Theta (14 page)

Everything was as I assumed it was supposed
to be, which left me more deeply concerned. How could I, with the
power of a goddess, not help Cecelia or even understand what was
wrong to start off with? What was I missing? Why had she fallen
into this strange sleep, where not even Lantos could see her
mind?

I sat and gazed at her sadly, wishing she
could tell me what I was supposed to do. This world was very quiet
to the point of complete silence. I didn’t care to be so alone with
my thoughts or to be reminded of how alone I really was.

Dropping my eyes to my hands, I willed there
to be ice cream. Fibers from the ribbons around the room peeled off
from their original objects and formed a half-gallon of ice cream
in my hands. I then sent it away, and the fibers of the world
rearranged themselves. I did it again with a pair of shoes I saw in
my head then sent them away, too. With the comforting scents of the
chamber, I immersed myself in experimenting with my power on a
small scale. Eager to create inanimate objects, I considered
creating a living creature – perhaps a cat – but decided not to.
Were there rules to what I could and should do? I had been raised
strictly by priests and Herakles. Even when I bucked their rules,
the world wouldn’t end because I didn’t play along.

Except for the first time I
stepped over the boundary of my forest.
I
lowered my hands to my thighs, recalling the rule I’d broken that
sent my world spinning out of control. To this day, I could not
believe how one small step had brought me here and changed my life
in countless ways.

Was acting against Cecelia’s advice going to
condemn the world?

Of everything I missed about the forest, I
yearned to see Herakles again. I loved the trees and nature, but it
was the man who had been my anchor for most of my life that made my
throat tight and my eyes well with tears whenever I thought about
how much I’d changed from the sheltered girl he raised. The
knowledge I possessed now about the world was far from anything I
had ever imagined.

After my twentieth cycle of creating and
un-creating, I felt the drain. It was mild, a sense of needing a
catnap before I tackled the rest of my day. Was it using my power
that drained me, or lingering in this world?

Frustrated again that I had no one to guide
me, I stood and turned away from the Oracle. I willed myself up,
through the floor, and walked out of the guard shack above the
caverns.

It was dark out. I had passed the day in the
caverns. The flash of first responder lights in front of the House
caught my attention. No outward sign of an emergency was visible at
the House. I crossed to my villa, anxious to be back in the real
world so I could find out what was going on. I hated that I had to
care about Cleon, not because he meant anything to me, but because
we were connected, and his danger was my danger.

The half-full moon overhead lit my way, and
I hurried across the green lawns of the compound.

As I neared my villa, a flash of movement
crossed my peripheral. I turned and saw a tall brunette walking
through the grass, away from me, towards the darkness that filled
the space where the Silent Queen’s secondary palace used to stand,
before it exploded the same night I destroyed Artemis’ main temple
downtown.

I had turned away and ascended the stairs to
the door of my villa, when the uniqueness of the woman’s presence
struck me. The guards and people I’d crossed – and ignored – in the
mall area appeared differently than this woman. They were faded in
a world where everything else was noticeably brighter.

But the woman in white … she was in rich
color, fully present, like I was.

Twisting, I glimpsed her just as she
disappeared into the darkness around the Silent Queen’s destroyed
palace. I started after her when a faint voice called to me.

“
Lyssa!”

Someone was tugging me inside.

Resisting, I raced across the mall,
following the path of the woman in white. When I reached the hole
in the ground remaining from the explosion that decimated the
Silent Queen’s palace, I paused and strained to catch a glimpse of
the mysterious woman.

A flash of white came from the thatch of
forest on one end of the immense compound housing the political
elite of the world. I ran after her, not stopping to question
whether or not I should. I raced through the Queen’s scorched
gardens and across the open area between her space and the
forest.

Pausing at the edge of the trees, I waited
for another glimpse and spotted the woman not far ahead of me. I
pursued her, slowing when I neared.

“
Hey!” I called.

She turned, and my stomach sank. This woman
wasn’t Cecelia.

Her features were too heavy to be beautiful,
her eyes too far apart. Her skin was dark olive and her eyebrows
thick and black. Despite her lack of physical beauty, she carried
herself with the same dignity and rigid posture as the Silent
Queen. The dress she wore glowed and shifted in an invisible
breeze, as if she were not fully part of any world.

I sensed I was in the presence of someone
important without understanding who she could be.

“
Um, hi,” I started
awkwardly. “You’re the only person I’ve seen here.”

She waited, expressionless. Her features
were partially lit by the moonbeams that pierced the forest canopy
overhead. The directness and intensity of her gaze left me
unsettled.

“
I was wondering if I could
ask you a question or two,” I said at her silence.

She did not speak.

“
Lyssa.” The voice was
calling to me again, trying to pull me back to my body. For the
first time in a long time, I felt like I was close to someone who
knew an answer I needed.

Blinking, I realized I’d been dragged to the
edge of the forest, leaving the woman in white at its center. I
hurried forward with frustration, sensing my time here was
dwindling.

“
Please. I just need to ask
…”

“
Lyssa!”

Abruptly, I was sailing away from the woman.
I was yanked across the compound and through the villa so fast, my
surroundings turned into a whirling kaleidoscope of brilliant
colors. Off balance and sick to my stomach, I didn’t stabilize
until I stood in the middle of my bedroom. Leandra was at my side,
worry on her features.

But it wasn’t her that caught my
attention.

The woman in white wasn’t the only other
person in this dimension. Cleon stood over my bed, peering down at
me pensively.

“
What are you doing here?”
I demanded, alarmed to find him spying on me.

“
You pulled me into this
place,” he replied and faced me. “We have absolute power in this
realm, don’t we?” He appeared pleased.

I hated it when he was happy about anything.
“There’s an ambulance in front of the House. Did you murder someone
else?”

“
They’re trying to wake me
up, I believe,” he replied. “You brought us here in the middle of a
meeting. I collapsed mid-discussion with the Supreme Priest. I
can’t figure out how to return to my body, once we’re
here.”

I wasn’t about to tell him I didn’t know
either.

“
Lyssa.” Leandra’s voice
was in my head, loud and ringing.

I flinched and glanced towards her. Pale
blue sparks surrounded her fingertips as she touched my face. I
could feel her touch here, in the other dimension, too. Somehow,
she was tugging at me to return.

“
I have wandered the entire
compound. I can see everyone, hear what he or she discusses with
anyone else. I had no idea such an ability existed,” Cleon
continued.

The more I learned and grew, the more he
did, too. I didn’t know how it was possible or how to prevent him
from becoming stronger alongside me.

The door to my room smashed open. Niko
strode in, features taut.

“
She did this, didn’t she?”
he snapped at Leandra.

“
Did what?” Leandra asked,
glancing up, her focus on waking me broken.

“
Cleon won’t wake
up.”

I exchanged a look with Cleon, who frowned.
We were observers, watching Niko and Leandra as they hovered over
my body.

“
Fix this,” Niko
demanded.

“
I don’t know how,” Leandra
replied.

“
Bullshit. I saw you wake
her last time.”

Leandra appeared surprised for the first
time in the twelve years I’d known her. It wasn’t the surprise of
someone who was innocent but someone who had been caught doing
something she didn’t think anyone noticed she had been doing.

As usual, Niko had read someone in a way I
never could. I stepped forward, intrigued by the idea Leandra was
more than she seemed.

“
Do it.” Niko pushed her
towards the bed.

The normally unflappable woman’s hands shook
as she rested them on my cheeks again.

I felt her touch in both dimensions and
winced as an uncomfortable shock went through me.

“
Wake up, Lyssa,” Leandra
whispered.

Whatever she did, she snapped me out of the
other dimension and back into my body. My eyes flew open, and I
gasped in air, disoriented by the sudden shift. I sat up and looked
around for Cleon before realizing he, too, had probably been sent
back to his body.

But he’d been there to see Leandra’s power,
which meant, she was about to become a target on his radar.

I stared at Leandra, wanting to ask her how
she was calling me back from the other place but afraid to expose
her in front of Niko or the constant presence of Cleon in my
head.

“
Once I’ve made sure Cleon
is safe, the three of us are going to have a talk,” Niko said,
leveling his glare on Leandra. He stormed out, slamming the door
behind him as he went.

I scrambled out of bed and bolted across the
room to lock the door. “We have to get you out of here,” I said,
darting towards my closet. “Now, Leandra!”

“
Niko isn’t a threat,” she
said. “I can handle him.”

“
Cleon knows.”

Leandra was silent.

I grabbed a bag and began stuffing clothing
into it. Leandra joined me in the closet.

“
I can’t leave you here,”
she said quietly. “You don’t know how to find your way back from
the other places.”

Straightening, I faced her. “How in the name
of Hades do you know where I was?”

She smiled mischievously.

I wasn’t the only one interested. Cleon’s
emotions grew stronger each time I visited the alternate plane of
reality.

“
Wait. Don’t say. Cleon can
hear,” I said.

“
I wasn’t going to tell you
anyway.”

“
I’m trying to save your
life, and you’re still a bitch!”

Leandra rolled her eyes. “You’re sure he
knows?”

“
He was standing beside me
when Niko confronted you two seconds ago!” I exclaimed. “You have
to go.” Thrusting the bag at her, I snatched her favorite pair of
shoes off the racks containing a couple hundred pairs. We wore the
same size, and we often tried on shoes and clothes together. “Don’t
tell me where. Don’t tell me how. Just go.”

I thrust the shoes at her.

She placed everything on the ground, not
showing my concern. “You can’t be here alone.”

“
If you want to help me, do
it from outside the wall or at least, far away from
here.”

“
And if you become stuck in
the other place?”

“
I’ll figure it out. You
have to go. Now!” I pushed her towards the door, anxious to save
her, before Cleon sent a platoon of guards to haul her away and
torture her, as had been done to my parents.

“
Alessandra, calm down,”
she chided. “Come here.” She took my face in her hands once more
and pressed her forehead to mine. Another uncomfortable flare of
energy bolted through me.
Nod if you can
here me,
she spoke into my mind.

I uttered another of Herakles’ favorite
curses.

Leandra giggled.
I am a nymph, a spirit of the forest, loyal to
Artemis. I have protected you, alongside Herakles, the priests and
the other girls, since we first met. You called us from the trees
to play with you when you came to our forest when you were six, and
we stayed when we learned what you were.

I listened, astonished as the latest secret
of my own life unfolded.

Tread carefully in the other places. You
will not be welcome in all of them, and I will not be here to
rescue you.

My anxiety settled, replaced by outright
fear as I realized I was about to be truly alone. “You have to go,”
I repeated.

Theodocia will help me.
I’ll find my way to the Silent Queen. In case you’re in danger, or
face an emergency of any kind, I’ve left a clue as to how to reach
Theodocia in your jewelry box. She will remain in the city as long
as you’re here.
Leandra released me and
retrieved her bag from the floor. “Don’t worry about me. I can take
care of myself,” she added with a wink.

I knew what mythical nymphs were, but I
didn’t know I was surrounded by them or what power they naturally
possessed.

“
Wait,” I told her
reluctantly. I grabbed Mrs. Nettles off my bed, startling her
awake. “Take her with you. Just in case.”

“
You’ll be completely
alone,” Leandra said carefully, as if she knew Artemis used Mrs.
Nettles to talk to me.

My eyes narrowed. Any other day, I’d do
whatever it took to force the truth out of Leandra. I didn’t have
that luxury today, not when there was too much at stake, namely the
lives of those I cared about.