Cursed by the Gods

Chapter 14

"So how often do you guys sneak into Topia?" I directed the question to Aros, since he was now much closer to me than the others.

His golden eyes flicked down to me, switching between my eyes before moving over the rest of my face. "Every now and then. How often do you fall on your ass?"

"Every now and then."

He shook his head, shifting me closer. One of his arms was hooked beneath my knees, the other banded across my back. He was cradling me like a baby. "You should be more careful."

"Says the guy who sneaks into Topia."

"You concerned about us, Speedy?" Siret turned his head, his eyebrows lifting, his teeth flashing.

"No." I crossed my arms.

It was hard to look impassive and intimidating while being cradled like a baby, so I settled on pouting. Aros smirked, taking in my expression before lifting me up. The world around me dropped away as the gold in his eyes became more prominent, almost shifting with energy as his face loomed above mine. Very suddenly, and completely without warning, his lips were pressing against the very corner of my mouth. I was simply too shocked to react. The kiss was barely even a kiss, but my body didn't seem to know that. The simple brush of his lips had sent spiralling heat all the way through me, locking down the air that should have been flooding in and out of my lungs. He pulled his head up, the smirk back in place, and continued walking.

Meanwhile, I was pretty sure that he had just reached into my chest and pulled out my poor little dweller heart. Now it was laying somewhere behind us. In the dirt. Beating pathetically.

"Seduction is using his talent to change his rank!" Siret shouted, his voice carrying with enough force to make me flinch. This could get ugly, I'm just going to be over here putting a shield up so that none of you can use your powers to change a ranking that isn't even a ranking.

Up ahead, I could see Coen and Rome stopping, the setting sun turning them into huge silhouettes as they spun around, threads of yellow and gold weaving over their bodies and highlighting the fact that I really shouldn't be encouraging them to compete over an imaginary ranking, because they were far too powerful-looking to mess with, just for the fun of it.

"That's cheating!" Coen shouted back.

"You cheat, you die!" Rome added, in an equally booming voice. Why the hell was he playing into this when he already seemed to know that it wasn't a real ranking?

I told myself to come clean; to open up that mouth of mine that was always getting me into trouble and tell them all what Yael and Rome were obviously keeping to themselves. Or maybe they weren't keeping it to themselves. Maybe they had completely disregarded the fact that the ranking had nothing to do with them and everything to do with their dorm numbers, because they didn't care. Because it was a competition. Because they were making it a competition. Because they clearly wanted one of their brothers to murder me.