Theta (21 page)

“
Something’s … not …” Paeon
grunted as we navigated what felt like a trench.

The hair of my head brushed the ceiling as I
lurched upward.

“
Something’s not right.”
Paeon warned in a quick breath.

My attention was on the world visible
through the windshield. Branches whacked the truck. The driver and
navigator were both silent, their gazes trained on the terrain
ahead.

“
We have to stop. Now.”
Paeon said.

Whether or not he sensed the danger at the
house, or it was coincidental, I didn’t know. I hesitated too long.
An odd sound came from beneath the vehicle, and suddenly, my world
slowed down almost to a stop.

An explosion ripped through the front cabin.
Flames and metal engulfed me, while the warm blood of the two
soldiers splattered across my face. A massive tree rose up before
us, and then, I saw the darkness of the sky through the windshield.
The world shifted fast enough to render me dizzy and disoriented as
the truck flipped over backwards, landed on its roof, and then
flipped again.

Pain came from my abdomen, one leg and my
face. I was helplessly thrown around in the vehicle. My head
smashed into the window beside me, and the world became murky,
filled with blood and darkness.

Don’t let go.
Someone had my hand. My eyes closed as the truck
went over backward once again. Unable to fight the darkness
swooping through my thoughts, I released my will to stay awake and
plummeted into unconsciousness.

“
How did I go from my room
to here?” I whispered.

I stood in the gardens at one end of the
mall, just past twilight. My heart was racing, along with my
thoughts. I sensed no danger and witnessed no additional ribbons
that might indicate anything other than inanimate objects
surrounded me.

I was alone in the balmy evening, standing
in a fragrant garden whose water fountains chattered
cheerfully.

I’d been in my room, stretching to go for a
run on the treadmill in the workout room of my villa, since I
wasn’t allowed to leave after dark. I blinked and then, I was here.
I hadn’t set foot in the alternate reality for several days and
instead, focused on bringing my power into this world, where it was
far more useful.

Twisting around, I scoured my surroundings
for any sign Cleon was present, in case he was the one who somehow
hijacked my power to bring me here.

If my life were isolated with Leandra
present, it became downright lonely without her. What was worse: I
didn’t trust the servants Cleon had handpicked to manage my
household and bring me food. He wasn’t going to kill me. Not yet,
at least, but I couldn’t shake the fear he would try something
else.

Perhaps it was his presence in my head,
which seemed a little stronger every day I awoke. The incremental
increases in his control were troubling, but not as much as
realizing – after two weeks had passed – his claws were sinking
deeper into my mind.

No one was around, which left me more deeply
puzzled. If he weren’t playing with my power, and I hadn’t intended
to transport myself, then what happened?

I tracked back mentally to what I was
thinking about when I was stretching. My mind had been on the
forest where I grew up and how I used to go running with
Herakles.

My surroundings didn’t resemble the forest
in northern Maryland, though.

My eyes rested on the hollowed out hole
where the Silent Queen’s palace used to be.

The lady in white,
I thought, interest spiking. There was a second
forest, albeit a small one, past the crater. I had pursued the
woman in white through the garden where I stood now, past the
Silent Queen’s former residence, and into a thatch of woods beyond.
I hadn’t thought to look for her in my world.

I started forward at a jog, suspecting I
wasn’t going to have much time alone before Cleon noticed I was
somewhere not on his schedule, or before one of the Cleon-loyal
servants raised the alarm. The compound was littered with cameras.
Niko would have no problem spotting me. He was delighted by the
opportunity to tranq me, whenever it came around.

Crossing the mall, I went around the crater
and to the expanse of grass separating the buildings from the
forest growing inside the fence. I picked up speed and followed a
familiar path, the same I had originally traveled in the other
plane. Reaching the point where I’d tried to talk to the woman in
white, I stopped and looked around.

Stars were overhead, and the leaves of the
oaks and maple trees around me whispered and rustled in a warm
breeze. It was hard to see far in the darkness.

Flashlight.
One appeared in my hand, along with another tiny
statue of Mismatch. I sighed. Whenever I used my power in my world,
I managed to produce a Mismatch toy simultaneously. It was a
physical sign of how much I obsessed over a man-beast I barely
knew.

Studying the statue, sorrow fluttered
through me. I tucked it safely in my pocket with the silent promise
of adding it to the rest of the toy Mismatches and flipped on the
flashlight.

“
Are you here?” I called
quietly.

The alarms began to wail throughout the
compound.

Where are you? Why are you
there?
Cleon’s voice was becoming louder
than my own internal monologue.

“
I just need five minutes
alone,” I grumbled.

The lady in white didn’t appear. Was this
area at all significant? Or just where she happened to be when I
saw her last? Was I transported outside my room, because I needed
to be here, or because my power acted out?

A flicker of white, so faint I wasn’t
certain I saw it, came from the place where the woman had stood the
other day.

Already, I could see the flashlights
preceding the group of soldiers bolting in my direction from the
compound. If I returned without making them hunt for me, I’d get
off easier.

The flicker returned and flashed out of
existence.

Or I could stay here and try to talk to her.
Rebelling was easy when I knew I was probably going to be tranq’d
either way.

“
Hey, trees. Do this Oracle
a favor and give me some time to myself,” I said, half-jokingly.
When they didn’t move, I assumed my magic didn’t quite work like
this.

I sat down on the ground, determined not to
waste my trip out of my villa. It would probably be my last for
some time, if Cleon were angry enough, which he felt like he
was.

The ground rumbled and shifted beneath me.
Tentacle-like shapes beneath the surface snaked past me. I yanked
my hands away from the earth, startled by the strange movement.
Trees groaned, and I started to smile.

The trees were rearranging themselves. They
closed in around me in a protective circle, using their roots to
pull and push them into position.

“
Amazing,” I whispered and
raised a hand as leaves drifted down to me amidst the shuffling of
the great trees.

When the trees stilled, the green ribbons
that gave them life automatically returned to me. I absorbed them
with no small amount of awe. Not only had my command been
seamlessly obeyed, but my power had also done what was necessary
and then returned to me without me intentionally controlling it. I
felt at odds with my magic most of the time. It was so intangible,
so completely beyond my ability to understand and sometimes, to
accept. I couldn’t begin to comprehend how it worked or why it
worked in some instances and not others.

This time, it was almost effortless to use
it. I didn’t try to control it, and it had flowed naturally to do
as I bid it to.

All the effort I’d been putting into using
my magic the past two weeks, since Cecelia fell into a coma, was
paying off.

“
Thank you,” I said to the
trees. Another Mismatch statue was at my feet, and I plucked it up
and put it in my pocket.

There was a lesson in the statues, or
perhaps, a reminder of how important he was. A shout from outside
the safe confines of my trees disrupted my train of thought.

“
Someone get a chainsaw or
axe!” one of the guards bellowed.

I stretched onto my back and closed my eyes,
determined to find the lady in white.

It was easier to slide into the gray world
belonging to Hades than it had been before. All round, my magic was
becoming easier to use.

A mirror was opposite me, a direct
reflection of where I was, except that world was filled with
vibrant colors. I was on the wrong side – the black, white and gray
side – of the curtain without knowing how to enter the correct side
on my own.

I walked towards the mirror and pressed my
hands to it. Unlike a real mirror, it gave with the softness of the
veil separating me from the other world. I couldn’t pierce it,
though I tried several times in several different ways.

“
Hey, Cerb -” I started and
turned my back to the mirror.

The massive, three-headed monster was
already behind me.

I swallowed hard and backed away. “I feel
like we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Alessandra, and I’m here to
–”

Before I could complete my sentence, one of
the monster’s heads smashed into my torso and forced me through the
veil.

I smacked into one of the trees on the
colorful side of the curtain separating worlds.

Grimacing at the impact, I nonetheless waved
at the monster. I wasn’t going to chance pissing off a creature
that had a choice between dragging me to Hades’ underworld, eating
me, or sending me on my way by telling it to stop being so rough.
As before, Cerberus turned and disappeared into a dark hole in the
gray mirror facing me.

“
Thanks,” I said with a
grimace and straightened.

Aware I didn’t have much time before Cleon’s
soldier cut down all the trees, I glanced at my still body then
floated through the tree fortress onto the other side.

A dozen ghostly military police were
gathered around the fortress. A couple of them sought some way of
entering the tight ring while most appeared to be waiting for
something. I wasn’t about to stick around and see how they decided
to decimate my hiding spot and began walking deeper into the
forest, in the direction where I’d seen the flicker of light.

“
Are you here?” I called
again.

A flash of light came from my peripheral,
and I whirled. The train of the lady in white’s dress disappeared
around a boulder inset with a dedication plaque at the center of
the forest. Without stopping, I passed and darted around it.

The lady in white was facing my direction,
expecting me. Her unusual beauty left me speechless for a moment as
I tried to determine what made her beautiful. Her features were too
heavy for contemporary beauty standards. Perhaps it was the odd
glow around her, how she carried herself, or the ethereal silk
dress perfectly draping over her body. The combination was
mesmerizing.

With a shake of my head, I dispelled the odd
enchantment surrounding this woman.

“
Hi, again,” I said and
drew closer to her. “My name is Alessandra, and I think I’m
supposed to talk to you.”

As before, she didn’t speak.

Her baffling silence and glowing presence
reminded me of a video game I’d played in my early teens, where I
was questing to find information from mysterious figures I stumbled
upon during the course of my journey.

The earth rumbled again, and I glanced over
my shoulder. This time, the sensation was caused by a bulldozer
rather than the trees moving.

“
Please,” I said, returning
my attention to the woman in white. “Can you help me?”

“
You have everything you
need to help yourself,” she replied in a rough, husky voice as
strangely alluring as her appearance. It wound its way into my ears
and through my thoughts.

“
I don’t really need any
more fortune cookie advice,” I replied. “I don’t know how to use
what I have, or even if it would work in my situation, since I have
a parasite clinging to my power. If I don’t figure myself out, the
entire world – every world – is going to cease to
exist!”

She smiled.

“
I could really use some
specific advice, not a riddle,” I pressed.

“
I am the first. You are
the last. I saw you, ten thousand years ago.”

I. Couldn’t. Breathe. I stared at her until
the sound of a tree crashing down beneath the force of a bulldozer
reminded me of my situation.

“
You’re the first Oracle of
Delphi. The one who opened the door for the gods to come through,”
I managed at last.

“
Pythia.”

“
It’s an honor,
Pythia.”

She laughed. “In my time, and for eight
thousand years after, we were known as the Oracles of Pythia. It
was a sacred city of Apollo on the coast where I was born.”

“
Oh, sorry.” My cheeks grew
warm. “I’m sure I should have remembered that from
school.”

“
I prefer to recall a
simpler time, when we were respected and certainly not
tortured.”

“
You’ve been wandering
around for ten thousand years?” I asked, horrified by the idea I,
too, was destined to roam the earth as a spirit of some
sort.

“
No. Hades cast me out
recently,” she replied, amused. “Perhaps because he did not
appreciate you trespassing.”

“
This is why I need your
help,” I retorted.