by Eva Brandt
I could almost hear her voice now, so clear in my head. “Yeah, Charybdis. A whole clutch. We can have it, together.”
“A clutch?” a familiar voice asked, snapping me out of my trance. “When did you decide on that?”
I looked up and my eyes widened when I saw Selene standing right in front of me. When had she gotten here? Shit, I was losing my touch if I hadn’t noticed Selene of all people. I’d been waiting for her to show up.
“Hey,” I greeted her, a little lamely. “You’re back.”
“Obviously,” she answered. The comment might have sounded sarcastic, but the smile she shot me was warm and sweet. “Sorry for the delay. My mother took me on a terra-forming expedition.”
“Sounds interesting.” I patted Charybdis’s frame, inviting Selene to sit down next to me. “Did you get the chance to practice Gaia’s Gift?”
Selene practically glided to my side, more graceful and elegant than any Chimera noble could ever hope to be. “Not really,” she replied as she sat down. “It’s not all that safe right now. Gaia’s Gift can be just as dangerous as Tartarus’s, and I don’t want to make any costly mistakes.”
That was true. Our experience with Gaia extremists had made it clear that such skills had as much potential for destruction as tachyon manipulation. Gaia’s priestesses primarily used their talents to heal, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t do serious damage.
Selene leaned against me and threaded our fingers together. “Anyway, you were saying something about a clutch?”
“It’s not important.” I tried to shrug, but with her in this position, it was kind of difficult. “I was just thinking out loud.”
“U-huh. Care to share your thoughts with the group?”
Her tone held something teasing and knowing. I narrowed my eyes at my wicked Terran and said, “That’s my line. What’s on your mind, Selene?”
“Oh, now I know you’re avoiding the topic. But that’s okay. I don’t mind starting if you’re feeling shy today.” Selene squeezed my hand a little more tightly, as if providing a warning. “You know, my mother told me something interesting when we spoke. She said His Majesty seems to have mentally assigned me the position of broodmare. I’m meant to be the mother of Brendan’s children and follow that pattern for all of you.”
Shit. We’d kept saying that we’d discuss that with Selene, but it had mostly been an excuse Brendan had come up with to get his father off his back. I did want a family with Selene—a clutch, like Charybdis would have said—but we couldn’t have that until we fixed every other problem, including getting Charybdis back and earning the throne for Brendan.
“We do want that, eventually,” I admitted, “but right now, it’s not an issue. We have too many things on our plate to consider it as more than a distant dream. Brendan mentioned it to his father because of the circumstances—dynastic continuity and all that—but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. And even if it does, it’s not like we’ll force you or anything. If you don’t want to, I’m sure Brendan can come up with another solution.”
“Probably, but as long as he can lift the reproduction ban on me, I’ll be happy to be a mother. Although, like you said, not now. I…”
All of a sudden, Selene trailed off and scowled. She rubbed her temples, as if she’d just been struck by a headache.
My immediate instinct was to ask her if she was all right. Unfortunately, the answer was right in front of me.
The large displays that showed the flying chimeras flickered again, but this time, it wasn’t because of my power. The lights in the hangars dimmed and Charybdis’s body seemed to grow colder.
On the screen, Scylla flailed like a creature possessed. Typhon narrowly managed to avoid getting hit by one of her tentacles, but it was a close call. The wolf heads furiously snapped at Cerberus, but he wisely kept his distance and didn’t fight back.
“What in Tartarus’s name is going on?” Selene asked, already on her feet.
Together, we rushed to the entrance of the hangar bay. As we ran outside, the first thing that struck us was the sweltering heat. It was even hotter than usual. Temperatures tended to be high most of the time on Tartarus Base, but the Tartarus shield protected us from the worst of the solar radiation. The tachyon output coming from Scylla was so intense it felt like the shield had fallen and we were left with no protection.
It reminded me an awful lot of those horrible moments I’d spent trapped inside the Charybdis, suffocating, being cooked alive. Oddly, the memory didn’t fill me with panic. “We have to calm her down, Selene,” I cried. “I think Typhon and Cerberus can’t approach her properly. If they stop and try to absorb the tachyons she’s emitting, she might attack.”
“And I take it you think the two of us can do it?”
I shook my head. “I’ll do it. You stand by and get ready. When she’s calmer, you can ground her. Gaia’s Gift might be more useful to you there.”
Some terrorists had used their powers like that, attempting to smother the Tartarus flame burning in the diamond cores of our chimeras. It had actually worked a few times, although as far as I knew, never on a Grand Chimeras. Harpies were more vulnerable to such attacks.
Either way, the situation was very dangerous. I wouldn’t have taken such a chance with Selene’s life, but I trusted her to be able to handle this. She’d survived the power of the mirror trial and had saved me in the final stage of the tournament. She could do this as well. I was sure of it.
I wasn’t so confident in my abilities, but I had to help regardless. I refused to allow Pollux to lose his chimera as well. We had to stop Scylla’s rampage before the rest of the staff noticed and tried to forcibly intervene.
Secure in my decision, I reached out to the fire again, this time seeking the alien blaze in the air, instead of my own. A heartbeat later, my world, heart, and soul exploded in a rush of magic and heat. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I didn’t let go.
Scylla and Charybdis had been inseparable. I hadn’t managed to save Charybdis. In this, at least, I wouldn’t fail.
Between the Future and the Past
Pollux
Earlier
“I know you’re worried about August, but you don’t need to be. He and Charybdis won’t be separated forever and once she’s back, everything will be better again.”
I slid in the cockpit of my chimera, sighing. I wanted to be as confident as Scylla, but the fact remained that I couldn’t see any real solution to our problem. We were in a limbo, trying to come up with a way to make Typhon’s plan work. But Typhon had admitted himself that it was a long shot. We were no longer at war with the apsids, and as long as that was the case, The Grand Judiciary was unlikely to allow chimeras to approach the Apsid Quasar again. The last battle against the apsids had cost us the lives of a lot of good men, and it was unlikely that our leaders would take such a huge chance so quickly.
“If they’ve decided they can feed chimeras with Terrans and not just apsids, they’re going to go through with it sooner or later,” Typhon had warned us. “They’ve always prioritized the lives of Chimera nobility over those of Terrans. In terms of numbers, it’s simple logic. Terrans are expendable. But those apsids on Mercury came here for a reason. We might still be able to track them down.”
Brendan had relied on that, since it was the only alternative we had to The Grand Judiciary’s plan. Unfortunately, it was becoming more and more obvious that the apsids wouldn’t magically come out of their hiding spot, just so that we could feed them to our chimeras.
“It’ll happen,” Scylla reassured me. “The apsids have long memories and hold grudges. The mission your mysterious Harpy pilot mentioned must’ve had something to do with that. Typhon, Cerberus, and I have debated approaching Zephyrus about it. We have to be careful, though, because you know how Harpies are. Zephyrus might give away our plan just out of spite.”
“I’m going to trust your judgment on this one. I’m not very popular with your half-siblings.”
Scylla laughed. “You’re modest. Just between you and me, half of them are very jealous we have such amazing tamers. I’m pretty sure they spent three-quarters of their time gossiping about your attributes.”
I’d probably never understand the way Scylla socialized with the other chimeras, but I was glad that she wasn’t as heartbroken as August over Charybdis’s loss. She and Charybdis had been as close as sisters, and I didn’t know if I could have carried Scylla’s grief on top of my own and August’s.
“You’re stronger than you know, Pollux. You could have done that, and so much more. But you won’t have to. That’s why I’m here, to protect your brood and your future clutch.”
We launched ourselves into the air, following Cerberus and Typhon. Despite my problems in every other part of my life, piloting the Scylla still felt as easy and natural as breathing. Surrounded by the fiery tungsten of my friend’s metallic body, I could temporarily forget about all the times when I hadn’t been enough. When Tartarus’s power came to me, I could embrace it without fear and know that it would be a finely honed weapon against my enemies.
“Will it?” a voice suddenly whispered in my head. “You know, Pollux, when it comes to tachyon manipulation, the same weapon we use against our foes can easily destroy us.”
My hands jerked on Scylla’s controls. Where was the voice coming from? It wasn’t Scylla’s and it wasn’t Selene’s. Who was talking to me?
“Don’t,” Scylla hissed, snapping at the presence that had wriggled its way into my head. “Don’t listen to her. She doesn’t belong here.”
“And what would you know about that, creature?” the stranger shot back. “Pollux was mine before he was ever yours. We were born belonging to one another. You haven’t forgotten, have you, brother?”
The final word was like a physical blow. A memory flashed through my mind, propelling me straight out of the cockpit, into a dark, misty space. A familiar figure stood among the shadows, wreathed in flames. “Hello, Pollux. I’d say you look well, but frankly, I think you’ve been better.”
It was Stella, my beautiful twin. She looked just like the day I’d last seen her, before my parents had carted her off to die. Her dark brown her tumbled to her shoulders in gentle waves and in her blue eyes, I saw the endless sky. “Stella? Is it really you?”
“Of course,” she said with a light laugh. “Who else could I be?”
I didn’t know. It had been a rhetorical question, since few people remembered Stella now. My parents had long ago stopped mentioning her. To them, she was a failure, because she hadn’t been able to accomplish the task she’d been assigned to by The Grand Judiciary.
She might be a manifestation of my shattering psyche, but I liked to think I hadn’t completely lost my mind yet. If I had, it was an insanity I embraced.
Tears trailing down my cheeks, I extended my arms toward her. She came running at me and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. “I missed you so much, Stella,” I whispered into her hair.
“I missed you too,” she mumbled into my chest. Her skin was cold, but I didn’t mind it. “I miss you still.”
“I’m here now,” I said a little desperately, although I knew what she meant. Neither of us was really here—wherever here was.
Stella broke our embrace and smiled. The expression held no real amusement, just sadness. “Not for long you’re not. It took me forever to be able to reach you.” She turned away from me and looked out into the distance. There was nothing around us except mist, but maybe she saw something in it that I didn’t. “I must admit, I didn’t expect you and August to become chimera tamers,” she said. “I wish you’d stayed out of it. You should’ve just taken August and left after I was gone.”
“We couldn’t do that,” I replied, hoping she didn’t blame me for that decision. “We had to find a way to avenge you.”
“I never asked to be avenged,” Stella answered, still without looking at me. “Really, Pollux, the best revenge is living well. And you aren’t living very well right now, are you?”
I suppose I wasn’t, but at the same time, I couldn’t complain. I had my gripes with having to serve the same people who’d murdered my sister, but it wouldn’t be forever. Eventually, Brendan would take over and fulfill our self-appointed task.
As if guessing my thoughts, Stella pivoted toward me. Her blue gaze darkened, turning sharp, almost hateful. “Brendan is just another part of a flawed system that will run our whole world into the ground. He can’t be trusted, Pollux. None of them can.”
“Don’t say that, Stella. I know you don’t know them, but they love me. And with Selene here—”
“Selene is not yours,” she cut me off. “She never was. You need to let her go, Pollux. You can’t have a woman like that. She’s more poisonous than Typhon’s venom.”
I took a step away from my sister. What was going on? It had never been in Stella’s character to gratuitously hurl accusations at someone. She’d been kind and forgiving, so much so that she’d never seemed to blame my parents for the choice they’d made. Maybe that had changed throughout the time she’d been away, but what could she possibly have against Selene?
Stella… My sister… My sister loved me. She wasn’t supposed to hate the woman who meant so much to me.
But my sister was dead, wasn’t she?
As that thought crossed my mind, a different voice reached me through the mist. “Pollux! Pollux! Come back!”
I instantly recognized the sibilant tone of the plea. It was Scylla and she sounded desperate. I cursed to myself. Whatever had happened must have snatched my consciousness at the worst possible time, when I’d been connected to Scylla. She must’ve gotten hurt.
I wanted to go to her, but my sister was still here and she needed me. On the other hand, my bond with Scylla was already feeling the strain. “Pollux!” Scylla screamed again.
Stella grabbed my arm, her fingernails digging into my flesh like a claw. “No! Don’t go! Please, Pollux. You’re not safe with them.”
“Not everything is about me, Stella,” I replied. “You know that as well as I do.”
“Yes, but we can finally be together again. Don’t you remember how we used to be, when we were children? Before everything went wrong? We could still have that. August would come with us, I’m sure. We don’t need anyone else. Just the three of us.”
Her blue eyes shone with conviction and I hesitated. Scylla didn’t necessarily need me, did she? Yes, she and I were close, but she could find another tamer. Stella, on the other hand, was my twin. That was something that would never change.
“Yes,” Stella said, beaming brightly. “That’s it, Pollux. Stay with me. Choose me.”
It would have been so easy to close my eyes and surrender to it, to believe in our togetherness and her forgiveness. But it just wasn’t meant to be. A bright green light flared between us, pushing Stella away.
“He’s already made his choice and it isn’t you. I’m sorry, but I’m taking Pollux back.”
Selene stepped between us, her body materializing out of the mist. Her skin seemed to glow from within and the light spread out all over the strange, indistinct space we were in, chasing away the shadows. “You!” Stella snapped. “What gives you the right to interfere between me and Pollux?”
“I love him,” Selene replied simply. “I honestly can’t say how it’s possible. I didn’t expect it and I didn’t plan on it. But it happened, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let anyone take him from me.”
“You barely know him. How can you love him when he’s never shown you his true self?”
Selene tilted her head, as if considering Stella’s question. “You know, I told a friend of mine something similar recently, but about Brendan. I agree. You can’t love someone if you don’t know them. I’m not arrogant enough to pretend they’ve shared all their secrets with me, but I do trust them, and what they have shared, I value. The certainties I do have, I treasure. For me, that’s enough.”
In my heart, I kne
w things weren’t so simple. Selene deserved better. She deserved for us to be completely honest with her. I didn’t know when that would happen, when we’d have the courage to tell her the complete truth about us. But in the meantime, I had to accept once and for all that I could no longer cling to the past.
“She’s right, Stella. Selene and I have something special. And I’m sorry, but that means I’ll have to leave you behind.”
“Oh.”
It was just one word, a single syllable, but it still held far more heartbreak than I ever wanted my sister to feel. I despised myself for making her feel it. Even so, that didn’t change a thing. Stella was a star, and Selene was the moon. Stella’s glow should have been brighter, but it wasn’t. I still loved her and I always would, but I could never pick her over Selene.
I wrapped my arm around Selene’s shoulders. She was much warmer than Stella had been. “You’re wrong about them, Stella. You’ll see. We’ll meet again one day, but it won’t be like this.”
“No, it won’t be,” she replied, and on her lips, my promise sounded like a threat.
I wished I could have said something else, anything that would’ve made sure she didn’t do anything foolish. But before I could do so, the mist dissipated, and Stella vanished with it. I blinked and just like that, I was back in the cockpit of the Scylla.
“Thank Tartarus,” my chimera hissed. “I thought I’d lost you, hatchling.”
I wanted to tell her I wasn’t so easy to lose, but I still remembered how close I’d come to staying in that strange space with my sister. My sister… Had that even been my sister at all?
“What just happened, Scylla?” I asked. “What was that all about? Who did I see?”
“I can’t answer that, Pollux. But you’d best go see your broodmates. They’re not dealing with this very well.”
Just the fact that she was ushering me away at a time like this spoke volumes of what my fellow Chimera Warriors must be feeling right now. Whatever had happened in the real world while I’d been lost in my own head, it must’ve been bad.