The instant she threw her arms up toward the conjuring circle, I made my move. I pulled out a sword with my free hand and vaulted over the table, landing between her and Frigate. Her confusion at the lack of an explosion or the lack of a spell going off—or both—combined with my sudden movement had her totally off balance, and in her weakened state, she nearly fell as I landed in front of her. I swung my sword, aiming for her outstretched right arm, and took it off below the shoulder.
She collapsed on her knees, screaming, and I brought the hilt of my sword down on her head as hard as I could with a resounding crunch that instantly deformed the shape of her skull. She crumpled silently to the floor, blood running down her face onto the ground around her crushed head. This time she was done, but to make sure, I removed her head with a single blow across her neck and then threw it into the pile with the grenades.
“Let’s see you walk away from that one.” I walked back to help Frigate, who was beginning to wake up.
“What happened? Where am I?” he asked, obviously bewildered.
“It’s okay. We’re getting out of here right now.” I put the sword away and offered him my hand.
I had to fight a sudden sense of panic about the safety of the rest of the team since Medea had managed to get to Frigate. Since she was definitely dead now, I was better off working on my plan to destroy everything she’d left behind. Even with Medea dead, the last thing I needed was for some wannabe to find this place.
Frigate was wobbly, but he was able to stand on his own. He shook his head violently, as if clearing it of cobwebs, and then focused on me with relief. “I remember thinking you were in trouble and needed my help, so I left the others and ran back and then… are we back in the damn cave?” He looked around.
“Yeah, I’ll explain later. Meantime, move that way as fast as you can,” I said, pointing to the tunnel behind him.
I walked back over to the worktable and grabbed another pile of papers and books and shoved them into the bag before checking to make sure Medea was still dead. Even with her head fifteen feet away from her, I wouldn’t have put it past her to survive somehow. Of all her skills, she was most adept at survival. I glanced at her crushed and severed head among the grenades and the dead, lifeless eyes within and felt reasonably sure even this was beyond her resurrection capabilities. I tossed the little metal disk toward the pile in the center of the room and ran.
The implosion rocked the cavern, and wind rushed past me, tugging me backward, which was an altogether different sensation. Medea’s chamber began to collapse behind me. I cleared the tunnel and sprinted into the main cavern just as the ceiling began to fall in, which caused a chain reaction, bringing down stalactites that exploded all over the cave like carpet bombs. I had to block the flying shrapnel from my face with my armored left forearm as I ran. The grenades had a bit more punch than I’d expected. Medea’s remaining followers were panicking again, running around and knocking each other over, trampling those who fell.
Somehow, though, through the confusion, I managed to find Frigate heading for the opening my team had originally entered through, limping along at a fair rate for someone with a twisted ankle and a head full of dust bunnies. When I caught up to him, much to his embarrassment, I grabbed him, tossed him over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and kept running as fast as I could, dodging half-crazed people as I went. The cavern behind us continued to collapse, sending a thick, choking cloud of dust and debris through the tunnel as I ran with Frigate over my shoulder. I didn’t stop until I made it to the snowy plateau outside.
Once we were clear of the cave system, I put Frigate down, and we both began trudging down the mountain to find the rest of our team without saying a single word. An hour later, Frigate and I finally caught up with the surviving members of our group. Sarah was the first to see us. She and Geek were at the back of the ragtag team—she supported him on one side while he used the Pelian Spear as a makeshift crutch. She let Frigate take her place helping Geek and then smiled at me in a contentious way that I didn’t understand and strode toward me purposefully. I gave her a weary half smile as she stopped in front of me. Then she punched me. Right in the jaw. Hard.
“What the hell?” I said, rubbing my jaw, holding my arm out to keep her from closing in again. The blow hurt but not nearly as much as the surprise of her punching me.
“What the hell?” She gestured wildly with her hands. “What the hell? Exactly. What the hell were you thinking?” She was still ranting as she stormed back toward the rest of the group farther down the mountain. “That was for that shit with Duma in freaking Serbia looking for that fucking plant! I suppose you know what he had to do—what I had to do to find that stuff!”
I just rubbed my jaw, shook my head, and fell in behind her. She was probably right. I deserved it.
I flinched when she turned around again, still glaring at me, her mouth pressed into a small, thin line. She walked back to me and climbed onto a rocky outcropping to reach my eye level. I flinched, readying myself for another assault, but this time she leaned in and kissed me.
I didn’t remember much after that.
CHAPTER 41
A couple of days after we got back, I was on my way to the Metis Foundation yet again. Athena had placed Fakhri and her family in a private hospital, and they were doing remarkably well, considering what they’d been through. I had returned the Cup of Jamshid and the Chain to Athena the minute we returned. My entire team had been debriefed, and I’d been round and round about everything multiple times, so I wasn’t sure why she wanted me to come in.
Ab, Duma, Geek, and Frigate were staying with me, and Sarah was staying in a nearby hotel. Even after kissing me, she was still pissed at that whole raskovnik thing. I couldn’t really blame her. It was kind of demeaning. I still wasn’t sure what that kiss was all about. At least I understood the punch.
Ab was pretty much recovered from his burns, and Duma was going to be fine. They were planning to leave the next day, though I didn’t know where they were going. Damned Peris heal so fast it’s sickening. My burned legs will hurt for days. And Ab and Duma won’t even have any scars to show for it, either.
Frigate was leaving that day to go back to his family. It had been good working with him again, but he was a family man, and I hated involving him in my world. It changed everything. He took things in stride and was behaving exactly the way we always did after a tough op. He was trying not to dwell on the specifics of the mission and acting slightly more boisterous than normal. I could imagine that he was also somewhat relieved to find out that the dealings he’d had in my world as a kid were real and that he wasn’t crazy. He was a good man and a good friend. And I would never forget the image of the Ifrit’s torso exploding from the impact of the Raufoss fifty-caliber round he fired to save my ass. That was a first for me.
Geek had been at the Metis Foundation offices every day since we’d returned. In fact, when I walked in, the first thing I saw was Geek inside the Bullpen, pointing and gesturing wildly at some data on a few of the monitors on the back wall while half a dozen people watched and took notes. Apparently, Geek had endeared himself to Athena by belittling the Metis Foundation’s security setup the moment he entered the offices two days earlier. I’d tried to warn her. To my surprise, she took him seriously and had the staff working with him to redo most of the security protocols. Of course, his expertise was invaluable, and I got a feeling I was going to be seeing much more of him in the future. The sight of him holding court, droning on and on about some technical minutiae without the fear of his audience falling asleep, made me smile.
I crossed straight over to the stairs without stopping to address the annoying receptionist. I’d been at the offices many hours over the last two days, so I was pretty sure she knew who I was by then, stinky or not. Besides, I was still convinced she wouldn’t be there much longer.
The door at t
he top of the stairs opened and closed behind me, and I walked straight past Brey without saying a word and right to Athena’s office.
“You should know—” Brey said. After two days of debriefings, I wasn’t in the mood to stop and find out what it was she thought I should know. The door slid open, and I walked in.
To my surprise, there was another person already there, though no one was talking. In fact, the way Athena smiled at me, I got the feeling they were actually waiting for me, which immediately put me on the defensive. Since Athena never revealed her true self to normal mortals, having another person in her office also meant I needed to check the nameplate on the desk.
I should have stopped and talked with Brey. I sighed and eyed the marble plaque at the front of the odd desk. The name “Sebastian W. Exley” was embossed in gold above the title of Senior Intelligence Analyst, whatever the hell that meant. Great, today she was “Exley,” the uptight, arrogant British prig she used for seriously high-ranking officials.
I saw Athena dressed simply in a gray suit with her hair pulled back. I was told she usually projected her Exley persona as dressing in expensive suits with perfectly coiffed salt-and-pepper hair and drinking tea with his pinky extended.
The other person in the room was a very tall, bald, middle-aged man who probably was regularly mistaken for a pro basketball player. His age could have been anywhere from thirty-five to fifty-five. He was dressed in a black-on-black suit that must have been very expensive and fit him like a glove.
“Diomedes, this is Gregor Chahine,” Athena as Exley said, standing to introduce us.
“Pleased to meet you, Gregor.” I presented my hand.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance as well, Tydides,” he said with a heavy accent that suggested an origin in Sub-Saharan Africa.
While he may not have known he was sitting in front of Athena, he certainly knew who I was. As he reached for my hand, a pinkish energy surrounded his fingers and engulfed my hand with a noticeable chill before receding. I peered at him sideways because, other than that, I saw no sign of an aura, nor could I feel any supernatural power. He chuckled at my confusion. Athena was also smiling, clearly pleased to have me off balance.
“Mr. Chahine is the Ipsissimus of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,” she said, sitting back down.
He bowed his head at the formal introduction, and I shook my head in acknowledgement, raising my eyebrows as I did so. Out of respect, I sat after he did. The man sure didn’t look as silly as his title sounded.
“I asked the Ipsissimus to join us because we are still having trouble deciphering some of the materials you brought back.” Athena leaned forward onto the desk. “And he has some questions for you, as well.”
I nodded and leaned on one elbow.
“We feel confident that we understand the ‘what,’” Gregor said. “It is the ‘why’ that still troubles us. Perhaps if you go over it again with me, we might glean some sort of an idea. The fact that she could harness that kind of energy at all is… incomprehensible.” He spread his hands as he finished.
I immediately became suspicious. It was human nature to push our boundaries, and now that magic users knew harnessing chaos was possible, of course they wanted to “better understand it.” That was the origin story of every revolutionary technology-turned-weapon that had ever been created.
In the core of my mind, something made me feel my suspicions were well founded. I saw Athena’s eyes flash blue only for an instant, and I knew the sensation came from her. She distrusted the Order’s motives, as well. That meant I needed to proceed cautiously.
“As I said in my report, Medea needed the Cup of Jamshid to locate the Qarun Treasure, which apparently contained that Ally-whatever chain. She used her human connection to the terrorist organization Jundullah to carry out the necessary attack to recover the relics and probably because she enjoyed the chaos terrorism created. Attacks like that likely helped her keep her followers united for a modern cause. Of course, that’s just speculation because I didn’t exactly ask her before I cut her head off.” I leaned back in my chair, trying to decide how much to say.
“How did she expect to harness and then release the energy?” Gregor asked, shifting in his seat so that he could place his hand on his chin. I could see the barest hint of his pink aura flash in his eyes as he watched me.
“Can’t really say for sure,” I said, shrugging. “I’m not much with magic. That’s why I brought back those papers and books.” I gestured over to a table in the room’s corner that held the stack of materials I’d brought back.
“Very well.” Chahine tented his hands in front of him, staring down into his lap. “The only other precedent the Order can find for harnessing and controlling chaos is Pandora’s Box, given to humans as a test by Protogenoi—one that we, as a species, failed. The Order are operating under the assumption that Medea was trying to create a similar device, this time using Perses as the vessel, likely because she could not create one powerful enough to contain that amount of power on her own. We have no idea why she chose to use Perses as the vessel, nor what damage a device like that could have wrought had the ritual been successful.”
“Medea likely chose to use Perses because of his penchant for destruction,” Athena said, sitting back in her chair. “As a Protogenoi he would have thrived on chaotic and destructive forces here on Earth. Hecate, as his daughter, would have had a blood bond with him, allowing her to manipulate his energy in our world, especially if they had physical control over him. Or so Athena says.”
“Right,” I said, trying not to sound totally out of my depth. “I can’t speak much from a magical standpoint, but I do know that chaos begets more chaos. If her intentions were to destabilize already shaky governments, as some of the information in those papers suggests, then the potential for long-term, virtually self-perpetuated worldwide conflict was very real.”
No one responded to that statement for several minutes. Smugness crept over me for bringing up such a profound statement—especially in front of the most powerful mortal magic user on the planet. I wasn’t about to bring up the symbols connected to the various governments and rulers that had encircled Perses. Athena said that since the symbols could represent those people in a spell, then a wizard, or witch in this case, could use them to form a direct link to those people, allowing Medea to direct all that energy like water through a hose, right where she wanted it.
Chahine eyed me suspiciously, and then his eyes drifted to Athena as Exley. He could tell there was more we weren’t telling him, but he was unsure what to do about it. “It is a good thing for humanity, and indeed all the beings of this world, that we have such a Guardian as you to help us,” Chahine finally said, almost without any hint of derision.
That was enough for me. I shifted in my chair as if to get up, and the Ipsissimus put his hand on my arm to stop me. “Before you go,” the Ipsissimus said in a much more genuine tone, “I would very much like to have a chat about your dealings with Medea in the past, so that we may update our archives, if that would be acceptable to you.”
My eyes wandered to Athena only briefly and then back to Chahine before I sat back in the chair, getting comfortable. I knew Athena would want me to do it under the guise of keeping up good relations. “Sure, no problem.”
“I shall leave you two to talk, then,” Athena said. “If you’ll excuse me?”
Chahine got up when Athena did. They shook hands and she left, glowering ever so briefly at me and inducing a slight pressure in my head. I took her silent admonition to mean, “Play nice.”
After about an hour of storytelling, Chahine thanked me and then left. I followed him to the outer office with every intention of harassing Brey but instead ran into Athena.
“Thank you for your willingness to talk with the Ipsissimus,” she said, standing in front of me with a file folder full
of papers.
“No problem.”
She smiled for a second before I saw something else on her face, something I had never seen before until a few days ago—motherly concern. The corners of her mouth turned up, she pursed her lips, and her eyes softened as she looked at me.
“Diomedes, Son of Tydeus… my Guardian,” she said, using about the most formal reference for me I could think of short of my real full name. “Please be careful.”
“Always,” I said, surprised by her tone and the formal address and apprehensive as a child about to be punished by a parent.
“With Sarah.”
“Oh.”
“I do not have to remind you that she is mortal,” she said, shifting into a tone that suggested a lecture was coming, “or that what you do for the sake of humankind in my stead is inherently dangerous—”
“Then why did you?” I asked, annoyed that she, the virgin goddess, was going to lecture me about my love life.
She held up a hand, and her smile grew. It was warm and genuine. “I do not want this to become a conflict between us. I merely want you to think about her in all of this. Clearly, your affections for her are stronger than you have felt in a long time. I will not tell you no, nor will I give my blessing.”
“Good thing I’m not asking, then,” I said, now fully pissed off that she wanted to interfere in my life.
“I am not just concerned for you, but her as well, Diomedes.”
Before I could respond, Brey walked in through the outer door. I walked out past the Elf without saying a word.
Rather than head home and deal with a houseful of guests, I drove to the dock to do some work on the boat and get my mind off of that conversation. The plan worked for about three minutes before I began obsessing. Not about my relationship with Sarah—that was too hard. Instead, I kept thinking about the scrap of paper I’d found back in Medea’s chambers along with the list of names and countries.
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