Theta (28 page)

His words shredded my insides.

I was crying. Future-me was outright
weeping. Panic coursed through me as I sought some explanation.
Lantos had claimed these premonitions could be prevented, but how
did I prevent something when I saw only the end result?

The vision blurred and faded. Too distraught
by what I’d seen, I could only watch Adonis slip away, as
intangible as smoke, until only the darkness of my mind remained.
My thoughts were everywhere at once, and the indecipherable
murmuring of the gods and goddess wove into them, further confusing
me about what to do.

I won’t let him die,
I vowed. Whatever I had to do, whomever I had to
fight, I would never let my Mismatch die.

Three times. His death had been prophesized
three times, twice in my visions and once by Lantos.

Listen to us.
The voices were back, faded and faltering.
We will help you save him. Mismatch is the
key.

I pushed them away, hating the gods and
goddesses anew for not only destroying the world, but also allowing
Adonis to die.

My eyes opened, and I blinked rapidly. My
bedroom was quiet. It was nighttime, and the lights in the bay
window were on. Unlike dreams, the visions didn’t lessen in
intensity upon awakening, but lingered with full clarity, playing
in continuous loops in my head. Tears warmed the sides of my face,
and I stared at the ceiling.

Adonis would die. I didn’t know when, or
even if the three premonitions I foresaw existed in the same span
of time. I had seen no hints about how Adonis would die or when
Lantos and Tommy would stand in the caverns. The last day of the
world, however, was possibly the easiest to discern, assuming I had
the chance to talk to Herakles or the Silent Queen about what I
saw.

As I lay still, I began to calm. This time,
I hadn’t foreseen the end of the world. I had witnessed efforts to
prevent it. Whether or not they were successful, I didn’t yet know,
but it had to mean something, if I didn’t see the world on fire,
being swallowed by darkness.

I told myself this without remotely
understanding if it were true. I had to believe the future could be
changed, the world wouldn’t perish, and Adonis wouldn’t die, or I
wasn’t going to have any reason to fight the Fates, the gods, and
Cleon.

“
Next time you try to kill
yourself, stab yourself in the jugular,” Niko said from his
position seated beside my bed.

I wiped away my tears and sat up, twisting
towards him. A wall of dizziness caused me to slump, and I blinked
away tunnel vision to keep from passing out.

“
I wasn’t trying to kill
myself,” I mumbled and straightened. “I was trying to dig that damn
chip out of my head.”

“
Which would’ve killed
you.”

“
And Cleon. Maybe that’s
what needs to be done,” I snapped.

“
Then who will stand up to
the gods, defend humanity, bring back the Old Ways and all that
shit you told me you wanted to do?”

“
What if the price of doing
those things is too high?” I asked. The image of Adonis standing on
the banks of the River Styx was forefront in my mind.

“
You only pay the price
once. Then it’s done.”

Niko had no way of knowing what I was really
talking about. I stretched to feel the back of my head. A bandage
was secured to my head by staples. “I’m guessing I didn’t succeed,”
I said and lowered my arm.

“
Almost. I’m sure when
Cleon awakens, he’ll be pissed, and you’ll be permanently attached
to the wall of the caverns.”

“
He’s unconscious.” I
tilted my head, looking inward.

Niko was right. I didn’t feel Cleon’s
presence in my head at all. It was the first time in over two
months where I was alone in my mind, except for the whispers I
worked hard to ignore. Thrilled, I scrambled out of bed. Dizziness
drove me to my knees. I took a deep breath and then stood.

“
You have to take a message
to someone,” I said to Niko anxiously.

“
I can’t remember … who’s
my boss? Is it you?” he replied. “No?”

Ignoring him, I scribbled down what I could
recall of the visions onto a piece of notebook paper and ripped it
out. “This is for the Silent Queen and Herakles.”

Niko remained seated beside my bed, occupied
with his phone, unconcerned.

“
Niko!” I
snapped.

“
I’m in the middle of a
game of
Angry Nymphs
.”

“
If you agree to do this,
and we go now, I can un-freeze Theodocia.”

“
She’s fine where she
is.”

I struggled to come up with some reason, any
reason that would motivate Niko to act. It was impossible to
threaten someone who had one priority in life and I couldn’t get
near what he cared about most. “What will it take for you to
deliver this letter?” I asked finally.

“
You have nothing I
want.”

I chewed my bottom lip. Whether or not my
visions would all come true, I had to warn Herakles and the Silent
Queen about the apocalyptic vision while Cleon was unconscious.

How did I buy the loyalty of a mercenary,
when I had nothing to …

My eyes fell to the Adonis statues on the
mantle, and I gasped. “Gold,” I breathed. “How about gold?”

“
It’d take more gold than
you could hide in the pocket of one of your dresses,” Niko answered
with a derisive snort.

“
I can do that.”

He glanced up then back. “You can’t pay me
from the Oracle’s treasury without Cleon finding out.”

“
I won’t need to.” Crossing
the room, I held out the letter. “Deliver this to the Silent Queen
or Herakles, and I’ll pay you with a room full of gold.”

“
That’s not how this works.
I’ll need a substantial deposit to betray my current
boss.”

I drew a breath and focused on an image in
my head of a trunk of gold appearing at the foot of my bed. The
sound of another Mismatch statue clattering to the marble floor
preceded Niko’s puzzled expression by a second. He stood and pushed
me out of his path and strode to the trunk. He opened it, and I
neared, holding my breath in anticipation.

“
Really?” he asked and
picked up one of the gold bars.

It was in the shape of Mismatch. All of the
bars in the trunk were. My cheeks grew warm. “It’s gold, isn’t it?”
I replied.

He replaced it. “You made it out of thin
air?”

“
It’s not exactly how it
works,” I replied. “But yes, I used my power.”

Niko dropped the lid of the trunk and faced
me, assessing my features intently. “What else can you do?”

“
I’m still figuring that
out, but pretty much anything I want to.”

“
Then why don’t you
escape?”

“
Because Cleon’s mind has
merged with mine. He can control my power, and he’s going to use it
to control or blow up the world.” I held out the letter again. “You
have to agree before Cleon wakes up. He can see and hear what I do
and think now.”

Niko didn’t move.

Come on,
I urged him silently.

At long last, when my hope faltered, he
snatched the letter and started towards the door.

“
Do you know where the army
is?” I asked, trailing.

“
I have an
idea.”

“
So did you
purposely
not
capture the Silent Queen, or did you not know when you tried a
couple of days ago?”

“
I’ll send someone for the
trunk,” he said over his shoulder. “Don’t show them what’s in it.
I’m not the only mercenary in the ranks.” He opened and closed the
door behind him.

Relieved, I stood in the center of my room,
clutching my newest Mismatch statue and wondering if I had the
ability to save him. The longer I was quiet, alone with my own
mind, the more I wished I’d learned more about using my power from
Cecelia, so when it came to the rare instance when Cleon wasn’t in
my head, I could act. My thoughts returned to Herakles and the
Silent Queen, somewhere outside the wall. If I could create a trunk
of gold, and accidentally teleport myself places, could I
intentionally leave DC?

I waited ten minutes to give Niko a head
start then went to the door and opened it. The two guards outside
shifted to intercept me. I stopped.

Gummy statues,
I thought.

They solidified and froze. I hurried past
them towards the foyer.

“
Take me to the Silent
Queen and Herakles,” I ordered quietly.

Nothing happened. I remained in my
villa.

Irritated, I raced through the villa and
went to the front door, willing the guards there to turn to gummy
statues before I ripped the door open and hurried outside.

“
Silent Queen and
Herakles!” I said again, standing in the quiet night, beneath a
dark sky. I breathed in the summer night, closed my eyes, and tried
again. “Silent Queen.”

I felt the shift this time. The breeze
changed direction, and the scent of the city faded, replaced by the
earthy smells of the forest. My insides melted, and I sighed,
unaware of how much I had missed the smell of my former home. How
had I ever taken the peace and trees for granted?

I opened my eyes. Expecting an army
encampment, I was perplexed when I saw not the smallest hint of
civilization. I was in the middle of the forest. No glimmers of
streetlights or other manmade sources of light pierced the
darkness.

Had my power backfired? Where was I?

Gentle tapping reached me, and I strained my
senses to identify where it came from. Finally, I looked up and
yelped.

The creature peering down at me from its
perch in a tree branch had bright blue eyes in a lopsided face. It
was too small to be Mismatch. With the same sinewy musculature and
gray skin, I quickly realized it wasn’t some sort of monster
waiting to eat me.

“
You scared me,” I said
quietly. “It
is
you, Your Majesty. Isn’t it?”

She blinked at me, responding with an
unhappy yowl before her voice rang out clearly in my mind.

How did you know?

“
This is your royal curse,
I believe,” I replied.

She leapt from the branch and landed lightly
on her feet in front of me, her wings flaring out to soften her
landing. A little taller than me, the Silent Queen’s nightmarish
appearance made me back up a step.

It happens every
night,
she said, sounding uncertain.
You know about this?

I laughed. “Yeah. There’s someone else like
you out there. Same Bloodline and everything.”

She tilted her head to the
side.
Who?

“
Adonis.
Mismatch.”

What?

Surprised she didn’t already know, I
explained their relationship quickly.

Her response was to utter several foul
curses that reassured me Herakles was alive and well, if he were
spreading his creative swearing to those around him.

“
I don’t have much time,” I
said, interrupting her angry outburst. “I kind of have to ask you
something. I had a vision of the world ending, and I know what day
it is, but …” I cleared my throat, uncertain how to ask a queen
about her sex life when I’d never kissed anyone.

Did you say the world ending?

“
Yeah. It’s, uh, on the day
you give birth to … your kids,” I said awkwardly. “I don’t know
what year that is, but it’s in fall, on a full moon.”

She was silent, still enough to resemble the
stone statues her family turned into.

“
Could be this year or
maybe … whenever you … um. Have a boyfriend or
something.”

I’m pregnant with twins now.

“
Oh.” I was about to ask
who the father was when I realized just how much that wasn’t my
business. She was a
queen.
Who did the richest royal in the world date? “You
wouldn’t happen to be due in fall, would you?”

I am.

“
Wow.” Surprised this
prediction was accurate, I fell into silence, thoughts on the other
visions. Adonis dead. The apocalypse. Me frozen in the caverns. The
walls breached. Was there a sequence to what I foresaw? At least
two of the events appeared to happen on the same day, but I wasn’t
able to tell when the others occurred.

Close to panicking, I clenched my hands
together. Herakles would tell me to focus on what was in front of
me, and to take everything one step at a time.

Just because the Silent Queen was pregnant,
and due when my vision claimed she would be, it didn’t mean
everything else would come true as I foresaw. Adonis wasn’t going
to die.

What else did you
foresee?
The grotesque queen asked
me.

I described the scene of her on the hilltop
without mentioning my other two visions. She listened intently,
tail flicking back and forth.

“
I’m sorry there’s not
more.” I looked around. “Where’s Herakles?”

At camp, hopefully. The Supreme Magistrate’s
army attacked us on the way back to camp. I changed into this for
the first time and panicked.

“
You’re normal,” I assured
her. “Relatively. I mean, normal for the Bloodline.”

She growled.

“
Is Herakles
okay?”

I don’t know.

I frowned, concerned about my former
guardian.