There was a dull scraping sound, stone over wet stone. Something filled Amarion’s little rectangle. It was nothing human, with its pointed jaw filled with serrated shark’s teeth, its pebbly skin, and its flat black eyes the size of saucers placed close to its nose slits. It was bright blood red—and in a moment of horrible clarity, I realized it was actually covered in blood. Human blood.
It took hold of Amarion’s monitor and tilted it until it was looking at me at a weird, inhuman angle. Its bloody lips twisted in a smile that showed bits of flesh clinging to the horrible teeth. In a voice that pushed every one of my primal panic buttons, it said, “You’re next.”
9
I screamed and slammed my laptop shut, sending Xerxes flying as I scrambled backward until my chair fell over and hit the floor. I kept going, clawing my way back until I came up against the center island. I couldn’t stop seeing the invader’s hideous face, bloody with what was left of Amarion. I closed my eyes and flung my arms over my face, panting in mindless terror. You’re next. Any moment now, I’d feel its teeth on me, tearing out my throat.
“Helena!”
I heard Malcolm run into the kitchen, his bare feet slapping the tile unnaturally loudly. He crouched beside me, putting one arm around my shoulders and supporting me to a sitting position. I clung to him, my chest aching from how hard my heart was pounding, my throat raspy from screaming.
“Helena, what happened? Are you hurt?”
I shook my head. “The Labyrinth,” I said. “Amarion is…they’re under attack, Malcolm, you have to stop them.” Tears spilled down my cheeks. “He’s dead. It’s too late. He’s dead.”
“The Labyrinth is under attack?”
I nodded. “It killed Amarion. I’ve never heard anything so terrible.” I opened my eyes. Malcolm had his gun in his other hand, and his eyes scanned the room for hidden threats. “It said I was next,” I whispered, and burst out crying.
Malcolm shoved his gun into the back waistband of his boxers and helped me stand. My knees wobbled too much to support me. Deep inside, I screamed at myself to toughen up, to stop sobbing like a baby, but the memory of Amarion’s final screams rang in my ears. My friend, who’d died horribly at the teeth and claws of an invader while I listened helplessly. Nothing in the world could make me strong enough to bear that.
Malcolm lifted me in his arms and carried me to the living room, where he deposited me on the couch and knelt beside me. “I have to call Lucia and the node in Athens,” he said. “I’ll be back.”
I nodded and clutched a throw pillow like a shield against memories, and gradually my tears subsided into shuddering breaths. No. I wasn’t going to let this throw me. I could only help Amarion by doing what I’d done, telling someone who could maybe get Wardens to the Labyrinth in time to prevent it being destroyed. And by refusing to let my fear keep me from doing my job. Maybe that meant I was suppressing my pain, but at the moment, I didn’t see any alternative that wouldn’t leave me a sobbing wreck.
I wiped my eyes and lay on the couch, hugging my pillow and staring at the blank television screen, until footsteps heralded Malcolm’s return. I sat up, and Malcolm sank onto the cushion beside me and took me in his arms. “There are teams going to Knossos right now,” he said.
“But it’s probably too late.”
“If we don’t go, it certainly will be. Can you tell me what happened? I’m afraid my instructions to Desmona Papadopoulos were along the lines of ‘go now, don’t argue.’”
“Did she? Argue?”
“Des is an old friend of mine. She hung up before I could finish talking. I have absolute faith in her ability to handle anything that might have happened at the Labyrinth.”
I drew in a deep, shuddering breath and discovered I’d stopped shaking. “We were in the middle of our call,” I said. “There was a noise—Amarion went to see what it was. Then he came back and shouted at us to get to safety, and something grabbed him, like…like snatching him out of his seat. Then he screamed. It was—” I swallowed, controlling myself. “I’d never heard anything so awful. It cut off, and that’s when the invader looked into the camera and said I was next. Or we were next. I don’t know who it was talking to.”
Malcolm kissed the top of my head. “I’m so sorry, love,” he said. “This is exactly the sort of thing I wish you wouldn’t have to witness.”
“Yes, but isn’t it part of my job? I mean—not that being a custodian means I have to see terrible things, but if the invaders are striking against named Neutralities, that puts me front and center, unless I want to abdicate.” I hugged him more tightly. “You said it yourself—I’m strong, and I can deal with this. I just need a better way of dealing than suppressing my fears and my awful memories.”
“You’re right. You are the strongest woman I know.” Malcolm loosened his grip enough that he could look into my face. “Desmona will call when it’s all over, if only for more of an explanation. She’ll tell us what happened. But you ought to go to bed.”
“I can’t sleep after that. Not until I know the worst.”
Malcolm nodded. “I understand. Do you want to wait here, or in the bedroom?”
“Here. If you’ll wait with me.”
He chuckled. “You couldn’t pry my away from your side.”
We sat together and waited. Neither of us wanted to watch a movie, and I didn’t suggest turning on the television to see if the news would report a mysterious disaster near Knossos. Like the Fountain of Youth, I didn’t know exactly where the Labyrinth was, but Iakkhos had told me it wasn’t in a town. So it wasn’t likely to show up on the mundane news the way Berryton had.
I wondered what would happen if the Labyrinth were exposed to the world, like how some archaeological sites were revealed when new digging happened. It had been built in the 1400s, far too recently for the typical Greek archaeological dig, but not new construction either. It might mean disaster for the Wardens if they couldn’t cover it up. I didn’t think even the most powerful magnifica illusion could conceal something that size.
Despite what I’d told Malcolm, I was drifting off when Malcolm’s phone rang. I sat upright and stared at it. Malcolm answered, saying, “Des?”
There was a long silence. I couldn’t hear Desmona Papadopoulos’s voice even as a murmur. Malcolm nodded. “I didn’t know that would happen, but it makes sense,” he said. Another long pause. “If Lucia—” he said, then stopped as if Desmona had cut him off. “No, yes, I understand. Small blessings.” This time, the pause was long enough I got antsy, wishing he’d put her on speaker. “All right,” Malcolm said finally. “Thanks. That’s as good a result as we could hope for. Yes, I’ll tell her. Goodbye.”
He set the phone down on the coffee table and stared at it. “Well?” I said.
Without looking at me, Malcolm said, “The Labyrinth is destroyed. Des’s teams arrived in time to save perhaps a quarter of its population. Fortunately, the Labyrinth’s concealed location means the disaster won’t appear on the evening news. But—” He rubbed his face with both hands, a gesture of such exhaustion it made me want to yawn. “Des said, with the Labyrinth’s node destroyed, the Labyrinth immediately began to decay. It already looks—you’ve never seen it, but it used to look as new as when it was first built. Now it looks a hundred very hard-lived years old. She estimates it will disappear entirely in a matter of hours. Protection for the Wardens, so no mundane entity can discover it and draw the right conclusions, but it means there will be no reclaiming it.”
“I’m so sad. I understand the need, but it still feels like a loss.” I leaned against his shoulder. “Did she say…were they able to recover Amarion’s body?”
Malcolm stiffened. “I’m not sure you want to know.”
“Now I’ll imagine the worst. Please, just tell me.”
He put his arm around me. “Amarion was devoured,” he said. “Des didn’t know how that allowed the node to be destroyed. Her people are looking into it.”
I shuddered. “Poor A
marion. It’s so awful. He said they weren’t done fixing the invader alarms—that’s how they got in. I hope Claude and Samudra will take—oh, damn, I need to call them. Or text them.”
I ran upstairs for my phone and decided a group text was faster than a phone call to each man separately. I quickly sent off the message—Amarion dead, the node destroyed—and then sent a second message begging them to be careful. When I finished, I looked up at Malcolm. “Is the house safe? I can’t sleep if there’s a chance one of those invaders could get in.”
“The house is as safe as Campbell Security can make it,” Malcolm said, “but…I hesitate to point this out, but if the pattern holds true, the invaders will only attack you if you’re on the premises of Abernathy’s.”
It was a horrible, pragmatic thing to say, and it made me feel instantly better. “I think I can sleep now,” I said. “If you hold me.”
“You never have to ask,” Malcolm said.
We cuddled in the darkness of our bedroom, listening to the night noises outside our window. The chirruping hum of a million insects made a nice background to the night birds that lived in the fir that rubbed against the corner window. I’d never learned what birds they were, but they let out low coos like unusually deep-voiced pigeons. Malcolm’s breathing was a steady counterpoint to the other sounds. “Is it weak to say I’m afraid to return to the store?” I whispered. “Especially since I now have a good idea what kind of end the oracle saw?”
“Not weak to feel fear,” Malcolm said. “Weak to let it control your actions, possibly.”
“I’ll go back. I have to. It’s like Lucia told me—if we shut down the named Neutralities, we might as well have lost them to the invaders. And if we’re going to defeat them, we’ll need the help only the oracle can provide.”
“I’m afraid I’m not as strong as you. I’m tempted to lock you safely in the house until we’ve worked out the invaders’ plan.”
I laughed quietly. “I love that you want to protect me, even though you know what I have to do.”
“It’s true. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
I snuggled closer. “It won’t happen. I’m not going to let them get to me.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Malcolm said.
When I woke the following morning, Malcolm was gone, and his side of the bed was cold. A half-sheet of lined paper on his pillow read Had to go to node to consult with Lucia. Might be a while. Sorry. Love you.
I suppressed feelings of disappointment and squinted at the alarm clock. 9:43. I hadn’t slept that late in months. I rolled out of bed and stretched. We might still be able to salvage our peaceful afternoon.
My phone rang while I was in the middle of breakfast. It wasn’t Malcolm; it was Viv. “Hey,” I said. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I’ve been busy at the Gunther Node. What do you know about what happened at the Labyrinth? Have you heard anything?”
Memories of Amarion’s screaming filled my mind. “Yes. But I’d rather not talk about it. It was awful.”
“You say that like you were there. Hel, don’t hold out on me.”
“I was in a video call with the other named Neutrality custodians when the invaders attacked. I heard Amarion die. It was awful, Viv.”
Viv whistled. “Are you all right?”
“It’s not like I was attacked or injured, so—” I remembered what Sydney had said, and went on, “I mean, I can’t stop remembering how it felt. I was so scared.”
“Well, yeah, of course you were! Look, I don’t want to bring up painful memories. There’s just a lot of rumor running around and I was wondering if you knew the truth. Did the Labyrinth really disappear?”
I’d finished most of my cereal, but my appetite had disappeared. I rose to clear my bowl. “Malcolm said it did. Or was in the process of disappearing. I guess by now it’s entirely gone. He said it was to prevent mundane authorities from seeing it and getting excited. So that’s three named Neutralities left.”
“You’re not going back to work, are you?”
“On Monday? Of course I am. If we’re going to defeat the invaders, we need all the resources we can muster, and that includes the oracle.” I watched the colorful bits of cereal circle the drain and disappear. I sounded like someone who had no fears. Too bad actually getting rid of my fears wasn’t as easy as making bold statements.
Viv clearly wasn’t fooled by my boldness. “Helena, that’s so dangerous! Nobody knows how the invaders keep getting past the wards. They need to seal up Abernathy’s until all the intelligent invaders are destroyed.”
I stopped with my bowl held under a stream of water to rinse it. “Is that what people are saying?”
“I guess, but mostly it’s my opinion. Better to lose the benefits of the oracle for a few weeks or months than to have it destroyed entirely.” Viv sounded less emphatic now, but I could tell when she felt strongly about something.
“They’re altering the wards so the invaders can’t warp them at Abernathy’s. Everything will be fine. And suppose it takes much longer than weeks or months to hunt all of them down? This is the best course of action.” I still didn’t feel as certain as I sounded, not with Amarion’s screams still ringing in my memory. But I had faith in Malcolm’s assertion that the wards would be secure and that the invaders couldn’t try that stunt with the door again, and that was enough to carry me through my insecurities.
Viv sighed. “All right, but I’m scared for you.”
“I’m scared for me, too, but I know what I have to do.”
“That’s what bravery is. Hel, do you think this war will ever be over?”
I didn’t point out that the invaders destroying our world would end the war just as much as the Wardens triumphing would. “I don’t know. Doesn’t it feel like we’ve entered the endgame, what with the invaders changing tactics? Maybe we’ll see the end sooner than we think.”
“I thought the invaders wanted humans to capitulate. This is more like they’re going for total destruction.”
“I think so, too. But that means they could make mistakes, if they’re changing the way they do things. And we’ve already destroyed some of their leaders. I choose to be optimistic.”
Viv laughed. “That’s one of the things I love about you, your endless optimism. That, and how you keep a tight leash on your curiosity. You haven’t even asked why I’ve been busy at the Gunther Node.”
That comment had slipped right past me. “Okay, why have you been busy at the Gunther Node?”
“It’s my new job. I’m working for Mr. Wallach as a lab assistant.”
I gasped. “Viv! What about the diner?”
“That was getting old. I’d already worked there about a year and a half longer than I’d promised myself I would, because the tips were good and the hours were flexible. But I’ve always been intrigued by Mr. Wallach’s inventions, and a few weeks ago I asked to be a tester for the portable ansible, which was so unbelievably cool I can’t even tell you. And when the test run was over, he said I’d been a big help and did I want a full-time job?”
I could easily picture Viv in a lab coat and goggles, though knowing Viv, the lab coat would be tie-dyed. “That’s amazing! And probably scary. Some of his inventions aren’t exactly safe.”
“Safe is boring. Besides, he’s a very careful experimenter. Doesn’t do human trials until he knows exactly what the results will be. A real job, Hel. Doesn’t that just blow your mind? Me, with a real job.” Viv sounded more pleased than astonished.
“I think it’s great. And you’ll get to see so many amazing inventions up close. Did you know he worked on time travel once? Though he said it was impossible.”
“I didn’t think Mr. Wallach thought anything was impossible.” Viv yawned, audible even over the phone. “You want to hang out today? Jeremiah’s out of town until Monday night.”
“Malcolm and I were going to do a picnic and a movie this afternoon. But he went to the node this morning, and he wasn�
�t sure when he was coming back.”
“If it turns out you need company, let me know. I have to get in the shower. I overslept this morning and now I’m playing catch-up.”
“I’ll call you later. Congratulations again!”
After hanging up, I finished washing the rest of the dishes. Then I assessed my house. I found cleaning therapeutic, and I needed something to boost my spirits after the previous night. But between me and Ingrid, the house looked good enough that there weren’t any massive cleaning projects to tackle. So I went back upstairs to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at my bedside table. There was something I could do—something that, after last night, I could add to—but thinking about my traumatic history since becoming Abernathy’s’ custodian led me to reliving those terrible events, and then all I wanted to do was curl up and forget again.
I sighed and opened the drawer. My notebook, a spiralbound student’s notebook from the nearest dollar store, looked back at me. I withdrew it and clicked the pen clipped to its cover a few times, then opened it to where I’d left off and began writing. I’d gotten as far as my second Christmas as custodian, which meant the Conference of Neutralities. Where I’d been attacked and bitten by invaders…and seen someone killed horribly by them…and gone deep into the bowels of the hotel surrounded by those monsters to fight them… I sighed again and made a few more notes. It was a miracle I was even sane.
When Malcolm came home, he found me lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, clutching the notebook to my chest like a breastplate. “Sorry that took so long,” he said. He sat beside me and took my hand. “Have you been resting? You look like you need it.”
I handed him the notebook, which was folded open. “Read that.”
The Book of Destiny Page 10