My heart couldn't take any more. I was sure at any minute it would simply falter and stop. How fast can a heart beat without failing? Mine was thundering, pounding, racing. So many different emotions ran through my body, making me tremor on Nico's lap. I rested my head against the wall, my breaths sending little puffs of dust to rain down on my beautiful dress. None of it mattered; Theo was about to be interrogated because of me.
The Rigas had appeared so angry when he summoned Theo to the council room. His eyes had blazed gold and even from our vantage point, elevated and behind a thick wall, I could feel his Fire. His rage manifested in heat. Theo would burn when he stood before them, before him. He couldn't stand where Isadora had stood and not be affected by the King's fury.
Was he angry with me and just taking it out on Theo? Or was he angry his son had placed him in this embarrassing - and potentially damaging to Pyrkagia - position? I didn't know, but I was sure I would soon find out. Theo had just walked in the room.
I couldn't see his face, but he held his head high and strode across the floor like the prince he obviously was. I watched as some of the council members frowned, a few averted their eyes and only two offered small consoling smiles. The Rigas glowered.
I held my breath, my fingers pressed into my mouth to prevent me from making a sound. They would hear it, because silence met Theo's arrival. A heavy, ominous silence that threatened to drown.
Finally, the King spoke. I watched as he swallowed several times, clenched and unclenched his fists, until he was able to eventually speak to the man who was his son.
"You will tell us everything you know about the Gi?" he ordered, then sat abruptly back in his chair.
"There is not much to tell," Theo replied steadily.
A movement off to the side of the council table caught my eye and I shifted to get a better view. Isadora had remained in the room and was watching the entire proceedings. The fact that she had stayed left an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Theo had not been present for her statement, but she was obviously considered valuable enough to remain for his. Why?
A councillor speaking brought my attention back to the table. For now, they were the dangerous creatures in the room.
"Theodoros, we must hear all there is to know about the girl. Please indulge us." She spoke kindly, but I sensed her unease. She was giving him due respect, but I gathered it would not last. Her finger tapped repetitively on the top of the table; a beat to match her increasingly angered mood.
I flicked my glance across the entire length of the room. All the councillors were agitated, upset, on edge. There were gold flecks in the eyes of more than one. I ached for Theo to be anywhere but there, facing off against their wrath. But, selfishly, a part of me was consumed in worry for when I would have to face that level of ire. I was not trained in this sort of confrontation as Theo obviously was. I was not as experienced in political discussions as he no doubt is. I wasn't even a fraction of their individual ages. Scared didn't even cover what I was feeling right now. Petrified would be more accurate.
"I have known her for a year," Theo replied slowly. "I became aware of her Stoicheio on Thursday. Before then she had appeared human to me."
It was all truth. No falsehood, no lie. But I felt like he was betraying me.
"She had hidden herself from you? A prince of Pyrkagia?" a councillor asked, an obvious tone of doubt in his voice.
"She did not know what she was," Theo replied immediately.
"Ridiculous!" another councillor exclaimed. "She duped you." He was not impressed. The look he threw Theo was one of contempt and scorn. I wondered if he had ever been given such a look before. Theo didn't retaliate. He remained silent, stance relaxed, but not casual. Eyes staring straight forward. I couldn't be sure, from the angle I watched the scene at, but I think he wasn't even looking at the councillors. I think he was looking at a spot on the wall at their backs.
"Theodoros," the same woman from earlier, the table tapper, leaned forward to say. Her tone was still politely reverent, but her mask was slipping; her patience wearing thin. "How exactly did she fool you?"
"She didn't fool me," Theo answered and I breathed out a relieved breath of air.
"Son," the woman said condescendingly. I wondered if the term 'son' was literal and this was his mother, or just a random endearment she'd give someone much younger than herself. "She is a woman and you are a man. Of course she fooled you." A few of the councillors sniggered their agreement. The Rigas ground his teeth.
"Casey isn't like that," Theo replied and I detected a note of desperation in his voice. I mentally willed Theo to hold it together. He was better than this. He could hide behind that mask. If ever there was a time I wanted that mask to be on his beautiful face, now was definitely that time.
"Tell me then," the woman persisted, taking on the role of chief interrogator for the council, "why you believe she isn't Gi royalty."
Theo stiffened. Just a little. They may not have noticed, but I did. I knew that body so well, even after only one night against it. He now knew what Isadora's report had entailed. I watched his head turn slightly to bring his ex-girlfriend into his line of sight. I could see her reaction to whatever look he was giving her. It was a plea. A plea to cut himself free of me.
In that moment I knew Isadora would do whatever she could to get rid of me. Maybe, part of it was because she wanted him for herself. But, unfortunately, part of it was definitely because she saw me as a danger to Theo. She was protecting him, because she loved him. That kind of love makes you do almost anything. It was dangerous and could be deadly.
I knew, because I felt it too.
"She has no memories of a time with the Gi," Theo said, returning his attention to the council table. "She only knows a life here in Auckland since she was a child."
"It could all be a lie," a councillor explained from the far end of the table. "An intricate ruse to cover who she is."
"She is practically unskilled in wielding her Stoicheio," Theo persisted, ignoring the councillor’s argument. "She is completely unaware of the basic parameters of our world. She is naive." I blinked several times at the word 'naive'. I knew, in this context, he was referring to my knowledge of Ekmetalleftis, but I had been called naive before. And I didn't like it.
"Again, an act," the councillor replied evenly, leaning back in his chair as though it was a foregone conclusion; I was not who I portrayed myself to be.
"She is dark blonde, not brunette," Theo said, his voice softer, as though he hadn't wanted to walk this path, say these words.
"Hair dye," a woman councillor threw in. It was no use, Theo should stop now, because their minds were already made up. No amount of evidence or argument would change it. I just prayed Theo didn't say too much.
"Then it is an extremely thorough dying of her hair," Theo bit out.
Silence met his statement, but only for a moment.
"Did you enjoy her?" the Rigas said with a bitter twisted smile on his face. I closed my eyes briefly and hung my head. "Was it worth it? Sleeping with an enemy, getting your fill from a woman like her?" My head rose on those words. What did he mean, a woman like her? Just what did Theo's father see me as, some sort of Jezebel?
"Casey is not like that," Theo repeated his earlier words, but I heard the defeat in his tone. He knew. There was no stopping this now.
"I'm intrigued," his father continued, ignoring his son's pain. Instead I was pretty certain he was enjoying it. "Did you have to use your Stoicheio? Or was she so free with her affections she willingly fell into your arms?"
Oh dear God. This was a nightmare. And to top it off, Nico had tensed. If anyone knew how Theo would respond, it was his cousin and closest friend.
I started panting, little breaths of air that weren’t quite enough.
Theo didn't answer his father, so the Rigas just kept on pushing.
"You have your pick of Pyrkagia, but you choose a Gi. Why is that son? Do you rebel against your elders or do you wish to taint
this throne?" Theo was rigid; a statue about to shatter into a million pieces.
I'd always known his loyalty was to his people. Nico had said it before, Theo would never willingly harm Pyrkagia. His father was insinuating that's exactly what he was doing by sleeping with me.
"She is one woman, Theodoros," the Rigas said, his intense gaze on his son. "And you would send our brethren to war over her?"
I expected him to deny that I was royalty. He couldn't deny that I was Gi, but I thought he'd come to understand that I wasn't a Gi princess at least. But then, he had never said as much. All he'd admitted was he didn't know what I was, but that he still wanted me anyway. I closed my eyes, my shoulders slumping in defeat. To expect Theo to stand up for me, was too much. I was asking too much of a man who had spent centuries protecting his kind.
You do not change your allegiance that easily, not after three thousand odd years of putting Pyrkagia first.
I was indeed very naive.
The Rigas hadn't finished tormenting his son though, and I couldn't help feeling that the man wanted to break him. Which reminded me of Theo's earlier words to me. "All things can be moulded to compliance. Some just take more force to break than others." The King was moulding his son, breaking him with force in order to seek his compliance.
A muted sob escaped my lips. Nico hugged my waist tighter, a friendly reminder that I was not alone, even though I knew in my heart that I had never been more alone than right now.
"You will hand her over," the Rigas announced, imperiously. "We will detain her until Isadora can inform the Gi of her location. Preferably outside our territory. We'll deport her to that location in time for the Gi scouts to find her. They will never know we had a hand in this at all."
Nods and various murmured sounds of agreement came from the row of councillors either side of the King.
"She will tell them," Theo said, his voice a little rough on the end of the last word.
"She will do no such thing if she wishes you to remain unharmed," the King replied, a hard look in his eyes as he surveyed the man before him; his own son. "It has been some time since you visited the Bull, maybe we will show her your punishment prior to her release."
I was crying in earnest now, soft sobs I muffled in my hands. Tears streaming down my cheeks and landing in the dust at both Nico's and my feet. This was torture, and it wasn't even an ancient Greek device such as the Brazen Bull. It was just an ancient Greek tyrant.
Theo shuddered, I was sure it was at the image of what awaited him. I'd seen that depth of remembered agony cross his face when he'd spoken of the Bull before. I couldn't imagine what thoughts were going through his mind right now. The need to avoid that torment would have been extreme. I could only guess he would do anything to escape that fate.
"Father," Theo pleaded, and all eyes in the room turned to the King. He stared back impassively.
"There is nothing you can say to change my mind, Theodoros. You have only brought this on yourself."
"Time to leave," Nico whispered in my ear, but I refused to budge. I had to see this through.
"She is not a threat," Theo insisted, imploring the man to believe.
"She is not yours!" the Rigas shouted, standing to his feet and blazing gold from his angry eyes.
Theo let out a choked sound and in a voice that barely reached my ears, he said, "She is my Thisavros."
"Oh fuck," Nico muttered behind me, but if he said anything else it was drowned out by the gasps of shock from the room through the hole.
"What?" the King yelled, but it wasn't his reaction that surprised me, it was Isadora's.
"Theo!" she exclaimed. "That is a lie!"
All eyes turned to her, including Theo's.
"It is not a lie," Theo said evenly. "She is my..."
"How can you?" Isadora interrupted him. "How can you say that, when you told me I was your Thisavros."
I sucked in a breath of air and heard Nico mutter a few Greek curses behind me. Was it true? Had he bitten her neck, like he had mine? Did he already have a Thisavros? One better suited to his life, his world, his kind. I rested my forehead against the wall, my eye still at the level that allowed me to see through the peep hole, but I could no longer hold my head up high.
"Where is she?" the King bellowed.
"Now it's really time to leave," Nico instructed.
"Bring her to me now! I will see this woman, I will hear from her lips that she has duped my son. Or I will take her head right now!"
Murmured words of agreement swept over the room as Nico forcefully pulled me to my feet. I swayed and he had to wrap an arm around my waist to stop me from toppling.
"We're getting out of here," Nico insisted in a hiss. "Nothing good can come of you facing the council now."
I wasn't sure what was happening, everything was spinning out of control. Was I ever in control? Since I woke up in that pit of dirt my world was not mine to command. And now this? Accused of deception, branded an enemy, about to either be killed or cast from the only place I have ever called home.
And Theo would pay for wanting me, for trying to keep me within his arms. He would pay dearly and it was all because of me. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. One Gi against the might of Pyrkagia elders. All those on the council were surely direct descendants of the original Ekmetalleftis created by Aetheros. Or worse still, the original casts made. How could I fight that?
I couldn't. It was over, I had to run. I had to leave Theo. Leave my shop and Sonya. My family, my brother. Leave my home. My world.
Nico quietly opened the door to the storage room and cursed under his breath at the noise of rapidly approaching feet. They sounded heavy, like they wore boots, and were moving in a synchronised fashion that led you to believe they were guards on the march. He shut the door and spat out a few more curses.
"We wait," he whispered. "We wait until they have searched Pyrgos and then we sneak out."
"Won't they search here?" I whispered back.
"No one knows of this place, no one visits it. Look at the dust."
"Someone must know," I pointed out, patting a stacked pile of crates. They had been stored here by one of the King's staff. It couldn't be that well unknown.
"Let's hope that person has forgotten," Nico murmured and headed back to the wooden box and our vantage point over the room. I stood frozen for a moment, but I wanted to see what would happen to Theo, so I forced myself to return to Nico's lap and peer through the hole.
"Your majesty," a deep voice rang out.
"Yes," the Rigas said, turning from a muted conversation with the councillor at his side to face a guard.
"The Gi is not in the waiting room. We are sweeping Pyrgos now. We will find her." Oh, dear God, I hoped not.
I watched as the King turned blazing eyes of gold on his son. I would have flinched, Theo just met his look stoically.
"You sent her a signal. You told her to run. What have you done?" The last sentence was spoken so slowly, in such a low, threatening voice, I felt a chill wash down my spine.
"I did no such thing, Rigas," Theo defended.
His father stared at him for a long silent moment. The room was frozen, well aware of the fury that was about to be unleashed. They could see it, feel it, as easily as I did. As easily as, I was sure, Theo did too.
"If I cannot lock her up to keep her away from you, then I will lock you up to keep you away from her," he announced.
"Fuck!" Nico whispered and my heart agreed completely.
"Arrest my son!" the King ordered, to the shocked and saddened looks on the faces of the council.
"No!" Isadora cried out and I immediately felt a deep seated sense of jealousy toward the woman. She could announce her reaction to the King's demand openly. But I could not.
Guards stepped forward and stood on either side of Theo, waiting for further command from the King, or just unable to carry out the one already given. How hard would it be to arrest their prince?
"Do it!" the King
roared. "Take him from my sight and find... that... bitch!"
"Oh Aetheros," Nico murmured, lowering his head to my shoulder. "This is really bad."
No, it wasn't just bad, it was the end of the world as I knew it.
Chapter Twenty
It Started With Me And It Would End With Me
"Where will he be?" I whispered to Nico. It had been hours since the guards began their search, and still too many people roamed the hallway outside our room for us to escape undetected.
"The cells are located on the lowest floor," Nico whispered back. The council room was empty, but we weren't risking raising our voices to a normal level for fear of being overhead still.
"Like a dungeon?" I asked and Nico lifted his eyes to mine.
"Don't do this to yourself," he said evenly.
"He's there because of me," I pointed out as explanation. "Is it bad? The cells?"
He shook his head. "Not what you're envisaging. He'll be comfortable. Have amenities, food and water. But no fire."
No fire to fuel his Stoicheio. It was only early afternoon, but Theo would need Fire by this evening. I frowned at the dusty floor and contemplated how cruel this world was they all lived in.
"How can he do this to his own son?" I asked the dust motes surrounding my feet.
"He is Rigas. All Kings are cruel."
I shook my head in denial.
"Casey," Nico murmured. "We are Athanatos, we have had to develop a thick skin to survive. Eternity makes all of us a little ruthless."
"Theo is not like that," I pointed out, unable to imagine my Theo doing anything as merciless as this.
"Don't fool yourself," Nico muttered. "He is just as capable of condemning a person as the King. It's his job, it's what he's been raised to do. Theodoros Petropoulos is one of the most brutal scouts we have."
I stared back at Nico, searching for the lie. He held my gaze, forcing me to see the truth in his words.
"What exactly is a scout? And what has Theo been raised to do?"
Nico sighed and shifted his weight on the crate he was sitting on. He looked uncomfortable. "Scouts are our peacekeepers. Although that's a euphemism for what they really do. They hunt people down, usually people who have broken our rules. And then they mete out punishment. Theo has been trained to take an Ekmetalleftis life if the crime warrants it."
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