Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)(62)
Aros’s chest expanded, the scent of burning sugar drifting across to me. He seemed to be burning up or something, as heat burned from his body, radiating through my spine.
“You okay?” I asked him, his reaction the most potent.
He seemed to tear his gaze from my mother with reluctance. “Are you okay?” His voice lowered, his hand pressing into my cheek as he tilted my head back to meet his molten gaze.
I tore myself away before he could make me cry, and practically threw myself into the cart. Of course, the step was higher than I had expected, so I tripped and head-butted the bullsen instead. The beast kicked out, and if a strong grip hadn’t wrapped around my middle and yanked me back, I would have probably lost half my face to a bullsen hoof. Siret’s arms were so warm and familiar; his energy tickled against my senses in a calming way, but I didn’t allow myself to stay in his arms for long. There would be time to fall apart, but that time wasn’t now. For now, I would keep my barrier erected. I would deal with the situation at hand.
“Into the cart, Donald,” I ordered, pushing myself off the broad chest and turning with a deep breath.
“As you wish, Sacred One.”
She clambered up with ease, her gait still robotic, but capable.
“See you soon, Em,” I murmured. “Stay safe.”
She nodded, and then in a flash she wrapped her arms around me, yanking me in with her crazy strength and squeezing me too hard before she let me go and ran off toward the nearest building. Back to her job as the dweller-saviour of Blesswood.
I attempted to climb into the cart again—a hand on my butt making sure that I actually made it this time. “Thanks, Five.” I didn’t bother turning my head; I knew it was him.
Why I had chosen the same cart as my mother, I had no idea. Maybe I wanted to punish myself, because everything that had happened was because of me. Not that I had been the one to actively do this to her. That was all Staviti: the asshole who liked to play with dwellers and sols and even gods as though they meant nothing.
“Do you want to move to the other cart, Willa-toy?”
I shook my head at Yael. “No, my moth—Donald is my responsibility. I need to keep an eye on her.”
My mother was across from us, sitting upright on the seat, staring around. Siret settled in next to her as Yael sat on one side of me and Aros on the other. I was directly facing Siret, his twinkling eyes locked on my face.
“Will Staviti try and bring her back?” I asked him. “Can he just poof her out of here or something?” The whispered words rattled from my chest, my eyes flicking to my mother’s blank face.
Aros lifted his arm over the back of our bench seat, settling me in against his side. Yael had his hand on my thigh, his hold somewhere between gentle and firm. Siret was the one to answer me.
“No,” he said. “She’ll only leave if she receives an order from him, or someone who ranks higher than us. If he didn’t give her instructions to return, then she’ll wait until she gets them.”
A heavy weight dipped the cart—knocking me forward a little—followed by a second, even heavier dip.
“Coen and Rome are driving,” Aros murmured in my ear as we started to move forward. “I think you got a little carried away trying to save us, sweetheart. We only need one cart.”
He was right. The five of us fit just fine in the back, with the two biggest bodies up the front. Apparently, I hadn’t counted everyone right … but there was no point in admitting that out loud.
“It was actually a preventative measure,” I told him, as the others sat in tense silence. “I told the dweller working in the stables that I needed the carts to transport injured sols. It made more sense to ask for two.”
“Lie,” Siret muttered from the other seat. “She crinkled her nose.”
“I saw it too,” Yael added. “Definitely a lie.”
Aros grinned at me. “You were so busy saving us you overreacted a little, huh?”
I chose to ignore him, turning away from Siret as well—which left only my mother to look at. She stared at the window, oblivious to our conversation as she watched the scenery. Except … her eyes weren’t moving. She wasn’t really watching the scenery. She was simply staring. Sitting. Part-way existing. I couldn’t bring myself to look away from her, all the while wishing something else would happen as a distraction. I would have gladly dived back into a discussion about the number of carts I overcompensated with, but everyone was staying silent.
As if he’d heard my desperate mental plea, Aros tightened the arm which was still draped behind me, before spinning me to face him, finally tearing my gaze from my mother.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured, his sugary scent washing over me.
I snuggled in even closer, pushing my body into his, and his hands slipped around me, helping me further. I somehow ended up on his lap, facing him, both of his hands pressed into my back.
“This isn’t your fault,” he continued to whisper, the words meant solely for me.
I bit my bottom lip to stop it from trembling. “I know.”
That didn’t change anything though. Even though I hadn’t been the one to kill—change my mother, it still didn’t reverse the fact that it had been done. I couldn’t even mourn in a normal way, because there was nothing normal about this. She was technically gone … but she was still right there. She even still had her hair. I thought that she maybe even smelled the same, but that was possibly only because the chemical scent of the guardian’s cave wasn’t so different from the strong alcohol scent that had always clung to my mother’s clothing. Aros tilted his head and pressed a kiss just below my ear, followed by another, closer to my cheek.