She ran over to Lotun’s crumpled form and helped her to her feet. Kala looked at Talan, angry now herself. “We need information from her, not roast her like a marshmallow.”
He was taken aback and she could see he was a little ashamed as well. “She was hurting you. She tried to read your most private thoughts. You couldn’t seem to push her out. These things can’t go unpunished, Kala. Not in our world.”
Kala knew he was right. She hadn’t been able to shove the Malak out the second time. “So you leap to burning her alive? Couldn’t you have just knocked her on the head or something?” It was the extremity that bothered Kala. Seeing Lotun covered in flames… It wasn’t something she wanted to see again. Ever.
“I’m sorry,” Talan replied quietly.
Lotun’s face went from pain to shock. “Grigori don’t apologize.” She was genuinely perplexed.
“Well, he did, so get on your feet.” Kala helped the Malak stand. “What can you tell us about… me?” She hoped Lotun wouldn’t clam up in resentment at the two people who’d just tortured her.
Lotun shook her head, not wanting to re-live the memory. “I’ve never seen power like hers before.” She peered up at Talan. “She’s more powerful than a Grigori. More powerful than anything. I…” The girl was reeling. “Of course she is… she’s…” She shook her head, unable to comprehend her own words.
Kala didn’t like where this was going. “I’m what? I’m just a human.”
“A human that swallowed a god!” Lotun’s eyes wouldn’t stop widening as she gawked at her.
It irritated Kala. “Stop looking so shocked. That happened days ago.”
Lotun turned back to Talan. “She’s the Fated One, Talan.”
“We know that already, Lotun. We’ve read the prophecies and it only talks about the person who will take this curse away. The one who knows death. Do you know who that would be?” Talan spoke carefully.
Lotun shook her head. The crazed glaze in her eyes worsened. “Pandora only has half of the prophecy. The Malaks have kept it hidden. There’s more! The Fated One isn’t just a person. Talan, the Fated One is…”
And she was gone.
Popped out of the forest like she was never there.
Kala and Talan stared at each other in surprise. He walked over to Kala and examined where Lotun had been.
“Did she teleport out mid-sentence, because that’s really low.” Kala was beyond frustrated.
“No. Someone teleported her out.” Talan sighed. “Only one being has that kind of power.”
“Let me guess. Cronus?” Kala could feel her eyes rolling.
“The master of time and space himself,” Talan confirmed. His expression turned regretful. “I’m sorry if I disappointed you with my behavior. I don’t like seeing you hurt. Especially by a Malak.”
Kala sensed some angel prejudice going on, but she decided to let it go. “How are we going to find the other part of the prophecy? Would some other Malak have it?” Because Kala wasn’t interested in having another brawl with Cronus. Now he had two prisoners Kala needed: Zeus and Lotun. He was starting a collection. Was he going to kidnap everyone who tried to give Kala information? Probably.
“I didn’t even know more of the prophecy existed. I’ll have to tell Pandora.” Talan barely hid his worry.
“It sounds like the prophecy says who the Fated One is, but it’s me. So what was Lotun talking about?” Kala hated having more questions. She hated having questions at all, but the more she delved into this new world of hers, the more out of her depth she felt. Words like Fated One belonged in fantasies not real life. Not her life.
Not knowing what to say, Talan stared at Kala sympathetically. Finally, he said, “Whatever she was going to tell us, Cronus didn’t want you to hear. It must be what he concluded himself. The prophecy only confirmed it for him.”
“You don’t think he knew of the prophecy beforehand?” Kala wondered.
“No. If a prophecy doesn’t involve him directly, he doesn’t pay much attention to it. There are too many to know all of them. If Lotun kept the prophecies about Atlas hidden, then only the Malaks knew of it. And probably only a select few. We just have to figure out which few and track them down.” Talan surveyed the forest. “You want to get out of here and go somewhere less…rural.”
For some reason, Kala didn’t. As much as she despised being outdoors, at that moment it felt good. She could tune out the rest of the world and not have to deal with any of her problems. “Can we just sit here for a bit?” Kala plopped down on the ground and lay on her back. The sun filtered through the tight branches, letting small pockets of light touch her face. Despite the dry ground and sharp needles poking through her clothing, it felt amazing. “What time is it anyway?”
Talan lay down next to her but made sure he didn’t make physical contact.
Their arms were less than an inch apart, but Kala was aware of the heat radiating off his body. It made her feel connected to him. More connected than if they were actually touching.
“Before you react, everything is going to be fine,” Talan began.
She didn’t like the sound of that. “It’s Day Four isn’t it?” The sun looked high in the sky, but she was in France. Her countdown clock was tied to the time zone where she became Atlas, which meant east coast time. France was five hours ahead.
Talan sounded surprised to hear how calm Kala appeared. “Not quite. You have about an hour. It’s 4:03 AM your time.”
Instead of picturing a clock with the time on it, Kala only saw the countdown.
1d 00h 57m 00s.
A little over twenty-four hours before she’d have to destroy Fortski’s research. Or before Roberta would. Her heart desperately wanted to believe that Roberta could.
“Talan?” Kala spoke his name softly. “My mission is to destroy the cure for cancer.” It felt good to admit it, especially to someone who would support her no matter what she did.
He was silent for a moment, then said, “Why would it be to destroy something that would help so many?”
Relief flooded through her. “Right? That’s what I thought. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not going to do it.”
Talan paused. “Do you want to see what will happen if you don’t do it?”
Kala briefly thought about telling Talan that Roberta would do the deed for her if she ran out of time, but she decided she’d take a look through his future eyes first. “Yes.”
Talan reached his hand over and clasped Kala’s. The familiar tingle sent a shiver through her body. It also made her feel safe. She relied more and more on Talan and his unending support. It went beyond physical chemistry and the fact that he was beautiful to look at. Only Jack, Derek and her foster parents had ever made her feel as protected as Talan did. Kala had relied on herself her whole life. It was difficult for her to trust anyone. But she trusted Talan. She trusted him with her life.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded.
The branches above her shifted and swirled as the familiar sensation of Grigori vision commenced. She saw the scene that had repeated on every TV or screen where she was about to demolish Fortski’s computers. Instead of destroying them, the Kala in the vision started to walk away. On the wall was a digital clock. Five seconds until the end of Day Four. She waited to see what would happen.
Kala’s stomach turned when the ground jolted beneath Fortski and vision-Kala. The building started to collapse as giant cracks split the walls.
Not again.
She knew then that it didn’t matter what her task was.
It would always end the same.
The world would implode on itself.
The nature of the curse was built that way. If Atlas didn’t do the horrible act, the planet would collapse.
“Take me out,” Kala instructed Talan.
He broke their connection by releasing his hand from hers. She wanted to hold it for support, but she appreciated his respectfulness.
“I’m sorry,” Talan said softly
.
“It’s okay. It makes sense, I guess. If the world didn’t end every time, Atlas would have slacked any chance he could. I don’t know what else I expected to see.” Kala stared at the branches above. As much as the pine needles beneath her itched and scratched, it was a peaceful moment. Reality wasn’t something she wanted to face. “I don’t think I can do it,” she confessed again. “But it needs to be done.” Kala sighed. “Talan.” She needed to own up to her plan. “I’m going to have someone else do it.”
“What do you mean?” Talan turned to her.
“Roberta said she’d do it.”
Talan’s eyes said it all. He was trying to think of a way to let her down easy.
“Don’t tell me it’s impossible. She’s going to try. She wants to do it. I don’t. It’s the perfect arrangement.”
“Kala, if Atlas could have made people do his dirty work, he would have. Tricking humans into taking his place was the closest he ever came. Roberta won’t be able to,” he told her kindly.
She stood up angrily, brushing pine needles off her jeans. Her hatred of nature came back in a rush as she pricked her finger on one of them. “Can we get out of here now?”
Talan stood up next to her. “Kala, I’m sorry, but you’re missing the point here.”
“And what’s the point?” She crossed her arms.
“Why does Roberta want to help?”
Kala hadn’t thought about that.
It suddenly made her stomach turn.
“Because she’s helpful?” Kala volunteered.
“I’ve been teaching Roberta and Turner for years now, and the woman can be kind at times, but she never does anything without a reason. The one thing I don’t have access to is Fortski’s secret project. He doesn’t share it with anyone, not even his most trusted assistant, namely me.”
“You know what? I don’t care why she wants to do it. She’ll do it. In the meantime, let’s try and figure out how I can break out of this curse in the first place. I need to find Zeus.” Kala was so angry and so frustrated she didn’t want to think about Roberta and what her reasons were. All she could think about was Zeus, Zeus, Zeus! Why would he create something so stupid?! Why did he have to be crazy?! Why couldn’t anything be easy?! She wanted to punch the Olympian in the face so bad it made her heart squeeze.
A tree would do nicely. Kala swung as hard as she could.
PUNCH!
“Ouch. You do realize you just attacked an invalid?” Asmodeus’s voice grated on Kala’s last nerve.
She had just punched Zeus in the face.
It took her a second to figure out where she was.
Kala stood in front of Zeus in Asmodeus’s hideout.
Score.
DAY FOUR
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kala saw Asmodeus sitting at a small wooden table drinking a cappuccino. He smiled. “Guess you’re tuned into me. I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be.” Kala didn’t like the implication. “I was imagining punching Zeus in the face and I guess the universe agreed with me.”
“You keep leaving that Grigori for me. He’s going to take it personally someday.” He took another sip. “But I don’t mind. I never liked that guy anyway.”
“I hardly noticed.” Kala rolled her eyes.
The place was a decent-sized room in what appeared to be some sort of mansion, or at least a very nice house. The décor consisted of Victorian era antiques, from the ornate table and chair that Asmodeus currently had his rump parked in, to the floral couch, wooden roll-top desk, and the heavy curtains framing a window overlooking fields of green grass.
Kala decided she had had enough with Asmodeus. Grabbing onto Zeus, she tried to teleport out of there.
Nope.
Asmodeus smiled. “The boss man put a no-teleport spell on the guy. Sorry.” He stood up and walked over to her. “Cronus wouldn’t like it that you’re here, either, but I have a soft spot for you.”
He reached out to touch her cheek, but Kala swatted his hand away. “You go sit over there. I’m going to talk to Zeus-man for a bit.”
Asmodeus did as he was told, adding, “I hear that you actually took my suggestion and talked to Lotun.”
“Yeah, and your boss took her away just before she could tell me the good stuff,” she complained.
“He tends to do that.” Asmodeus pretended to sympathize.
“You wouldn’t happen to know what Cronus figured out about me, would you?” Kala thought she’d try.
“Why do you think Ms. Lotun isn’t here with Zeus? Because Cronus doesn’t trust me when it comes to you. He knows I have a weakness for you.” Asmodeus shrugged.
She had no idea why Asmodeus felt the way he did about her, but she wasn’t above using it against him. The problem was he kissed like a pro. It was too damn tempting. She really didn’t want to do the walk of shame because she had made out with the king of Demons. It would be too humiliating.
“Lotun has another piece of the prophecy about me. She was about to tell me what being the Fated One means,” Kala admitted. The whole thing was frustrating.
Zeus rubbed his sore nose, but he perked up his head at the mention of prophecy.
“Prophecy, prophecy, prophecy,” he cackled. “The one who knows death; she’ll be the one who breaks the curse.”
Kala focused her attention on Zeus. “Do you know the one who knows death? It’s a she? Who is she?” Question him while he was making slight sense, she figured.
Zeus cackled and cackled to the point where Kala wanted to punch him again to shut him up. Instead, she spoke as calmly as she could. “Please, Zeus, who is she?”
His eyes grew wide and he stopped laughing. “The daughter of the man who will sacrifice his life and his gift to save her. She is the one who knows death.” He started to giggle again. “You don’t have to wait long. She’ll be born in three hundred years!” Zeus roared with laughter and began to babble incoherently again.
Kala froze.
Three hundred years?
“He’s just messing with me.” Kala spun around to Asmodeus. “Right?”
The Demon shrugged. “Could be, but to beings like us, three hundred years isn’t that long.”
Her heart dropped. “I’m in my twenties and I feel like I’ve lived a thousand years. I can’t do this every four days for three hundred years! I can’t!” Kala’s mind felt like it was going to explode.
“Calm down, buttercup. Zeus is insane after all. He might be confusing prophecies or people or anything. No need to have a heart attack based on the word of a looney.” He took another sip of his espresso.
Kala nodded. She knew Asmodeus was right, but Zeus’s words felt true. Her deepest darkest fear was that she’d have to do horrible things forever. And three hundred years might as well be forever to her. As a human, she might have, at least, had some other Atlas wannabe kill her and take over. Morbid, but true. But since she was the full-blown Atlas now, she was stuck with the gig. For as long as the curse lasted.
“Even if it is true, at least you know the curse will be broken someday. That’s positive, right?” Asmodeus shrugged his shoulders as if he was giving words of encouragement.
“But three hundred years?!” Kala did the math in her head. It took her a while since math was never her favorite subject. “That’s seveny-five acts of atrocity!”
“See? That’s not so bad.” Asmodeus acted like this was proof that Kala was overreacting.
“Not so bad?! I’m going to go insane. There’s no way. I’ll be straight up evil by the end of it.” Kala was beside herself at the mere thought. Every four days doing some vile, horrible thing. Sure, it saved the planet – but what about her? What about her soul? There was no way she wouldn’t be destroyed by it. She couldn’t even do her second mission, and if the world hadn’t been crumbling beneath her feet, she would never have done the first.
“Evil is a bit strong. Jaded, maybe, but who isn’t a little bit jaded?”
“You’re not he
lping.” She was tired of his positive spin on the whole thing. Especially coming from a Demon!
Kala took a deep breath.
She had listened to Zeus rattle on and on about nonsense. She was reading way too much into what he said. The god was crazy. Prophecy be damned, Kala wasn’t one to abide by the rules anyway. Besides, she still was unclear as to what the one who knows death meant. Did the girl have some kind of relationship with the Grim Reaper? If all these gods, angels, and Demons existed, why couldn’t there be a King of Death?
No more supposition. Kala reminded herself. Think like a soldier. What’s in front of me? What do I need to do right now?
“I need to sit.” Kala sat down on the old-fashioned couch. The cushion was hard but comfortable.
“Would you like an espresso? They’re really quite tasty,” Asmodeus offered.
She shook her head. “They remind me too much of my first encounter with Atlas.”
Asmodeus snapped his fingers and a shot of tequila appeared in Kala’s hand. “Your favorite.”
She didn’t argue. She drank it in one delicious gulp. It made her miss Derek terribly. He was always her drinking buddy in between missions. She wondered if he was okay and what he was doing. “Thanks.” Kala placed the shot glass down on the ground next to her foot.
“Wow. A thank you. Wonders never cease.” Asmodeus laughed.
“Don’t let it go to your head.” She smiled, despite herself.
“Never.” He put his hands up in supplication.
“What am I supposed to do now?” Kala didn’t expect an answer. She merely needed to speak her worries aloud. “Interrogate crazy-pants here some more?”
“You’re the one so desperate to track Zeus down. If Cronus knew you were here, he’d have me move him immediately, so I’d ask him while you can.” Asmodeus nodded his head in Zeus’s direction.
He was right. Kala had been a broken record claiming that all she needed to do was find Zeus, the god who was dumb enough to create her curse. And now he sat in front of her and he might as well be drooling. What did she hope to pull out of Zeus? What she had pulled out of him she didn’t like very much. Kala just wanted him to get his brains back in order and reverse the damn spell!
Grigori Returned (The Atlas Series Book 2) Page 16