Omega (15 page)

“
Can you tell me who my
parents are?” I asked.

“
Not unless the
Triumvirate approves the disclosure of such
information.”

“
How can their names be of
any importance whatsoever?”

His silence was stifling. This line of
discussion appeared to be closed, to the dissatisfaction of both of
us, if I read his tight features correctly. “Why do I get the
impression no one wanted to find me?” I asked.

“
Politics.”

“
I don’t
understand.”

“
I know.” He clearly
wasn’t willing to enlighten me. “The Supreme Priest will see you
soon and the Supreme Magistrate when he’s done. I would recommend
you be on your best behavior.”

Like I’m not now?
“And if I’m not?” I asked, a little irked by
anyone telling me how to act.

“
You probably won’t like
the consequences.” His words were too casual.

His vague threats were a million times worse
than anything Herakles or the priests had ever threatened me
with.

For the first time in my life, I had the
feeling I was so far out of my league, there was no bridging this
gap. “You are really good at this game,” I whispered.

“
Game?”

“
Passive
intimidation.”

“
I’ve never heard it
called that.” The smile was cool and fleeting. He left the balcony
and approached me.

My senses, and a few random emotions, were
thrown into a frenzy that caught me completely off guard. I was
finding it hard to focus on the fact I never wanted this man within
striking distance. Instead, I was lost in a state of confusion
until he was almost toe-to-toe with me and then, not about to back
away because …

Well, I never backed away from a challenge.
And that’s what this was. A predator sizing up how hard his prey
was going to fight back. I’d fight to the death, and I wasn’t
afraid for him to know it. I met his dazzling gaze.

“
People are cautious when
dealing with me,” he said. “They hide their true intentions, lie
when they feel threatened and stick to the peripheral because they
sense the danger inherent in drawing my complete attention. You
tend to walk in blindly swinging a bat. You know no fear, and
you’re honest beyond a fault.”

Heat spread up my neck and face. I sounded
like an idiot. I didn’t want to care what he thought, but some part
of me was acutely aware of the fact I was always too different.

“
Intimidation is an art
form with one key component: uncertainty. How will you react when
you don’t know what I’m capable of?” he continued quietly.
“My
game
is
people, and you’re not playing it like others do, hence my
–”

“–
curiosity.” The word
was almost choked out.

“
Yes.”

I couldn’t handle his
intensity or my growing unease. I shifted away, wanting to put
something between us, even if it had no chance of standing up to
him if he chose to attack. “Just putting this out there.” I was
starting to babble, too, unable to control it. “You are scaring me.
Kudos to you for that. I’m probably going to have to try to escape
so whatever punishment you’re planning …
this
is already pretty freaky. I’d
probably rather choose physical torture over this mind twisting
stuff. If you take suggestions.”

“
Not usually.” Was he
amused?

I had no idea. I’d never met someone I had
less of a read on, and more of a sense about, than him. In fact,
that’s what was bothering me foremost: the draw. The uncanny
familiarity of a man I had never met, the need to know more about
him despite suspecting he was constantly on the verge of killing
me. “Who are you? Do you have some sort of magical power?” I asked.
“Or have we met before?”

“
It’s a game. Nothing
more.”

Of all he had told me,
this was the only thing that sounded false. It was intuition again,
whispering secrets I couldn’t quite make out. “That’s not true,” I
said aloud. “This …
I
am not just a game to you. You do know me. I mean something
to you.”

“
A promotion.”

“
No.”

“
Stop there.”

The low threat was almost a growl, and he
was tensing. My breath caught. I didn’t dare look away from him,
not about to be caught with my guard down if he came at me.

“
There are limits you are
not ready to push,” he added.

He knows me.
Not the Oracle or someone he had a dossier
on.
Me.
But how?
My mind raced with possibilities, none of which were remotely
feasible. I kept coming back to the suspicion he had some sort of
divine power that gave him insight or maybe even foresight. With
the senses and reactions of an animal, he had to be more than
human. According to the priests, the discreet offspring of gods and
human women existed in several high up positions in the
governments. Viewed as competition by gods, and distrusted by
humans, demigods were said never to announce what they
were.

Or … did he feel what I did? The draw?

So engaged was I in figuring him out, I
barely noticed he had left until I heard the door close.

Adonis Wade freaked me out. I wasn’t about
to stay here.

I counted to twenty then went to the door.
To my surprise, it wasn’t locked and no guard was posted outside
the door.

Closing the door, I gazed at it for a long
moment. This was a dare. That much I figured out. I had no clue
what this guy’s end game was – but I doubted I wanted to be
involved.

How did I find and rescue Herakles?

I debated for a moment before an idea dawned
on me. Spinning around, I went to the bedroom of Adonis and
searched it for a guard uniform.

Two hours later, I managed to scout an exit
route and made it to the prison in the east wing. It went quickly,
since no one was present to challenge me in two of the four
buildings on the compound.

Similar to Adonis’ apartment, the prison
area showed signs of regular and continued use. Having never been
in a prison before, I still thought the cells were too small. Maybe
six by six, which meant my poor Herakles couldn’t stretch out on
his bed. It took some self control not to plant in the middle of
the corridor and yell for him. I had to pretend like I belonged,
which mainly meant not drawing too much attention to myself. Adonis
had an iPad in his apartment, and I pretended to walk and check it,
like I was doing something.

Entering the prison cells,
though, required me to cajole the reluctant guard and convince him
I’d lost my pass card. He let me in – probably because no one in
their right mind would want to break
into
a prison – and I pretended to
check my iPad screen and peer into the one-foot square window of
each cell.

They were all empty but well maintained.
Unable to understand the purpose behind the compound, it was
beginning to weird me out.

When I found him, I nearly squealed.
Herakles was alive, lying on his side on his bed and staring at the
wall. One arm was in a cast and he had a black eye. I didn’t see
any other wound or bruises, though he appeared paler than usual.
Resisting the urge to tap on the window, I used the loaner pass
card the guard had given me and swiped the door open.

Herakles twisted towards me.

I strode in. I didn’t dare take off the
mask, not with the camera in the corner. It appeared to be the only
live one on the compound. “Hey,” I said. “Pretend like it’s not
me.”

He sat up. “What are you doing here, Lyssa?”
he hissed, his face draining of all blood then flaring red. “You
cannot be here! Everyone –”

“
Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m
the Oracle.”

Speechless, he stared at me.

“
Aaaaahhh. You didn’t
think anyone would tell me, did you?” I said, unable to prevent the
note of pure glee that entered my voice. “Well they did. The SISA
razed the forest and the priests committed pre-emptive suicide. I
came here with a mercenary, ran into a High Priestess then got
captured by a guy named Adonis who turned out to be the head of
this horrible place. Now I’m here to rescue you.”

He listened, unable to help the upturn of
his lips at my story. “If you were any other person, this might
surprise me.” He rose. “What’s your plan?”

I glanced at the camera. “We need to get rid
of that first.”

Stretching upwards, he knocked it to the
side. “Done.”

I didn’t hesitate. I tossed the iPad on his
bed and shimmied out of the outer layer of clothing. I had
overlapped two pairs of the guard clothing and gave him one and the
oversized boots I’d stolen from Adonis.

“
To leave, go out the way
you came in and follow the signs to the D Street exit,” I
instructed him.

“
You can show
me.”

“
Um, no.” I straightened
and turned my back to him while he changed. “I gave it some
thought. I think you should leave without me.”

“
Absolutely
not.”

“
Okay … he’s tracking me,
Herakles. Don’t ask me how, but he’s keeping an eye on me. I need
you to leave, so he can’t threaten me anymore.”

“
Who?”

“
The head of
SISA.”

“
Terrible plan,
Lyssa.”

“
Or is it secretly
brilliant and you don’t want to admit it?”

“
Not at all.”

I sighed. “Look, Herakles.
They’re onto me and for whatever reason, this Adonis guy is serious
about messing with me. But he also knows things I need to know.
About my parents. My life before we met. About
me,
” I explained.

Herakles gazed at me.

“
I want to stay long
enough to find out some things. That’s it. If you leave, you can
find help and break me out.”

“
You make it sound
simple,” he said with a concerned frown. “Do you know what he
is?”

“
Sort of,” I said.
Truthfully, I didn’t. I knew Adonis was more than I could see, that
he was connected to me.

“
Did he hurt
you?”

“
No. He’s trying to play
mind games with me.”

“
You suck at
games.”

“
Yeah, I know. But he
wants me alive and has information I want, too,” I said.

“
I won’t leave you here,
Lyssa.”

“
Herakles …” I sought some
sort of middle ground. “Please. I’m not a little girl anymore. You
prepared me for this my whole life. Give me two days here then
knock the front gate down and rescue me.”

He was considering me. I didn’t know why my
overprotective guardian hadn’t already dragged me out of here,
unless … would he betray me, too? He knew I was the Oracle. Were
the priests and he working together on whatever was going on? I
crushed the thoughts. My Herakles would never disappoint me.

If he was listening, it was because I had to
be making sense or he thought me old enough to make my own
decisions.

Or … something else was going on here. I was
skating on the semi-frozen surface of a lake waiting for it to
crack and me to plunge into the dark, cold waters below. No matter
why my stomach was churning, no matter what reason he might have
for leaving me here, I had to know he was safe before I’d feel
comfortable skating onward.

“
Really. There’s no way
for both of us to leave here. He can sense me somehow. I’ll
endanger you. Our best shot is for you to escape and bring back an
army of … someone. Just avoid the mercs, cuz they’ll stab you in
the back. Adonis has said he won’t hurt me, at least not before I
meet the Supreme Magistrate in a few days.”
Yeah, I totally just lied to my only friend.

A brief silence fell, and then Herakles
chuckled. “My Lyssa. All grown up after two days on her own.” The
terse note in his voice was one I hadn’t heard before.

“
It’s been a learning
experience,” I said, quoting him. “Will you go? Please? I don’t
think I’m in any danger right now. If anything, I think Adonis
wants to see what makes me tick.”

“
I can see that about him.
But the members of the Triumvirate will destroy you. I imagine they
will wait for the full moon, when the barrier between our worlds
and that of the gods is thinnest. That gives me a week, but I
wouldn’t take that long. They won’t harm you before submitting you
to the trials, either.”

Trials.
More evidence he knew so much more than he had ever shared.
It wasn’t the right time to ask him to share. I wasn’t remotely
scared about some stupid trial. I just couldn’t live with myself if
Herakles was hurt or worse because of me.

“
Exactly. It’s a plan.
Leave, go get help and rescue me. Then things will go back to the
way they were, and we’ll be happy in the forest again.”

“
Lyssa,” he said gravely
and turned me to face him. “Things will never be the way they
were.”

“
Yes, they will. They have
to be. You can make them be,” I said, a tremor of emotion in my
voice. I didn’t want to admit this was my life. Gazing into his
dark eyes, I was forced to face some of the emotion I’d been
avoiding. “I love you,” I said, my throat tight. “I want us to be
happy again.”