Omega (32 page)

I fell asleep facing the balcony.

I slept in late and ate a huge breakfast
before getting ready for the afternoon event. No one wore masks the
next afternoon when I arrived at the garden party at the Silent
Queen’s court. The crowd was smaller, and the servants and guards
in purple. Leandra had picked my lavender gown and done my hair and
makeup again. She trailed me closely, and I could feel her
excitement at being in a place more suited to her than me.

The bushes of the gardens were shaped into
fantastical animals from Greek myths. Smartly dressed men and women
holding champagne glasses spoke quietly in small groups around
several of the bushes. Serving staff armed with trays of food and
drink wove among the partygoers.

I couldn’t look at anyone without thinking
they wanted me torn to pieces and strung up. I ended up focusing on
the rainbows of ribbons everywhere. The ribbons calmed me,
fascinated me.

“
Is that all these people
do?” I complained to Leandra. “Go to parties and drink?”

“
Yeah,” she sighed
wistfully. “And wear amazing clothes.”

I was in another traditional dress and
wearing shoes that – according to Leandra – didn’t remotely match.
But after my night, I wasn’t going near anything with a heel. I
also had the knife Cleon procured for me strapped to my thigh.

“
Ugh. We don’t want
anything to do with those two,” Leandra said and nudged me the
opposite direction in which she looked.

“
Who?” I leaned around her
to see.

My heart leapt. Adonis was in a fitted
charcoal business suit and the Supreme Priest in a suit and mask.
“Why does he wear a mask?” I asked.

“
One of the priests
thought it was out of respect for the position. He appears as
neither human nor god so as to bridge the two.”

Or he’s hiding the fact
he’s a Titan.
“Those two are
shady.”

“
All the more reason to
avoid them.” This time, Leandra pushed me.

I went, thoughts on Adonis.

“
Alessandra.”

I turned at Theodocia’s voice. She wore the
robes of a priestess this day. If I had to guess, she was probably
also packing some sort of weapons. She smiled at me.

“
You have time for a
chat?” she asked.

“
Sure,” I
replied.

“
Come with me. You’ve got
a private audience with the Silent Queen.” Leandra’s gasp was
audible, and Theodocia glanced at her. “You come, too, in case your
mistress requires you.”

The giddy excitement inside me seemed out of
place, and I blamed Leandra for infecting me with curiosity.

Theodocia led us into the villa and into a
parlor where the Silent Queen waited. She was smaller than she
looked on television and far more stunning in person with large
blue eyes, chiseled features rivaled only by Adonis, and white
blond hair pulled back from a round face and sharp jaw. She wore a
tiara dotted by the same color aquamarine gems as her gown.

Ask her if she would like a
glass of champagne.
The voice was strong
and feminine.

Theodocia nodded and turned to me.

“
No, thanks,” I said
before she could speak.

The Silent Queen’s eyes
fell to me.
You can hear me?

“
Um, yeah.” I glanced at
Theodocia, who appeared surprised as well. “Is that
okay?”

The two exchanged a look. The Silent Queen
lifted her chin in silent command.

“
Leandra, would you come
with me?” Theodocia spoke.

Leandra nearly tripped over her feet as she
left, her gaze on the Silent Queen.

I shifted feet when they’d gone, not at all
certain how I was supposed to act around someone like this. When
the Silent Queen continued to study me, I finally stepped forward
with my hand extended.

“
I’m Alessandra,” I said
awkwardly. “Which you probably know because everyone
does.”

Phoibe.
She shook my hand.
Please. Sit with
me.
She perched on a couch with more grace
and dignity than I’d ever done anything. I tried to follow her
lead, saw my ugly shoes and then quickly tucked my feet back into
the layers of my gown.

Phoibe raised an elegant eyebrow.

“
My shoes don’t match.” My
cheeks were warm. “So, I’m learning people aren’t who they claim or
appear to be. You have any sort of ambitions of chopping off my
limbs or throwing me into an arena to face monsters? It’d be nice
to have a heads up for once.”

I learned long ago to trust no one.

I started to smile. She was impossible to
read – her expression pleasant but without emotion, her rigid
composure unflappable. Around my age, her eyes were soulful, as if
she’d already suffered through what I was just learning. I sensed
more about her, though, a sort of hyper awareness I got when I was
around Adonis. They both saw more than anyone should.

Oddly enough, the sense put me at ease.

“
I am,” I said and began
to babble the way I did around Adonis when he was watching me. “I
guess I thought the world would be, too. Do they make you wear
dresses every day or do you choose to?”

I like them.

“
I guess no one tells a
queen what to do.”

You’d be surprised. When you are defined by
your position rather than your personality, you are subjected to
the expectations of others.

“
I can see that.” I
started to relax more, liking her. “I hope they don’t want to
torture you.”

We all bear a curse of some
kind.
She glanced towards the door.
But I do not wish you to succumb to the fate for
which you’re destined. I would see you freed to live your
life.

“
You are at odds with the
others.”

No two of us in the Triumvirate are playing
for the same reward.

“
Games,” I snorted. “The
Supreme Magistrate wants me to become the Oracle. I don’t know what
the Supreme Priest wants.” I did, but I wasn’t about to reveal
aloud he wanted to kill off all the gods to gain favor with the
Titans.

Power.

Adonis had claimed the same about everyone
involved in this game. “And you? What do you want from me?” I asked
in an even voice. “What trial would you have me perform?”

There are two things I wish of you. The
first, to disrupt the gods and politicians. To put an end to the
world as we know it to create it anew.

“
Is that it?” I laughed
uncomfortably. “Just hit the reset button?”

You disagree.

“
No. I want … I was raised
to believe in the Old Ways and to think I’m the one who’s supposed
to change all this.” I motioned to the empty room.

They trained you
well.
For the first time since meeting
her, a flicker of emotion – satisfaction – went through the Silent
Queen’s eyes.

“
You know who trained
me?”

I suspected after Docia met you for the
first time. One of my fellow Triumvirate members found you and hid
you away?

“
Sort of. I mean, I don’t
know for sure.” Cleon had known where I was, and Lantos had created
the cords that allowed the priests to hide me. “I think everyone
knew pieces of information but not the full picture or I would’ve
been hauled out of my forest long ago.”

I was too young to have had
a hand in hiding you. My deception began when I saw the gods begin
to tear apart the human world five years ago.
She rose as she spoke and crossed to a delicate china box on
the mantle over a quiet fireplace.
Docia
and I looked around at what our options were and made a
choice.
She pulled a piece of cloth out of
the box and returned, handing it to me.

I unfolded it. “Mama’s mark. I saw it
driving into DC with Niko when …” I looked up at her. “You …” The
idea would make even her laugh if I was wrong. “… created
Mama?”

Insurgency. My security detail is small. I
needed an army to start to wear down the other two.

“
A mercenary army can’t
really be trusted though, can it?”

Some are mercenary. Most are people from
around the world who have lost loved ones to the Holy Wars that
began five years ago. They want revenge. The criminal underworld
offers us a place to fund and hide such an army as well as create
dissension.

It sounded absolutely dangerous to trust an
army of people either paid to be there or present for revenge. The
more I learned about the political maneuvering of the Triumvirate,
the more amazed I became that they’d lasted as long as they had.
“Wow. So the other two can’t know.”

They suspect. Just as I suspect the Priest
has other plans for you. Cleon wishes only to keep the elite happy,
but I’ve learned he’s devised an alternate method of doing so
involving you. What exactly that is, I do not yet know.

The reminder they were all after me sent a
streak of cold fear through me. “It doesn’t seem real. So you want
to overthrow the system with a mercenary army and bring back the
Old Ways.”

I want to sever the gods
from their world and force them to suffer as the Bloodline
has.
Anger was in her voice.

“
Suffer?”

Another time, we will discuss the second
favor I ask of you. What you need to know is you have a part in my
revolution, and your trial involves my plan.

“
Destroying the
gods?”

No. I want them to live stranded here with
their curses, placed in gilded cages and paraded around for the
people to see. The current Oracle prevents them from moving between
worlds and your presence will discourage them from acting against
us directly. Your trial is to kill the current Oracle. After you
succeed, then you and I will lead the rebellion against the human
elite for the sake of the rest of our kind who live in
oppression.

If these people were remotely serious, I had
a lot to do. Kill the gods, the Oracle, rebel against the humans
and end up crucified.

“
How does anyone think I
can do anything of the sort?” I asked in frustration. “I can’t use
my magic yet.”

Then learn. I cannot keep you too long, or
the other two will become suspicious. Send messages through
Leandra.

Theodocia entered, and the Silent Queen
rose.

Tucking the cloth into the drawstring purse
Leandra chose for me today, I stood as well.

It was an honor to meet
you,
the Silent Queen dipped her head with
characteristic elegance.

“
Thanks.” I didn’t know
what to do so smiled and stepped away.

Theodocia led me to Leandra, who waited at
the doorway leading into the gardens. Leandra appeared excited
still, but I was finding it hard to sort through the politics of
being an Oracle.

Of everything I’d learned, though, the
thought of putting an end to Cecilia hit me hard. It had never
occurred to me that I might be able to rid her of the pain once and
for all. Yet killing her was so personal. The last woman to bear
the title of Oracle. She deserved so much more and I knew she’d
never get it in this life. Her body was destroyed, and soon, her
mind would be as well.

The only thing anyone could give her was
peace. I’d killed monsters. Could I do the same for her? Would I
want someone to end my life if I were in her position?

“
Walk or do something.
You’re drawing looks!” Leandra hissed.

I blinked and registered what I was doing. I
was standing in front of a topiary piece of art, staring dumbly
into space. I sighed.

“
You okay?”

“
Not really. I miss
Herakles.”

“
I put the word out last
night for anyone who finds him to contact me.”

I met her gaze, surprised. “Really?”

“
Duh. It’s my
job.”

“
You’re such a turd,
Leandra.”

“
You’re a bigger
one.”

I bit back my response as someone walked
past us. “Thank you,” I murmured when they’d gone.

“
I don’t think the priests
prepared you enough for this,” she observed.

“
Try not at
all!”

“
You did kill
monsters.”

“
With help from
Adonis.”

“
Yeah. He’s got the body
and face of a god.” Leandra sighed as she gazed in the direction of
the Supreme Priest and SISA chief.

A stirring of jealousy
went through me before I reminded myself the man scared me more
than the beast. “I wish …”
I hadn’t awoken
him.
But that wasn’t right, because the
tiny voice in my head was fiercely in his court. It had to be the
instinct of an Oracle who brought a creature to life, the
connection created by sharing my ribbons with another.

“
What? He didn’t destroy
our home? Didn’t torture innocent people for
information?”

“
Yeah,” I said, troubled.
“I don’t know what to think about that. I feel like the whole world
is on my shoulders. Everyone expects incredible things from me, and
I can’t even match my shoes and dress let alone understand who I
should trust.”

Leandra’s sympathetic smile was comforting.
“How do we make you better prepared?”

Her considerate question caused a stir of
confusion after our dealings with one another at school. However, I
also innately knew my whole world was different now, and so was
everyone in it. “I need to get a handle on my magic.”