Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)(3)
“Pay attention to where you’re walking,” Rome snapped. “We don’t need another accident happening.”
We were back to the bossing around, apparently. Well, two could play that game.
“How about you pay attention for me, and that way I’m free to multitask and maturely follow my sister around to make sure she’s not doing anything stupid.”
“What level of stupid are we talking here?” Rome asked, ignoring the first part of my bossing. “Are we talking stupid like a Beta who can’t seem to stop talking to other males, forcing me into ‘crusher’ mode, as she so eloquently phrases it? Or is it more like Trickery when he decides that his little amusements are more enjoyable than letting us all know what he’s up to?”
My feet tangled up again, but I managed to right myself before falling. Progress? Damn right it was! I knew Rome was referring to my latest rebellion against the Abcurses, during which I had walked around the halls of Blesswood semi-naked. Only … they didn’t know that I had been walking around semi-naked, because Siret had used his Trickery to mask the fact.
“Coen almost put Siret through a wall!” I burst out. “Are you telling me that is the lesser level of stupid?”
What was he going to do if I didn’t stop talking to other guys? No, Willa! A small part of me was suddenly determined to find out, but that was almost definitely the Chaos part, right?
Rome was nodding, his eyes locked on me. “Yes, he went easy on the bastard. I would have put him through ten walls.”
With a shake of my head, I started walking again, hoping I would forget the last conversation we’d just had. The violence of his words and actions stirred something inside of me, almost as though it was calling to the budding Chaos contained within me. Either that, or I was hungry and my stomach was trying to tell me to eat.
The dining hall was reasonably empty when we entered, which meant that it wasn’t quite lunchtime, yet. There was no sign of Emmy—no, Emmanuelle. She was most definitely not earning her nickname back until she returned to the rule-loving, responsible, solidly-upstanding dweller that I knew her to be.
I could pretend to be mature and rational for a little while, but it definitely wasn’t the best long-term solution. The real me would break through at some stage and go on a rampage to get back at the mature, rational me for locking her up for so long. The real me was a wild animal, and she needed space to … roam. Or hunt. Or sleep on tree branches. Or just space to not be forced into a polite, sol-driven social structure.
Rome let out a small bark of laughter at my side, which I ignored. I actually had a good grip on my ability to shut the Abcurses out of my head … though it only worked when I really wanted them to stay out—which wasn’t right now. We’d already come far too close to losing our soul-link, and I needed the comfort of knowing that the connection was still there.
“Doesn’t look like she’s here,” Rome surmised, his amusement growing with each word. “Where to next?”
My snort of annoyance acted as an answer, until my brain had a chance to catch up. “If you’re not going to be helpful in this situation, maybe you could … like, give me a bit of space. Everyone is staring and you’re ruining my cover.”
The breath knocked out of me as he stilled and locked those unnatural eyes on me. His irises were even more gem-like than usual. They were almost glimmering, and it made me uneasy, for just a moment. I had never been able to afford rare things before. Or glittery things. Not that I was considering purchasing Rome’s eyes … because that would require some kind of underground, organ-harvesting group of eye-collectors and I wasn’t sure I could handle any more secret groups or secret meetings after the dweller uprising.
“That’s the only reason you wouldn’t want my eyes harvested?” Rome grunted, a little disbelieving.
I shrugged. “Like I said: they’re staring. Maybe if you were dissembled into little packages or something, they wouldn’t be staring and I’d be able to carry out a full sleuth mission uninterrupted.”
“The other students aren’t staring at me, Willa.” The blunt words were just so Rome.
He never wasted his breath, and he didn’t particularly like to chase me down the tangents I often entertained. For a long time, I had considered myself a burden to him and his brothers, but we’d reached a turning point recently, after he declared that he wanted to keep the soul-link. I was pretty sure that we were friends now.
Large hands wrapped around me as he pulled me close to his chest. “What I actually said was that you are ours. I’ve claimed ownership of you, Willa Knight.”
I wanted to shove against him. Maybe kick him in the shins … but I knew that either option would be both futile and painful. Instead, I started calling him every curse I could think of, which had his huge chest shaking with laughter in no time.
Far more gently than I would have expected, he pushed me back to arm’s length. “We’re yours also, you know that. This isn’t a one-way thing.”
Oh. My. Gods. He had never said anything like that before. That was almost … sweet.
I let out a shriek as he tossed me over his shoulder and took off. “Don’t get used to it. I have a limited supply of that, and I just used up all of it to get you to stop looking at me like you want to stick a fork in my eye.”