Page 62 of Souls of Steel
“Yes,” Brendan answered with a tired nod. “I pointed out experienced tamers couldn’t make such serious mistakes. We can’t even fall asleep when we’re inside a chimera. And we know he was fine before the incident.”
“And that worked? That convinced them?”
“Not really. Or it wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t shown them the records from the Typhon and the Scylla. All the damage we received in the battle with the other competitors is helping us now.”
I still couldn’t understand what had caused them to act in such a way. Even if Commander Trevor had said the use of violence was acceptable, our chimeras were much too valuable to blindly destroy in a tournament. “I hope those idiots are punished for what they’ve done.” Scylla might have survived, but she’d lost several limbs and that was unacceptable.
“I hope so too, but who knows? In the meantime, my father is chalking up the Charybdis situation to a magnetic anomaly, or perhaps something connected to the solar explosions. The Grand Judiciary might want to do more research, to keep things like this from ever happening again.”
I grimaced in distaste, knowing how much Scylla hated her ‘improvements’. It reminded her of the unwanted body modifications she’d received when she’d been still alive. But maybe this time, it was for the best. The Charybdis had gone dormant for a reason, and we needed to find out why.
Brendan pressed his hand to the glass, and his shoulders slumped as he watched August’s slack face. “You know, I feel like I should apologize. I dragged you all into my mess and now you’re suffering because of me.”
“This is hardly your fault, Brendan. I doubt your father could’ve affected Charybdis’s engines, even if he had tried.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But I don’t believe in coincidences and everything that’s been going on is a little too much for me to accept.”
I walked up to him and squeezed his shoulder. “Even if that’s true, we made our own choices. We wanted to support you. Besides, it’s not like our goals didn’t coincide.” If anything, he’d given us purpose at a time when all we’d been able to think about was vengeance. Without him, August and I might have already done something stupid that would’ve gotten us killed.
“I suppose,” Brendan offered. “In any case, I’ve made arrangements for us to return to Tartarus Base. I have my father’s permission to send extra shuttles after the Charybdis if Knox and Selene fail to find her. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary.”
“I don’t think it will be,” August suddenly said. “I’d hate to owe one of those stupid Harpy tamers a favor.”
The words came out of nowhere. Brendan and I turned toward the healing pod and met August’s eyes. He shot us a small, pained smile and tried to lift his hand. The medical bands kept him from moving and harming himself. “Oops. It seems I’m trapped.”
At that, I finally snapped out of my stupor. “A-August!” I stammered. “Thank Tartarus… How do you feel?”
It was a stupid question, since I could read the displays and see him with my own eyes. But I needed to say something, anything that would convince me this wasn’t a dream. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve been better, but at least I’m not dying.” He let out a low chuckle. “I had a dream about Selene, which is always a plus.”
“I can’t argue with that,” I answered, still dazed. “I hope it was a nice dream.”
“It was. We were on Mercury, and we were kissing. She was with Knox and they’d just found Charybdis. They’ll bring my chimera back, I just know it.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that was unlikely. August was still sick, and Charybdis’s loss had been almost as bad as the physical damage he’d received. If he wanted to think she’d be all right, I’d let him. Brendan seemed to agree, because he said, “If there’s anyone who can do it, it’s them.”
After that, medics and nurses streamed in, alerted to the change in August’s status. Several of them seemed befuddled, but in every other way, they acted professionally. We were ushered outside to wait and we obeyed, feeling a little more hopeful.
There were other people in the medical wing and some of them shot us ugly looks. We’d done a fair amount of damage in the tournament before the chimeras had started acting up. As far as I knew, nobody had died, but the wounded and their families didn’t like us much.
I didn’t care about their opinion. If they had a problem with the way the competition had gone, they could take it up with The Grand Judiciary. The whole thing had been their fault, after all. Besides, we’d been attacked too, with far more viciousness that we’d employed.
Left with nothing to do, Brendan pulled out his tablet and started scrolling through his work files. I leaned against him and let myself drift, memories and hopes mingling inside me, creating a labyrinth that rivaled the one we’d explored in the tournament.
I couldn’t see a clear way out, but I did know one thing. We couldn’t go through with Brendan’s original plan. It had made sense at the time, but at this point, it was obvious that Selene belonged with us. And I’d already lost enough, damn it. I wasn’t willing to lose more.
“That’s the spirit,”Scylla told me.“It’ll be much easier for you to carry this burden if you’re together.”
“I just hope Selene will agree. We made a mess out of that one.”
“She will. She understands her priorities too. You’ll have your brood all set up soon, Pollux. I promise you that. And you know I always keep my promises. You’ll find that Selene and I are similar in that regard.”
She was right. A little while later, Selene and Knox returned, bringing news that they’d found Charybdis. “She’s out of commission, but we hope it’s a temporary state,” Knox said. “What about August? How is he doing?”
“He woke up again earlier. I think he’s on the mend.”
Selene shot me a wide, almost blinding smile. “Really? That’s great news.”
