Omega Series: Omega Part 37

"I just mean I don't think the Triumvirate members are on the same page, and like you said, I don't have my full powers yet."

"I'll take care of Mrs. Nettles if you wind up dead."

"Oh, my G.o.ds, Leandra! Doom and gloom everywhere." I smiled at her despite the outburst, warmth blooming inside me from Adonis' gifts and touch. "You do love me!" I wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Stop it!" she hissed and pushed me away. "You'll ruin your dress!"

Grinning, I left her in the foyer and went outside, where the two guards had doubled. My instincts tickled the back of my neck. My happiness faded at the idea I'd be going to an event without Leandra or Adonis.

One of the guards led me down the opposite way I'd gone every other time I left the villa. The compound was large enough for the change in direction not to be suspicious, so I went, limping after him. I didn't start to worry until I recognized the closet-sized entrance to the underground cave where the Oracle lived.

Leandra's warning made me slow. When I saw the first guard enter, I stopped completely.

"Ma'am," said one of them behind me.

I stretched for the knife.

"It's okay, guys. Back up a bit." I turned at Lantos' voice. He wore his mask and was dressed in a tuxedo. My hand hovered over the weapon as he approached. "I reconsidered the request you made of me," he said for my ears only. "We have ten minutes before the luncheon. If you can promise to keep this quick, we'll go down and see her. You can ask her how to use your powers. But you cannot kill her. That's the deal."

I gazed up at him. "What made you change your mind?"

"A common friend."

Touched by Adonis bringing Mrs. Nettle by, I felt my guard lower knowing he'd set this up. G.o.ds help me, I trusted him.

"You'll need this." Lantos handed me a familiar red cord bracelet. "My magic protected you from the fumes last time. This will help you stay focused this time."

"The Magistrate is letting us visit her?"

"I paid off some of his guards." He winked. "s.h.i.+ft change is at one, though, so we need to go quickly."

I gazed at him for another long moment before nodding and stepping forward. I slid the bracelet in place. Immediately, the ribbons around me disappeared. We walked into the facility without any challenge from the guard. Lantos and I went to the elevator, and I sneaked a look at him.

Something felt off. He was open and friendly as always, but ...

"Adonis is going on vacation for a few days," he said. "Lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

I smiled. "He's a different kind of guy."

"You figure out what makes him tick?"

I shook my head.

"Me neither. Makes me think I don't really want to know."

We agree there. I wiped sweaty palms on my dress. My stomach was turning over at the thought of the tormented woman mere steps away.

"You okay with seeing her again?" he asked as the elevator ceased moving.

"Yeah. A little nervous."

The doors opened, and the heady scent of amber, sulfur and other exotic spices filled my senses. The band at my wrist wasn't really helping it. I was cartwheeling mentally from the Oracle catnip before we left the elevator.

I exited and closed my eyes, breathing the intoxicating scent deeply. It calmed me, and a faint tingling at the base of my skull reminded me of how I felt around Adonis. With my senses dulled, I didn't feel the strange coolness at my neck until a sharp sting penetrated my addled brain.

My eyes flew open, and I slapped at it. It wasn't a bug bite. Niko stood beside me, a medical gun in hand. Struggling to focus, I brought my hand away from my neck to see a dab of blood.

"What did you do?" I demanded.

"Injected the red magic into you. A safety measure," Lantos responded.

I faced him, suddenly aware of the people present on the far side of the room, opposite the direction of the Oracle where I faced. "What is this?"

Two guards one SISA and one military slid between me and the elevator door.

"This is your one o'clock." Cleon emerged from an office area near the other well-dressed men and women I didn't recognize.

I looked from Lantos to him and back again. "You set me up."

"For which I'm not too proud." Lantos lifted his mask. "But my end goals depend upon your cooperation. I need that portal open, and Cecilia refuses me every time I ask. Cleon and I agree for once the gate has to be opened, which leaves ... you."

Coldness slid through me. I stretched for the knife, focusing hard on him to keep the catnip from stealing my attention once more. Niko s.n.a.t.c.hed my wrist and wrenched it behind me.

"I figured you'd be armed," he said.

I shook my head, too affected by the scents to fight him when he lifted my dress to tear off the knife. It was all I could do not to float away.

Niko steered me towards the others. The moment I saw the surgery table, I dug in my heels.

"Tough luck, you little s.h.i.+t," he said and shoved me forward.

I caught myself on the cold stainless steel and backed away. Niko pushed me forward again. This time, I stayed. My injured thigh was hurting, the pain battling the effects of the catnip.

"For your third trial, you will fulfill your fate, Alessandra." Cleon said. "It's traditional for this to be the third trial of the Oracle, to submit to her place here, above the caverns."

Never, since learning of the trials, did I suspect this was one of them. It was perfectly evil. In order to access my powers, I had to complete the trials. No G.o.d or man was going to risk me developing full powers and challenging them, but they needed them for the portal. The solution: to make the third trial enslave my power for them to use.

"Oh, G.o.ds," I whispered, no longer wondering why Cleon waited to tell me his trial.

"But you do have a choice." He motioned a team of surgeons forward. They wore masks over half their faces and surgical gowns.

I reached for the gem at my neck. Adonis couldn't sense me with the s.h.i.+t Niko put in me, but I could still reach him.

"Niko," Lantos moved forward quickly. "The necklace."

Niko caught my wrist. He planted an elbow in my bruised ribs, and I gasped. Before I could gather myself, he had yanked the necklace over my head and handed it to Lantos.

"As I was saying, you have one choice," Cleon continued. "You can go the way of the Oracle" he pointed to the opposite wall.

I was afraid to look.

"Or you can try this new method I had developed that allows me access to your magic without you ending up in pieces."

This didn't feel real. I knew it was. But the smells were confusing me, making me feel like I was trapped in a dream.

"Neither," I said.

"We thought you might say this," Cleon glanced at Lantos.

"I don't want to take this step, but I will," Lantos said almost gently. "I know how to use this." He held up the gem. "I can call him back here. I won't harm him, but Niko and Cleon don't share my respect for the friends.h.i.+p I have with him."

Coldness streaked through me at the veiled threat. "You would have your own friend killed?"

"I threw him in with a Typhon. What do you think?" Lantos returned. "It's for the greater cause. Adonis would understand."

I searched his gaze, stated to drift away, then shook my head and concentrate on his sparkling eyes. Images of Mismatch or Adonis being murdered by Niko played through my thoughts. I didn't want to care. I shouldn't have cared. I didn't owe Adonis anything.

But the idea made me sick to my stomach. My Mismatch being hurt made my chest ache. He was a murderer, a man of untold depth and emotion, one I hardly knew.

He's mine. It was as the little-me of my dream had warned me. I couldn't hurt my own creation. I couldn't stand by and let him die either, not when my emotions were entangled with his.

"What is the alternate method?" I asked hoa.r.s.ely.

"It's simple and fairly painless compared to our traditional methods." Cleon held up a microchip the size of his thumbnail. "We insert this into your brain. It has been blessed by Dolos and enabled by his magic to undermine your ability to control your magic. The chip sends signals to me that a chip in my brain interprets and helps control." He tapped the back of his skull. "This is a perfect marrying of technology and magic requiring sums of money that would leave you staggering."

"We'd be connected," I said.

"Yes. I'd be in control of your magic. Capable of opening the portal."

"In theory," Lantos added.

Cleon ignored him. "Your trial is to submit to your fate. Either the microchip or by taking Cecilia's place."

My eyes went to the table. I already knew I wasn't going to choose Cecelia's path. I didn't exactly love the idea of brain surgery or having a man like Cleon in my head with access to my magic.

"He'll have the power of a G.o.d," I said to Lantos. "You're okay with that?"

"It's a means to an end." Lantos winked.

At least I don't have full access to it yet. I had yet to kill the Oracle, the trial tasked to me by the Silent Queen. I doubted Cleon knew of it, and I wasn't going to volunteer the information.

"I'll do it. The microchip," I said.

This time, I didn't resist when Niko and his goons grabbed me and strapped me face down on the table. I began praying to Artemis and squeezed my eyes closed. Doctors with gloved hands moved my hair and shot me up with some medicine.

This was the only choice. The Oracle's soft, sad voice was in my head as I began to fade into unconsciousness. At least you have a chance to survive. To murder him. To see yourself free of our cursed fate. I will hold out as long as I can to keep your full powers from emerging.

Chapter Twenty Four: The High Priestess.

I was mid-prayer kneeling before the altar of Artemis when the cell vibrated in the pocket of my robes. I ignored it initially, but today was Niko's day with the kid. Which meant I was expecting a message about someone burning down the apartment building or worse Niko forgetting Tommy at the park again. Tommy carried a cell phone for that very reason. It had happened twice this year alone. Niko was good with his dogs, but kids were different. They couldn't be left alone.

Excusing myself from the G.o.ddess, I rose, extinguished the candles before me and bowed my head before breathing my last lungful of incense. I exited the temple on the compound where the Silent Queen's villa was located.

I checked the phone.

He's making his move against your boss, Niko had messaged.

I stopped in place, coldness streaking through me. My eyes went from the villa, where the Silent Queen's elite guard was in clear sight, to the entrance to the underground caverns where the Oracle was kept across the compound. SISA and military guards were gathered there, and a full platoon of the combined forces was marching in my direction. It didn't take me more than a split second to understand his warning.

I activated the silent alarm. The politics and alliances among the Triumvirate were constantly s.h.i.+fting. The Supreme Priest had been reluctant to side with the Magistrate fully about the Oracle's fate. The Silent Queen's stance, of course, was not to allow the traditional fate to befall her.

From the text and approach of the cooperating security forces, Lantos had finally made his decision.

What's the plan? I hurried towards the Silent Queen's home as I typed.

Niko responded fast. Not sure. But we're putting the Oracle where she belongs. Only way to stop these wars.

"There's so much more at stake, you a.s.shole." Fury filled me. Niko's arrogance and his blind allegiance to the Magistrate had always angered me. It was worse this time, because he knew what it meant if Alessandra took her place, if she fell into the hands of the Magistrate.

Rather, he knew what it meant to me. Niko had never cared about the bigger picture I tried on more than one occasion to share with him. He was more interested in the money paid him to enforce the Magistrate's will. I wanted so badly to pretend I didn't care, to expect the worse from Niko. But with Tommy between us, with the moments of kindness Niko showed his own son, I was weak. Always ready to believe there was a shred of decency in the mercenary's heart, always willing to pray for Niko to become a good man so our son had a worthy role model.

But Niko didn't have one ounce of goodness. He didn't care about leaving the world a better place for our son or anyone else.

What about Tommy? I texted as I pa.s.sed the guards. A servant opened the door for me. I dashed into the villa.

"Phoibe!" I rarely broke protocol by calling her by her name rather than her t.i.tle, but my instincts were screaming. I raced through the villa and shoved the door to her private bedchamber open.

She was meditating next to a mini-altar near the window. At my entrance, she rose, concern on her features.

What is it? She asked.

"We need to go. Now. Remember the worst case scenario?"

The teen girl nodded and strode to her closet. I heard her change as I gathered the packs we'd prepared from under the bed. Whipping off my robes to reveal the uniform of a Royal Guard with an M patch on one bicep, I strapped and tucked weapons into every place I could.

Gunfire broke out from the front of the villa as the security arms clashed. "Now!" I called.

The Silent Queen emerged from her closet, dressed practically as I'd taught her, and accepted the pack I handed her.

I bolted out of the room. She followed.