Theta (37 page)

I rolled my eyes at him. And then his
meaning struck me. Studying him, I saw no deception in his features
and read none in his mind. We were connected, but I was convinced
one day, he’d find a way to hide his thoughts from me, because that
was how good of a sneaky politician he was.

“
Seriously? You won’t steal
my body and go on some crazy Cleon rampage?” I asked
cautiously.

“
The longer it takes me to
sway you to my side, the worse off the world becomes. I will cut
you a break. Once.”

“
Why didn’t you offer this
sooner?”

“
Because you had to be near
the tipping point, or nothing anyone said would ever convince you.
As displeased as I am about the reappearance of Adonis, he managed
to open your eyes, when nothing I ever said would.”

It was a lot, coming from him. He believed
what he was saying. I hesitated a moment longer, a little too
freaked out by the idea of him tricking me and taking over my
body.

“
Okay,” I said finally. “I
need to know.”

“
Not here. I don’t trust
her.”

I walked towards the elevator, chewing on my
lower lip in consternation as I juggled all I’d learned today.

Cleon was quiet as we left the caverns and
returned to the balmy afternoon. He left me at my villa’s doorstep,
along with four soldiers. Surprised he wasn’t confining me to the
House again, I eagerly climbed the stairs.

“
Give me ten minutes,” he
directed me.

I was tempted to drop into the alternate
world as soon as I entered the house but decided against it this
time. We had a lukewarm truce, and I didn’t want to aggravate the
perpetual tension between us.

My bedroom was as I left it and clean, as if
the maids had been contacted ahead of time about ensuring it was
ready for me. I stopped in my doorway to gaze at the memorial
wall.

Choice. Cleon had claimed I
chose to murder all those people. It was true, in a sense. I had
blamed him for forcing me to hurt them, but was he to blame at all?
Obviously, if I hadn’t been placed in that situation, I wouldn’t
have done it. Would someone else choose differently? If I were a
better person, would
I
have chosen differently?

I closed the bedroom door behind me and
crossed to my bed. It was too quiet for me, too calm. Even Cerberus
was gone, though the window to Hades remained no matter where I
went. I had seen Adonis there twice in my visions and still didn’t
know what I’d done to send him there.

Cleon was soon ready.

Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply and slid
into the alternate world to find Pythia, accompanied by a man I
didn’t want anything to do with.

As usual, I ended up on the wrong side of
the mirror and waited for Cerberus. He emerged from the underworld.
I waved and braced myself, and he knocked me into the alternate
world filled with blooming color.

“
I’ll get it right some
day,” I called to the beast. He sat on his haunches, glaring at me
with all six eyes, as if he didn’t believe me. “Thanks in the
meantime.”

“
Are you talking to that
thing?” Cleon sounded irritated already. “Let’s go. I have
something to do tonight.”

With a long look at my body, I led Cleon
away. Using the travel ability that let us cover great distances
quickly, we were soon in the forest at the edge of the compound. No
flashes of light caught my attention, and Pythia didn’t emerge.

“
Let’s start looking,” I
said.

“
C’mon, kid.”

I paced in the small bay in the basement of
the House, where Theodocia was stored with stacks of boxes in a
little used cell in the prison. She showed no signs of life, and
was therefore not an escape risk. As a result, she’d been locked in
a room consisting of shoddy lighting, no cameras, rusted hinges on
the door and the moldy scent of cardboard from boxes exposed to the
leak in the corner. She was propped up against one wall.

Her creepy condition was something out of a
haunted house and did nothing to make the trip down to the torture
chambers and prison area any more appealing.

Perhaps my discomfort came equally from
another source. I was acutely aware of how I could very well wind
up here permanently in one of the cells reserved for those people
Cleon held a personal vendetta against. I never challenged any of
his orders to round up random people and bring them here.
Ambassadors and political elite, I understood. The teen boy I
dragged down here from the inner city? I had no idea what he’d done
to piss off Cleon. Angering the politician often resulted in a life
sentence.

My skin crawled with the awareness of my
potential fate as I stood in the prison. My choice was made long
ago. I’d jump ship when Cleon was no longer the man I thought he
was, capable of protecting the only thing that mattered to me. With
Alessandra’s growing powers, and Cleon’s increasingly erratic
behavior, I saw the writing on the wall. The protected zone wasn’t
going to be protected much longer, and Cleon had no power to change
that. In addition, the only people I needed to be cautious of, who
I couldn’t battle physically, were corralled on this compound. I
could survive anything outside the walls, and I wasn’t going to
risk Tommy disappearing in a poof of Oracle-created smoke or
Cleon’s lunatic magic.

This compound, and everyone in it, was
doomed. I wasn’t about to stick around to see how bad it got.

I listened to the endless chatter of
security teams through the earpiece I wore. Accountability of all
military assets was the last consideration, once all hell broke
loose and Cleon ordered people to hunt me down. As his chief of
security for five years, he wasn’t going to take my betrayal
lightly.

“
Any day now,” I muttered
to the Oracle confined upstairs. Adonis gave his word. I’d never
trust him with a weapon, but I knew him to be compromised in
judgment when it came to Alessandra with a reputation for following
through on his promises.

I wasn’t interested in gods or magic or
Oracles, and Theodocia’s state reinforced the belief I wanted
nothing to do with any of it. Allegedly, she was alive, but her
skin, clothing, hair and everything else – down to the blood on her
battered face – were cool and had the resiliency of gummy
candy.

Checking my weapons again with light
touches, I paused to gaze at her. It was rare when I experienced
any sort of internal disquiet. My window to free her was narrow,
and I couldn’t exactly carry her out like this. As a gummy statue,
she was twice as heavy as usual, not to mention awkwardly stiff. I
couldn’t carry a three hundred pound log out of the basement
without disabling my ability to fight.

Impatient, I began pacing again. I always
hesitated to place pieces of my plan outside my control, such as by
asking Adonis to have the Oracle free Theodocia. There was too much
potential for things to go wrong. Perhaps the Oracle was completely
insane, thanks to Cleon, or Cleon reacted before Adonis had a
chance to reach her. That whole mess wasn’t predictable, but it was
also my best chance of undoing what had been done to Tommy’s
mother.

I reached up to tap the earpiece and ask one
of the guards on the top floor what was happening, when I heard a
groan.

Theodocia wobbled and then collapsed.

Good girl,
I thought. I didn’t give myself time to feel
relieved and crossed to her. “Can you stand?” I asked and peered
into her face.

As if she hadn’t been frozen as a statue,
blood oozed from several cuts in her face and one place in her
abdomen. She appeared dazed.

“
Never mind.” I stood and
pulled her to her feet then slung her over one shoulder. She
groaned again, this time in pain. I didn’t have time to assess the
damage. I had to get her out of here before we were both in
trouble. Drawing one weapon, I eased into the hallway. As the
commander of the military, and temporary commander of SISA, I had
unprecedented access to the security systems on the compound and
had created a blind passage starting in the hallway and leading off
the compound by turning off or rerouting the cameras along my path.
No one would see me leave from the tightly monitored security
stations, and I had a short buffer between now and when Cleon
reacted to my betrayal. If anyone else crossed my path, I had
enough weapons to take care of the job.

It was a perfect plan.

Which was why I was waiting for something to
go wrong. One of the many life lessons I’d learned the uselessness
of good planning, when so many factors were outside my control. I
didn’t make mistakes – but the rest of the world did.

“
All security personnel to
their posts
!” shouted someone into my
earpiece. “
Find General Niko ASAP. Use
whatever force is necessary to prevent him from leaving the
compound.”

“
I see him! North
entrance!”
someone cried.

“
All response teams to the
north entrance!”

I smiled. In my preparations, I’d paid off a
few of the mercs-turned-soldiers to cover for me. I didn’t need
much time, and their assistance had been bought with one of the
bars of gold Alessandra had paid me to deliver the cryptic message
about the apocalypse to the Silent Queen’s camp.

“
No! He’s on the east
side!
” claimed a second familiar voice of
one of the men I’d paid off.

Moving faster, I went to the back stairwell
known only to those who worked here and ran up the metal stairs to
the ground floor. Whipping open the door, I continued down the path
leading to the backside of the House, where the staff break and
restrooms were located, along with the kitchens. The halls were
vacant.

“
Niko?” Theodocia rasped.
“Where’s Tommy?”

“
Shut up, Dosy.”

I hurried past the door leading to the main
break room and then slid through the kitchens. Three of the cooks
were present. One glanced towards me and paused in his task of
unloading the industrial dishwasher.

I pointed at the dishes with a hard glare.
He took the hint and returned to his job without alerting the
others.

Reaching the staff entrance, I exited into
the humid day.

Sticking to the back lots of the compound, I
kept to my planned route, weapon drawn and eyes roving my
surroundings. No sooner had I reached the corner of the parking lot
than the alarms blared. I quickened my pace and ducked behind the
protection of one of the maintenance sheds.

“
Niko.” Dosy
squirmed.

“
Tommy begged me to save
you, but I can still drop you here and tell him you were already
dead,” I snapped. “Be still and quiet.” I lowered her to the ground
then went to the front of the maintenance shed and snapped the lock
open with a sturdy kick. The chances of anyone looking for me here
first were slim, now that those I’d bribed were scrambling the
emergency response teams in every direction but mine. Still, I
wasn’t about to lower my guard, sit down and discuss the plan with
my ex over afternoon tea. We had to keep moving, no matter
what.

I started one of the golf carts used by the
elite to navigate the sprawling compound and exited the shed.

I drove around the side – and hit my brakes
fast.

Theodocia wasn’t alone.

“
What in Hades are you
doing?” I snapped and launched out of the cart.

The stunning blonde servant with an attitude
who had worked for Alessandra backed away quickly and raised her
hands. “I stopped the bleeding,” she said.

I glanced at Theodocia. A leaf was on her
cheek. “With that?” I demanded.

“
I’m a nymph, remember? I
can do things with nature. A grunt like you wouldn’t
understand.”

“
You’re right.” Ignoring
her, I went to Dosy’s side and lifted.

“
Take me with you, Niko,”
the teen girl said.

“
Um, no.”

“
I can help
you.”

“
By … nymphing?” I snapped
and lowered Dosy into the back of the cart. “Covering me with
leaves?”

“
Or by telling you the
fastest way to reach the city beneath, so we aren’t murdered by
your own men,” she said.

I straightened, eyeing her. She appeared as
I’d last seen her, in her servant’s robes, though they were smeared
with dirt, and her hair was lumpy. Dark circles lined her eyes, and
she carried a backpack. “You’ve been here the whole time?” I
asked.

“
I had to stay.” She
averted her eyes.

The last thing I needed was someone claiming
to be a mythical creature that was clearly hiding a lot. Mentally
calculating response times and how long it would take for someone
to spot me, I climbed into the driver’s seat. “Good luck!” I placed
the cart in gear and started to drive off.

“
Niko! I can help you!” she
cried. “Dosy’s unconscious, and she will be until I wake her. I
used magic to knock her out!”

What I would give for a
world without magic.
Hissing a sigh, I
slowed then stopped the cart. Twisting, I glanced at Dosy, who was
out, then up at Leandra. She didn’t appear to be bluffing, and if I
made it off the compound, and Dosy didn’t awaken …

A shout came from the direction of the
House.

I waved at Leandra reluctantly, suspecting
any friend of Alessandra’s possessing magical abilities was going
to be more trouble than she was worth. Leandra climbed in beside
me.