[respice adspice prospice]
There was once a time in his life where silence and peace surrounded Kaden. It was so long ago that sometimes Kaden wondered if he'd made up the happy memories of life on the countryside. The summer nights spent chasing fireflies seemed so distant, so intangible from the days spent fleeing monsters and enemies. His childhood was something of precious value to him, and had once hung like Atlas' curse over his shoulder, a boulder to bear.
But as Kaden stood on his balcony, surveying the skyline of New York, listening to the car horns and bustle and just overall noise of his home, he realized how far he'd come. And inherently, how much farther they still had to go.
His phone rested on the ledge before him, and Kaden kept pressing the home button to check for the time and any update on Tessa's arrival. Tessa hadn't given him much detail about what was so urgent she needed to see him for, only that she had to, but Kaden had learned to roll with the punches that were Tessa's spontaneous plans a long time ago. So there he was. Standing. Watching. Waiting.
Kaden took a sharp breath of the late spring air, tinged with the scent of flowers and car exhaust from the city below. Part of him had an inkling on what Tessa needed him for, and that inkling gave him a pang of worry. It was no surprise that war was on the horizon, danger and pain and oblivion, but how long did they have until it wasn't on the horizon, but staring right at them?
A sudden knock at the door would have once startled Kaden, but years of his training allowed him to stay calm and vigilant. Kaden downed the rest of his drink, pocketed his phone, and headed towards his door, mentally preparing himself for who was outside.
But even though he'd seen her a million times in his lifetime, knew her appearance like the back of his hand, witnessed how her turquoise eyes went startlingly electric when she was onto something, he was still caught off guard when he swung open the door.
Still in her work clothes, Tessa was still as resplendent as always. Her long chocolate hair tumbled over shoulder, the ends waves like those she could so easily control. Her hands were stuffed into the pockets of her trench coat, and despite the heels and the dress pants and the professionalism she exuded, Tessa was still the Tessa he knew.
And loved.
"Hey," Kaden greeted, quelling that niggling voice in the back of his head. "What's up?"
"Mind if I come in?" Tessa nodded towards him, slightly breathless. Kaden quirked an eyebrow—had she run here or something?
Kaden stepped aside, swinging the door open more to allow Tessa entry. She swept in like a storm, the clacks of her heels against the hardwood floors the thunder. Upon shutting the door, Kaden whirled around to find Tessa holding up a flash-drive hardly bigger than her pinky finger.
"Someone left this at my desk," Tessa said blankly.
Kaden blinked, almost amused. "You came all this way to ask about a flash-drive?"
Tessa frowned. "It's an important flash-drive. And you didn't let me finish." She gave him a pointed look.
Kaden put his hands up in mock surrender, but started towards his office. "What happened?"
Tessa followed him, walking at his side. Kaden tried to ignore how they walked in sync, the way they were trained to as sparring partners.
"Someone broke into my building, the same someone that Dale and I were keeping an eye on earlier today. I managed to hide in time, and I watched as they planted the flash-drive at my desk."
Kaden led them into his office, sitting down at his desk and typing away at the central of three monitors. He glanced up at Tessa, who had halted awkwardly in front of his desk.
Smirking, Kaden chimed, "You can come around, Tessa. I'm not the principal." He chuckled under his breath.
Despite her frantic mood, Tessa wasn't susceptible to little jabs like that. A smile tugged at her lips, and she circled around to stand next to Kaden.
"So what happened then?" Kaden held his hand out for the flash-drive.
Tessa handed it to him, and he plugged it into the computer. "I thought he saw me, but then he just left."
Kaden arched an eyebrow, but before he could further interrogate Tessa on her encounter, various pop-ups and error screens came up on his monitor. Kaden's focus shifted at that.
"Well," Kaden huffed a breath. "That's annoying."
"Think you can get into it?" Tessa asked. "I tried and I couldn't."
"I can definitely try," Kaden admonished, his fingers already flying over the keyboard. "Are you even sure you want to know what's on here if some random dude gave it to you?"
"Something tells me that if in this cold war we've got going on, I should cover all my bases intelligence-wise," Tessa perched herself on the top of Kaden's desk, and Kaden glanced up at her, staring at the screen, and saw the tension hanging over her.
This war hadn't even started and it was already taking its toll.
Kaden averted his attention to the task at hand, and typed away, trying to break through the encryptions on the flash-drive. He was making progress but whoever had given this to Tessa must have wanted to give them a challenge.
Seated on the desk, Tessa swiped her finger across the monitor closest to her, and Kaden tore his gaze from his own work to watch what she was doing. She pulled up what looked like security footage, and only when Kaden recognized Tessa in the footage itself, did he realize what she was doing.
"Looking for anything you missed?" Kaden asked.
"You know it," Tessa muttered, her eyes glued to the screen. "Besides, I want to see something specific."
Kaden watched as Tessa pulled up two different streams—one of her floor, near her desk; and the other of the foyer just beyond the front doors of her building. On one side, Kaden watched as the Tessa of the video conversed mutely with a tall figure, one that he recognized and sent a flicker of envy through his soul.
"Adam?" Kaden tried to sound neutral, but the slight shrillness to his voice gave him away.
Tessa glanced up at him, shadows making her clear eyes unreadable, before looking back at the screen. "Yes."
"How do we know it wasn't your new boyfriend that gave you this?" Kaden immediately regretted the spite in his words, but tried to keep his face calm.
"First, he's not my boyfriend," Tessa's tone was clipped. "And second, I don't. That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Kaden averted his gaze to the screen, his cheeks flaming at his own misconception, and watched as Adam left the screen on the left, and a few moments later emerged from the office building at the same time as an obscured figure was entering. However, Adam didn't seem to notice a thing.
"That makes no sense," Tessa replayed the footage, but both Adam and this mystery figure walked by each other without acknowledging each other.
Instantly, Tessa was digging out her phone, but Kaden watched as she hesitated, her finger above the phone icon next to Adam's name.
"What's the issue?" Kaden asked.
"I can't just call him and ask if he saw anything," Tessa said, her voice tight. "He...wouldn't understand."
Because he's mortal.
Kaden didn't have to look at Tessa to understand her tension, but he did anyway. He knew that when Tessa had started seeing the boy she worked with—Adam Bennet—she was standing on yet another precipice of her life. He represented half of her world, a half that she could never fully immerse herself into.
In Kaden's opinion, he didn't like Adam and his stupid hair and his stupid funny jokes that Tessa would tell Dale about. But Tessa didn't need to know that. She had no reason to know that, and he had no reason to be jealous. He and Tessa had broken up a long time ago. He'd even been on a few dates with a girl from his work, Elle, who was pretty enough and nice enough—but not Tessa.
"Kaden?"
Kaden blinked, snapping himself out of his envious reverie. He forced a simple smile, looking up to see Tessa watching him skeptically. "Yeah? Sorry, I was spacing."
Tessa didn't seem convinced, but she shrugged it off, nodding to his monitor. "Looks like you got in."
Puzzled, Kaden whipped his head around to face his computer screen, and surprisingly enough, he was in. He'd gotten through the encryptions on the flash-drive.
"Are you absolutely sure you want to—" Kaden began, turning his head to face Tessa, but she cut him off by reaching forward and pressing the 'enter' key on his keyboard.
"That's one way of answering," Kaden said sarcastically, and while the daughter of Poseidon's face at his side was resolute, Kaden caught a glimpse of amusement in Tessa's eyes.
However, that amusement would disappear altogether.
Staticky noise blared from Kaden's speakers, loud enough to startle him. He whirled around in bewilderment, and found himself entranced in the shaky video playing on his screen.
Whoever was filming wasn't doing a very good job. They either didn't want to be filming or were too invested on what they were filming, because the footage was shaky and spotty. But in the center of the screen was a figure, bound and gagged, being beaten bloody by a man in a spotless suit. Kaden couldn't see the abuser's face but when the poor victim rolled over, he felt the wind get knocked out of his lungs like he'd been punched.
"Chase," Kaden breathed, his emerald eyes wide in horror.
Chase Ferguson, in the video, was being beaten within an inch of his life. Bruises were blossoming already on his skin, and he was covered in blood. This was no doubt footage of what had happened to him before getting to Camp Half-Blood. So he'd escaped, but how had he gotten here?
"—This is all your fault—" A voice sounded from the video. Maybe the person beating up Chase?
"No! No, please, don't hurt him!" A feminine voice shrieked, and it tickled a memory in the back of Kaden's mind. He knew that voice.
The video was short, but it kept looping, displaying Chase's agony over and over and over again.
"Enough," Tessa's voice was gravelly. "Stop it. Please."
Kaden froze the video.
"Who is that?" Kaden asked, his heart pounding. "That girl, the one that's screaming."
"I don't know," Tessa managed. "But was it just me, or did she sound familiar?"
"That's why I'm asking," Kaden quickly typed a command into the video, and it zoomed into a figure in one of the video frames, obscured partly by shadows. Kaden got to work at doctoring the image, and when he finished, he found himself staring at the face of Kiara Fairwolf.
"That makes no sense," Kaden rebuffed himself. "Kiara's dead."
Tessa shook her head, leaning in closer to stare at the image. "This would have been three months ago, when she was still alive. For all we know, this could've been why she disappeared so often."
For all the death that Kaden had witnessed and wreaked in his lifetime, he knew not to tamper with the fragile line between life and death. Even when some of his friends had turned out to be alive against all odds, he still knew not to get his hopes up. Some secrets and memories stayed buried even in life, but in death?
And as Tessa left the room, making a phone-call to Eli Allistairs, the last one to see Kiara alive, Kaden stared at Kiara's distraught image on his screen. He memorized her face, the expression of her agony, and thought about just what secrets and terrible things this mysterious girl took with her to her grave, whether she wanted to or not.
~~
A few hours later, as Kaden hammered away at a punching bag, he couldn't let go of his questions. It was so early in the morning, he should have been sleeping, but shortly after Tessa left in a blaze of determination, he made his way down to his building's fitness center. It was clear of people, which was just how Kaden liked it, but not of the ghosts haunting his mind.
What wasn't Eli telling them about their mission? Kaden punched the bag.
Was Kiara really dead? A kick.
What's so great about this Adam guy anyway? A punch combo, rattling the bag on its chain.
Kaden halted, breathing heavily. The more he speculated his questions, the farther his answers evaded him.
Taking a swig from his water bottle, Kaden lunged for his phone, resting on a nearby bench. He was ready to call Eli and demand an explanation, but froze at seeing a message on his phone.
Unknown Number: Parking garage. 16th Street. Be there by 1:30.
Kaden narrowed his eyes at the message, unsure if it was serious or not. He quickly rattled back a reply: who the hell is this??
Instantaneously, there was a response.
You know who it is, Kade. What's it take to see an old friend? I'll be waiting, Invictus.
Kaden's heart sank to his stomach, turning to stone. His vision darted to the time on his phone: 1:14.
The son of Venus cursed and shoved his phone in his pocket, pulling on his shirt and sprinting for the door. On his finger, his father's ring felt heavy with the impending promise of being turned into Kaden's golden sword.
As soon as the elevator spat him out into the lobby, Kaden stalked out the door, his face as if it had been cut from stone. Only one person called him that, only one person knew about that nickname.
Only one person had given it to him.
So as Kaden stalked towards 16th street with hell on his heels, he didn't wonder what it would be like to see Vinny Maxwell for the first time in weeks. He didn't wonder what it would be like to hear the rest of his lies.
Instead, Kaden wondered what it would be like to see Vinny bleed.
~~
The parking garage was empty, which Kaden assumed Vinny had planned. Save the smiling faces of torn, old campaign posters for Rainier and other councilmen, Kaden was entirely alone. Scantily lit in the middle of the night, it was the setting to just about every horror movie or thriller flick that he'd seen. Only the monster waiting in the shadows wasn't a beast, wasn't a ghost, but a traitor. A murderer.
Kaden balled his fists in the pockets of his coat, trying to keep his anger in check. Vinny could easily get the jump on him if he let himself get distracted, let himself get angry. No. This would end.
"I have to applaud you for being punctual." Vinny's sarcastic voice echoed through the parking garage, and Kaden felt a lick of darkness touch his heart, the way it did when the General reigned. His dark side was itching, waiting to come out.
"But then again," Vinny emerged from a booth in the garage, looking as smug and sure of himself as ever. "Did I expect otherwise from you?"
"That depends," The spite rolled off of Kaden's tongue. "Were you expecting something other than a fight?"
Vinny quirked a brow, bristling. "I'm not here to fight. I'm here to give you a message."
"What message?" Kaden fired back, his voice reverberating off the cement walls.
Vinny watched him for a moment, as if gauging whether or not it was worth it to attack. Then he readjusted his posture with a deep inhale. "Your war begins in two weeks, whether you're ready or not."
Kaden felt like he'd been hit between the eyes. "What?"
"We'll be courteous enough to give you a grace period," Vinny smiled sarcastically. "But once those two weeks are over, you'll see just what you all started."
"I think you're talking about yourself there," Kaden chided. "Last time I checked, I wasn't a traitorous coward."
Vinny narrowed his eyes at Kaden. "Cowardice isn't something I'm familiar with."
"Then why is it always in your eyes?" Kaden speculated, a voice like steel. "Stand down, Vinny. Tell us where Menoetious is."
"Nice try, but your charmspeak won't get you anywhere," Vinny leant against the wall.
"That wasn't charmspeak," Kaden huffed a laugh. "If it was, you'd be running yourself through with the weapon I know you've concealed by now."
"Always so sure of yourself."
"Something I'm sure you can't relate to."
"Enough of this," Vinny snapped up into an upright position. "You've got two weeks to prepare, Gray."
"Then what?" Kaden asked, partly to taunt Vinny, and partly to gather his own intel.
Vinny turned, slinking back into the booth he'd emerged from. A smirk laced his lips, the same sort of smile that a cat would wear while playing with its pray.
"Then the sky falls."