Page 58 of Aleko
Lia felt the pottery jar rip from her hands and she looked down at her fingers that were only human shaped.
“What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Seth.
“Trevor!” Pellos was yelling and Lia stumbled against the computer desk, scattering pages of her translation everywhere. She heard the slam of the French doors.
“Get back here! Give me that!”
“Do not let him have it!” yelled Brynn.
The wind was howling.
“Sofia!” sobbed Lia. She couldn’t stop crying and someone slapped her again.
“Stop it, whore! Stop it!”
“Luca!” bellowed Pellos and the hands came off her.
Gunfire and rain showered down. Seth was going to open the jar. They were going to lose. They were all going to lose. Sofia looked at him.
“I love you,” she said and pressed her palm to the center symbol as Seth opened the jar.
Lia sobbed as she looked down at her hands—they werecovered in Sofia’s blood.
“What did you do?” demanded Luca, shaking her. He fumbled at her hands. She was holding a gun. “What did you do?”
“Sofia,” gasped Lia.
Lia looked down. Pellos was on the ground, blood pooling around him, just like Sofia.
“You shot Pellos!” yelled Luca.
No. He wasn’t Luca. He was Seth. His skin and hair… It was all an illusion. He was Seth.
Lia raised the gun, and Seth stumbled backward, his hands up. Then something hit her hard and fast, and the world slid sideways and went dark.
Episode 31
Triage
Alex
Alex waited for the gates of the estate to open and then tried to park while laughing at Sebastian.
“I’m serious!” protested Sebastian, despite the monument of evidence to the contrary. “Hot air ballooning—it could be the future of travel. We could start our own business. We could do freight that way too.”
Alex pulled into the driveway and stopped. The sky said it was going to rain, but he wanted to run over to the warehouse after he talked to Lia. There was no point in pulling all the way into the garage.
“We’ll make Killian run the travel portion. And Pellos could run the shipping. We’ll have to invent large size balloons for the weight.”
“Blimps, you idiot! They’re called blimps and they have already been invented.”
“I don’t know why you thumbs down all my best ideas,” said Sebastian in mock offense.
“I don’t,” said Alex, snagging the envelope out of the back. “In fact, I took your advice this morning.”
“What advice?” asked Sebastian, looking at the envelope.
“You said I should see about helping Lia with her passport. You said it would help her feel like we were supporting her.”
