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by Jaymin Eve
Crawling inside, I curled up in a ball and tried to assess everything I now knew. The Abcurses were gods … their parents were Abil and Adeline. Abil was scary beautiful and scary deadly—and I was pretty sure that Emmy had called him a god of Trickery. Rau had hit me with some sort of curse and he was creepily acting as though I was special, somehow, because I survived it. It was almost as though he had a particular kind of interest in me now … almost as though he saw me as useful.
A heavy thud against the door made me jump. “Get out here, Soldier.” Siret commanded. “Don’t make me crawl into a supply cupboard; that shit is for dwellers.”
“I am a dweller,” I yelled back. “I don’t belong out there with you guys!”
The door slammed open and a long arm reached in and hauled me out. I found myself being held up off the floor, evil green cat-like eyes boring into me. “You’ve never been a dweller, Willa. And if you couldn’t play with the gods, Rau’s curse would have killed you.”
Oh for fuc—
“Do you assholes have to be right all the time? And stop listening to my thoughts!”
The other four were down the hall a little, waiting for me to get my shit together. Siret set me back on my feet, and I held both hands up in front of me. “Sorry about that, minor panic attack—I’m okay now.”
And funnily enough, the moment I said it, I knew it was true. I was okay. I was more than okay, actually. I must have been having some kind of a delayed reaction to everything that had happened. Maybe it was Yael’s fault, for repressing my emotions. Either way, the freak-out seemed to be over, and I could feel a calm beginning to settle into my bones. Elowin was dead, Rau had fled, and Siret was alive. In the greater scheme of things, everything really was okay.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, looking between the perfect, arrogant faces of the five males who had rapidly become the centre of my world.
Siret tucked me in under his massive arm, and we walked toward his brothers. “Classes tomorrow. Hope you’re prepared, because you’re going to learn everything the sols get to learn.”
I groaned. Learning … that was the worst plan ever.
Rome laughed. “We’ll keep you safe, Willa. Even if Rau comes for you again, he won’t get through us.”
And what about when they leave? When their exile has ended?
“You’ll be coming with us,” Siret whispered, close to my temple.
“Why are you guys being punished anyway?” I asked, thinking about all the things they could have done wrong to make the gods angry enough to banish them from Topia.
“Trickery thought it would be a good idea to—” Yael started, but Siret cut him off.
“We don’t need to talk about it right now.”
I nudged Siret’s side, the motion gentle because I didn’t know if there were any lingering effects of his injury still bothering him or not. “What’d you do?”
Siret sighed, his arm falling from my shoulders, and he muttered something incoherent.
Rome laughed. “We can’t hear you, Trickery.”
“I tricked Staviti into trying to mate with one of Bestiary’s creations, okay!”
I stopped walking, my mouth falling open, my words tumbling out on a squeal. “You what?”
Siret tossed his hands up in the air. “You wouldn’t understand! It’s a running joke, between the gods. Staviti has been in love with Pica—the goddess of Love—since the beginning of time; she was the first companion that he created. But she didn’t love him. She eventually fell in love with Rau, and so Staviti banned all of the gods from pairing up, or having children together. He thought that it would be better for nobody to have a partner than for Pica and Rau to be together. Anyway, so to get around his rules, D.O.D.—our dear old dad—used his magic to disguise our mother as Pica. She ran to Staviti and asked him to gift her with children. It’s the only way to have children, in Topia, since Staviti controls everything. So she told him that she would finally love him, if he allowed her children. He agreed, and gifted her two pregnancies, on the condition that she not seek out Rau to be the father of her children. He obviously thought that if he took Rau off the table, she would turn to him instead.”
“Uh …” my brain seemed to be short-circuiting. That was all a little hard to swallow. “So he thought Adeline was Pica, and he allowed her two pregnancies?”
“That’s right.” Yael was the one who answered, this time. There was a wry smile twisting his lips. “By the time he found out that he had been tricked, it was too late. And being the asshole our father is, he manipulated the magic to get as many sons out of those two pregnancies as possible.”
“That’s …” Really messed up. “Impressive?”
Siret snorted. “Over the life-cycles, you’d be surprised by how many times Staviti has fallen for the Pica Illusion. It’s like he’s deluded, and every time it happens, he convinces himself that it really is her. That’s how desperately he loves her.”
“So you … disguised a beast of some kind as Pica,” I surmised, trying to keep my tone bland.
He grunted, and I took that as an affirmative. The other boys were smirking. They clearly still found it amusing.
“But wait …” I frowned, looking from one of them to the other. “If Siret is the one being punished, then why are you all down here?”
We had herded back into Siret’s room, since it was the closest, and Coen grabbed me by the shoulders, spinning me around.
“We stick together,” he said firmly. It was almost a warning, or an ultimatum.
The others were staring at me, but trying to be covert about it, like they were waiting to hear my response, or to see my reaction. A tiny smile hooked the side of my mouth, and I bit down into my lip, trying to curb it.
“Okay,” I said casually. “We stick together, then.”
Coen smiled—a real smile, wide and beautiful and completely disarming, almost knocking me off my feet as an answering happiness welled inside me, filling me to bursting with emotion.
For the first time in my life, as I stood surrounded by the Abcurses, I wasn’t worried about what the next sun-cycle would bring. Whatever the world of the gods threw at us, we would face it together.
And nothing would defeat us.
To be continued …
Acknowledgments by Jane
First and foremost, I really need to thank my husband. He clearly needs to get himself checked out (mentally) or checked in (to a mental hospital) because he’s still married to me and still bringing me coffee in the morning. And now he has to stay married to me, because I mentioned him in my acknowledgements and it’d be super awkward if he divorced me for someone less insane.
For Seb and Jesse, thanks for making sure my books are always above all your other books on the bookshelf. Even Game of Thrones. That’s sacrifice.
For Will, I don’t know where you’re displaying my books, but it better be above all your other books. I’ll be checking next time I visit.
For my dog, Mowgli. Thanks for waking me up at 6am with your stupid codependent barking. I hate you, for reals.
For whichever ancestor is responsible for giving me my overachiever genes. Dude. Thanks for nothing.
For the Washington Club, my review team, my street crew, and the Delusional Delinquent Reading Ninja Squirrels Book Club (we did one book and have mostly just examined food since then), you guys are all amazing. Really amazing. Thank you for the constant support; I’d be nothing without it.
And finally, for Jaymin. This has been one of the best experiences in my authoring career. You haven’t just made writing more enjoyable for me, but you’ve also made existing within this industry more enjoyable for me. You make me laugh daily, and I’ll never forget how many smiles you’re responsible for putting on my face, because they’re innumerable.
You’re amazing. Let’s be friends forever.
And it was really hard to think of all those nice things to say about you, just so you know.
Acknowledgments by Jaymin
I need to start by thanking all of you for sticking with me for four years. FOUR years, people!! I am so blessed to have such wonderful and loyal friends in this author world, I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you for all the reviews, messages, GIFS, quotes, emails, FB posts, and the unwavering support. I couldn’t do this without you … sending out huge, squishy, author hugs.
For my family. I love you. Always. Thank you for lifting me up when I need it, and supporting my crazy artist soul.
For my Nerd Herd and Review Team. I adore your faces. Thanks for being the best fans/friends/readers any person could ask for. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I will never take any of your for granted.
To my BFF Leia Stone, you are my rock. I’m not sure I would be this sane without you, I love you more than you know.
And lastly for Jane ………………I’m thinking … give me a minute … I’m really drawing a blank so I’m going to make some nice stuff up.
Here we go: From the first moment I met Jane I just knew she was weird. My kind of weird. We clicked in a way only weirdos could and from then on it’s been a friendship which I expect will last forever. Writing this story has been one of the funniest and most enjoyable experiences in my author career. I have loved every second.
P.s., Jane is very annoying. Suupppper overachiever. She did the character video, the map, blah blah. Basically she exists just to make the rest of us feel like crap because we’re really lazy and generally pay people to do things for us. Anyways, I digress. She does things, things I really appreciate. Thanks for being an overachiever, Jane! I really heart you <3
Also By Jane Washington
Curse of the Gods Series
Book One: Trickery
Book Two: Persuasion (2017)
Seraph Black Series
Book One: Charcoal Tears
Book Two: Watercolour Smile
Book Three: Lead Heart
Book Four: A Portrait of Pain (2017)
Beatrice Harrow Series
Book One: Hereditary
Book Two: The Soulstoy Inheritance
Standalone Books
I Am Grey (2017)
Also By Jaymin Eve
Curse of the Gods Series
Book One: Trickery
Book Two: Persuasion (2017)
NYC Mecca Series
Book One: Queen Heir
Book Two: Queen Alpha
A Walker Saga
Book One: First World
Book Two: Spurn
Book Three: Crais
Book Four: Regali
Book Five: Nephilius
Book Six: Dronish
Book Seven: Earth
Supernatural Prison Trilogy
Book One: Dragon Marked
Book Two: Dragon Mystics
Book Three: Dragon Mated
Supernatural Prison Stories
Broken Compass
Hive Trilogy
Book One: Ash
Book Two: Anarchy
Book Three: Annihilate
Sinclair Stories
Songbird
Connect with Jane Washington
WEBSITE
EMAIL
FACEBOOK
AMAZON
GOODREADS
NEWSLETTER
FACEBOOK GROUP
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
Connect with Jaymin Eve
WEBSITE
EMAIL
FACEBOOK
AMAZON
GOODREADS
NEWSLETTER
FACEBOOK GROUP
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER