Theta (29 page)

How did you find me?

“
I don’t really know,” I
admitted. “I told my power to take me to you, so I could warn you,
and it did. It’s not always this reliable.”

We have heard you are not well?

I cleared my throat. “I am, but Cleon used
technology and favors from the gods to merge our minds.”

She was quiet for a moment.
I assessed she was shocked.
We had heard
there was a problem, and he was able to influence you, but not to
this extent.

“
Well, it’s worse than you
think. He can control my power, and I can’t stop him. I don’t know
if I will have my mind and power completely under control by the
time you attack the city.”

I’ll move up our schedule. I had planned a
spring attack, but if you foresaw the walls coming down in four
months, I’ll make it happen. In your original vision, there’s a
chance you weren’t able to warn me. In any case, a vision is not a
guarantee of the future, only a warning.

Her confidence helped some of the tension
release its grip around my chest. “Cleon believes he’s on some sort
of mission to save the world, not just rule it. I think you should
know he’s convinced the Oracle is the enemy, not the gods. He’s
gone completely mad. If he murders her and fulfills the third trial
...”

He will have access to your full power. I
understand. We will take precautions.

I didn’t exactly like the way that sounded.
I doubted Herakles would allow anyone to harm me, but I was
guessing the tough Silent Queen would do whatever she had to in
order to achieve her goals. She was similar to Lantos and Cleon in
this area – far more experienced in the political arena than I ever
cared to become.

Should I have been more willing to sacrifice
people in order to accomplish my goals? I wanted to think there
were enough people like that in the world already. Too many of
them, actually. Three people willing to sacrifice anyone and
anything would strip this world bare.

I wanted to become something different, even
if I didn’t know yet what form that took.

You have not completed the third trial
yet?

“
No. It’s why my power
hasn’t completely manifested. When it happens, I may not be in
control.”

I’m sorry.
This was softer.
I fear we
are both facing challenges we never expected.

“
Yeah,” I
agreed.

We stood in comfortable quiet, each of us
lost in our respective thoughts. I had only met the Silent Queen
once, but I liked her a great deal from the single interaction. The
politician side of her I was less certain about.

“
Cleon has Theodocia,” I
said, aware Cleon could awaken at any time. “She’s a prisoner at
the House.”

The Silent Queen
tensed.
What of the rest of my
insurgency?

“
I don’t know.” I paced
nervously. “I have to go. I want to check on Herakles before
…”

Cleon stirred in my mind
seconds before his voice rang out.
Where
are you?

I closed my eyes and silenced any thought I
had about where I was and what I’d been thinking.

“
Villa,” I
breathed.

The breeze and scent of the forest
dissipated, replaced by the quiet whir of the air conditioning and
traces of pine cleaner left over from the maids.

Opening my eyes, I didn’t
have a chance to register my surroundings. I could actually
feel
Cleon in my head, as
if the chip in my brain was alive and wriggling. Disgusted, I
froze. His initial disorientation about what happened and where he
was gave way to anger.

Some things are about to
change,
he promised me.
Starting with the independence I’ve allowed you so far. I’ve
waited for you to come to a point where you might see things my
way, but I can wait no longer.

I shook my head without freeing my mind of
the wriggling. I’d been granted too much freedom, and it was
affecting his ability to lead and meet with people who could
further …

It wasn’t my thought. Another image was in
my head, this one of Cleon. Too fuzzy for a vision, too crisp to be
a dream, I determined it was a memory.

I rested my hands on the railing in front of
the Oracle’s display case.

‘
Four twenty five,’ said
the Oracle. ‘You will understand what true power is.’

I shook my head, and the memory faded.

“
I can’t handle you in my
head,” I said to Cleon and squeezed my temples. “You’re confusing
me.”

The sound of someone banging on the front
door jarred me from my attempt to distinguish whose thoughts were
whose. My hands fell to my sides, and I sucked in a deep breath. I
read in Cleon’s mind why he had sent the guards to fetch me.

Four armed soldiers entered, each carrying a
tranq gun that was drawn and ready. As if I had every put up a
fight. Cleon knew well enough I would never purposely hurt anyone.
Except Niko. I might smack him, if I could do it without him
retaliating.

I lifted my hands like a good criminal. I
left the villa in their company and walked quietly to my fate. The
back of my head pulsed with warm pain, and I purposely kept my
thoughts and mind trained on my surroundings and nothing else that
had occurred this day.

How horrible was it that I wasn’t safe in my
own mind? No one else was either, if I failed to prune my thoughts
and allowed my mind to drift to those I cared about.

I looked up at the sky, as I did every time
I was outside at night. I kept hoping I’d see Mismatch, framed
against the moon or coasting among the clouds. Whenever he failed
to appear, my heart sank. Maybe Niko wasn’t the person I wanted to
punch most in the world. Maybe the shadow titan was. Not a warrior,
Lantos would probably dissipate into shadows if I tried to hit
him.

My escorts led me to the House. This time,
we didn’t go to the public rooms on the first floor or the offices
on the second. We went all the way up to the third – and uppermost
– floor, which appeared to consist of living spaces. According to
the images of Cleon’s playing through my mind, the hall was
trifurcated into three apartments. More guards stood outside the
first door and lined the corridor inside, before we reached the
second door. The second hallway was much shorter, and at the
opposite end, several more soldiers stood before another metal door
leading to a third space.

This is your new
home,
Cleon said into my mind.
I am on one side, Lantos on the other.

“
Gods. The only way to make
it worse is if you put Niko in my closet,” I muttered.

That can be arranged, if you run wild
again.

One of my escorts flung open a door, and I
entered. He closed and locked the door behind me.

My new apartment was fully furnished and
decorated in bland, neutral colors. It was nowhere near the size of
the villa. I explored my new home quickly. The apartment consisted
of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a tiny office where racks of
clothing had been placed, kitchen and living-dining room combo. It
was hard to be disappointed with it, when I had only ever known a
room I shared with another girl before arriving to the villa, but I
did miss having my own balcony.

Cerberus was there, watching me. Even Cleon
couldn’t get rid of the mirror leading to the underworld or my new
pet. I had to assume my view into Hades realm would be
permanent.

I crossed to the picture window in the
living area and touched the window to open it. A light shock swept
through me, and I cursed.

“
Did you electrify my
windows?” I asked Cleon.

Since my welfare depends upon you not doing
anything foolish? I absolutely sealed your apartment. It’s not
electricity, but one of Lantos’ abilities.

“
Gods-damn Lantos,” I
muttered. I touched the window again, only for a second shock to
knock me back a step, stronger this time than the first. Whatever
Lantos had done, it wasn’t electricity. His power, derived from his
Titan father Lelantos, had always had the ability to cage mine. It
was how Herakles and the priests at the orphanage originally hid me
from the gods and repressed my power, and Niko and Cleon used it at
will to control me.

You are confined to your
apartment.
Cleon seemed content.

“
No shit. For how
long?”

Until I determine you may leave.

I hated my life. The impetuous side of me
wanted to drop into the other world and seek out the first Oracle
for advice, while the rational voice in my head reminded me of the
danger.

I’m planning another demonstration in two
days.

“
You should already know I
won’t cooperate, and you can’t make me, since hurting me hurts
you.”

I may not need your assistance at all.

I chewed on my lower lip. I didn’t want to
imagine Cleon could siphon off my power and use it, but I wasn’t
seeing any other explanation that would make him this
confident.

I drew near the window and peered out. I had
been out-maneuvered, manipulated, and trapped the minute I set foot
outside my forest. The sense of helplessness inside me was growing,
as the walls seemed to close in around me.

What was I supposed to do, when anything I
tried was instantly transmitted by my own mind to my enemy?

If you agree to listen to
the voices of the gods, I’ll free you for an hour tomorrow,
Cleon offered.

“
How could I possibly
refuse?” I replied sarcastically.

I’ll leave that option on the table.

Another image flashed through my mind. He
was seated in his office, across from two men in suits.

“
No,” I breathed. “The last
thing I want to do is see what you do. It’s enough to have your
thoughts polluting my mind.”

You need to hear this.

I couldn’t push him out of my mind. I
started to panic, when I understood what was happening and peered
at the two visitors through Cleon’s eyes.

The discussion with the political
representatives from northern Maryland was not going well. Before
this, he had never had any reason to suspect Zeus’ power was
starting to fail. According to the two men, the safe zone was
retreating several meters every day.

“
Several meters?” My words
were spoken through Cleon’s lips.

“
Yes, sir,” one of them
answered. “We have reports from our contemporaries south of DC of
the same thing.”

I shook my head and exited Cleon’s mind,
stunned by the claim. Was it true, or was he trying to manipulate
me somehow with this information?

It’s true. This is why I
need your power, to create pockets of safety for those willing to
pay me for it,
he said.

Cecelia’s magic was fading, if she couldn’t
safeguard the protected zone any longer.

You refuse to
listen.
Cleon was angry.
She’s not protecting us – Zeus is!

“
Shut up, shut up, shut
up!” I turned on the television and cranked up the volume, until I
could no longer hear my thoughts or Cleon’s.

When I was stressed, I tended to eat. I
summoned a bowl of popcorn drenched in caramel. The bowl appeared
on my coffee table. At its center was another of my Mismatch
statues.

“
Where are you?” I
whispered and plucked up the figurine. “Why were you in Hades?” The
visions were fresh in my head. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen
Adonis on the wrong side of the curtain separating our world from
that of Hades.

I went to the side of the apartment, where
Cerberus sat on his side of the curtain. He lowered his head, as if
expecting me to attempt to cross over.

“
Relax,” I said. “I’m
looking for someone, not trespassing.”

Darkness filled the space behind him. It was
impossible for me to know if Adonis was there or not. Thinking
about my friend being dead filled me with raw, cold fear at a
primal level.

Was Lantos right to facilitate Adonis
leaving? Would I kill him, if he hadn’t gone?

Alessandra vanished before my eyes without
completing her sentence.

I remained where I was, in case she
reappeared. Five minutes passed. The sounds of night filled my
ears, and I gravitated back towards the tree. I felt much safer in
the branches, out of reach of any predators and likewise hidden
from people. I had no idea what they would do, if they saw me. As a
child, I had reacted to Mismatch with delight and fascination. As
an adult, I had terrified myself peering into a pond last night. My
reflection was unrecognizable.

My stomach growled, and I scowled. Leaping
upward, I returned to the branch on which I’d been perched when
Alessandra suddenly appeared. I’d been hungry since I first
transformed the night before, panicked, and flew away from Kyros. I
didn’t expect to return to a human form with dawn, or to be turned
back into a monster when dusk fell.

Alessandra’s seconding of Paeon’s
explanation – that this was the true nature of the curse of the
Bloodline – resonated within me, as if part of me already
understood this to be the case. I had believed we turned into stone
grotesques, and this was the curse. Mismatch, when we met twelve
years before, had said as much. I never thought twice about why he
was an animated monster, but I did now.

I found myself astonished for the second
time in the past several months. First, Lantos betrayed me. Now, I
discovered Adonis was a member of the Bloodline. A man I was leery
of, because of the butcher he was rumored to be, I couldn’t have
been any more shocked than when Alessandra revealed the truth.
Theodocia had never spoken well of him. He was universally feared,
and his methods of torture were renowned within the elite political
circle to which we belonged.