Theta (48 page)

Theodocia managed to speak at last. “I swear
by the bow of Artemis, if you hurt my son –”

“
Your son is touched by the
gods, as you are,” came the sharp response. “You know I could not
possess him if this were untrue.”

Theodocia’s face was flushed, and I saw the
profound confusion in her eyes. As a priestess, she was duty bound
to honor a god who chose to possess a body to pass on a message. As
a mother, she wouldn’t let Tommy out of her sight.

She was about to explode, and I wasn’t
certain if she’d cry or if she’d lash out at someone with the
skills she’d been learning from training daily with the royal
guard.

“
I did not give you a
blessing upon your coronation. I am permitted, I believe,” Thanatos
said, his attention returning to me.

Please don’t hurt
Tommy,
I pleaded. I had never heard of a
god possessing someone so young. Priests and priestesses were
normally apprenticed at the age of eighteen.

“
My blessing. Do you wish
me to bestow it?” Thanatos repeated.

What kind of
blessing?
I swallowed hard.

“
Death.”

My pulse quickened. I looked at Theodocia
and then at Lantos. Neither spoke.

“
What do you mean?”
Theodocia asked.

“
The ability to kill and to
become invulnerable to death, save by my hand directly.”

I will not become the Queen
of Death,
I replied.
I am already immune to death, am I not?

“
You are. Look upon the
City, heiress to the Bloodline, and tell me you do not wish for the
ability to bring those responsible to justice.”

“
You want her to take on
the gods? You cannot put that kind of responsibility on a child!”
Theodocia exclaimed. “And besides, it’s blasphemy to speak of such
things!”

I am not a child,
I argued.
And I bear the
gods no good will, not after tonight. These are my people,
Theodocia. I am supposed to protect them.

“
But you weren’t born for
revenge. You were born to lead and to protect! Thanatos is too
quick to offer you the blanket ability to commit murder in whose
name? His?” She shook her head. “The Bloodline monarchs are
guardians, not mercenaries. If this is truly an attack led by the
gods, then who else will humanity have to turn to but the one woman
who can bridge the gods and us? Thanatos must have some ulterior
motive to offer you this!”

Theodocia’s dose of truth was as welcome as
it was troubling. I was groomed to lead, to balance compassion and
necessary action, to act as a mediator between heaven and earth,
and to focus on my duty as a reigning monarch first and foremost in
every situation. What did a queen do in this situation, when the
gods were attacking her people, and she had no army to defend
them?

What did I do, if Theodocia was right, and
Thanatos’ offer was born of some hidden agenda, one that might
serve the pantheon of which he was a member, rather than help me as
he claimed he wanted to?

“
A queen has many difficult
choices to make. This is but the first,” Lantos said
quietly.

I studied Theodocia, wishing we had some
privacy so we could openly discuss my options. In truth, I felt
like I had none at all. The feeling of helplessness was
overwhelming. This was my first day as the queen – and I was
failing the ultimate test.

What good am I, if I can’t
protect my own people? Can’t stop the gods who favor me?
I asked her, hoping no one else heard my
desperation.

“
We don’t know that you
can’t mediate between them,” she replied. “Someone decided to save
you. This, to me, means you have the favor of the gods
still.”

“
The Oracle sent me, not
the gods. It’s foolish to assume anything when it comes to them,”
Lantos pointed out. “Thanatos is sharing his power over death. Take
his offer, Phoibe.”

“
No,” Theodocia said
quickly.

The two began a heated discussion, and I
tuned out to gaze down at the blazing city below us. In a matter of
minutes, most of the city was destroyed or burning. If the gods
could do this to New York, what would they do to the rest of the
country? The world? Even if I accepted Thanatos’ gift, what was one
person against the wrath of the gods? How did I stop them?

At one time, my ancestors ruled over the
known world and controlled vast armies whose goals were to conquer
and then to defend all they’d taken.

Thanatos’ gift, while useful, wasn’t going
to stop the gods from destroying everything I’d ever known or from
taking someone else I cared about away from me. My ancestors had
the power to protect those they loved and the lands they possessed.
I had wealth built up over thousands of years, influence over
mortals and was favored by the gods. How did I turn what I did have
into what I would need to protect my family, my people?

How did I stop the people I loved most from
suffering? My eyes drifted back to Theodocia. I’d lost my mother
when I was four. I couldn’t lose the woman who righted my world,
whose arms I’d collapsed into and sobbed the first day we met.
There were thousands of children who had a Theodocia in their
lives, someone they loved with all their hearts.

The gods were taking their mothers away,
too, right before my eyes, on the first night of my reign, and I
could do nothing to stop them.

My forefathers and
foremothers commanded great armies. It was how the balance used to
be kept. The gods never did anything like this when my ancestors
were in power. Why can I not do the same?
I
asked.

Theodocia and Lantos fell silent.

“
What are you saying? You
want to take over some country’s military?” Lantos asked after a
pause.

Is it not in my blood to rule? To conquer?
To protect?

“
Phoibe, you’re smart, and
you’re the heiress to the Bloodline. But heading an army? What do
you know of such a feat?” Lantos asked. “Whose army would you take
over? No country would just hand control of their military to
you!”

Then we build our own army.
We find every person who lost a loved one this night, every person
who wants revenge and who is angry at the gods.
I replied.
We ask them to fight for
me, to seek revenge against those who did this to us.

“
You’re better off
accepting Thanatos’ gift.”

Why else was I spared, if
I’m not destined to right this wrong?
I
frowned, my face growing warm in quiet anger.

“
You don’t get a vote
here,” Theodocia snapped at him. She tilted her head and closed her
eyes. I recognized her stance. She was listening to Artemis. When
Theodocia’s eyes opened, she appeared puzzled. “Artemis says the
queen must be the one to decide our course of action.” She was
frowning. “Phoibe, please. Do not accept Thanatos’ gift. You know
the gods give nothing without requiring something in return. The
Bloodline has suffered enough.”

She was right in every way. I leaned back
against my seat, pensive. To accept Thanatos’ blessing was to make
my already hellish destiny worse without offering me what I needed
now: the ability to stop the destruction of humanity. The gods were
not benevolent; they were calculating, and they did nothing without
reason.

“
Give me the gift,”
Theodocia said in a hushed voice. “I will become the sword of your
vengeance.”

I hadn’t thought of this option – but I
liked it almost immediately. Theodocia would be immortal, alongside
me. We’d be together until Thanatos decided otherwise. I wouldn’t
fear losing her.

But you might be made to
kill,
I objected.
You know nothing of what it means to bear the curse
accompanying a gift from the gods.

“
I won’t let you suffer
more than you already do, Phoibe. I would do anything for you. For
Tommy. For Artemis,” she replied. “If Thanatos’ gift means I can
defend my children, and help you protect humanity, then I will
gladly bear whatever curse I must.”

My children. She considered me one of her
own. My gaze misted over at the inclusion.

“
I do this of my own free
will, Phoibe. Let me help you.”

You have always helped
me,
I responded. Indecision kept me from
accepting her offer outright.

“
Let it be so,” Thanatos
said via Tommy.

I didn’t object. I was torn. If I could have
prevented the curse from taking my mother, I would have. But the
order to stop Theodocia would not form, and I knew the selfish
reason why. If we were both immortal, I would never be abandoned
again. I’d never lose her if she were protected by death from
Death.

Crippled emotionally from a young age by my
fear of abandonment, I didn’t know what to do when faced with a
situation that might guarantee the person I loved most in the world
would always be with me.

Tommy stretched out a hand to his mother.
She obediently knelt before the possessed child. He traced the
symbol of an inverted torch onto her forehead, and then Tommy
slumped back against me, released from the clutches of the god.

Uncertain this was the right course of
action, I hugged him hard and buried my face into his shirt. The
little boy was quaking and breathing erratically. He blinked
rapidly and clutched at my arm.

You’re okay, Tommy. I promise. I won’t let
anyone hurt you.

A rush of air filled the cabin, accompanied
by the scent of smoke and burning metal.

I lifted my head in time to see Theodocia
shoving Lantos out of the helicopter and into the dark night sky.
With a gasp, I watched him disappear. I stared at my guardian as
she closed the door.

She sat heavily, her hands shaking.

What have you done?
I asked.

“
He’s a demigod. He’s not
dead,” she replied. “And if he is, it wouldn’t matter. He will
betray you, Phoibe. He is the worst kind of man.”

I studied her, uncertain what kind of
changes to expect from someone bearing the touch of Thanatos and
wondering if her callous act and words were caused by Thanatos or
her history with Lantos.

“
Artemis said the same
thing Lantos did, that the gods are angry, because the Oracle has
trapped them here. But she said there is too much happening for her
to know the full truth, and that we must act in a way that will
position you to challenge the gods one day.”

In the same way as my
ancestors?
I asked, genuinely surprised the
goddess would approve of an idea to challenge her and the other
deities.

“
I don’t know how else it
would be possible,” Theodocia replied. She held out her arms for
Tommy. He crossed to her and crawled into her lap.

How do we build an army to challenge the
gods?

“
I don’t know.” Theodocia
shook her head. “Artemis said to take you to DC, which is under the
protection of Zeus, so that’s where we’re headed. We need to reach
safety first and figure out where to go from there.”

Did you really just throw
someone out of a helicopter?
I asked in
delayed shock.

Theodocia glanced at me then at the door.
“Yeah.” She, too, seemed baffled. “I’m not sure what came over me.
I wanted him gone, and so … I threw him out.”

Because you wanted to or because Thanatos’
blessing did something to you?

“
I’m not sure.”

I didn’t say what I was thinking, that she’d
disliked a great many people before this without throwing them out
of helicopters. Not only that, but she’d done it in front of her
son, who she was normally extremely protective of.

It was possible Thanatos’ gift had a side
effect of dulling her sense of compassion. The God of Death was
known for having absolutely no mercy. He claimed the lives of
deities, demigods, and humans with the same unbiased zeal. I didn’t
know how his blessing would affect Theodocia, but I was definitely
going to keep an eye on her from here on out.

She hugged Tommy and
slumped back against her seat. There were lines around her eyes and
mouth, and her breathing was shallow, quick. She was too strong to
show the depths of her worry, but I sensed it nonetheless. I
felt
her building panic
and clenched my hands in my lap. I was too wired even to notice the
weight of my crown anymore. I was too worried to dwell on Lantos’
fate. The friend I remembered as a child had to have been my
imagination, because the man who came to warn me was nothing like
him. The sense of loss I experienced when he left me seven years
ago was missing, replaced by emotions I was having trouble
controlling.

The world was crumbling around us.

Nothing seemed real except for my anger at
the gods. A piece of me was vindicated to know I wasn’t alone in
feeling forsaken, but mainly, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I
was supposed to protect humanity against all-powerful deities when
I had no means to do so. My ancestors would be appalled and ashamed
to know the Bloodline had been reduced to a ceremonial, symbolic,
useless entity at the mercy of lying politicians in whichever
country had the mightiest military. Greece had not been relevant on
the world stage in a thousand years. Despite being directly linked
to the gods, its monarchy was a sign of the past, a piece of living
history, in the minds of most people.