Cyrus had his long white hair pulled back from his face, his pale eyes flicking right over me, as though he refused to acknowledge me at all. The severity of his hair only highlighted the unnatural beauty he possessed. And by beauty, I really meant that he was clearly still a gorgeous, arrogant bastard.

“Is she sleeping in there?” he asked, motioning to the little room with a nudge of his head.

“No.” Coen was the one to answer, while the rest of them stood around, watching Cyrus.

Nobody seemed surprised to see him, but maybe they had been expecting him to appear at some point. He was the Neutral God—the one who enforced Topian law and handled the disputes of the gods. I supposed it made sense that he would be there, seeing as the Abcurses had been called in to trial. He arched a brow at Coen’s response, but nobody said anything further.

After a moment, his eyes settled on me, and he brought up his hand, his fingers flicking in a ‘come here’ gesture.

“Bring her here,” he ordered. “I’ll do what I can, but you five need to be back in Topia within the next five clicks, or Staviti will rule a sentence in your absence, and it won’t be a favourable one.”

“Whoa.” I planted my feet before any of them could ‘bring’ me anywhere, a frown suddenly tugging down my lips. “What’s going on? I thought you said we weren’t going to transfer the link back to Cyrus?”

This time, my glare was on the five Abcurses. They didn’t wither under my panic-fuelled anger the way I had hoped that they would, but Siret grimaced, so at least it did something.

“We’re not.” Aros’s voice was a little deeper than usual, the rough tone carrying a hint of how he felt about that particular memory. “Cyrus is going to bind you to a temporary object. The magic will wear on it over time, and soul-link magic is extremely draining, so it won’t last long. But it should be enough to last the trial.”

“And if it isn’t?” My fierceness had melted away at the explanation, and I was now left with mostly fear. Fear for my guys, and a deep-rooted unease at the thought of being disconnected from them once again.

“Cyrus will be back to check on you tomorrow,” Rome answered, looking as though he had swallowed something distasteful. “If the trial isn’t over before then.”

“It could go that long?” I refused to turn and acknowledge Cyrus.

I was grateful that he had agreed to help, but I didn’t really believe that he was the helping sort. He was powerful and cold. I couldn’t help but think that he had an agenda, but I also couldn’t figure out what he could possibly want from me. He had kidnapped me once, determined to hand me over to Rau in exchange for a server—which was somehow both endearing and insulting at the same time. Maybe Rau had found another way to blackmail him?

“We don’t have any other options,” Yael cut into my thoughts, his eyes tracking hesitantly over my face.

None of them liked this idea.

“We need you to stay here,” Coen added. “And Neutral is aware of what will happen if we return and you’re not safe and whole.”

At those words, the Abcurses all shifted, their postures changing, their expressions shuttering. They had turned their attention back to Cyrus, effectively ending the negotiation part of our discussion.

“Actually, I’m not aware.” Cyrus was smiling, but there wasn’t any humour in it. It was the smile of a person who thought that he was untouchable.

Okay, fair enough. According to Topian law, Cyrus was … untouchable—but when had the Abcurse brothers ever followed the rules?

I turned back to the guys and witnessed the ripple of change that passed over them. Siret was trying not to smile and the hard look in Coen’s eyes had eased a little.

“Why don’t you fill me in before we start?” Cyrus prodded, sounding closer than he had a click ago.

I jumped at the touch on my shoulder, spinning around and brushing his hand off, but once again—his attention was on the guys.

“We might not be able to kill you,” Rome growled, as another hand landed on my shoulder, golden skin peeking into the corner of my eye.

Aros pulled me back, bringing me into his chest and away from Cyrus, as Rome stepped forward and slid in front of me, his voice lowering.

“But there are so many ways to hurt a person without touching them. There are so many ways to get to you, Cyrus. You know who our father is—you think he taught us nothing?”

“This is getting us nowhere.” Siret was suddenly beside Rome, reaching back to me, his hand on my arm, dragging me out of Aros’s grip. “This isn’t ideal for any of us—we all know why Cyrus agreed to this. He’s built of secrets, full of them—and Willa is an unknown in this world. The only way he can get close enough to observe her is to strike a deal with us—”

“And it just so happens you need something from me,” Cyrus cut in, smiling that same humourless smile. “And you had better hand her over before you run out of time. There’s every chance that Staviti will decide to pull you from exile and jail you for a period in Topia. What will you do with your little Beta-hybrid then?”

Jailed?

I quickly untangled myself from all the hands currently gripping me. Aros was still holding onto one arm, while Siret had the other, and Rome looked as though he was a fraction of a click from grabbing onto something, too. Only I had run out of limbs, which would mean that he would have to grab a leg or wrestle one of his brothers, and I didn’t want to waste any more time.

“Where’s the object?” I demanded quickly, managing to break free and squeeze between Rome and Siret. I squared my shoulders and tilted my head back, looking Cyrus square in the face and forcing him to meet my eyes properly for the first time.

There was no expression there as he stared at me, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather string, dangling it from his fingers so that the smooth, pale-gold rock attached to the end was visible. It swung gently before my face, and I reached out to touch it, surprised by the way it hummed beneath the pads of my fingers. It was warm—almost warm enough to be uncomfortable, and the room dropped into a heavy sort of silence.

“How did you get that?” Yael finally asked, sounding shocked.

“What is—” I started to ask, before Cyrus answered the both of us.

“A semanight stone,” he said, stretching out my fingers and dropping the warm rock into my palm. “And it was traded to me in exchange for the use of my … services. The soul-link will not drain this stone.” He watched as I brought it up before my face, allowing the light from the window to hit the back of the stone, turning it almost transparent.

“Doesn’t magic drain everything?” I asked.

“Not semanight stone,” Coen answered quietly. “This is a type of rock native to Topia. It produces magic, instead of surviving from it, but it can’t be mined in the occupied pockets of Topia.”

“Which brings us back to the question of how you got it,” Yael added, a little more forcefully.

“It was given to me by an envoy of the panteras.” Cyrus’s voice turned sharp, his pale eyes icing over. “And that is not something that concerns you. Any of you.”

He cut his eyes to me, and I closed my fist around the semanight stone. “Don’t look at me like that. I was just standing here looking at the rock. I didn’t ask you any personal questions. I don’t even want to know anything personal about you. You go ahead and have your secret pantera business and stay as far away from me as possible.”

“Feeling hostile, are we?” He ignored most of what I’d said, reaching out to take my hand again, this time curling my fingers tighter around the rock. It hummed warmly in my grip. “Very well. Let’s not waste any more time. I’m going to need a little more room.”

The press of bodies all around me eased off immediately, and I could feel the changing tension in the air. They were shifting around restlessly, somehow reassured by the appearance of the stone, as though they needed to see with their own eyes that Cyrus had not intended to transfer the link back to himself and drag me off to Rau again. They had turned their minds toward the trial already.

“You should all go,” I said, as the warmth began to spread down to my wrist. “I’ll be fine. I have my super special rock and this idio—”

“Careful,” Cyrus muttered, sounding distracted. “You don’t want to insult me while I’m working a spell over you.”

“He has a point,” Siret said, shaking his head at me—though he was starting to smile again.

“I have this upstanding Topian gentleman making sure my little cannibal soul won’t start feeding on itself as soon as you all leave, so you should go. I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”

“You can’t even walk down a hallway by yourself.” Aros smirked at me, but Coen was now ushering them all toward the door.

“Fine.” I wrinkled my nose at him, shifting uncomfortably on my feet—the warmth had reached my shoulder now, and it was starting to burn. “But I really don’t want anyone to be jailed. Being jailed sucks—although I’m sure it’s not so bad in Topia. The cells are probably made out of gold, and you probably get served seventeen meals a sun-cycle.”

“Marble,” Siret corrected, a laugh in his voice. “You better be here when we get back, Rocks. Don’t lose the stone.”

“And it’s five meals a sun-cycle,” Rome grumbled, sounding offended. “We’re not bullsen. We have some civility. Don’t lose the stone, don’t get angry at the stone and throw it anywhere, and don’t try to eat the damn thing.”

“Okay, that’s going overboard,” I argued. “You make me sound completely useless.”

“He wants you to be completely useless,” Coen told me, pushing Rome out the door after Siret. “He wants you to be so useless that you can’t possibly last all this time without us. He wants you sobbing and running into his arms when he gets back. He’s old-fashioned like that.”

“That’s weird!” I shouted out, loud enough for Rome to hear me.

“I don’t want her to sob, you dick,” I heard Rome snapping, his voice carrying back into the room.

“This is all very touching.” Cyrus’s voice brought my attention back to him, and the feeling of fire now burning up through my veins, dripping down into my chest. “But I need to concentrate here.”

Aros and Yael both shared a look with each other, and then with me, before exiting the room after their brothers.

“You better not be up to anything,” I said to Cyrus, as soon as we were alone. “Those guys might not be able to kill you because of whatever laws you have on Topia, but I bet there aren’t any laws about dwellers killing gods. You all probably thought you were too good for that law.”

“Are you threatening to kill me, doll?” His eyes were closed, his attention clearly divided, but the scathing way that he had flung out his nickname for me was enough to have my fist tightening further around the stone.

“Yeah,” I gritted out from between my teeth. “I guess I am. So you better watch out.”

He started to smile, just as the fire in my chest turned to pain, ripping through me with sharp agony.

“Consider me warned,” he said, his words floating away as blackness descended over my vision.

I had been at Blesswood for no more than a few moon-cycles, which was strange when I thought of all the things that had happened to me during my time there. There had been so much strangeness that it would have been hard for me to actually choose a single incident to rise above all the other incidents in strangeness.

Until this sun cycle.

I opened my eyes to find myself sitting up in a cart.

What the hell?

As my rapid blinking slowed down, I found my brain catching up to my eyes, and I jerked properly upright in a rush of motion. Multiple eyes locked onto me as my right hand slammed against my chest, trying to quell the rapid beating of my heart. I attempted to think back to my last memory, because I had no recollection of getting on a cart, and while it was somewhat of a relief that Emmy was also there, it was still mostly just … bizarre. One click I had been standing … in Coen’s room? And then the next click I was … rolling down a bumpy road?

What happened?

A face flashed into my mind: pale hair, pale eyes, a sharp smirk.

“That fuc—”

“Will!” Emmy interrupted my burst of anger, her hand wrapping around my right bicep as she pulled me closer. “Is everything okay? The journey is almost over.”

Disorientation pressed in on me again and I struggled to sort through the jumbled mess of my mind. “Journey,” I mumbled, hoping that a memory would be triggered if I mentioned the word.

The other sols were still watching me, all of their shininess directed toward us. Emmy and I were the only dwellers in the cart, and I really wished that they would just turn away so that I could pull myself together. Leaning in closer to my sister, I murmured as low as I could, “What’s going on? Why aren’t we in Blesswood any longer?”

Emmy tilted her head back, the oddest expression crossing her face as she spoke right into my ear. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already? We have to visit Soldel for the first meeting of the council. The Chancellor will be hearing from all of those applying to be Vice-Chancellor. The sols here are all members of high-ranking families. It’s the vote this sun-cycle.”

I took a really good look at the sols surrounding us. I had been trying to avoid looking at them because they were close enough to hear us if we hadn’t been whispering, but the three familiar, sneering faces now caught my attention. Fred, Dipshit, and Numbnuts. Great. Emmy’s three … whatever they were.

“If the sols are voting then … why are we here?” I didn’t bother to lower my voice this time.

“We’re the dweller reps.” A low voice from my left had me jumping, and I twisted my head to find Evie there. I was taken aback, realising I hadn’t noticed her at my side until that very moment. That was quite a feat, considering that her bushy hair had suddenly developed a very real personality of its own—apparently reacting to the weather. I was more out of it than I had even thought.

Wait a click … what had she said? Suddenly, everything made sense.

“This is what you two idiots have been doing?” I asked. “Seducing sols to try and get a foot in the door for the votes and meetings?” My words were loud again, and both girls shushed me. Most of the sols had lost interest in us by then, but at the loud shushing they were once again staring.

Sinking down lower, I averted my eyes, all the while muttering beneath my breath. “No one told me about a freaking meeting. How the hell did I get in this cart?”

I ran a hand over my face to try and clear the fuzziness in my head. I was so confused, and yet at the same time I felt as though I should have known something more.

Pale eyes flashed across my mind again, and I stilled. That asshole!

Whatever Cyrus had done to me, it had messed with me big time. I didn’t remember much of anything he had said to me, and I sure as hell didn’t remember getting into this cart.

As more of my brain clicked back into gear, painful clarity followed it. I reached to my throat, patting along my collar bone, before releasing a sigh of relief at the small lump there. My fingers delved beneath the collar to double check, but I was right with my first guess. The amazing, special, non-magic-eating stone hung from a leather tie around my neck. Which meant that I shouldn’t die or almost die any time soon, which would be a nice change.

“I’ve been doing this for you as well, Willa.” Emmy drew my attention again. “You’re practically in a six-way-love-fest with … sols.” She stumbled a little before continuing. “Wouldn’t you like to see more of what we’re trying to do? More rights for the dwellers? More dweller and sol relationships? More representation for us on the councils? It’s time we took a stand, and the only way to achieve that is with some inside help. Dwellers were never going to get representation, but if we have the ear of the Vice-chancellor, maybe we can … adjust some thinking.”

It was my turn to snort out laughter now. “Those shweeds are never going to help us. They’re using you two, plain and simple.”

A part of me was instantly pissed with myself and my attitude to what they were doing. I should have been supportive. I did want all of the things that Emmy and Evie had been fighting for, but I didn’t think they were going about it the right way. And I was upset that Emmy had been hiding it from me.

Liar. All of the breath I had inside of me exited in one huge exhalation. My bad mood was more than just annoyance at Emmy … it was the Abcurses. The moment my memory of Cyrus clicked in, so did my memory of them. The trial. The soul-link being transferred to the semanight stone.

The worst part was that I still felt the soul-link to them, but at the same time, I didn’t. It was messing with my mind; with my emotions. It was as though something was still being drained from me in their absence.

Gone. Another heavy exhalation. All gone.

The word echoed around my mind until I felt like I would go crazy.

“Are you even listening to me, Willa Knight?” Emmy had her shrill, school teacher voice on. I had been conditioned for many life-cycles to respond to that tone, and it helped snap me out of my weird, depressive state.

“No,” I said, quickly.

Emmy froze momentarily, before she tilted her head to the side and asked, “What?”

“No, I wasn’t listening. But … I am now. So, tell me everything.”

What I really wanted to say was turn this damn cart around and take me back to Blesswood. I wanted to be there when the Abcurses returned. I wanted to know that they were okay and that none of them had caused a god-war or ended up in jail. Instead I somehow ended up in the slowest cart known to Minatsol, trundling along to what would probably be the most boring meeting known to Minatsol.

I didn’t demand they turn around, for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because it felt slightly too co-dependent, and I was not that. No way. I could totally survive without those five gods.

“For the love of Topia, Will, you’re even more scatterbrained than normal. What is going on?”

Emmy had been talking again, but I hadn’t been listening. Again. Something snapped inside of me. “They’re gone, Em, and now I’m gone. Which means no one is there if something happens. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Cyrus!”

She was silent for a beat, before shaking her head. “That was probably the least understandable sentence you’ve ever uttered, and considering your track record ...”

She trailed off because there was really no need to finish. Before I could snap something back at her, a jar was pressed into my hands. I glanced down to find water, which I immediately chugged. I hadn’t even had time to process what I was doing before the cool liquid was sliding down my throat.

“Is she okay?” I heard Evie whisper. She had been the one to hand me the drink. I swallowed the last of the water down as Emmy replied with, “I don’t think so.”

Before another word could be said, a loud shout came from the head of the cart, and the momentum started to slow, before coming to a grinding halt. The sols were up then, excitement across their faces. Most of them had to duck their heads low to not hit the roof of the cart, and then they were exiting on the left side.

Emmy hauled me up, apparently expecting that I would be unsteady on my feet, but I managed to remain upright, so the pair moved toward the door. I followed, but my shoe got caught in a rope that had been coiled up beneath the seat. My arms flailed about as I plunged headfirst onto the floor of the cart. Well, almost. A strong set of hands caught me just before my skull crashed against the hard timber. My knees and hip still smarted from where they had clipped the wood, but I was at least glad that I wasn’t about to black out for the second time that sun-cycle. My head was already a big old mess, it didn’t need a concussion to add to it.

Rocking back onto my knees, I tilted my head up to find Dru crouched before me, his massive hands still wedged in under my arm pits.

“Careful there, dweller. Your boyfriends wouldn’t like it if you messed up that pretty face.”

Everything inside of me seized up; he filled the space completely and I was immediately wary. He hadn’t been in the cart with us. I knew that for certain. There was no way to miss a mountain-sized sol. My breathing got rapid as I asked, “Are you stalking me? Why are you always around?”

I was mostly steady on my feet now; Dru had to bend himself almost in half to fit in the small back section. “I was riding up the front of the cart, so I was just checking that everyone was off before I went in.”

Swallowing hard, I fought against the rising tide of red that was creeping through my cheeks. I knew it was happening because my face felt like it was on fire.

“Well, great … then. Good work and stuff. See you later.”

I dashed out, catching my foot on the door before practically tumbling down the small steps that had been lowered off the side. Emmy caught me with ease, and before I could do more than mumble out a thank you, she had her hand around my elbow and was yanking me across a small courtyard. The pincer grip was strong with this one.

“You need to stay away from him,” she said firmly. “He’s bad news.”

No shit. “Do I need to remind you of the three sols you’ve been hanging around?”

She visibly shuddered, and that made me feel instantly better. At least she found them as repulsive as I did. Sols were generally shiny and blessed, but those three made my skin crawl.

As my eyes adjusted to being out in the light, I took stock of what was going on. We were somewhere I recognised: the Minateurs’ council chambers and training facility.

Small pockets of people were gathered around the entrance, conversing in loud booming voices. I recognised the sols on account of their general shininess and the confident way they commanded their own space. There was a dweller or two scattered in there also: they were the ones holding bags and folders, standing in the shadows of the blessed ones.

“There’s no way they’re going to let us into this meeting.” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but my annoyance at being there just kept seeping out in everything I said. “Can one of you tell me how I got into that cart when I was passed out?” I had no idea why I hadn’t asked that earlier. For some reason, I kept waiting for one of them to mention how I got there, but they kept acting like I should already know.

Which I really didn’t.

Case in point: Emmy and Evie both stared at me, their eyebrows bunching in close as they gawked as though I had suddenly grown a second head. “What are you talking about, Will?” Emmy finally asked, her hand flying out and resting against my forehead.

I let out a little growl. “I’m not sick. Stop looking at me like that.”

“You were a little out of it when we found you in the sol’s room,” Evie chimed in. “But you were definitely not passed out. We told you that we were headed to the meeting, and you said that you’d received a message naming you the third dweller representative, and that you were supposed to come with us. Emmy didn’t believe you, but you followed us right into the cart.”

Emmy nodded her own head then, as if to reiterate the point. “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met, Will, but I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the sols—and then you fell asleep before I could get any answers out of you, and we couldn’t wake you up.”

Flashes of images drilled into my brain, Cyrus’s face was so clear for a moment, and then it was gone again. What did he do to me? How long had it been since he switched the soul-link? And were the Abcurses okay?