by Alex Steele
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Yamashita, her hands held up in surrender. Her lips moved, but the sound that came out was muffled and didn’t make sense.
I blinked again, confused. I remembered talking with Swift on the phone, then eating Oreos…
Coherence came back all at once and my magic flared around me. They had drugged the cookies. I jerked forward thinking I was tied up and fell out of the chair I was slouched in. There were no ropes or chains. Nothing to hold me.
“Blackwell!” Yamashita shouted, commanding my attention. “I’m not going to hurt you. Please stop! You’ll bring the whole base down!”
With clenched teeth, I slowed the reaction of my magic, dragging it back into myself one painful inch at a time. There was no one else in the bare, concrete room. The door stood wide open and unguarded.
“I am not going to hurt you,” Yamashita repeated, staying a safe distance away from me.
“I heard you the first time,” I ground out. There was no way I was trusting her just yet. She’d run off with a severed head and now had possibly kidnapped me. “Why the hell am I here?”
“Talos said you were interested in working with us, but not convinced. It’s time I spoke with you directly.”
I froze. “You’re with the Awakened?”
She nodded. “I am.”
“Patterson too? Or what’s left of him anyhow.”
Her lips thinned, but she nodded again. “Yes, he is as well.”
I stood slowly, noting that the back of my head was sore. It must have been from when I blacked out. “How did you get in the Manor and drug the cookies without the wards going off?”
“I left myself a way in while I was there.”
“A way Bootstrap didn’t notice?”
She nodded. “He’s good, but I have tools he doesn’t know exist.”
The mayhem magic still pressed against my skin, eager to lash out. I didn’t trust her. She could have shown up and talked to me in person, but instead, I was here. Alone. In a secret base. I wasn’t sure if it was meant as a show of force, or if I was a prisoner. The open door wasn’t fooling me. There was no way she’d let me leave without getting whatever she wanted...or a fight.
“If you wanted to convince me to trust you or the Awakened, you’re off to a shitty start.”
Yamashita sighed heavily. “It’s a tricky situation. You’re being watched by a lot of people.”
“The Mage’s Guild?”
“And other competing interests.” She relaxed slightly, letting her hands drop to her sides. “Once one god stakes their claim, the others often come sniffing around to see what they’re missing out on.”
“Great.” I rubbed my temples. The ache in the back of my head was starting to pound as my irritation built. “Where am I now, exactly?”
“Still in England, but the exact location I can’t disclose. Unless you wanted to join us,” she added with a sardonic smile.
I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “Again, not selling me on whatever this little club is.”
She stepped back and gestured toward the door. “Once we get back to the others, I’ll answer any questions I can.”
Part of me wanted to demand she let me go just to see what would happen. However, the reasonable voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like Swift was saying this was the opportunity we’d been looking for. Viktor had only found out a little undercover so far. Yamashita had brought me into the midst of them and wanted to earn my trust. I should find out what I could before I left.
“Fine.”
I followed her into a narrow hallway. Lighting runes that simulated sunlight dotted the low ceiling. It almost made you feel like you weren’t in a concrete cave. Almost.
“How far underground are we?”
“About a mile,” she said, wavering her hand.
That must be why they were so unconcerned about me escaping. Whatever means they had to get in and out of this place would be heavily guarded and I couldn’t just dig my way out.
“How long have you been a part of this...organization?” I asked, looking over my shoulder warily.
She chuckled. “A long time.”
“That’s a very vague answer. I’ve been getting a lot of those lately.”
“There’s a few I can answer more directly, such as, what are we hoping to gain from your cooperation.” She paused near a door, smiling congenially, like she’d just invited me over for tea. There was none of the anger or nerves she’d shown while at her house in Japan, or after I’d saved her from those assassins.
She opened the door and led me inside. This room was different. The place I’d woken up and the hallways had seemed bare and almost military, but this was something else entirely. Plush carpet muffled our footsteps and the soft light of candles cast long shadows on the walls. Incense lay thick in the air — it had been burning for a while.
This was not a conference room or a place to interrogate someone. This was a temple.
Talos stepped out of the shadows and pushed back his hood. He had dark circles under his eyes and his normally perfect hair was slightly greasy. Whatever had made him rush away during our last meeting must have kept him from sleeping as well.
“Talos,” I said with a slight nod. “Next time we meet, hopefully it’s with less dramatics.”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “We live in dramatic times, Blackwell.”
Yamashita knelt before a low table, gesturing for me to sit across from her. “We owe you some explanations, and have some questions for you as well.”
“Let’s start with the explanations,” I said as I knelt in the spot she’d indicated.
She clasped her hands together and met my eyes straight on. “You need to get into Purgatory to rescue Bradley, and we can help you.”
A million questions rushed through my mind at her proclamation. I forced myself to remain calm as I sifted through them, trying to decide what to ask first. They had information I needed, but if they thought I was truly desperate, they could use it against me.
“Why would I want your help?”
“You can’t get in and out on your own,” Yamashita said, raising both brows. “I’ve studied Purgatory. I know the defenses within those walls. You need an army.”
“Are you saying you would be going into Purgatory with this army to help me rescue Bradley?”
She nodded firmly. “I intend to, yes.”
“Don’t you have a geas that prevents you from talking about it?”
She shook her head. “Once inside, it will be null. It only restricts me from sharing a secret you don’t already know.”
“You have to be getting something else out of this. What is it?” I knew the answer thanks to Viktor. Now I just needed to see if they would lie.
There was a loud thump. “Yamashita, let me out of this damned box. I want to talk to him.”
My eyes widened in horror as I looked at her. It couldn’t be.
She pulled a box out from under the table and opened the lid. Patterson’s head was nestled in satin pillows, the gruesome stump of his neck carefully hidden. The zombie blinked at me, looking disturbingly alive.
“You’re not an idiot Blackwell, I’ll give you that much,” Patterson said, his beady eyes boring into me. “We’re intending a rescue of our own.”
I pursed my lips, looking between the three of them. “Who?”
Patterson sighed and rolled his eyes when the others didn’t answer immediately. “Prometheus.”
And with that, my worst fears were confirmed. They did want to rescue their leader, he just happened to be a Titan. Swift would be pleased to hear what she and Gresham uncovered was correct — though she would be less pleased at the dangerous situation that put us in.
Yamashita glanced at Talos and nodded.
“Rescuing your friend is only the first step in a greater war. We know who the real enemy is. It’s the gods. All of them.” Talos braced both hands on the table and leaned in, the light of the candles flic
kering across his features in a dance of shadows. Twin flames reflected in his irises, giving them a red cast that sent a twinge of warning through my gut. “Prometheus gave us a way to fight back. He was the first to push back instead of falling to his knees for them.”
“Isn’t that what you do for Prometheus? Sticking your hand in fire is a step farther than just kneeling,” I said, watching him carefully from across the table. My muscles were tensed with wariness. The zeal I saw in his expression was what worried me. Someone like that would do anything for their cause. It made them unpredictable.
A grin spread across his face. “There is power in pain and sacrifice. Prometheus doesn’t ask me to do anything he hasn’t done himself.”
I raised both eyebrows. “So he runs around roasting his hands?”
“He reached into the sacred fire to give us magic, and now, he suffers for his sins.”
“Are you claiming Prometheus somehow created magic?”
“Not created. Stole.”
Magic was kind of like gravity. It had always been there, and I’d never questioned where it came from. It was simply a fact of life.
I tapped my fingers against my leg, unsure if I believed him. Unsure if it even mattered. If Prometheus had somehow stolen magic and given it to us, that didn’t mean he was good. I didn’t like Talos, and I sure as hell didn’t trust the Awakened.
The problem was, I didn’t think we could get in and, more importantly, out of Purgatory without their help. No one had ever escaped and there would be magisters there. Atticus himself would likely be there, and he would be a challenge to take in a fair fight, much less with a dozen magisters at his back. Yamashita might be right about needing an army.
“You want to free Prometheus from Purgatory,” I stated, rolling the thought over in my mind.
Talos nodded sharply. “Yes.”
“Anyone else?” The last thing I wanted was a surprise to pop up during an already near-impossible rescue mission.
“No, only Prometheus matters. Without him, we’ll never win this war.”
Yamashita leaned toward me, wrapping her hand tightly around my arm. “You think we’re insane. Fanatical. I can see it in your eyes, and I can’t even blame you, but we’re right, Blackwell. Prometheus is the key to this. To our freedom.”
I pulled my arm away, breaking her grip. “You’re putting a lot of faith in some creature you don’t understand. This could all be more manipulation, either by Fate, or another one of them. They can make things seem real that aren’t.”
“Prometheus isn’t a god. He’s something older. Something less concerned with ruling or controlling humanity,” Yamashita said, sitting back. “He has opposed Fate for a long time. As long as Fate has the upper hand, so does the Mage’s Guild. It’s Fate’s influence that has given them so much power, because that’s what he craves — control. They’re just a tool for him.”
“Who told you all this? Prometheus?”
Yamashita nodded. “Yes, during my time with the Mage’s Guild I was able to speak with him. He showed me the truth.”
She was absolutely convinced this creature was telling her the truth. If it was true that he was trapped in Purgatory, I trusted him even less. Someone desperate to escape wouldn’t hesitate to lie to get what they wanted from someone.
“At some point, we all have to have faith that the person we’ve put our trust in won’t betray us,” Yamashita said quietly. “You trust Swift, the daughter of your enemy. She could be lying to you, but you believe she won’t.”
“She’s proved she won’t with her actions,” I said, shaking my head in frustration. “I’m not taking any of this on faith, just like I won’t accept that my destiny is out of my control. If that’s all you have to offer, then we’re done here.”
Patterson wobbled in his box. “Show him what Prometheus gave us.”
Yamashita pulled out a piece of parchment very similar to the invitations Talos had sent Swift and I. Two shakily drawn runes were displayed on it. “This was the first thing Prometheus gave to me. It is a series of teleportation runes.”
“Is that how you got in and out of the manor undetected?”
She nodded. “It has also helped us escape the notice of the Mage’s Guild for as long as we have. Before I left, I placed as many as I could in key places.” She paused for a moment, looking at me carefully. “Several could give us access to the Chancellor himself.”
Anger thumped in my chest. It could be the key to my revenge against Chancellor Swift, but it came with strings attached, and I didn’t like where those strings led.
“And you think this proves Prometheus is on your side?”
“Prometheus has spent decades feeding me information that has helped us slow the Mage’s Guild down. Together, we have set ourselves up to move against them. Many of the shifters and vampires are ready to join our cause. Prometheus has armed us for war.” She straightened her shoulders. “I trust him. You don’t have to put your faith in him to fight alongside us.”
“Alright, say I believe you and we do need your help to get in and out of Purgatory, and that Prometheus isn’t setting up a trap. Why do you want my help?”
Patterson rolled his eyes. “Your magic, boy. Keep up. Purgatory has built in defenses that keep the mages locked up there from using magic. What you’ve got swirling around in your chest like a thunderstorm is different. It’ll work in there when nothing else will.”
“The creature that guards Prometheus cannot be defeated without it,” Talos said, pressing his hands to the table.
The bow. That’s why Yui had given it to me. I knew it in my gut. That conniving, ridiculous, trickster. I don’t know how she’d known, but she had.
“We need each other, Blackwell,” Yamashita said firmly. “We can get in and out, but we can’t free Prometheus alone.”
I tapped my fingers against the table as I weighed this new bit of information. Even if I couldn’t completely trust them, that didn’t mean they were wrong about this. “I can’t decide this on my own. I’ll have to convince the others.”
“They’ll listen to you,” Yamashita said, leaning back and straightening her shoulders. “Even Swift.”
“No.”
She jerked back in surprise.
“You and Talos are going to make your own case to them. I’m still not convinced that we should trust you. If you can get in and out of the manor to kidnap me, then you can get in and out to talk to them.”
Patterson chuckled. “I told you it would just piss him off.”
“Shut up, Henry,” Yamashita said sharply. She looked at Talos, a silent conversation passing between them. Finally, she sighed. “Fine. Tomorrow, at midnight.”
I pushed up to my feet. “Now that I know about the runes, there’s absolutely no reason to need me unconscious for the trip back.”
Yamashita rose as well. “Of course, that was only a precaution to get you here so we could have this conversation without...interference.” She smoothed down her blouse. “Please follow me. The teleportation rune is in the room where you woke up.”
Talos nodded his farewell and disappeared into the shadows at the back of the room along with Patterson. Zombies were horrifying on a good day. A talking head that looked alive was...too much.
I followed Yamashita back into the hallway to the same room I’d woken up in. She pressed her palm against a bare patch of the wall and a large version of the rune I’d seen on the parchment appeared on the floor. I wasn’t sure how they’d hidden it, but I intended to find out when I got home.
“Please stand on the rune.”
I walked over, placing my feet directly in the center. “One last question before I go. Did you know about the attack on Moira beforehand?”
She shook her head. “We knew a war was coming. We knew there would be attacks, but nothing specific.”
“Which god was behind it? Was it Fate?”
“No. It was Ares and his allies.” A muscle jumped in her jaw as she ground her teeth togeth
er. “They are just as much our enemy as Fate is, but for different reasons.”
I nodded. “Alright. I’ll have more questions about that the next time we meet, but I’m not interested in staying here any longer than I have to.”
“Until tomorrow, Blackwell,” Yamashita said with a nod. She lifted her hand.
Magic blazed up from the rune, then wrapped around me, and everything shifted. A rainbow of light stretched through my vision. Then I was gone.
Twenty-Eight
Bootstrap sat on the floor, one palm braced against the hardwood, the other moving swiftly above the teleportation rune. Light pulsed through it in quick beats, illuminating one spot, then another.
I’d never watched him do this before. It still didn’t make sense, but more parts of the rune were lighting up, so I supposed he was making progress. Right after I’d been returned to the manor, I was half tempted to rip up that section of floor. I didn’t like anyone having a way in and out of the manor, but it was better to understand it first. After the next meeting with the Awakened, I might stick a cage around it though.
Swift turned the page angrily, muttering under her breath as she scanned through a third book.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
The book drooped in her hands and she sighed. “I don’t know. Answers. Connections. What we saw at the club was clearly a sacrifice, which doesn’t seem to fit with who Prometheus is throughout mythology.”
“Everything we know about gods seems to be less than half right so far.”
“Maybe.” She snapped the book shut. “The thing still bothering me the most is how much they need you. And what Yui gave you. She said you needed it to free Bradley, but it seems more like you need it to free Prometheus.”
I replayed the conversation with Yui in my mind. She’d been hiding something. Maybe this was it. “Do you think she’s working with Prometheus somehow? She doesn’t seem like the loyal type.”
Swift’s fingers tapped restlessly against the cover of the book. “Prometheus is sometimes called a trickster.”
“You think he could be what? A kitsune? Or some kind of trickster god?”
