by Lizzy Ford
“Alessandra.”
My heart leapt in my chest. “Adonis!” I turned to face him. My gaze scoured his perfect, noble features. Every cell of my body ignited beneath his direct look. He had a way of seeing through me, of making me feel both isolated from the rest of the world and no longer alone.
“Did it work?” he asked me.
Suddenly, I realized he was looking past me. I stepped back, away from the secondary form of future-me, which was in color. Cerberus trailed future-me, as if he were about to throw me out of his dimension again. In the distance, I saw the full color mirror of the forest. Future-me was a vibrant slash of color in a world with none.
But Adonis was gray.
“I don’t understand,” I said, simultaneously with future-me speaking to Adonis.
“Your body and mind aren’t yours. We didn’t know how else to reach you,” he replied.
“But you’re … you’re …” Future-me couldn’t finish the sentence.
I watched, and fresh pain tore through me. Lantos told me Adonis would die because of me, and I’d seen him here in another vision.
Had I killed him? Had Cleon, with my powers? And who possessed my body and mind? Cleon?
Chapter Twelve
My chest tightened, and my stomach dropped so fast, I felt ill. The vision started to fade.
“NO!” I screamed and clawed my way back.
It stabilized in time for me to hear future-me speak.
“I won’t let Thanatos take you,” future-me said. My face was ashen, my eyes red with tears. “I won’t let it end like this.”
“There’s no other way it can end,” Adonis said. He stepped forward and cupped the cheeks of future-me with his hands. “Alessandra, you must return.”
“I refuse to accept that!”
“It’s too late,” he said softly.
“I won’t leave you here! I can’t lose you both!” future-me exclaimed.
Both? Who else had died?
“It’s done,” he said calmly, quietly. “But if you don’t reclaim what’s yours, if you don’t fight this, all is permanently lost.”
“You’re my Mismatch. I can’t do this without you.”
“You’re strong enough to do this. I will always be your Mismatch, no matter where I am. I have always loved you, even if I haven’t always known how to say it.”
His words shredded my insides.
I was crying. Future-me was outright weeping. Panic coursed through me as I sought some explanation. Lantos had claimed these premonitions could be prevented, but how did I prevent something when I saw only the end result?
The vision blurred and faded. Too distraught by what I’d seen, I could only watch Adonis slip away, as intangible as smoke, until only the darkness of my mind remained. My thoughts were everywhere at once, and the indecipherable murmuring of the gods and goddess wove into them, further confusing me about what to do.
I won’t let him die, I vowed. Whatever I had to do, whomever I had to fight, I would never let my Mismatch die.
Three times. His death had been prophesized three times, twice in my visions and once by Lantos.
Listen to us. The voices were back, faded and faltering. We will help you save him. Mismatch is the key.
I pushed them away, hating the gods and goddesses anew for not only destroying the world, but also allowing Adonis to die.
My eyes opened, and I blinked rapidly. My bedroom was quiet. It was nighttime, and the lights in the bay window were on. Unlike dreams, the visions didn’t lessen in intensity upon awakening, but lingered with full clarity, playing in continuous loops in my head. Tears warmed the sides of my face, and I stared at the ceiling.
Adonis would die. I didn’t know when, or even if the three premonitions I foresaw existed in the same span of time. I had seen no hints about how Adonis would die or when Lantos and Tommy would stand in the caverns. The last day of the world, however, was possibly the easiest to discern, assuming I had the chance to talk to Herakles or the Silent Queen about what I saw.
As I lay still, I began to calm. This time, I hadn’t foreseen the end of the world. I had witnessed efforts to prevent it. Whether or not they were successful, I didn’t yet know, but it had to mean something, if I didn’t see the world on fire, being swallowed by darkness.
I told myself this without remotely understanding if it were true. I had to believe the future could be changed, the world wouldn’t perish, and Adonis wouldn’t die, or I wasn’t going to have any reason to fight the Fates, the gods, and Cleon.
“Next time you try to kill yourself, stab yourself in the jugular,” Niko said from his position seated beside my bed.
I wiped away my tears and sat up, twisting towards him. A wall of dizziness caused me to slump, and I blinked away tunnel vision to keep from passing out.
“I wasn’t trying to kill myself,” I mumbled and straightened. “I was trying to dig that damn chip out of my head.”
“Which would’ve killed you.”
“And Cleon. Maybe that’s what needs to be done,” I snapped.
“Then who will stand up to the gods, defend humanity, bring back the Old Ways and all that shit you told me you wanted to do?”
“What if the price of doing those things is too high?” I asked. The image of Adonis standing on the banks of the River Styx was forefront in my mind.
“You only pay the price once. Then it’s done.”
Niko had no way of knowing what I was really talking about. I stretched to feel the back of my head. A bandage was secured to my head by staples. “I’m guessing I didn’t succeed,” I said and lowered my arm.
“Almost. I’m sure when Cleon awakens, he’ll be pissed, and you’ll be permanently attached to the wall of the caverns.”
“He’s unconscious.” I tilted my head, looking inward.
Niko was right. I didn’t feel Cleon’s presence in my head at all. It was the first time in over two months where I was alone in my mind, except for the whispers I worked hard to ignore. Thrilled, I scrambled out of bed. Dizziness drove me to my knees. I took a deep breath and then stood.
“You have to take a message to someone,” I said to Niko anxiously.
“I can’t remember … who’s my boss? Is it you?” he replied. “No?”
Ignoring him, I scribbled down what I could recall of the visions onto a piece of notebook paper and ripped it out. “This is for the Silent Queen and Herakles.”
Niko remained seated beside my bed, occupied with his phone, unconcerned.
“Niko!” I snapped.
“I’m in the middle of a game of Angry Nymphs.”
“If you agree to do this, and we go now, I can un-freeze Theodocia.”
“She’s fine where she is.”
I struggled to come up with some reason, any reason that would motivate Niko to act. It was impossible to threaten someone who had one priority in life and I couldn’t get near what he cared about most. “What will it take for you to deliver this letter?” I asked finally.
“You have nothing I want.”
I chewed my bottom lip. Whether or not my visions would all come true, I had to warn Herakles and the Silent Queen about the apocalyptic vision while Cleon was unconscious.
How did I buy the loyalty of a mercenary, when I had nothing to …
My eyes fell to the Adonis statues on the mantle, and I gasped. “Gold,” I breathed. “How about gold?”
“It’d take more gold than you could hide in the pocket of one of your dresses,” Niko answered with a derisive snort.
“I can do that.”
He glanced up then back. “You can’t pay me from the Oracle’s treasury without Cleon finding out.”
“I won’t need to.” Crossing the room, I held out the letter. “Deliver this to the Silent Queen or Herakles, and I’ll pay you with a room full of gold.”
“That’s not how this works. I’ll need a substantial deposit to betray my current boss.”
I drew a breath and focused on an i
mage in my head of a trunk of gold appearing at the foot of my bed. The sound of another Mismatch statue clattering to the marble floor preceded Niko’s puzzled expression by a second. He stood and pushed me out of his path and strode to the trunk. He opened it, and I neared, holding my breath in anticipation.
“Really?” he asked and picked up one of the gold bars.
It was in the shape of Mismatch. All of the bars in the trunk were. My cheeks grew warm. “It’s gold, isn’t it?” I replied.
He replaced it. “You made it out of thin air?”
“It’s not exactly how it works,” I replied. “But yes, I used my power.”
Niko dropped the lid of the trunk and faced me, assessing my features intently. “What else can you do?”
“I’m still figuring that out, but pretty much anything I want to.”
“Then why don’t you escape?”
“Because Cleon’s mind has merged with mine. He can control my power, and he’s going to use it to control or blow up the world.” I held out the letter again. “You have to agree before Cleon wakes up. He can see and hear what I do and think now.”
Niko didn’t move.
Come on, I urged him silently.
At long last, when my hope faltered, he snatched the letter and started towards the door.
“Do you know where the army is?” I asked, trailing.
“I have an idea.”
“So did you purposely not capture the Silent Queen, or did you not know when you tried a couple of days ago?”
“I’ll send someone for the trunk,” he said over his shoulder. “Don’t show them what’s in it. I’m not the only mercenary in the ranks.” He opened and closed the door behind him.
Relieved, I stood in the center of my room, clutching my newest Mismatch statue and wondering if I had the ability to save him. The longer I was quiet, alone with my own mind, the more I wished I’d learned more about using my power from Cecelia, so when it came to the rare instance when Cleon wasn’t in my head, I could act. My thoughts returned to Herakles and the Silent Queen, somewhere outside the wall. If I could create a trunk of gold, and accidentally teleport myself places, could I intentionally leave DC?
I waited ten minutes to give Niko a head start then went to the door and opened it. The two guards outside shifted to intercept me. I stopped.
Gummy statues, I thought.
They solidified and froze. I hurried past them towards the foyer.
“Take me to the Silent Queen and Herakles,” I ordered quietly.
Nothing happened. I remained in my villa.
Irritated, I raced through the villa and went to the front door, willing the guards there to turn to gummy statues before I ripped the door open and hurried outside.
“Silent Queen and Herakles!” I said again, standing in the quiet night, beneath a dark sky. I breathed in the summer night, closed my eyes, and tried again. “Silent Queen.”
I felt the shift this time. The breeze changed direction, and the scent of the city faded, replaced by the earthy smells of the forest. My insides melted, and I sighed, unaware of how much I had missed the smell of my former home. How had I ever taken the peace and trees for granted?
I opened my eyes. Expecting an army encampment, I was perplexed when I saw not the smallest hint of civilization. I was in the middle of the forest. No glimmers of streetlights or other manmade sources of light pierced the darkness.
Had my power backfired? Where was I?
Gentle tapping reached me, and I strained my senses to identify where it came from. Finally, I looked up and yelped.
The creature peering down at me from its perch in a tree branch had bright blue eyes in a lopsided face. It was too small to be Mismatch. With the same sinewy musculature and gray skin, I quickly realized it wasn’t some sort of monster waiting to eat me.
“You scared me,” I said quietly. “It is you, Your Majesty. Isn’t it?”
She blinked at me, responding with an unhappy yowl before her voice rang out clearly in my mind.
How did you know?
“This is your royal curse, I believe,” I replied.
She leapt from the branch and landed lightly on her feet in front of me, her wings flaring out to soften her landing. A little taller than me, the Silent Queen’s nightmarish appearance made me back up a step.
It happens every night, she said, sounding uncertain. You know about this?
I laughed. “Yeah. There’s someone else like you out there. Same Bloodline and everything.”
She tilted her head to the side. Who?
“Adonis. Mismatch.”
What?
Surprised she didn’t already know, I explained their relationship quickly.
Her response was to utter several foul curses that reassured me Herakles was alive and well, if he were spreading his creative swearing to those around him.
“I don’t have much time,” I said, interrupting her angry outburst. “I kind of have to ask you something. I had a vision of the world ending, and I know what day it is, but …” I cleared my throat, uncertain how to ask a queen about her sex life when I’d never kissed anyone.
Did you say the world ending?
“Yeah. It’s, uh, on the day you give birth to … your kids,” I said awkwardly. “I don’t know what year that is, but it’s in fall, on a full moon.”
She was silent, still enough to resemble the stone statues her family turned into.
“Could be this year or maybe … whenever you … um. Have a boyfriend or something.”
I’m pregnant with twins now.
“Oh.” I was about to ask who the father was when I realized just how much that wasn’t my business. She was a queen. Who did the richest royal in the world date? “You wouldn’t happen to be due in fall, would you?”
I am.
“Wow.” Surprised this prediction was accurate, I fell into silence, thoughts on the other visions. Adonis dead. The apocalypse. Me frozen in the caverns. The walls breached. Was there a sequence to what I foresaw? At least two of the events appeared to happen on the same day, but I wasn’t able to tell when the others occurred.
Close to panicking, I clenched my hands together. Herakles would tell me to focus on what was in front of me, and to take everything one step at a time.
Just because the Silent Queen was pregnant, and due when my vision claimed she would be, it didn’t mean everything else would come true as I foresaw. Adonis wasn’t going to die.
What else did you foresee? The grotesque queen asked me.
I described the scene of her on the hilltop without mentioning my other two visions. She listened intently, tail flicking back and forth.
“I’m sorry there’s not more.” I looked around. “Where’s Herakles?”
At camp, hopefully. The Supreme Magistrate’s army attacked us on the way back to camp. I changed into this for the first time and panicked.
“You’re normal,” I assured her. “Relatively. I mean, normal for the Bloodline.”
She growled.
“Is Herakles okay?”
I don’t know.
I frowned, concerned about my former guardian.
How did you find me?
“I don’t really know,” I admitted. “I told my power to take me to you, so I could warn you, and it did. It’s not always this reliable.”
We have heard you are not well?
I cleared my throat. “I am, but Cleon used technology and favors from the gods to merge our minds.”
She was quiet for a moment. I assessed she was shocked. We had heard there was a problem, and he was able to influence you, but not to this extent.
“Well, it’s worse than you think. He can control my power, and I can’t stop him. I don’t know if I will have my mind and power completely under control by the time you attack the city.”
I’ll move up our schedule. I had planned a spring attack, but if you foresaw the walls coming down in four months, I’ll make it happen. In your original vision, there’s
a chance you weren’t able to warn me. In any case, a vision is not a guarantee of the future, only a warning.
Her confidence helped some of the tension release its grip around my chest. “Cleon believes he’s on some sort of mission to save the world, not just rule it. I think you should know he’s convinced the Oracle is the enemy, not the gods. He’s gone completely mad. If he murders her and fulfills the third trial ...”
He will have access to your full power. I understand. We will take precautions.
I didn’t exactly like the way that sounded. I doubted Herakles would allow anyone to harm me, but I was guessing the tough Silent Queen would do whatever she had to in order to achieve her goals. She was similar to Lantos and Cleon in this area – far more experienced in the political arena than I ever cared to become.
Should I have been more willing to sacrifice people in order to accomplish my goals? I wanted to think there were enough people like that in the world already. Too many of them, actually. Three people willing to sacrifice anyone and anything would strip this world bare.
I wanted to become something different, even if I didn’t know yet what form that took.
You have not completed the third trial yet?
“No. It’s why my power hasn’t completely manifested. When it happens, I may not be in control.”
I’m sorry. This was softer. I fear we are both facing challenges we never expected.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
We stood in comfortable quiet, each of us lost in our respective thoughts. I had only met the Silent Queen once, but I liked her a great deal from the single interaction. The politician side of her I was less certain about.
“Cleon has Theodocia,” I said, aware Cleon could awaken at any time. “She’s a prisoner at the House.”
The Silent Queen tensed. What of the rest of my insurgency?
“I don’t know.” I paced nervously. “I have to go. I want to check on Herakles before …”
Cleon stirred in my mind seconds before his voice rang out. Where are you?
I closed my eyes and silenced any thought I had about where I was and what I’d been thinking.
“Villa,” I breathed.
The breeze and scent of the forest dissipated, replaced by the quiet whir of the air conditioning and traces of pine cleaner left over from the maids.
