The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 35 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 35 ✰✦✰
" Trapped "

IT WAS QUIET. Too quiet, some would even argue.

I was waiting in the alley behind a skyscraper back on Diamanda Isle. We'd spent the last day travelling all the way back here to follow through with our stomach-churning plan and now that we'd arrived, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. The streets were deserted; the night sky above painted with stars; harmonies ringing softly throughout the city.

Apparently Lyras cared more for the myth of beauty sleep than enjoying nights out as I'd expected them to.

Darius had claimed that—back at the museum—Victor Lyrana had told him that he took late night walks through the city centre to cleanse his mind of all thoughts that dirtied him. The likelihood of him actually showing up was so low, I almost considered running straight back to my bed on board. But this was our one shot—the only chance we had.

I was going to confront Victor—Apheses—when he showed, before signalling to the others so that they could move in. Sarinne would then shoot Apheses with an arrow belonging to the magical ship—an arrow that forced its victim into heavenly, heavy sleeps, and then we'd sneak him back to our ship. Wait for him to wake up and see where we'd go from there.

"Don't be so scared," I heard Luna whisper next to me. I'd almost forgotten she was there. "There's nothing to worry about."

I cocked my head. "Did you use your powers on me again?"

She smiled guiltily. "It comes to me, uninvited."

I sighed. "It's fine. But I don't think I'll ever stop worrying. Not unless The Shielder and Apheses have gone. This whole thing still makes me sick to my stomach."

"I know what you mean," she replied. "It doesn't feel fair that they were always three steps ahead of us."

"Precisely," I shook my head. "I don't even know when it became possible for Olympians to come back to life."

"According to Jacks, he's most likely been alive this whole time," Luna's eyes glimmered with fear. "Just too weak to do anything."

"Do you think he sought out someone for help? Or do you reckon The Shielder found him?"

Luna shivered a little. "I don't know, but either way it scares me. I don't like that they've been working together whatsoever."

I looked back at the streets of Diamanda Isle. "Me neither."

The next ten minutes flew by and after more chatter with Luna, we spotted him:

Apheses came striding in a suit down the street, humming to himself in the silence that engulfed this isle. He didn't seem very bothered at all, drinking in the city mindlessly.

Now that I knew what I knew, I was seeing him in a different light. This man was no longer a disinterested husband whom one felt sympathetic towards—this man was in truth an Olympian. Someone who'd lived a million lives in centuries. This man had a terrifying amount of astounding power.

Once his back was turned to us, I knew this was our only window, nodded to Luna, and made my way forward. Though as I approached, he stopped humming and came to a halt in his tracks, his head rising gradually. He knew that I was behind him. I would've ran off like a coward if I didn't know that my friends were surrounding me.

"Miss Solaris," he said in the deepest tone I'd heard him speak in so far. Something eerie was laced to it; something that caused little goosebumps to rise on my tanned skin. By simply calling me by my name he'd caused me to regret ever having crossed his path. He turned and smiled. But it wasn't warm or welcoming. It was the kind of smile that plotted something.

He knows it's me. He knows it's me. He is Apheses.

"May I ask what you're doing here?"

I considered him. "Apheses, is it?"

His eyes flashed but he didn't waver, as if he'd been waiting patiently for this moment to arrive. "Excuse me?"

"Oh," I feigned stupidity. "Are we playing dumb? I didn't know, I do apologise."

This time, Apheses frowned. "Scarlett, dear, do you need help? You're more than welcome to—"

"No, actually, I'm quite fine," I said calmly. "It's you that I'm rather curious about. You know exactly what's going on. You're an Olympian, and working with The Shielder of Darkness, no less, and acting as if you have not a clue in the world what I'm talking about. This facade may have earned you a few centuries. It'll cost you now."

He stayed quiet. Still. Unmoving.

"Did you find it hard all those years by yourself?" I tested. "Was it so difficult not having anyone to share your pain with that you decided you'd cause some of your own—with a sad loser that wanted to change the world?"

Not a single peep from him. Only menacing eyes.

"Or was it harder not to kill me there and then back at the museum? Were you so desperate to end it but you couldn't because then—then things wouldn't go according to whatever sick, twisted plan you have?"

The man laughed. He was laughing and it was like a hundred little bells ringing happily. Yet it didn't sound happy. It sounded dark. Like this was going to plan. His plan. And it only made me suspect even more that I'd been the one to walk into a trap, not him.

I was the fool. Not him.

"Oh, dear, Scarlett Solaris," he said, calming down as he shook his head. "You're fiery. Proud. Stupid, yet brave. And bravery, I can admire.

"Despite my admiration for your courage, dear princess," he went on and took a step forward. "You seem to forget that I'm an Olympian. I may be weaker than I once was but I am not as gullible as you might believe. Do you truthfully believe that it was luck that brought me here to you tonight? That what I told your friend that night at the museum happened to be useful for now? No, I told him purposefully."

My heart stopped.

No—

"If you think that I don't know where all of your little friends are hiding right now, you are gravely mistaken," he told me with another chuckle. "What I want you to remember before you fall into a deep sleep—I caught you. Remember that, witch."

I was about to signal right away, to tell my friends to shoot the bastard so we could kill him once and for all but then it happened.

My eyes began feeling heavier and heavier.

Right before they fluttered closed and. . .and I dropped. . .dropped to the grou. . .