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Vasili and his friend dropped me on my ass before them. I screamed myself hoarse.
My back was no less mangled than my front. That’s what happened when panic turns to fear... and I change. The beast—so much bigger than I could be—grew in our cage and impaled herself on a hundred spikes, thrashing in rage. At least that’s what I had to assume when my mind returned and I was bleeding from everywhere. It’s only because of what the goddess made me that I was still alive.
Barely.
“H-h-help.”
“Help is here,” said the blurred outline of Madame Remis. “I am a child of Asclepius, Aella. I can make those wounds vanish as though they were never there, taking the pain with it.”
“If,” Drakos said slowly, “you tell me everything. Who are you, Aella Galanis? What is your power and why do you deny it?”
I swallowed through a dry, scorched throat. “Help,” I pled to the goddess. She twirled and skipped around the room, her face changing each time our eyes met. If she didn’t want anyone to know her secrets, why didn’t she act? Why didn’t she free me? Why didn’t she stop this?!
“Miss Galanis.” A voice reached me from a faraway place. “Aella, are you listening?”
“Help me,” I screamed at her. “Please!”
“Aella, help is here.” Murmuring sounded in my ear. “Madame Remis, help her focus.”
A cool hand rested on my forehead. The effect was instant.
Foggy thoughts cleared away, taking with it an aching pressure headache. I could see and think, and I knew one thing without looking for her.
The goddess wasn’t there. She never was. I was screaming at a delusion.
Dear gods.I lurched away from Remis, head swinging as I gaped at them in horror.What had they done to me?
“Monsters.”
“Not quite.” Drakos had all the inflection of someone talking about the weather. “Tantalean bread lets you go days without food because it suspends your ability to die. True monsters wouldn’t grant such courtesy. I’m not your enemy, Miss Galanis. The issue now is... are you mine?”
“I’ve done nothing.” My cry was a thin rasp. “Nothing to deserve this.”
“You’re a traitor and a deserter.”
“Not anymore,” I forced through clenched teeth. “I’m here. I’m serving mysentence. What more do you want from me?”
He interlocked his hands and placed them on a text covered in ancient writing. It was older than Greek, and unrecognizable to me. “Is that how you see your place here? As a sentence? A punishment?”
I scoffed. “He asks this while I bleed on his rug!”
“Watch your tongue, girl.”
Drakos raised a hand, staying Vasili. “The reflection room certainly hasn’t dampened your fire. Good. Truly, it is,” he said to my narrowed brows. “It is a weak and useless soldier that breaks so easily. People think my goal as leader is to extract unwavering obedience, and they are correct. But that obedience is not to me. It is to Olympia. Your faithfulness to her must be unwavering.
“You have that strength, but it is misplaced,” he said softly. “It is to your secrets and your misguided notions of personal rights. Once we channel that strength where it belongs, you’ll be magnificent, Aella.
“But that takes time. For now, I will ask you questions that I expect you to deny or evade. You will not be beaten on the third day. No,” he said, smiling the first true smile I witnessed on his face. “Not you.”
My head spun, and it wasn’t due to the sleep deprivation. Drakos was complimenting me—in the most frightening way possible. I heard the subtext in his words clear as day. His job was to break me, and he had every intention of doing so.
“I... I...”
“Why did you stop attending school after the age of ten?”
My lips parted but nothing came out. I knew what I had to say, and I had a feeling so did Drakos. Why did it feel like a test I was meant to fail?
Doesn’t matter if it is. Cracking that door would let the flood through. Explaining why my life ended at ten would lead to more questions. Answering would entice even more than those. He’ll keep asking, I’ll keep lying, and the vicious circle would never end. There’s only one thing I can do.
