AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And then, faster than my eyes could track, Marco moved. I blinked and Sal was still standing there, but the hand clutching my ward was flying through the air—straight at me. She twisted, a snarl overtaking her face, and the next second Marco was staggering back, a sliver of the ruined couch frame sticking out of his chest.
I didn’t get a chance to see if it got his heart. Because Sal’s severed hand hit me and the impact jarred my ward loose. It went flying, I dove after it and Sal dove after me.
And then, just as suddenly, she was gone.
I felt a breath of wind pass me and looked up in time to see Nicu come out of nowhere and tackle Sal by the waist. I don’t know if he didn’t realize that she was as close to the edge as she was, or if he thought the railing would catch them. But it had taken as much abuse as the rest of the apartment and gave way under their combined weight. I saw bright gold eyes staring at me for an instant before they fell, and then they were gone.
Something bit into my palm. I looked down to see that I’d clutched my ward so tight, it was digging into my flesh. I pried it loose and looked up, only to realize that I wasn’t likely to keep it long.
Light spilled over the balcony, bright as the noonday sun. I couldn’t make out what I was looking at, at first. Until it came closer, and then it was nothing like I’d expected.
I’d met Apollo, at least in a metaphysical sense, a number of times before. But he hadn’t been in this world then and couldn’t reveal himself in anything other than mental impressions. And since my brain had interpreted them, he had always been in a form I could understand. This wasn’t.
A glowing tangle of light hovered in the sky, every color and no color, transparent like water, huge and abstract. If anything, it looked like a fractal on a computer screen, constantly changing into new patterns. None of them were particularly menacing, but the power radiating off the creature was enough to scorch my skin even this far away.
Apollo had once told me that I wouldn’t be able to withstand him in person, but I hadn’t known what he meant. I did now. Frozen in place, I stared into the fiery center of a creature my mind couldn’t even comprehend, pitifully aware of my own insignificance, and wondered how I could ever have thought I could fight something like this.
The bands of light thickened, swirling around a central point, and formed themselves into a monstrous head rising clear and fluid against the heavens. Faint points of light glittered in the huge skull, like savage eyes cold and measuring. My breath stuttered in my chest, out of rhythm with the sudden mad pace of my heart. Swaying on my feet, I clasped my hands together so the shaking wouldn’t show.
“Cassandra Palmer.” The voice was surprisingly soft, like a breath of wind. “We finally meet in the flesh. So to speak.”
“Apollo.”
“If you like. This world once had many names for me. Ra, Sol, Surya, Marduk, Inti . . . It has forgotten them all. It will be reminded.” The god’s intense gaze was fixed on me with almost affectionate mockery. I didn’t know if his anger had burnt itself out, or if he was merely savoring the moment now that I was finally trapped.
“I’ve seen it,” I said dully. “The city in ruins . . .”
“I’ve decided to leave it as a monument to your failure. The former seat of the blind Pythia.” He laughed. “You know, even your namesake did better. She understood what was coming but could not convince others. You, on the other hand, have been wandering about as foolishly as everyone else. It has been most entertaining.”
The wind picked up, stinging my eyes. “And I put the power to bring your army here into Sal’s hand. I gave it to you.”
The great face didn’t change, but the air around me shimmered with laughter. “Yes, that is the very best part. I won’t destroy your friends, your world, Cassandra. You will. I wanted to be sure you knew that, before the end.”
The voice remained soft, but the light patterns suddenly changed. The huge face had been almost clear, but now dense blue-black boiled up from the bottom, filling the form like ink in water. No, I thought, staring up in blank terror. It didn’t look like his anger had faded, at all.
I heard the sound of a car engine start behind me. Before I could turn around, an arm reached out of nowhere, grabbed the front of my shirt and dragged me into the seat of Marsden’s roadster. My legs were hanging over the side, my butt still in the air, as we drove straight off the balcony.
“You’re wasting your time, Cassandra!” Apollo thundered. “Where do you think you can hide?”
I was too busy screaming to reply. I grabbed the seat belt in both fists as my legs floated up behind me. I looked down at the concrete speeding up at us and saw no bubble of protection, no jumping blue fire. And then the air tore open around us and we were swept into the middle of the line.
I slammed back down, my legs landing painfully on the trunk as we suddenly leveled off. Pritkin was in the driver’s seat, frantically shifting gears, as I began to slide off the side. He hauled me into the seat with one hand while steering around a very surprised war mage with the other. The ley line was alive with activity. Ships and men were everywhere, still fighting a battle that no longer mattered.
“You do know how to drive one of these, right?” I asked nervously. The car had a lot of weird buttons and gears I hadn’t noticed before. And none were labeled.
“In theory.”
“In theory?”
“I’ve been with Jonas a few times.”
“How many is a few?”
“Counting today?”
“Yes!”
“Er, that would be . . . twice then.”
