Chapter
Iwoke up in the infirmary—alone.
Pushing up on my elbows, I looked around for my mom, Alex, Nitsa—anyone. Did my seeing them at the end really happen, or did I dream it?
The door creaked open, lifting my head. Hondros entered the room.
“Hello, Young Aella. I see you’re awake.”
I nodded. “My mom. My friends. Where are they?”
“I’m afraid your questions will have to wait until you’ve answered mine,” he said. “You understand you have to be debriefed about what happened down in the chamber. Do you feel well enough to do so now?”
“I... uh...” My head was filled with cotton fluff. “Sure, yeah.”
“Tell me...” He leaned over me, pressing me back onto the pillow. “Has our true and glorious goddess risen?”
My eyes blew wide. “You? You’re one of them?”
He lashed out, grabbing my throat. “Answer me! Has she risen? Has the new dawn arrived?”
“Let go of me,” I wheezed, fighting back with weak limbs. “H-help. Help me!”
Flames rose up, engulfing his body.
“Ahhh! Ahhhhh!”
I froze in bug-eyed horror as Hondros flung himself away, screaming the most inhuman, soul-punching screams.
An impossible, boiling pit of lava opened up under his shoes, and he sank. Not quickly. Not painlessly. Hondros was ever so slowly consumed by the fire—his screams ending long before it claimed him.
The pit disappeared in a puff of smoke. Gone.
I gaped at the floor. “What the fuck is going on!”
“Whoo!” Castor burst into the room, running straight for and launching onto my bed. “Did you see that? Was it as great as it sounded? Haha! That bitch’s scream could be heard for miles.” I squeaked when he loomed over me, crouching not unlike a monkey. “You’re fun, Aella Vanda. So many enemies, so many lurking, so many people to burn.” His eyes were wilder than his grin. “Burn, burn, burn, burn”—he clapped, startling a cry out of me—“burn!
“We’re going to feed the pits of Tartarus with your enemies.” He giggled. “And we’re going to have so much fun doing it.” Castor popped a kiss on the tip of my nose. “You’re welcome.”
“Castor, easy.” Sebastian blew through the door and slammed it shut. “You’re overwhelming the poor girl, and she doesn’t have time for that.”
“Sebastian, what’s going on? Where is everyone?” I wanted to sit up, but Castor was still perched over me. This grinning psycho was night and day the sleeping, bored son of Hades I’d been dealing with for months. “Where’s my mom? Where’s Alex? Where—?”
“Aella,” he sliced in, grabbing my hands. “You need to listen. You’re in danger. Worse than you can possibly believe, and the time to save yourself is now.”
“What? Save myself how?”
His eyes burned. “Make a deal with me. Pledge your power to me.”
“Get out.” I threw him off.
“Gods, no— That’s not what I mean!” Frustration laced his voice. “This isn’t me being a self-serving bastard. I’m serious, Vanda. I’m trying to help you.”
I rolled my eyes. I was always well enough to do that. “You’re trying to help me by using my power for your gain? Do you also want to help me learn to fly by kicking me off a cliff?”
He shook his head, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “There you go again. You’re quick, Vanda. Clever, smart, brave, and not the least bit afraid of me. You know you can hold your own with me, so making a deal with me to save your life shouldn’t scare you.” He twisted, glaring at the door. “But not doing it quickly should!”
“I’m not making any kind of deal with you. You lied to my face, and made me think Alex hated me when he was the one who sent you to help me in the first place. I want you gone.” I folded my arms. “Now.”
“You need to let that go. We don’t have time for this.”
I pointed to the door. “Bye.”
“Argh!” He jerked his head. “Castor, watch the door.”
Castor popped off me, whistling a jaunty tune. He was having a grand ole time.
“All right, Vanda, you want to do this, let’s do this.” Sebastian got in my face, blowing my brows up. “I lied about Alex because being close to him means being close to his father. Maximos Damien is a cruel and dangerous man, which he’s more than proven to you on his own.” The words tumbled out of his mouth, almost too fast for me to catch up. “He’s obsessed with staying in power, and he exploits every loophole in the laws he creates to make it so.
“He did the same thing when he found our hiding place, clapped my mother in chains, and sentenced her to a lifetime of hard labor. Anyone under that sentence can be bought as an indentured servant to a noble family. Guess who bought her?”
My throat constricted. “Maximos.”
He nodded, vein ticcing in his jaw. “He used and abused her and her power for years until she finally couldn’t take it anymore... and killed herself.”
“Oh my gods,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry—”
“This isn’t about me,” he snapped. “Don’t you see, Aella? You have broken laws. You used a curse, you brought down the barriers, you infiltrated the academy under false pretenses, you put the entire world in danger by unleashing Pandora. Fuck’s sake, even your existence is illegal. Olympians do not marry and have children with mundanes. They simply don’t.” He grasped my shoulders, spreading fear into me for the first time.
“No one but you, me, and your dead father knows what happened in that chamber—the others were all asleep. But this is what the council does know. You entered a forbidden chamber, taking two imperial heirs and the high priestess of the Volana pack with you.
“When you emerged, five instructors and three Experts turned up dead, the high priestess disappeared, and those two imperial heirs”—he gave me a hard look—“lost their power.”
I opened my mouth... but I couldn’t speak.
“Yes,” Sebastian continued. “You brought back Golden Boy, Cirillo, Nitsa, Tycho, Ionna, and Theron. You also saved your mother. But the rest of them are now as mortal as her. And if you think Maximos hated you before...”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. The man flat-out tried to murder me for putting my grubby half-mortal hands on his son. Knowing that I’m the reason he lost his power...
“What’s he going to do to me?” I rasped, voice low.
“You know what he’s going to do to you.”
Yes, I did.
“I can’t stop it, and I can’t get you out,” he continued. “Maximos already has your mother and friends. If you run, he’ll publicly execute them one by one until you give yourself up,” he said, making me choke. “He’s done it before.”
“What do I do?”
“What you do is let him take you—”
“What?!”
“—and you trust me to get you out.” He took my hand—gently. Caringly. “I know you have a short supply of trust for me. That’s why we need to take an oath, and swear it on the pits of Tartarus.”
I blinked. I couldn’t have heard that right. “Excuse me?”
“It’s Castor’s power. One of many. To draw up soul contracts. If the contract is broken, the soul is cast into Tartarus. Right then. Immediately,” he said. “It’s good incentive to keep your word.
“You and I swear to be allies. To use our powers in each other’s aid.”
“Someone’s coming,” Castor sang.
“You need to decide now.”
“But I—”
“Now, Vanda!”
“Okay,” I cried, eyes running. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
A piece of parchment appeared between us immediately. Fire ate away at the edges without consuming it, filling the room with a heavy, smoky scent. Written across the top was Soul Contract.
A knife suddenly appeared in Sebastian’s hand. Without a pause, he sliced his palm, sprinkling the blood on the burning scroll. The red ink rushed and scrawled about the page, writing out the oath of Sebastian Orion Barba.
He handed it to me.
“Are you sure this is the only way to—?” And then I heard it, heavy boots out in the hall—clomping fast toward my door.
I sliced my palm, holding in my cry, and dripped my blood on the page. “What now—?”
He placed something next to me. “Don’t lose it this time.” An ornate gate of smoke and light-eating iron appeared behind him. Sebastian and Castor stepped through, vanishing as quickly as they came.
The door burst open as I gazed upon my dagger. “Aella.”
“Alex?” I sat up so fast I nearly fell out of bed.
He caught and spun me off my feet. “Oh, kara, you’re okay. I wouldn’t believe it until I saw you myself.”
Disbelief rocked me under his wave of kisses, though I kissed back just as passionately. Alex was okay. He was whole, happy, and gorgeous without a scratch on him. Had I really done that? Did I save everyone? And were they not mad?
“Baby, are you okay?” I asked, pulling back. “I heard you lost your power. I heard your father was furious and was on a rampage, locking everyone up?”
“Furious?” He laughed. Of all things, Alex laughed. “My father isn’t furious. He couldn’t be happier.”
A ringing sounded in my ears. “Excuse me?”
“I mean, of course he’s not happy that I’ve lost my power, but he’s not concerned. He said if magic can take it away, then magic can give it back.”
“Uhh...”
“Aella, we did good.” He shook me, beaming. “We rooted out nine traitors within the school, ended the evil lurking beneath the academy, and found the royal scepter of Zeus. Do you have any idea how powerful it is? The scepter alone can turn the tide in the war against the monsters.”
“Found the scepter?” My mind was spinning. “Already? How long have I been sleeping?”
“Three days.”
Three days. Plenty of time for Maximos to explore the chambers, find the temple, and discover its secrets.
“So he’s... happy?”
“He’s thrilled, my love. Not only has he granted you an official pardon, he is also throwing a ceremony in your honor,” he gushed. “You’ll be awarded Olympia’s highest honor of bravery, a noble title, rooms in the palace, and best of all, your mother can stay.”
“She can?” Joy lit in my chest, tugging a smile to my lips even as another emotion entirely burned a hole in my gut.
Sebastian Fucking Barba! He got me. He played me again.
I tossed my head. He was a problem I would deal with soon, very soon, but not right then. “Alex, all of this is great, but what about you? All of you? Your powers are gone and we don’t know if there’s magic to get them back. Plus...” I dropped my voice. “You do know that Pandora isn’t defeated right? She’s inside Daciana, and Daciana is... gone.”
He lost his smile. “I know,” he said, rubbing my shoulders. “Well, only you know what happened in the temple, but after examining it and interrogating the traitor, Dad put it all together. Their entire plan hinged on Daciana, and you, and me,” he confessed. “Just like the prophecy said.
“But their plan still failed because we’re all alive, Pandora doesn’t have the scepter, and the tale of subjugation and destruction he wove hasn’t happened, so Pandora is obviously still weak and running scared. That gives us time,” he said softly. “To find Daciana and save her. To trap Pandora back in that box, and put her where no one will ever find her.
I nodded, lips pressed tight. Everyone else could celebrate, but not me. I let that monster run away with my best friend. There was nothing for me to smile about.
“Aella?” Mom poked her head inside, and then I was running.
“Mom!” I threw myself in her arms, sobbing on her shoulder.
The door clicked shut, telling me Alex left to give us privacy.
I don’t know how long Mom and I sat there, talking about everything we’d missed the past two years, but by then, I was starving, and Mom was planning patricide and matricide, because she swore she was going to kill her parents.
“I can’t believe they locked you away.” She stroked my cheeks, eyes red-rimmed. “My poor baby. You’ve been through so much, all on your own.”
“I’m not on my own.” I smiled over her shoulder, nodding for Nitsa, Ionna, Theron, Tycho, and Alex to come in. “Not anymore.”
My smile twitched to see they weren’t the end of my visitors.
Maximos Damien filed in, and on his trail, was the entire council of Olympia. I swallowed hard to see the reformed scepter of Zeus clutched in Theron’s mother’s hands. Unlike in the temple, it didn’t hum with power. Even so, it was no less magnificent.
“Mrs. Vanda.” Maximos dipped his head, bowing to my mom. “Forgive me for interrupting your reunion with your daughter. I wonder if you might give us a moment?” His polite tone almost made me forget about the madman screaming about filth, abominations, and letting worthless mundane women die.
Almost.
“All right.” Mom stood up too quickly for me to grab her.
I tensed as the mattress dipped. “Hello, Councilman.”
“Good evening, Aella. I am pleased to see your health is much improved.”
“Are you?” I asked, blunt as a truck. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re pleased about anything to do with me. I’d have thought you would be hauling me out of here in chains.”
He laughed. “Well, I do admit the thought did cross my mind when my son jumped into certain death all to save a half-corrupted Sisyphean, who then rewarded him by stealing his power, a blessed gift from Zeus.”
I stiffened at each word.
“But then, we found the traitor lurking in the bowels of the god chamber,” he said too low for anyone else to hear. “He was dying and couldn’t maintain his hallucinations, leading to his ultimate capture.”
Hallucinations? Oh no...
“After complete and thorough questioning, Belen Marinos revealed all, including that you, my child, are a daughter of fate with a particular gift for wiping away the past.”
I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe.
“So yes, child, I am pleased.” His wide, terrible grin proved it. “Pleased indeed because under my guidance, you will wash away all wrongs. Not only will you undo the events that led to my son and heir losing his power, but you will go all the way back to the beginning, and accompany me as I conquer the chamber of the gods, collect the keys, defeat Pandora for good, and become the true and unequivocal master of Zeus’s royal scepter.”
He squeezed my shoulder, clamping the chains around my wrists with words alone. “You and I are going to do great things, Aella Vanda.
“Great things.”
Thank you for reading Pawn of the Gods!