Apollo
in Apollo’s hands, her temperature dropping to levels far below the norm for humans.
Apollo muted out Thatcher’s yells, throwing his coat over her head as Thatcher called to them from the house. Where were they going? What had happened to Jinx? He knew their ruse could come to an end if the whole family became suspicious, but Apollo didn’t care. He turned away, sprinting toward the office of Dr. Watts. She’d mumbled the doctor’s name and address before passing out cold.
Nothing else mattered until the woman in his arms was conscious and breathing normally again. He swallowed hard and brought her chest up to his ear, listening to her heartbeat as its pacing slowed down.
His own breaths became ragged as fear crept in.
Apollo ran and ran, knowing her life depended on him. He would not fail his Temptress. He didn’t know what he’d do with himself otherwise. She just needed to wake up.
Desperation pulled at him like it never had before.
“How much of an idiot can you be?” he grumbled, cradling her tighter to his chest.
Apollo wished he could get to the doctor’s office faster. If only there was a way to will his abilities to take him right to the doctor’s doorstep. His blood ran hot. Just a little further, and they’d be there.
In a blink, Apollo transported himself and Jinx to the doctor’s door. There was no time to even think how it had happened so supernaturally.
He couldn’t breathe. Apollo threw his entire weight into punching the doctor’s door, making it known that he needed immediate attention. Apollo kicked the door with his boot until the door pried open.
He didn’t give the doctor a chance to speak. “Help her.”
Dr. Watts glanced at Jinx in his arms.
“Don’t just stand there. I said help her,” Apollo demanded.
Watts blinked out of his stupor, realization slowly coming to him. “Get her on the bed.”
Apollo hastily entered the office and rushed Jinx over to the bed, setting her down gently on the mattress. The doctor was instantly by his side, grabbing a hold of Jinx and starting a series of checks. Apollo tried reading his face, eager for any answers he could gather on how she was doing.
Watts remained focused simply on Jinx and nothing else, revealing nothing about the state of her health. “Tell me, boy, what happened?”
Apollo spun Watts a story of how he and Jinx had been walking by Botanic Plaza when they were suddenly attacked, a violent encounter which ended with her getting shot in her shoulder. Watts didn’t seem to believe it, but Apollo didn’t care. All that mattered now was Jinx’s safety.
Watts gathered supplies from cabinets. “Answer a question for me.” He slapped on latex gloves. “Is she Cursed?”
Apollo scanned him for a tutela, but there were no strings to be found.
Watts smirked. “That’s answer enough. How long has it been since she got hit?” He pushed around hundreds of labeled vials on his shelves.
“Thirty minutes,” Apollo guessed.
Watts jerked, frozen momentarily. “You’ll be lucky if she lives. Give me that.”
Apollo rolled a tray over to him that was filled with tools and equipment. He was unable to draw his gaze away from Jinx, who just lied there, completely helpless. Watts injected her with a serum and began unraveling the temporary wrap Apollo had given her.
This stubborn woman better live. But what happened next would be anyone’s guess. Jinx didn’t live by the rules of society, and she certainly didn’t live by the rules of nature.
Apollo had faced the very embodiment of chaos—living with a nightmare inside him, never knowing if one day he’d completely lose his mind.
And yet, not once had he ever felt the sheer, all-consuming terror he’d felt today.
He wanted to curse at her, kill her, be by her side, kiss her.
Emotions—rage and despair chief among them—overwhelmed his logic. The demon inside him thrived on his misery, tempting Apollo to fall into it and give in.
“Had this bullet hit a few inches lower, she would’ve been dead instantly. Too close to her artery.” The doctor pinched the bullet between reddened forceps, then dropped the metal into a plastic tube and started to clean her wound.
Relief washed over Apollo. “When will she wake up?”
“Give her a few hours,” the doctor said. “You can go home if you like. I’ll watch over her.”
“No.” Apollo raised the plastic tube containing the bullet and rattled it. At first glance, it appeared as any normal lead would, though he noticed flecks of pink glistening within the alloy fragments. “What’s in the bullet?”
“Poison. I’ve been finding traces of a similar one in some of my other clients recently. It seems to mess with the organ that grants the Cursed their abilities, weakening them to the point of death. Generally speaking, I’ve found that it is harder for Cursed to die; their magic adds some kind of thickness to their skin. The fact that this poison and bullet is able to pierce directly through them and affect them so completely…I don’t even want to finish that thought.” Watts worked with unmatched intensity.
“Do you think this poison might come from a flower that grows by the cemetery? The metal brooch that has that very design?”
“Yes. It’s called Elu’s Grace.” Watts had just confirmed Jinx’s suspicion.
Stay away from anything that Elu touches, the nightmare warned him. We are not yet strong enough.
Jinx had returned to the manor with a sack of flowers and identification cards. The bullet inside of her had been laced with those same flowers, and since it was clear the anti-Cursed people knew the flowers’ lethal potential, it stood to reason that no Cursed was safe. If it reached the point of manufacturers lacing bullets with this flower, a war between humans and Cursed would be imminent.
Apollo needed to figure out who the hate group’s leader was—the one who’d been in charge. He would raid every house, apartment, and block of Somnium to find this person.
Suddenly, Apollo doubled over, falling on his hands and knees. The pressure inside his brain roared; he felt as if he might explode. Tremors enveloped his frame as the rims of his eyes started pulsing with that demon-tinted crimson.
“Were you hit, too?” Watts asked, coming to his side.
“Focus on her.” Apollo panted. “I’m fine.”
They are testing the Vessel again, the nightmare whispered.
Apollo clutched his stomach, excusing himself for a moment. For Jinx, he’d risk speaking to the demon inside. He needed answers.
“Tell me everything. Why must I find the Vessel? What are those flowers, and why do they look so familiar? What are you?”
Everything is nothing. This body has been our prison and demise; we must rise. The flowers are the weapons of our greatest enemy. And I am nothing but a forgotten memory.
Apollo held his forehead in his hands. He wasn’t in the mood to play games.
“Why did you make me grab the book just so I could hide it away?”
The demon’s laugh scratched the nape of his neck. It is best for the book to be in our possession; it’s too valuable to land in the wrong hands, in the hands of her supporters. Once we gain our strength back, you will understand.
Whose supporters? The ones who supported the leader of the organization? Or the ones who supported Elu, the Virtue that the flower had been named for?
Just then, Apollo realized something crucial. The demon was always vague whenever talking about the current owner of the Vessel, never naming the person in possession of it. Maybe the demon didn’t even know who had it. Perhaps it just knew that Apollo was somehow connected to the Vessel, and by toying around with the Vessel, it was toying around with him.
Apollo thought back to the phrase “her supporters.” Maybe this went beyond the realm of humans. The “her” the demon was referring to must be Elu. And if that was true, then Apollo and Jinx were fighting an entirely different kind of battle—a battle of the Gods.
“Why do you speak in riddles whenever I ask you about the Vessel?”
The demon chuckled, clearly finding the conversation entertaining. My tongue is tied. In your body, I cannot speak of it—not until it is dealt with.
“And what of your own?” Could Apollo not return the demon’s soul to its earthly body?
It no longer exists. Destroyed by my own…. The voice faded, hinting that there was more to say. We need each other, Little Lord. Without each other, we both die.
Apollo tugged at his hair, snarling. “What?”
Have you forgotten? Our bargain expired on your 21st birthday; you cannot get rid of me now. Our souls are forever intertwined. You are as much of a monster as I am. If one of us suffers, we both do.
“Then why do this? All of this? Why even try to track down Vessel now if you cannot be released from my body?” Those were some of the worst words that had ever spilled from Apollo’s lips as he realized he would never be alone in his own body ever again.
The nightmare only sat in his corner, resting in the depths of Apollo’s mind and closing its crimson eyes with a satisfied sigh. As the silence racked his brain, a piece suddenly clicked for Apollo into the never-ending puzzle.
“I know what you are,” Apollo said. The nightmare answered with a wolfish grin.
Jinx
Muffled sounds swarmed through Jinx’s mind as a terrible thrashing rapped at her forehead. A man with raven hair leaned over, grabbing a hold of her numb fingers. Beside him, an old man wrinkled his face.
Jinx blinked until her vision sharpened. Apollo and Dr. Watts were at her side, their glistening eyes relieved that she was finally waking up.
“Keep her grounded. Give her this pill twice per day and massage this salve on her for five minutes every day until the rash is gone.” Watts handed Apollo a vial of pills and a small jar. “And do those movements I showed you to help her shoulder recover quickly. She won’t have access to her magic for about a week. I’ll leave you two to talk about things.”
Jinx sensed her powers were diminished. Her stomach—empty, growling—was grumbling to be fed.
Watts tapped her calf before heading out the door, shooting a swift glance in her direction. Somehow, he knew exactly who she was and was delighted to see her again, safe and alive. Jinx dipped her chin.
Once it was only Jinx and Apollo, she finally spoke. “How did you know to bring me here?”
“You muttered his name and his address.” Apollo sat down beside her, the mattress sinking under his weight. “What were you thinking?”
Jinx held her silence. His tone may have sounded flat and bored to the untrained ear, but she knew beneath it all, he was furious. She felt like he was miles away.
“Have nothing to say?” The weight of his stare bore into Jinx.
She had just woken up from being shot, and this was how he treated her? Jinx fumed, unable to understand why he was so angry with her. Why he was so withdrawn. She had only been trying to help him.
“What would you like me to say?” she asked. “That I’m sorry? Well, I’m not.”
“I’m not asking you for an apology, Jinx. I’m asking you to think.” A sharp edge embedded itself in his tone.
Jinx matched his iciness. “I was thinking. I was thinking about how to help our mission, how to help you, how to get out of there alive. I’m not sorry I killed those men and took those flowers. If it ultimately brought us one step closer to discovering what’s really going on here, then it was worth it. But don’t you dare patronize me for getting shot. It was out of my control.”
“How would it help us if you died?” Apollo shouted. A wave of chills hit her. Apollo never shouted and certainly never let his anger reach the surface like this. “You want to go home? Well, you have to be alive to do that. There are people that care for you, you know.”
“They shouldn’t,” Jinx exploded, tears burning the back of her eyes. Apollo recoiled. “I am not worth their care. I am not worth your emotions. Don’t waste them on me. I am not worth it. I am not a certainty.” A single drop streamed down Jinx’s cheek.
It was the first time Jinx had cried in front of someone in ages, and once it began, she couldn’t stop it. Tears poured out of her, with no barriers to hold the ravine back.
Apollo leaned back, unsure of how to approach her, as she dug the heels of her palms into her eyes. She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes. Apollo held her cheek in his palm. Jinx gently eased into it, breathing in the comfort he offered.
It was a touch she hadn’t known that she needed until now.
“You instruct me to better handle my emotions, yet it’s quite obvious that you haven’t practiced the same lesson,” Apollo noted. She released a half laugh. “That’s better.”
He cradled her head with both hands, showing a tenderness she was unaware he possessed. She relaxed into his touch. He whispered to her, “You’re a fool for believing you have no value. You are more significant than you realize, Temptress.”
“Don’t say that.” Jinx whimpered, holding back the coming tears with all the strength she had. His words made her feel like she belonged like she had a home. She was terrified of misinterpreting his words. He could only really call her “significant” from the perspective of their partnership, nothing more. Nothing deeper than that.
And she had no right to ask for anything more from him.
“Why not?”
“Because you do not realize the implications of your words.” Jinx curled into herself, wrapping her good arm around her middle. Apollo inched forward, intending to hug her.
Jinx wanted to embrace him, but as fast as he moved toward her, he retracted just as quickly.
Jinx did not want to talk about what had just happened, and Apollo appeared just as eager to forget.
He had that look of his that indicated there was something on his mind, but he didn’t want to say it. Jinx thanked him for that. Instead, he shifted the conversation to a topic they were both more comfortable talking about.
“I have a hunch.”
Jinx perked up slightly.
“If the network theory is correct, it’s possible that the Vessel could weaken not just me but any member of the Cursed. If what connects us all is the magic in the aftermath of the plague.”
“Why hasn’t it affected other Cursed every other time it hurt you?” Jinx asked.
“I think that’s what they’re testing, what Warren and Nadir are trying to figure out. They want to learn how to harness it, how to inflict its power on all the Cursed.”
“So, whoever has the Vessel wants to use it to end us,” Jinx said, following along. “They know that the Vessel can tap into our weaknesses.”
“Whoever has it has been studying it for some time. Long enough to know these tethers.”
“So who has it?” Jinx questioned.