Prison of Hope (37 page)

Tommy glanced at me. “Eh?”

“When I asked her how Cronus would get his power back, she went straight to the magic well. She didn’t say anything else; that was her first and only guess.”

“You think she knew?” Hades asked.

“Once in a lifetime,” I said. “Those were her exact words. How many people in this world would have said ‘magic well’ if my question had been how do I increase my power? Blood magic, runes, and artifacts; there are lots of other, quieter ways that it can be done. But Cronus was told about the well by whoever set him free. They were going to bring him here and then kill him once he’d finished. What if it was Pandora who told them about it?”

“If that’s the case,” Diana said, “then I need to get back
to Brutus.”

“I’m coming,” I said.

“We are too,” Hades said.

I shook my head. “Hades, if she manages to enthrall Tommy or Sky, I can deal with it. She does the same to you and a lot of people could get hurt. Same goes for Persephone. Everyone’s best served with you two staying here.”

“I’ll stay with Kasey,” Olivia said. “I need to coordinate all of this anyway.” She kissed Tommy before he ran off with Sky, Diana, and me to get in another helicopter. If nothing else, all this flying about was getting rid of my phobia. Silver linings and all that.

CHAPTER
36

W
e landed on the roof of the building beside Brutus’s tower and quickly made our way down to the lobby of the Aeneid, which appeared no different than it had when we’d last entered.

“Anything strange happen?” Diana asked one of the guards.

“No, ma’am,” he said quickly.

“Brutus on his floor?” she continued.

“Yes, ma’am, we’ve heard nothing from him to say different.”

She thanked him and took us toward the lift, ignoring the ones that we’d used before and instead using a small key on a lift at the far end. The doors opened to an identical interior as the other, except a fingerprint and retina scanner replaced the numeric pad.

After the system confirmed Diana’s identification, she spoke: “Twenty-fourth floor.” The doors closed and we were soon headed up.

After a second of silence, Diana motioned for us all to move aside, and she used the key to open a compartment in the floor. It contained several handguns, a shotgun, and an MP5, along with an accompaniment of bladed weapons. Diana grabbed the shotgun and a dagger, tucking the sheathed weapon into the belt of her jeans. She opened a small box of shotgun shells and loaded the weapon.

“You guys take what you need.”

Sky immediately grabbed two knives, and Tommy the MP5, leaving me with a Glock 19 and a silver dagger. Like Diana, I tucked the dagger in the back of my belt, pulling my T-shirt over it and keeping the gun visible.

The doors opened, and we were greeted with silence as we moved out of the lift. The floor search was done quickly, with Diana on point, until we found Brutus and Licinius lying on the couch. Brutus was face down, his wounds unknown, but Licinius had two bullet holes in his chest. Blood spatter patterns across the wall indicated they’d been shot and then fallen on the
furniture
.

“Brutus is good,” Diana said and pulled him over onto his back. “He’s got a strong pulse. “These are tranquillizer darts, and it’s not his blood.”

“Licinius’s pulse is weak, but it is there,” Sky said. “Why try to kill him, but not Brutus?”

“Brutus was nice to her,” I said. “Check the other floors.”

“And where are you going?”

“Pandora. She can’t enthrall me; she can you.”

“And what if the people who shot Licinius are still around?”

“I don’t plan on letting them shoot me.”

“And if Pandora has already escaped?”

“She won’t have,” I told them. “She won’t go until she’s sure she has my attention. I’m one of the few people who can track h
er wit
hout fear of her power. If she’s after Hera and company, she’ll try to persuade me to side with her. If that doesn’t w
ork, sh
e’ll threaten me—tell me she’ll hurt me if I come after her. She’s done it before. She wants people to know why she does the things she does.”

“You’re counting on a lot,” Tommy said.

“I know, but I’m certain of it. She’s waiting for someone she can tell her story to. She knew I’d be forced to come back here when she gave everyone the idea to leave here. She didn’t want people I care about in harm’s way. We’ve always had mutual respect. If she hurts my friends, she knows it’d be all over. I’d come after her with everything I have. I’d bury her in a hole so deep the light could never find her. It’s why she always eventually allows herself to get caught, and why, when she’s out, she never hurts people who are innocent. Hope won’t stand for it.”

“Best of luck then.”

I left everyone to it and took the lift up to Pandora’s floor, stepping to the side of the doors as they opened and waiting for whatever was about to come. I might have believed that
Pandora
wouldn’t hurt me, but I wasn’t so sure of the people helping h
er escape.

The immediate area outside of the lift was empty, as were the corridors and rooms I walked past. In fact, I wasn’t given any trouble by anyone the entire way to the cell. The doors, normally guarded, were open, and there was no one in sight as I stepped into the cell room.

Part of the roof of the building had opened, allowing the ferocious wind outside to create a fair bit of noise in the enclosed space. Pandora sat in her library reading. I walked up to the door and knocked.

Pandora got up, walked over to the door, and opened it without pause. She held no visible weapons and wore a plain black jumper and blue jeans. She was barefoot and didn’t exactly look like someone who was planning to escape anytime soon.

“How are you, Nathan?” she inquired.

“I assume you’ll be wanting to escape soon,” I said.

“Soon, but not just yet. You want to come in for a drink?”

My magic had cut off the second I’d stepped onto the floor, and although I’d considered using the rune, I wasn’t sure about the effect it would have after my fight with Cronus. Besides, w
ith th
e gun and knife, and with no one else able to use their abilities either, I was fairly assured of my ability to hold my own for the few seconds it would take for me to draw the rune. It was then I remembered that I didn’t have a pen, or pencil, or—hell—even a piece of chalk. I sighed. It had been a long night, and that one tiny thing I’d overlooked was going to bite me on the ass, I just knew it.

“I’m good, thanks,” I said, declining her invitation.

“That’s a shame. Please, come in. We need to talk.”

“You know, I think that’s a bad idea.”

Pandora sighed. “Let us spell it out for you. Our people have planted explosives all around this part of London. If you don’t get in here with me in the next ten seconds, we’re going to signal for them to detonate. There are only four or five packages, but how many people do you think that might kill? A hundred? Two? A thousand? It’s quite late, so probably it wouldn’t wreak quite the devastation it could cause earlier in the day, but even so, people will die. Get in here. Now.”

I did as was asked, and Pandora closed the door behind me. I walked into the library and paused.

“We haven’t got explosives in here,” Pandora said from behind me. “You’re safe.”

I sat on the same chair I’d used last time, and Pandora left the room again, returning with two cups and a pot of tea.

I glanced at the china teacups as she poured the amber tea from the pot into them.

“Seriously, Nathan?” she asked when she saw me stare at the drinks. “We haven’t poisoned them.” She took one of the cups and took a drink. “As you know, we can’t lie to you. Not ever, remember? Drink.”

I took a sip of the tea and waited for her to begin.

“Just so we’re all on the same page, the lifts have been locked out of use, and no one is coming for you. We have about
ten minut
es before we leave, so we figured it was only fair that you got to ask us questions.”

“Justin Toon, the head guard, he works for you,” I said.

“Indeed. The entire security staff does. Justin hired them all from someone he knows. We didn’t even need to enthrall them, although occasionally we do so just to ensure loyalty. We don’t know who they are, but they’re very bad people.”

“Are they Vanguard?”

“No idea. They were pretty good cannon fodder, though; we can’t say we’re unhappy with their ability to die and leave no one to answer questions.”

The words of the traitor I’d tortured in Hades’s compound sprung to mind. “Who is their liege?”

Pandora shrugged. “Not a clue.”

“You got Sarah to work for you.”

“We enthralled her. Justin let her in; she had no idea what was happening until it was too late. Had her in my palm for years. She went to Hera’s to spy for Brutus, but she fed us the info we needed. Well, she fed Justin, and he told me. It was our information about how Cronus could escape that she gave to Hera; it was our plan to get Cronus out and have him t
ry t
o kill Hera so that she could kill him and then claim a stake in Tartarus.

“Unfortunately for Hera, Sarah was meant to kill Cronus at Stonehenge. That was how you figured out we were involved, yes? We explained about the magic well. It was a gamble, but we’re glad it paid off.”

My body felt heavy and I couldn’t move, as my eyes started to lose focus.

“Ah the drugs—excellent. Don’t worry, it’s not lethal. We just needed you to be out of it for this bit. You see, we’ve been lying to you. While we were in Tartarus, we found this book about souls and their use. It’s very interesting, but the gist is that instead of enthralling someone’s mind, we can enthrall his or her soul. It doesn’t register on any psychic scans, and it means that anyone enthralled who breaks free can be enthralled again and again. Unfortunately, we discovered this after our time together, so you can’t be made to do anything. But it does mean that
I can
lie to you.

“We’re a camel. See, a great big lie and we can say it. So, we want you to know, we lied about the tea, about the Vanguard and who employed them, about it being our blood in the vial—because it obviously was. We lied about a lot. Helios started our plan so many years ago, but you stopped him. You can’t stop
me
this time.”

I slurred something in response, and Pandora rubbed my cheeks before removing my gun and placing it in the band of her jeans. “Try again, slowly,” she said.

“You said ‘me,’ not ‘us.’ ”

Pandora clapped. “You noticed that. The Gestapo had some very interesting information about how to merge the two souls into one. Then they decided to dissect me, so I killed them all, but I did learn a lot from them before they had to die. I realized I’d slipped up a few times back in Berlin, and I was worried you’d picked up on it. I was very careful not to do it again, until just now. Obviously.”

“Hope gone.”

“Oh, yes, Hope is well and truly a thing of the past.”

“Helios’s plan
was
your plan.”

“That’s very good. Yes, Helios’s plan was to kill Hera and her friends on the first ever live televised event. That was all me. The sarin gas—I heard all about that after—was his idea, which was stupid when you think about it, but Helios is an asshole. Besides, there’s no accounting for brains when you don’t have a lot of choice.”

“All about revveeeallll.”

“About what?”

“Reveal. Revealing us . . . all. To the world.”

Pandora clapped her hands together. She was certainly enjoying herself. “That’s exactly it. I don’t just want Hera dead; I want to out the whole fucking lot of you. They took an innocent girl and fucked her life up. I think letting the world know that you’ve been behind their entire lives for centuries should go some way toward me feeling better about myself. Once humans realize they’re no longer the top of the evolutionary ladder, at least some of them will do something stupid. They’ll force Avalon to take action.”

“Many will die.”

“So? Many die every day. At least they’ll die knowing the truth. Admittedly, that’s not much of a consolation for them. But I don’t care—it’s going to be glorious.”

My head sagged forward.

“The drugs will wear off in a few minutes. Just long enough.”

“How’d . . . you . . . know . . . know . . . Germany?” I asked, taking a guess at something.

“How’d I know you were in Germany?” she asked.

I attempted to nod.

“Mara had been bitching and moaning about your presence in Germany for weeks before the trip. She was furious, according to Justin. She told Sarah, who told Justin, who informed me. And what’s a girl to do? So I told Sarah to track you and convince you to leave. I didn’t want you throwing a spanner in the works, now did I? But Justin wants you dead, either out of jealousy of the bond we share or because he felt that was the best idea—I don’t know. But while I’ll be sad if he kills you, I can’t have you coming after me.”

“Witches.”

“The witches were all Sarah’s idea. She really didn’t like that Mara woman, so she arranged to have her be the fall guy. But unfortunately for Sarah, she got sloppy and then she got dead. I felt her power rush into me, which I can tell you for a witch was some serious mojo. A fully powered Cronus would have been better, but you take what you can get when you’re in a jail cell.”

“Kram—”

“The krampus.” Pandora bounced around with glee. “That was a brilliant touch. Sarah went to go use some criminal idiots, really vicious little bastards who deserved to die. She found some
glorious
souls to take, and then, even better, she found the exact person to become the krampus. It was beautiful. I assume you killed it.”

I couldn’t manage a full nod anymore. It was too much h
ard work.

“Figured as much. You’ve grown stronger in the last few decades. Killing a krampus is no mean feat. Part of me hopes you live through what’s about to happen. It’s a small part, but enough. I genuinely like you, Nathan. But needs must. And you must be sacrificed for my needs to come true.”

“Can’t just walk out,” I said as my brain began to feel
less fuzzy.

“Walk? Oh, dear Nathan, look up.”

I glanced up as part of the ceiling to her cell just moved aside, showing the stars through the opened roof above, which were quickly replaced with a lowering helicopter. I was really beginning to hate those damn spinning bastards.

A rope was dropped from on-board, and Pandora placed one foot on it and tugged slightly. “I’m sorry it had to finish like this, but finish it must. Good-bye, sweet Nate. Just so you know, I lied about the bombs too. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not going to kill innocent people.” She paused for a second. “Unless I have to.”

I watched her ascend quickly while my faculties began to clear. People were coming to kill me. I shambled down the hall, using the walls to ensure I didn’t fall over, and fell through the bathroom door, slamming it shut with my leg. I wasn’t going to have long; I had to prepare for whatever Justin and his guards had planned. I fished the dagger out of my belt. Well, if they were going to come for me, they’d better bring their best.