Page 42 of Souls of Steel
There was something in his words that bothered me, but I couldn’t force myself to address it. We already had so many secrets hanging between us. For good or ill, Brendan was trying to protect me. Was he trying to protect Penelope too by rejecting her? Had she been in my shoes once, sharing her body with them, only to be rejected?
“Anyway, don’t worry about it, Selene,” August said, snapping me out of my musings. “Right now, you need to focus on the tournament. We’ll deal with Lady Welton and everything else later. Okay?”
I forced myself to nod, hating the doubt that had wormed its way into my heart. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t Penelope Welton. I’d find a way to crack the ice around Brendan’s heart. I’d make them all see that we had something precious and important.
But if I couldn’t do that, if, in the end, they turned me away, I’d never abandon my dignity and beg. First and foremost, I was a chimera tamer. I’d come here prepared for anything. If my future held heartbreak, I’d accept it and move on.
* * *
Brendan
What a mess. I walked through the corridors of the stadium, silently fuming and cursing myself for my stupidity.
I should’ve known my father would interpret my relationship with Selene as a sudden willingness to open myself more toward the female gender. In the past, he’d seemed inclined to believe I was a homosexual, and I hadn’t bothered to explain that wasn’t true. It stood to reason that he’d use this chance to try to shove Penelope at me again.
And now, here we were, before an event that could jeopardize our future, and we were completely off our game. Penelope shouldn’t have made much difference, but she had.
Knox was restless and irritated, and that alone could be a problem. I needed him to remain calm if we were to have any luck in helping Selene today. But I couldn’t blame him for his reaction either, since Penelope was a huge part of the reason why he had so many problems with his family.
And of course, there was Selene herself. She’d faced Penelope’s venom with no hesitation, but Penelope’s words had still hurt. That first moment when Penelope had declared herself my fiancée had been a bad blow. Selene had fallen silent now, and despite all my reassurances, I couldn’t help but think that she didn’t really believe me.
I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter, since our relationship was never meant to last. But over the past week, it had become obvious to me that I was only lying to myself.
“You need to make a real decision, my hatchling,”Typhon hissed in my head.“You might want to protect her, but if you choose the wrong path today, it could blow up in your face.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Typhon?”I snapped back. “But if I follow my heart and keep her by my side, I’ll be putting her at risk. Penelope’s presence proves that.”
“Does it? When did you start fearing your father, Brendan? You never have, in the past. You spat in the face of his threats. It’s not like he’s not dangerous for your other broodmates.”
Yes, but Knox had dug his heels in and had refused to leave my side. And when August and Pollux had shown up, it had been so natural to include them in our relationship. They’d told me they were willing to face my father’s wrath for my sake, and I’d believed them. After all, it wasn’t that easy to find Grand Chimera pilots, so my father couldn’t just remove them. I hadn’t cared that much about tradition. Plenty of families preferred to conceive in laboratories these days anyway, since pregnancies were far too tough on the bodies of our women. I could just put in a request for the eggs of a good woman and that would be that.
But Selene’s appearance changed the whole equation. For the first time, I could see myself sharing a future with a woman. But I still wanted to protect her. She was so much frailer than my other lovers and already the target of a lot of hatred, just because she was Terran. If she stayed… No, I couldn’t put her through that.
“Including her in my mess would be too selfish. We have to get her through this tournament and then make sure she returns to Terra. That’s all.”
Typhon didn’t answer, but I could feel his disapproval through our bond. It was just as well that we didn’t have more time at our disposal to discuss my predicament.
My lovers and I emerged from the depths of the stadium, into the open center of the structure. At one point, the spectators had been allowed inside, and cheers exploded around us when the people saw us appear. Every group came through different gates and we all stopped on individual platforms that floated up once every person had climbed on.
This allowed the viewers to see us better, but it also gave us a better look at our rivals. Selene tensed when she spotted the groups of professional soldiers right in front of us. Clad in the blue and red uniform of The Oceanus Attack Corps, with their eyes shielded by visors, they looked almost as intimidating as our chimeras. Almost, but not quite.
I brushed my fingers over her arm, knowing she needed the reassurance, but also aware I couldn’t provide it too overtly. The brief touch worked and Selene relaxed. Tachyons crackled between us, taunting me with the rightness of the connection between me and Selene. How could I question this, how could I consider sending her away, when the simplest contact with her felt as powerful as the link between me and Typhon?
I shook myself, pushing all my doubts and questions to the back of my mind. Now was not the time to dwell on my complicated romantic life. We had the qualifiers to get through first. That was our priority—to make sure Selene didn’t end up in trouble because of the bet she’d made.
The platforms floated and shifted mid-air, turning upside down. My stomach lurched but I quickly recovered, accustomed to the weirdness after years of piloting the Typhon. It was only something the organizers did for show anyway. The magnetic floor and the tachyon shields kept us from falling, so we were perfectly safe. It would stop in a few seconds.
It didn’t. The platform continued to spin around like a crazed thing, making sharp turns and sudden swirls. Selene began to look alarmingly green, but to her credit, she didn’t move from her spot, nor did she show any other sign of distress.
I clenched my fists in fury, realizing that whoever had arranged the display was doing this on purpose. Out of everyone here, Selene was the most vulnerable to shifts in gravity. Even if she was a chimera tamer, she was new at it and as a Terran, she’d lived in a very stable environment before. She’d had some anti-gravitational training, but she wasn’t prepared for this sort of thing.
So this was how they were going to play it. Fine. If they wanted to push us, we’d push back.
August must’ve agreed with me, because he pressed his foot down a little harder. The minor indent he created in the floor wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but it made all the difference in the world. The platform steadied and slowly stopped, now floating above the ground in a stationary position.
Out of all of us, August was the most proficient at tachyon absorption and manipulation. While Knox was the most destructive, August was subtler with his talents. In the Charybdis, he could create miniature black holes. By himself, he could absorb and control most technology we used.
It was a talent he didn’t display a lot, but this time, it couldn’t be helped. If Selene was incapacitated by something as simple as gravitational backlash, there was no way she could pass the qualifiers, no matter what we did.
