Avenging Heart

by Desni Dantone

  The demigod scoffed. “And Phisma and those fools that have stayed with him will be found. For being so wise, Phisma has made a terrible decision for them to stay together.”

  “They believe they have more strength together,” the burly Kala responded. “And wish for you to join them.”

  “They expect to pinpoint the location of Hecate’s daughter and her army by this evening,” another Kala added. “It will be safe once the threat is eliminated.”

  Even if no one could see it, I shook my head rapidly. They were close to finding us? But we had seen no indication of them getting close. I hoped they were wrong, but feared they were right.

  “Once she is subdued, I will join them,” the demigod snarled. “But not before. I fear Phisma has severely underestimated their strength. I am less of a target alone.”

  “As you wish,” the big Kala muttered. He set one of the bags of food on the table in front of her, and backed away timidly when she waved her hand in dismissal.

  The four Kala shared uneasy glances as they moved toward the door. I wondered what they were concerned about. Her choice to remain alone, without the protection of the other three demigods in the city?

  Because they had good reason to be concerned about that, I thought with a smile. Not that anyone could see it.

  I hadn’t known what to expect when I stepped onto that elevator. To determine the loyalties of the four Kala? To find out how many of them there were? If I was lucky, to learn the locations of the demigods without getting busted?

  I hit the jackpot. One demigod sat in front of me now, I’d learned the location of the other three in the city, and I knew that they were close to moving in on us. With the information I had gathered, we could take them all out within the next hour, and be well on our way to finding Hades’ demigods tonight.

  But first, I had to get out of there without being seen, and get some reinforcements.

  Because, despite having killed in the past, it wasn’t something I enjoyed. In fact, I hated it. So unless it was kill or be killed, I couldn’t fathom walking up to this demigod and stabbing her in the heart without her knowing what hit her.

  Despite having a perfectly suitable diamond-coated knife secured around my waist—something Nathan had insisted on before leaving our hideout this morning.

  Nathan was probably worried sick by now. I wouldn’t put it past him to have assembled the entire army to come get me by now. I needed to get back to the lobby before he blew our cover in an unnecessary rescue attempt.

  I started for the door after the Kala, but froze when the demigod stiffened, and swung her head in my direction.

  “Wait,” she called after the Kala. I glanced down to confirm my invisibility spell was still working. Her next words froze the relieved sigh on my lips. “She’s near.”

  One of the Kala stepped back into the room, forcing me to hurry out of the way to avoid a collision. “Who is near?”

  “The girl.” The demigod’s brow furrowed in confusion, and I wondered if she sensed me in the same manner I had sensed her—only she was thrown off by not being able to see me. “She’s here. Search the building.”

  Oh, no. Nathan.

  I was torn between dropping the invisibility right then and there so that I could call him with a warning, and trying to sneak out with the Kala on the elevator. But then, I didn’t want to lose sight of the demigod. If she thought she was in danger, she might flee . . . and perhaps take the others with her. Who knew how long it would take us to find them again?

  The four Kala hurried out of the room, leaving me alone with the demigod. She stood and approached a satchel set on top of a table on the opposite side of the room. She withdrew a vial filled with a sparkly red powder, and I cautiously backed away from the one thing that gave her an advantage over me.

  She wouldn’t attempt to kill me due to my important role in Circe’s curse, but she could certainly subdue me with Circe’s demigod-weakening compound in her hand.

  In a sudden move, she spun and hurled a cloud of powder at me. Her aim was off, and I easily stepped out of the path of the compound as it landed on the floor beside me.

  Her eyes lit up when they met mine. “There you are.”

  Her wrist snapped with another toss . . . straight at me, and I realized that I had dropped my invisibility in the chaos. In my hurry to get out of the powder’s path, I bumped the table behind me, and sent a glass vase to the floor with a crash.

  I sidestepped another blanket of red powder as I retrieved my knife from its hiding place. So much for getting out of this one with no more blood on my hands.

  “Sneaky little witch,” she growled as she tossed more powder at me, and missed. Her lips twisted into a sinister grin as she stared me down from across the room. Her arms dropped to her sides as if in defeat, but I knew better.

  I just didn’t know what she was up to.

  Until a breeze swept through my hair, and I realized that I was dealing with the demigod of air manipulation. Ophe—something. I didn’t have the time to remember as she collected the powder that had fallen to the floor into a sparkly red tornado in front of me.

  Seconds from being doused in it, I sprang into action. I made it two steps before a powerful gust of wind knocked me into the table. Broken glass rained down around me as I fell to the floor.

  I lifted my eyes, and sent her flying across the room with a nod of my head. An indent the size of her body was left in the wall when she crumbled to the floor. I was up and advancing on her before she managed to get to her knees.

  A wall of wind stopped my pursuit. I pushed against it, to no avail, as she rose to a stand in front of me. I couldn’t take a single step. Over my shoulder, the red tornado swirled closer.

  “Circe will be pleased I have managed to subdue you,” she taunted.

  “You haven’t done anything yet,” I returned.

  I lifted the knife in my hand as I pushed against the wind that had me trapped. Me . . . but not my magic.

  I took control of the knife with my mind, which was much more powerful than my body could ever be. The knife hovered beside me, long enough for the demigod’s eyes to widen in terror, before I thrust it forward, and straight into the center of her chest.

  The wind died and the tornado dispersed at the exact moment she dissipated. Exhausted from our battle, and depleted of energy from using my magic, I crumpled to the floor, barely avoiding the mound of powder that lay behind me.

  My hands shook as I retrieved the phone from my pocket and pulled up Nathan’s number.

  He answered on the first ring. “Kris?”

  “Penthouse,” I sighed. “Code is three-one-one.”

  “Kris!” He shouted as I dropped the phone to my lap.

  I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone hold a phone. As I allowed my eyes to drift shut, I vaguely registered the sound of the door banging against the wall as it flew open.

  That was fast . . .

  I glanced up to face Nathan’s wrath, but instead was met by the sneers of four Kala, and a red cloud tossed in my face.

  I recognize where I am . . . because I have been here once before. Not in real life. In a dream, like this one. Only this time, I am not alone. Something waits for me in the shadows. Something I don’t want to find me. Something I don’t want to learn the identity of, because knowing will strike me down with fear.

  Fog covers the ground at my feet, limiting my already restricted vision in the dark, cramped space. My hands on the cold stone wall guide me to where I know I need to go. I escape the enclosure, and avoid the pursuit of whatever hunts me. When the iron bars and her face appear before me, I know exactly who I am searching for.

  “Mom?” I whisper.

  “We can’t move her like this . . .”

  “We don’t know how many more might show up . . .”

  “We can’t stay here . . .”

  “Then leave! I’m staying with her!”

  The hard edge to Nathan’s voice pulled me through the haze
, and back to the penthouse sitting room where he, Alec, Jared, and Isatan stood over me. Both Nathan and Isatan appeared ready to throw punches, so I figured it was a good time to make my newly awakened presence known.

  “Hey . . .” I croaked.

  Nathan immediately dropped to a knee by my head. “What happened?”

  “I killed the demigod. Those four Kala are here somewhere,” I warned.

  “We took care of them.”

  “Oh. Good . . .”

  I grip the bars that separate her from me. With my face pressed against the cool metal, I can see her warm smile.

  “At last . . .” she says. “You have found me.”

  I pull on the bars as if my super-human strength can pull them apart. When that fails, I ask, “How can I get you out?”

  “You cannot,” she responds. “I cannot leave. I will not leave as long as the curse placed on me remains.”

  “But I need you! I can’t do this alone.”

  Her hand slips between the bars to touch my face. “You can, and you will. It has been prophesized. You will bring an end to the hybrid race.”

  “Kris!”

  I jerked back to the room, and blinked away the darkness.

  “Which demigod did you destroy?” Isatan barked from behind Nathan.

  “Wind . . .” I couldn’t recall her name.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because she made a damn tornado in the room!” I fired at him, then winced from the stabbing pain behind my eyes. The room blurred, and I thought I was about to slip out again, but Nathan’s voice held me there.

  “It’s okay,” he crooned. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

  “Wait. The other demigods,” I started in a rush. “They’re hiding . . . Archaia Korinthos. And they . . .”

  The rest of my warning trailed off as the darkness returned, and this time I couldn’t help but go to where I was called.

  “We don’t have much time,” my mother says desperately.

  “I have to go back,” I plead. “I have to warn them . . .”

  “Yes, but first . . . listen. You will be the one to end the war as the prophecy states.”

  “How?”

  “Continue your present path.”

  I shake my head rapidly. My goal is not to end the war, but to save Callie. And free Alec and me from our destiny. “What about Circe? Her curse?”

  My mother trailed a delicate finger over my face. “You must come for me. I can help you. That is the only way.”

  “I don’t know how to find you.”

  Her beautiful face contorts into a frown. “The stars have aligned. The way will show itself to you soon.”

  I want to ask how I will know, but I am temporarily distracted. Her slender fingers graze my cheek in the way that I had witnessed other parents love their children. I always envied those children. Though Gran had been a fantastic caregiver to me, far better than all my foster parents combined, I still missed a mother’s touch. Not just any mother’s touch, but my mother’s touch.

  I sink into it like I don’t want it to ever end . . . even if it is only in a fantasy dream world.

  “You must go, child . . .”

  “No . . .”

  “You will know when it is time to come to me. You can succeed in freeing me where the others have failed.”

  “I don’t want to go,” I plead as the cell bars begin to warp and fade. I reach for her, but come up with nothing. She is already gone.

  I am sitting in my old room in Boone, staring at the screen of my small television while the familiar scene from a romantic comedy plays out.

  “What the hell?” I mutter to myself, then spin toward the voice beside me.

  “Here . . .” Callie holds a vial of nail polish out to me. She’s sitting beside me on the bed, her legs bent in front of her, and balls of cotton stuck between her newly polished toes.

  I nearly tackle her out of pure excitement, but hold back. I am not sure if she is the real Callie, or the sheltered Callie, the one with no recollection of what has happened outside of dream-world.

  “So how is your quest going?” she asks impassively. When I hesitate, she turns to smile at me. “Have you saved me yet?”

  Okay. So I am with real Callie. “Not yet,” I respond. “But we will.”

  “I know you will.” She wraps both arms around my neck in a tight embrace. Into my ear, she whispers, “But right now, you need to wake up.”

  My grip on her tightens. Not another person I love trying to kick me out of my pleasant dreams. “I want to stay here with you.”

  “You can’t. You need to wake up, Kris,” she repeats urgently. “Wake up . . .”

  Chapter 9

  There was a long terrifying moment after I woke up that I didn’t know where I was. Dream-jumping could do that, I had come to realize.

  As the familiar ache settled between my shoulder blades, and I registered the glow coming from my magically constructed fireball, I realized that I was back in the basement of the hotel. On my hastily prepared, and extremely uncomfortable, bed.

  As I stretched to alleviate the stiffness that always followed sleeping on the floor, my eyes landed on Alec’s, where he laid a few feet away on his own heap of blankets.

  “You’re awake,” I whispered so as not to wake the others.

  He shrugged. “You were talking in your sleep. Everything okay?”

  I hesitated as I rolled his question around in my head. Once the fog of sleep lifted, the answer came to me, and I lurched forward to scan the bodies spread out across the basement floor. Several blanket piles were vacant, including the one on the other side of mine. “Where is everyone? Where’s Nathan?”

  Alec grimaced as he pushed himself into a sitting position. I recognized that face—the face of not wanting to tell me the truth.

  “Alec? What’s going on?”

  He gazed at me with an intensity that only made my heart gallop faster. “A few of them went to attack the demigods where you said they were hiding. Isatan didn’t want to wait any longer . . .” He shrugged as if to soften the blow he knew his words would have on me.

  I could do the math. Our two demigods to their three . . . without the assistance of my magic to make up the difference. Nathan was with them—and virtually defenseless against demigods.

  Damn that Isatan.

  My head swirled from the gravity of the situation—so much so that I couldn’t piece together the rest of what was floating around in there. Something else important. The fog from my vivid dream blanketed my mind, making it hard for me to concentrate, to remember.

  One thing was certain. I knew we were in danger. Not only did I know it, but I felt it growing in my gut. Like a bad bellyache.

  Lillian plopped down beside Alec. “Everything okay?” she asked as she glanced back and forth between Alec and me.

  “Kris just woke up,” Alec explained, while I muttered, “No. Nothing is okay.”

  I shook my head to break up the fog. Callie . . . my mother . . . I needed to find my mother? In the Underworld? Bits and pieces of my conversation with Nathan slowly came to the surface. Isatan knew where to find the demigods because I had told him where they were hiding . . .

  But the dream had taken me before I could tell him that the demigods were close to finding us.

  My head snapped up to meet Alec’s eyes. “They’re coming. We have to get everyone up, and get out of here!”

  “What?” Despite the uncertainty in Alec’s voice, he scrambled to his feet. He glanced around the room, at the shadowed lumps sleeping on the floor around us. “How do you know that, Kris?”

  “They planned to have our location tonight. And . . .” I jumped to my feet beside him, then shook my head because I didn’t know how I knew. I just did. “I can feel them.”

  No further explanation was needed. Alec sounded a warning that startled even me. But it worked. Around us, a dozen hybrids sprung to their feet, ready for action.

  Several looked at m
e for explanation, but I didn’t have one. All I had was instinct.

  But then the ground beneath us shook, and I knew I didn’t need to explain. The answer to all their unspoken questions had arrived.

  ~ ~ ~

  ~ Nathan ~

  The ancient Corinth monuments lay on the coast, far from our own hideout. Twelve of us approached them in silence, with the aid of night vision goggles. We bypassed the visitor’s information booth, which was shut down for the night, and stepped lightly across the pebble covered ground.

  Three towers rose above us, immersing us in deep shadows. Beyond the towers, the monument opened into a partially erect, two-thousand-year-old amphitheater. Across the opening, archways were chiseled into what remained of the structure. Five tunnels . . . all led to the unknown.

  We slowed to deliberate our best route.

  Jared caught my gaze. “Take the lead as tracker,” he commanded in a hushed voice.

  With a nod, I began to search for traces of the demigods. Given my specialty in tracking, it didn’t take me long to find footprints. Several led through the archway to the far right, while only three distinctive sets of tracks led to the archway in the middle.

  I pointed them out to Isatan.

  “This way,” he ordered. “Nathan, keep the lead.”

  At the threshold, my hand shot up to stop the others behind me. Jared came to my side as I pointed out the tripwire at our feet. Bruce’s hands followed it along the wall, to where it stopped.

  “Device rigged with Circe’s compound,” Bruce announced quietly. “No explosives.”

  “Keep moving,” Isatan barked. Even in a whisper, his voice was demanding.

  I reclaimed the lead, and guided the team through the short tunnel and into a tight, enclosed room with three separate passageways for us to choose from. It took only seconds to find the tracks on the chipped concrete floor. We entered a smaller tunnel, and inched farther into the compound.

  My eyes darted to the ground every few steps, constantly scanning for more traps, but I found none. For some reason, that only made me more nervous.