AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My eyes prickled. I bit my lip to stop from crying.
“Besides, that night you were looking at me like you had no idea who I was. You were dosed with Lethe water. Anyone could see that.”
“Oh, Alex.” I dropped my head on his shoulder. Tension I didn’t know I was holding leaked from my body. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sesza. Can’t believe you thought there was anything you could do to change that.”
I hid my smile in his neck. “But what are you doing here?”
“Ah, well, that’s why I had to play along, putting on an act for my father. He needed to believe I hated you and wanted a hand in destroying the chamber. The minute the Twelve and I stepped up to the hole, I jumped in.”
I choked. “You jumped in? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he said, grinning. “If you listen closely, you can still hear my dad shouting himself deaf.”
Biting my lip, I tried to hold back a giggle. “Alexander Damien, you rebellious bad boy.”
He winked. “Only ’cause it turns you on, baby.”
Damn right it did. I wanted him so bad in that moment, my hands started traveling down. He caught them and laced our fingers together, giving me a knowing look.
“Anyway, I jumped in because my father will destroy this place if you’re all in here, but he won’t if I am. I bought you all the time you need.”
Okay, now I was crying. My heart cracked open, bleeding unrestrained love for him. I couldn’t believe I doubted him. Alex loved me. No one in all five dominions ever loved anyone more than he loved me.
“Thank you, Alex. Let’s not waste another gifted minute, and get out of here.”
“That’s the problem.” He drew back and helped me up, bringing me back to shore. “Nitsa said you had the key when you ran out of the cave. I assume you dropped it somewhere in... this.”
I finally took a proper look at my surroundings. Doubling over, I promptly vomited on my boots.
All the crime scenes in all the world were fields of marigolds and roses compared to the gruesome ocean of blood and guts before me.
“Sorry.” Alex rubbed the back of his neck. “Now I know my power works on cyclopes. Wish it didn’t work so well though.”
“It’s—ugh—okay.” I gagged. “You saved us. That’s all that—” I threw up again.
My friends were in no better state. Jason doubled over against a tree—dry heaving. Theron and Nitsa weren’t far from him. They searched for the key, both of them so pale they were either about to be sick, or just gotten finished being sick.
Daciana attended to her patient, Tycho, while Ionna slumped against a rock—looking too wiped to carry on.
“I...” I got hold of myself. “I know about where I dropped it. I’ll find it.”
“Wait, before you do.” He grasped my elbow, staying me. “Aella, I had another reason for needing to get to you as soon as possible. Remember I told you I asked my friend in the Records Room to get me a list of every demigod with the power to sneak your mother through the barriers with no one noticing?”
I stiffened, my attention snapping to him immediately. “Yes? What did she find?”
“She found a few with illusory, transformative, and concealing powers, but there was only one name, and one person, we both recognize.”
Goose pimples popped on my skin, riding the shiver that crawled my spine at the look in his eyes. “Alex, who is it?”
Not speaking, he took a sheet of folded parchment out of his pocket and handed it to me. I read all the way down to the circled name, and the power listed beside it. My blood ran cold.
“Child of Ate,” I whispered. “Power to induce mass hallucinations and delusions. The power to make people see and believe whatever he wants.”
Roaring sounded in my ears. My face was numb. My hands shook so hard, I dropped the page. Alex’s words reached me from far away.
“—not a son of Ares,” I heard as an echo in my skull. “He did what you did, Aella. He stood up on sorting day and picked apower he wouldn’t be forced to demonstrate. It was as simple as it was clever.”
