Chapter 22* Doing what I do
I wake up on the floor of the cave.
It is dark and I cannot see anything, but the unmistakable roughness of the cave floor is instantly identifiable. Using my palms to push myself off the ground, I blink several times in the darkness and try to get bearings. I stretch out my arms. My left hand hits something solid, and I heave an internal sigh of relief.
Following the wall, I stumble forward. It isn’t long as I retrace my steps and return to the camp. If it could be called that. They are both eating a can of cold beans and warming themselves by blowing in cupped hands and rubbing their palms together. No surprise or relief registers in their expressions when they see me- I must not have been gone long.
“Hey,” I say awkwardly, sitting down and grabbing a nearby can. They mutter a hey and avoid my eyes, concentrating on cleaning out their cans.
“So, when are we doing it?” I say cheerily. Zoey’s head snaps up so fast it was a wonder I didn’t hear the crack. Her eyes glare balefully at me, pale in the flickering light of the Riston Key.
“Where were you? You weren’t here as we readied the potion.”
“What?” I take another spoonful of beans. “It’s not like it’s a ceremony or something.”
“Are you daft or what? Presence is power. If you had been here, the potion would’ve been more potent.”
“You could’ve waited for me.” I flick my auburn hair over my shoulder and shrug at her. Incensed, Zoey sets down her can a little too roughly.
“When I say two hours, I mean two hours. Any longer and our efforts would’ve gone to waste.”
“We could always have come up with something new.”
“I’m good at potion making. It’s our best shot, unless you can come up with a way to defeat a six foot tall maybe more god who could squish you in the palm of his hand. My skills will allow us to win, with everybody’s help.” The last few words are stabbing, but I can’t bring myself to care.
Recklessly, I say, “Well, it’s not like you had much in the first place. Skills, I mean.”
“Kayla!” Sam slams down his can. “That’s enough!”
I call them both something unprintable. As Sam stands up and opens his mouth to tell me off, a sudden power overtakes me. My vision blurs, then slides back into focus sharper and more brilliant. Colors take on new shades. My senses heighten and enhance, and suddenly I feel… Not human.
Silencing Sam with a cutting look, I turn to Zoey.
“Adrian would never have wanted you to be this way.”
Her face goes white as a sheet. “Who told you that?”
A lazy smile curves my lips. “I know all your secrets, Zoey Gaunt. But it isn’t Gaunt, is it, Miss Kowalski?”
A murderous look crosses her face. “Who told you that?”
“They didn’t need to tell me.” I love it, love the edge my power gives me over her. The expression on her face, half fearful and half angry, makes me feel as though I have her in a corner, ready to be crushed.
“Kayla! Don’t play games with me.” She gets up and hits me, but I barely feel it.
“Stop it!” That was Sam. We both ignore him. She raises her arm to whack me in the side of the head, but even as it descends, my hand is whizzing up to grab in mid-air in a vice lock. It isn’t necessary, but I hold a little tighter until I can feel her bone straining under the pressure. My fingers are gritty with dirt and covered with a layer of grime, but I can see a few black lines beneath. What are they?
She gasps. “Let go of me!”
“You shouldn’t have tried to hit me.” My voice is emotionless, but far more menacing than I have ever heard it before.
“Kayla. That’s enough!” Sam roared. He doesn’t touch me, but somehow hearing his voice grounds me. My ears pop.
“This isn’t you!”
This isn’t me. Is it?
Stunned, I drop Zoey’s hands. I can see black bruises lining her wrist in the shape of my fingers, and she whimpers in pain, staggering away from me. The energy burst fades as quickly as it came, leaving me light-headed and disoriented.
“Kayla-” Sam begins, but I push him away.
“I’ve- I’ve got to go. I’ll be back,” I say distractedly, and grabbing the Riston Key, I take off at a sprint. Once I am sure I’m alone, I tone down the light and scrape my palm raw against the cave wall. The dirt and grime is uncovered, and I stare with refreshed horror at what lies on the inside of my palm.
Black lines. A cross.
It reeks of evil. But what put it there? The answer is in my head.
Praise the gods. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.
Panic engulfs me, but I quell it down. “Who are you?” I say aloud.
Guess.
“I’m not going to play games.”
Guess! The voice is a scream in my head, reverberating inside my skull, and it hurts. Clutching my head, I double over, panting. No, I thought with an edge of panic, as the memories flood back. No.
Ariadne.
Right, right you are! The voice is a delighted cackle in my head. I clench my fists. The mark has begun to pulse with a dark aura, and I have to take deep, calming breaths. My vision blurs, and shifts back into focus.
“Get out.”
I don’t think I will, thank you very much. I do enjoy being in your brain, Kayla. So many pieces of delicious news to pick through. I see what you did with Sam… What if I decided to tell Zoey? What if I decided to make you tell Zoey? Or… She breathes in contentedly. My hand moves, suddenly, without my permission. My back bends forward, and I pick up a sharp stone lying on the ground.
It is a horrible feeling. Much as I fight, my arm doesn’t belong to me anymore.
“What are you doing?” My voice holds an edge of hysteria. “Stop!”
Relentlessly, my hand moves towards my chest, until the stone is resting right above my heart. I apply pressure…
“Stop!”
My hand stops. But fear and adrenaline pounds through my veins. Ariadne can control me. She could kill me. She could make me kill others. My heart, mind and soul… they are no longer my own.
“Please,” I hear myself say. To my utter mortification and anger, tears begin seeping out of my closed eyelids. “Please. Get out of me.”
I don’t think so, Kayla Richards. Not until I get what I want.
I return back to the camp feeling hollow and empty. Zoey refuses to speak to me, even when I swallow my pride and apologize to her, and Sam is not looking at me. How, how can we save this world when we are so caught up in internal politics?
I want to speak of the plan but I am afraid of what Ariadne will hear. I stay away from them too, because I’m not sure of what I can do.
The black mark weighs heavily on my palm. Maybe if I burn it…
Don’t even think about it. It won’t work.
I get up from the rock I am sitting on. That is followed by a stab of pain through my head so intense that I black out for half a second. My knees buckle, causing me to fall back onto the rock again. Black stabs at the edges of my vision, threatens to overwhelm it. I must’ve made a sound, because Zoey walks over out of sheer curiosity.
“What happened to you?”
“Go away,” I say through my teeth. She shrugs and walks off, back to Sam. He doesn’t even look over his shoulder at me as he resumes his talk with her.
I can’t help it. Why is Zoey’s name Kowalski and not Gaunt? Who is she? Immediately I am angry with myself for even thinking it.
I can almost hear the smile in Ariadne’s voice. Ever the curious, I see.
I don’t reply.
When I was a prisoner of the gods, I was privy to many bits of information. For example…
I feel my mouth opening. Ariadne was wielding her power, much like the thread legend she had given rise to, tendrils of her power violating my control. Threads of her consciousness laced mine. I cannot block her out, cannot utter a single cry of warning-
“Maya would’ve been proud.”Who is Maya? The words carry, just as they were meant to, and reach Zoey’s ears. She freezes, looks at me. A smile curves my lips, but it is not mine. Somehow, without knowing how I knew, I am aware that my eyes are coal black like a shark’s.
Zoey gives a wail and turns her back to me as shuddering sobs rack her body.
I keep on smiling as Sam embraces her.
I keep on smiling as he gives me a straight, cold stare.
I keep on smiling even as something inside of me begs and screams and cries for help.
Help, I try to say. It is futile. My fingers drum my knee, but I am not moving them.
It is she. It is all she. And I know that if I cannot beat her and take back control of myself, this world will be in for something worse than the gods.
________________________
Hi guys, long time no see!
I apologise for uploading like a tortoise. Please don't give up on this story! I have no plan for this story so if there are any inconsistencies please tell me! Not to mention how you feel about the direction the story is going :))
I just went for the All Time Low concert and it was GAWD AWESOME. I mean I wasn't like a crazy fan but it was still crazy fun. Alex is a little egoistical hahhaaha but stilllll awesome. Jack is my favourite yeehaw! He was too cute. All the bras on his mike omgg :DD I couldn't stop laughing! Go watch them if they go to your country hahaha omg. I came out deaf. They were also very explicit. LOVE IT!
xoxoxo Abigail! (I can't wait to go to another concert! You me at Six! You me at Six!)