Underland(63)

He glanced down at Den’s band. “Oh, too bad. You wagered poorly on her and lost. We can help you with that and take her off your hands,” Hermes stated.

Den looked uneasy, sweat dripping of off his brow. “Uh no, I’d like to keep her. For my zeke, you see?” He swiped his hand outward and turned to see that he was in the room alone.

“I don’t see any zeke.” Ares’s voice boomed with authority. “You know the penalty for bringing a human down here. It’s obvious she didn’t come from a human farm in the borderlands.”

“I didn’t bring her here.”

“That’s not what Nessie said,” Hermes laughed. “She reported that you and two others brought her here in the canals. See, we hate being lied to.”

“He’s not lying,” Kira spoke up. “Alpo and Vic took me from my home, and Remus bought me at the Gamblers’ Market. Den saved me from being fed to a zeke.”

Ares’s eyes turned so dark in color that it was hard to distinguish where the pupil and iris ended. “Did he really? Or did you save yourself? Think about what you just said.”

Kira paused and tried to rethink everything that had happened. Yes, she was the one who saved herself from Creeper. Was Ares a human lie detector? It sure sounded like he could hear the half-truths.

What was she supposed to do when the makers of the games themselves were confronting her? Maybe the safest action was to stay quiet. Besides, they seemed to know everything about her, even when she lied.

“We’ve decided to relieve you of your human companion.” Hermes smiled and waved his finger in the direction of Den’s arm band. Kira could hear the sound of tokens loading as it filled. She watched as a smile played at the corner of his mouth. It must have been a large sum, because he wouldn’t look at her. “Now that should buy your silence.”

“I’m free,” Kira stated proudly. “I don’t belong to him.”

“Nonsense. You have a bracer. You belong to Underland and therefore…us.”

“NOOooo!” A loud, anguished cry came from somewhere in the rafters. It sounded like Zeke.

“Oh ho! Is that who I think it is?” Hermes scanned the darkness above in excitement.

“I think it is,” Ares confirmed. He turned to Den, his face void of any emotion. “So he’s your zeke,” he said the word with emphasis.

Den’s face turned red, but he wouldn’t look away. He neither denied nor confirmed it. And that was enough for Ares.

“You tell him we’re taking the girl for insurance, and he needs to stop his foolish plan—both of you.” Ares called toward the roof. “You hear that?”

Den nodded and faded back into the crowd, abandoning her.

Kira stared into the darkened balcony where the Hermes and Ares had watched the match and thought she saw movement, but the lights kept her from being sure. Zeke was up there. Suddenly, a spotlight came loose from the ceiling and plummeted down toward Hermes.

Hermes snapped his fingers and disappeared as the spotlight crashed into the ground and shattered. He appeared next to it and wrinkled his nose in disdain. “Oh really, now who’s going to clean up this mess?”

“If you want the human, you know what you have to do,” Ares said, his voice echoing in the near empty warehouse.

“Never!” Zeke’s voice carried.

“Then you shall never see her again,” Ares threatened.

Another spotlight came hurtling down toward them. “Very well.” Ares clutched Kira to him. A black cloud of smoke wrapped around both her and the Greek god and they disappeared, just as the spotlight crashed into the floor.





Chapter 30

Kira woke up in a room surrounded by flickering candlelight and soft, downy pillows. The first thing she noticed was how pristine everything was in this round room. In a way, it felt like she was back inside the silo, except it was cleaner, smelled better.

Kira sat up in the pile of pillows and noticed she was wearing a dress of blue. A braid hung over her shoulder—they’d washed her hair! She touched her braid. Oh. Even her nails had been trimmed and polished.

While bits of it were a nice change, Kira found it disorienting to be so feminine. She felt like a part of her armor had disappeared with her boots and knife.

And the brace on her wrist.

“Where am I?” She didn’t expect an answer as she looked around the glowing white room.

“Olympus Tower,” a feminine voice responded behind her. Kira turned and saw a beautiful woman sitting on a chaise lounge, her hair long and auburn red, her dress a deep emerald green.

“Who are you?” Kira asked.

“Names no longer matter to me.” She looked down at her hands, gently clasped in her lap.

“Of course names matter. Are you saying you don’t have one?”

“I don’t know. At least I cannot recall. You could give me one.” She actually looked hopeful.

Kira stared at the solemn woman and could feel her pain, evident across the room. Why would this beautiful woman be denied her own name? She tried to think of a reason and it finally came to her. “You’re being punished for something, aren’t you? Zeke said the gods and goddesses lost some of their power because they were forgotten. Is that what happened? Did you forget who you are, or did Underland forget you?”