Page 30 of Scion of Chaos

“Welcome to Tartarus, Nemea,” I say.

“The way you talked, I thought it would be a rougher ride.” She peers up at me with a smirk.

“I guess you were meant to be here,” I say before I can think.

She blinks, then steps away and gazes around, turning slowly as she takes in the landscape. I look too, seeing my own heart through new eyes, and for the first time in my life, I have doubts about its appearance.

I am a prison, not a resort, so my interiorshouldn’tlook comfortable. But I wantherto be comfortable so she’s not inclined to leave.

But what I see isn’t disappointment. Her eyes are wide, her mouth open in astonishment.

The bridge we stand on is at one of the highest points in the center of the prison, leading away from the doors to extend several hundred yards in a straight shot to the outer arc of bridges circumscribing the place in a descending double-helix spiral. Other bridges join the outer spirals with the central tower we’re currently standing at the top of, making it look suspended in a vast web of dark stone and glass. Spires of stacked cells rise along the outer edges of the circles, and the very bottom is a honeycomb of deep pits where the worst of our inmates are imprisoned.

My heart pounds as I wait for her to speak. All the others lurk at the back of my mind with bated breath. At least they obeyed me and didn’t show up in person to greet her.

“Wow. It’s more spectacular than I even imagined.”

My eyebrows lift. “You imagined the prison?”

She turns back to me and nods, then flips open her bag and pulls out a large pad of paper. As she pages through, I catch glimpses of sketches of each of my guards. Then she finally lands on an architectural drawing and holds it up for me to view.

“I got pretty close, didn’t I? Though I think this helped.” She looks down and plunges her hand back into her satchel, pulling out a glass globe this time. My stomach drops when I see a tiny replica of the prison rendered in perfect detail within.

“Where did you get this?”

“Globes like this grow on a tree at the school. I accidentally broke a bunch of them the other day, but this one didn’t break. I think I was meant to find it.”

I reach for it, and she lets me take it from her. My pulse quickens as I study it, thinking at first that it’s just a very detailed diorama of Tartarus. But when I rotate it in my palm, I forget to breathe, because standing on the uppermost bridge in front of the doors are two tiny figures: a beautiful dark-haired woman and a man in a black trench coat.

Us.

Tense anger grips me through a wave of dizziness. There are too many security risks all rolled into one in this woman. I manifest a vortex from my hand, sucking the globe into a safe secret chamber deep within the bowels of the prison. If an object this powerful manifested in her world for her to find, that means she’s probably capable of creating more of them.

“Hey! What the fuck? Why didn’t you just give it back to me?”

“Because it’s too dangerous for you to keep.”

“Why? What is it?”

“A portal. This place is the most difficult prison in the universe to escape from or to get into. But that globe would offer a way in to anyone who held it. I stored it somewhere safe, but if it ever left this place, it would compromise security here.” As would Nemea herself.

“Didn’t youjusthave a jailbreak? Doesn’t sound all that secure if someone got out.”

I grit my teeth. “That was the only breach that has ever occurred. A perfect storm of circumstances led to it, including you and your littleritual.” I grab her by the arm, second-guessing my plans for her while she’s here. There may not be any inmates as powerful as the Titans, but there are thousands that are more terrifying, and enough forces with ill intent on the outside that would love a way in to liberate a few of them. Her power is still growing, and I have no idea how much damage she could do if given free rein of the place. And after this discovery, she absolutely cannot be allowed to leave.

She stumbles along with an indignant protest as I lead her to one rail of the bridge a few yards down. A black iron gate opens onto a staircase attached to the side of the tower descending around the outside.

“What the hell are you doing? I came with you willingly! You promised you’d help me regain my lost memories—help me understand my powers. You promised you wouldprotectme!”

“Maybe I changed my mind,” I snap. I’m tempted to banish her to a cell right now. Safer for everyone if she’s locked away. Fewer opportunities for distraction, especially when we need to focus on finding the Titans.

We reach the next floor, which holds my own quarters. I push her through the wide archway that leads to a circular outer corridor, then an inner arch that opens into the main chamber. I propel her toward the bed in the very center of the room. I can add a proper door to the outer entry and lock her in here until I decide what to do with her long-term.

Before we reach the bed, she digs her heels in and swings around to face me, smacking both palms against my chest as hard as she can. “Vesh, no! Don’t fucking push me around! I came when you asked. I’m here. I’ll do whatever the fuck you want, if you just honor our goddamn agreement! Return my memories, okay? Help me learn my powers and I’ll doanything!”

She emphasizes her words with hard, repetitive smacks against my chest, each one making me blink in shock. Ithurts. Not once in my life have I been in a fight with a human where they were able to cause me pain. Usually I’m able to subdue them quite handily before they even get any blows in, but even when one has been lucky enough to land a blow, they’ve felt like little more than a tickle. But not only is she bruising me with every smack, the tower itself shudders with each blow.

I finally come to my senses and grab her wrists with both hands. “Stop it.”

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