Theta (34 page)

I absorbed his words. He was sincere and
firm. I wanted to believe he had a reason, but with the
overwhelming information Niko had revealed, it was difficult to
believe anything could be worth what Lantos was willing to
sacrifice.

The human side of me, who viewed Lantos as
my savior, was too hurt to want to give him the benefit of the
doubt, while my primal instinct was more rational. Lantos was a
politician, and a damned good one. He was always manipulating the
environment and people to better his access, position or power. But
he had always needed my help, too, when it came to the political
game, which I had learned the same way Phoibe did – as a
child-ruler of a vast empire. I always knew the possibility existed
for Lantos to manipulate me, if the circumstances warranted it. I’d
also thought I would be aware of it, since my instincts were better
than his.

As the long silence stretched between us, I
couldn’t help wondering what I was more upset about: my own failing
to catch the warning signs about Lantos, or the fact he had done
what I had always understood him to be capable of doing. He was not
acting out of character. Before Alessandra, however, we had been an
inseparable team.

I entered expecting to be able to decide
with ease whether or not I would kill Lantos. Five minutes later, I
was mired in an inner battle between understanding who and what he
was, and denial anything in the world could make up for what he’d
helped do to Alessandra.

“
I can forgive your
betrayal of me,” I said at last. “But Alessandra … Lantos, I can’t
turn the other way.”

“
How do you think I felt,
knowing I’d probably lose you to do what I had to?” he replied
bitterly.

“
Yet you did it,” I pointed
out. I drew near him, scouring his features. “Tell me the truth. Is
it worth it?”

“
Yes,” he said without
hesitation. “Hurting you is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But
it was necessary.”

I didn’t doubt that he believed his own
words.

“
What’s worst: I’m not done
hurting you,” he said with a harsh laugh. “If I don’t continue down
this path I’m on, much worse will befall you than anything I can
and will do to you.”

“
You’re hurting me
to
save
me?” I
asked.

“
Yes. No,” he replied. “But
it’s not just you. It’s complicated. I’m trying to fix something I
broke.” His gaze rested on the wall separating his apartment from
Alessandra’s. “I promise, one day, I’ll tell you everything,
Adonis. But I can’t today.”

I was quiet, pensive,
unable to shake the ominous sense about the secret Lantos was
unwilling to share. His betrayal, while unexpected, made more
sense, if he believed he was working to
help
people choose the lesser of two
evil paths.

But it didn’t justify what he’d done in
secrecy, to someone I cared about. If he had a legitimate reason
for hurting Alessandra, why had he not come to me?

Did it matter what his reasoning was, when
his choices were already made and acted upon?

The discussion had taken a turn I didn’t
expect and, in doing so, revealed more than Lantos was willing to
admit directly. Niko’s hunch that there were more forces at work
here than those that met the eye was confirmed. Lantos was
operating independently of the other players in DC. Whatever his
agenda was, it was not self-driven, which meant, he was not
operating out of self-interest this time.

I was too emotionally charged to guess what,
or who, could motivate him to leave the course he’d been on or to
imagine what his purpose and end state were.

“
One day
is too late, Lantos,” I said finally.

The light in his gaze faded. “I understand,”
he said quietly.

Turning away, I strode toward the door.

“
Adonis,” he
called.

I paused.

“
I mean this when I say I
still consider you a brother. If you ever need my help, I won’t ask
any questions.”

What good was the offer of assistance from
someone who had already told me the worst wasn’t over yet?

Who had such an influence over him that he
was willing to say such a thing, when his actions were the source
of the damage? The man who could read secrets out of people’s minds
wasn’t an easy target for anyone. Whatever he was doing, he was
likely executing the directives of a god, or perhaps even his
father, to whom his loyalty was greater than it was towards me.

I nodded once and exited his apartment. Wary
of the scrutiny the guards were giving me, I didn’t stop to clear
my head as I wanted to but returned to the corridor sectioned off
from both ends of the hallway.

Alessandra’s door was locked from the
outside. I unlocked it and stepped inside, my senses pricking with
awareness.

The apartment was quiet, neat and clean. Her
scent was in the air, and it managed to clear my mind of the
turmoil of emotions remaining from my encounter with Lantos.

“
Alessandra,” I called and
closed the door behind me.

A quiet pause was interrupted by the sound
of a door whipping open. The beautiful woman emerged from what
appeared to be her bedroom and stared at me. Smaller than me and
toned, she appeared in general good health, though slimmer than she
had been. Emotions played across her features too fast for me to
gauge which one would win. The air around her rippled with energy
and power, to the point her aura blurred the edges of her
surroundings.

I couldn’t feel her. Even this close. The
connection we shared was battering against my chest, trying to
reach her, but unable to. My inability to feel our bond supported
Niko’s claim about Lantos going rogue, and lessened my satisfaction
with Lantos’ explanation further. This was why she hadn’t contacted
me – and I had been too immersed in my sense of betrayal to ask
Lantos to lift the wall between us.

“
Who are you?” Alessandra
asked, eyes narrowed.

In the strange silence between us, I peeled
off the SISA mask.

Alessandra snapped her eyes closed. “You
can’t be here. He knows. You can’t be here!” she whispered in a
strained voice. She whirled away from me and paced to the window,
staring out.

I trailed and paused behind her, close
enough to feel her body heat and the waves of energy radiating off
her. Because she brought me to life, I was immune to her magic.
“Alessandra.”

“
You can’t be here!” she
said again, this time with an edge of desperation in her voice.
“You have to leave!”

“
I’m not going anywhere,
Alessandra.”

I rested my palms lightly on her arms. She
tensed, her breath catching audibly. Seconds later, she twisted and
flung her arms around my neck.

“
I knew you’d come back,”
she whispered fiercely.

I hugged her against me hard, uncertain when
any physical sensation had struck me to my core as her touch always
did. The smell of her hair sent my beast side into euphoria, and
the need to claim and protect what was mine rose hard and fast
within me. Before I left, we had started down a path that unnerved
me, because of how deeply I felt, and how much I feared I’d hurt
her. With her body pressed to mine, I was able to feel where I
belonged. Every other worry or question or doubt vanished. I had
wanted to hold her like this many times before I left but respected
her too much to be forward in what I felt.

Tension melted from her frame. I held her
tightly, absorbing and memorizing every sensation. Every breath,
the softness of her skin, the scent of her shampoo, the firmness of
her frame.

“
How did you do that?” she
voiced.

“
What?”

“
When you touched me, he
was gone.”

Unreasonable anger surged at the reminder
Cleon had overtaken her mind, with the help of Lantos. I suppressed
it with effort.

“
I don’t know,” I replied.
“What we have runs deeper.”

“
I thought you were dead,”
she repeated. “I saw you, Adonis. I saw you in Hades.”

My pulse quickened. No man, especially one
who had been alive for four thousand years, was immune to concern
when an Oracle admitted to foreseeing his death. Sensing her
distress, I squeezed her. “I’m alive and plan to stay that way,” I
said.

She released me enough to pull her head back
and meet my gaze. Her blue eyes were large and filled with emotions
I wanted to remove and destroy permanently, so they never disturbed
her again. Her features were flushed.

We gazed into each other’s eyes, lost to the
rest of the world, speaking a silent language only the soul
understood. Being with her like this was so natural, it was
difficult for me to restrain the part of me that wanted more. My
concern now was her well being, not the satisfaction of the primal
needs thrumming through me.

“
You’re not okay,” I said
and cupped her cheek with one hand.

“
No,” she replied. “You’re
in danger around me.”

“
I don’t care.”

Her blush deepened under my intense look,
and she hugged me once again.

Banging on the door sent a ripple of anger
through me. “Niko sneaked me in. I knew they’d figure it out
quickly but had hoped it took them a while to react.”

“
Cleon saw you when I did.
I can fix this for now,” she said.

The banging became muffled. I glanced toward
the door. A thick sheet of metal walled off the front of the
apartment from us. The creation of the wall had been effortless for
her.

“
I won’t let them hurt
you,” she added. “But you’ll have to leave before Cleon arrives. My
magic doesn’t work on either of you.”

I smiled, touched by her concern, if not
amused by the idea she feared anyone could hurt me. Her breathing
was quick and shallow. I didn’t need our connection to understand
she was struggling with herself, or perhaps, her power. Bending, I
scooped her up and walked to the couch. I sat with her in my lap,
and we shifted until she was comfortable. I pushed a strand of hair
from her features.

“
Did Niko blackmail you?”
she asked unhappily.

“
I wouldn’t call it
blackmail. I was happy to pay his price,” I replied.

Her eyes narrowed, and anger flared deep
within them.

“
He asked for a favor
unique to my skill set and one of you,” I continued. “He wants you
to undo what you did to Theodocia.”

“
I
knew
it!” Her anger faded, replaced by
a reluctant smile. Tilting her head, she peered past me, at the
metal wall. Her look grew distant for a fraction of a second before
she blinked the spell away. “It’s done.”

“
That easy.” I didn’t
display my surprise. When I’d left her, she had little handle on
her magic and no ability to use it without great effort.

“
Yeah,” she said. “It’s
gotten both easier and harder. Easier, because I can do anything.
Harder, because Cleon can use it, too.”

“
You’re the strongest since
the first oracle.”

She nodded. “Yeah. She told me.”

“
You’ve spoken to
her?”

Alessandra hesitated. “I can slip out of our
world, Adonis. I can go to an alternate reality. More than one, I
think, and I can venture into Hades’ domain at will. The first
Oracle was sent by Hades to help us, though I don’t know she
understands exactly how.”

My thoughts were on Apollo, trapped in the
body of Menelaus. It wasn’t coincidence that the first Oracle was
present in some regard, and so was the patron god of Oracles and
the Bloodline.

“
Did you find what you
sought, when you left?” Alessandra asked and relaxed in my
arms.

“
Not exactly,” I replied.
“The world outside these walls is very different. The gods are
dying, and they’re overtaking human bodies to try to
survive.”

Her eyebrows quirked. “Dying,” she repeated.
“You’ve witnessed this?”

“
I have. The Silent Queen
has been hunting and killing them. Neither of us can understand how
or why the gods are in the shape they’re in.”

Her expression fell, and I didn’t understand
why. The tension of her body didn’t leave completely, and a shadow
similar to that I saw in Lantos gaze lingered.

I had to send Adonis away, for his own
benefit, and I couldn’t find the words to do it. I’d wanted to
stand here like this with him almost since we met. I clung to him
instead, never wanting him to leave me while knowing our time
together was short.

“
I don’t want that to be
true,” I said, focusing on what he said rather than what I felt. My
thoughts were grudgingly lingering on one idea planted by Cleon and
Lantos alike, and I hated the path it took me down. I was at a
crossroads.

If the gods were dying, how was it possible
for what I wanted to believe about their involvement in the Holy
Wars? Adonis was opening a door I’d been struggling to keep closed
– the door to a different version of events than that I had been
led to believe about the gods’ involvement on Earth. The priests
who raised me at the orphanage had hated them and were determined
to bring back the Old Ways.

Was it possible they weren’t the first to
act upon their beliefs that the gods were more of a nuisance than
benefit to humanity?

“
You bear no good will
towards them. What troubles you about them dying?” Adonis asked
softly.