by Lucy Roy
“How are you feeling this morning? Is Nathaniel giving you one last pep talk?”
I forced a smile on my face. “I—yes, he is. I’m not sure how much it’s helping, though.”
Zeus let out a laugh and patted my shoulder. “No need to be nervous. I’ve heard from your trainers that you’re doing well. You even bested Epimetheus in a fight, correct?”
I let out a nervous laugh. “I think he might’ve been going a little easy on me.”
“Nonsense! Prometheus says you’re a promising fighter. I’m eager to see what you can do. Now, let’s begin, shall we?” He arched a brow at Nate. “Nathaniel, it’s time to let go now.”
Nate leaned down so he was eye level with me, then put one hand on either side of my face and kissed me.
“Good luck,” he whispered. ‘I’m going to show Apollo your dream and see what he can make of it.’
I gave him a weak smile and nodded.
As if I needed anything else to worry about.
“You’re gonna do great, Tess,” Mary said wrapping her arms around my waist.
Yana squeezed my shoulder. “Yes, I think we might have to find some wine tonight so we can celebrate.” She eyed Nate. “I suppose he can come.”
“Thanks,” he said, laughing.
Mary and Yana followed Nate up the stairs to take seats in the first row. I was about to head over to Athena, Ares, and Chiron for instruction when Hera stopped me.
“Tessa, a moment please?”
“Oh, um, sure.” I smiled and let her lead me to a spot about ten feet away. “How are you?”
“I’m well.” She cast a quick glance in Nate’s direction before facing me. “I take it you’ve made a decision about my Nathaniel?”
“Yes, I have.”
She clasped her fingers in front of her. “You’re certain of your choice?”
“Completely,” I responded, forcing as much conviction into my voice as possible.
A smile spread across her lovely face. “I’m happy to hear that.” She reached out and took my hands, her delicate fingers wrapping tightly around mine. “As I said, you seem like a very nice girl. You’ve brought something out of Nathaniel that I haven’t seen in some time.”
“I appreciate you saying that. He really does mean the world to me.”
“Good. I’m glad you were able to get past his mistakes.”
“I am, too.”
She gave my hands a quick squeeze before letting go. “Good luck, Tessa. I’m sorry my insufferable husband is making you go through this farce.”
“It’s okay. It’s better to know what I can do now, right?”
She laughed, then patted me on the cheek. “Whatever you say, dear. Now, off you go. You’ll be starting in just a few moments.”
With one last smile, she went and joined her family.
I blew out a heavy breath, then made my way to my trainers.
I grinned at Chiron. “I didn’t expect to see you here today,” I said.
He laughed. “I’ve missed seeing your progress. Ares and Athena have kept me up to speed, but I wanted to see how you were doing myself.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. One more friendly face definitely helps.”
“You’ll always have my support Tessa,” he said, squeezing my shoulder.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile, then turned to Ares and Athena. “So, how is this going to play out?”
“It’s nothing too complex,” Athena said. “You’ll do a bit of weaponry work, but Zeus isn’t terribly concerned about that, considering your Psychometric ability. Aside from that, you’ll be pitted against mentors to show what you can do with your powers. You’ll want to be sure to use as wide a range as possible.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “So what’s first?”
“Weapons,” Ares said, tossing me a staff. “We’ll stick with this since it’s what you’re most proficient in. After that, it will be up to you to determine which powers to use to defend yourself.”
“Got it.” I turned the weapon over in my hands, checking it over for splinter or cracks. “Who am I fighting first?”
“That would be me,” Prometheus said, coming to a stop next to me.
I gaped at him, then looked back to Ares and Athena. “You said mentors!”
Athena laughed. “A wide range of opponents is the best way to demonstrate your skills.”
“This sounds like a terrible idea.”
“It’s really quite a good one,” Prometheus said. “It was Epimetheus’ idea, actually.”
I arched a brow at his quiet brother, who just shrugged. I put my hands on my hips and faced Prometheus. “You’re about a thousand times better than I am.”
“You fought my brother, Ares, and Athena yesterday. There’s no need to be fearful of me.”
“Your brother didn’t fight me, he let me win… even if he won’t admit it. Ares and Athena kicked my ass. How could I possibly demonstrate my abilities against someone who’s probably going to lay me out in five seconds?”
“Because you’re not going to let me lay you out in five seconds.” He took the second staff from Ares and walked to the middle of the field.
Athena came over and put her arm around me. “I’ve seen you fight, Tessa, and so has he,” she whispered. “We wouldn’t pit you against him if we didn’t think you could handle it.”
“You guys put way too much faith in me,” I replied, trying desperately to squash my aching case of nerves.
“Never,” she said. She gave me a small push. “Now go. And remember, use your powers. You’ll want to show your skill with a weapon, certainly, but don’t ever feel restricted by it. Your powers are weapons, too.”
“Got it. Power is my weapon.” I rolled my neck and let out a few cracks, then walked onto the field to where Prometheus was waiting for me, grinning.
“Don’t look so nervous, Tessa. The staff isn’t my normal weapon, so you’ve got a leg up there. Just look at this as no more than a sparring session. A scrimmage.”
“No, I know, it’s just that you’re really big and scary.”
“And my twin wasn’t?”
“No.”
He barked out a laugh, then looked over my shoulder. I looked back and saw that all the bystanders had taken seats and were waiting for us to begin. Nathaniel had taken a seat just behind Apollo. Both wore tense expressions, so I assumed Nate had told him about my dream.
“Ignore them,” Prometheus whispered. “Just treat this as another practice session and focus on me.”
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered. I lifted my weapon and got into a fighting stance.
“Let’s begin!” Zeus bellowed from his place in the front row.
“Alright, Tessa. Let’s show them what you’ve got.”
Without warning, Prometheus swung one end of his staff up toward my face. I barely got my own up in time to avoid a bruised jaw. I scowled, then responded with an upward thrust to the sternum, aiming for the soft area just between his ribs.
He grinned as he dodged the hit, and we began moving at a rapid pace. He landed several blows, but I pushed back just as hard. He was far more skilled than his twin. I felt bruises bloom and heal all over my body. I could tell quickly that there was no way I’d be winning this fight without using my powers.
Finally, when he had me pinned by the neck to the wall, he sighed. “Now would be a good time to start using those powers.”
I tossed my weapon aside, then pressed my hand to his chest and let out a bolt of green electricity. I heard Yana let out a whoop as she saw her own power shoot from my hands.
Prometheus fell back, wincing as he clutched his chest. “There’s a girl.” He dropped his hands and advanced on me, his singed shirt still smoking.
I pulled moisture from the air and let it fall onto the sandy floor, then froze it under his feet. As he jumped aside to avoid slipping, I began moving toward the center of the arena.
Hands latched onto me from behind. Reaching up, I flipped my attacke
r over my back, then used the power of Earth to open the ground beneath her. The crevasse I formed caused Genevieve to stumble, then quickly right herself.
I glared at her, then a swirling tornado surrounded her, holding her in place. I threw a whip of fire around her ankles, pulling her to her knees. The second she hit the ground, she went invisible. Surprised, my grip on the whip loosened and I lost focus on the small cyclone.
Suddenly, she was on top of me, pinning me to the ground and knocking the wind out of me. I gave a hard shove, knocking her backward, then used my telekinesis to send her sliding twenty feet down the arena floor.
Prometheus was back up, and he’d been joined by Charlise. Genevieve jumped up, and the three stalked toward me. Alex joined them, freezing the ground beneath my feet, causing me to focus hard on not falling. I fired off a handful of fire bullets, breaking his focus long enough for me to melt the frozen ground. Genevieve cracked a whip of fire toward me, and I met it with a water whip of my own, then hit her with a blast of Coercion, halting her in her tracks.
Just as I finished dispatching her, images of those I loved flickered around me.
Everywhere I looked I was confronted by the faces of John and Analise, Mary, Yana, Eric, Leila, Josh, and Nate. I spun, unsure who I needed to take out in order to break the illusion. Charlise was right in front of me, but Olivette had just walked onto the field, too.
I was jolted from the side as another body crashed into me, knocking me to the ground.
“Don’t let the illusions distract you,” Epimetheus whispered as he wrapped me in a headlock. “Ignore them.”
I went invisible, and his arms loosened just a hair, allowing me to slip through. I threw a gust of wind that sent him sailing to the other side of the arena, then did the same for Olivette, causing the illusions to flicker out. As Genevieve started back up with her fire whip, I responded by dousing her with icy water. When Charlise tried to take over my body with a mind link, I used Coercion to force her back out.
I felt a sharp sting on my ear. I spun around and saw Athena coming toward me with her bow and arrow, a second arrow already nocked.
Shit. They weren’t messing around.
She aimed and fired three more silver arrows, nicking my arm and leg, tearing holes in my uniform. Taking a gamble, I used telekinesis to pull the bow out of her hands, then I tossed it into the upper level of the arena. She glared at me, but I thought I saw a hint of admiration.
I didn’t know how long I’d been fighting when Charlise finally caught me in a trap of illusions. One moment, I was preparing to fight off yet another attack by Prometheus, and the next, I was surrounded by a dozen mirror images of my former mentor.
I rushed forward, but a gale force wind pushed me back. I turned in the opposite direction and was met with the same resistance. Clearly, she was getting help from Genevieve’s wind power. I tried to use Coercion to get into Gen’s head, but this time, it was locked down tight.
Still feeling the pressure of Genevieve’s wind on all sides, I racked my mind for things that could break Charlise’s illusion.
“Having trouble, Tessa?”
Charlise’s sweet southern drawl sounded almost menacing. Her words echoed off one another, like too many radios playing the same station at once.
“There aren’t many things that can shatter an illusion, you know.”
I spun in a circle, examining each version of the blond-haired mentor before me. “Care to enlighten me?”
“Look around, Tessa. Who holds the most powerful weapon in this arena, aside from you?”
Frantically, I scanned the scant number of onlookers. Ares and Athena used physical weapons, Nate’s Coercion clearly wasn’t an option, Hera had nothing to offer, and Mary, Yana, and the mentors all had powers I had easy access to but were useless on illusions.
Then suddenly, I knew.
I looked between two of Charlise’s illusions and saw Zeus sitting in the front row, arms folded across his chest.
I felt a smile pull at the corners of my mouth.
“‘Atta girl,” Charlise whispered, sounding pleased.
Then with all my strength, I forced out a thunderbolt of blue lightning that sent a shockwave through the entire arena, destroying the images of Charlise that surrounded me.
A look of shock came across Zeus’ face as he and the rest of the onlookers were thrown back in their seats.
Before I could rejoice at my success, I felt a ripping sensation. Everything inside of me shattered, as though the lightning was splintering my soul into a thousand pieces.
Daggers of pain tore through my mind, causing me to stumble. I bent at the waist and gripped the sides of my head, trying to will it all away, but the emotion, the feeling of it all began to overwhelm me. Something crawled from my subconscious, a memory of someone that had long been forgotten, and beat against me, digging into my brain like railroad spikes. It was strong, familiar, and really freaking determined.
I tried to open my eyes, but each time I dragged them open, all I saw was blinding blue light. Visions began to flood my consciousness, no more than rapid flashes of light and color, but they were pulling me under.
Strong arms caught me as I fell to my knees.
Something hot sparked all around me, sending vicious pain across my skin. The arms that had caught me fell away.
“Zeus!”
I tried to focus on the voices that were yelling nearby, but the pain was too much.
I reached out for something to lean on but found nothing.
Instead, I fell, crashing to the sandy floor, and slowly began to fade into darkness.
45
Nathaniel
The shockwave from Tessa’s burst of power rippled through the arena, sending all of us slamming against the backs of our seats. Everyone in the stands sat, stunned, as we watched my father’s lightning dance across her body. Charlise, who’d been standing next to Tessa and had attempted to catch her as she fell, lay unconscious on the ground beside her. The moment she’d touched Tessa, she’d been shocked with the full force of my father’s lightning. It would take days for her to heal from that.
There was a beat of silence before anyone reacted.
Slowly, Zeus stood. He swayed, then put a hand out to steady himself on the rail in front of him. Hera sat beside him, her head clutched in her hands. A soft whimper sounded from below me, and I looked down to see Athena leaning against the arena wall rubbing her temples, her bow and arrow lying on the ground beside her.
“Athena, what is it?”
“Something hurts,” she murmured, squeezing her eyes shut. “My head—” Her eyes sprung open and met mine. “We need to go to her.” Her voice quavered, and I thought I saw a hint of fear in the set of her mouth.
“This is not how this was supposed to happen,” Apollo murmured, sounding resigned. I noticed he was one of the few who didn’t appear to be in pain. “Come on, Nathaniel.”
Before I could voice my anger, he stood and hurried down the steps toward Tessa. I followed, and I was quickly joined by Athena, her hand tucked tightly in mine as she pulled me after him.
We’d nearly reached Tessa when Zeus leapt over the rail and stormed forward.
“How in all the realms was this girl able to use my power?” Zeus roared, taking several unsteady steps toward Tessa’s still form.
“She’s a Mimic, Father. What did you expect?” Athena rubbed her forehead as Zeus came to stand beside us. “Gods, that hurt.”
“Get her up,” Zeus snapped. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Tessa groaned, and slowly struggled to her hands and knees as the lightning continued to roll over her.
Before I could move toward her, Apollo gripped me by the shoulders and pulled me back.
“She’s still channeling his power, Nathaniel. You can’t touch her.”
I spun around, turning my back on Tessa as I glared at him in disbelief. I pushed him back toward the arena wall. “Can you tell us all what’s wrong with he
r now, Apollo? Or does your interdiction prevent that, too?” I shoved him again, and he did nothing to stop me.
Zeus stepped in front of me before I could go after him again.
“What is he talking about?”
Apollo opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a quiet voice.
“Tessa?”
I tore my gaze from them as Epimetheus approached.
His voice was almost childlike as he moved slowly toward Tessa. When he reached her, he sucked in a breath, one hand covering his mouth.
Then he fell to his knees beside her. Tears began to run down his cheeks as he slowly moved one shaking hand toward her.
Prometheus reached out a hand to stop him.
“Epimetheus, you can’t—” His hand stopped in midair, and his eyes grew wide as he stared down at the pair.
Hesitantly, Epimetheus rubbed one hand up and down Tessa’s arm, using the other to cup her cheek. He winced, but the electricity that had been sparking all around her slowly began to still.
“There you go,” he whispered, stroking her arm and pulling her to her knees. “Take it back in.”
Her green eyes fluttered open, and she smiled.
“Epimetheus,” she breathed, leaning forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her and pressed his cheek to her head.
When he looked to his twin, his eyes were full of tears and wide with disbelief. “You see her, don’t you, Prometheus? It’s really her?” His voice was full of hope.
“How is this possible?” Prometheus’ voice came out as a harsh whisper. He turned his eyes on Zeus. “My memories—” His voice turned cold. “How?”
I frowned, unable to tear my eyes from Epimetheus’ emotional display.
“I think we should take this back to the palace,” Apollo said, his tone urgent.
Prometheus grabbed his arm and glared at him. “I am not going anywhere until you answer me.” He jabbed a finger toward Tessa. “How is this possible? This girl has been in front of us for weeks!”
Apollo jerked his arm from the Titan’s grasp. “There’s a very complex answer to that, Prometheus. The short answer is a spell. Several, actually. The long answer will take a bit more time to explain.”
