Theta (27 page)

“
In any case, when you
realize I am trying to act for the general benefit and
proliferation of our species, you’ll stop fighting me and the gods,
and you’ll face the real threat.”

I stared at him and then laughed,
incredulous.

“
Listen to them,” Cleon
said and strode towards the door. Opening the door, he glanced out
towards the guards. “Return her to her villa. She doesn’t leave
again until I allow it.”

Of all the discussions I thought I would
ever have with Cleon, this was not one. I bolted from his office
with more eagerness than I’d ever left his presence with. Just when
I didn’t think he could surprise me more, he came up with the most
incredible delusion I had ever heard!

That the Supreme Magistrate – who tried to
murder the Silent Queen, Theodocia, and anyone else in his path,
who was using my power to hurt innocent people – believed his
creation of a utopia for wealthy people wasn’t as crazy as the gods
destroying humanity … He was completely insane! He sincerely
believed himself to be the good guy in this scenario.

Was he trying to brainwash me? Place these
thoughts into my head, so when our minds fully merged, I accepted
his delusion faster and didn’t fight him? Why else would he
possibly reveal something of this nature?

I hurried back to the villa, consumed by
Cleon’s bizarre theory. He did nothing without considering how his
actions would better his position. What did he possibly hope to
accomplish by turning me against Cecelia? By flat out lying about
why the gods had lashed out at humanity and started the Holy
Wars?

Only when I was standing in my bedroom did I
let out the scream of frustration bottled up inside me. My eyes
went to the names on the memorial wall, and any credence I might
have one day been willing to allow Cleon vanished.

A man who murdered over three thousand
people as a demonstration of his power could never be believed
about his true motives!

Unless I wanted Cecelia to
see what I could do as well as Artemis and the insurgency,
he said telepathically.

“
I thought you were working
for the gods,” I pointed out. “Artemis is a goddess.”

I wouldn’t say I was working FOR them. I’m
working for the cause of humanity. The gods are a threat, just not
the primary threat.

Maybe it made a little sense.

No, it didn’t! The acceptance I felt was
his, wasn’t it?

“
I hate you,” I whispered
and clutched my temples. Tears of anger were in my eyes. Most of
the time, I could pretend I either wasn’t losing my mind to a
madman, or that I still had time to find a way to stop him. “Get
out of my head!”

Was it already too late? I had already
witnessed the expansion of my green ribbons to him, and physical
sensations I experienced were transferred to him. Had my denial of
my power and adherence to Cecelia’s guidance only enabled the
merging of our minds? If I tried harder early on to dislodge him
using my magic, would I be in this position?

Cerberus was watching, which only made me
angrier.

“
I’m tired of this,” I
said. Swiping at my tears, I went to my nightstand and hauled open
a drawer. I snatched the smallest of the knives I kept there and
yanked the sheath off. “This ends now!”

Stop!
Cleon commanded.

With a deep breath, I felt for the telltale
scars at the base of my neck with the fingers of one hand then
positioned the tip of the knife with the other.

Stop!
This time, there were so many voices, I jerked.

I ignored them and plunged the knife into
the base of my skull. Agony shot through me. It wasn’t just my
scream I heard, but Cleon’s as well in my head. I sagged to the
ground. Before I fell unconscious, a familiar sensation raced
through me.

A vision exploded into my mind, absorbing my
pain and substituting my reality with another.

I stood in the Oracle’s caverns beneath the
compound. My future body was there, frozen in place. The glass of
her protective bubble had been lifted, and I was touching Cecelia
with one hand. Unnerved to see myself, I circled me. I didn’t
appear to be a gummy statue, but I wasn’t animated, either, as if
my body was here and my mind was elsewhere. The alternate plane?
Another vision? I didn’t know.

“
They breached the walls,”
an unfamiliar voice said quietly.

Turning, I peered into the darkness
engulfing the back part of the caverns, where I’d had my brain
surgery weeks ago.

“
Do whatever you have to in
order to keep everyone out of here,” Lantos said. His features were
pale and for once, he wasn’t amused or smiling or pleased. He
clutched his hands behind his back and stood a short distance from
my inanimate body.

The soldier who warned him left, and the
soft sound of the elevator door sliding closed was all I heard.

Recalling Lantos’ assertion that there were
clues and hints in my visions, I circled myself again then walked
around him before striding to Cecelia.

What was happening between Cecelia and me?
Who breached the walls?

“
Is it working?” Lantos
asked.

I looked around, not spotting the small
frame of Tommy until he emerged from the shadows.

“
I don’t know,” Tommy
replied. “Thanatos can’t hear me right now.”

“
Then I guess we
wait.”

“
For what?” he asked,
looking up at Lantos.

“
Betray them all, die a
hero,” Lantos said almost too quietly for me to catch. “We wait for
someone to murder me.”

“
Okay.” Tommy said nothing,
and his eyes returned to Cecelia. It didn’t surprise me that the
son of Theodocia and Niko seemed comfortable with the concept of
murder, though I did pity him for not having the innocent childhood
Herakles had tried to give me.

“
You know what to do when
that happens?” Lantos asked with a tight smile at Tommy.

He nodded.

Nothing in what they said or within the
scene in front of me gave me any kind of insight into what I needed
to know about this vision. Did I want this to happen, or was I
supposed to work to prevent it? When was this supposed to occur?
Why was I touching Cecelia? For an energy transfusion?

How was I supposed to determine any of
this?

I began circling Lantos and
Tommy, my mind full of questions. Where was Theodocia? Why was I
down here? Why were
they
? What in Hades was a twelve year old child supposed to do,
who would murder Lantos, and why were Tommy’s parents allowing him
to hang out with such an untrustworthy character as
Lantos?

Before I could circle them completely, the
scene changed suddenly.

I squinted beneath the blinding midday sun.
The breeze felt of fall – cool where the sun was warm. Explosions
ricocheted in the distance, and the report of gunfire was
close.

“
We have until dusk. No
longer,” said a familiar voice behind me.

Herakles! I whirled, thrilled by the idea of
seeing him in my vision. He stood with a small group of people
behind me. I approached them, orienting myself. I stood on a hill a
short distance from the wall, overlooking the battle taking place
between the Silent Queen’s troops in purple and the combined
SISA-military forces in black. The wall around DC was breached,
with the fiercest of the fighting occurring around the gaping hole.
Smoke rose from several points within the city.

Wearing her crown the Silent Queen stood
with Herakles and several of her commanders, observing the battle
with intense interest. My heart leapt in my chest at the sight of
my scarred, red-haired protector. I yearned to throw my arms around
him and feel his strength as he hugged me, to return with him to
our forest in northern Maryland and never, ever leave again.

He bore new scars, and there was a
steeliness to his gaze I had never witnessed. My eyes slid from him
to the petite queen beside him, and I gasped. Her belly protruded,
a clear sign of the advanced stages of pregnancy.

“
We’ve made contact with
our people in the city. They’re close. We’re monitoring the signs
given us by the Oracle,” one of the commanders reported.

What signs? Did he refer to Cecelia or
me?

“
Heavy casualties reported
already,” another said grimly.

“
I can handle that,” said
the man behind the Queen. He was tall and built like a football
player with dark eyes. He didn’t wear a uniform, and he appeared
out of place with the others. Something about him was different.
Before I could determine what, Herakles spoke again.

“
Niko hasn’t reported in,”
he said.

Niko? I opened my mouth to speak before
recalling they couldn’t see me.

“
What of the Oracles?” he
asked one of the commanders.

“
We can’t get near the
caverns.”

No one can,
the Silent Queen said.
Tonight is the full moon. Our world ends at dusk. Either we
succeed now, or everything we’ve done is in vain.

They fell silent, and I turned my attention
in the same direction as theirs. More questions pelted my thoughts.
I couldn’t even determine what day this was let alone identify the
signs I was supposed to see.

My pulse raced, and I paced, circling the
oblivious people to find some hint as to when this was. It wasn’t
as if they carried newspapers or absently displayed their phones or
tablets, where I could spot the date!

Think, Alessandra!
I yelled at myself mentally. I racked my thoughts.
Full moon. Fall. These clues narrowed it down to three, maybe four
months during the year. I wasn’t able to tell if this was happening
this year or perhaps a year or two down the road. Everyone looked
the same, but wouldn’t they, for a couple years?

Someone groaned, and I glanced towards the
group then back.

The Silent Queen was clutching her stomach
with one arm. Herakles supported her.

“
They’re due at any time,”
said the man who was out of place. “You shouldn’t be here,
Phoibe.”

This is my army, my war. If
this is the last day of the world, then I belong nowhere
else!
She retorted.

The man didn’t respond. His eyes turned
bright blue abruptly. Fascinated, I shifted closer.

“
I can’t stop the babies
from coming,” he said. “And they
are
coming.” He and Herakles exchanged a
look.

On what was the last day of the world? I
studied the Silent Queen’s strained features, equally concerned.
How did she feel, knowing she would give birth today of all days?
She groaned again. Her eyelids fluttered, and she sank into
Herakles’ arms.

I wanted to help, to do something. Stepping
forward, the vision melted away, and I was somewhere else
again.

Everything was black, white, and gray. I
stood next to a river, at the edge of a field.

“
Alessandra.”

My heart leapt in my chest. “Adonis!” I
turned to face him. My gaze scoured his perfect, noble features.
Every cell of my body ignited beneath his direct look. He had a way
of seeing through me, of making me feel both isolated from the rest
of the world and no longer alone.

“
Did it work?” he asked
me.

Suddenly, I realized he was looking past me.
I stepped back, away from the secondary form of future-me, which
was in color. Cerberus trailed future-me, as if he were about to
throw me out of his dimension again. In the distance, I saw the
full color mirror of the forest. Future-me was a vibrant slash of
color in a world with none.

But Adonis was gray.

“
I don’t understand,” I
said, simultaneously with future-me speaking to Adonis.

“
Your body and mind aren’t
yours. We didn’t know how else to reach you,” he
replied.

“
But you’re … you’re …”
Future-me couldn’t finish the sentence.

I watched, and fresh pain tore through me.
Lantos told me Adonis would die because of me, and I’d seen him
here in another vision.

Had I killed him? Had Cleon, with my powers?
And who possessed my body and mind? Cleon?

My chest tightened, and my stomach dropped
so fast, I felt ill. The vision started to fade.

“
NO!” I screamed and clawed
my way back.

It stabilized in time for me to hear
future-me speak.

“
I won’t let Thanatos take
you,” future-me said. My face was ashen, my eyes red with tears. “I
won’t let it end like this.”

“
There’s no other way it
can end,” Adonis said. He stepped forward and cupped the cheeks of
future-me with his hands. “Alessandra, you must return.”

“
I refuse to accept
that!”

“
It’s too late,” he said
softly.

“
I won’t leave you here! I
can’t lose you both!” future-me exclaimed.

Both? Who else had died?

“
It’s done,” he said
calmly, quietly. “But if you don’t reclaim what’s yours, if you
don’t fight this, all is permanently lost.”

“
You’re my Mismatch. I
can’t do this without you.”

“
You’re strong enough to do
this. I will always be your Mismatch, no matter where I am. I have
always loved you, even if I haven’t always known how to say
it.”