by Eva Brandt
“They’re beautiful,” I admitted honestly. “But they’re not Terran in origin, are they?
My lovers and I had long ago suspected that Jared had had some kind of connection with the apsids. Had he taken me to one of their dwellings? Was I his captive now?
If he thought I’d happily surrender to be his slave, he had another think coming.
Jared didn’t seem to notice my hostile thoughts. “Good guess. You’re not on Terra, no, or anywhere near it. You’re in Eos, the capital city of Nexus, the core of the Heliad Empire. In human terms, this would be the Apsid Quasar, or the home world of the Sun-Dwellers.”
Well, shit. Fucking wonderful. How the hell was I supposed to get out of this one?
“You can’t keep me here,” I told him. “There will be people looking for me. My unit will want me back.”
Jared’s lips twisted in a tiny smile. “Oh, I have no doubt. But I have to ask you something, Selene. Do you want them to find you?”
What kind of question was that? Of course I wanted them to find me. Why wouldn’t I want….?
A memory flashed through my mind, and all of a sudden, the sound of screams echoed in my hearing. The stench of scorched flesh and toxic fumes replaced the beautiful scent of the alien flowers. The chimeras were right there, in front of me, massacring people indiscriminately and then eating them. Sphinx was with them. She’d lied to me, and when I tried to reach out to her, to figure out why, the only answer I received was silence.
I curled into a ball and clutched my head, desperately trying to banish the nightmarish images. “No. No, it’s not possible. It didn’t happen. It was a bad dream, an illusion. Just another nightmare.”
I’d had a lot of nightmares like that, dreams when the chimeras had been my enemies. Maybe this was something similar. Maybe I’d finally lost my grip on reality and needed to go see a doctor. My teachers at Chimera Academy had already made it clear that tachyon manipulation could be very dangerous for the brain. I might have done a lot of damage to myself in my efforts to master it.
It would also explain Jared’s return from the dead. He might have had a connection with the apsids, but he’d been human. I’d seen him almost daily for months, and he’d piloted a chimera. He couldn’t have miraculously turned into a Sun-Dweller.
“I-I’m ill,” I stammered, shaking. “That’s what this is. I’m going crazy. Professor Strange was right to warn us. I need a doctor.”
Jared left his round chair and sat down on my bed. To cross the space between the two pieces of furniture, he more or less floated, which was crazy, since this space had to have some kind of gravitational field.
The mechanical workings of the room didn’t matter all that much, though. He reached out and touched me, cupping my cheek with a strikingly gentle hand. “Look at me, Selene. You’re not crazy. I know this is overwhelming, and I hate thrusting you into another world when you’re struggling with such a serious loss. But in your heart, you know that what you saw was real. They were there, in that Terran settlement, killing people.”
“But why?” I asked, my voice cracking on the latter word. I wanted to tear myself away from him, but his gentleness disarmed me. “Why would they do that?”
Jared sighed. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but chimeras don’t naturally feed on fossil fuels. They need blood to continue to function. They might be metallic creatures now, but they’re still carnivorous. During The Apsid Wars, it wasn’t a problem, because they just ate the Heliads who were unfortunate enough to get caught. I won’t go into the gory details right now, but suffice to say, The Grand Judiciary went through a lot of trouble to make sure they kept their metal beasts in perfect condition. But the chimeras alive today are weakened since they’ve had a Heliad-free diet for decades. The Grand Judiciary had to turn to other methods. The combination between fossil fuels and human meat is the most efficient one.
“I doubt the incident you witnessed is the first one of its kind. There’s always been some kind of terrorist group they were able to sacrifice, and the Terrans in that village were just additional targets on their list.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I don’t like the Grand Chimera Unit. I never did. But I never wanted you to go through that experience and that betrayal.”
I’d have liked to defend my lovers, but I couldn’t. Brendan and the others had mentioned in passing that the terrorists who’d tried to steal Sphinx were already dead, and they’d seemed to think this was completely normal. I hadn’t given the issue much thought either, too worried about the innocents who’d been collateral damage in that battle. But I’d missed the bigger picture of that incident. The Grand Judiciary had used a dormant chimera to lure a group of users of Gaia’s Gift and neutralize them as a threat. It might have seemed like a good idea, and I couldn’t deny that the extremists had been dangerous. They hadn’t cared all that much about the damage they were doing either. But still, I didn’t have a lot of information on the terrorists, so I couldn’t say for sure they’d deserved to die.
And then, there were those other dreams, the images and flashes I’d had before. I still didn’t understand them, but they had to mean something.
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. The chances of me having hallucinated the whole thing in Gaia’s Haven weren’t very high. Where did that leave me?
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down, at least a little. “What happened with the village? My mother? The rest of the Terrans?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Jared replied. “As far as I’m aware, your mother survived the incident. Beyond that, I can’t tell you more.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
Jared pursed his lips, but didn’t look offended. “It’s not that easy for us to gather information about what is going on in Terran lands. It’s part of the reason why I had to go to Chimera Academy. I can try to ask, but there’s no guarantee my superiors will know, and I can’t go to my leader for something like this.”
His superiors. His leader. As he spoke, I realized I didn’t know a thing about the apsids—or Heliads, as they called themselves. I’d always seen them as my enemies and hadn’t given too much thought about the society they had. That left me at a clear disadvantage now.
“I don’t suppose there’s any chance of me receiving an audience with your ruler, is there?”
Jared shook his head. “The Great Mother will summon you if she wants to see you. It never works the other way around. Besides, it’s not a good idea for you to spend too much time in her presence. You’ve only just arrived here and you need to adapt to the energies of our world if you want to survive.”
“Jared, I don’t want to adapt or anything like that. I already have a home. I appreciate you helping me when we were on Terra, but I don’t understand why you brought me here.”
For a few seconds, Jared hesitated, seemingly considering his next words. When he spoke again, his answer took me aback. “What I’m about to tell you will likely shock and upset you. You’re nowhere near ready for it and I accept that. But I think you’ve been lied to enough.
“I brought you here because the Great Mother deemed you an appropriate reward for my service. She wants you to be my mate and carry my children. She’s already removed the toxin that kept you from conceiving and we can start our family at any time.”
Wait, what? Mate? Children? Family?
I’d barely interacted with him at Chimera Academy and most of our exchanges had been hostile. I didn’t hate him or anything, but that was a far cry from wanting to start a family with him. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“I haven’t,” he replied. “I know it sounds like it, because as a Terran, you don’t really understand our world. But you will, in time.”
I clenched my hands into fists, feeling awfully tempted to use my powers against him. Something told me it wouldn’t go over well and until I had more information, I couldn’t be reckless about this. “What if I say no?�
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“I never expected you to say ‘yes’ outright,” he answered, “but I’m hoping I’ll be able to change your mind. Selene, you have no reason to trust me. I know I treated you poorly. But the truth is a deep, terrible power lives inside you, and it’s just not something Terrans can handle. I won’t force you into anything. All I ask is for you to keep an open mind. I was a human once too, you know. Things change, and that’s not a bad thing.”
A part of me wanted to address his incomprehensible optimism and bite his head off for presuming I’d ever fall for any of his schemes. The other couldn’t help but be intrigued by his strange comment about his previous humanity. “I don’t understand. You’re a Heliad now. You can’t just change your species.”
“Not normally, no, but Heliads aren’t exactly normal.” He grimaced and stared at his hands. “It’s a very long and painful story and I’m not sure you’ll believe me at all if I tell you.”
“Try me.”
Jared Glass, as I’d known him, had had a human family. His cousin had grieved him when we’d still been at the academy. Where did they fit into this story? Were they Heliads too?
It was a mystery, and for all I knew, whatever Jared told me now would be another lie or an attempt to manipulate me. But it was better than nothing and it would give me some kind of starting point in my attempt to get out of here.
Jared shot me a knowing look, but complied. “Selene, you’ve been lied to all your life. The Heliads were never the ones who started The Apsid Wars. It was The Grand Judiciary who attacked us first—and it was all because of the chimeras.”
* * *
August
Following Sphinx’s revelation, everyone fell silent. We stared at one another, not knowing what to say or do. Brendan had already determined that sending an expedition into apsid territory was a fool’s errand. But at the same time, we couldn’t just abandon Selene to those things. Tartarus only knew what they were doing to her. There had to be a way to save her.
I rubbed my temples, trying to chase away my horrible migraine. This was all my fault. If I hadn’t been inside the Sphinx, if I hadn’t connected with her, Sphinx wouldn’t have gotten distracted. She would’ve sensed Selene much sooner. But a tamer couldn’t pilot a chimera without a neural link. I’d gotten over my discomfort over our lack of compatibility, but that didn’t change the ultimate consequences.
A familiar voice wriggled into my head, snapping me out of my musings. “It’s not your fault, August. You can’t blame yourself for what happened. You couldn’t have known she’d be there.”
It was Charybdis. She still sounded weak, but she was undoubtedly awake. For good or ill, we’d accomplished our mission. Our chimeras had killed and consumed enough Terrans that Charybdis had stirred from her dormant state.
If the price for her awakening hadn’t been so high, I would’ve sobbed in relief. I was so happy that she was awake, but at the same time… At the same time, a part of me felt it hadn’t been worth it. I hated myself for the thought, but I couldn’t help it.
“It’s a natural thought, hatchling,” Charybdis said. “You’ve just lost your most treasured broodmate. You want her back. I’m not offended for you prioritizing her over me. But don’t lose hope. We still have a chance to save her.”
“Do you have any suggestions then?”
“I might. But you all need to calm down and come back to Tartarus Base. For the moment, no one knows the mission went sideways, and I think it’s better for things to stay that way.”
She was right. As long as our superiors didn’t realize Selene was missing, we had a better chance of going after her. Tartarus only knew King Philip would never authorize an official operation to find and free her.
Maybe Brendan realized this as well, because he gestured for us to get back to work. “All right. Let’s wrap things up here. Torch the rest of the settlement. Don’t leave any building standing. We need to hurry back and come up with a plan before anyone realizes Selene is missing.”
Sister Anya and the remaining Terrans gasped and stumbled away from us, having obviously not expected that. I was surprised they hadn’t used the opening to attack us and pay us back for what we’d done. But they were just civilians and their attempts to protect themselves had been pathetic. It was laughable that The Grand Judiciary had even bothered to send our unit after them. The four of us, on foot, could have probably taken out everyone in the village without too much trouble.
They did try their best this time around, and the ground started to shake as the priestesses summoned their gift. We didn’t give them the chance to finish channeling their power. Sphinx just lifted her paw and crushed the remaining Terrans under the metal.
It might have been something she only did for convenience, but the sacrifice still came in handy. We didn’t need to touch the blood for it to work. I could already feel the torn life of the Terrans feeding our chimeras, renewing the circuits that had grown weak in time.
Tanya Renard was the only one left unscathed, courtesy of her connection to Selene. As expected, she had no intentions of letting us get away with this. Her fire returned and Gaia’s Gift flared around her once again, as vibrant and intense as her grief. “That’s it then? You’re just going to finish the job, kill everyone here, even if you know very well what it did to Selene? You don’t even care?”
Already climbing into the cockpit of the Typhon, Brendan threw her a dismissive look over his shoulder. “If I cared about every single person who died in the world, I wouldn’t be much of a prince. Believe it or not, I do regret this had to happen, but I have orders, and I can’t afford to ignore them, not now. I have enough problems on my plate without drawing my father’s attention. We can’t look back, not if we want to have any chance to save Selene. She might hate me for my choice, but I’ll do what I have to, because I must. I’d think that, as her mother, you’d understand that.”
It was the right thing to say. She could have tried to stand in our way, to fight us off. It would have had no effect in the end, but we expected her to anyway, if only because it was her duty to protect Terra. She didn’t.
“I’ll come up with some excuse,” she said. “I’ll try to stall and pretend Selene is still with me. But I won’t be able to buy you more than a day or two at most. If you don’t find a way to get to the Apsid Quasar until then, we’ll lose all hope.”
“Two days is already too long,” Typhon mused darkly. “Time flows differently in the Apsid Quasar. At this rate, she’ll spend years there before we even get the chance to leave Tartarus Base.”
He was right. Fuck. Every second that passed here could be one extra day for Selene, another day she spent being tortured by the apsids.
Shaking myself, I reentered the Sphinx too and together, our group returned to the shuttle. Cerberus and Knox stayed behind to finish the job, as Brendan had instructed. It didn’t take him long to burn to the ground everything that was left and catch up with us.
There were still plenty of Terrans who’d gotten away from our assault, but we didn’t have time to worry about them. We’d killed enough for it to count and Charybdis was awake. The Grand Judiciary didn’t need to know anything beyond that. I’d have to forge some transmissions to make sure our coms didn’t hold anything suspicious, but I’d done it before. It wouldn’t be a big deal.
Pollux took the piloting seat once again and launched the large shuttle into the sky. Behind us, we left only devastation. The irony was that the desolate landscape mimicked the grief in our hearts.
I wanted to believe we still had a chance to get Selene back like Charybdis had said. I wouldn’t give up on that hope and dream. At the same time, though, I knew that priestess had been right. We’d paid the price for the blood we’d spilled.
No. I couldn’t think that way. Selene’s life and well-being wasn’t something I’d ever be willing to trade. And who cared about prices and scruples? Fuck that. Fuck everything. We’d followed orders to protect our friends, and we couldn’t take it back. I
wasn’t convinced I would have, even if I’d had the chance. It had been necessary. If that made me a monster, so be it, but I wouldn’t let anything as stupid as remorse get in my way.
Gritting my teeth, I activated my back-link communicator and connected to the systems of each individual chimera. It was tougher for my friends’ mechas, but they allowed it, since the changes I needed to make weren’t too invasive. The communication logs didn’t have a lot to do with the actual mental processes of the chimeras, so I could do whatever I wished without harming them.
By the time I completed my task, the shuttle had already left Terra and was in view of Tartarus Base. “That was fast,” I said as I looked out the shuttle window. “Good job, Pollux.”
Pollux didn’t answer. I wondered if it had been such a good idea to entrust piloting to him, when he was seconds away from having another panic attack.
The others couldn’t have missed Pollux’s condition, but maybe that was exactly why they’d allowed it. Having something to focus on helped Pollux, kept his mind anchored in the moment and prevented him from succumbing to the demons of his past. Considering the recent incident with Stella’s shade, it was a bit of a miracle, but Pollux was obviously just as determined as we were to get Selene back.
At last, we entered the base and Pollux directed the shuttle toward the academy. He didn’t bother stopping by Charon’s Barge, since we had authorization to bypass that. Instead, he landed the shuttle in one of the private airstrips of the school.
Charybdis was already there, waiting for us. Lord Welton was by her side, and the smirk on his face didn’t match his pallor. “I may have reminded him where he stood on the scale of power in this school,” Charybdis said in my mind. “You might have temporarily provided food for us, but I’m not beneath eating him if he gets too cocky. Who knows? I might even get away with it if they think it’s a temporary malfunction.”
