Triumph of Chaos (Red Magic) (20 page)

My stomach convulsed, and for the first time I realized why my dad’s disappearance was so disturbing. I hadn’t taken a patron either. Did that mean that when I died, I would cease to exist?

“The choice is still in your hands.” I looked up, expecting to see Persephone standing on the street beside me, but shimmering wings filled my vision.

“What are you doing here?” I didn’t mean to be rude, but I was surprised. I’d learned that the gods were bound by the lands of their worship, and an Egyptian goddess shouldn’t be waltzing around the ruined streets of Athens.

Isis laughed gently, a sound like tiny bells filling the air. “There are very few places that did not know my worship. Temples to me were built as far north as London.” She stretched her arms, and her wings flexed in imitation. “Athena’s city is like an old friend. I am always welcome here.”

I hadn’t known that. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here right now, talking to me.”

She shimmered, and her wings vanished. Kneeling gently beside me, the goddess looked into my eyes. “I am here, dear one, because there are people missing you. People who cannot travel across time and space the way I can. I came looking for you.”

For the first time since I’d landed in Greece, I thought of Izzy, and a wave of guilt washed over me. “Is she worried?”

“They all are. The twins have been a comfort to my little Isadora, but she is pining for her best friend.”

Her words startled me. “I don’t have a best friend anymore.”

Isis raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you really think?”

“My last best friend tried to kill me. I’m done with friends.”

“I think not. You care for my Witch, do you not?”

I wanted to snap at the goddess, but I considered her question. “I guess we’re friends,” I offered after a moment.

“She sees you as the sister she never had. To her, at least, you are her best friend.”

I laughed bitterly. “She’d better hide, then. The people who matter to me have a tendency of ending up dead.”

“Do not scoff at friendship, Darlena. You cannot do this alone.”

Pain welled up inside me, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying. “That’s just it. I can’t do it anymore, period. I’ve lost too many people. I don’t want to lose the few things I have left.”

“If you make this bargain, you will lose things you cannot even imagine.”

I met her eyes in surprise. “How do you even know about that?”

She shrugged, and for a minute, her wings shimmered back into existence. They vanished quickly, and I wondered if I had imagined it. “It is my business to know the realm of dreams. There is great magic in dreaming, and I am, after all, Mistress of Magic.” She smiled, and her skin sparkled.

Words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “She’s promised me my life back. It’ll be like the last two years of hell never happened.”

“Like you never met Izzy or her brother, Marcus.”

My throat caught at the mention of his name. Ever since we exorcised Loki and chained him beneath my house, I’d tried not to think of Marcus. Now that his so-called ghost wasn’t haunting me anymore, it was easy to pretend he wasn’t on my mind. But Isis seemed to see right through me, and hearing his name hurt.

“Maybe it would be better for both of them if I got a redo, don’t you think? Marcus would still be alive, and Izzy would still be happy at her school.”

Isis shook her head sadly. “Reds do not live long, and Marcus had been practicing Red magic for two decades. You did not cause his death.” She raised a hand to stop my protest. “You may have accelerated the process and altered the circumstances, but Marcus would not have lived to the end of this year, regardless of your influence.”

Some of the guilt I had carried around since January lifted, and I felt my face relax. I forced my lips into a thin line and stared at the goddess. “That doesn’t change the fact that I want my life back.”

She spread her hands wide. “This is your life, Darlena. It is messy and chaotic and beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” I spat the word like it was a lemon. “How can you say that any of this is beautiful?” I looked around the street at the destruction from the earthquake. The damage still seemed ghastly, but for the first time I realized that people were moving around the rubble, talking to each other. No one was frantically searching for loved ones, and no one was crying or screaming. The people seemed calm.
They’re just in shock
. I crossed my arms and glared at the goddess.

“It is beautiful because it is yours. No one will ever live the life you have been given.”

“Lucky them.”

Isis shook her head. “I know you think your world is over, but you have a bright future. You just have to survive the tests and trials to reap your reward.”

I stood up so quickly that my head spun. “Well, I’ve survived. And that’s what I intend to keep doing. My chances at a long and happy life are much better if I’m not a Red, don’t you think?”

She didn’t say anything, but her eyes glittered. I turned away, determined to summon Hecate as soon as I could.

“You still have a choice, child. I pray you are wise when the moment comes.”

I turned around to retort, but the goddess had vanished. My shoulders sagged involuntarily, and I felt my mood darken. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve made my choice.” No one acknowledged me, the crazy girl standing in the middle of the street talking to herself, and after a moment’s hesitation, I continued to pick my way along the street.

I didn’t have a plan, but I kept walking and eventually found a hotel with a blue door. Carelessly, I pushed the door open; it crashed into the stucco wall.

The old woman behind the counter jumped as if I’d shot her and glared at me. I tried to ignore her irritation. “Can I have a room for tonight?”

She nodded, but her face was still creased in a scowl. “Money?”

I dug my credit card out of my bag, but she shook her head.

“Cash.” She folded her arms across her chest and smiled at me triumphantly.

I raised an eyebrow and pulled my emergency cash out of a small pocket in my bag. “Cash.” I plunked it down on the counter, enjoying the consternated look on the woman’s face.

Finally, she nodded once. “Come.” She handed me a large black key, more like something I’d expect to find at an antiques market than a tourist hotel, and pointed to whitewashed stairs at the back of the room.

“Which room?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Up.”

“But which room is it?”

“Room.”

I had a feeling the woman spoke better English than she let on, but I was too tired to argue. All my anger had drained away when Isis spoke to me, and it felt like I’d lost my strength, as well. “Fine. I’ll figure it out.”

I trudged up the stairs and inspected the doors along the second floor. There were only four of them, and only two had keyholes large enough for the monster key I carried. I closed my eyes and tried to conjure the answer using magic, but I felt empty. Finally, I just tried the first door.

It didn’t open. After a struggle, the key clicked in the second lock, and I let myself into the small room. The walls were white, like everywhere else in the hotel, and the bed was just a small twin covered with a rag quilt. Warped blue shutters filled the wall across from the door, and I crossed the room to open them.

The view was breathtaking. I hadn’t realized I’d been climbing when I was out on the street, but the hotel was halfway up the hill. The city stretched out beneath me, and from my vantage point, it didn’t seem as obvious that an earthquake had happened only hours ago. If I leaned out the window, I could just make out the corner of the Parthenon over my left shoulder.

I shuddered. The thought popped into my mind that I was waiting in the shadow of the gods to destroy the world, and I shook my head. “Now’s not the time to start getting paranoid,” I muttered.

Weariness, jet lag, and heartbreak all hit me at once, and I staggered to the bed. I don’t remember lying down, but I must have fallen asleep instantly, because I was plunged into a vivid dream.

I was standing on a cliff overlooking a desolate wasteland. Smoke rose from the ground miles beneath me, and the sky was orange. When I looked down at myself, I saw Hecate’s inky robes and skeletal hands, and I opened my mouth to scream.

Instead of a scream, words poured out of my mouth. “We have broken the world for the final time. Let what was once whole remain shattered, and may all things of value cease to matter.”

My arms lifted without my consent as if I were invoking a spell, and Hecate’s raspy voice continued to echo through the air.

“Life is not precious without the dark gods. Let all survivors bow down now and offer reverence. It is our right; it is their due. The world is without light, and all who oppose us will be crushed.”

The lack of rhyme threw me off, and my tongue flailed helplessly in my mouth. Before Hecate could continue speaking through me, I saw a ragged chain of prisoners. They were marching slowly up the hill, weaving their way to my place on the cliff. Justin was in the lead, his jaw clenched in defiance, and my heart turned over at the sight of him. Chained to his waist was a girl I’d never seen before. Her skin was dark cinnamon, like Dr. Farren’s, but she wasn’t old. She looked roughly my age, and amber hair spilled onto her shoulders in a tangled waterfall.

Chained to the strange girl was Dr. Farren, looking subdued and broken. She kept her eyes on the ground as she marched, but that wasn’t the sight that frightened me the most.

Izzy’s lifeless body was being dragged along on the chain behind the prisoners. Her face looked like wax, and she was being jerked over the rocky ground without care. I rushed forward to help her, but my feet held me in place. Brad and Ben were nowhere to be seen, and for a moment, my mind registered the fact that they must be dead, but then I focused on Izzy again.

“Izzy!” I screamed, forcing my own voice past Hecate’s lips.

The dream swirled, wrenching me away from the cliff and my battered friends. Now I stood in the dark. It was too black to see, but cold air rushed around me quietly. I stretched my hands out in front of my face, but they reached into emptiness.

“Where am I?”

“Where all lost souls go.”

I looked around desperately for the source of the voice. “Dad?”

“Here, sweetie.”

“Where are we?”

“Purgatory. Neither of us believed enough to find anything better.” His voice was devoid of emotion. “I don’t mind. It’s nice to have peace and quiet for once.”

“But you’re dead!”

“So?”

I struggled with my words. “I’m not.”

“Don’t count on that, Lena. If you’re here with me, you couldn’t be alive.”

Couldn’t be alive. The words echoed as I struggled for consciousness. When I woke up, something was strangling me, and I clawed at my neck frantically. I finally peeled my eyes open to find that my attacker was just the bedsheet. Somehow, I had managed to wind it around my torso and neck in my sleep.

Gagging, I thrashed around, trying to free myself from the fabric. I tumbled to the floor, the sheet trailing behind me.

I landed with a
thud
, but no one came running.
I guess the woman downstairs really doesn’t care what happens to me as long as I paid the bill in cash.

The shutters were still open, and I looked out at Athens, gasping for breath and trying to shake off my nightmare. I hadn’t been asleep for very long. The sky was still ashy, but a faint glow was beginning to illuminate the buildings below me. I drew in a deep breath of smoggy air and tried to sort through my jumbled thoughts.

Had I actually been Hecate? The thought filled my stomach with lead. If that were true, was it already too late? Hecate had promised I would get my life back if I surrendered to her and gave up Red magic, but my dream seemed to tell a different story.
Didn’t it?
I thought back to the dream. My friends had been prisoners, but I had been nowhere in sight. They wouldn’t keep fighting if I stopped. At least, I didn’t think they would.

But then there was the strange girl in my dream, the one chained to Justin. She had a fierce expression that reminded me of a tiger I’d seen in the zoo when I was a child. Even with chains around her waist, she didn’t look like someone who could be beat. Who was she, and why did her presence beside Justin annoy me so much?