by Lizzy Ford
Behind him, instead of the wall to my bedroom, a black cavern yawned open. I didn’t have to guess where it went, or why the monster was here. Thanatos had warned me about trespassing again.
“Nice puppies … uh, puppy … whatever,” I murmured and stepped back. “I’m sorry, Hades. I wasn’t trying to –”
Cerberus lowered one head and smashed into my body with its muzzle. I flew backward, across the room – and heard the strange sound of fabric ripping. The world erupted into color. Unlike the black-white-gray world of Hades, and the normal color of my world, this version of reality was my world on steroids. The colors were vibrant enough to cause me to squint.
Landing on my backside, I scrambled to my feet. Cerberus remained where he was, behind a thin veil that rendered him and everything else behind it gray.
The monster turned and walked away, retreating toward the dark hole leading to the underworld behind it.
Relieved, I released a breath. “Thanks,” I called.
The creature ignored me and disappeared into the hole, which also vanished once the beast had passed through. It was replaced by something more solid than a veil. A mirror reflected my world and me, except everything was in black, white and gray. The lack of color distinguished the two realms. Where I belonged, there was color. Where I did not, it was gray.
I blinked until the loud hues of this world no longer hurt my eyes. Studying my reflection in the black and white world, I couldn’t imagine how I was supposed to learn how not to pop up in Hades’ territory without help from someone. Would Cerberus be this helpful next time around?
My thoughts turned to Cecelia, and I began to wonder if she was trapped in a place like this. With my body safely lying on a bed beside a slumbering Mrs. Nettles, I floated through the walls of my villa and out the front door. Tensing when I passed by the guards stationed at my front door, I reminded myself every few steps no one could possibly see me when I was outside my body.
The sun was brighter outside, and the grass so much greener than normal. The colors were dazzling, a little overwhelming, but beautiful nonetheless. Ribbons were even more vibrant and expressive in this place. They danced subtly, like tendrils of smoke twisting and shifting in a light breeze.
I felt real. The ground was solid beneath my feet and the sun warm. But I moved faster. It didn’t take me thirty minutes to cross the mall and arrive at the Oracle’s cavern. Barely a minute passed by my count, and I was suddenly there, passing more guards into the security station. I didn’t wait for the elevator but sank through the floor to arrive in her chamber.
The smells of the Oracle’s cavern were stronger, too. They ensnared me, filled my senses and sent me tumbling into euphoria. I floated in the state of joy for a moment, forgetting why I had come, before I recalled my purpose in visiting. I shook my head and focused on the Oracle.
Her body was still, her eyes closed, though the machines connected to her assured me she was alive. She, too, was made up of billions of tiny fibers in so many colors, it would take me a lifetime to name and count them all.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I’d hoped to find her here, in this strange one-off dimension, maybe seated beside her body, where we could talk. She wasn’t present, and I glanced towards the mirror demarking the separation of this world from Hades’. Nothing was unusual or different at all about the caverns in the reflection, and I began to wonder where the Oracle was, if she weren’t in the human realm, this one or Hades’ territory.
Disappointed, I sat down before her, awed by the bright green rainbow above her head. I couldn’t see what was above mine. All of the ribbons of the world were visible to me, except for those belonging to me. With their richer colors present in this dimension, I searched through all of hers to identify if any of them were broken or jagged or otherwise showing me why she had fallen into a coma without identifying any difference between what was in front of me and what had been there before her coma. I had tried unsuccessfully several times to fix the tears caused by her dismemberment.
Everything was as I assumed it was supposed to be, which left me more deeply concerned. How could I, with the power of a goddess, not help Cecelia or even understand what was wrong to start off with? What was I missing? Why had she fallen into this strange sleep, where not even Lantos could see her mind?
I sat and gazed at her sadly, wishing she could tell me what I was supposed to do. This world was very quiet to the point of complete silence. I didn’t care to be so alone with my thoughts or to be reminded of how alone I really was.
Dropping my eyes to my hands, I willed there to be ice cream. Fibers from the ribbons around the room peeled off from their original objects and formed a half-gallon of ice cream in my hands. I then sent it away, and the fibers of the world rearranged themselves. I did it again with a pair of shoes I saw in my head then sent them away, too. With the comforting scents of the chamber, I immersed myself in experimenting with my power on a small scale. Eager to create inanimate objects, I considered creating a living creature – perhaps a cat – but decided not to. Were there rules to what I could and should do? I had been raised strictly by priests and Herakles. Even when I bucked their rules, the world wouldn’t end because I didn’t play along.
Except for the first time I stepped over the boundary of my forest. I lowered my hands to my thighs, recalling the rule I’d broken that sent my world spinning out of control. To this day, I could not believe how one small step had brought me here and changed my life in countless ways.
Was acting against Cecelia’s advice going to condemn the world?
Of everything I missed about the forest, I yearned to see Herakles again. I loved the trees and nature, but it was the man who had been my anchor for most of my life that made my throat tight and my eyes well with tears whenever I thought about how much I’d changed from the sheltered girl he raised. The knowledge I possessed now about the world was far from anything I had ever imagined.
After my twentieth cycle of creating and un-creating, I felt the drain. It was mild, a sense of needing a catnap before I tackled the rest of my day. Was it using my power that drained me, or lingering in this world?
Frustrated again that I had no one to guide me, I stood and turned away from the Oracle. I willed myself up, through the floor, and walked out of the guard shack above the caverns.
It was dark out. I had passed the day in the caverns. The flash of first responder lights in front of the House caught my attention. No outward sign of an emergency was visible at the House. I crossed to my villa, anxious to be back in the real world so I could find out what was going on. I hated that I had to care about Cleon, not because he meant anything to me, but because we were connected, and his danger was my danger.
The half-full moon overhead lit my way, and I hurried across the green lawns of the compound.
As I neared my villa, a flash of movement crossed my peripheral. I turned and saw a tall brunette walking through the grass, away from me, towards the darkness that filled the space where the Silent Queen’s secondary palace used to stand, before it exploded the same night I destroyed Artemis’ main temple downtown.
I had turned away and ascended the stairs to the door of my villa, when the uniqueness of the woman’s presence struck me. The guards and people I’d crossed – and ignored – in the mall area appeared differently than this woman. They were faded in a world where everything else was noticeably brighter.
But the woman in white … she was in rich color, fully present, like I was.
Twisting, I glimpsed her just as she disappeared into the darkness around the Silent Queen’s destroyed palace. I started after her when a faint voice called to me.
“Lyssa!”
Someone was tugging me inside.
Resisting, I raced across the mall, following the path of the woman in white. When I reached the hole in the ground remaining from the explosion that decimated the Silent Queen’s palace, I paused and strained to catch a glimpse of the mysterious woman.
&
nbsp; A flash of white came from the thatch of forest on one end of the immense compound housing the political elite of the world. I ran after her, not stopping to question whether or not I should. I raced through the Queen’s scorched gardens and across the open area between her space and the forest.
Pausing at the edge of the trees, I waited for another glimpse and spotted the woman not far ahead of me. I pursued her, slowing when I neared.
“Hey!” I called.
She turned, and my stomach sank. This woman wasn’t Cecelia.
Her features were too heavy to be beautiful, her eyes too far apart. Her skin was dark olive and her eyebrows thick and black. Despite her lack of physical beauty, she carried herself with the same dignity and rigid posture as the Silent Queen. The dress she wore glowed and shifted in an invisible breeze, as if she were not fully part of any world.
I sensed I was in the presence of someone important without understanding who she could be.
“Um, hi,” I started awkwardly. “You’re the only person I’ve seen here.”
She waited, expressionless. Her features were partially lit by the moonbeams that pierced the forest canopy overhead. The directness and intensity of her gaze left me unsettled.
“I was wondering if I could ask you a question or two,” I said at her silence.
She did not speak.
“Lyssa.” The voice was calling to me again, trying to pull me back to my body. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was close to someone who knew an answer I needed.
Blinking, I realized I’d been dragged to the edge of the forest, leaving the woman in white at its center. I hurried forward with frustration, sensing my time here was dwindling.
“Please. I just need to ask …”
“Lyssa!”
Abruptly, I was sailing away from the woman. I was yanked across the compound and through the villa so fast, my surroundings turned into a whirling kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. Off balance and sick to my stomach, I didn’t stabilize until I stood in the middle of my bedroom. Leandra was at my side, worry on her features.
But it wasn’t her that caught my attention.
The woman in white wasn’t the only other person in this dimension. Cleon stood over my bed, peering down at me pensively.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, alarmed to find him spying on me.
“You pulled me into this place,” he replied and faced me. “We have absolute power in this realm, don’t we?” He appeared pleased.
I hated it when he was happy about anything. “There’s an ambulance in front of the House. Did you murder someone else?”
“They’re trying to wake me up, I believe,” he replied. “You brought us here in the middle of a meeting. I collapsed mid-discussion with the Supreme Priest. I can’t figure out how to return to my body, once we’re here.”
I wasn’t about to tell him I didn’t know either.
“Lyssa.” Leandra’s voice was in my head, loud and ringing.
I flinched and glanced towards her. Pale blue sparks surrounded her fingertips as she touched my face. I could feel her touch here, in the other dimension, too. Somehow, she was tugging at me to return.
“I have wandered the entire compound. I can see everyone, hear what he or she discusses with anyone else. I had no idea such an ability existed,” Cleon continued.
The more I learned and grew, the more he did, too. I didn’t know how it was possible or how to prevent him from becoming stronger alongside me.
The door to my room smashed open. Niko strode in, features taut.
“She did this, didn’t she?” he snapped at Leandra.
“Did what?” Leandra asked, glancing up, her focus on waking me broken.
“Cleon won’t wake up.”
I exchanged a look with Cleon, who frowned. We were observers, watching Niko and Leandra as they hovered over my body.
“Fix this,” Niko demanded.
“I don’t know how,” Leandra replied.
“Bullshit. I saw you wake her last time.”
Leandra appeared surprised for the first time in the twelve years I’d known her. It wasn’t the surprise of someone who was innocent but someone who had been caught doing something she didn’t think anyone noticed she had been doing.
As usual, Niko had read someone in a way I never could. I stepped forward, intrigued by the idea Leandra was more than she seemed.
“Do it.” Niko pushed her towards the bed.
The normally unflappable woman’s hands shook as she rested them on my cheeks again.
I felt her touch in both dimensions and winced as an uncomfortable shock went through me.
“Wake up, Lyssa,” Leandra whispered.
Whatever she did, she snapped me out of the other dimension and back into my body. My eyes flew open, and I gasped in air, disoriented by the sudden shift. I sat up and looked around for Cleon before realizing he, too, had probably been sent back to his body.
But he’d been there to see Leandra’s power, which meant, she was about to become a target on his radar.
I stared at Leandra, wanting to ask her how she was calling me back from the other place but afraid to expose her in front of Niko or the constant presence of Cleon in my head.
“Once I’ve made sure Cleon is safe, the three of us are going to have a talk,” Niko said, leveling his glare on Leandra. He stormed out, slamming the door behind him as he went.
I scrambled out of bed and bolted across the room to lock the door. “We have to get you out of here,” I said, darting towards my closet. “Now, Leandra!”
“Niko isn’t a threat,” she said. “I can handle him.”
“Cleon knows.”
Leandra was silent.
I grabbed a bag and began stuffing clothing into it. Leandra joined me in the closet.
“I can’t leave you here,” she said quietly. “You don’t know how to find your way back from the other places.”
Straightening, I faced her. “How in the name of Hades do you know where I was?”
She smiled mischievously.
I wasn’t the only one interested. Cleon’s emotions grew stronger each time I visited the alternate plane of reality.
“Wait. Don’t say. Cleon can hear,” I said.
“I wasn’t going to tell you anyway.”
“I’m trying to save your life, and you’re still a bitch!”
Leandra rolled her eyes. “You’re sure he knows?”
“He was standing beside me when Niko confronted you two seconds ago!” I exclaimed. “You have to go.” Thrusting the bag at her, I snatched her favorite pair of shoes off the racks containing a couple hundred pairs. We wore the same size, and we often tried on shoes and clothes together. “Don’t tell me where. Don’t tell me how. Just go.”
I thrust the shoes at her.
She placed everything on the ground, not showing my concern. “You can’t be here alone.”
“If you want to help me, do it from outside the wall or at least, far away from here.”
“And if you become stuck in the other place?”
“I’ll figure it out. You have to go. Now!” I pushed her towards the door, anxious to save her, before Cleon sent a platoon of guards to haul her away and torture her, as had been done to my parents.
“Alessandra, calm down,” she chided. “Come here.” She took my face in her hands once more and pressed her forehead to mine. Another uncomfortable flare of energy bolted through me. Nod if you can here me, she spoke into my mind.
I uttered another of Herakles’ favorite curses.
Leandra giggled. I am a nymph, a spirit of the forest, loyal to Artemis. I have protected you, alongside Herakles, the priests and the other girls, since we first met. You called us from the trees to play with you when you came to our forest when you were six, and we stayed when we learned what you were.
I listened, astonished as the latest secret of my own life unfolded.
Tread carefully in the other places. You wil
l not be welcome in all of them, and I will not be here to rescue you.
My anxiety settled, replaced by outright fear as I realized I was about to be truly alone. “You have to go,” I repeated.
Theodocia will help me. I’ll find my way to the Silent Queen. In case you’re in danger, or face an emergency of any kind, I’ve left a clue as to how to reach Theodocia in your jewelry box. She will remain in the city as long as you’re here. Leandra released me and retrieved her bag from the floor. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself,” she added with a wink.
I knew what mythical nymphs were, but I didn’t know I was surrounded by them or what power they naturally possessed.
“Wait,” I told her reluctantly. I grabbed Mrs. Nettles off my bed, startling her awake. “Take her with you. Just in case.”
“You’ll be completely alone,” Leandra said carefully, as if she knew Artemis used Mrs. Nettles to talk to me.
My eyes narrowed. Any other day, I’d do whatever it took to force the truth out of Leandra. I didn’t have that luxury today, not when there was too much at stake, namely the lives of those I cared about.
“No one’s safe here anymore,” I replied quietly. “Not while Cleon is in my head and able to see and hear what I do. I endanger everyone around me. You have to plot to take him out without me knowing. Take her and keep her safe.”
Leandra accepted the purring teddy bear, regret on her features. As I watched, the nymph fashioned a pouch out of a pashmina and secured Mrs. Nettles to her back.
I waved to my stuffed animal, and she waved back.
Leandra went to the balcony rather than the door and walked out onto it. She slung a leg over the railing and dropped down into the gardens. Trailing, I leaned over the balcony to watch her then recalled how Cleon could see what I did.
I turned away in anger. If I watched her run to safety, Cleon would know where to find her. Ignorance was the only way to protect others for me, even if it meant I lived in a state of constant uncertainty and fear of the conditions and lives of those I cared about.