Omega (27 page)

“
Niko can’t be trusted
with his dick.”

I laughed, startled by the warm anger. “You
guys don’t get along. But even Dosy said you were dangerous.”

“
Dangerous, yes. A
monster, no.”

“
You said you were as bad
as everyone says, and I’m not about to trust you of all people
after Herakles.”

“
Ah. There is
something.”

I didn’t mean to say it aloud. He was far
too curious about the relationship between Herakles and me. I
didn’t understand exactly why and prayed it wasn’t because he knew
something else about Herakles that would hurt me worse.

“
What is it?” Adonis
asked, nudging me in the side with his elbow.

“
So you can’t read minds.
Thank the gods!”

“
Is there more you don’t
want to share?”

“
There’s a shit ton that’s
not your business!” I snapped, glaring at him. “Why do you
think
anything
about me is?
”
I was almost relieved that the gate chose that moment to
open.

Amusement at my outburst glowed deep in his
eyes. “You’ve been needling me since we met. I’m returning the
favor.”

“
I haven’t needled you,” I
retorted. “And I know that’s not true. You may be able to feel what
I do, but some of that carries over to me. I knew you were lying
when you said this wasn’t personal, and I know you’re lying now.
You want something from me, Adonis.”

“
Maybe.” He drew both
swords. “Or maybe there aren’t many people I’m interested in,
Alessandra. You’re strong, beautiful and unique. You’re destined
for things you can’t begin to imagine. You intrigue me.”

“
No more honesty! I
preferred it when you barely said two words to me!”

“
The Typhon awaits.” He
started into the arena. I was about to demand to know his plan when
it hit me what he’d said.

Beautiful. The most incredible – yet freaky
– man I’d ever met thought I was pretty. The knowledge made my
insides warm and fluttery, and more adrenaline fed into my
bloodstream. Adonis was definitely on a different scale than the
silly boys I used to lure from the campground into the forest. The
two were on opposite ends of the man spectrum. If we weren’t about
to die horribly at the hands of a monster …

Focus, Alessandra.
It didn’t feel like a lie from him, but I sensed
he wasn’t telling me the full truth either. I followed into the
arena.

Adonis waited for me to near before speaking
again. “He’s vulnerable from the waist up like any human. We’re
going to try to behead the snakes one by one. And … if we’re lucky,
you’ll figure out how to crush him with magic before he pulverizes
us.”

“
This is a terrible plan,”
I muttered and joined him. My eyes went to an arm and head that had
landed on this side of the ring before finding the pyramid of
bloodied heads on one side.

The creature had killed dozens here today.
For a long moment, I couldn’t look away, and my stomach
churned.

“
Hey.”

I blinked at Adonis’ quiet voice and looked
up at him.

“
Herakles trained you
well. You need some polishing, and it starts with focus. Eyes
there.” He pointed his sword at the creature headed towards us.
“Never take them off your opponent.”

“
Okay.” Not that staring
down the monster was better than seeing the pile of heads. I
stretched out a hand and tried again to grasp his ribbons. They
remained evasive.

“
He’s going to swing the
axe. We’ll duck. And strike at the same time at the head closest to
us. Then bolt. Use that speed of yours to get clear of the head
beside it.”

“
How do you know he’s
going to swing?” I studied the monster. It was almost upon us, and
I was fighting the urge to run.

“
Instinct.” Adonis stepped
a meter away, eyes trained on the target. “Wait until I say to
move.”

I trust you. For
now.
It wasn’t possible to fight for our
survival at his side and not trust him, even if my faith in him
didn’t extend outside the arena.

“
Ready to duck on three
…”

The hissing snakeheads were my size with
long tongues and fangs that were far too close for my comfort. But
I didn’t move. If I knew one thing about Adonis, it was that he had
a sixth sense when it came to predicting his opponent.

“
Two.”

A tongue nearly reached me. The giant swung
his axe back.

“
One.”

The massive axe swung over our heads. At the
same time, the snake nearest us darted forward. I stumbled to the
side, not expecting its speed. It shrieked suddenly, and I saw
Adonis raising his swords for a second strike. I hurried forward
and joined him. The writhing snake body knocked me off my feet, and
I vaulted back up, all too aware of the neighboring snakehead that
was now trained on me.

“
Drop and roll!” Adonis
shouted.

I obeyed. I wasn’t about to doubt him when
my life was in his hands. The neighboring snake snapped into the
air above my head then followed me, digging its fangs into the
ground by my thigh as I rolled.

The monster bellowed in pain and anger, and
I saw the axe start to drop again. With no more momentum to roll, I
launched to my feet and ducked a swinging snakehead before diving
out of the range of the axe. Back on my feet, I saw Adonis had been
driven off as well, one of his swords still stuck in the
half-severed head of a snake.

He used hand signals Herakles taught me, and
I nodded to show I understood.

But I definitely didn’t agree. His plan was
to scale the wounded head in order to get to the vulnerable body of
the monster.

He drew the third short sword he had at his
back.

The monster charged at me. Instincts warned
me against getting stuck in the corner behind me, and I darted to
the side. Slashing, weaving, hacking … the dangerous dance was too
fast for me to track my movements or the monster’s. I didn’t have a
chance to think about survival – I just reacted.

“
Left!” Adonis’ voice
reached me through the haze of movement. I obeyed and ended up
knocked to the ground by a snakehead rather than eaten. I rolled,
feeling one tooth graze my arm and whipped my swords up
blindly.

I stabbed one head through the mouth. Adonis
was suddenly there, and he smashed both his weapons down on the
creature’s neck.

This time, the head fell lifeless next to
me. I didn’t have a chance to catch my breath. He stepped between
me and the next attacking head to give me time to bound to my
feet.

“
Axe!” I cried.

We both dove to the ground and hopped up
again quickly. Adonis snatched me around the waist and whirled
twice before his movement stopped, putting enough space between us
and the beast for us to breathe.

“
Thanks,” I
gasped.

We stood for a brief moment, leaning against
one another to recover. His scent was as soothing as talking to him
was not.

“
They grow back,” he
said.

I followed his gaze. The first head had
completely healed despite the sword in its neck. “That’s …
impossible!” The second had healed over but not yet grown back.

The axe fell towards us once more. We dived
away from one another and were quickly back on our feet.

“
Stay on your feet!”
Adonis called and then bolted.

I wanted to watch. His speed was incredible.
But a snakehead darted my way, and I began the deadly dance again.
I smashed my sword into the fangs, and it withdrew. The chink in
the monster’s defenses gave me more breathing room for sure, and I
played it to my advantage. I moved with the monster, keeping the
not yet regrown head to my weak left while battling the nearest
snake and glancing upwards towards Adonis.

He wasn’t getting very far. The snakeheads
could move up as well as out and away, and he was struggling to
climb past the monster’s belt. As if fed up with him, the creature
snatched him and held him up and away with a huge hand.

He began to squeeze. I saw the grimace of
pain cross Adonis’ face. For the first time, I began to think we
might not make it out of here. All of Adonis’ speed and strength,
all my training, wasn’t going to defeat something like this. The
sight of him in pain. Trapped, helpless …

Well, not helpless. He plunged one sword
through the hand of the monster. But I knew he was hurting, and I
involuntarily ached for him.

Herakles killed my parents before adopting
me. Adonis tried to rescue me before turning in to a mass murderer.
No matter what I felt for either, one truth melted out of my
confused emotions.

I’d never let either of them die. Deflecting
the lunge of the snakehead nearest me, I dropped one sword and
reached for the ribbons around the creature. They evaded me, but I
had a plan. I dropped the second sword and ducked a swipe with the
axe.

This time, when I reached for the ribbons,
my other hand hovered close enough to catch them when they
darted.

Adonis gave a roar of pain. The monster
shook him hard. Two snakeheads were headed my direction, and I had
no weapons within reach.

Not understanding how to disarm my opponent,
I closed my fist around the ribbons, crushed them with my hand and
yanked them all towards me.

The Typhon vanished. Adonis fell ten meters
out of the air and landed in a still heap, his ribbons agitated and
at least two jagged.

The crowd fell silent.

I looked down at the jumbled ribbons in my
hand. Afraid to release them to the world in case a new Typhon
formed, I did what I had done with my green ribbon and pressed them
against my thigh. They disappeared. I uncurled my hand hesitantly.
The ribbons were gone.

Mnemosyne had said I was born with the power
to create and destroy. I’d just proved her right, and it felt …
icky. Like watching the Typhon pulverize the men it fought before
us.

People were beginning to whisper, then talk
then boo. Furious they were angry we survived, I looked up, and my
anger faded. It wasn’t us they were booing. Soldiers in urban
camouflage had begun to pour into the grandstands of the arena.
Boos turned to cries for people to flee before the military
captured them.

I stood, breathless, and made my way to
Adonis, dropping to my knees beside him.

He wasn’t moving. Distracted by the
invasion, I nonetheless did as he had instructed and focused on the
challenge at hand. I smoothed out his ribbons with some effort,
still not certain how or why this worked, and then untangled the
one that was knotted. The gate nearest us rolled open, but I
ignored it, continuing to work until I was satisfied the ribbons
were as they should have been.

“
Just hope you’re not
dented like the cup,” I whispered. I didn’t need to see the
soldiers pouring in to know they were there. “Adonis! You gotta
wake up!”

He did so slowly and shook his head. Pushing
himself up, his gaze settled past me on the soldiers.

“
Damn. Here I was hoping
Adonis would die.” Niko’s voice made me want to scream. “Good job,
kid.”

I twisted to see him and then pushed to my
feet, exhausted. Adonis caught my arm, and instead of turning to
give Niko an earful, I looked into his gorgeous eyes.

“
Your old boss wants to
see you, Adonis,” Niko said. “Might be willing to forgive you after
the money he won on this round.”

My eyes widened. “No,” I whispered fiercely
to Adonis. “You can’t go back to what you were!”

“
Remember what I said,”
Adonis said, gazing down at me.

“
That I’m beautiful?” As
soon as I heard the words, I knew they were so very
wrong.

“
I’ll protect you.” Adonis
was amused. “No matter what you perceive to be going
on.”

“
Adonis, this isn’t
–”

Ignoring me, he released me and walked past
me towards Niko. “Been a pleasure, Niko,” he said. “Looks like you
won’t be killing me today.”

I turned, fuming and confused, to see the
two men staring one another down.

“
Not today,” Niko agreed.
“Leave. Before I forget my boss’s orders to make sure you make it
back alive.”

Adonis slid away, without bothering to look
at me again, and disappeared into the depths of the gate.

I watched him go, stung, and nowhere near
trusting him enough to place any amount of money on a bet he was
serious about helping me. It made no sense that his betrayal hurt
me as deeply as Herakles’ but it did.

“
Good show, kid,” Niko
said to me. “Time to meet the Supreme Magistrate.”

I glared at him. I was in no mood to meet
anyone. I had no forest to return to, no Herakles to comfort me, no
choices of my own to make. The military had cleared out most of the
grandstands, and the other exit was blocked by a line of them.

“
Go on.” Niko nodded his
head towards the nearby gate.

Disliking him more every time we met, I also
had nowhere else to go and moved forward reluctantly.

This isn’t how it’s
supposed to go.
Adonis was supposed to
stay with me, and we were going to leave this place.

Thus far, no part of the real world lived up
to my expectations. I was starting to understand why Herakles was
so insistent I not leave the forest before I was ready. What he
failed to understand was that nothing could prepare someone for a
life like this.