I crouched, my doru clutched in both hands, and slowly turned in a circle to assess the situation. It didn’t look good for me.
“Cora?” my mom repeated. “What’s going on?”
I didn’t dare respond. Doing so might clue in Henry and his minions to the fact that the bridge worked both ways, and then they would cross over and capture my mom and the others.
As things stood now, at least my mom, Hades, and Fiona were still free. They could use the other chaos stone to produce a new power core in the frozen city’s mainframe, then travel back here in the ark ship and break us free. I wasn’t sure of Selene’s prospects, but there wasn’t much I could do about that right now.
With a whoosh, my mom emerged from the gephyra, her laser pistol drawn. Hades followed, dragging the scout with one hand, laser pistol brandished in the other. Fiona came last, her own laser pistol grasped in her trembling hand. But all their weapons were a drop of water in an ocean compared to the firepower Henry’s veritable army was aiming our way.
I bowed my head and dropped the doru. It clanged on the floor at my feet, then slowly rolled away as I fell to my knees in surrender.
22
I sat on the floor in the middle of a room that had once been a private office high up in the central tower of the Alpha site, some twelve thousand years ago. The room was small, maybe ten feet by ten feet, and had been cleared of all furniture and decor, leaving behind a faintly musty smell. The narrow window in the exterior wall provided my only access to the outside world, but it was useless to me. I couldn’t even dive to my death hundreds of feet below. The glass was reinforced, unbreakable to me in my powerless state.
I couldn't believe I had let this happen again. Let myself be a prisoner again. Over twelve millennia had passed since I was last held prisoner in this place. That had been the beginning of the end, mere hours before my death. It hadn't mattered that I had escaped . . . that Hades and I had come together to do what needed to be done to save this planet. My sacrifice then had been necessary.
I couldn't help but wonder what I might have to sacrifice this time. I feared the planet was doomed, but there was still time to save the handful of people I loved. It was better than nothing.
Growling under my breath, I pounded the side of my fist against the floor.
Why did it feel like I was stuck in a loop? Like no matter how hard I tried, it would always come down to this—to the Tsakali threatening my people, and to those in power thwarting my efforts to save them? It was like the universe was one giant record player, but the record was scratched, and we were stuck acting out the same struggle, over and over again. Whether I was Peri or Cora or the strange hybrid of the two I had become, it was always the same. I’d been in this exact same position all those millennia ago, but it felt like it was only yesterday.
With another growl of frustration, I stood up and paced around the small room. I was tired of sitting on my butt, doing nothing. I'd been stuck in here for hours, and wallowing was getting me nowhere. I had promised Hades I would keep fighting, and I had meant it. Maybe I wasn’t in prime Amazon shape at the moment, but I was still me—Peri, Cora, me—and I could find a way out of this.
I stopped in front of the window and stared down at the Order minions skittering about far below, moving from building to building as they plundered this once glorious city. Henry was getting what he wanted—unhindered access to our tech. Not that he would have any idea of how to use it. My only solace was in knowing that Hades would never spill the location of the Omega site. He would never deliver the last remains of our people over to our enemy, no matter what the Order did to him.
I raised my hands to my neck and tugged at the metal collar. If only I had access to my powers, I would be able to squash Henry and his minions like the cockroaches they were. But as things currently stood, there were far too many Order soldiers for me to take on alone, even if I somehow managed to break out of my prison.
Again, I thought back to those final hours before my last death. I had awakened in a prison cell, collared and powerless, and I had broken free.
There was a way. I knew I could get the stupid collar off. I’d done it once before. But it would take time and concentration . . . and a whole lot of calm. Everyone I loved was currently being held prisoner somewhere else in the Alpha site. It wasn't exactly a calm-inducing situation.
I planted my hands on the wall to either side of the window and leaned in, resting my forehead against the unbreakable glass. The Peri part of me felt defeated, but the Cora part of me—the gamer part of me—wanted to attack the seemingly impossible challenge head-on.
Exhaling heavily, I pushed away from the window and stalked to the center of the room. I lowered myself down onto the floor and sat cross-legged, closing my eyes and taking deep, belly breaths, like Emi had taught me to do years ago during my first few yoga lessons. I focused on the physical act of breathing, on the sensation of my lungs expanding and contracting. On the individual beats of my heart and the thrum of blood rushing through my veins. On the small, minor aches and pains left over from the fight in the gephyra chamber.
And slowly—ever so slowly—my rage and misery faded. But they weren’t replaced by calm, as had been my goal. They were replaced by someone else’s emotions. Someone else’s misery and fear. It took me a moment to recognize the emotions as belonging to Meg.
My eyes snapped open, my concentration shattering.
Meg. I had forgotten about Meg. Well, I hadn't forgotten about her, exactly, but I'd neglected my connection to her. I'd been so pissed off about being captured that I hadn't sensed her emotions seeping into me through our tamped down bond. While the collar was suppressing my psychic powers, it looked like it couldn't touch our bond.
I closed my eyes again and focused on the invisible thread that connected me to Meg, opening up to it. Welcoming it. Accepting it. Ever since our bond was created, I had been so intent on stifling the connection that I hadn’t realized just how much effort I was expending doing just that. Tensions I hadn’t been aware of relaxed as the bond between us flowed freely.
The full force of Meg’s emotions flooded into me, along with her surface thoughts and a general sense of her surroundings. The connection felt right, and I no longer understood why I had been fighting it so hard.
Meg was being held in the ancient Olympian version of a conference room, the space stripped of all furnishings, just like my prison. The others were with her, including the childlike Tsakali scout. I frowned, thinking Henry and his lackeys must not have figured out who—or rather, what—the scout really was yet. He probably thought she was just another Olympian and planned on dealing with her later.
Meg and the others were no longer bound, which was a relief. Still, seeing them all imprisoned like that relit the rage within me at being captured, and I found myself more determined than ever to break out of my collar and escape. I wanted nothing more than to get them—and me—way the hell out of here, away from the man who was hellbent on forging a path that would not only destroy this planet, but may very well doom the entire universe.
We needed to escape. And then we needed to end Henry Magnusson.
Before he ended everything.
“Meg?” I said, speaking aloud in the empty room as I projected my thoughts through the tether binding us together. “Can you hear me?”
I knew she had sensed the change in our bond. I could feel recognition and excitement snuffing out her misery and fear. But I had never tried to communicate with her directly through our bond before, and I wasn't even sure if it would work.
“Yes!” Meg exclaimed, her voice both audible and not. “I can hear you!” Confusion trickled across the bond. “Where are you? I can't tell . . .”
“I'm being held on one of the upper floors of the central tower,” I told her. “Where are you?”
“We're on the fourth floor,” Meg said. “That's why I couldn't get a sense of your location—you're too far away.”
I nodded to myself.
I could sense that Meg was much recovered from the taxing procedure that had cured her solar allergy, which was reassuring, but I couldn’t glean much from Meg’s surface thoughts about how the others were faring. Their capture hadn’t involved much of a physical struggle, but there was no way to know what had been done to them after we’d been parted.
“How is everyone?” I asked. “Is anyone injured?”
“Only our pride,” Meg said wryly.
I smiled to myself. I could relate. But despite the many—many—strikes my pride had taken over the past week, since the merging of my two selves, I finally felt like I was settling into my new identity. I felt comfortable with myself. Confident. Ready to kick some Order ass.
“I'm going to get out of here,” I told Meg. “I'm going to get us all out of here, but I need your help.”
Meg’s reply was immediate. “Anything.”
“I can remove the collar,” I explained, “but I need to seek out a place of absolute calm and serenity within myself . . . and I can't get there if I have other emotions trickling in.”
A rush of embarrassment flowed across the bond as Meg realized my meaning—that her emotions were holding me up.
“Do you know how to meditate?” I asked her.
I sensed Meg speaking with my mom, clarifying the meaning of the word meditate. “Yes,” she finally said. “We learn focus exercises when we are very young. It helps us gain better control over our gifts.”
I nodded to myself, figuring as much. It was a standard part of Amazon training, as well.
“Perfect,” I said. “That's all I need you to do. Focus and be calm. I'm going to cinch our bond as tight as possible to minimize the flow of emotions between us, but I'll let you know as soon as I'm free.” I was quiet for a moment, then added, “Tell the others to be ready.”
“Of course.” Meg fell quiet, though I could sense she had more to say. “But . . . where will we go?” she finally asked. “We cannot fight our way out of this.”
“I’m not planning on fighting,” I told her as I focused my thoughts on the gephyra and drew a mental picture of the frozen settlement and the Elysium, knowing Meg would sense the direction of my mind. I gave her the time she needed to piece together a solid understanding of my plan, and then I clamped down on our bond, minimizing our connection to the barest trickle.
Once again, I focused on my physical body. On my heartbeat. On my breathing. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. And I settled into the calm.
23
I sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the office, high up in the central tower, my eyes closed and my breathing slow and steady. I floated in an ocean of calm, all my fears and worries drifting away around me. Only the present mattered. Only breathing. Only being.
It was a matter of hours and a matter of seconds. It took an eternity to get there, to reach the place of complete and utter calm within myself, but once I was there, psychic energy flooded into me, and the collar popped open, falling into my lap. It shouldn’t have been possible. The Amazon collars had been designed back on Olympus to be inescapable, but that was back when all the Amazon warriors had been born. I was the only one who had been made. For some reason I didn’t understand, that difference mattered.
I deactivated my regulator, then slouched my spine and let my head fall back, a giddy grin spreading across my face as I basked in the rush of psychic energy saturating my body. My nerves tingled with pleasure, and my synapses sang with joy.
Taking a deep breath, I straightened my neck and tossed the collar into the corner of the room. If I’d had any inkling of how to destroy the damn thing, I would have. But it was made of orichalcum, rendering it effectively immune to psychic energy. I would have to ask Hades if there was a way to destroy the collars—he was the one who invented them, after all.
I unclamped the bond I shared with Meg and sensed that the young psychic was still deep in a meditative calm.
“Meg?” I murmured, not wanting to startle her.
Her awareness roused, and a spike of excitement surged through the bond from her to me. “You did it!” she exclaimed. I sensed her curiosity as she wondered if she might be able to break out of her collar, as well.
“I honestly don't know if you could do it,” I told her. “It's not supposed to be possible—at least not for an Olympian—but I think because I was engineered and not born, something my creators coded into my DNA grants me elevated powers from the average natural-born Amazon warrior.” I shrugged, thinking it would be worth asking Hades about at some point—later, when our lives, the planet, and the entire universe weren’t at risk. “You can try to break free,” I added, “but I'll be there to free you soon.”
I sensed Meg’s desire to make an attempt, but it warred with her internal commitment to ensure the others were prepared for their great escape.
“There's just one thing I need to take care of first,” I told her, letting her sense my intent before clamping down on our bond once more. I couldn’t afford any distractions for what I was about to do.
I stood and approached the room’s lone door, stopping within arm’s reach. I cast out my psychic radar and picked up on the mental signatures of two Order soldiers standing guard in the hallway on the other side of the door, one male, one female. Both capable warriors.
Deciding to take the subtle approach—better to draw as little attention to my escape as possible—I retreated to the corner of the room and sat down, hiding the discarded collar behind me. I pulled up my legs, hugging my knees, and ducked my head down to hide the lack of a golden collar encircling my neck.
With a focused thought, I unlocked the door and pulled it open, letting it swing inward a few inches, just enough to draw my guards’ attention. Almost immediately, I sensed their confusion and wariness, and I feared they would call for backup.
Breath held, I listened to their hushed whispers out in the hallway as they discussed what to do. The corners of my mouth ticked upward as they played a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who would enter my prison cell first—without calling for backup.
A moment later, the door inched further open, and the female guard stepped into the room. I could feel her mind slowly moving closer to me. The male—the coward—hovered just outside the doorway.
I gritted my teeth, making myself wait for him.
Finally, he stepped into the room.
My head snapped up, and I slammed the door shut with a thought. Before they could reach for their radios, I stretched out my arm and sent a small psychic blast from my hand to stun them. The blast was more difficult to control without my doru, and I may have hit them a little harder than I had intended.
They flew backward, slamming against two different walls, then slid to the floor, unconscious. At least, I hoped they were only unconscious. I hated killing people who were only following orders. I had been in their shoes more times than I could count.
I scrambled up to my feet and hurried over to the woman, pressing my fingers against her neck. Her pulse was weak but steady. She would survive. I blew out a relieved breath, then quickly checked the guy before disarming both guards and collecting their radios, tossing everything into an office down the hall. I returned to bind their wrists and ankles with their own zip ties, then shut the door to the office and locked it with a focused thought.
Pausing in the hallway just outside the room that had been my prison cell, I closed my eyes, concentrating for a moment as I channeled psychic energy into my hoplon suit to activate its stealth mode. And then I was running. It was only a matter of time until more of the Order’s soldiers discovered that my guards and I had traded places. I was racing against a clock, only I didn’t know how much time I had.
I rushed down the endless spiraling steps, taking them two at a time but always paying attention. Always keeping a psychic eye out for the minds of my enemies in case I needed to slow down and sneak past. I raced down to the second floor and slipped into the gephyra chamber unnoticed.
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br /> The gephyra was still active, the quicksilver orb marking the opening of the bridge to the frozen settlement shining on its golden platform. That was excellent news for more than one reason. It meant we wouldn’t have to wait for a new bridge to form when it was time to make our escape to that other world. But more importantly, it meant that Henry and his goons didn’t know how to operate the gephyra’s controls. Order scientists clustered around the control panel, their laptops out as they attempted to make sense of the machine. Their confusion and frustration clouded the room.
I smirked, pleased that something was finally going our way. Emi must have shut down the bridge when the Order first attacked because they certainly didn’t know how to do it on their own. And if they couldn’t even close a bridge, they certainly wouldn’t be able to open one. Which meant they wouldn’t be able to follow us when we fled.
Henry strode out from behind the gephyra, heading for the control panel. He had my doru on hand and was tapping it on the floor with every other step, like it was a powerful wizard’s staff, when in reality, to him it was little more than a glitzy walking stick.
My smirk turned into a sneer. I wanted nothing more than to walk up to him, snatch my doru out of his hands, and impale him with the staff weapon. But we couldn’t afford the shitstorm that would unleash right now. Cutting off the head of the snake might only clear the way for more to sprout.
Silently, I backed out of the gephyra chamber, then turned and ran back to the stairs. I continued my journey downward, heading into the sublevel beneath the ground floor, and found my way into the mainframe. The labyrinth of complex machines and control panels was swarming with Order scientists studying the alien equipment.
I snuck through the maze of machinery to the heart of the mainframe. The column in the center was untouched, and I wondered if the scientists had yet to figure out that the chaos stone was stowed within, hidden as it powered the city around them.
Dreams of the Damned (Atlantis Legacy Book 3) Page 16