Chapter 16

Kat

By the time I made it back to the room Hel had given us, I was shaking. I fell into the bed across from V and closed my eyes. I could still feel Hel's hand stroking over mine. The feel of it, the look in his eyes, had made my pulse race.

I shifted uncomfortably as thoughts of the Illyrian caused my cock to twitch. I tossed and turned for a while, trying to forget the look in his eyes when he had called me out on my lies. Finally, I decided maybe another shower was in order. I moved to the bathing room and leaned against the sink. The feeling of Hel's fingers stroking over my hands would not leave me. I closed my eyes, picturing his face, scarred but beautiful, his smile, even the sadness in his eyes causing a haunting beauty when we had asked about breaking a Bond.

My hand dropped of its own volition to my rapidly filling cock. I almost moaned aloud as I squeezed its rapidly filling length through the sweatpants. Imagining for a moment that the touch was Hel's almost made come on the spot.

I tugged at the damn knot of the pants and dropped them to the ground, my fingers tightening desperately over my length. My thumb swirled and stroked over the tip, Hel's silver eyes burning in my head. My breath came more and more quickly, the thought of kissing those gorgeous lips, letting my hand trail down his chest, to stroke over the front of his pants. Before I knew it, I was spilling into my hand, the gasping sound of my own groans echoing in the empty bathing room. Fuck. Awareness came flooding back to me, reminding me of where I was. V was right outside, hopefully still asleep.

There was very little privacy in the Legion, of course. It wasn't like I hadn't heard him a few times over the years, so it was entirely possible my brother had heard me before at some point in the middle of the night in my own bed, but it wasn't something either of us were comfortable doing around each other. Especially after the Calling.

I peeked out the door to see him asleep in his bed, snoring slightly. I was instantly thankful V was such a sound sleeper. Relieved, in more ways than one, I cleaned up and headed back to bed, sure that sleep would escape me.

To my surprise, I quickly sank into a deep sleep, the silver eyes of a certain Soma seemingly burned into the back of my brain.

◆◆◆

Hel and I set out hte next morning to search the city for more Mageia. We left V at the camp. He had tried to hide it, but I'd seen the dark circles under his eyes. He needed the rest.

We had been most of the day a few miles from the base, tracking signs of some Mageia Hel had caught a trace of. We mostly moved in companionable silence, so I was startled when Hel spoke, his voice raspy.

"So, you owe me, Kat," he said, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

"Owe you what?" I asked suspiciously.

"Some truth," he said, side eying me, a look of mischief on his face. "I believe our deal was that I would get the truth for any questions you lied about, and you lied about everything."

I sighed. I had hoped that he was going to forget about that part of the conversation, but apparently not.

"Fine," I grumbled. A deal was a deal, and besides, he'd know if I was lying anyway. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start out with the easiest one. What's V's favorite weapon?"

I grinned. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as I thought.

"That is the easiest question. His favorite weapon is his mind," I responded. "V would rather think himself out of a situation than have to hurt anyone. He's one of the smartest people I know."

Hel nodded. "He seems to be a natural collaborator. He tends to bring people together. I've seen it already," he said.

"He would have made a great King."

"King?" Hel asked, freezing in place.

"Yeah. He wasn't always Vlakas. His original name was Prince Lucien Alexus the First, son of King Cyrius Alexus and Queen Eurymenye Atropos," I said. "If he hadn't become Mageian, he could have been the heir to the throne instead of our half-brother, Maalik."

Hel didn't say anything for long moments, his silver eyes searching my face.

"That means…" he began, his voice trailing off.

"Yep. Dear old Dad raped my mother and got her pregnant after he enslaved her," I said bitterly.

"So you're both princes?" He asked, moving forward again, picking his way through the dense foliage between two buildings.

"Fuck, no," I said. "I was the brat of a slave. Maybe if I had developed Elusian powers I could have been an heir, but that never happened."

"Wait, so if you are both sons of the King, then Davidus is your brother?"

It was my turn to freeze.

"You know Davidus?" I demanded, grabbing his arm and pulling him to a halt. "How? Where is he? Is he okay?"

The same shock shot through me that happened any time our skin touched, and I dropped his arm quickly. The panic in my face must have been evident because he quickly moved to reassure me.

"Last I heard, he was fine. He was the first Mageia I met that would give me a chance. He went with the first group back to Nymphaeum."

"More woven threads," I said, though I wasn't sure exactly why. "You have to tell me the story."

"It's getting dark. I have a bolt hole near here that's safe. Rather than risking moving at night why don't we make camp? I can tell you the rest," he said.

Hel led the way through a maze of streets and alleys. Once or twice he pointed out signs of movement through the streets: some disturbed foliage, overturned wooden pallets with varying degrees of weathering, and once even the wrapper from one of the packaged food containers distributed to Legionnaires.

When we finally got to the building, it was not what I had expected. I had thought it would be something similar to the underground sewers. Instead, he led me up the interior of a building to the topmost floors.

As we walked out of the stairway he must have noticed my cautious look.

"It's safe. I would know if anyone had been up here," he said.

The room was filled with the dying light of the sunset. Tall glass windows surrounded us on all sides, even above. Only a few at the very top were broken. The temperature in the room was several degrees warmer than it had been outside, which was good, because it had been getting pretty chilly.

All around us were an abundance of plants. Miniature trees rustled with the sounds of birds and the wind hushed gently through the leaves. The scent of flowers filled the room. I wasn't sure where exactly the scent was coming from because there flowers everywhere. Flowers of every color, shape and size filled the room, giving off a bouquet of rich floral scents that all blended together.

"It's beautiful," I whispered, gazing around in wonder.

"It's one of my favorite places in Heraklion," he said, smiling slightly. His scars pulled at the corner of his mouth when he did so, making me sure that he hadn't spent a lot of time smiling since he had gotten them.

"I think it used to be a greenhouse of some kind. Over time, the plants just kind of took over."

He led me to a small alcove. A green tarp covered one corner of the room. Under it were some blankets and small containers.

"I keep these caches all over the city," he pointed at the supplies. "So that if I'm ever caught out, I don't have to worry about getting back to the base right away."

I nodded. It made a solid strategy.

"Plus… the view at night is amazing."

We settled in and got a small fire going. I was concerned at first that the smoke or the light would attract unwanted attention, but Hel assured me that the foliage would camouflage us.

We had just finished up a quick meal when he pulled out a small bottle of the juice drink he called vodka. He held it up to me in question, and I held out my cup.

He poured us both generous servings and we relaxed. Or at least, relaxed as much as we could relax in the situation. I had set up Air alarms as we traveled up the staircase, and I hadn't seen any other exits.

"So, Davidus…" I prompted.

"Yeah, Davidus. So I had been here only few days when I ran into my first Mageia. She was an Earth Mageia, and she tried to kill me with some stone spikes."

I nodded. Turning our magic to weapons of death was what we were taught in the Legion.

"I tried to talk to her, but she refused to listen. I still had this on," he said, tapping the medallion. "The real one. She wanted that medallion badly."

"It's worth ten kills," I said. His eyes widened. "Well, it is now. I don't know back then. You hadn't developed your reputation as a hungry cannibal."

He smirked for a moment then sobered. "I never even knew her name. I found her in a building near here. I didn't even think, just walked out in the open, excited to see someone for the first time in who knew how long. She immediately went into attack mode and was summoning rebar out of the building to throw at me. She must not have been paying attention because she summoned it out of a section of a building, and the roof collapsed, killing her." His eyes look haunted. "I wish she had listened."

He took another sip of his drink.

"After that, I did my best to try and communicate before revealing myself. That's what I was doing the night I ran into you and V for the first time. I usually carry small supplies that I leave for the Mageia. Food, water, some basic medicines."

I thought back to the package I had found.

"So that was you?" I asked.

He nodded.

"It seemed better than just walking up and announcing myself and risk getting fried.

"I got a little cocky, though. Or maybe… well," he took a deep breath before continuing. "…I was still hurting over the loss of my Bonded. I was not one-hundred percent sure I wanted to keep living. After losing Ri, the fire, then this… It would have been easy to just… give up. A lot of Illyrians do, if they never Bond or they lose their Bonded. Something drove me to live, though. Just too damn stubborn, I guess."

He paused to take a drink then smiled at me slightly, the look so incredibly sad.

"I was hunting in a housing allotment at the edge of town. I'd been out for a couple days, so I was low on supplies. At that point I was only eating what I could hunt, just like the Mageia, so it was a matter of survival.

"I had been tracking some kind of four-legged animal all day. A feline, I thought. It was injured. I had found blood and tracks suggesting it had gotten into a fight with one of the wild wolves that roam the city.

"It started raining. The rain around here can get torrential pretty fast. So it's dark, raining, and I think I've lost the trail when I heard it."

He tapped his ear.

"It was such a quiet sound I wasn't sure whether I'd imagined it or not over the sound of the rain and the rush of water. I followed my nose, and found the cat," he said. His gaze was unfocused, his mind obviously not on the here and now.

"She was a female white snow tiger, one of the most beautiful animals I had ever seen. She'd had one of the collars, so she must have been dropped here by the Legion. It looked like she had died of blood loss. Upon examining her, it became obvious that she had to have kits somewhere. Following her scent, I found she had made a den on the opposite edge of a gully. I guess it would have normally been a pretty safe place: hard to reach, far above the water. But with the storm, it had turned into a deathtrap.

"At first I thought the kits must have been killed, too, but then I heard one of them make a peeping noise."

"I looked out across the wash and saw this tiny, bedraggled white kitten clinging to a dead branch that was spinning through the water.

"Good sense would have told me to leave them to their fate, but something in me…just wouldn't let it go."

"I jumped in the water and made my way over to the small creature. She saw me coming and started hissing at me, her fur soaked. Kind of like another Kat I met recently," he said, winking at me.

"I grabbed her and stuck her inside my jacket. I was afraid at first, thinking she would claw me up, but she seemed to realize I was trying to save her, and she settled in quietly.

"I started back across the river when lightning struck a tree on the embankment. The tree fell and a large branch came down on me, knocking me off balance.

"I fell back into the water, which by that time, was like a flood. It was dark, I was disoriented, and starting to drown, when suddenly I felt something firm beneath my feet. The water had become solid and was moving under me. It quickly encased me, pulling me up out of the river. I could feel it wrapping around my chest, squeezing the kitten, and she began squirming more.

"I saw a man on the shore. I'd actually walked almost on top of him when I'd climbed down to get into the gully. He was obviously a Water Mageia. He had used his powers to create a cozy, dry little area that the water seemed to avoid.

"He used his powers to move me over to the bank of the gully.

"Who are you?" he'd demanded of me. Coughing and wheezing I told him my name, where I was from and what I was. It was obvious he'd never heard of Somas." He looked at me with a wry grin. "He'd asked me how I ended up there if I was Illyrian. After showing him the medallion and pointing out that it was probably the same people that were responsible for him being here, he demanded I give him one good reason why he shouldn't kill me and take the trophy."

"I tried to think of something that would sway him, but I drew a blank. Why shouldn't he kill me? I didn't really have a good reason. And I was so…tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of moving through each day alone. Just…done.

"I started to tell him I didn't have a good reason, and just go ahead and kill me. Right then, the kitten had decided it had had enough, and she stuck her head up out of my jacket and hissed at him."

"The look on his face was priceless. That kitten popping up had to be the last thing he had expected. He started laughing."

Hel grinned at me. "The man made some comment about not depriving her highness of her escort, and that he would have to let me live."

I grinned at Hel. That sounded like Davidus, through and through.

"When was the last time you saw him?" I broke into his retelling of their meeting.

"I sent him and Peepers back with the first group of Mageia we rescued."

I looked at him curiously. "Peepers?" I asked. "You named a white snow tiger ‘Peepers'?"

He shrugged. "It was better than, Hey You!" he said.

"Since then, whenever there's a Machi, I do my best to recruit as many of the Mageia as I can, and I smuggle them out to Illyria. We've rescued almost five hundred this way."

I shook my head. Could the Elusians really be so stupid?

"What about the ones who don't want to join?" I asked. "Do you offer them the same deal? Food and water, if they listen?"

He lowered his head and was quiet for a long time.

"No," he said finally. "I mean, yes, I offer it, but for the safety of the rest, I can't give it to them."

"So you killed them?" I asked quietly, adding it all together.

He nodded; eyes focused on the fire.

"I couldn't take the chance that they would let the Elusians know what was happening," he said. He turned his eyes toward me, the light reflecting like silver coins in his eyes.

Anger formed in my chest at the number of my people this man had killed, and it must have shown on my face, for he continued.

"You have to understand, Kat. Illyrians breed almost exclusively humans and Somas. We get maybe five Mageians a year, in a good year, and as our numbers shrink, that has decreased, too. I couldn't risk losing this pipeline of Mageians."

I tried to rein my emotions in and thought quietly for a few minutes.

"I'm glad you were there for him," I said, finally. "Davidus is a good man. He was working on an escape plan for us when they found out he was Mageian. When I got to the Legion, and he wasn't there… I figured I'd never see him again."

Quiet fell as we sipped our drinks.

"Erix is your twin?" he asked. I nodded. I had heard V tell him I'd lost my twin.

"So what's the story with V?" Hel asked after a while. "You seemed surprised when he lied about when he found out he was Mageian."

I shrugged. I hadn't been able to pin V down to have that discussion yet.

"I don't know. I thought he found out the same day he was shipped to the Legion, just like everyone else does," I answered. "Are you sure he was really lying about it?"

Hel nodded.

I harrumphed. His stare remained on me, and I shifted uncomfortably under its weight.

"So we have some other questions still needing some truth," he teased, trying to lighten the mood.

"Ask." I said harshly.

"Okay," he said. "Men or women?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. Men, when I have the choice," I said.

His brow furrowed. "When you have the choice? What does that mean?" he asked, confusion thick in his voice.

It was my turn to stare into the fire, desperately wishing the light could drive the freezing blood from my veins when I thought of the Houses.

I must have been quiet too long because Hel reached out and touched my face gently. My eyes shot to his. The same zap was there, but it didn't feel harsh anymore. It was more like tingling. Hot, but the kind of heat that made your heart race.

"It—we-," I stuttered, trying to find the words to describe a Calling.

"Hey…" he said, stopping me. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me. This wasn't part of the deal."

I shook my head. I needed to get this out. I couldn't talk to V about it, and I talked with V about everything. In a few more weeks I'd probably never see Helios again. It didn't matter what he thought of me.

"A House is a brothel, tied up in religion. When you are a Mageia and are summoned for a Calling, you don't have a choice. You do what they say, when they say it. Anything."

I saw Hel swallow hard.

"There is no choice," I spat out, bitterly. "No free will. The bastards can do absolutely anything to you. I did my best to save V from that. My best wasn't good enough.

He stood and began pacing.

"Our half-brother, Maalik, paid for a Calling with Luke." Hel swore quietly. I wanted to stop talking, but it was like when I had been given the drugged wine, I couldn't stop.

"I—convinced them to change it, to give it to me, instead." I lifted my eyes to Hel's reluctantly, waiting for the disgust to fill them.

"I—I couldn't let him take Luke," I said, turning away from Hel and curling in on myself. "It was the only thing I could think to do, the only thing I could think of that might save him. He'd never even had sex, as far as I know. He was a fucking eighteen-year-old virgin, and his own brother paid—"

I swallowed convulsively, the burn of bile in the back of my throat.

"They took me, drugged me, then Maalik, our brother, he— he—," I closed my eyes and had to force myself to get the last part of the sentence out. "He raped me. Tortured me. Cut me. Almost killed me."

"Goddess, Kat," Hel growled. He continued pacing angrily, hands clenching and unclenching as if he longed to wrap them around someone's neck. "Is that… is that how you got the scars?"

My stomach fell. Of course he had seen the scars.

"Some of them," I looked down at my hands, refusing to look at him. "Some were just normal beatings for screwing up, for not obeying, or just because someone had a bad day."

Anger flooded me as I thought of Maalik. He had taken great joy in ordering beatings for V and I whenever he could.

"Normal…" Hel whispered, his voice trailing off.

Some of his angry energy seemed to have burned off, and he came back to the fire, sitting down next to me instead of across from me this time.

"There's more, isn't there," he asked quietly.

I nodded.

"Usually when you are taken to one of the Darker Houses there are restrictions on what they can do to you. The House of Eros had the least restrictions, which is probably why Maalik chose it."

"But what I did, what I let him—it was for nothing. I couldn't—couldn't take it all. I wasn't strong enough, tough enough. Because I couldn't take the punishment he dished out, they brought V there anyway," I snarled.

"V— did Maalik…" Hel's voice trailed off.

I shook my head.

"He tried. He thought I was too drugged to act and had stopped Suppressing me as much. I was able to break through the Suppression field. I made sure he wasn't able to do that, at least, but V was in a coma for days."

The familiar feeling of failure poured over me like a suffocating liquid. I was drowning in it.

"You know that none of it was your fault, right?" Hel asked me softly, bending to look in my eyes when I couldn't meet his gaze. I shivered, even though the air was warm.

"Of course it was my fault. They were my mistakes, my failures. It's always my fault," I whispered.

"You listen to me, Kitten," he said, lifting my chin and forcing me to look him in the eyes, the moonlight turning them to pools of silver. "It. Was. Not. Your. Fault. None of what happened there was. You did the best you could in a shitty situation."

"How do you know that?" I asked, disbelievingly. "You don't know what I've done. You barely know me."

"I don't know how I know. I just do. This," he twined his fingers through mine, the energy almost humming now that we were seated next to each other. "This tells me you're a fighter. You love your brother. You love your people. I've seen how you are with Deliah and Tik. I know you would have done anything to protect any of them. Hell, you almost killed yourself trying to keep your brother alive. If there had been a way, any way at all to get him out of there, you would have taken it."

We sat there for what seemed like forever in silence. Finally I took a shuddering breath and broke the silence.

"You've got two more truths coming," I said.

"We don't have to do them now." The expression on his face was full of concern.

"Now. Who knows when we'll do this again?" I asked, looking around. What I really meant was, who knows when I would have the courage to talk about this again, but Hel seemed to understand.

The stars had come out overhead in a gorgeous display. In Alexandria the light pollution washed out all but the brightest stars. Above us now the sky looked like black velvet someone had scattered diamonds across. The rising moon shed its silvery light across the atrium.

"Let's just do one," he said. I shrugged.

"Okay, pick," I said, looking away from him. I wanted to get this over with.

He hummed a moment, but I noticed he hadn't let go of my hand.

The moonlight slowly slid across his face, casting his scarred side in shadow. Finally, he spoke.

"What did you want me to ask you that I didn't?" he asked.

I closed my eyes. Fuck. He'd know if I was lying. In for a penny.

"I wanted you to ask me if you could kiss me," I whispered finally. He didn't move at my words, and I suddenly felt like the biggest idiot. How could this beautiful, courageous, kitten-saving man ever want someone like me? Especially after just sharing everything my own blood had done to me.

Feeling suddenly filthy, I was on my feet and pulling away from him without thinking. "Yeah, dumb thing to think, I know. Probably been drinking too much of that vodka."

"That sentence was a lie," he whispered. Then without warning he was in front of me. He slowly reached out and cupped the back of my head and drew me close. He was standing so near to me that I could feel his breath on my cheek. "But that first one…"

He swept his thumb over my lips.

"Truth," he whispered, a small, sad smile forming. He moved even closer, his breath hot on my skin.

"Kataramenos," he said, drawing my name out. My heart pounded in my chest at his nearness, and my body flushed both hot and cold at the same time.

"Kat. May I kiss you?" he asked, finally.

I swallowed hard, my nerves on fire. I couldn't believe someone like him might want someone like me. I couldn't look away from his eyes, which were brighter than the moonlight. I could see my reflection in his gaze. It was almost unrecognizable. It was a person who was strong. Confident. Whole. Someone who deserved something good in his world. Someone I wanted desperately to be.

I nodded, unable to form the words.

He moved forward slowly, just brushing his lips across my own. The zap of our magics built to a vibrating hum as he licked gently across my lips with his tongue. I opened my mouth slowly, savoring the taste of the vodka as he slid into my mouth, the gentle heat of his body pressing against mine.

He held me like I was something…precious. Not fragile, exactly, but something valued. I had fooled around with other Mageia in the past and been used by Elusians against my will. This was completely different from any of that. None of those encounters, even the willing ones, had ever made me feel cherished. Safe. Made me feel like he did.

He finally drew back, gently tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

"Thank you," he breathed. All I could do was continue to stare into his eyes for long moments.

"We—should probably get some sleep," I said shakily, stepping backward and breaking the connection between us. He nodded.

"I'll take first watch," he said.

I just nodded and made my way to the cot, wrapping myself in a blanket and turning away from the light.

Just as I was falling asleep, I swear I heard him say a gentle "Sleep tight, Kitten."

◆◆◆

I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door.

I could hear V in the shower and was kind of surprised. I always woke up before V did. A little groggy, I opened the door to see Hel standing outside the door.

"Morning, sleepyhead," he teased, and I scowled at him.

"What do you want?" I was probably being more grumpy than necessary.

"I've got something for you guys." He held something shiny. "Meet me in the kitchen? But, um…" he glanced down at my legs. "Maybe put some pants on? I certainly appreciate the view, but you'll scandalize Betts."

Fuck. Most Legionnaires slept naked. I hadn't even thought about it, just fallen into bed wearing just the shirt he'd loaned me. He didn't give me a chance to respond before turning on his heel and heading down the hall, whistling a jaunty tune.

V came out of the bathroom, a cloud of steam rolling out as he opened the door. His arm still had the bite marks from the snake's fangs. They were blackened marks, with deep bruising. The bite didn't seem to be causing him any problems though as he toweled his hair dry.

"Hel wants us to meet him in the kitchen," I told him.

My brother nodded and moved to get dressed.

I showered quickly and dressed in more of the same clothes Hel had provided the day before. This time, though, I was able to figure out how to tie the sweatpants and keep them from falling.

As I walked into the kitchen area, I saw V seated at a table, Betts standing behind him, her hands on the collar around his neck.

"Almost got it," she said, just as I realized what she was doing.

"Stop!" I yelled, a blast of Air flying from my hands to knock her away from my brother. Hel was faster than I was, flashing behind Betts and catching her before she hit the refrigerator. The sound of metal clanging off the floor only just registering as the shiny medallion from V's collar clanged on the floor.

"What the hell?" Betts yelled, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I—you were—" I stammered.

"Helping him? Getting that damn collar off him?" she demanded, fire flashing in her eyes as she pushed away from Hel and stalked toward me.

"I didn't mean—I've seen that thing blow a man's head off!" I yelled at her, my anger rising at how close she had brought my brother to death. "You could have killed him!"

"Like I don't know what I'm doing," she flicked her hand dismissively. "You Alexandrians aren't the only ones with talents."

I watched as Betts picked up the medallion and collar from the floor and tossed them on the table. My jaw dropped. The collar had been neatly separated into two halves.

"How did you—" I began, glancing from the collar back to her.

She smiled at me and held up both hands. A ball of Fire appeared in one hand, a whirl of Water in the other.

"I'm a Dual Mageia," she cocked one eyebrow at me. "Want to learn some tricks?"

"I—You—" I spluttered.

V walked over to me.

"You're gonna catch flies if you keep your mouth open like that," he said, pushing up on my chin, my teeth clicking closed.

"Fuck you, asshole." I tried for a glare but I'm pretty sure it fell flat, if his smirk was anything to go by.

"Sorry, you aren't my type," Betts said saucily. "Now come sit down so I can get that thing off you."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at her warily.

"Betts has removed hundreds of those things without anyone losing their head," Hel said, his eyes dancing with amusement.

"Well, there was that one guy—" Betts began.

I must have looked as panicked as I felt, because Hel reached out and took my hand.

"She's joking. Here, I'll sit next to you, just so she has extra incentive not to blow anything up."

I felt his hand in mine, his skin warm and soft. That same zap of power stung my palm, but like before, it felt good, too.

"I thought you wanted to give me incentive not to set it off?" Betts teased.

"That's enough out of you, brat," he said. "Get that thing off him."

She began working on the collar. I couldn't help pulling away from her touch slightly. It seemed so… dangerous… to let anyone mess with the collar. The image of the blood and brains of the slave we'd seen killed fresh in my mind.

"Seriously, Kat, I know what I'm doing," she squeezed my shoulder slightly, smiling at me as I looked up at her, not quite reassured.

"Why does he have his collar on still?" I gestured toward the medallion around Hel's neck.

"I keep mine on to reassure the Mageia I meet in the Machi," he said.

"But they could detonate it remotely!" I exclaimed. "We saw it done!"

"The one I wear is deactivated. It's a fake," he reassured me. "We had it made to look like the ones the Elusians use, but it's just a hunk of tin."

I felt more than heard the click as the collar separated and the medallion dropped to the table.

"Here. Have a souvenir," Betts set the pieces of the collar on the table.

"What do you do with them now?" I looked to Hel.

"Before the Chrysalis gets here, I'll drop them into some pits that lead to an underwater river that flows through some of the old sewers under the city," he said. "The water will eventually take them out to sea. If the Elusians are even able to track them that deep, it will just look like someone is moving through the sewers."

"Are the explosives still active?" I looked at the medallions on the table. Betts shook her head.

"I deactivated the chemical compound that creates the explosion," she swept her hands together as if she was brushing off dirt. "Easy peasy."

V looked at her questioningly. "Easy peasy?"

"You know! ‘Easy peasy, lemon squeezy?'" she recited in a sing-song voice.

V shook his head.

"I feel like you are speaking a foreign language," he said.

She laughed at his confusion.

"Don't worry, we'll get you up to speed in no time." She patted his head like he was a child.

"So what's next?" I reached up, unable to keep myself from rubbing my neck where the collar had chafed since it had been locked.

"Time to go hunting Mageia," Hel responded.

We spent the next few days hunting for other Mageia in Heraklion.

There were numerous blind alleys, dead ends, and traps for the unwary. We barely escaped two ambushes laid by Mageia that first week before we started to find our rhythm as a team.

The first Mageia we were able to speak to wasn't even from our Legion.

We found the boy caught upside down in a trap Hel had placed, hanging high overhead from a metal outcropping. He had to have been an Earth Mageia who hadn't seen the net Hel had concealed, and now hung far above his chosen element, unable to reach the ground.

We watched him struggle from a distance for a while. It was apparent he had tried to use his powers to summon earth to him, but all he'd succeeded in doing was create several dangerous-looking spikes of rock underneath himself.

"I got an alert this morning that something had triggered this trap, but I thought it would be best if we approached him together," Hel said, ducking his head into the shadows of his hoodie. He was dressed much as we'd first seen him but wore the hood up, helping him conceal the scarred side of his face.

Something bothered me about the gesture. He was so conscious of his scars all the time; I wasn't sure he realized how beautiful he was. Hel shouldn't feel like he had to hide any part of himself from anyone, much less from V or I. We certainly had our own share of scars. Unfortunately, now was not the time to address it.

I looked at V and he nodded silently at me. I'd have his back and let him do most of the talking. That tended to work better for us, since I wasn't always the most diplomatic person.

The boy saw us approaching long before we reached him. His struggles intensified, but all he managed to do was cause the net he was trapped in to spin more quickly.

"Hey," V whispered as we approached. "Easy…"

The boy - he didn't look like he could be any older than fifteen or sixteen, even though Machi participants were supposed to be at least eighteen - watched us in terror.

"Stay away from me!" he yelled, twisting and turning desperately.

"Easy!" V summoned his power and drew earth to his hand. The boys' eyes widened but his struggles didn't stop; if anything, they increased as he saw the power of another Mageia. Some Legions were like that. Our Legion tended to group Mageia by abilities, but others made them compete against each other. He may have suffered more at the hands of those with powers like his own than those from other elements. Around his neck hung a collar like to ours, its medallion jangling in his struggles.

"We want to help," V insisted.

The boy shook his head and kept struggling. As we drew closer, I could see that his ankle was twisted oddly under him. If it wasn't broken it was severely sprained. Every time he twisted, I could see the wince of pain as it put more pressure on his damaged leg.

I kept a lookout around us as V tried to soothe the boy. The young man was making a lot of noise, and I was afraid he was going to draw attention we weren't ready for.

This part of the city was different from where we'd been dropped. That had appeared to be more of a downtown region. Here, there were a number of what appeared to be smaller stores and businesses, and the buildings weren't as tall as we had seen earlier. It was still very overgrown: the greenery forcing its way through the concrete. Vines wended their way up the buildings. Some building roofs had fallen in, and you could see the sunlight shining through the empty windows of the storefronts.

From time to time we would see animals make their way through the city. Small ground squirrels and birds abounded. Their music and calls sometimes created a cacophonous chatter that was hard to hear over. Thinking of Hel and how sharp his hearing must be, it made me wonder how he stood the noise.

Ignoring V's conversation I kept looking around and a few blocks down from where the boy was trapped, I saw movement. I watched for a few seconds, then saw someone dash across an alleyway. It was too far away to get a good look at them, but I figured our time was running out.

"V, we don't have time for this," I turned back to my brother and our target. V looked over at me and sighed.

"Look, kid," I walked over to where the boy hung in the net. "If we wanted you dead, you'd have died before you even knew we were here."

I focused my power and tugged on the net, forcing a wall of Air under the boy, lifting him up and out of the trap and dropping him to the ground. He twisted at the last minute and fell off the wall of Air I had created and landed hard on his bad ankle. He scrambled back until he hit the alley wall.

"S-stay away!" he said, shaking in terror, one hand sinking into the earth beneath him.

V walked over to me and punched me in the arm.

"Way to go, asshole."

"What!? It's not my fault he wiggled," I complained, rubbing my arm.

"Like you couldn't have anticipated it? Or made a bigger Air platform?" V snorted at me.

"Now is not the time, V."

"Don't mind him, he's a jerk," V turned his attention back to our captive. The boy was flashing his gaze back and forth as if he was at a tennis match. The kid was skinny, even by Legion standards. He had short brown hair and brown eyes.

"My name is V. Vlakas, thanks to this asshole," V said, punching my arm again.

"Knock it off!" I said, rubbing my shoulder.

"I'm Earth Mageia. He's Kat, Air Mageia. Kataramenos. Unfortunately, ‘Asshole' was already taken," V teased. "You hungry?"

V held out some packaged food Hel had given us, some bread and cheese. I saw the boy eye it hungrily, but there was also suspicion in his eyes.

"Go on, it's okay," V said, taking a moment to take a bite from the corner of each before handing them over to the boy. Once the boy saw him chew and swallow with no apparent ill effects, he grabbed the food and began shoving it in his mouth.

I hadn't seen his backpack around anywhere, so he had either lost it, or someone had stolen it.

I handed V my canteen and he took a sip before handing it to the boy as well. The boy took a long drink from the canteen.

"Thank you," he whispered.

I kept watching the area, alert for any movement. I knew Hel was out there keeping an eye out for us, but I felt unfriendly eyes on us. We needed to move.

"What's your name?" V crouched down in front of the kid.

At first, I didn't think the boy was going to answer, but eventually he whispered, "Pontiki. But everyone calls me Tik."

V smiled.

"Pontiki. Mouse. I like it," V smiled at him.

The boy looked at him in surprise.

"Mice are smart. If they really wanted to, I think they'd overwhelm the world, but they'd rather just live and let live," my brother said.

Tik started to lose the look of absolute terror that had been on his face since he'd seen us approach, but suspicion still haunted him.

"Tik, we have a safe place we can go to, and some friends who can help us. We can look at that ankle of yours and see what we can do to fix it up for you," V offered his hand.

Tik seemed to shrink in on himself.

"It doesn't matter," he said, defeat apparent in his voice. "There's no way I'm going to survive the Machi Thanatos. I couldn't even escape a stupid trap."

His demeanor triggered something in me. This was what the Elusians wanted. They wanted us broken, afraid to trust ourselves or each other.

"Did anyone ever teach you how to escape out of a trap like that?" I snapped.

Tik jumped, then shook his head. V reached out a hand as if to calm me.

"I'm not going to bite him, V," I snarled. "Did you ever read about it in one of the books in your library?" I asked the boy. Again, he shook his head.

"Did you ever hear one of your elders tell a story about a trap like that and how to escape it?" I demanded.

He shook his head a third time.

"Then how the fuck were you supposed to avoid something you were never taught about, never heard about, and didn't even know existed?"

"I-I…" his voice trailed off. "I'm not strong. No one ever wanted to teach me anything. They said it was a waste of resources since it was obvious I was going to die here anyway."

V reached out and touched the back of his hand.

"They're idiots," he said as he squeezed Tik's hand. The boy looked up at him.

"Tik, we can help you learn how to use your power in ways others might not have thought of. Kat and I, we've come up with all kinds of amazing new ways to use our abilities," he said, nodding at me. "If you'll let us help you, we'd like to."

After a few moments Tik hesitantly nodded.

I focused on Tik's leg. "This might hurt when I straighten it, but it will support your ankle and allow you to put weight on it without damaging it further."

I'll give the kid this: he had guts. I straightened his ankle to apply the Air support, and though I knew it had to hurt like hell, he didn't make a sound. I could just see the tightening of the muscles in his jaw and the way his face went an ugly ashen color.

I wove Air around his ankle, creating a supporting band around the sides, then weaving small lines of Air around it until I thought it would be firm enough.

"Let's get you up," I said.

With Tik between us, V and I were able to help him get to his feet. He tentatively put some pressure on his injured foot.

"That's pretty cool," he said, looking at his leg in amazement. I tied off the magic, so I didn't have to maintain my concentration. It wouldn't last forever, but it should last long enough for us to get Tik to safety.

"We're going to meet a friend of ours, Tik. His name is Helios. He's a doctor, and he's going to tell you some things that are going to blow your mind," V said, making an exploding motion from his temple.

"As long as that's all that explodes," Tik muttered.

The meeting between Tik and Hel went way better than I expected. Tik seemed to sense a predator in Hel, and it took a long time before he began to relax but it was really Betts who got the boy to warm up to her. Within a few minutes of meeting Betts and Tik were talking about ships and sailing. I lost all interest in their conversation, just happy the kid wasn't scared to death anymore.

The second day Hel let us go out by ourselves while he took care of Tik. We found a Fire Mageia sitting in ambush, waiting for someone to pass beneath an alley that led to a water supply. Fortunately for us, Hel was familiar with the spot and had told us to use the building across the street to get a good view of the spot before entering. I was able to knock her out with an Air bubble before she even realized she was under attack.

Now we sat across the fire from her while Hel and Betts tended to Tik and waited for the woman to wake. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. It had been just a few days ago that we had been the ones waking to a completely new world.

I noticed her breathing speed up first, then her body tensed in frustration as she realized her hands were bound behind her. V had summoned metal from the earth to encase her hands. Better than handcuffs. While it was possible to use our powers without our hands, it was a lot more difficult. Only the strongest of us were able to perform any kind of significant power use without some gestures.

"You might as well open your eyes," I said as she feigned unconsciousness. "I can tell you are awake, Fotia Mageia."

Her eyes snapped open, and she struggled to sit up.

"Release me," she snapping with fury when she failed to pull her arms free.

"Not until we have a little talk," I said.

V helped her sit up, then sat back down next to me.

"You're from Greece?" I asked.

She stayed silent for several moments, her brown eyes studying V and I and our surroundings before finally nodding.

"I'm Kat, Air Mageia. This is Vlakas," I said.

"Earth Mageia," V dipped his head in acknowledgement.

"Deliah," she bit out, eying me suspiciously. "And you already know I'm Fire."

"You thirsty?" I ignored her sarcastic tone.

After a moment's hesitation she nodded.

I moved forward and took my canteen and offered her some.

She looked at it suspiciously.

"If we wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already. It's safe." I tipped the bottle up and took a drink, then held it to her lips.

She looked at me for a moment more, her eyes searching mine before thirst won over her suspicion. She drank deeply for a few moments, then moved away from the bottle.

"Why aren't I dead?" she asked finally, looking from me to V.

I glanced at V. He was better at this stuff than I was.

"We don't want to kill our fellow Mageia," V shrugged.

She looked at us incredulously.

"It's the Machi Thanatos," she said, her voice dripping with disdain. "It's literally a battle to the death."

"Yeah, well," I began. "We tend not to follow the rules."

"We don't have to slaughter each other for our captors' amusement," V added. "There are other options."

She furrowed her brow at him.

"You are… Alexandrian," she jutted her chin at the insignia on our shirts.

We nodded, even though it wasn't a question.

"Alexandrians want to take over the world, everyone knows that," she said, her face screwed up like she smelled something foul. "You've been encroaching on the borders of Greece for years, slowly absorbing our land and people into your own. Your greed knows no bounds."

"Not all Alexandrians feel that way," V insisted. "Many Alexandrians just want to live their lives without being forced into slavery."

She glanced at him dismissively.

"You're just a Mageia. How would you know what ‘most' Alexandrians want?"

V chuckled.

"Well, before I joined the Legion, my name was Prince Lucien Alexus the First. So I was kind of in a position to hear some things."

Her eyes widened incredulously. "Anyone could claim that."

V shrugged.

"Maybe, but they can't claim this," he said as he stood and turned around, lifting his shirt to show her the sun and stars tattoo of the royal household on his back. Of course, that also displayed the numerous scars that crisscrossed his back from our shared Calling. It was common knowledge that bearing the sun and stars tattoo was forbidden to anyone outside the royal household. Doing so carried a particularly bloody penalty.

"Well, fuck me," she said, slumping against the wall, her brow furrowed.

"Exactly," I grumbled.

"So… what do you want from me?" she asked, her brown eyes curious.

"We need allies," I said.

"Allies," she said slowly, as if the word were foreign to her. "Allies in the Machi Thanatos?"

"And after," V said.

"After? There is no after," she scoffed bitterly. "After, we get sold off to the highest bidder, and are enslaved for the rest of our lives."

"Maybe," I shrugged. "Maybe not."

She looked at me.

"Look, we—we've found some things out," I said. I quickly shared the information Hel had given us about Illyria, Somas, and the rest.

Deliah nodded thoughtfully before responding.

"I've heard stories of Somas before," she said. "My village used to trade with Illyrians until Alexandria conquered us. I thought stories about beast men were just fairy tales. Bedtime stories for children."

"Somas are real."

"You've met one?" She whipped her gaze back to me.

I nodded.

"He's here in Heraklion. He's a doctor and he helped save V's life," I said, nodding toward my brother. "Did your Lochagos tell you about a cannibalistic beast in the Machi?"

She froze for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully.

"That supposed beast is an Illyrian Soma," V said.

"Illyrians don't eat the dead," she scoffed dismissively.

"It's a cover to explain the missing Mageia who escape," I went on to explain what Hel had told us about the well-placed bodies and skull stew.

"So what are you proposing?" she asked.

"An alliance. We gather as many Mageia to our side as we can, then escape this fucking place."

"Pipe dream," she muttered.

"Maybe," V said. "But better than no dreams at all."

Deliah looked at him thoughtfully for long moments.

"Okay," she said finally. "I'm in."