People's Champion (7 page)

“Neither of those things seem capable of
quelling the insurgency growing beneath our noses,” he replied.
“The sooner I can stop fighting them, the sooner I can execute my
plan.”

I had never asked what exactly his plan
entailed after learning he was interested in world domination.
Cleon was driven by power and control, to a point he didn’t seem to
care if he murdered everyone in the process of ascending to the
unchallenged position of emperor of the worlds.

Fortunately, for the time being, the
insurgency was safe. As long as the Silent Queen and Theodocia
stayed a step ahead of Cleon – and consequently safe from my
ability to destroy – I wouldn’t worry about Theodocia being dragged
into one of the chambers downstairs and subjected to whatever
torture Cleon ordered.

“The insurgency is my problem,” Cleon
continued. “I summoned you here for another reason. Tonight, we’re
meeting with the Ambassador to Greece.”

“I’ll wear my best dress,” I snapped.

“I’ve already instructed your servants what
you’ll wear.”

“Great. Is that it?”

“I intend for there to be a demonstration
tonight. Something different.”

I waited, uncertain what exactly that meant.
Normally, he had me destroy something or bring inanimate objects to
life and then destroy them as a means of showing his important
guests that he controlled me, and I had the powers of a
goddess.

He was gazing at something on his desk.
Assuming he was done with me, I started to turn, then froze. A
sensation like a subtle nudge shifted the pulsing magic inside me
enough for me to notice.

The stapler on his desk
hopped. My eyes went to it, and I frowned. The one ribbon that was
distinctly mine – a green one – had joined the other two ribbons
possessed by inanimate objects. My magic brought it to life,
but
I
hadn’t
ordered it alive.

“I’m growing stronger alongside you,” Cleon
said, pleased.

“You did that?” I asked, startled.

“I did. And I can do this, too.” He held out
his hand and made a fist. Another tug of my power, and the stapler
crumpled in on itself, crushed.

How is this possible?
My heart began to beat faster. Power in my hands
was relatively safe, since I feared using it and hurting someone.
Unlimited power in Cleon’s hands?

“I’ll be able to wield enough of your power
soon to repair the protected zone and extend its reach. You’d be
surprised what world leaders and the wealthy will pay for the
privilege of owning a private protected zone,” Cleon said and
lowered his hand.

“Don’t you have enough money?”

“Money is a side benefit. I want to make the
world a safer place, and plan to use your power to do so.”

Cleon’s vision was never what he claimed it
was. He wanted to rule, and he wanted absolute power. He hid these
motivations behind pretty words I no longer believed.

“Now you may go.”

I stayed where I was, staring at the stapler,
seeking some visible sign he had manipulated it before I arrived.
The green ribbon remained, and I automatically reached out for it,
not wanting the stapler to be in pain, since it was technically
alive the moment my magic touched it.

Absorbing the green ribbon, I turned
away.

My concern deepened at the
newfound question circling my thoughts. How could he access
my
magic? To my knowledge,
not even Adonis had been able to do this.

Cecelia might know how this was possible and
the extent of Cleon’s ability. Closing the door to Cleon’s office
behind me, I began walking, when one of my escorts spoke.

“Time for your two o’clock.”

“Not today,” I replied.

“The Supreme Magistrate’s orders.”

I stiffened and bit back my retort, instead
deciding I’d rather attend my afternoon session with Niko than be
tranquilized and locked in my bedroom until it was time for the
event this evening.

Armed escorts led me from the House and into
the bright sunlight. I released a breath, my mind racing with wild
speculations about what Cleon intended to do this evening during
his demonstration. Crushing office supplies in front of the elite
seemed beneath him, but I didn’t understand the depths of his
capabilities anymore than I did mine.

Maybe that’s the
problem,
I thought. Maybe by denying my
power, I was setting myself back in the hope I could prevent what
was coming, while Cleon was spending hours a day devoted to trying
to use my power. But didn’t growing my abilities mean he, too,
potentially had access to more weapons to use against innocent
people?

Pensive, I barely noticed the long walk
across the compound at the heart of DC until we reached the gym
where Niko and I trained daily.

My escorts left me at the door to the gym,
and I walked in alone. The sight of the muscular, tattooed
mercenary-turned-army commander left me in a less pleasant mood. He
stood in the center of a boxing ring where we sparred daily. Since
Cleon dictated my daily exercise, I naturally resisted. But the
truth was more complicated. I liked physical activity. I needed the
release after my angst-filled days, even if I were forced to deal
with Niko, who selectively didn’t pull his punches, instead of my
sweet Herakles.

Not that I would ever give Cleon the credit
for forcing me to do something I enjoyed.

“Drop the attitude,” Niko snapped. “You know
I make it worse for you when you walk in here with one.”

He did. Always. If there was one thing about
Niko I could always depend upon, it was his uncanny ability to read
people – especially me. I hadn’t even looked at him yet, and he
knew I was pissy.

“I’m not having a good day,” I told him.

“I don’t care.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. After my brief
interactions with Lantos and Cleon, I didn’t feel up to having my
ass kicked, but maybe that was what I needed to help calm my mind.
I stripped down to my sports bra then tugged off my shoes and socks
and pulled my hair up into a bun.

Climbing into the ring, I studied him. The
solid man was bare-chested and already sweating, a sign he’d been
lifting weights up until my appointed arrival at two. Normally, I
looked forward to sparring with him, even if he was much rougher
than Adonis and Herakles. Niko was easier to understand than Cleon,
Lantos, and everyone else currently parked in my life. The former
mercenary possessed absolutely no sense of honor. He cheated when
we sparred. If he had to choose between saving my life and his,
he’d probably put a bullet in me to save himself the trouble of
deciding.

Knowing what he was, and where I stood with
him, somehow made him easier to tolerate. He was at least
predictable with no hidden agenda.

“You know I’m the most powerful person in the
world, right?” I asked.

“I know you’re
supposed
to be,” he
replied with a snort.

“And you still won’t help me escape from
Cleon.”

“Kid,
when
you’re the most powerful person
in the world, I’ll do whatever you want me to. Until then, I’ll
side with the man who’s in charge.”

“You think I’d keep you around at that point,
if you refuse to help me get there?”

“Hands up.”

I lifted them and lowered my stance. We began
circling one another.

“You know what I can and will do for you, and
you know my price,” he replied.

The reminder we were both here for reasons
beyond ourselves put me on even footing with the one person I
should probably never, ever, ever, trust, because he would sell me
out for a penny more than I offered him in a heartbeat. Except I
knew his secret. He wasn’t operating out of an interest in money
and hadn’t been in quite a while. Tommy, Niko’s son with Theodocia,
was the reason he obeyed Cleon without question. I couldn’t offer
to protect Tommy, which was how the person who was supposed to be
the most powerful woman in the world became completely worthless to
Niko.

He lashed out at me first. I blocked. His
second strike went through my defenses and sent me sprawling on my
back. I lay still, the breath knocked out of me. Several seconds
later, I sucked in air then coughed and sat.

“You should’ve caught that one,” Niko said,
unconcerned. “You’re distracted.”

I was. Around anyone else, I didn’t have to
worry. But the farther away my mind was, the harder I could expect
Niko to hit. He’d broken ribs once and left me bruised and in tears
of pain on more than one occasion.

He was grinning, which pissed me off
more.

Rolling my shoulders back, I settled my gaze
on him. “I’m ready.”

“Fighting isn’t supposed to be pretty or
easy,” he reminded me. “You don’t have Herakles’ size or Adonis’
speed.”

“They’re both more disciplined than you
are.”

“True, but I fight dirty, and that’s what you
need to learn if you’re going to take on men like us.” This time,
when he attacked, he pierced my defenses and smacked me across the
cheek hard enough to jar me out of my senses.

Catching myself against the ropes, I spun,
anger flaring to life inside me. My cheek burned from the
strike.

“There we go. That’s what we need,” Niko
said. “Now you’re ready.” He waved me forward, inviting me to
attack.

I didn’t know why he pushed me the way he
did, but I didn’t care.

I attacked him with everything I had.

We sparred for over an hour,
until I was panting too hard to move, and Niko was satisfied with
what he called progress, which was the name he gave to undoing the
training I’d already been taught. Herakles had done everything with
honor, even fighting, whereas Niko did nothing with honor,
especially
not
fighting. His philosophy was to win at any cost.

“You’re probably not going to survive Cleon,
but at least you’ll be a little harder to take down,” Niko
said.

Asshole.
Doubled over, I struggled to catch my breath.

“And the answer is no about meeting Lantos,”
he added. “I’m not even going to tell Cleon the request came
in.”

Niko threw me a towel then draped one over
his neck.

I straightened. On the surface, Cleon was in
control of my life. But Niko was the one managing me day-to-day and
reporting my activities to Cleon. I didn’t want to meet with
Lantos, but I didn’t want anyone else telling me what to do with
every minute of my life either.

“Lantos already knows I don’t want to see
him,” I said when I’d caught my breath.

“He’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Queen is gone. There’s only one man
capable of competing with Cleon for power left in DC.”

“You think Cleon will expel him?” I asked,
genuinely curious at the insight.

“If he’s smart, he’ll take a more permanent
approach and not let Lantos escape like he did the Queen,” Niko
answered. “We’ve almost completed consolidating SISA into my army,
and the gods aren’t doing shit for us now. There won’t be a need
for a Supreme Priest, once Cleon is satisfied.”

Niko was not normally this talkative. If he
had a purpose in revealing this information to me, what was it?

The army commander said nothing more and left
the gym floor for the locker rooms. I wiped sweat from my brow and
hopped down from the boxing ring, my legs wobbly. I snatched my
clothes off the floor as I crossed to the door. My escorts were
waiting.

We all trekked back to the villa that was
mine, and I entered alone, passing the other guards stationed just
inside my doorway. As I reached my bedroom, I caught sight of
Leandra, my servant and longtime classmate from the forest where
we’d both been raised.

Was Niko warning me about Lantos’ fate
because he thought I’d tell Lantos? Was it a warning for me to
behave?

Or … did Niko give me false information
because he suspected what Leandra was – the head of a spy network
created by the priests who knew my fate? Leandra was my connection
to Theodocia, the leader of the insurgency. If Niko or Cleon ever
found that out, I’d be on the wall where Cecelia was now, and
Leandra would probably be dead.

The beautiful blonde girl my age was nibbling
on the afternoon snacks she had placed on the table near the bay
window in my room. If anyone would know what Niko was up to, it was
Leandra, who was trained in human intelligence.

My eyes went from her to the tall, wide wall
opposite the door. Despair unfurled within me, along with a sense
of being completely overwhelmed. On the wall, I’d handwritten the
names of everyone I murdered the night Cleon ordered me to destroy
a five block radius in DC. The area was completely filled with
writing, and I’d started adding the names to the adjacent wall as
well.

It was a reminder of what I could be, of my
power, of those who suffered the moment I stopped trying to fight
the fate Cleon wanted for me. The names were the first things I saw
in the morning and the last before I fell asleep. They watched me
slumber each night, and I imagined the spirits of those I’d killed
hovering around me.

I had nightmares every night, and it was rare
when I didn’t fall asleep crying.

My power had so much potential to do good –
and evil. The memorial had become my motivation to resist Cleon’s
directives and subdue the depths of my magic, so I never unleashed
the flood that could finish off what the gods started when the Holy
Wars began five years ago.

Dropping my gaze to the floor, I swallowed
hard and refocused on what I needed to talk to my only remaining
friend about. “Hey, Leandra. Something weird …”

Dizziness washed over me. My feet grew hot,
and the air around me sizzled with the scents of charred metal and
burning flesh. The brilliant white daylight pouring into my room
melted away, replaced by the dark night sky. I was somewhere else
completely. The ground beneath my feet was stone and resembled the
area atop the walls I’d seen once before.