Persuasion (Curse of the Gods Book 2) Read online

  I swallowed, flicking my eyes up to a stern face.

  Coen.

  “I need to go to the bathroom,” I lied, shuffling from one foot to another.

  He rolled his eyes, his hand on my shoulder pulling me into the aisle. “Come on, dweller-baby, you wanted to stalk out after your friend? Let’s go.”

  I stumbled when he set me in the space between the rows of seats, my legs shaky because a glance over my shoulder showed me that the other Abcurses were standing, ready to follow me out of the room. Teacher Sing-Song looked equal-parts confused and wary, while the other sols were trying to avoid eye-contact with Coen—who seemed to be ready to unleash his Pain on the first person who spoke up against us.

  I made my way down to the teacher’s platform, my fists clenched against my sides in both anger and nervousness. I wanted to say something to her. To reprimand her the same way she had reprimanded the dweller-recruit, but the words wouldn’t rise, because I had no idea what to say.

  Instead, I turned my eyes to the other dwellers lining up against the wall. Five of them. Three refused to meet my eyes the same way the sols were refusing to look at Coen, but the other two stared back at me. Waiting.

  “Let’s go,” I said, gesturing toward the door of the classroom.

  They shocked me by nodding, and then leaving in a rush ahead of me.

  “You can’t dismiss—” Sing-Song started, her voice trembling with musical rage. Yael cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

  “Sit down,” he muttered. “Take a few deep breaths, sing a song—and then, when we’re gone, take it all out on these idiots.”

  I glanced over my shoulder as Sing-Song sank down into the chair behind her desk, a chuckle bubbling up in the back of my throat at her confused expression. Coen obviously didn’t want to linger, because he planted his hand between my shoulder blades and urged me the rest of the way through the doorway. By the time the door slammed behind us, the bushy-haired girl was nowhere to be seen, but the other two dwellers stood there, waiting.

  They glanced between the Abcurse brothers nervously, before settling their eyes on me. The male nudged the female, and she cleared her throat.

  “Thanks,” she croaked, before clearing her throat again. “I mean … thanks. Some of us are having a meeting later, in the common area between the stock rooms underneath the temple. You should come.” She punctuated that last statement with a nod, and then turned to leave, before the male dweller put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Oh,” she looked from him, to me. “It will be six rotations after sunset, when everyone is asleep. And … some dwellers have a little trouble passing though the entrance to the temple without getting sick. The gods … you know.” She turned to leave again, but the male grabbed her, again.

  I sighed, directing my words at him. “Why don’t you just tell me.”

  He looked a little startled, like he hadn’t expected anyone to actually address him, even though he was standing right there, visibly man-handling someone. “It’s a dwellers-only meeting,” he quickly said, his expression a little strained.

  He glanced over at Coen, who seemed to have taken a step closer to me, the tingle of his power spreading over my skin. By the time the male dweller switched his eyes back to me, his expression had moved up from strained to completely petrified: his mouth was pinched, his eyebrows bunched together.

  “And, ah, clothing is mandatory,” he quickly added, releasing the girl.

  They both turned this time, hurrying off down the corridor.

  “Sooo …” I drew out the word, spinning to face the others. “Which class do I have next?”

  “Are you going to that meeting?” Rome demanded, getting right to the point.

  I deflated a little, the breath rushing out between my lips. “I mean … I guess?” I shrugged. “She made it sound so mysterious and exclusive—like I’d be one of the cool dwellers if I got in. How could I not?”

  Rome directed his eyes upward, frustration creased up in his expression. “Why her?” he asked the ceiling. “Why does she have to be the dweller that we get stuck with?”

  I tried not to feel hurt by his words, but the only way to do that was to filter another emotion past the hurt, using that new emotion to dispel it. The emotion that came to me with the most ease was anger. I pushed past Coen, shoving both hands into Rome’s chest. He didn’t budge, and I bounced back like a rubber ball—I really needed to learn my lesson about hitting them. He reached out as I fell backward, his fingers scraping against my chest as though he was trying to grab a hold of my clothing. Clothing that I wasn’t wearing. I ended up on my ass, of course. I grunted, rubbing my spine as pain shot up from my backside to the base of my neck. This made three times I’d fallen on my ass already this sun-cycle, and it was only mid-cycle. I attempted to scramble back to my feet but Rome was already there, his hands on my arms as he hauled me back up.

  “Why do you have to fight back?” he asked, pulling me up and against his chest.

  His arms wrapped easily all the way around me, fingers splaying against my sides and dipping forward to press into my stomach. It made me feel way too vulnerable—as though this might be his famous Crusher Embrace or something.

  I remembered that he’d asked a question after a moment, and I turned my head to answer, but he lowered his head beside mine, preventing the movement.

  “Why do you have to stand up for yourself?” he continued, his tone a low rumble against my ear. So low that I wasn’t even sure that the others would be able to hear him. “Why do you have to ask so many questions? Why do you have to have so much … life in you, while all these other idiots are just trying to chase something after death?”

  I frowned. I had no idea where he was going with this. He seemed to be insulting me only two clicks ago but now it almost sounded as though he was complimenting me.

  “Why did it have to be you, hm?” His arms constricted, pulling me in tighter. “And why the fuck are you naked again?”

  Until now, the others had remained quiet, but as soon as the word ‘naked’ had been basically flung out into the hallway, all hell broke loose.

  “TRICKERY!” one of them shouted, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. The walls shook, and a familiar grunt told me that someone had managed to pin Siret.

  “Release the illusion!” Coen demanded.

  “Uh …” Siret didn’t sound the least bit intimidated. “Hate to break it to you, Pain, but that’s kind of like forcing me to undress her. Shouldn’t you be asking her first?”

  Coen growled, the sound low and menacing, and I tried wiggling out of Rome’s arms. He set me down, but only so that he could spin me around and hook an arm above my chest, sticking me back up against him. When his hand landed on my stomach again, I stopped fighting.

  Everyone else stopped fighting, too.

  “What are you doing?” Siret asked, his eyes on Rome’s hand.

  The hand wasn’t moving, yet.

  “Tell him to release the illusion,” Rome grunted to me. “Or I’ll find out for myself.”

  Those were fighting words. He actually thought he could win this battle against me?

  “Yes,” he hissed, his hand slipping down an inch. “I can.”

  I swallowed, because my body was already reacting, and not in the ‘fighting’ way that I had wanted it to react. I seemed to be leaning back into his chest, my hips tilting forward to press the skin of my stomach into his hand. Under any other circumstances, I’d be calling myself a shameful hussy right about now, but my broken-up soul provided the condition for special circumstances. It wasn’t in my power to control the way I always leaned into them.

  The hall became eerily silent, with my heartbeat drowning out every other sound as it thundered in my ears. Coen backed off Siret, and all four of them moved to stand in front of me.

  “Stop,” Aros murmured, his topaz eyes blazing at the hand on my skin.

  Rome wasn’t listening though. With the small portion of my brain still functioning,
I wondered if he had forgotten his entire reason for holding me captive against his body. The reason he was pressing his large hand against my bare skin.

  “Your powers are overwhelming her, Strength.” Coen’s voice was a gravelly sound. Which was so not helping when it came to controlling my body.

  Your body! my mind screamed at me then. Almost all coherency had disappeared but I had enough left to shake some of the sexual cloud off and throw both of my elbows back. As I connected with skin, it felt like I had hit a brick wall. My arms throbbed almost instantly, but something in my actions caused Rome to loosen his grip, and I fell to my hands and knees. As I gulped in huge gasps of air, hands reached down to lift me up. Hands so hot they practically branded me as they landed on my arms.

  Instead of allowing them to hoist me up, as I usually would have, I shook the grip off roughly.

  “I just need a click. Give me one. Damn. Click.”

  I sounded pretty angry, and the reality was, parts of me were. My soul was off playing happy family with five gods, which left me broken and with almost no will against them.

  “You pushed her too far,” I heard Siret say, his voice holding a bite of annoyance.

  A crash startled me, and I looked up to find Rome striding off, and a wall nearby looking a little shaky. There weren’t any fist-shaped holes, but I was pretty sure the entire building was shaking. The other four remained around me, their backs half-turned in my direction. At first I couldn’t figure out what they were doing, until I realised that there were a few sols lingering close by.

  They were blocking me while I fell apart.

  Making sure that my half-naked ass wasn’t on show for the world to see.

  Why did they do that? One click they were assholes and I was so mad at them that I was mentally devising a plan to cut my souls from their bodies while they slept, and the next click they were doing something so perfect that I had to love their stupid faces all over again. It wasn’t fair. I wanted them to be consistent.

  As Rome disappeared and my senses kicked back into gear, I was calm enough to stand and suck in a few deep breaths. My anger had now faded out to a pale shade of what it was. Half of me still wanted to go after Rome, but instead I gathered up the threads of independence left to me, and pushed through the remaining Abcurses, heading toward their rooms. I expected my show of defiance to cause me pain, but my chest remained at the same standard throb as when they were close, but not touching. I turned back and was shocked enough to see that all of them were following a short distance behind me—so shocked that my feet tangled up and I tripped over flat ground, tumbling down again.

  Well, almost tumbling down. I crashed against a big body, and then we both fell together. I was confused for a moment, because the Abcurses rarely fell, and they rescued me all the time. I was pressed against his chest, so I couldn’t see who had me … but he smelled different. Less spice, more like the soap nuts that the dwellers used to wash the clothes of the special sols. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell, but it wasn’t an Abcurse.

  Not an Abcurse. Oh crap. I tried to roll away, but my arms and legs were pinned down by his massive body. Holy crap, I really needed to get away from him before all hell broke loose.

  “Well, well, dweller.”

  I stilled momentarily at the familiar voice, before continuing to wiggle free. Once I managed to get my arms free, I used his chest to leverage myself up. It was the giant sol. Mountain Man. Was he stalking me? Or was I somehow stalking him? Because he seemed to be everywhere I was lately.

  His eyes twinkled as he grinned at me, and being this close to him, I noticed that his eyes were a deep, rich chocolate brown around the pupils, lightening up to something more caramel at the edges.

  Pretty, but still not an Abcurse.

  “We really have to stop meeting like this,” I blurted out, my legs finally getting traction as I scrambled to stand.

  Mountain Man, who was still flat on his back, lifted the top half of his oversized body and let his eyes lazily assess me. “You know, it’s kind of growing on me. Think I’m starting to see what the Abcurses find so fascinating about you.” He stood then, towering over every sol in the hall.

  I felt the heat rush up from my toes, spreading out across my body. “I’m usually wearing clothes,” I blurted out, trying to halt my mortification.

  Not only did I keep crawling on top of this guy, but this sun-cycle’s attempt had been in a mostly-naked state.

  “Actually, she rarely has clothes on, but that’s not really your concern. Is it?” The question was asked casually, almost a throw away inquiry.

  Yael, who had asked the question, stepped up to my right. Siret on my left. Aros and Coen finished off our wall of five. For the first time, Mountain Man looked a little worried, his gaze brushing across the fierce men at my sides. A part of me was flattered. Who would have ever thought that clumsy Willa Knight would ever attract such attention?

  It didn’t take that flattery long to filter into annoyance.

  The Abcurses had made a pact; so why were they now in this hallway, branding their ownership on me? It made me angry enough to step forward from the line. To distance myself just enough to make my point clear.

  “I’m Willa,” I said to Mountain Man. “I’ll see you around.”

  Then I turned and marched off, catching a glimpse of three dark, angry gazes—and one slightly amused, but still kind of pissed-off Siret.

  “I’m Dru,” Mountain Man shouted after me. “Be seeing you, Willa!”

  I threw my right hand over my head in a farewell of sorts, but didn’t look back. Well, not until the crashing got loud enough that I was forced to see what chaos I had left behind me. I caught a glimpse of tangled legs and what might have been the red spray of blood, before a god who was very good at impersonating a wall blocked my view. Yael.

  He didn’t say anything. He simply pointed his finger in the direction I had been heading, as if to say keep walking. The only problem was that I was done blindly taking orders from them. My stand was probably getting a bit out of hand, but now that I had started this act of defiance and independence, I was finding it hard to stop.

  With both hands on my hips, I raised my eyebrows and tried my best not to blink.

  Yael just shook his head at me, and a sliver of softness crept into his stunning eyes. We had a silent eye conversation and I could swear that he was pleading with me. Our stare-off lasted for a few long clicks, until finally I caved. I’d never been that good at holding on to anger or grudges. It always seemed like a lot of effort, and I never knew when my next accident was going to be my last. I didn’t want to go out with horrible emotions locked inside of me.

  So I let it go.

  Yael must have seen me softening because he threw both arms out and swept me up, holding me close to his body. A body which was rigid and slightly trembling. “You’ve been sent here to test us, Willa. It’s a test I’m not sure any of us will survive.”

  His husky words were cryptic. They could be taken two ways, but I felt his need. Maybe it was our mental-link, or maybe I just knew him by now, but the need vibrated out of him, trembling in his arms as he held me. He needed to hold me close. It was an unnatural urge that I’d had to battle with often since my soul had splintered up, so I understood. I decided not to think too hard on the test them part of what he had said, and just allow myself to go limp against him.

  “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” he murmured, before pulling back slightly so that we could see each other. Most of our bodies still touched, fitting together somehow perfectly, even though I was much smaller.

  “What is?” I was honestly confused; his closeness had knocked out my brain functioning capacity. I was back to basic needs, only what was required to stay alive.

  He moved back a little more, keeping me with him.

  “He means that you’re needing us more and more. The contact. The touching.” Coen was there now, pressing against my side. The double contact allowed even more relief to sink int
o my chest, to my bones. Actually, I was pretty much boneless by now.

  “You can touch us, Willa.” Aros this time, his warmth caressing the opposite side to Coen, and now there were three of them. Everywhere. “Don’t hurt because you’re worried about touching us.”

  Siret snorted, and I could feel him at my back. “She touches us all the time. I dream about it. The way her hands seem to clutch at whatever clothing is in her vicinity, and her delectable body pressing against ours.”

  I was done. Pretty much the gods could finish me off right now and I’d go with a smile on my face.

  Except for Rome. I was missing Rome. I was worried about Rome. Plus, we were making a pretty big spectacle of ourselves in the hallway, although strangely enough there wasn’t anyone around that I could see. Coen must have noticed me trying to peer down the hallway, because he murmured low in my ear, “Yael convinced them all that they had better things to do.”

  Then, as one, they stepped away from me, and the world was suddenly cold and vast again. My security was gone. It was only the hand Coen kept on my back that prevented me from collapsing into a heap at their feet. Damn my traitorous soul—it was supposed to be on my side!

  Before I could gather my wits, we were moving, and then somehow we were back in front of their rooms. In front of Rome’s, to be precise. Just as they were about to step inside, I touched Siret’s arm. “You can drop the illusion now.”

  My joke had pretty much backfired on me, but I didn’t regret it. I had stood up to the Abcurses in my own way, and that was not something anyone did. They wouldn’t forget it, and they might actually think twice before giving me an order again. Yeah, right.

  Still, standing up to them was a big deal … even though I knew they weren’t going to smite me into a million pieces. But even incurring a tiny portion of their wrath was enough to have most people crying like babies. I’d done that and more.

  Siret gave me a look at that thought, and it was one that I hadn’t seen before. But it was really freaking hot. If I had to guess, I’d say he was kind of impressed. Then, with a nod of his head, I felt a burning whoosh of energy traverse my body and the illusion was gone.