.” I pouted a little bit at this, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You’re lying, aren’t you?” he returned, standing and cupping my arms, drawing me in against his chest. “You really got confused about which end to put the pillows.”

“No,” I lied in a huff, breathing out against his robes.

He squeezed me in with a chuckle, and then turned me around, so that he was pressing up behind me and I was facing Aros. “Why don’t you tell her why you gave the cup to Sienna and put her out of her misery, Seduction?”

Aros settled his golden eyes on me. “I knew where she has hidden the key to one of her vaults. I stashed the cup in there and changed the location of her key. She won’t even notice, and it was the only place I could think of that our father wouldn’t look.”

For some reason, I calmed then. Sienna didn’t even know about the cup. She wasn’t special enough to know about the cup—my cup. I stole the freaking thing so at least seventy percent of it was mine. I nodded at Aros to acknowledge his job well done, and then I retook my seat on the couch. Everyone else was standing—probably because of my brief freak-out—but I felt like my knees needed a moment of rest. They were wobbly.

And was it really warm in here?

I fanned at my face and Aros looked at me with concern. “Uh, I think Willa might be about to do her fire thing.”

Adeline’s concern matched her son’s as she peered closer to me. “Fire thing? What fire thing?”

Everyone was gathering closer. I ignored them in favour of fanning my face, because it really did feel extra warm in the marble house.

“She sets things on fire,” Coen announced without preamble.

“All the time,” Siret added.

Rome shrugged. “It’s her thing.”

I really wanted to argue with them: it was not my thing. If anything was my thing it was … swimming. Arghh. Of course that would be the first thing on my mind, because I was addicted to se—swimming now.

No, Willa! For gods’ sake, this was not the time.

My thing was being naked, which was marginally better.

Yael laughed out loud, which had a perfect O forming on Adeline’s full lips. I wasn’t surprised: Yael wasn’t really the laughing kind.

“The fire thing again?” Adeline asked, trying to figure out the inside joke.

My eyelids clamped shut, because the last thing I wanted to be discussing with this perfect being of beauty was my relationship with her sons. Nope. All the nopes right there.