People's Champion (6 page)

“You need an ally like me, Alessandra,” said
Lantos. “I have powerful friends who have been trying to talk to
you.”

“By
friends
, you mean enemies you tricked
into trusting you. The gods are my enemies, too, Lantos, except I
don’t try to pretend to be something I’m not!”

“Does it matter where I stand, when you have
no one else offering to help you? You can’t survive this world
alone, Alessandra. You know this.”

It sounded too trite, too much like a lecture
from someone who thought he was doing me a favor, for me to ignore.
Twisting in place, I glared at him. He was smart enough to keep his
distance. As the head of SISA, the religious police, Lantos
controlled a security force the size of an army. But right now, not
one of his men stood between us to protect him, if I decided I was
through with him.

“I don’t want you as an ally,” I replied with
calmness I didn’t feel. “You’ve already proven you suck at it.”

He was too much of a politician to read. His
smile appeared genuine, but how could it be? He drew nearer, green
eyes bright in his handsome face. He appeared refreshed and upbeat,
as if he never spent one second of his day questioning his
decisions, no matter whom he hurt.

I resented him – and was also envious. I
could think of nothing else but whether or not I could ever balance
my own scales, and here he stood – cheerfully oblivious to the pain
he inflicted upon those around him.

My anger was powerful enough for tears to
prick my eyes. He wasn’t worth crying over. I turned away,
preferring the vision of Cecelia in pieces to Lantos.

“I might have a way to convince you to
reconsider,” Lantos said.

“There’s nothing you can say that would make
me give you the time of day!” I retorted.

“I received a letter from Adonis. It’s for
you.”

Just like that, my inner world shifted from
bubbling rage to soaring hope.

“Do you want to read it?” Lantos asked, as if
he didn’t know Adonis was tethered to me in a way no human or god
could break.

Your name is seared into my
soul. I will always return to you.
I
replayed Adonis’ parting words in my mind at least ten times a day,
and a dozen more times every night when I awoke from the nightmares
of the monster I was becoming. My reaction to Adonis was as wildly
uncontrollable as my reaction to Lantos – except on the exact
opposite end of the scale.

My task at the screen of the control panel
was trumped by the possibility of learning something about my
Mismatch after two months of nothing. I approached Lantos,
searching his face for some sign he was toying with me.

He held out a letter with another of his
smiles.

I reached for it.

He snatched it back.

The hair on the back of my neck rose as my
power coalesced in the space around me, reacting to my
emotions.

So much stronger,
Cecelia said.

“Yeah, she is,” Lantos agreed. “But not
advancing. I wonder why.”

I shrugged off the magic and held out my
hand. “Give it to me, Lantos.”

“One condition.”

I snapped my mouth closed and ground my
teeth.

“You hear me out and remain open to what I
say.”

If I were learning anything in DC, it was how
to lie. “Fine.”

“Tonight, seven o’clock. Drinks at my place.
I’ll arrange it with your escort.”

Nodding instead of hitting him was as
politically correct of an act as I was capable of.

He handed me the letter.

I snatched it and started to turn away when I
noticed something about the envelope. “You opened it,” I said,
glaring at him.

“Of course I did.”

“It’s dated six weeks ago.”

“You wouldn’t see me,” Lantos said with a
shrug. “I wasn’t going to lose my leverage by sliding it under your
door. I may have something else of interest for you, if you meet me
tonight.”

“What is it?” I replied suspiciously.

“The file on your parents you’ve been trying
to find since you got to the compound.”

“You have it?”

“I do. It’s yours, if you meet with me.”

“Why now?” I challenged. “You’ve been bugging
me for weeks. Why offer up something you know I want now?”

He was looking at Cecelia. “Let’s just say I
had a moment of clarity recently.”

What an asshole.
He would never reveal his true agenda. Taking the
letter farther from Lantos, so I had some semblance of privacy, I
opened it with eager hands.

If ever there were something about Adonis
that irritated me – aside from his penchant for mass murder – it
was his brevity. Even when he admitted to having my named carved
into his soul, he had not felt the need to expand on what exactly
that meant, and I was too afraid of being wrong, or revealing too
much of what I felt, to assume or ask.

Alessandra,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I have arrived to the land I once ruled. The
beaches are as I remember them, four thousand years ago, and the
waters are just as clear. I intend to leave here as quickly as
possible, but I must first complete the mission Artemis gave
me.

Yours,

Adonis

I was momentarily stuck
between frustration he chose to write at all, when he said nothing
of value, and awe he’d signed it
yours.
As in, he was really mine, and
he experienced the same feelings towards me as I did
him?

Or was it simply the closing he had chosen
out of the dozen customary closings available?

At eighteen, lacking all experience with the
opposite sex, I had no idea how to interpret the short note, except
it made my stomach twist and heart flutter knowing I was holding
something Adonis had touched.

“That’s it?” I growled at the letter.

“With men, it’s more about the action than
the words. He values you enough to send you a letter. His lack of
poetry or substance is somewhat appalling, but it’s also a sign he
chose to write despite not knowing what to say,” Lantos explained.
“He cares for you. But you know that.”

Wrong person, right
message.
It disgusted me that Lantos used
my connection with Adonis to manipulate us both. No part of me
believed the timing of Adonis’ departure was coincidence. Did he
just happen to leave on the same day Lantos betrayed
him?

No, Lantos would never risk Adonis being
around when he yanked the rug out from under my feet and served me
up to Cleon on a silver platter.

Re-reading the short note, my anger fizzled.
I had never been as confused or as wildly euphoric about anyone or
anything as I was about Adonis. I didn’t know how deep this
connection ran, or what to say or think around him, but I never
felt like my world was spinning out of control when the grotesque
prince was close. How was it possible to yearn for someone I barely
knew, who had probably murdered more people than Cleon and Lantos
combined?

What right did I have to judge him, when I
had over three thousand lives on my soul? My thoughts about him
were as complicated as his personality.

Come home, Adonis,
I willed him without any hope he could hear me,
thanks also to Lantos, who had blocked the bond I shared with the
grotesque prince.

I tucked the letter into my pocket and gazed
at Cecelia for a moment, deep in thought.

Lantos was right. I needed allies, and the
two men I trusted most in the world were lost to me at the moment.
I had wandered onto a reality board game and was competing against
people who had not only mastered the rules, but also spent years
positioning their pieces. And I was supposed to … what? Win, when I
didn’t understand what game I was playing? The kind of person who
could help me was the kind of person I innately knew better than to
trust, because he had been in this game for far too long.

I did need help. During moments like this,
someone like Lantos made sense, and that spooked me even more. Life
would be easier if people with unsavory intentions wore black masks
instead of parading around disguised as normal people.

Cleon’s grip on me was growing tighter, and I
was no closer to harnessing my magic. As much as I adored Cecelia,
she preached restraint rather than understanding. I didn’t think I
needed to fear my power to control it. Maybe I did need to meet
with Lantos in private and discuss a few things, as much as I
didn’t want to.

And … if he had another letter from Adonis …
was I justifying sitting down with one of my enemies, because I
hoped Adonis said more in his second letter than his first?

Pain shot through my temple, and I
gasped.

Come. Now.
Cleon’s voice in my head was louder than
Cecelia’s. He prefaced anything he had to say with a flash of pain,
applied through the mind control device he’d had fused to my brain.
It linked us mentally, a combination of technology and the magic of
the god, Dolos, who blessed the chip in my brain.

“I have to go,” I said reluctantly. “I’m
keeping the letter.”

Lantos didn’t protest.

I went to the elevator on the other side of
the chamber and rode it to the surface. Dread filled me as it did
each time I dealt with Cleon. I couldn’t predict what he wanted
until I showed up and heard the latest installment of his crazy
plan to use my magic to keep the political elite of the world in
line. The soothing scents of the chamber beneath ground dissipated
by the time the elevator door opened to reveal the armed escort
Cleon had assigned me at all times.

Joining them, I was led out of the tiny
building guarding the underground chamber and into a warm, balmy
day. It had rained last night, and the puddles in the mall and
sidewalk reflected the blue sky.

Whenever Cleon summoned me, I was only ever
taken to one place. Familiar with the path, I allowed my focus to
shift to the ribbons hovering above everything and everyone around
me. My power as an Oracle – once I was able to access it fully –
was the ability to manipulate … well, everything. Matter, time, the
fabric of the universe. It was too much for me to understand, too
beyond my imagination and everything I’d ever learned about myself
and my life.

Until the current Oracle was dead, I could
only access a fraction of the magic belonging to the gods. But I,
too, felt the swell of power growing. It had started as a trickle I
could only feel when I was absolutely still and quiet. Now, it
flowed through me and around me, connecting me with the natural
magic of my world.

To add to my impossible situation, whatever I
did with my power, Cleon felt. I was in a lose-lose situation. I
needed my power to get rid of the man whose consciousness was
tethered to mine, but he felt when I tried to manipulate our
connection and either sent his lackey to tranquilize me or pushed
the pain button until I passed out.

Aside from Cecelia, who was too weak to help,
I had no real allies. At least, none who were powerful enough to
help me leave this place, though I had begun to believe it was
going to take a god or goddess to fix what had been done to me.

Or maybe Adonis.
The grotesque prince had a mind for strategy and
manipulation I never would, and he was bound to me, too. Combined,
we would either become the world’s most effective mass murdering
team, or we would barely survive Cleon. I didn’t know which would
emerge from our partnership, but I wanted the chance to witness
it.

I was led into the House, the building
reserved for the Supreme Magistrate. My escort didn’t turn down the
hall I expected them to, and I pulled myself from my thoughts
warily. We went to the second floor lined with private offices
rather than the public spaces on the first floor.

Two guards stood outside one closed door. My
escorts stopped and stood aside for me to approach. I didn’t bother
knocking. I’d been summoned, and I did my best to ignore any sense
of social protocol I thought might please Cleon. It was one of my
limited methods of rebelling against his absolute control over my
life.

The politician sat at a large desk of dark
woods in front of a window. The drapes and carpets were heavy and
darkly hued while the walls of the office glowed a pale yellow.

“You rang?” I asked, striding into the
room.

“I would appreciate it if you knocked,” he
replied without looking up from the papers on his desk.

“I know.”

He glanced up at me then back. Lowering the
papers, he leaned into the plush leather back of his chair.
“There’s no need to be unpleasant, Alessandra,” Cleon lectured me.
“Why not make the best of your situation?”

“My situation. You mean being enslaved by
someone who melded my mind to his against my will?”

Cleon released a controlled sigh. “And
behaving like a child makes it better somehow?”

I had been warned by many people not to push
him too far, but none of them were dropped to their knees in pain a
few times a day by the man before me. If I were reckless, it was
because I was afraid of someone who knew no limitations on how far
he would go, and because I didn’t know how else to react when my
life and my mind were no longer exclusively mine.

“We’re getting stronger,” he said at my
silence. “We’ll soon be at full strength, I believe.”

“Nowhere close, according to
Cecilia,” I replied. I hated how he used
we
when he was a leech piggybacking
off my power. “She says I have a long ways to go.”

“Maybe you should try harder.”

Did he know I purposely didn’t push myself?
It was hard to guess what knowledge Cleon possessed and what he
hid. “What’s the rush?” I replied. “You already have control of the
protected zone and the armies.”