Omega (42 page)

–
Aristotle

The voices came from the darkness of my
mind. At first, I didn’t know them, where they came from or why
they spoke to me.

We are not your
enemies.
This one was female.

You have been
misled.
This one male.

Destroy us, and you destroy your world. Help
us, and we will help you.

More voices, more messages like these
continued to whisper into my thoughts. No one gave a name, but the
theme was the same across the speakers.

Gradually, as the darkness lifted and my
slumber slid away, I became aware of myself again. I was cold,
lying on what felt like metal, and my head throbbed. The calming
scents of amber, sulfur, and other spices soothed my initial fear
of not knowing where I was or what had happened.

Those freaky memories surfaced when I was
about to open my eyes.

“
Can you hear them?” This
voice was outside my head.

My eyelashes fluttered open. I was lying on
my belly on the metal table where I’d been knocked out, staring at
the floor through the cut out for my face. Groggy from drugs,
intoxicated to the point of dizzy from the fumes, I wasn’t able to
react how I felt I probably should have.

“
Alessandra.”

“
Oh, gods … what now?” I
lifted my head and gasped. The pain drove away the fog, and I
stretched back with one wooden arm to touch the part of my head
that hurt. They’d shaved a strip of hair away above the back of my
head. I couldn’t feel what they’d done but I felt the roughness of
a bandage and smelled blood beneath pungent astringent.

“
Don’t bother it. The
microchip is fused to your spine.” Someone grasped my hand to keep
me from picking at the bandage. “I only have a minute.”

Blinking, I sat up and met Lantos’ gaze. He
steadied me, the sparkle gone from his eyes for the first time
since we’d met. Before I could curse him back to the day he was
born, he held up the teal gem, a reminder of how he’d threatened
Adonis.

“
I can’t call him back.
Not yet, but I will soon. In the meantime, you need to make the
Magistrate believe you’re on his side,” he said. “I don’t have time
to explain what I’ve done and why.”

“
You’re an asshole. You
threatened your own friend.”

“
So you would cooperate.
I’d never hurt him. Send him to the monster arena? In a heartbeat,
but he likes it there.” He gave a small smile. “My goal has always
been the same. This was the only way to reach it,” he said without
apology. “But … I am not an ally of the Magistrate’s. He’s a means
to an end for me. I swore to Adonis I’d never let your fate come to
you, and this was the only way to keep that promise.”

No part of me believed him sincere or
capable of regret or compassion. If I had any sort of strength, I’d
punch him.

“
Do you hear them?” he
asked again.

The whispers had faded to the point I
couldn’t make out the words. “Who are they?”

“
The Magistrate needs me
because I’m an ambassador to the gods. They asked a favor of me.
They asked for the ability to speak to you as they do
me.”

“
So … you put them in my
head?” I was having a hard time following anything. I
simultaneously wanted to dance and nap, and my headache was so
intense behind one eye, I was pretty sure I’d vomit if I attempted
either.

“
You were born with the
skill to speak to them. I simply lifted the last block in your mind
we put to help control your magic. Your memories are fully
returned. No trace of my father’s magic remains. I did, however,
block Adonis. Your connection runs quite deep. I can’t have him
returning before I’m done.”

“
Adonis will not forgive
you so easily.” His betrayal of Adonis felt personal, as if he were
betraying me. In a way, I knew he was. Adonis swore to protect me
and trusted Lantos.

“
I am prepared to confess
when the timing is right for him to return.” Regret flickered in
Lantos’ eyes.

“
Why are they talking to
me? I want them gone from the Earth.”

“
You have much to learn
about what’s really going on.” He stepped back from the table. “And
I am out of time.” He retreated to a shadowy corner and became one
with it.

Even his lies have
lies.
I couldn’t imagine how anything ever
got done among the members of the Triumvirate – or how I was
supposed to trust anything any of them told me. I squinted then
grimaced at the pain. Seconds later, a doctor approached and
checked my vitals. I struggled to hear the voices without
success.

“
Any pain?” the doctor
asked.

“
You just did brain
surgery on me. What do you think?” I snapped moodily.

He withdrew a syringe from his pocket and
injected its contents into me. “The Magistrate wants you awake, so
no morphine. This will take the edge off,” he said.

Its effects were immediate, and I released a
sigh as the pain from my right eye receded. “Thanks.”

Before
he
entered the room, I felt him. It
was similar to the sense I had about Adonis yet different as well.
This was superficial. Adonis was entwined with me on a primal
level, an extension of me and me of him.

But the Magistrate … he was like a permanent
burr in my sock. I didn’t like how he felt inside my head. It was
unnatural. He didn’t belong.

“
I felt you awaken.” The
normally subdued man was borderline excited for once. Cunningness
gleamed in his eyes, and his hands were clenching and releasing. “I
have never experienced such a connection.”

Ugh. Great.

He was studying me closely.

I pushed off the table, wobbled, and touched
the back of my skull gingerly.

“
You can see the
rainbows?” he asked.

“
Rainbows?”

He motioned to the area above my head.

Wow. So the chip and the magic of Dolos had
plugged him straight into my brain. Unease trickled through me. Did
that mean he could read my mind? Control my thoughts? Just how deep
in my head was he?

“
Yeah,” I said. “Those are
what the Oracle uses to create, destroy and whatever else she’s
supposed to do.”

“
How do I
create?”

“
I haven’t figured that
out yet. Seems kind of random or accidental.”

“
Then how do I
destroy?”

I shifted weight between my feet, not
wanting to answer. A streak of pain shot through me, originating in
my brain and smashing through my body. I staggered.

“
So it works,” he said in
satisfaction. “I had a control mechanism built into the chip. If
you disobey, displease or otherwise refuse to do my bidding, I can
punish you until you cooperate.”

More pain. I dropped to my knees, gasping.
White dots filled my gaze and my ears rang.

“
Tell me how to destroy,”
he ordered quietly.

“
Okay!” I gasped. “You
just take … the rainbows and crush them. Or … push them into your
body if you want them to disappear.”

The pain stopped immediately. I struggled to
regain myself. When I stood, he was frowning, trying to grip the
ribbons above a table.

“
Perhaps you alone retain
this ability,” he said and turned to me. “Try it.”

Not yet ready for another round of pain, I
obeyed and held out my hand. I took the ribbons above the table he
wanted to destroy and crushed them.

It crumpled.

“
Interesting. Although I
can see what you do, and sense what you do, you alone control your
magic,” he observed.

Thank the gods for that tiny blessing.

“
What else can you do?” he
faced me again.

“
That’s it,” I said.
“Until my trials are over.”

“
This was not your
third?”

I shook my head.

“
The queen.” Understanding
crossed his features, followed by tension. “I’m afraid she’s made
her escape. She had the opportunity to task you. I saw to it at her
tea party. She didn’t give you your trial?”

“
No,” I lied and then
waited to see if he could sense my deception with the same ease
Adonis did.

“
There is a reason Lantos
is here and she is not,” he growled. “Come. Let’s send Her Majesty
and her divine patroness a message.” He motioned to someone from
the corner.

I almost sighed in relief. So he couldn’t
read my mind or feel it when I lied. This gave me some wiggle room.
My only real challenge: keeping my powers from emerging completely
by refusing to carry out the Silent Queen’s trial. It should be
easy, assuming Cecelia could hang on as long as I needed to figure
out how to undo what the Magistrate had done to me.

Niko emerged from the shadows, and I almost
screamed. I felt like crap – and he was not the person I wanted
around.

Cleon went to the elevator. Niko gripped my
arm and we trailed at my slow pace. My step was unsure; the world
was moving a little too fast for me to keep up with. It wasn’t
until we reached the outside world that my sense began to clear. It
was close to midnight and chilly. I shivered in my gown.

“
Amazing,” Cleon
breathed.

I lifted my eyes and saw the world once more
exploding with life and activity only we could see. The ribbons
soothed me. Their movement was gentle and swaying to the point of
mesmerizing. A car was waiting, but Cleon appeared lost as he gazed
around.

It wasn’t the ribbons that had my attention,
though. It was the smoldering, bombed out remains of the Silent
Queen’s villa. The largest on the compound, its disappearance was
impossible to miss and ran for half a block. Smoke trickled into
the sky. If not for the reassurance she had escaped, I’d be
panicking.

“
Sir,” Niko
prodded.

Cleon blinked and strode to the car, a small
smile on his face.

Dread and throbbing pain replaced the giddy
euphoria of the caverns, and I slid into the backseat beside him. I
ached too much from the abuse of the arena, Mama’s people and
impromptu brain surgery to want to speak or move, and I was at a
loss of what to think about Adonis still or his boss, who was
turning out to have more sides than a dice.

My villa was still standing, which meant
Leandra and Mrs. Nettles were hopefully safe. I needed Leandra, to
know how wide and capable her spy network really was. Could she get
word to Theodocia? Could they get me away from Cleon and expel him
from my mind?

If anything, I had the desire to sleep for
about a week. Closing my eyes, I rested my head back against the
seat then hissed as the tender base of my skull erupted into pain.
Agitated, I shifted onto my side the best I could. My head pounded
too hard for me to find a comfortable position.

“
I have spent my lifetime
studying the Oracle and her powers,” Cleon said.

Even when I knew he was the super villain of
my life, I was compelled to listen, unable to prevent the tension
from sliding out of me. His presence was always so calming, his
voice soothing.

“
I am truly,
truly
pleased to know I
do not have to hurt you as my predecessors did Cecelia in order to
access your power.”

He was so good at pretending to be sincere,
I almost believed him. Straightening in my seat, I studied him in
the dimness of what streetlights managed to penetrate the car.

“
You want to open the
portal again?” I asked.

“
Not exactly. I want to do
more than return the world to the way it’s been for
centuries.”

“
What more is
there?”

“
There are no limits to
what I can do now that I can control you.” He glanced at me, a
trace of a smile on his face. It was cold, calculating, the first
time I’d seen malice in his otherwise expressionless
features.

“
So … world domination?” I
asked.

“
Something like that. With
your power at my disposal, I can crush the gods beneath my heel and
anyone else who opposes me. They will do my will or
suffer.”

It sounded a little like what the Queen had
wanted, except her goal was to make the world a better place after
she exacted her revenge. I had a sense the Magistrate’s ambition
was more self-serving.

I said nothing. Whether it was from knowing
the man beside me was a monster behind a kind face and warm
personality or the drugs, I was nauseated.

The streets were clear, the military lining
every intersection in riot gear and flanked by armored vehicles. I
had never seen Niko’s men inside the city before this, but they
were everywhere.

“
I declared martial law
behind the wall,” Cleon said. “I heard rumors of the Silent Queen’s
plans. Her underground army.”

I wanted to ask about SISA
stepping aside so easily but didn’t. Adonis was gone, and the
Supreme Priest was playing a dangerous game to get what he wanted.
I hoped …
prayed
…
one of them knew what they were doing giving in to a man like Cleon
and turning on the Queen. I stared out the window, heart
quickening. I wasn’t about to reveal anything of the Silent Queen’s
plans.

“
I think I need a long
nap,” I said in the tense quiet. “I’m not feeling so
well.”