“Come on,” Bella said, pulling me away. “I’ll show you your room.”
We went up the staircase to the second floor, which consisted of three hallways: one to the front of us, and one to each side. Bella started down the one before us and I followed.
The hall was dark and when I looked up, I realized there weren’t any lights. But Bella seemed to know where she was going, so I didn’t say anything.
At the end of the hall, Bella set the suitcase she was carrying on the floor and jumped up in the air to catch a hanging string. She pulled the string and a staircase dropped down - she was leading me to the attic.
Light flooded from the ceiling and Bella began to climb. I offered to take both my suitcases, but she refused and pushed one of them up in front of her. She had a really, really nice ass.
Once at the top of the stairs, all I could do was let out a low whistle. The attic was really more of a penthouse - there was a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a big screen TV. Not to mention the ten-foot window in the living room with a great view of a set of fields and… a training ground?
“Isn’t it the BEST?” Bella said excitedly, noticing my widened eyes. “Blaise said you wouldn’t like it, but I was like, dude, I grew up in America. Everyone likes huge TVs. You’ll
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never believe how much fun it is to play video games on. Blaise tried to play them with me, but he sucks - all British boys do. It’s totally an American thing. You up for a game?!”
I looked at Bella; it took me a minute to realize what she was so excited about. I was too busy getting completely stoked on my view of the training ground. There was an archery ring and everything.
“You’re into video games?” I asked flatly. Bella grinned and threw herself on my new leather couch. “I’ve been waiting for you ever since I moved back to England. It’s just not as fun playing by yourself, or with a guy who you know is gonna get his ass kicked.”
“I’ve known you less than 24 hours and you are already the coolest girl I’ve ever met,” I said, sitting down next to her.
“Oh, just wait,” she teased, handing me a controller. “My zombies are gonna kick your zombies’ asses!”
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Chapter Ten
“Aw, what’s the matter, Zac?” Bella taunted, leaning on her training sword. “Fighting a girl a little too rough on you?”
“This is your first fight for the day,” I said, taking a few deep breaths. “I’ve been kicking ass all day.”
“Uh-huh,” she teased. “Let’s take a break. I could use a snack.” I followed her inside.
I’d been living in the old orphanage for about five months now. It was mid-October, and Blaise had me on a rigorous training schedule that meant I woke up early in the morning, trained, ate, trained, ate, and then trained some more. A few weeks into the program he’d consented to giving me the weekends to recover, but only at Bella’s begging. We were getting to be pretty close.
Since I’d gotten comfortable, I’d started experiencing the
“hiccups” Blaise had told me about. Sometimes they lasted for hours. Everything around me would freeze or run in reverse. I often interrupted Blaise and Bella to tell them I already knew what they were going to say for the next ten minutes.
“Your swordsmanship is improving,” Bella said, handing me a bottle of water, “but your archery could use a little work.
We should start on that next.”
“I don’t understand why I need to know all this shit,” I said, laying my sweaty face on the cool marble countertop in the kitchen.
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“You probably don’t,” Bella said with a shrug, taking a long drink of her water. “But Lu has been insisting on it.”
“Who exactly is Lu?” I asked, sitting up. I’d heard his name mentioned quite a few times since I’d come to England, but no one would answer my questions about him. I knew he was the head of the Core and that he had been for thousands of years, but I didn’t know why. Bella frowned and looked around the room to make sure we were alone.
“He’s our leader,” she said. “Blaise isn’t the top of the food chain, though he is up there. No one talks about Lu because it’s dangerous. He has the worst temper you could ever imagine.”
“Oh, that’s it? How come I’ve never met him? And the apple said he’d been our leader for like, thousands of years.”
Bella shrugged. “I guess he doesn’t want you to know who he is. He’s a scary guy, you know. I’ve had to see him in meetings, and he scares the hell out of me. He scares Blaise, too.
As for him being our leader for so long… He’s Divine, but that’s kind of all we know.”
“So he must have been one of the first to find the Core, right?”
“He was the first. He is the founder of the Core. He was cast from the Palace, but we don’t know why. He never talks about it. I’ve always assumed he was a Ghost that pissed off a god, but I guess he could actually be a god. Probably a minor Greek or Roman, I would guess. Maybe a child of Hades.”
Bella had gotten a little more comfortable. I still wondered why everyone was afraid of Lu. He just sounded like a jerk to me.
Suddenly Bella stood up straight and set her jaw, her eyes hard.
“Good afternoon, Lu,” she said quietly. I turned around on my stool to see a man standing behind me. He was quite tall, with darkly tanned skin and short black hair. His eyes had no pupils – they were big, round, cream-colored light bulbs inside his skull. They set off an eerie glow around his face, his skin and hair making them stand out even more. It was kind of like looking
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into the sun – it hurt, but it was hard to look away. When he spoke, his voice was soothing but commanding.
“I know, I know,” he said with a smile, “you were just talking about me.”
“This is the Seeker,” Bella said, her words running together.
“I know,” Lu said, his smile widening. He put a hand so cold on my shoulder it burned. I bit my tongue, afraid to move.
“It is good to see you. I have waited a long time for a Seeker as worthy as you. Are you coming, tonight? To my conference?”
Hearing Lu say a word like “conference” was strange. His voice seemed old-fashioned and his eyes were surreal; if I saw him at a computer, I’d be certain he was wearing a Halloween costume.
“We were just about to talk about that,” Bella answered for me. I looked at her and her stare answered my question. She wasn’t going to tell me about the conference, but now that Lu had mentioned it, I was sure as hell going.
“I will see you tonight, then,” Lu said, finally removing his icy hand from my shoulder. It still burned, but it was a hollow burn, like when your hands are numb and you put them under hot water. I looked back where Lu had been, but he’d already disappeared.
“See what happens when you ask unnecessary questions?” Bella snapped. I could tell she was angry, but I didn’t really see why. I now understood why Lu was so creepy, but it didn’t seem to me like he’d done anything mean.
“Bella, relax,” I laughed nervously, hoping to break the tension. She gritted her teeth and stalked out of the kitchen. I didn’t know if she wanted me to follow her, but I did anyway.
“You just don’t give up, do you?” she said with an angry laugh.
“I don’t understand why you’re pissed at me,” I said honestly. “All I did was ask a question. And I am the Seeker; shouldn’t I be going to conferences?”
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“You’re so ignorant,” Bella said quietly, stopping and turning to look at me. “You have no idea who Lu is. You have no idea what you’re actually training to do.”
“Kill Sagittarius?” I questioned.
“It’s so much more than that,” Bella whispered, putting her hand on my cheek. “You’re ending the natural order of things.
&nbs
p; You’re giving us all free will. These conferences… they’re brutal.
It’s not just us sitting around a table talking shop.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s us… it’s us sitting in a classroom, learning shop. I didn’t want you to see any of it. Blaise didn’t want you to, either.
But I guess you will, tonight.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the “conference” but I sure as hell wasn’t expecting what I saw. Bella was right; it was a learning experience, and it was a brutal one.
I learned that the old orphanage we’d been living in wasn’t the headquarters; it was just where everyone lived (except Lu). The real headquarters was an abandoned warehouse turned college classroom/gladiator arena. The warehouse was a huge, empty room with a track running around it, suspended about thirty feet in the air. The bottom part had been filled with sand and had two sets of bleachers on each side. The upper track was crowded with excited people whom Bella identified as lesser members of the Core. The bleachers were almost as packed, but with the members who lived in the orphanage with me. I spotted Blaise, and Bella and I squeezed onto the bench next to him.
“I heard Lu invited Zac,” Blaise said to Bella as if I weren’t even there. Bella nodded.
“Zac was asking questions about Lu. He must have overheard.”
“Whatever you see,” Blaise said, leaning over Bella to look at me, “remember that these people are fighting against us.
They started the war when they kicked Lu out of the Palace, when they created the Signs.”
Blaise left his explanation at that, and I sat confused and curious. After a few minutes, I heard a horn blow and Bella
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grabbed my hand, squeezing it tight. I looked at her but her eyes were glued to the center of the sand pit.
I followed her gaze to see Lu standing in the middle of the pit with no shoes and only a pair of shorts on. He smiled at all of us, his cream-colored eyes glowing brighter and brighter as the lights dimmed. In a few seconds, I realized the lights were completely off – Lu’s eyes were lighting the entire arena. Bella squeezed my hand even tighter.
“Evening, followers,” Lu called. “Tonight is our weekly conference, where you will learn how to fight the members of the Palace.”
Lu closed his eyes and the warehouse was suddenly completely dark. When he opened them, they were shining on a very tall, very muscular man in the corner of the arena. He was in chains and looked really pissed off.
“This, ladies and gentlemen,” Lu began, “is a member of the Palace.”
The crowd, mostly from the upper track, erupted in boos and curses. The man in chains pulled his upper lip back, exposing his teeth. The light from Lu’s eyes glinted off them in a very unnatural way. Lu closed his eyes again and when he opened them, they were shining on the opposite side of the arena to another man I’d seen in the orphanage. He was rather buff, though I had never sparred with him and didn’t know how good he was.
“For those of you who do not like learning all various types of combat,” Lu said, blinking his eyes and suddenly lighting the whole arena with them again, “you should come to conferences more often. Remember that every member of the Palace is different, from a different time period, with different skills. They will fight you how they know best, and sometimes that is with a sword, or a bow, or a fist.”
Lu shut his eyes again and when the room was lit a few seconds later, he was nowhere to be seen. Bella suddenly grabbed my shoulder and buried her face in the crook of my neck.
“I can’t watch these,” she choked. Blaise met my eyes sympathetically and patted his sister on the back. I put my arm
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around Bella (happily) and watched the arena, interested to see what was freaking her out.
The man in chains was now unchained, and he was circling the other man.
“Try your powers, now, god of thunder!” I heard someone shout from the upper track. I looked up and realized the speaker was a young redheaded boy with way too many freckles and huge black glasses. He had a Thor comic clutched in his hand.
The man from the Palace looked up and bellowed an angry roar at the little kid, who simply sneered and tore up the comic book. The man from the Core took this opportunity to attack the Palace guy.
“Yeah, that’s right, the ring is protected!” the kid shouted, the pieces of his comic fluttering down to the sandy floor.
” Ragnar! ” the Palace guy screamed. He was on top of the Core dude for barely a second before the tables were turned and the Palace guy had blood spurting from his nose. He screamed again for this mysterious Ragnar, and suddenly a seven-foot-tall man with long blonde hair and a really dorky looking Greek costume suddenly appeared inside the ring with a loud pop!
Bella’s head snapped up from my shoulder and she stared into the ring, shocked. There was an uproar from all over the arena and Lu appeared inside it.
“YOU!” the Palace guy shouted, pointing at Lu. The man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Ragnar, took Lu by the neck from behind and lifted him into the air. Lu looked quite calm as the Palace guy stalked towards him, knocking out the Core dude with one mighty blow from his fist.
“You’re cheating, Thor,” Lu said calmly. “No Ghosts allowed, that’s the rule.”
“You will die, Luci-” the Palace guy was interrupted when Lu put his hand on the guy’s face. He began to scream as a blindingly white light spread from Lu’s fingers, setting the guy’s head on fire. A look of intense panic spread across Ragnar’s face and he dropped Lu, who let his hand fall from the Palace guy’s
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face. Ragnar put his hand on the guy’s shoulder and with a deafening crack of thunder, they both disappeared.
“Blaise,” Bella whispered desperately. “It’s starting.”
“I know,” Blaise said, his eyes wide. He was staring at Lu, who was staring back. “It’s time.”
“What just happened?” I asked blankly. Bella looked at me.
“There isn’t supposed to be any magic inside this warehouse,” Bella explained. “That’s why Thor didn’t have his hammer. And he shouldn’t have been able to call his Ghost, either.”
“Ragnar is Ares’s Ghost,” Blaise corrected. “Which means Thor’s communication with Magnar was blocked. The defenses are working. But if he called Ragnar, Ares must be here.
He must be going after Lu. This means the war has started.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means it’s almost time,” Bella whispered. “It means we all might die.”
And with that hopeful note, Bella kissed me. I would’ve been much more into it, seeing as I’d been looking for an opportunity to kiss her for months, but I was still trying to grasp the fact we’d just had the Norse god of thunder in our grasp.
“Was that really Thor?” I asked when she pulled her head back. “As in, the real Thor?” Bella gave me a smile that said
“you’re ignorance is adorable” and said,
“Yes, Zac, that was the Norse god of thunder.”
“We kidnapped him earlier today,” Blaise interrupted, pulling Bella and I to our feet. Everyone was leaving the arena in a panic. “Dangerous mission, really – he’s a tough bloke. Usually we take a demigod. I guess Lu wanted to impress you. There’ll be a meeting in his office, Bells. We better get there as soon as possible.”
Bella nodded seriously and pulled me close so we wouldn’t get separated in the mob leaving the arena. Once we were outside, Blaise took my arm and dragged me the edge of the crowd. There was a metal door on the side of the warehouse, and
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Blaise fished a key out of his pocket to unlock it. Once we were inside, he turned around and locked the door.
“We’re going to make a plan of action,” Blaise said, his voice taking on a commanding tone I’d never heard hi
m use before. “We’ve been sitting on our hands too long. If Ares is here, then the Sign’s grace period is almost up.”
“Do you really think Ares is here to take on Lu? They’ve never done that before,” Bella asked, still clutching my arm to her side. We started walking down a long, dark hallway.
“They’ve never sent the Doberman, either,” Blaise answered gravely. “Clearly something is different this time.”
“If they kill Lu, doesn’t that mean it’s over?” I asked tentatively. Both Blaise and Bella stopped walking and stared at me. “I mean, he’s our leader, right?”
“If Lu dies, you will take his place,” Blaise said. “You’re the next in line for his throne.”
“His throne?”
“You know what I mean,” Blaise grumbled, rolling his eyes. Now that was the Blaise I knew.
“We have until June,” Lu said calmly. Blaise, Bella, Lu, me, and six others were sitting around an oval table in a cold, dark room in the basement of the warehouse. The only light was a dim glow from Lu’s eyes, just enough for everyone to see each other.
“Then why are they attacking eight months early?”
someone asked. She was an older woman with grey hair I’d seen a few times at the orphanage. “Surely they know they must wait the full two years?”
“They are not attacking the Seeker,” Blaise answered. “If Ares is here, they’re attacking you, Lu.”
“Yes, I suppose they are,” Lu said, tenting his fingers.
“Tell me, Seeker, when did the Sign have her near-death experience?”
“April,” I said. “Her time is up in April.”
“But you two cannot fight until June, until your period is over.”
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“Can’t I just attack her? She can’t attack me, so I’ll win.”
“That is cheating, Seeker,” Lu said, his eyes flickering.
“If the fight is not fair, you are cheating. The contract is void if you are cheating.”
“What contract?”
“The one I signed with the Palace. The grace period contract is void if you cheat. The God and Goddess will not accept such a fight.”
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