Chapter Nineteen
“Aella? Aella, are you okay?”
My lid peeled open, making out a blurry but familiar shape.
“Baby, talk to me.”
“N-no,” I whispered. “Not you.”
“What?”
I swung, fist heading straight for the apparition’s nose.
“Whoa!” Alex dodged my punch, nearly tipping over. “What was that for?”
“Not you,” I cried. “It was bad enough tricking me with my mom. Enough is enough with this fucking place! Stop torturing me!”
“Aella, it’s not a trick.” Ionna suddenly appeared over me. She was drenched from head to toe, and dripping on my forehead. “He’s really here. He killed the cyclops.”
Just like that, it all came back to me. Towering one-eyed giant. Certain death. Clinging to the last shreds of my life in a tree, then it all being over.
“Alex?” I pushed up, finding myself lying on the shore. Someone had cleaned me. That someone was my Alex.
No, not mine. Not anymore.
“What are you doing here?” I dropped my gaze. “Did you come here to break up with me face-to-face? If you did, I deserve it. I’m so sorry, Alex. I never meant to—”
Grasping the back of my neck, Alex crashed his lips on mine. Rough, insistent, hot—he demanded entrance, then took it, tongue tangling with mine. I moaned loud and unashamed, throwing myself into the kiss hard.
Tongues clashing, hands roaming, we went at each other so hard, we fell over and went rolling, not stopping until we were underwater. We broke away drowning.
“Fuck, Aella.” He threw his arms around me, hugging me tight. “I missed you so much.”
“You did?” My voice was small. “But I thought you hated me? Sebastian said you stood before the entire academy and swore to chop my head off like a manticore mannequin.”
“He said what?” Alex swore, jaw clenching. “Gods, he’s such an evil, vindictive, fucking asshole. Aella, of course I don’t hate you. I never hated you, and I never believed the shit my dad was spouting about you using me to launch an attack on the school.
“I told Sebastian as much when I asked him to save you from my dad and Drakos, and help you save your mother.”
I blinked. “You? You’re why Sebastian gathered my friends and came to save me.”
He nodded.
“But why? Why aren’t you angry? Because of me, you lost your mother’s last gift.”
“So what?” he said, shocking me with a shrug. “It’s a hunk of cursed metal. It was her last gift to me, but it wasn’t her only one. I have many gifts and memories of my mother, but I only have one you.”
My eyes prickled. I bit my lip to stop from crying.
“Besides, that night you were looking at me like you had no idea who I was. You were dosed with Lethe water. Anyone could see that.”
“Oh, Alex.” I dropped my head on his shoulder. Tension I didn’t know I was holding leaked from my body. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sesza. Can’t believe you thought there was anything you could do to change that.”
I hid my smile in his neck. “But what are you doing here?”
“Ah, well, that’s why I had to play along, putting on an act for my father. He needed to believe I hated you and wanted a hand in destroying the chamber. The minute the Twelve and I stepped up to the hole, I jumped in.”
I choked. “You jumped in? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he said, grinning. “If you listen closely, you can still hear my dad shouting himself deaf.”
Biting my lip, I tried to hold back a giggle. “Alexander Damien, you rebellious bad boy.”
He winked. “Only ’cause it turns you on, baby.”
Damn right it did. I wanted him so bad in that moment, my hands started traveling down. He caught them and laced our fingers together, giving me a knowing look.
“Anyway, I jumped in because my father will destroy this place if you’re all in here, but he won’t if I am. I bought you all the time you need.”
Okay, now I was crying. My heart cracked open, bleeding unrestrained love for him. I couldn’t believe I doubted him. Alex loved me. No one in all five dominions ever loved anyone more than he loved me.
“Thank you, Alex. Let’s not waste another gifted minute, and get out of here.”
“That’s the problem.” He drew back and helped me up, bringing me back to shore. “Nitsa said you had the key when you ran out of the cave. I assume you dropped it somewhere in... this.”
I finally took a proper look at my surroundings. Doubling over, I promptly vomited on my boots.
All the crime scenes in all the world were fields of marigolds and roses compared to the gruesome ocean of blood and guts before me.
“Sorry.” Alex rubbed the back of his neck. “Now I know my power works on cyclopes. Wish it didn’t work so well though.”
“It’s—ugh—okay.” I gagged. “You saved us. That’s all that—” I threw up again.
My friends were in no better state. Jason doubled over against a tree—dry heaving. Theron and Nitsa weren’t far from him. They searched for the key, both of them so pale they were either about to be sick, or just gotten finished being sick.
Daciana attended to her patient, Tycho, while Ionna slumped against a rock—looking too wiped to carry on.
“I...” I got hold of myself. “I know about where I dropped it. I’ll find it.”
“Wait, before you do.” He grasped my elbow, staying me. “Aella, I had another reason for needing to get to you as soon as possible. Remember I told you I asked my friend in the Records Room to get me a list of every demigod with the power to sneak your mother through the barriers with no one noticing?”
I stiffened, my attention snapping to him immediately. “Yes? What did she find?”
“She found a few with illusory, transformative, and concealing powers, but there was only one name, and one person, we both recognize.”
Goose pimples popped on my skin, riding the shiver that crawled my spine at the look in his eyes. “Alex, who is it?”
Not speaking, he took a sheet of folded parchment out of his pocket and handed it to me. I read all the way down to the circled name, and the power listed beside it. My blood ran cold.
“Child of Ate,” I whispered. “Power to induce mass hallucinations and delusions. The power to make people see and believe whatever he wants.”
Roaring sounded in my ears. My face was numb. My hands shook so hard, I dropped the page. Alex’s words reached me from far away.
“—not a son of Ares,” I heard as an echo in my skull. “He did what you did, Aella. He stood up on sorting day and picked a power he wouldn’t be forced to demonstrate. It was as simple as it was clever.”
I gazed somewhere in Theron’s direction. I couldn’t focus my vision to look at him properly. I couldn’t even breathe.
“What do you want to do?”
Alex had to repeat the question a few times for it to penetrate.
“Nothing,” I croaked. “We can’t. Alex, Selene heard everything you just said.”
“What? How?”
I held up my wrist. “I’ve got an invisible trinket too, baby. It’s damn sure a curse. Selene has watched my every move, and listened to my every word since before I jumped on your head. She’ll have already warned him that we know, and if we attack, he’ll only use his power on us and slip away.”
Selene laughed out loud—confirming everything out of my mouth.
“We’re stuck with him.”
Alex snarled, lips peeling from his teeth. “But we can’t do nothing. We know why he’s here. We’re here to make sure this Selene stays in. He’s here to get her out.”
“I know.” I cupped his cheek, hating that I couldn’t kiss his helplessness away. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“Finally, she begins to accept her fate. My rise is inevitable, child. I will not be stopped. Today, my shackles come off. Today, I rise.
And today, daughter of the Fates, you die.”
IT TOOK A LONG TIME. All day—though the beating sun never set—but eventually, we found the key. Once in hand, the door appeared instantly, appearing next to the bodiless eye.
We hesitated.
“We have Hera, Zeus, Ares, Hephaestus, and Hestia to go.” Tycho’s fingers jerked and eyelids twitched. He was on his feet thanks to Daciana’s care, but there was nothing any of us could do about the poison traveling through his weakened body. “These traps are kicking our ass. I’m surprised we’ve survived this long.”
Oh, but we didn’t. We died more than once.
“We need to be smarter about this if we’re all going to make it home,” he continued. “I know we said we wouldn’t do this, but we should split up.”
“Split up?” Nitsa cried. “Why?”
“Because of Ionna.”
Ionna’s head snapped up. “What, me?”
“Yes,” he said, voice firm. “You said it yourself. Your visions have been clearer. Focused. Accurate. It’s not just you. It’s crazy. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I should be dead.”
“Tycho, don’t say that,” I cried.
“No, it’s true. I can feel it. I can sense my death in a very scary and frightening way that I never could before, but more than that, I feel myself holding it back.”
“Son of Persephone,” Alex said softly.
“Exactly. Alexander, you just took down a full-grown cyclops. Nitsa, you ran at full-speed in your cow form with two grown adults on your back. Theron, you’ve been controlling your explosions like no child of Ares has ever done.
“This place is supposed to kill us, yes, but the power that created it is the power that created us. It’s making us stronger”—he blew out a breath—“which is why I know if I go in there first and alone, Ionna will see visions of what’s happening to me, share it with you guys, and you all can come up with a plan to fight the next challenge. Why should all of us go in blind when just I can? I’ll be the scout.”
The blowback mowed him down before he finished speaking.
“No way.”
“Not happening.”
“We’re staying together. End of discussion.”
“You’re hurt, Tycho. Of course you’re not going in there alone. Why—?”
“He’s right.”
All eyes turned on Alex. He looked back at our outrage calmly. “We have a daughter of Apollo in our party. To not use her prophetic visions to our advantage is stupider than stupid. We’re soldiers,” he barked. “Warriors in the Deucalion Army, and we fight with strength and think with strategy. Not sentiment.”
I gaped at him. “Alex!”
He flicked to me, and his gaze softened. My chest squeezed when he cupped my cheek like I did his. “That’s why... I have to go first.”
“No.”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he pressed. “Tycho is hurt, and you’re all battle-weary. I’ll go in but I won’t go alone.” He flicked over my shoulder. “Theron will come with me.”
“Again,” I snapped. “No.”
“Aella.” Theron shook his head. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“Are you serious? You just told Tycho splitting up was never going to happen.”
“Yeah, but then Damien reminded me that we’re here to save an innocent woman and prevent whatever catastrophe will be released if that goddess gets out. We’re here to save all of Olympia. Possibly the world. We’re not here to save ourselves.”
One after the other, Ionna, Tycho, Daciana, and Nitsa nodded.
My eyes narrowed on him. “I agree with that. You know I do, but we’ve gotten this far because we’re stronger together. No one in this group is a sacrificial lamb. No one is expendable. That’s what makes us different from the shitshow up there in Olympia. That’s what makes us win when everyone else who’s entered this hell has failed.
“Gods curse me if I go back on that now. Together, or not at all. That’s the soldier I want to be— No. That’s the person I want to be.”
Nitsa rocked back on her heels, cheeks reddening. “Damn. She gives a good speech too.”
Alex turned on the others. “What say you all? I’ll do whatever you decide.”
“Together,” I stated.
Daciana tipped her head. “Together.”
“Split,” said Tycho.
“Split,” said Theron.
Nitsa stepped forward. “Together.”
“Split,” Jason added.
All eyes fixed on Ionna—the deciding vote.
She sighed. “I appreciate the faith you guys have in me, but just because my visions are clearer, doesn’t mean they’re clear enough. I was almost too late to save you all in Aphrodite’s trap. If we split, this place will make sure I’m too late to save you the next time.”
“What do you mean?” Nitsa asked.
“You must’ve realized by now that this prison is alive,” Ionna replied. “The very first thing it did was try to murder Theron—one of the strongest among us. It knows us. It knows our weaknesses, and it knows it’s not letting us get to the end. There’s no plan we can make against this place. We just have to get through it.” She took the key from me and her hand spasmed, nearly dropping it. I saw both the flash of fear and knowing. The poison got to all of us. It just got to Tycho faster.
Recovering quick, Ionna stepped up and opened the door herself. “Together.”
“Together.”
My friends stepped through, disappearing in swirling clouds of smoke. Theron was last to go before me. He paused, smiling blankly in my eyes.
“We will make it to the end, Aella. Nothing will stop us.” He stepped in. “Nothing.”
I entered the door, and threw myself back—narrowly dodging the falling sword.
“Whoa!”
My shout drowned out in the melee. I had enough time to take in cracked, cobblestone lanes; ancient, dilapidated buildings; and the glaring white moon casting long, bodiless shadows over blood-painted streets, before they attacked.
A herd of centaurs surrounded us. Their forehooves flashed out—kicking, stomping, and distracting while their swords sliced the air, eager for a bite of our flesh.
“What the fuck is going on!”
“Ares,” Tycho shouted. Two centaurs hooked him under the arms and carried him away. “Ares!”
“Tycho!”
We tried to run after him. The centaurs got in our way, clogging the street and cutting off the path. Leveling their swords, they fanned out, falling into... battle formation?
“Ares,” I rasped. “Ares! Guys, we’ve been dropped in the middle of a war.”
“Without weapons— Ahh!” Ionna threw herself, flinging her head out of the way of the sword’s path. “What do we do? We have to save Tycho.”
“I can’t use my power with”—Theron hit the ground and rolled out of the way of stomping hooves—“you guys next to me! I have to get through and lead them away.”
“Don’t worry,” Alex called. “I’ll take care of—”
Something streaked through the air, hitting Alex dead-on and snapping his head around. He dropped like a sack of stones.
“Alex!” I dove for him, drawing my dagger. Their blade struck mine and I pulled up, throwing the sword away from Alex’s chest.
Shadows fell over the streets, tipping our heads to the rooftops. Centaur after centaur upon centaur warrior dominated the ledges, drawing their arrows.
“Oh my gods,” Nitsa breathed.
We fell in back-to-back, forming a circle around Alex. The smirks on the centaur foot soldiers were terrible as they fell away, leaving us to the archers.
“Still think it was a bad idea for us to send a scout ahead?” Jason roared. “We could’ve seen this coming. We could’ve been prepared!”
“Not helpful,” I snapped. “We can get out of this. We can save Tycho. We just have to think of something.”
“I’ve got something,” Daciana said, looking toward the sky. “This won’t take long.”
I blinked. That was it. Less than half a second, and the wolf burst out of her skin. She leaped onto the rooftop, taking down half a dozen centaurs on landing, and snapping her jaw closed on two more flailing to recover.
Growling, she threw them both clear across the street where they smashed into the other archers, crushing their defensive line under bleeding, broken limbs.
The foot soldiers roared—enraged. The tallest among them thrust his sword in the air. He was a ripped, muscled man covered in scars and sharing his bottom half with a pitch-black stallion. He let loose a series of clicks, neighs, whinnies, and grunts, then half the centaurs peeled off—chasing Daciana with vengeance in their bloodred eyes.
Only half.
Ionna spun, dodging a fierce jab by the skin of her teeth. “I don’t understand,” she shrieked. “If this is a battle, who are they fighting against? Were they all just here waiting for us?”
Steel flashed, glinting in the moonlight. Vicious pain exploded in my cheek, ripping a scream from my throat. I clapped my hand on the cut, and his hooves fell—smashing my forearm.
Something broke.
“Aghh!” I fell to my knees, my soul singing with pain. Blindly I lashed out with the dagger.
The centaur laughed. Clear, unrestrained, and mocking, the monster howled at the weak, pathetic human waving around her butter knife.
This is no use! I can’t do anything with this thing. I need a—
My attacker took his chance with me on the ground, charging Theron’s exposed back.
“Sword!”
My blade sprung up—lengthening in the space of my shocked shriek. I gaped at the sword suddenly in my hand. Shining, sharpened steel and a weighty hilt held heavy in my palm.
“It’s what you need when you need it.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I whispered, then struck up—plunging my blade between the centaur’s forelegs.
He crashed to the stone—kicking and neighing as he died.
“Amazing, Aella!” Ionna jumped over me, grabbed the soldier’s fallen weapon, dropped to her knee and spun—slicing the legs of two charging attackers. “How did you do—?”
She stopped.
Stopped speaking. Stopped moving.
Her bloodied blade hung in the air, stiff within the grip of a hovering fist.
“Ionna?” I pushed up, cradling my broken arm. “Ionna, what’s wrong—? Ionna!”
Gray moved like creeping, rolling miasma up her legs and consumed her body. My jaw cracked in a silent scream as Ionna turned to stone.
It was the buzzing I heard first. Steady and low-pitched, it pierced the noise of the battlefield, harkening their arrival.
“Gorgons.” Theron jumped on Nitsa, throwing his arm across her eyes. “Look down. Look down!”
“Ionna,” I cried, cursing myself to hades and back. She fucking said it. If we were dropped in the middle of the battle, who were the centaurs fighting? Why didn’t we listen?
A group of centaurs broke away, meeting their enemy. Eyes pointed to the floor, I made out two—five—eight—twenty gorgons and counting, slithering around the corner.
“Alex, baby, you have to get up.” I shook him. “We have to fight. Get up, you can do it.”
His head flopped to the side, giving me a clear look at the arrow in his eye.
“No!”
Daciana raced across the rooftops, speeding to our aid. She propelled off the edge—soaring through the air—and the gorgons turned on her, screeching and hissing their venom.
A stone wolf smashed on the ground, crumbling in a million pieces.
“No. No, no, no,” I gasped, sobs wracking my chest. I struggled to my feet and charged—wildly slicing and cleaving through the air. “Beasts! Monsters!”
“Aella, stop.” Theron chased after me. “Fall back! We need to—”
A blade sprouted through his chest. Theron stared at it, his face a mask of pain and disbelief—the last thing I saw before the centaur heaved his body overhead and threw him, tossing my friend to the shadows.
“Wait,” I sobbed. “Please.”
Arrows rained from the sky, finding their final home in Nitsa and Jason.
They were dead before they hit the ground.
“Nooo!” A hard blow struck me from behind, shoving me down. I shakily lifted my head. The last thing I saw was the centaur’s brown, rotted teeth as the axe fell.
THE THREAD SPACE KICKEDme out, throwing my consciousness back in my body.
“It knows us. It knows our weaknesses, and it knows it’s not letting us get to the end. There’s no plan we can make against this place—”
“Centaurs,” I shouted, making Nitsa jump out of her boots. “The next trap is Ares’s. We’ll be thrown into the middle of a battle—of a nightmare—between centaurs and gorgons.”
They stared at me.
“Aella,” Theron drew out. “How do you know that?”
“That’s not important. What is important is that we’re about to be dropped into the middle of a war with no weapons, and...” My nails pierced my palm. My fists squeezed tighter than the band around my chest. “We all die,” I forced through dry lips. “All of us. Within minutes. First they took out Tycho and Alex before they could think to act. The rest of us fell pretty quickly after that.”
They were still staring at me.
“Aella, do... do you have visions too?” Nitsa asked.
“No, but I did lie about my power. I’m not a child of Eirene.” I slipped my hand into Alex’s, I needed to touch him—reassure myself he was all right. “I would tell you the truth of my power, truly I would, but if this place is alive, then it’s watching and listening.
“The centaurs snatched Tycho first because what do battlefields have plenty of?”
Nitsa’s eyes widened. “The dead.”
I nodded sharply. “Then Alex was next. Ionna’s right that we can make our plans, but this place is making plans too. I don’t need it knowing too much about me or my power. Although, hell, this conversation alone has likely made me public enemy number one.”
“Public enemy?” Theron repeated. “What is that? What’s that mean?”
“It means I’m done with this fucking place hurting the people I love,” I hissed. “We’re going to kick its psychotic games so far up its ass, it’s going to know true fear for the first time in three thousand years.”
“Sounds good, but we need weapons.” Nitsa looked around. “Think we can fashion some out of wood? Or maybe—” Her jaw clenched shut. Shoulders stiffening, she seized up—head jerking roughly to the right. “Oh gods, no.”
“It’s all right, Nitsa.” I hugged her to my side. “We don’t need sharpened sticks because we’ve got this.”
All eyes fell on my outstretched dagger.
“What are we going to do with that, gorgeous?” Jason asked. “All that’s good for is cutting clothes off, but I don’t think that’s helpful in this situation.” He winked. “Although we could find out.”
“Shut the fuck up and watch how you speak to her,” Alex growled. “Or I’ll break my monster-only rule today, and trust me, I won’t feel a shred of regret.”
Jason threw his hands up disarmingly, grinning that easy grin.
“As I was saying,” I continued. “I finally know why this has been passed through the generations. This dagger is special. Look.
“Sword.”
Nothing happened.
“Sword,” I said louder. “Sword now. Sword appear. Sword away!”
Their gazes fell heavy on me, heating my face.
“Sword out.” I was shouting now. “Sword go. Bippity-boppity-sword!”
“Riiighht.” Theron backed away. “Okay, you keep doing whatever it is you’re doing, and we’ll search the cave. Maybe the cyclops stashed away the weapons of his victim.”
“No, wait, I can do this.”
I glared at the dagger. Come on! What is with the performance anxiety? I know you can do this. I need you to do this. “Sword!”
The blade shot toward the sky—a smooth and deadly cutlass.
“Whoa,” Tycho blared. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know, but it’ll be really impressive if I can do... this.
“Shield.”
The metal flattened, reformed, and swirled around. A beautiful, brand-new gleaming shield shone under the midday sun.
“What do you think, guys?” I smiled at my reflection. “Would this work against a couple of medusas?”
All around the huddle, they smiled back.