Furious

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Hector started towards the door. I jumped down from the bed to follow close on his heels. He stopped in front of the mirror. "I'm coming with you," I said.

"You are late for a session with Lindsay, who will be very happy to know that you can now bring out the Fury without being baited—I saw you coast into the throne room on Fury wings, it was quite impressive. Let me deal with Jasper." He didn't have to add alone.

So much for the honesty streak.

"This is my life we're talking about here, Hector. Jasper has been poisoning me for all we know and what are you going to do if I die before anyone even reaches for a weapon?"

"You are being over dramatic." I disagreed but Hector did not pause long enough that I could get a word in. "I just need to find out what Jasper put in the bars, what... recipe he used." He was lying: I could tell in the way he refused to look at me.

"I'm going to stop you right there: you're not talking to him without me. Remember when you said he could control me because of what he is? In the throne room, he told me not to interfere. Guess what I did—I interfered and it got someone killed. If I've been eating these stupid things because he ordered me to, why didn't it work when he told me to mind my own damn business?"

If only it had. But I wasn't certain that Ares wouldn't have killed Hector had I not interfered and then who knows what I would have done. There would be a lot more blood on my hands, not just Ares'. I would cut down any god who stood in my way. The realization didn't shock me, not any more.

"Hector, I need to know. I don't want to die, not like this."

"You're not going to die."

Unasked questions hung between us, unspoken confusion and frustration and tension. I was so far done with scattered information and missing pieces; Jasper was going to have to answer to the Fury this time.

I grabbed Hector's arm, pulling forcefully enough to make him to face me. It was my body that had something strange and possibly harmful in it, my body that was under lamia control. I could drop dead at any moment because of whatever was in those bars and that wouldn't benefit either of us.

"You are not going to die, Autumn. If I take you through the portal, you have to promise to let me handle things with Jasper." Hector, finally looking down at me, raised his hand to my face and tenderly stroked my cheek.

Refusing to be distracted by his touch, I yelled, "This is my body, Hector! I have to know what he did to me, what the long term effects are. My body, my fight." My fingers gripped the bicep of the arm still touching my face. I wasn't about to let him sneak through the portal without me.

"That's what I'm worried about." With apologetic eyes, Hector pulled his arm from my grasp and reached it around me. Holding me tight with one arm, his other hand on the mirror, we both fell through the portal.

On the other side, he let go as if it burned him. Gently, second-guessing his decision, he pushed me forward, away from him, from the mirror; I stumbled, catching myself before I fell completely but not fast enough. Hector was already through the portal again, gone somewhere I couldn't follow. I crashed into the wall, scratching at the framed mirror, searching for any corner or blemish or spot or magic button that would let me travel through it.

The obvious glared back at me in the mirror. I recognized this scene in the reflection: the hall leading to locked doors, a dormitory, and the mirrored training room. I slammed the heels of my hands on the wall, smacking the hard, smooth surface. The portal wouldn't open; I didn't know where to touch, how to make it open, what magic to use.

Whatever magic prevented me from passing through allowed Jasper, the betrayer, the demon, to travel the Underworld unfettered. I wanted to find the thing that made him the "key" and crush it. More specifically, I wanted to crush him.

And I would; I knew that whatever he had been giving me wasn't protein or fiber. Where he concocted special tinctures to cure Hector of his weakness, Jasper had been feeding me a death sentence.

Once again, I was trapped. If my Underworld experience had a theme, entrapment would be at the top of the list. And here I was, childishly thinking that Hector and I were finally on the same page, finally on a level of honestly, of trust. So much for that bond I'd implicitly, stupidly, felt growing between us.

So much for I trust you, Autumn.

Hector was as much to blame as Jasper was; the master is responsible for taking care of all his pets, the big scary ones and the little harmless ones alike. He should have taken better care of me.

Someone coughed into the silent hallway behind me. I started at the sound, looking up in the reflection to see Gregory at the opposite end of the hall, arms crossed, trying to look mature in the face of my break down. I kept my back to him. He wasn't the one I was angry with. Gregory watched me hit the wall—repeatedly, because it was the only thing I could do. Hector wasn't there to receive the blows; the mirror would have to do. Handprints, smudges, and stinging palms did not make me feel any better.

The great and powerful Fury, attacking a mirror on the wall, reduced to tears of frustration. What a performance; I will strike fear into the hearts of all those who oppose Hades. Not.

In my head, the wall was shaped like Hector's face. If only it was enough.

Gregory, to his credit, continued to say nothing. The great dragon watched me lose all semblance of calm but did not comment. Nothing in regards to controlling my anger, no words to soothe the beast that lay within me; like an intelligent man, he just let me go.

Which was exactly what I needed. It helps to hit something.