The Petros Chronicles Boxset

by Diana Tyler

  “Corinna’s cursed,” Chloe whispered. She went closer to the cage, slowly unsheathing the wand. “I’m going to try something.”

  Leto turned around and eyed the raised wand in Chloe’s hand. “If you hurt her, I will kill you.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Chloe closed her eyes and prayed aloud. “Duna, I know this isn’t the body you gave Leto’s mother. I ask you to use this wand to heal her, to undo whatever curse made her this way.” She kept her eyes shut, continuing to pray in her head.

  “Something’s happening,” Leto shouted.

  Chloe opened her eyes to see the gryphon’s charcoal feathers being shed from her body, revealing smooth white skin. Two wings of pale violet unfurled and fell around her like a cape. Her hooked yellow beak shaped itself into a human nose as her head shrank, and auburn waves of hair tumbled down onto her bare shoulders.

  “Leto.” Corinna smiled as she coughed and brought a trembling hand to her throat.

  Leto laughed and cried simultaneously as she reached through the bars and joined hands with her mother. “You know me?”

  Corinna cupped Leto’s chin in her hand. “I knew somehow I would see you again,” she said, looking at Chloe and the wand still hanging from her hand, “just as I knew I would one day be released from that prison, either by death or the benevolent hand of a god.” She looked at the feathers blanketing the cage floor. “It was transforming me, replacing my soul with that of a beast. Your name,” she said, stroking Leto’s hair, “was one of the last ones I could still remember.”

  Tears spilled shamelessly from Leto’s eyes as she looked back at Chloe, whose own eyes were welling as she thought of her reunion with her father in the Fields of Asphodel, an occasion just as miraculous as this.

  “Let’s get you out of there.” Chloe reached up for the log just as Leto ripped the wand from her belt.

  “You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Leto roared. She pointed the wand at the log and split it cleanly down the middle.

  “Leto, what are you doing?” Corinna asked, stepping back into the cage.

  “Come with me, Mother.” Leto reached for her mother’s hand. “The poor sap thought she’d changed my mind, but she’s only given me an even stronger advantage.”

  “Please, Corinna,” Chloe said, as the rain began to sprinkle on her face, “talk some sense into your daughter. She wants me to take her back in time to get the ambrosia that will make her immortal.” What Chloe saw in Corinna’s eyes made her blood run cold. She gasped. “No! I thought your curse was the one I was supposed to break.”

  Leto threw back her head and gave a devilish laugh. “I’d planned all along to come back for my mother and father. You rearranging things did little to inconvenience me.” She pointed the wand at her mother, and a scarlet robe appeared on her body, followed by leather sandals on her feet.

  Chloe looked at Corinna, clearly seeing now the deviousness radiating from within her. Every word she’d said had been a lie, and Chloe’s brilliant plan had blown up in her face.

  “I’m curious,” Leto said to Chloe, “about what exactly you expected to accomplish by bringing me here.”

  Chloe didn’t answer. What good would it do to try and explain her reasoning to someone who was incapable of comprehending it? She’d hoped that helping Leto get her mother back would change her heart, that their reunion would grant Leto a contentment that far outweighed the attainment of endless world domination, and that she would realize it.

  But Leto hadn’t gained contentment, just an accomplice. Chloe wouldn’t be surprised if Leto killed her mother in cold blood if she ever stood in her way. Luckily for Corinna, though, she was cut from the same cloth as her maniacal daughter.

  “So you want to save your father even though he turned your mother into a monster and kept her inside a cage,” Chloe said.

  “It wasn’t always going to be this way,” Corinna said. “Diokles has chosen to keep my true identity a secret until the time comes to show Petros who I really am.”

  “Well, the secret’s out now, isn’t it? How will Diokles react when he sees his killing machine is back to being a woman again?”

  “Come now, Chloe,” said Leto, beckoning her with the wand. “Don’t worry your silly little head with such useless questions. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain. I let your brother go, and now you fetch me the ambrosia.”

  Corinna kissed her daughter’s cheek. “I always knew you would grow up to be brilliant. Your father will be so proud.”

  “I’m not taking you to get the ambrosia, Leto,” Chloe said. “And without me, you can’t get back to the future to carry out your threats.”

  Corinna flapped open her wings, their span nearly as wide as the cage behind her. Even without her sharp beak and pointy talons, she was no less intimidating. It took little imagination for Chloe to consider what she could do with those wings, like carry her over the Great Sea and drop her into the middle of it.

  “Don’t be careless with your words,” Corinna warned. “They could get you into trouble.”

  “I’ve never meant anything more sincerely in my life, Corinna. If you want to kill me, so be it. I happen to know that death isn’t all that bad.”

  Leto sneered as dirt collected around her feet and wind whistled through the cage. “Death, perhaps not. But dying… I can make it so terrible you’ll wish you were never born.”

  “Then do it,” Chloe challenged.

  Corinna bent down, ready to charge her, but Leto gripped her arm. “Don’t. I need her alive a while longer.”

  “I told you, I’m not helping you,” Chloe repeated. Ethan’s face flashed through her brain, followed by the feeling of his lips upon hers. What she wouldn’t give to kiss him one last time.

  “You don’t need her, Leto,” Corinna said. “Your body may die, but your name shall live on forever. Make an example of her. Tomorrow we can take her to the temple and show Petros what happens to anyone who fails to cooperate with Diokles’ daughter.”

  She looked at Chloe with sadistic joy, her eyes like the snuffs of dead candles. “Her screams will ring out through the streets and fill every plain and valley. And no Asher will ever dare defy you again.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  PRISONERS

  Very well.” Leto waved the wand, effortlessly creating a pair of shackles.

  Chloe closed her eyes, half tempted to leave this place now and be done with it, but she knew she couldn’t. She’d never forgive herself for saving her own skin while leaving the world worse off than it had been before she’d traveled back in time to begin with. With Diokles, Leto and Corinna in league with each other, who knew what havoc they could wreak throughout Petros.

  It was her fault, and she was resolved to die at Leto’s hands. Ethan would understand one day, at least she hoped he would.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said, her voice shaking as Leto slowly made her way toward her through the pouring rain. “You don’t have to kill me, or anyone else. You can have your family back and take them to the future to meet your son. You can start over together.”

  “Why would I want to do that when I can stay here and kill Iris?” Leto grabbed Chloe’s wrists and secured them in the shackles. “She’ll be so surprised to see me here, don’t you think?”

  She yanked Chloe forward and led her past the cage where a lone tamarisk tree waved flimsily in the wind along the sheer cliff’s edge, as if asking to be struck by lightning. She pushed Chloe to the ground, locked a pair of fetters around her ankles, and created heavy chains with which to bind her to the tree’s slender trunk. The smell of hot metal filled the air as the wand glowed orange in Leto’s hand.

  “As a thank-you for what you did for my mother, I’ve decided not to kill you.” She smiled as lightning illuminated the long dark drop below them.

  Chloe wondered how many dead men’s bones were down there, and how long it would be before hers joined them.

  “That’s not even m
e creating the storm,” Leto said. “It’s your beloved Duna. You’re not worth wasting my power on, anyway. I’ll give him the pleasure of taking your life.”

  Chloe’s heart skipped a beat as she saw it appear, band by band, color by color in the yellow haze of moonlit sky still untouched by the storm. The Moonbow was there, watching her. I can die now, right here. If this is what Duna wants for me.

  “Leto!” Corinna shouted.

  Leto silenced the wind with her fingertips and craned her neck toward the cage. “No,” she whispered, then gathered her robes and ran to her mother.

  “Chloe.”

  A voice had whispered in Chloe’s ear, and she tried to turn around. It was Ethan’s voice, but she couldn’t see him. She watched as the Centaur’s blue blade sliced through the shackles and fetters.

  “I tied up Corinna in the cage,” Ethan said. “Stay here, I’ll come back for you.”

  “What…how…”

  “I’ll tell you later. Just stay here,” he repeated, letting his hand linger on hers a second longer, allowing her to see his face, if only for an instant.

  Chloe felt a rush of air as he ran past her, and she breathed in the slight scent of his sweat mixed with rain. Protect him, she prayed.

  “It’s the other Asher!” Leto cried out above the thunder’s din. She ran toward Chloe, open hands raised to the sky, the wand nowhere in sight.

  “Hurt her and I’ll kill you,” came Ethan’s voice.

  Chloe watched the wand zoom toward Leto in a golden blur, striking her square in the chest. Leto reeled back with a yelp, then found her balance and gnashed her teeth at the air.

  “Who are you?” she barked. “You don’t sound like Damian. I command you to reveal yourself.”

  Another blow, this time strong enough to knock Leto down and send her over the cage’s threshold. Before she could stand, a new latch, this one nearly two feet thick and made of steel, appeared across the bars. They were trapped. Inside, Leto ran to the bars and screamed until her lungs finally gave out and she collapsed to her knees.

  “Chloe.” Chloe jumped at Ethan’s whisper in her ear. “We can’t leave them here,” he whispered, “and we can’t take them back to Ourania, either. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Take me to the cage,” said Chloe.

  She knew just where to send them, as well as another spell she could undo; she only hoped this idea would turn out to be better than the last.

  Ethan took her hand, his body appearing on her left side. She couldn’t wait to get home and find out how he could be here right now. Slowly, they made their way to the far side of the cage. Chloe grasped a bar lightly, careful not to make a sound. She mouthed: Ready?

  Ethan nodded.

  Corinna bawled and savagely beat her wings while Leto dragged her nails along the cage’s wooden floor, sparks flying from her fingers. Chloe knew that if she didn’t move quickly, Leto would burn her way to freedom. She closed her eyes and envisioned the island. She had never wanted to see or think about it again, but it was the only place she knew where Leto and Corinna could live without harming anyone.

  Except for maybe one person.

  Aeaea.

  Chloe concentrated on the name and the beautiful sorceress it belonged to, a woman who would waste no time turning Leto into a rodent at the first sign of assault.

  The lightning gave way to the darkness of the wormhole. Inside the cage, fury raged, increasing in volume and intensity until Chloe was sure the prisoners had escaped. She could feel the heat of their breath on her skin and the wind from Corinna’s flapping wings. Sparks from Leto’s hands flew through the air, intersecting with the tunnel’s erratic flashing as Leto continued to claw at the floor.

  And then, the salty smell Leto had wanted all along, followed by the feeling of warm soft sand underfoot and the familiar chirping of a bird, a parakeet whose name Chloe remembered was Erato, the first of Circe’s pets she’d met that day with Orpheus.

  The sun’s hot beams tore through the tunnel, revealing the calm, aquamarine-colored ocean and the low-flying seagulls hunting for fish. Still clutching Ethan’s hand, Chloe gazed eastward at Circe’s palace. Already, Erato, or perhaps some other of Circe’s winged spies, was flying toward it, no doubt to inform its mistress of her guests.

  I’m here to free you! Chloe wanted to yell at the bird, but she decided to let her actions speak for her.

  She took the wand from Ethan’s free hand and directed it at the compound, then waved it in small, smooth circles, completely aware of how ridiculous she must look to Ethan, who had no idea who or what lay behind Circe’s walls.

  He nudged her side. Nothing was happening. Even Leto and Corinna had paused their tantrums.

  Shouts and laughter spilled from the courtyard and trickled through the surrounding shade trees, followed by the sound of clapping hands and swinging gates.

  The prisoners were free.

  Chloe could see them, an army of young men, running into the ocean, embracing it as if it were their dearest love. They splashed themselves again and again, dove down like ducks and reemerged only to go under again. She’d never seen such happiness, such rejoicing over something as simple and common as ocean waves.

  “Stop, all of you!” cried Circe.

  Chloe’s eyes swung back toward the courtyard to see the witch’s magenta robes sweeping out of the shadows and onto the sparkling sand. She marched toward the men, at least a hundred of them, then stopped when they turned to face her, drawing the swords from their scabbards.

  “Let us be, if you wish to keep your head!” cried one.

  “My princes,” Circe said, her tone now sweetened at the sight of their weapons raised, “I fear you’re making a grave mistake. In your human state, you’re mortal and will be met with death one day, and perhaps very soon, on your voyage home. Stay with me. I have treated you only with kindness.”

  “You’ve treated us as dogs and slaves,” shouted the same man.

  His comrades affirmed his words with rounds of whoops that might never have ended if the man hadn’t raised his hand to silence them.

  “From this day forward,” he continued, “no man, save he without sense or regard for his soul, will set foot upon this island. Far and wide, all Petros will know that Aeaea is accursed and its chieftain as black-hearted as Hades.”

  Circe bowed her head and backed away. What else could she do? She was the helpless creature now, alone, abandoned, and nearly forgotten. All she would have left once they departed was a frieze of the men’s frightened faces, each one etched with torment, forever depicting the terror they’d felt when Circe’s spell overtook them.

  “Help us!” Leto shouted from the cage.

  Circe approached. A man of equal beauty trailed behind her, his eyes downcast on the hem of her robe. Chloe had a hunch this was the parakeet, Erato. Circe claimed he was named after the muse of lyric poetry. For reasons unknown, he remained loyal to her, so perhaps he was the one she truly loved.

  “Have you done this?” Circe asked Leto, circling the cage as she gestured at the sailors, who were chopping down branches with their swords. “And what abhorrent hybrid is in there with you?”

  Leto spread her hands at her sides and cast her gaze toward the cloudless sky.

  “What are you doing?” Circe asked, an amused smile on her face. “Do you expect Zeus to swoop down from heaven and release you?”

  “Strike her, Leto!” Corinna called out.

  “I’m trying,” Leto shouted back. Her domas were drained.

  Chloe knew she and Ethan had better leave before theirs stopped working, too.

  As if he’d read her mind, Ethan squeezed Chloe’s hand. “Time to go.”

  Chloe looked once more at the cage, where Corinna was crying and Circe was laughing as Leto pounded her fists on the floor.

  “Laugh while you can,” Leto said, looking up at Circe from beneath her disheveled mess of hair. “When my powers return, I’ll send a lightning bolt straight through that pretty
throat of yours and you’ll never laugh again. You won’t even be able to weep as you choke on gurgling blood and feel flames consume you from the inside out.”

  “We’ll see about that,” said Circe. “This island, if you haven’t heard, is filled with wondrous vegetation. My warning to you: choose carefully what you eat. There is a fate worse than death, as the sailors behind me can attest. And if I’m dead, you will not avoid it.”

  Peas in a pod, thought Chloe. Then she sheathed Hermes’ wand and set her thoughts on Damian, Orpheus, and the glow of a warm campfire.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  MEMORIES

  Strange music, unlike anything Chloe had ever heard, flooded the walls of the wormhole as her eyes adjusted from the blackness to amber shafts of light. The rhythm of the instruments was joyful, and the drumbeat full of life as a chorus of voices began to sing.

  “Sing! Sing! Sing!

  Make music and lift up your hands!

  Darkness has been defeated!

  Love and light forever stands!”

  Ethan wrapped his arm around her waist. “Chloe, look.”

  Chloe recognized downtown Eirene only by the dome-shaped Religious Council building at the end of Eiríni Boulevard. Before it stood an aluminum stage, on which a band was playing instruments she’d never seen before.

  The area was foreign to her in every way. The sidewalks, typically reserved solely for use by council employees, were crowded with people. Men, women and children lifted and clapped their hands, singing and swaying to the song. Some held long-stemmed roses, olive branches and balloons, waving them high over their heads. Many more balloons were tied to streetlights and open doors, from which delicious smells were wafting. The younger children sang with their mouths half full of pastries as they gleefully flicked icing off their fingertips.

  In the middle of the street danced teenage girls, each one waving multicolored streamers, and executing graceful pirouettes and long leaps through the air. They were dressed in white leotards covered with golden sequins, which made their movements all the more mesmerizing. As far as Chloe could tell, the only thing that distinguished one from another was the color of the tiaras atop their heads. The foremost rows of dancers wore tiaras of various shades of red, while those immediately behind them were crowned with resplendent hues of orange, followed by yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.