The Oracle of Tartarus [malexmale]

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The next day, I refused to get out of bed.

I had returned to Tartarus, sore and aching. Bruises clustered my throat, chest, and thighs. I felt disgusting and used. I didn't want to sit or walk or do work. For the first time, I was ready to give up on all of my responsibilities. Instead, I informed my staff that I wasn't feeling well and warned them to steer clear of my quarters, as well as Noe's. That seemed to worry them. They probably thought whatever Noe had was contagious. I didn't correct them or make a fuss when they sent their children to live with relatives somewhere else.

I kept my room locked and the drapes pulled shut as I lay in bed on my side after applying ointment to the scratches that ran the length of my back. I tied my hair back into a loose ponytail, because red was the last color I wanted to see right now. I changed the sheets and drapes of my room to periwinkle and white in an attempt to soothe my dignity that felt as if too had been beaten and molested, which in a way, it really had.

I sighed deeply, propping myself up on an elbow, moving the cursor across the screen of my laptop as I did my best to do my work from bed, but it was difficult to concentrate. I was tired and aching. I wanted to return to sleep, but sleep evaded me. Where were the oneiroi when I truly needed them?

I was also tempted to take a dip in the river Lethe in an attempt to forget everything that had happened when I had visited Apollo's temple in Olympus, but I wouldn't be able to get out in time to remember everything else. Apollo had informed me that he would summon Noe to his temple as soon as the spell wore off. In the mean time, I was to figure out who fed him whatever to make him an oracle. That way I could kill them and put them out of submission, in case they tried it again, as someone was working under Titan command, which I made a mental note to tell the others at the meeting tomorrow.

If I could make it, I thought bitterly. I laid back on the bed gently, hissing past clenched teeth at the rough sheets on the scratches on my back. I closed my eyes, taking deep breathes as I tried to calm myself enough to sleep, but my mind kept racing.

Who was working for Phoebe? How did they get the power to turn Noe into an oracle? How did they do it without anyone noticing? How was I supposed to explain to Noe how I did all of this, without slipping up about my "relationship" with Apollo? Did I remember to send the most recent prisoner log to the guardsmen on level two? Did I send it to my father? Did I write checks for the servants? What was the name of the cable provider again?

I groaned deep in my throat and rolled back over my side, reaching out to open up my laptop again and double check my work when I heard a hiss from outside my room. I frowned and shut my laptop, pushing the blankets back and climbing out of bed. I grabbed a white silk robe and tugged it on, doing the belt before I went to my door, unlocking it and stepping out into the hallway to see Noe sitting across the hall from my room, a spider sticking out of his mouth and another one thrashing in his palm, obviously in pain as a reaction to Noe's feverish skin.

"Noe?" I asked, shutting the door behind me. I quickly looked up and down the hallways to make sure no one had spotted him before I looked back to see him chewing on the helpless spider in his mouth. A chill coursed up my spine at the sickening crunches and the way its legs twitched between his lips. His eyes were glowing eerily in the same fashion they'd done before. Other than that, and the fact that he was eating spiders, he looked normal.

"Noe, take that out of your mouth." I commanded, taking a step toward him. Noe twitched and jerked his head up, staring at me with those eerie glowing eyes of his. He flicked his tongue out of his mouth, licking the last of the spider legs into his mouth. I grimaced, my stomach churning at the sight of it. He swallowed it and went to add the next spider to his mouth, which had been fried from his fever and was now curled up in his palm. I reached out, caught him by the wrist and shook the thing out onto the floor, using my foot to scoot it away before I pulled Noe up to his feet. He hissed at me, but I didn't let go, even with the heat of his fever sizzling my skin.