I said leave me alone. Rotoph’s voice was small and scared.
Every cell in Kala’s body told her she needed to do something to help him. There was no logical reason why. Experience told her that Rotoph was reverting back to his true self: a coward. Faced with eleven of the twelve Titans, the boy had snapped. That was the logical explanation.
But Kala knew it wasn’t true. Whatever Rotoph’s destiny was, it was paralyzing him.
Since Iapetus was the only Titan in her way, Kala needed to get rid of him fast if she were to truly help Rotoph. It helped that Iapetus didn’t have any of his magic, but the Titan was still five times her size, not to mention the fact that he was lightning fast and supernaturally strong. And she couldn’t use stealth: the Titan was staring right at her. Kala was just grateful all the other Titans were occupied fighting her team, but she needed help.
Asmosdeus. Kala called out to the Demon. I need you to distract Iapetus. I’d take care of him myself, but I think something’s wrong with Rotoph and I need to get to him right away.
On my way. The Demon’s voice sounded all too eager to help, swimming back up from the depths of the ocean.
Kala kept Iapetus focused on her, making him believe she planned to attack him full-on. Out of the corner of her eye Kala could see Asmodeus swimming towards Iapetus. Kala swam toward the Titan, forcing him to keep his attention on her.
Just before Kala reached Iapetus, Asmodeus’s demon form plowed into the Titan, dragging him into the water’s depths.
Thanks. Kala projected.
My pleasure, buttercup. Just make sure that Grigori gets us out of here. I really hate water.
Kala swam over to Rotoph, who was floating listlessly as if he were in some kind of coma. She grabbed his arms to get his attention.
Rotoph!
The Grigori didn’t respond.
Rotoph! What is wrong with you?
With all the chaos behind her, Kala was more afraid of the look in Rotoph’s eyes when he stared at her.
It’s time, Kala. His face was ashen even in the darkness of the ocean. I’m scared.
I don’t understand. Just get us back to the Compound, Kala tried to reason with him.
This is it, Rotoph smiled wanly. You’re not the only one who is a part of a prophecy.
Screw prophecy. Let’s get out of here. Kala didn’t want to hear of another prophecy!
It’s why I sent my brethren to the Fifth Heaven. I was a coward. I wanted a way where we could all survive. I don’t want to die, Kala. Rotoph stared at her, desperation in his eyes.
But Kala wasn’t having it, not after surviving the Underworld. Grigori can’t die.
“The Grigori with the power of runes will sacrifice himself in the battle of the ocean. Titans against all others to save The Fated One. To save the Grigori. To save the world.” It’s pretty clear. Rotoph’s expression was growing more and more miserable. I’ve been running from this for a long time. Everything happens when it’s supposed to though, right? He looked at her with sadness. I couldn’t have even fulfilled the prophecy years ago when I helped imprison my brothers and sisters. You weren’t born yet. And I know with every fiber of my being that you truly are The Fated One, Kala Hicks. He paused, then looked at Kala, resolved. I’m scared as hell, but you’re worth dying for. Just don’t make my sacrifice pointless.
Rotoph, we can get around this. Just break Cronus’s teleportation block. Kala was desperate to stop Rotoph. If she could help him defy his prophecy, then maybe she could defy her own.
Kala, look behind you. We’re losing. Oceanus is the ocean. Poseidon is strong, but he’s been weakened in the Underworld for hundreds of years. And the Grigori? We’re being overpowered by the blades I made, and we’re not really the underwater type.
What about that red ball of healing you used on me and Asmodeus? Kala needed to find a way.
What? I’m just going to swim up to everyone and hope they have enough time to regenerate themselves? You know that’s not possible. Rotoph smiled, his sadness replaced by resolve. He reached out to touch Kala’s hand. Without you, Owen and Talan would never have given me a chance to prove myself. Thank you for that. Tell them I’m sorry.
Rotoph, we can find another way. Kala knew her arguments were falling on deaf ears. Rotoph had made up his mind.
He pulled his hand back and took out two red runed marbles. I’d swim back if I were you.
Rotoph. Kala didn’t want to move.
Move now, Kala. I made this to affect Titans only, and you’re part Titan. It won’t kill you, but it will hurt.
The runes glowed yellow as they had when healing Kala. Then the light grew brighter and brighter until it turned white.
Kala knew a ticking time bomb when she saw one. With one last nod of respect to Rotoph, Kala swam away. Away from the light. Away from having to witness another prophecy come to pass. She swam straight for the raging battle in front of her. Both sides looked beat up, but Rotoph was right: the Titans were winning.
BOOM!
A wave of white light washed through Kala like a tidal wave of pain. Every nerve ending screamed in agony; Kala felt as if her insides were exploding into tiny pieces. She focused on her human side, on her Gaia side, anything to siphon away the torment away. Her movements slowed from the amount of concentration it took to overcome the pain. Even then she still couldn’t shake her excruciating misery.
The only up side was seeing the Titans in even more pain than she was. The battle had stopped as the twenty-foot Titans writhed in tortured anguish. Kala knew it wouldn’t kill them, but it would take them down for a while.
Within seconds, Talan swam up next to her, taking her arm and leading her back to where the other Grigori, Olympians and Asmodeus were gathering. Asmodeus was back in his human form again and, when he saw her barely able to move, he helped Talan by taking Kala’s other arm.
Did Rotoph make it? Kala asked through the pain. But she already knew the answer.
Talan shook his head. Kala could see the sadness in Talan’s eyes. He may have been at odds with his brother, but knowing that Rotoph sacrificed himself to save them meant everything to him.
As if on autopilot, everyone clasped hands once more. Watching Cronus’s body writhe in unnatural jerked positions confirmed that he was in no position to keep the teleportation block in place.
Talan took the lead and teleported them all into the Compound.
Chapter Eighteen
Kala, the Olympians, the Grigori and Asmodeus landed in Fortski’s lab.
The man himself, John Fortski, jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of over twenty supernatural beings showing up in his workspace, all sopping wet, creating large puddles on the pristine tiled flooring.
“Oh, well, hello,” Fortski greeted them nervously. “I’ll just call General Turner then.”
The little guy disappeared after that, running to fetch Turner.
Owen was doing a head count, while the Olympians stood there dumbstruck.
Being in the Underworld for 2,000 years, they had never seen technology before. To stand in Fortski’s lab, which was more mad-scientist than scientist, was overwhelming.
Asmodeus was the only one who looked out of place. And to be fair, he was. Kala walked over to him, not sure what she wanted to say. “So, thanks,” was what came out.
Instead of pulling a typical Asmodeus move like trying to kiss her or touch her in an inappropriate way, he simply smiled and tipped an imaginary hat. “Call if you need me.”
Then he was gone.
Kala couldn’t blame him. If she had a choice at the moment, she would teleport herself out as well. But her Atlas vision… and Rotoph’s death… His words echoing in her head: Don’t make my sacrifice pointless.
Kala thought of her Atlas mission to keep her mind focused. It was in a big room like this one, but it had been empty except for Turner’s two brain machines. Kala couldn’t imagine Turner having another location for his precious machines, so she assumed that t
he location was somewhere inside the Compound. Since Turner was in the vision, she figured she could ask him.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Kala turned around to see Owen, wet hair plastered to his face. “How you holding up?”
Kala shrugged. “Is Rotoph really dead?” She didn’t want to believe the Grigori was truly gone.
Owen sighed, “We don’t know. His body evaporated after he activated the runes, but maybe someday he could reform…” He shook his head, pain in his expression. “I was just starting to like the guy again.”
“Me, too,” Kala admitted.
“He believed in you,” Owen said quietly.
Kala nodded. “He wanted to tell you and Talan he was sorry.”
Owen didn’t respond. Kala knew him well enough to know that he was compartmentalizing his emotions.
Kala took a deep breath, letting him off the hook. She went right to business, glancing at a clock behind Owen.
1d 07h 10m 22s: 10:40PM.
“I have less than 8 hours in Day Three of my Atlas mission. We have to find the location.” Kala didn’t elaborate aloud. She planned on telling a select group of people, including Owen, but now wasn’t the time.
Owen seemed to pick up on that, nodding, “We’ll find somewhere private to talk.”
Generals Turner and Clifton entered the room, Fortski trailing timidly.
As Kala made her way to confer with the Generals, it almost didn’t register that she had bumped into another person. Just as her brain was registering that this person hadn’t been there a second before, Kala recognized that it was Cronus who stood in front of her. His body looked wracked and broken, his skin covered in large, gaping blisters oozing with white puss. And he looked pissed.
“You’ll never complete your next mission. After the world crumbles I will skin you alive and make sure you stay that way for all eternity.” Cronus touched Kala’s forehead.
“Bitter, much?” Kala was about to attack the Titan just to make herself feel better, when the room began to spin uncontrollably. “What did you do to me?”
“It’s just a little coma, human,” Cronus laughed.
The sound of yelling and people running toward Cronus and Kala echoed loudly in Kala’s head as her knees gave out.
Cronus de-materialized as Talan’s arms wrapped behind Kala to catch her fall.
Her eyes met Talan’s worried ones as he whispered in her ear, “I’ll wake you up, just hold on.”
Kala reached up and touched his cheek. Then everything went black.
Looking around the black space, Kala was reminded of her time in Turner’s brain machine. For all she knew, that was exactly where she was, though before she had felt she could wake up. Now Kala felt stuck. No Penny to visit her this time either.
Last time, Penny had snapped her fingers and the place lit up, but after snapping her fingers forty times, Kala decided to give up and get used to the darkness.
Kala could see her own body, that was about it. She hated to admit it, but Kala almost missed the Underworld. At least that place had scenery.
Not sure what she should do, Kala mentally tried to wake up. It sounded so easy, but when you look and feel awake (even passing the pinching her forearm test), the feat appeared impossible. She wondered if her coma was the same as Hades being asleep. Would she wake up a thousand years from now to a world that didn’t exist anymore? Kala had a little over a day to complete her task and the only person she had told it to was Talan when she’d had her memory wiped, so Kala could bet he had no idea what to do.
With frustration threatening to overwhelm her, Kala decided to walk. If she were walking in her head, then maybe she’d run into something eventually. It was a long shot, but she was desperate to escape the darkness.
The more she moved, the better she felt, and Kala started to think about what she was going to do. Remembering the prophecy, Kala almost laughed at the thought that she was supposed to be some kind of Fated One. What kind of Fated One gets put into a coma by her enemy while standing in front of an army of her allies?
A dumb one.
Good luck, world, if I’m the one keeping you safe, Kala grumbled to herself.
“The cost will be great, and the immortals will reign. The one that knows death will release the curse of balance.” Kala repeated the last part of the prophecy in her head.
Zeus had told her that the one who knows death was some girl three hundred years in the future. But now that Hades was awake, it seemed more logical that it could be referring to him. And if that was the case…
Maybe Hades was the one who would take Atlas’s curse away. Maybe that was why Kala and the others had to imprison Hades and Cronus in the brain machines. Maybe that was how the curse would be broken.
It gave her a sense of hope she hadn’t felt in a while.
The more Kala thought about it, the more it made sense. Zeus probably made up the girl just to throw her off so she wouldn’t figure out that Hades…
“Um, hi?” A female voice sounded in the darkness.
Kala squinted her eyes, trying to see who was speaking. The voice didn’t sound like anyone she knew. She half expected Roberta to jump into her brain to try to wake her up. The woman was amazing at that kind of thing. No matter how hard she tried, though, Kala couldn’t make out who was in front of her.
Probably a figment of her imagination.
“How are you making it so dark in here?” The voice asked.
Figment or not, Kala had to explore every avenue of breaking out of this coma, so if it meant talking to an imaginary friend, then, so be it.
“I don’t know how to make it light,” Kala admitted.
“Yeah, but you’re the one making it dark.”
Kala didn’t know how to respond to that, so she simply said, “I’m not doing it on purpose.”
“Oh. Phew. You scared me for a second. I got this, hang on.” The voice sounded like a teenager, Kala realized. Maybe she was about to face a teenage version of herself. It made sense. She was fifteen when she met Owen and Linda, and they had changed her life. Was that what this coma was going to be? This is your life, Kala Hicks. She certainly hoped not.
Suddenly an entire landscape appeared all around Kala, from utter darkness to standing in a giant oak forest. It was stunning, filled with rich colors of greens, browns, yellows and blues. Kala could actually feel the heat from the sun as it filtered through the leaves on the trees. This was quite an upgrade.
But what struck Kala as odd was the fact that she’d never been to this location before. Why would her mind invent an oak forest?
Standing in front of her was indeed a teenager, but she was definitely not a younger version of Kala. Kala had never seen this girl before in her life. She stood about Kala’s height, with chestnut brown hair and gray eyes, and didn’t look older than seventeen or eighteen. She was very pretty.
Something about the girl made Kala pause. The girl had power. Kala could sense it immediately.
And, in that instant, Kala knew she wasn’t talking to an imaginary friend, she was talking to someone real. Someone like Roberta who had the ability to head jump. Someone even more powerful than Roberta, it seemed, since Turner’s wife hadn’t shown up yet.
Out of military habit, Kala was immediately on the defensive.
The girl viewed her “oak tree” landscape handiwork and smiled. “This place always does the trick.”
“You’ve been here before?” Kala asked carefully.
The girl nodded as if reflecting on a familiar thought. “My grandmother taught me how to create environments like this when I’m in a dreamscape. This one in particular helped me out in a really hard situation.”
“Coma?” Kala inquired.
“Buried alive,” she answered.
“Yeah, that’s worse,” Kala acknowledged.
The girl shifted awkwardly. “So, you’re in a coma I’m guessing?”
Kala sighed, starting to feel at ease with the girl despite her military training. �
�Yeah, can’t seem to snap out of it.”
“I’m Chelsan, by the way,” the girl said, holding out her hand. Kala shook it.
“Kala.” When their hands made contact, Kala almost jumped back from the shock. Images raced past her, too fast to comprehend. It felt as if Talan was showing her a future vision or his memories. Kala tried to slow down the pictures so she could translate what she was seeing, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t do it.
Chelsan yanked her hand away with a shocked expression, too. “Whoa.”
Kala stumbled a bit from the sudden disconnection. “What was that? Are you a Grigori or something?”
“A what?” Chelsan eyed Kala with confusion.
“It’s a type of angel. Are you a Malak then? Or Demon? Or god?” Kala was sure the girl had to be some kind of supernatural being to not only have the power to visit Kala’s head, but to make her see visions like that.
“Um…” Chelsan appeared very uncomfortable at where the conversation was going. “You know none of that is real, right? And I’ve never heard of a Malak either.”
Examining Chelsan’s expression, Kala was reminded at how she had felt when first confronted by Atlas. Kala had thought it was all a dream. Whoever this Chelsan girl was, she obviously had never had contact with the supernatural world.
“Malaks are another kind of angel,” Kala explained. Then she shook her head. “I didn’t believe it at first either,” she began carefully, “but if you’re not supernatural, how are we seeing each other?”
Chelsan appeared to be weighing her answer. “I guess I’m a little supernatural, but it came from science and magic, not gods and angel stuff.” Then, without judgment, she asked. “Are you telling me you’re one of those things?”
Kala nodded. “I’m Atlas.” It felt weird to say to a stranger, but somehow Kala knew it was the right thing to do.
“As in the Greek god who holds up the earth?” Chelsan clarified. “But you just said your name was Kala.” She seemed genuinely confused.
“I’m both. I became Atlas.” Kala shook her head at the absurdity of her statement. “You think I’m crazy.” Kala didn’t blame the girl. She’d have thought she was insane, too, if their places were reversed.
The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) Page 18
