"Part of your power," I observed. "What is it?"

"These, Adonis, keep G.o.ds and men and everyone but my father from seeing what they protect." He lifted another and dropped it into his forearm. "I gave these to someone around the time I rescued you, under orders from my father."

"Who isn't about to tell you what he was protecting."

Lantos grimaced. A demiG.o.d, he was the disowned son of a t.i.tan, marooned on earth when he disobeyed his father and cut off from everything and everyone but his own eclectic mix of powers. "No, but I can guess. The men downstairs in prison. What are their names?"

"Herakles and Thiebauld."

Lantos grinned. He stood and paced, his step energized. "Adonis, you are incredible! One tiny instinct gave way to all this! We only need Herakles. Send the others to the House or wherever you make men disappear. And ... go back to the forest tonight. We need to know what happened to Herakles' charge."

Alessandra, said Mrs. Nettles. She was gazing at me. At times, I considered the notion my toy was possessed even more so than usual. Her voice was different when she said the name, and the gleam of intelligence was in her eyes. The umbrella was forgotten at her side.

An image I'd never seen before flashed into my thoughts, that of a little girl clutching a blue gem. Just as quickly, it vanished. "His charge? You think that's what the forest and cords were hiding?"

"I know it is. I gave these to Herakles and a priest twelve years ago. The last order of my father's I obeyed was to hide the new Oracle."

"Oracle," I repeated. "Finally. We'll be able to start Phase Two soon."

"Exactly. But we need to beat the Queen and Magistrate to her. The G.o.ds are too busy to prepare her trials. I've maneuvered them into letting the Triumvirate determine what challenges she must overcome before her power manifests fully, as is customary. Each member of the Triumvirate gets to task her once."

I listened. Lantos was a man of shadows and secrets buried beneath a brilliant smile. That he'd been planning for an event no one knew was coming didn't surprise me. "You have a trial in mind already."

"I do." He smiled. "And it has to do with Phase Two."

Lantos' sole motivation in life was to carry out his father's revenge in the hopes of being granted asylum with the rest of the t.i.tans. His single act of disobedience saving my life had seen him cut off. Together we'd risen in power with a combination of my unusually strong adeptness at political maneuvering and his magic and ambition. Despite my skill at obtaining power, I had no desire for it. I would always bend my will to Lantos.

"We will get to her first." I considered. "You said Herakles is her guardian?"

Lantos nodded.

"I'll let word leak that he's here and post a reward in the online boards of the Merc Guild for capturing her. If she's got a fraction of the power of a G.o.ddess, she won't hesitate to unleash it to find her guardian. Someone will notice." I placed Mrs. Nettles on the ground and moved out from behind the counter. It was almost past sunset. I peeled off my weapons and watch in antic.i.p.ation of the change. "Tonight I'll return to the forest and look for any trace of where she went."

The image of the unknown girl flashed once more and this time, brought a stab of pain.

"Your nose is bleeding," Lantos said.

I touched my nostril and gazed briefly at the drop of maroon on my fingertip. The pain subsided and with it, the vision. "Just sinuses." Why did I say that? It wasn't sinuses, and I knew it. The urge to lie to the man to whom I owed my life had been instinctive.

Alessandra, Mrs. Nettles said once more.

Lantos was gazing at me closely, a flicker of something dark in his gaze. Normally, Lantos was the moon and me the night sky. His outgoing, optimistic personality sometimes grated on others whereas my silence was usually taken with caution if not fear. People were able to sense the predator I was without seeing me in my secondary form. It helped that my reputation well earned was nonetheless much larger than my deeds.

I cleaned up my nose and felt the trickle of fire that went through me every time I was about to change. "How go your Holy Wars?"

"Exactly as planned. We're keeping the Magistrate's men busy outside the wall and the G.o.ds in disarray, fighting one another rather than us. I brokered another truce today."

"Only you could do something like this."

"Stop baiting me. It was your idea. Divide and conquer."

By nature, I tended to toy with the people around me. It wasn't malicious, more instinctual. I made every effort not to do so around Lantos for the simple reason that he was my friend.

"Like a true war leader. How do you come up with such ideas?" he asked, half in jest.

I shrugged. "It made sense for the situation."

"It's tied to your past. Your hunches are too ... good for them to be just hunches."

"And I told you I'm not remembering anything yet. If I guess correctly, it's not done consciously."

"Any insight or hunches as to what Artemis is up to?" Lantos asked casually.

Of all the G.o.ds stuck on earth, Artemis was the only who hadn't sought him out to help establish a territory or broker deals with the Supreme Magistrate's men. It was common knowledge among the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses that Lantos was one of them. Crisis kept them from demanding his exact lineage or asking too many questions that might reveal him to be the son of their enemy. "None. The G.o.ds are your business, not mine."

"You've proven frighteningly accurate in everything."

"If I knew, I'd tell you," I replied. "I hear nothing through the spy networks and no indication your fellow Triumvirate members have any insight either."

Lantos nodded.

"I'm about to change," I said and pushed off my boots. "See you in the morning."

"Fly well." Lantos' smile returned. He replaced his mask, bowed to Mrs. Nettles and left my flat.

I went to my room and stripped out of my clothing before heading to the balcony.

Mismatch. Mrs. Nettles never called me by the name Adonis, which I'd adopted after Lantos saved me. Mismatch was the name she claimed was mine before Lantos. She was shuffling after me as fast as her stubby legs would go.

"What is it, Mrs. Nettles?" I asked. "Quickly. It's my time."

Don't hurt her.

"You know what Phase Two is. I must obey Lantos," I replied gently.

You will see.

This was definitely one of her double possession stages when she seemed to have knowledge beyond her or my ability to access.

My attention shifted to the fire growing inside me. The moment the sun dipped beneath the horizon, my body began its nightly transformation. Black wings sprouted and spread from my shoulders outward. The hair on my body disappeared, and my head grew heavy, my features malformed and hideous, my body thickening and growing half a foot taller. Talons sprouted from my hands and toes followed soon after by a barbed, whip-like tail.

Not even Lantos knew how and why this transformation occurred. I resembled the stone grotesques and gargoyles perched on the temples of the G.o.ds. Beneath the dark gaze of Nyx, I often flew and sat among them, waiting for any of them to come to life and join me for my nightly hunt.

They never did and I was left with a sense of loss to reinforce the knowledge I was alone.

Fly! Mrs. Nettles clapped silently and watched my wings flare out. The vacant look was back in her face. Whatever secondary possession took hold of her, it was gone once more.

I wasn't entirely alone. I had never met another animated toy, either. We were different and unique, thrust together by circ.u.mstances I didn't recall.

I bowed my head to her and turned my attention to the sky. My beast senses were strong even in human form and completely unleashed when I was a creature. I swept into the sky, barreling upward until I was above the city, then flinging out my wings to catch an air current and hover. My heart raced from the ascension, and my shoulders warmed from the exercise.

I turned my focus north, towards the forests of Maryland, and began flying. My grumbling stomach would wait for now; I needed to complete Lantos' mission first. The odd instincts were stronger in my beast form, the draw of what was hidden in the forest, the compulsion to find it ... her ... nearly beyond my ability to curb. I needed to know for certain if the image in my mind was accurate and why I'd done the unthinkable and lied to my only friend about something as unimportant as a nosebleed.

Whatever was going on, it didn't take the primal urges of a beast or warning of a stuffed animal for me to know the world was about to change.

Chapter Five: Alessandra.

Even a G.o.d cannot change the past.

Agathon I always imagined how I'd feel the day I left the forest. The reality, that I was forced out alone with no home to go back to, didn't hit me the way I expected. I was worried about Herakles, sad for the priests, glad to be away from the nymphs.

But I didn't feel like crying. It seemed ... weird. How was I so calm watching my life crumble?

"You still with me?"

I blinked out of my thoughts to look at Niko. He was driving a car he had stolen, much to my disapproval. We had fled the area of coastal Maryland, first on foot then by car, and were on a major highway headed south, towards DC. It was almost one in the morning, and I was exhausted. After my adrenaline wore off, I'd begun to wonder why he was helping me if he didn't get paid for the job.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You in shock?"

"Um. I don't think so. My skin isn't clammy and my pupils aren't dilated."

"I meant mental shock, you little s.h.i.t."

I rolled my eyes.

He was quiet for a moment, eyes on the road, before he spoke. "If we're going to do this, we need some rules."

My brow furrowed and I studied his profile.

"One, you may know how to run, fight and hunt, but your guardian didn't teach you the most important lesson."

I tensed, not about to let him insult Herakles.

"You are out of your G.o.ds' d.a.m.ned mind if you think you should be talking to or trusting or otherwise not running at the sight of a stranger, especially one who looks like me. The men hunting you will try every trick under the sun to get you to turn yourself in peacefully or seduce you or outright blow off your legs to keep you from running again. No strangers. Ever. At all. Everyone you meet is the enemy, including any other gladiators or mercs that you think are there to help. You have no friends."

"But you were in the forest because the priests "

"Wrong. If he looks like me, you walk away." He slapped the steering wheel lightly. "What would you do if you ran into someone like me in the store?"

With a sigh, I stared out the window. "Walk away."

"What about some injured kid or woman in the street?"

"That's different. I know how "

"Wrong. Walk away."

"But that's not right if I can"

"Wrong!" he said more loudly. "No strangers. You're not safely tucked away in the forest or at school anymore, Alessandra. You're about to enter the real world, and it's ugly. It will eat you alive if you let it. SISA means business."

I listened. I hated to be schooled like this, and I was pretty certain if I saw an injured child, I'd stop, no matter what the consequences. Which is why I'm here and not in my bed tonight.

Ugh. I had real issues and no part of me was able to fathom the idea of people chasing me.

"Rule two, if someone asks you your name, it's Lisa," he continued.

"How can someone ask me my name if I'm not allowed to talk to anyone?"

"Don't get smart. G.o.ds know I hate smart women."

I stared at him. "What do you mean you hate smart women?"

"Different story. No strangers, and you answer to Lisa. Rule three, no temples, police stations or hotspots, or anywhere else where people might be looking for you."

"The police?" I echoed. "I'm not a criminal."

"Who do they think you are?"

An Oracle. I didn't answer, though, because I didn't know who he thought I was.

"That's what I thought. Rule four, don't lie to me, don't deceive me, don't betray me," he growled. "I have a real issue with that."

"You have a lot of issues," I mumbled.

"Yeah. Keep that in mind. Unpredictable mercenaries make for interesting allies."

"You think they're following us?" I twisted to look out the back window of the car.

"I know they will be if they figure out which direction we're headed. We're going underground. It's my world, not yours, which means, rule five, don't blow this for me. It takes years and money to get to a good place in the criminal underworld. I'm doing you a favor by taking you in. Don't ruin my life."

Criminal underworld? He wasn't really giving me warm fuzzies about our future. "So we can't ever go back to the forest."

"No. What're your rules?"

"No strangers. My name is Lisa. No cops, don't lie to you and no blowing your reputation with your criminal friends."

"Exactly."