Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)(60)



“He’s going to punish me, instead of them,” I surmised.

“Exactly. And it’s a double win, because hurting you hurts them. Come on.” Emmy grabbed my arm in typical bossy-girl fashion, forcing me to form a clumsy chain, with our mother dragged along at the end.

We rounded the side of the building and started moving back toward the arena, though she swerved off to the side before we could get to the gates again. There was a bullsen-pen around the backside of the arena, with an attached stable and a feeding bay. Emmy released me once we got to the stables, disappearing inside and appearing again a moment later with a harried-looking dweller in tow. He wasn’t a young dweller, and I had begun to notice that most of the older dwellers were given jobs within the academy … but outside the actual academy walls. They preferred to have the younger dwellers inside, serving the blessed-sols-who-apparently-didn’t-like-wrinkles.

“Miss,” he greeted, glancing at me. “You’re the one needing the bullsen? Seven bullsen?” His voice hitched on the last word, indicating that the request was going to be a problem.

“No,” I quickly assured him, casting a look toward Emmy. “I don’t think we really need to take so many. You don’t have any carts available?”

“They’re strictly for the use of the sacred sols, Miss.”

He just looked confused now, his eyes flicking up over my shoulder to take in the last few sols that scrambled down the path from the arena to the dorms. Several of them appeared to be injured. “A tough arena match this sun-cycle? I could hear the screams from here.”

“That’s what we need the carriages for,” Emmy insisted. “Several of the top sols are injured, and I’ve been directed to organise their transport to Dvadel, as the Blesswood healers are overrun. Please don’t make us wait any longer, or the repercussions will not just land on us.”

He nodded, jerking his eyes away from the arena. “Of course, Miss. Wait right here, I’ll prepare the carriages. Will two be enough? I only have one spare driver—”

“These two women have been asked to drive,” she quickly intercepted, nudging my mother to stand behind me. Luckily, the dweller hadn’t paid much attention to her, yet. “The dweller committee felt it best that our representatives travel with them, as the families of the sols will need to be notified of their healing progress in a … diplomatic manner. You know how these sol families take failure in battle …” She let that trail off suggestively, while the dweller nodded a few more times.

“Of course.” He hurried back into the stables and we both turned in complete synchronisation to face my mother.

Her expression didn’t change, but her eyes moved quickly from me to Emmy, and back.

“Who sent you here?” Emmy asked.

“Staviti,” she replied. “Our great and humble Creator. The Father of our Realm. The Benevolent. The Wise—”

“We get it,” I muttered. “Why did he send you here?”

“He said: Donald, I would like you to stand in the arena when they call your name. Try not to fall over.”

“That’s all?” Emmy pressed, apparently frustrated.

“He said I was not to injure the Sacred One,” my mother added.

“Which sacred one?” I puffed out a breath. “There are so many.”

“You, Sacred One.”

“Oh. Cool. Why can nobody hurt me?”

“He would like to meet with you. He does not like when people bleed on his rugs. He was very clear that creating rugs was a chore he liked to avoid, so if I could prevent people from bleeding on the rugs—”

I placed my hand over her mouth to stem the tirade of unhelpful explanations. “He clearly hasn’t told her anything important. I can take her with us. Are you going to come, or stay?”

“You know I need to stay.” The expression on Emmy’s face was sad, but her shoulders were squared, determined. “The dwellers need a leader—someone steady that they can trust, someone who can help to rally them. I won’t leave them in this mess. Especially with Evie still injured. Once you and the Abcurses leave, the sols are going to try and take back control of the academy. They’re going to send the dwellers so far into the ground that we’ll forget what sunlight looks like. I need to stay and help.”

Evie. I had forgotten about her. I shouldn’t have forgotten about her considering I was part of the reason she got burned. Cyrus was most of the reason, but it was still my Chaos, and I needed to accept my role. There was no time to ask more about her, though. Not right now. “I should stay and h—”

“You need to leave,” Emmy insisted, lowering her voice as the dweller began to lead one of the carts out. “The longer you stay, the more everyone here will suffer the fate of Staviti’s punishments for you. You need to get as far away from all of these innocent people as you can.”

Her words would have probably filled me with pain and guilt, if I hadn’t already shut myself off to everything. I continued with my very practical, analytical train of thought. “You’re right, and I think I know a place. Will you watch mu—Donald? I need to get the guys out of the arena so we can leave. Before things get even worse.”

“I’ll watch her.” Emmy pried my fingers from our mother’s arm, and opened her mouth to speak, but the dweller was now directly behind us, fiddling with the bullsen reins. She waited a click, until he returned to the stable, and then quickly rushed out: “She’ll be safe with me. I promise. Go!”

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