Fate Undone (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 5) (30 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The halls of the Praesidium were silent this early in the morning. The hair on Sylvi’s arms pricked to attention as she and Logan walked down the wide hall toward Warren’s office. It had been nearly a week since she’d been back in the building where she worked when she wasn’t out on assignment for the Praesidium and so much had changed.

They moved silently down the hall. Their biggest risk was alerting the Ancient One to their presence. Since he was tied to the labyrinth somehow, it was likely he would know when she started to destroy it. Whoever he was, his powers were clearly great. Would they be able to defeat him?

She had no idea. She shook away the concern so that she could focus on the task ahead. They reached the end of the hall and she knocked lightly on the closed wooden door of Warren’s office.

“Come in.” Warren’s voice drifted through the door and she pushed it open.

Logan waited for her to precede him in. She walked through into the book-crowded space. Shelves bowing under the weight of books and weapons lined the walls. Their five allies were within, sitting in various chairs or leaning against Warren’s desk. It would have been a cozy place if not for the expressions on their faces.

Everyone looked like they were expecting a hell of a fight from the Ancient One. Mouths were firm and eyes were hard. Even the familiars were sitting at attention.

“Looks like you’re all ready,” she said.
 

“Aye,” Warren said. “I’ve checked the prison records and identified the prisoner with the best behavior. Alan Murphy. You’ll take his image and hopefully the guards won’t be as wary around you as they would be with some of the more violent prisoners. Better yet, his cell is off the main hall, so it should be quick to enter.”

“Excellent,” Sylvi said.

“Why don’t you let Ian tell you about work detail,” Warren said.

Logan could have told her what to expect since he’d spent several months there, but they’d decided that since Ian had been there for nearly a century, he’d know all the ins and outs.
 

Ian stepped forward, his dark eyes grim. He relayed the details of the daily schedule and the personalities of the guards and overseers who would transport her to Moloch and then monitor her activity building the prison.
 

“When you’re there, it will look like the labyrinth isn’t near finished,” Logan added. “It’s a spell, or the inherent nature of the labyrinth, but ignore it.”

“I can do that.” She wasn’t worried about most of what faced them. It was the appearance of the Ancient One when the labyrinth was destroyed that she was worried about. He would be enraged, and if she believed the Architect’s knowledge—which she did—he was immensely powerful. He would be their final opponent, one to whom she was afraid she would lose. But at least the labyrinth would be destroyed.

“If you’re ready, we should head down to the prison.” Warren said. He glanced at his watch. “The guards are returning from delivering breakfast to the cells. Here’s the key to Murphy’s cell. It’s the second on the right off the main hall.”

“We’ll be one minute behind,” Logan said.

Warren left the room. His job was to go down the stairs into the prison and if he found any lingering guards, to distract them with complaints that would require them to take him to the main office.
 

Logan, Sylvi, and Ian followed a minute behind. Right before they reached the main door and stairs down to the prison, Ian used his Sylph powers to become invisible.
 

It was handy to have a half-blood air spirit with them. If Aurora, Vivienne, or Esha could have become invisible, they’d have come as backup too. As it was, they decided to keep their visible numbers low. It wasn’t in the prison that they would encounter their worst dangers, anyway.

When they reached the wide metal door that barred the prison from the main floor of the Praesidium, Sylvi used the key that Warren had given her.
 

They moved silently and quickly down the wooden stairs to the stone hallway below. It was empty. Within moments, they were opening the door to Murphy’s cell. Though she couldn’t see him, she knew Ian went in first. As planned, Murphy didn’t yell because he was too perplexed by the door opening and no one entering.
 

The thud of a body hitting the ground a moment later was her cue. She slipped in with Logan, who closed the door. Ian shed his invisibility once the door was shut. He was crouched on the floor next to the prisoner, quickly gagging him.

Ian pushed the unconscious man under the narrow iron bed as they’d planned. It wasn’t the best hiding place, but it was better than nothing.
 

“Ready?” Logan asked. His gaze was worried as he looked at her. It was nothing new. She’d felt its weight all morning, though she could do nothing about it. What they were doing was dangerous. It really was a shady spell. If she’d stayed in Asgard, no doubt she’d have learned how to utilize it safely. As it was, this was the best she could come up with on her own.

“Yes,” she said. She broke eye contact and went to kneel by the bed. She withdrew her staff from the aether and gripped it with one hand while laying the palm of the other on the man’s chest.
 

She closed her eyes and focused on the power within the aether. She drew it into herself, focusing on the prisoner beneath the bed and the spell that would trade their images. Finally, a frisson of power streaked across her skin.
 

When she opened her eyes, she saw herself lying on the ground. The hand she’d placed on the prisoner’s shoulder was now broad and masculine. It sent a shiver of unease through her.

“Done,” she said as she stood, startling at the deep voice that came from her throat.

Logan’s gaze was riveted under the bed.
 

“The guard will be here in one minute to take you for transport to Moloch,” Ian said.

Logan’s gaze broke from the prisoner and met hers. If he found it weird to be looking at her new, masculine form, he gave no indication.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he said.

She believed him. All she had to do was deploy the device and get back here to trade bodies. Then fight one of the most powerful figures in their world.
 

No big deal.

“Almost time,” Ian said in a low voice.

Sylvi gave Logan one last, long look, then took up position near the door. She slipped the heart of the Architect into the pocket of the prisoner’s baggy trousers. Ian became invisible and Logan stepped to the space that would be hidden by the door when it opened.
 

Seconds later, the metal door swung open. Sylvi’s heart pounded.

“Time.” The guard’s voice was gruff and moderately bored.

Good. Sylvi walked toward the burly guard and tried not to flinch when he gripped her arm. He marched her down the hall to a holding cell full of other prisoners. They were a strange lot, varyingly deadly looking or innocuous.
 

She tried to stifle her nerves, realizing that she didn’t understand any of the social structure or hierarchy. What if she stood next to the wrong man or looked at someone oddly and they knew she was an impostor? She had all of Ian’s information, but it was so hard to remember.

She didn’t have long to worry. Guards in different uniforms marched into the room. They must be the overseers who managed operations building the prison. These were the guys who worked directly for the Ancient One. Tension thrummed beneath her skin.

The prisoners formed an orderly line against the wall. She shifted backward until her back pressed against the stone, praying she wasn’t in the wrong order.

“What the hell, Murphy?”
 

That was her, she remembered. Shit. Her gaze flew to the only regular prison guard in the room. She recognized him from seeing him go to and from work at the prison.
 

“Get in your spot.” He gestured to a blank space on the wall across from her.

“Uh, sorry,” she mumbled. “Headache.”
 

She tried her best to adopt a masculine gait as she moved to the proper place. The man next to her scowled at her. She was so ill equipped to pretend to be a man.
 

The guard she recognized took up position in the middle of the room while the overseers each took the arm of one prisoner standing at the front of the line. They disappeared through the portal.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief. They were going to Moloch. She was almost there. The line went quickly from that point, with four of the five overseers returning to transport more prisoners. One had stayed behind to guard those who had been transported, just like Ian had said.

Sylvi held her breath when an overseer finally took her arm. He had dark, beady eyes and it wasn’t hard to see that this one would be firmly in the pocket of the Ancient One.
 

Within seconds, she stood on the desolate sands of the desert afterworld of Moloch. Hellwinds blistered her skin and the sun burned her eyes. When her vision finally adjusted, she squinted against the grains of sand whipping through the air to see the towering walls of an unfinished cathedral. Walls extended back from either side.

It must be only part of the labyrinth. A corner or perhaps even the grand entrance. Complex arches and pillars of stone decorated the place. It should have been graceful and beautiful, but it was a monstrosity. All the angles and curves were slightly off and enormously displeasing to the eye. There was something dreadfully wrong with the place.

While she was staring in awe, an overseer stepped toward her and snapped a manacle around her ankle. It bit into her skin, rubbing sand into her flesh.

Soon, all the prisoners had arrived and the overseers marched them over to the labyrinth entrance. There was about twenty-five feet of chain between her and the prisoners on either side.

She had to stifle her gasp when she got within twenty feet of the prison. A sense of hopelessness and despair reached out from the prison and wrapped around her. The magic was strong here. Immensely strong.

Did the other prisoners feel it? Or just her because she was a demigod? She tried to shake away the feeling as she approached the wall, but the closer she got, the stronger it grew. It even felt like it reached inside her mind.
 

Was that part of the memory loss from the waters of the river Lethe? It made her shiver. This place was utterly horrible. It made her grateful that their plan had deemed it far too dangerous to enter the labyrinth.

Now that she was here, it was clear that their fear had been well founded. Once one entered that place, there was no escape.
 

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her fellow prisoners bending to pick up great stones to heave them into place on the unfinished wall of the cathedral-like building. She did the same, hoping to buy herself some time to calm down and gather her wits.
 

She was only steps away from the hellish prison she was meant to be thrown into. Some asshole with a grudge had decided she deserved to rot in this mental torture chamber.

It terrified her and enraged her at the same time. Worse, her mind felt slightly foggy, as if the labyrinth were already working on her.

All her memories could disappear. The good. The bad. Logan. And everyone would forget her as well. She would be truly wiped from the face of the earth. It was an utter nightmare. Her bones seemed to tremble.

She had to stop it. She had to pull herself together to save herself and Logan and all the other gods. She sucked in deep breaths and focused on her magic and the aether. The longer she was here, the foggier her mind would become.
 

Now was the best time to attempt her spell; she’d never be stronger. She closed her eyes and drew as much of the aether’s power into herself as she could. When she felt near-bursting with the light of power, she drew her staff from the aether.

Shouts erupted around her, but she used the aether to form a barrier around herself. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it should hold long enough. With a steady hand, she drew the heart of the Retaliator from her pocket. With it in one hand and her staff in the other, she focused on calling up the wind of time.
 

It burst into being in front of her, a great whirling mass that encompassed the ornate building in front of her. The shock of power from the Retaliator’s heart made her gasp, but it fueled her magic immensely. The wind flew faster than she’d ever seen.
 

In seconds, the building in front of her had decayed to rubble. Her heart soared at the success. She could do this, there was no question. Once the dust settled, she’d direct the spell at the rest of the labyrinth until the wind had touched and destroyed every part.

But when the dust of destruction cleared from the air, the sight that spread before her stole the breath from her lungs.

The labyrinth was mind-bogglingly enormous—far larger than even her first vision of it. It stretched farther than the eye could see. The cathedral had blocked her view. With it gone, she could see down into a valley she hadn’t known existed. Miles upon miles of labyrinth walls snaked around the valley below, many seeming to go underground.

She forced her mind away from fear and directed the wind at the nearest section of the labyrinth. Though it crumbled quickly, it was but a fraction of a percent of the entire space. Even with the Retaliator’s power over time, the wind couldn’t cover enough space. She was never going to be able to destroy this place before the guards stopped her.

And she’d alerted the Ancient One. He would be coming for them. And the labyrinth was still standing, waiting for them to be thrown in.