Strength (Curse of the Gods #4)(9)

Thankfully, Coen jumped into his role as ‘responsibility guy’, and changed the subject. “Willa can’t stay hidden forever, so we’re trying to figure out the best way to present her to Topia. Staviti is going to lose it, no matter what we do, because he never approved her as a god. She didn’t go through any of the steps that would normally be required. Somehow, Willa died, but didn’t, and we have no explanation for it.”

Everyone returned to their seats then, Siret and Aros re-claiming either side of me. Their heat added to the inferno inside of me, but I was pretty sure that it was actually dying down. Maybe whatever that wine had done to me was subsiding, which hopefully meant no fires this sun-cycle.

“Do you know what I am?” I asked Adeline. I could have phrased that better, but I was pretty much sick of being in the dark. I had been a freak for my entire life: an outcast, a menace that people shunned because I didn’t fit into the proper dweller mould.

I wanted to know my mould.

Adeline stood in a single graceful movement. She glided over until she was positioned right before me. Reaching out, she took my face in her hands and I tensed. When Aros and Siret remained relaxed on either side of me, I figured that she wasn’t about to rip my head off, so I released some of the tension I was holding.

Her touch sent small tingles across my skin, as though she had a low level of electricity running through her veins. It had the feel of Coen’s Pain, but his went straight into my body, whereas Adeline’s energy skimmed across my skin.

She pulled back and part of me was bereft. Her power was so warm and loving, one could easily grow addicted to that feeling. As she returned to her seat, I leaned forward in mine, waiting for her to speak. Her face was expressionless, but there was a flicker of something deep in those blush-coloured eyes.

“Well …” Rome got in before me.

The goddess shook her head. “I have no idea what Willa is now. She has energy like a god, but it’s different. I’m not a Neutral, so there are limits to what I can sense, though there’s no denying the power inside her. It seems to be trapped, or dormant. She needs to figure out how to set it free or utilise it. Once she does, she will have a better idea of who, or what, she is.”

Great. Unleashing my power was just about the last thing I wanted to do, especially if it meant that the horrible fires I caused weren’t the full extent of it. Maybe there were bigger fires waiting inside of me. Or earthquakes. Swarms of crawlers. Wind-storms. Twisting wind-storms that tossed fire around. The horrific possibilities were endless.

Abcurses. My eyes flitted over to the huge gods sprawled around me, their giant bodies spilling out over the sides of Adeline’s delicate couches. Maybe I’d have to recreate the kiss with Coen and Aros, where my ‘beta’ power had been released.

“I volunteer,” Siret said, hand in the air.

My smile could not be stopped … I was barely able to stop from throwing myself into his lap.

Adeline just shook her head. “It’s very peculiar that you can hear Willa’s thoughts still.” We’d told her all the details about this particular quirk of our group earlier. “The original soul-link came about because Willa could not contain the curse, it was too strong, and would have fed on her energy until she was nothing. But death should have destroyed the link and the curse. Willa was …” She scrunched her face slightly, as if searching for the right word. “Reborn. Her rebirth is a renewal. As we see with the few rare sols who have made it to Topia. They shed the old life, scars, disease. So why …”

“They have a soul-bond now,” came a deep voice, suddenly. “The link was transformed, clearly long before the dweller died.”

The voice had the five Abcurses on their feet in a single beat of my heart. They were positioned in front of me and their mother, backs rigid with tense muscles.

Jumping up off the couch, I peeked my face between Rome and Coen’s arms, and a familiar god came into sight. Abil.

“What are you doing here?” Adeline asked, stepping around her sons to stand before the God of Trickery.

Abil shrugged, his purple robes shifting across his broad shoulders. “I came to tell you that Staviti has called a meeting of all the gods, at the crest of the sun this afternoon. He wishes to discuss the new protocols for Betas. He wants the worlds back in order.”

It felt like Minatsol was so far removed from my current world, but I still had Cyrus checking on Emmy for me. I knew that she was safe—though he hadn’t reported about the rest of Blesswood. I had no idea what was going on back there. I expected that things were going to be rough while the sols tried to exert their dominance. Dwellers were rebelling, servers were attacking, gods were acting out of character. Elowin had been right when she had told me that I was upsetting a balance that could destroy everything.

She had been right, but I couldn’t help but feel that the worlds needed some upsetting. Things hadn’t been functioning well for a long time. The old way only worked for a small percentage of the population. I hated to think of everyone who was being caught up in this anarchy.

“When you say everyone is called for this meeting …” Adeline distracted me from my worried thoughts.

Abil nodded. “Yes, every single god must attend.” He turned to his sons. “There’s no hiding from this, you need to go and deal with whatever Staviti has planned. He won’t try anything with all of us there, especially Adeline.” His eyes flicked across to her. “But we need to know what he has planned, and there is only one person he will possibly give that information to.”