Omega by Lizzy Ford Page B

pain.
    “ Your nose is bleeding,”
Lantos said.
    I touched my nostril and
gazed briefly at the drop of maroon on my fingertip. The pain
subsided and with it, the vision. “Just sinuses.” Why did I say that? It
wasn’t sinuses, and I knew it. The urge to lie to the man to whom I
owed my life had been instinctive.
    Alessandra, Mrs. Nettles said once more.
    Lantos was gazing at me closely, a flicker
of something dark in his gaze. Normally, Lantos was the moon and me
the night sky. His outgoing, optimistic personality sometimes
grated on others whereas my silence was usually taken with caution
if not fear. People were able to sense the predator I was without
seeing me in my secondary form. It helped that my reputation – well
earned – was nonetheless much larger than my deeds.
    I cleaned up my nose and felt the trickle of
fire that went through me every time I was about to change. “How go
your Holy Wars?”
    “ Exactly as planned. We’re
keeping the Magistrate’s men busy outside the wall and the gods in
disarray, fighting one another rather than us. I brokered another
truce today.”
    “ Only you could do
something like this.”
    “ Stop baiting me. It was
your idea. Divide and conquer.”
    By nature, I tended to toy with the people
around me. It wasn’t malicious, more instinctual. I made every
effort not to do so around Lantos for the simple reason that he was
my friend.
    “ Like a true war leader.
How do you come up with such ideas?” he asked, half in
jest.
    I shrugged. “It made sense for the
situation.”
    “ It’s tied to your past.
Your hunches are too … good for them to be just
hunches.”
    “ And I told you I’m not
remembering anything yet. If I guess correctly, it’s not done
consciously.”
    “ Any insight or hunches as
to what Artemis is up to?” Lantos asked casually.
    Of all the gods stuck on earth, Artemis was
the only who hadn’t sought him out to help establish a territory or
broker deals with the Supreme Magistrate’s men. It was common
knowledge among the gods and goddesses that Lantos was one of them.
Crisis kept them from demanding his exact lineage or asking too
many questions that might reveal him to be the son of their enemy.
“None. The gods are your business, not mine.”
    “ You’ve proven
frighteningly accurate in everything.”
    “ If I knew, I’d tell you,”
I replied. “I hear nothing through the spy networks and no
indication your fellow Triumvirate members have any insight
either.”
    Lantos nodded.
    “ I’m about to change,” I
said and pushed off my boots. “See you in the morning.”
    “ Fly well.” Lantos’ smile
returned. He replaced his mask, bowed to Mrs. Nettles and left my
flat.
    I went to my room and stripped out of my
clothing before heading to the balcony.
    Mismatch. Mrs. Nettles never called me by the name Adonis,
which I’d adopted after Lantos saved me. Mismatch was the name she
claimed was mine before Lantos. She was shuffling after me as fast
as her stubby legs would go.
    “ What is it, Mrs.
Nettles?” I asked. “Quickly. It’s my time.”
    Don’t hurt her.
    “ You know what Phase Two
is. I must obey Lantos,” I replied gently.
    You will see.
    This was definitely one of her double
possession stages when she seemed to have knowledge beyond her or
my ability to access.
    My attention shifted to the fire growing
inside me. The moment the sun dipped beneath the horizon, my body
began its nightly transformation. Black wings sprouted and spread
from my shoulders outward. The hair on my body disappeared, and my
head grew heavy, my features malformed and hideous, my body
thickening and growing half a foot taller. Talons sprouted from my
hands and toes followed soon after by a barbed, whip-like tail.
    Not even Lantos knew how and why this
transformation occurred. I resembled the stone grotesques and
gargoyles perched on the temples of the gods. Beneath the dark gaze
of Nyx, I often flew and sat among them, waiting for any of them