Took Me Yesterday (book 2 of The Tomo Trilogy)

The Monster And The Mad Scientist

Thirty minutes till noon, Mr. Tomery requested to speak to me—by order of a soldier with a gun. If it wasn't for the bullet that scarred Noah, I doubted I would fear weapons at all. They were incredibly overused. But I listened. To the shouts echoing down hallways, the thick silence of orders being obeyed, the sturdy stream of soldier footsteps running from one railtrack to another.

We'd been caught.

Lily was supposed to be in and out of the railyard in fifteen minutes, long before the train left at noon, long before the barons would consume the pills and die.

Still, Lily was nowhere to be seen when my escort finally left me alone in Mr. Tomery's office. Just the two of us. Once again.

Despite the thick stench of cigar in the air, he wasn't smoking, but he leaned his face against his hand as if he had been and still wanted to be close to the smell. A book sat in his free hand—the only other copy of The Odyssey—and The Iliad rested on the desk in front of him. The book Rinley had let me borrow—The Aeneid—was propped against his makeshift lamp, a single light bulb wielded into a metal socket with only a metal cage curled around it. The creation looked like Mr. Tomery had captured the sun.

I cleared my throat when he continued to read, but he held up his hand, licked his thumb, then turned the next page.

I eyed the clock. Five minutes had passed. We had twenty-five before the train left.

"You think you're Odysseus, don't you?" Mr. Tomery asked, never once looking up from his read.

"What?"

"Odysseus," he repeated. "You think you're him. Wise in his devotions and convictions." His chuckle sent shivers up my spine. "That's why you named him Argos."

"I just thought it was a good name—"

"My dear," he interrupted, shaking his finger, "it'd be wise of you to know who you are."

I fought a glare. "And who am I, Mr. Tomery?"

He grinned. "You are much more like Achilles. Egotistically brave. Stubborn. A man worth remembering, maybe, but one without a happy ending." He looked over the edge of the book to meet my eyes, but all I heard was his theory, repeating over and over.

No happy ending. No happy ending.

"What do you think of that?" he asked.

"I wouldn't call any of their endings happy."

His smile disappeared, and then he slammed the book shut, the sound resonating around the office. "We're not here to discuss literature."

I shrugged. "You are the one who brought it up."

He stood, his glare bearing down on me. "Do you even consider what might happen to you? Your family?"

"Who hasn't?"

His dubious glare softened as he leaned his lower back against his desk and looked me over. "You've become quite the monster, haven't you?"

My heart pounded. Lily. Miles. Rinley. Everyone who was involved. I didn't know what they failed at or how they failed or if they'd told what I'd planned, but perhaps, Tame was always right. We'd tried this before, and nothing I chose to do would stop anything. Still, I stood my ground. If I were Achilles, if I were headstrong, then so be it. I'd fight with that. Anything could be a weapon if you wanted it to be. My father had taught me that much. And right now, my words could defend me.

"I think you forget, sir," I emphasized the last word, "sirens were monsters."

Mr. Tomery's fingers drummed across the book's back cover. "There isn't a siren named Sophia, I've checked."