Page 8 of Gods' Battleground

We ran as fast as we could after Vertigo, hitting more than a few walls along the way. It was a good thing angels were so durable.

We caught up with her inside the museum lobby. Vertigo was shooting at the guards, the windows, everything—all the while screaming wildly.

“She’s out of control,” Jace said to me. His brow furrowed, like he was fighting for every millisecond of concentration. “We have to stop her.”

“I know,” I sighed.

Maybe Vertigo didn’t deserve to be Faris’s slave, but those guards didn’t deserve to be killed by her wild shooting either.

“Wait, Vertigo!” I shouted. “Stop!”

I was surprised when she stopped: runningandshooting. Maybe I should have taken that as a warning of what was coming, but I was too dizzy to think that far ahead.

Vertigo whipped around to face me. “No,youstop, Leda Pandora.”

That’s when the vertigo slammed into me like I’d hit a solid wall. And I realized my earlier dizziness was just a taste, the tiniest sample of what her powers could really do. This was so much worse.

I felt my mind shatter into little pieces, and those pieces spiraled away in dizzying waves. My thoughts spilled from my mind, unfocused and out of control. I tried to reach for them—tried to hold on to them—but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t stand. I could hardly breathe.

My mind kept jumping, kept skipping from one thought to the next, from one sensation to the next. Every time I tried to concentrate, to focus, the whole world flipped upside down, spinning me into the abyss.

Every little thing was a distraction.

The rainwater slowly dripping from the roof. The sharp pop each drop made when it spilled over the edge. The smack when it smashed against the concrete pavement outside.

The cool, damp night air pouring in through the window, scraping across my cheek.

The whistle of the chilling winter breeze in my ears.

The smell of charcoal and slowly-cooking meat. Someone nearby was barbecuing hotdogs. My stomach growled in hunger. When was the last time I’d eaten?

A flash of red! A bright curtain hung in the window, flapping in the wind.

The scent of citrus.

“Did you eat oranges for lunch, Jace?” I chuckled.

He didn’t answer. Why didn’t he answer?

Oh, he was lying facedown on the floor. I reached for his neck. But why? Why would I do that?

“To feel for a pulse,” I muttered to myself.

I found one. Jace was alive. He just wasn’t moving. I couldn’t remember why he wasn’t moving.

“Ver-ti-go!” I bit out.

I had to stop Vertigo. But the vertigo didn’t stop. Why, oh, why, wouldn’t it stop?

Vertigo was doing this to me. But when I tried to focus on her, my vision blurred. Dizziness swallowed me. I tripped. My knees hit the ground, then my hands. My head was next.

“No one will ever hurt me again,” Vertigo declared, standing over me. “Not even you, Leda Pandora.”

CHAPTER 4

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

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