Page 104 of Until the End of Ever
Timothee walked in. "Ma'am. Gideon and his mother have gone to investigate the diversion."
The short, skinny boy didn't so much as glance at me.
"Excellent," Zenya said. "Is the whole team standing by?"
"Yes, ma'am. Awaiting your orders."
I remembered how Timothee pulled Gideon aside earlier. He was part of the team that investigated the murders, which had no doubt made it easy to ensure there was no hint of proof leading to them.
"Let's go, then. Kleos, put your shawl back on."
I willed myself to resist my body, to stop, to scream, but I picked up the shawl on the floor, wrapped it around my shoulders, and walked out right behind my mother, like the docile doll I was.
At the door, we were joined by three men, none of them remarkable, all of them visibly in awe of my mother. She'd always had a way with men.
One of the men, I didn't know, though I didn't have to ask myself why he'd been chosen: he was tall, broad, and visibly dumb.I wasn't surprised to seeCastor Pendros-Valmont, but Vance, the part-owner of my club? That one hurt.
It wasn't entirely his fault. Mother had probably targeted him to have ears and eyes close to me. And it would have worked until two weeks ago, when I escaped her claws.
I should have stayed in the manor, where I was safe.
Silenced, restrained, pulled ahead with each of Zenya's steps, I had no choice but to follow her like a puppet on strings, wishing I could cry.
We walked down to the ground floor, heading towards the passage between theArena and the Hall of Truce.
"Kleos?" Silver asked, walking into the Guard just as we reached the doors.
"I am taking my daughter to her father's office, where we'll have a family meeting," Zenya declared without pausing to stop. "Lovely seeing you, Edith."
My best friend watched me in stunned silence, trying to read my face for a clue. I couldn't so much as twitch a muscle. Hoping against hope that my eyes could tell her something was wrong, I stared hard.
And then she just said, "I'll pop by the manor later."
Zenya huffed, but it sounded amused rather than put out.
Later would be too late. She would complete what she'd started.
Later, I would be content with whatever fate she condemned me to.
45
KLEOS
The Hall of Truce, built eons ago by the gods who created this city for their descendants, had morphed into many things. The Archives downstairs, and there even were prisons in the belly of the lower floors, and the magistrate met in the largest forum at the back. There were also the ballrooms, the museum, not to mention the elevators heading from the vale down to the underside.
But above all, the Hall of Truce was a temple. It had been designed to hold a shrine to every single god involved in Highvale upstairs.
How I longed to be able to step towards the column at the center of the entry hall and disappear. It was so close, and completely inaccessible.
At that time of night, the hall was busy. Any other day, it would have been full of unders returning home if they worked in the vale, but currently it was the opposite: curious young valers daring each other to party in the underside for a night.
Zenya had no interest in the hustle, clearly leading us toward the grand staircase to the higher floor. To the temples—likely Zeus's, the largest—where my fate would await me.
Was she going to make me wed my cousin? The treacherous barkeep? The mountain of muscles?
Lucian.
The hopelessness flooding my mind as I thought the name was beyond all the fear, the horror and the panic I'd fought back. As soon as I allowed myself to think the name, I stopped thinking and started despairing. And yet my feet kept walking, steadily following the monster, flanked by her acolytes.
