"You're done," he said. "Local anesthesia will wear off in an hour. Painkillers on the table."

I stood. He left me alone to change, and I did my best to clean up the blood remaining before pulling on black cargo pants and a sweatshirt that smelled of Herakles and fell to my knees. Weary and achy, I tested my body before joining Herakles outside the exam room.

"Good as new," I said. "Where's ..."

He pointed up. Mismatch was perched on a cement beam high above us, appearing ever so much like the grotesque he was.

"That thing tried to kidnap you when you were six," Herakles said quietly.

"He was trying to rescue me," I replied and met his gaze, once more thrown into deep confusion. "How much do you know about me? About what I am and what they want to do to me?"

Herakles was silent for a moment before he spoke hoa.r.s.ely. "You really have grown up." His emotions were too jumbled for me to read.

I wasn't certain I wanted to know what he felt. I needed distance between me and the world, or thought I did. The moment I saw pain and sorrow on his features, my desire to remain impartial to my caretaker melted.

Crossing to him, I hugged him. "Don't be sad," I murmured. "Just be honest with me. I don't need you to protect me anymore."

"You need it now more than ever, Lyssa."

"I need to know what I'm facing. What I am. How I can possibly survive this."

"I've been as cut off as you from the world since we entered the forest." He eased away. "Let's find a place to sit and talk." He led me out of the medical area and into what appeared to be a community s.p.a.ce filled with old furniture and televisions and a few old video games.

I knew without looking Mismatch was tracking our movements from his perch above. Mama's men stopped speaking and whatever they were doing as I pa.s.sed. I understood their resentment after the incident earlier, and I began to wonder how I was supposed to fulfill the Silent Queen's purpose and lead people who wanted nothing to do with me unless it was to throw me off the wall.

Herakles led me to a quiet area and started to sit when he caught sight of someone behind me and rose.

"Didn't expect to see you here," he said. A flicker of warmth was in his gaze.

Turning, I saw Dosy as she lowered the hood of her cloak. "I was on my way here when the Magistrate raised the alarm about the kidnapping," she said. "Sorry, Alessandra. We are working out the kinks in the alliance. You'll need to magically reappear in your villa soon." Though speaking to me, her eyes were on Herakles, and I sensed ... more between them. It was different than the level of intensity between her and Niko. Far less homicidal.

"You two know each other?" I asked curiously.

"Only met recently," Dosy replied. "Am I interrupting?"

"Sort of," I said.

"No," Herakles replied at the same time.

I rolled my eyes and sat down. "Fine. He was about to explain how messed up things are. You might as well join us."

Theodocia is Mama. Interesting. When Mismatch sounded this intrigued, I didn't think it was good. His loyalty was to me and Lantos. I didn't know which one won out, though, when it came down to Triumvirate business.

Resting my head back on the couch, I gazed up at him. "No. The Silent Queen is," I replied aloud.

"Who ..." Dosy followed my gaze and gasped. She uttered several foul curses. "You brought him here?"

"You know each other?" Herakles asked.

"Yeah. Unfortunately. If you tell your boss, Adonis, I'll hunt you down!"

I laughed.

"Adonis." Herakles was frowning. "That thing is Adonis."

"At night," I supplied.

"I met him when I was younger. He appeared out of nowhere and a couple of cops brought him in off the street. Disappeared that night but not before he shredded the police station." Dosy was glaring up at the creature. "That was before his boss twisted him into a monster worse than that."

My amus.e.m.e.nt faded. Mismatch was watching me, unconcerned with Dosy.

"So that's what happened," I murmured.

No. Lantos saved my life after Herakles almost killed me, but I was the person I am long before Lantos. I've begun to remember what I was.

"It'd be nice to know."

"Not to b.u.t.t in, but do you want to talk?" Herakles eyed the grotesque. He sat on a loveseat opposite me.

"Yeah," I said and shifted to see them both.

"I'd advise you to make it quick. You need to be back where the Magistrate can find you before the Queen's efforts to calm him wear off," Dosy said.

"You'd turn her back over to the man who wants to steal her life and turn her into a monster like he did me?" Herakles bristled.

"My orders are to avoid confrontation with him and his people at all costs. All this," Dosy swept her arms out around her, "is at risk. We aren't in the position to act yet."

Herakles' jaw was ticking.

"It's okay. I get it," I spoke before he could argue. "I'm under the impression I'm relatively safe for now."

"You're never safe," Dosy countered.

She's right, Mismatch agreed.

"I'll give you ten minutes. Then I suggest you have him take you back." Dosy pointed at Mismatch. She rose and moved away, leaving Herakles and me alone.

Now that I had the chance, I didn't know what to say. I'd already seen the look on his face when I mentioned my parents.

"You want to talk about that night," he a.s.sessed.

My guardian always knew how to read me. I nodded with some reluctance.

"After I knocked that thing out of the sky and caught you, you changed me. It was your magic. You took what I'd become and reversed it until I knew who I was again."

"I don't understand," I said.

He studied me. I saw he didn't want to reveal everything. "When I was ten, I was twice the size of the other kids in my cla.s.s. Twice as strong, twice as fast. I caught the attention of a wealthy man who specialized in grooming Olympians. My parents were thrilled. We were poor, and he offered them a stipend if I'd live with him and train. He became my benefactor. But ... part of his program didn't involve training until after I'd been transformed genetically and physically into the person that could survive his training. I spent ten years on my back alternating between surgery and recovery. He replaced every part of me he deemed weak. Add to that genetic manipulation, and facial reconstruction surgeries so I resembled his ill.u.s.trious grandfather when he was younger, and the real me became lost. Buried beneath scars, body parts that weren't mine, and new genes. I couldn't remember what my real face and body looked like or my parent's names."

My mouth was agape. I couldn't imagine rebuilding someone's body the way he described or the amount of time, money ... pain he went through to become the most athletic, successful Olympian of all time.

"I became what he said I was," Herakles continued. "I couldn't even think for myself. I obeyed. You saw that when you looked at me. Even at the age of six, you knew how to ... help people." He waved over his head at the ribbons I alone saw. "You undid what he did, and I began to remember. To understand. To feel like a real person again. And the buried part of me that had a conscience knew you were going to be crucified if I let them take you away."

"You grabbed me and ran," I whispered.

He nodded. "We were on the run for a week. It was impossible to keep you hidden. I took a razor then a flame torch to myself. I was so sick of what I'd become, and too accustomed to pain to care." He rubbed his scars. "I wanted to burn and cut away the man he made me into. With the stamina and strength he'd built into me, I was able to keep ahead of SISA, the military and the Royal Guard, but even I needed help and rest at some point. I didn't think we'd survive much longer, until Father Cristopolos found me and began talking to me about the Old Ways and how you were part of a prophecy to bring them back. That's when I went to my benefactor once last time and begged him for a favor. He granted us the forest, and Lantos wiped your memory."

I listened, unable to recall the story he told from my own mind. "Why didn't I recognize Lantos when we met again recently? Why can't I remember the time between when I fell and when I arrived to the orphanage?"

"Lantos explained there were levels involved in compartmentalizing memories. His magic sealed away some, but it was his father's magic that tucked away most of them."

"And his father is a t.i.tan."

"As opposed to a half-breed demiG.o.d."

It wasn't the history I expected. Perhaps because I was waiting for something horrific to cross his lips. "I changed you," I said, fascinated by the concept.

"You fixed me."

Studying my guardian's face, I began to pity him. Turned into some sort of Frankenstein and then shown what he was, he had tried to destroy himself. My sweet Herakles didn't deserve such a fate, even if I didn't yet know how to tackle the idea of him killing my parents.

"And the priests created a spy ring out of the nymphs," I mused. "You knew about that, too?"

"I did. I don't know if it survived, since the priests didn't."

"It did. Leandra took it over."

"Always the sharpest of them."

A little jealous, even now, about how perfect Leandra was, I changed the subject. "Who was your benefactor?" I asked.

"The man known now as the Supreme Magistrate. He was a low level politician with his daddy's money when we met. My Olympic wins propelled him upwards into the strata he's in now."

"You're afraid he'll do to me what he did to you."

"I know he'll destroy you. It's what he does."

My hands were clenched together. I shook them loose self-consciously and glanced up at Mismatch. He was close enough to have overheard everything. Was that a good thing or not? I hated not knowing where he stood.

"You're here," I said. "Do you trust Dosy and the Queen?"

"I think they are the least evil of the three."

I bit back a smile.

"That said, I feel like I didn't raise you anywhere near right. You are too good and sweet and honest to deal with manipulative b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. All of them want something from you, and each is willing to bulldoze the world twice over to get it."

"Yeah. I've kind of figured that out. Just not sure how I do anything without ending up torn to pieces or dead."

"I wish I knew."

Ouch. If Herakles didn't know either ...

"Time's up," Dosy said and approached once more. "Hey! Come down!" She motioned to Mismatch.

I stood, my body stiffening up already from the night of being beaten down. Mismatch floated down from the rafters and landed near us.

"If you breathe one word of any this to Lantos ..." Dosy said, glaring at Mismatch.

What I tell him is not your concern, Mismatch replied.

I cleared my throat.

"What'd he say?" Dosy asked.

"Probably what you'd say in the same situation," I replied.

"Look, Adonis, as far as I know, the Queen is the only person not out to have Alessandra killed or ripped apart. I don't know what Lantos is planning, but I don't trust it."

I will always protect you, Alessandra. But I owe my loyalty to no one else and if I act, it's out of concern for your safety. I don't care who I ally with.

I almost asked what had happened that he wasn't claiming loyalty to Lantos any longer but stopped myself. "We're good," I said to Dosy, uncertain if it was entirely true.

"Good. We'll take you to the top of the walls. He can fly you home?"

Mismatch bowed his head.

"You're probably kind of wanted by the Supreme Magistrate, too, huh?" I asked Herakles, not wanting to leave him behind.

"You could say that." He stood.

We followed Dosy through the underground world to the wall that ran on one side. She motioned to a wide stairwell. "Take it straight up," she said, eyeing Mismatch once more.

I waited for them to come with us then realized they were staying. I crossed to Herakles and gave him another quick hug before joining Mismatch in the stairwell. We began to climb, me with some difficulty given the state of my right thigh.

He kills your parents and you forgive him so easily.

"I don't know what to think," I mumbled. "He raised me, Mismatch."

You are much quicker to judge me.

I said nothing. My confusion was growing by the day. I felt deep inside my time to decide what to do with my life which side to choose was rapidly becoming closer.

I wanted away from everyone. I wanted to return to the forest and start over. This time, I'd know better than to step outside the boundaries.

How did Dosy expect me to lead people who thought, quite accurately, that the best way to win was to kill me? How did I trust Lantos when he claimed he'd only torture me if necessary, and only for a short term if so? Cleon hadn't tasked me yet, but he clearly wanted me in the Oracle's place.

"This would be so much easier if I had a fourth option," I said quietly as we continued to climb.