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  She didn’t need to complete the sentence. Allegra knew what she’d been about to say. Only Jocasta’s death would be the reason she wouldn’t call Aurelia again.

  Allegra wasn’t sure how she felt about the scene she was witness to. Aurelia was about to take a baby away from her mother, and something about the whole thing touched Allegra deep within her soul, as though she knew that it had something to do with herself.

  She wanted to know so much more about what Aurelia knew, but all Allegra could do now was to watch and wait, and hope that one of the two would reveal a little more information. Still, Allegra was frustrated.

  Swallowing hard, Allegra forced herself to continue to pay attention. At last Jocasta relinquished the child, the tears falling down her cheeks as Aurelia swaddled the baby tightly. “Take care of her for me, Mother Aurelia,” Jocasta whispered.

  “I will, child. Your mother would be most proud of you Jocasta. Cathenna had always spoken highly of you, her eldest daughter. She’d hoped that perhaps one day you would have been there to take over the reins from her.”

  Jocasta shrugged, a deep agony in her eyes. “It was a dangerous time for mother, especially with him dogging her every move. It pains me to know that he’s decimated our line, that he has almost succeeded in achieving his goal, to kill us all, to end our line once and for all.”

  “He will not succeed, my child. We will prevail. We will keep every Pythia safe from his clutches. I will swear to that. On my own life, I will swear.”

  Jocasta struggled to produce a grateful smile. “I know you will. Thank you for doing this for me, Mother.”

  Aurelia straightened, and the child in her arms let out a low gurgling cry. Jocasta’s instant response was a surge of tears, and Aurelia sighed. “I’m sorry, Jocasta. I must leave. I am already feeling the strain of the joining. It’s best I go before the link collapses.”

  Jocasta nodded and stared at the baby for a pained second. Aurelia relented, taking the child back to her mother. She held the baby before Jocasta, close enough for her to place a gentle kiss on her child’s forehead.

  Then Aurelia stood back, holding the child close to her chest now. “Farewell, Jocasta. Take care of yourself, and I want to hear back from you soon. Please, for the sake of your child, I beg of you, do not give up on her, or on us. We will make every effort to come back to help you.”

  Jocasta nodded, her face solemn now as realization set in, as she faced head-on what she’d done. Desperation filled her eyes, grief an almost tangible feeling as she stared longingly at her child.

  Just before Aurelia stepped away, she paused and turned toward Jocasta. “I almost forgot. The child’s name?”

  Jocasta let out a low sob, then shifted on the bed and slid open the drawer of her nightstand. She retrieved a piece of paper and held it out to Aurelia. “Her birth certificate, just in case she does return to this time.”

  With a nod, Aurelia took the document and glanced down at to read the name. Then, clutching the baby close, she stepped away, her form shimmering. But even as Aurelia disappeared and the sight of the hospital room and the grieving woman sitting along on the white bed faded, Allegra’s mind was struggling to comprehend the name she’d just read.

  “Allegra Jocasta Damaskos.”

  Allegra sucked in a shocked breath at the name.

  Jocasta was her mother?

  And she’d given Allegra up?

  But the one thing that stood out the most in Allegra’s mind was that Jocasta had confirmed the year in which Allegra had been born, a hundred years in the future.

  Chapter 5

  Allegra’s body shook as she came back to consciousness, her lungs were near to exploding from the agony of holding her breath for so long—longer than she thought was humanly possible.

  She kicked out, even though the action seemed far away, as though someone else was moving for her. Her body began to rise from the water, lifted by a force certainly not belonging to Allegra.

  She shifted her head and found her savior.

  Xales held onto Allegra’s waist, gripping gently. Allegra’s head lolled but she became more aware of her surroundings, and for some odd reason she no longer felt as though her lungs were about to explode.

  Was it possibly because she was dying? Or perhaps already dead?

  Allegra would have laughed at the thought had she been able to. Instead, she focused on remaining still and curling her free arm beneath the belt around Xales’ neck.

  As Allegra drew closer to the surface, pinpricks of light filtered through the water, torches, and flashlights from the boats above her brightening the murky depths.

  Divers were submerged and searching the water, two turning to spot Allegra almost simultaneously. Allegra tugged her arm from the boar’s shoulder and curled closer to his back as he swam for the surface. The divers floated and watched Allegra and her boar familiar go by, their expressions somewhat dazed.

  Had she had the strength to be amused she would have smiled.

  Allegra’s head broke the surface, and she felt herself pushed higher as Xales thrust her above water level toward the extended hands reaching for Allegra.

  Warm arms encircled her waist and pulled her onto the deck where she dripped streams of water in puddles at her feet. Blankets were thrown around her shoulders, a warm cup of tea placed between her hands. Someone guided her to a chair, while another voice yelled to call the divers back on board.

  And a few voices cried out in shock, claiming they’d seen a boar submerged in the water

  Allegra blinked and wiped her eyes with her free hand as Max drew to her side and sat beside her on a low crate.

  When she looked up, she saw relief, joy too, but both emotions were overshadowed by fury, and her heart sank. Not that she was afraid of his anger.

  No, it was more because she was exhausted and she didn’t think she’d be capable of standing up for herself. Right now, she just gave in and slumped against him, her head on his chest, feeling the stiffness of the muscles in his neck and shoulders.

  When he finally relaxed, she knew she’d won—if only for the interim. The man wouldn’t let go of the matter, not until he’d received her acknowledgment that she’d been wrong to come to Mranma in spite of his discouragement.

  He’d better be ready to wait forever.

  Voices drifted around Allegra as her body slowly warmed, and the shuddering of her limbs lessened. She was sitting beside a crate on the deck, under the inky black starlit sky, very much aware that deep beneath her was the boat that had just sunk, taking with it a handful of slavers.

  Allegra found she felt not an iota of sympathy for those odious men.

  Athena had come by a number of times, changing Allegra’s blankets for warmer, drier ones, replacing her sodden pants and sweater with identical dry ones from their backup stock, plying her with cups of tea. The woman had performed each duty with an abundance of care, while still simmering with disapproval—perhaps not the same as Max’s anger, but still something Allegra would need to overcome.

  When Max finally came up to Allegra, the determination on his face told her in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid him any longer.

  Allegra got to her feet—clad now in warm, dry socks and boots—unable to suppress a long sigh. Max gave her a short nod and turned on his heel, entering the ship and leading Allegra to the captain’s meeting room, a tiny space with a boardroom table only large enough to seat eight people elbow-to-elbow, with only a few centimeters between the chairs and the wall behind them.

  Max waited only for Athena to enter the room before closing the door firmly behind him. Allegra chose a seat as far from the door as possible, mostly in order to be able to watch Max and gauge his reactions—not that predicting his behavior would help her at all.

  She found it odd that she was so concerned with the feelings and mood of the other two occupants in the room, odd that she would be so sensitive to their specific fears. And Allegra wondered if it was wise
at all to be so invested in the emotions of others, especially considering the nature of her role in this world.

  Someday she may tell either—or both—of these people that their lives would be coming to a conclusion sooner than they’d expected.

  She did not want to see that day. Ever.

  Allegra straightened in her seat now as Max turned to face her, the look in his eyes making her own jaw clench.

  “What in Apollo’s name was that stunt you pulled?” he asked, bending forward to place his palms on the table. His eyes flashed as he glared at her and she wanted to tell him that he should tone down the fury if he wanted to keep Xales from ripping him to pieces.

  But she didn’t speak, choosing to wait until Max had said his piece because she knew he wasn’t done.

  “You were supposed to stay on deck, Allegra,” Max said while Athena looked on, her features schooled to reveal absolutely nothing of what she was thinking. Max shook his head. “How are we meant to protect you if you refuse to respect our security protocols?”

  Allegra opened her mouth to speak, but Max took a breath and scrunched up his eyes, missing her intention.

  “You agreed to stay on deck with us. To remain with either Athena or myself. If you had, you wouldn’t have almost died down there.”

  “We’re meant to be a team when we’re in the field, Allegra,” Athena said at last, her voice soft, but no less upset. “If we cannot rely on our team members, we are endangering all our lives.”

  Allegra lifted her hand, but Max cut her off again. “Do you have any idea how terrified we were? You disappear, the damn ship sinks, and there’s no sign of you anywhere. We sent a team down, Athena and I both searched the ship. Nothing.”

  Allegra frowned now and snapped, “Hold on a moment. What do you mean you searched? There wouldn’t have been enough time for that. I was barely down there for ten minutes,” she looked at each of their faces, scowling at them for throwing everything out of proportion.

  Max and Athena shared a look of confused horror, then the demigod turned to meet Allegra’s eyes. “You were down there for forty-eight minutes and thirty-three seconds. We searched the entire ship and found nothing. How you’re even alive, I’m not entirely sure,” she said, shaking her head, confusion clouding her eyes.

  Allegra sat back, biting her lip as she thought it over. Had she lost all that time that she’d spent with Aurelia in Jocasta’s hospital room? Second for second? That would have been unusual given that her split-second flashes often contained minutes or even hours of visions.

  Then Max sank into the seat opposite her, letting out a defeated sigh. “Fine. What happened?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, clearly curious though no less angry.

  Allegra hid a grin. “We got the refugees off the ship, but one of the older men stopped me before he got onto the boat. He insisted his daughter was still inside, along with another little girl. I just reacted. I knew I had to find them, to save them, especially since I knew that ship was going down any second.”

  Max shook his head. “We saved so many people, Allegra. It wasn’t your responsibility to save those girls.”

  Allegra’s brow furrowed. “When you see the faces I see in my visions and feel the emotions I access, then you can tell me what my responsibility is or isn’t,” Allegra said, her words turning to a low growl as she stabbed her finger on the table in front of her. “If you saw the desperation in that father’s eyes, you would have known I had no choice but to help him find her. You’d evacuated the ship, and everyone was already on the boats. If we had waited any longer, the chances of saving those children would have been low to nil, so I took the opportunity and went to look for them. I did not have the time to waste.”

  Neither Athena nor Max spoke, making it somewhat unclear as to their emotions. Allegra took a slow, even breath and continued, “I found the girl, both the girls, actually. They were in the captain’s cabin, handcuffed to the bed.” Allegra paused to gauge first Athena’s and then Max’s expressions. Both were now somewhat subdued. “I released the girls, got them out of the cabin, but that was when the ship tilted, and the door slammed shut on me and then jammed. The girls tried to get it open, but it wouldn’t budge.”

  Max pursed his lips. “Those girls were terrified that you were going to die. They swam to the surface and reported the incident, we got a diving party together and came down looking for you. How you even survived so long is a miracle.”

  Allegra leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Air pocket in the captain’s quarters. I used that to keep breathing, but eventually, I ran out of air.”

  “So you used the air pocket to stay alive for forty odd minutes?” asked Athena, her eyes wide as she faced Allegra.

  “Sort of.”

  “It’s a yes or no answer. No maybe option,” Max said, his eyes narrowing.

  Allegra’s shoulders drooped. “You do have a point. And I will elaborate later.” She took a deep breath and then got to her feet. “Now, I need to speak to the families who are waiting out there for me and then we need to get out of here.”

  Max gave a sharp bob of his head in reluctant agreement, though his eyes still remained hard as he rose and opened the boardroom door. Allegra knew neither of them was done ripping pieces off her hide, but she was fine with that. She’d give them another opportunity when they got home to Argentina.

  Until then, they’d just have to wait.

  Chapter 6

  Allegra exited the captain’s boardroom and approached the open door to the deck. The people they’d rescued were milling around the space, many covered in blankets, huddling together for warmth or comfort. The night had grown cooler now, the temperature dropping, made worse by being on the water.

  A few refugees about on their own, some smoking, others drinking the strong cane spirits offered by the captain.

  That Captain Ailrut had been so generous with his stores had nothing whatsoever to do with the man’s generosity, rather more to do with the generosity of the NGS government’s aide coffers.

  The Mranman ambassador to the NGS Capitol had declined to comment or to engage in negotiations regarding the so-called traitors who had attempted to run out of their own country, completely disregarding the reasons for their escape.

  As Allegra walked outside, the groups turned to watch her, some wary, others with expressions of gratitude. Still, most appeared to be edgy, ready to flee if anyone spoke too loudly. A small family group was gathered closest to the door, and Allegra approached them first, recognizing the man as the father who’d begged for his daughter to be found.

  The girl was nowhere to be seen, and Allegra assumed she was inside the ship, resting—especially considering how terrified the child had been. Allegra didn’t want to think about what the captain had done with the girls, a part of her hoping he’d sold them to the highest bidders who’d have paid steeply for virgin slaves.

  The father looked up and smiled, revealing a mouth missing a few teeth. Those remaining had mostly rotted through, and would likely follow the same route as their counterparts.

  He got to his feet and began to speak, his language alien to her. Allegra shook her head and held up a hand before glancing around the deck. She spotted Kyaswa, one of the crewman who leaned against the side of the ship, the smoke from his cigarette curling around in a hazy cloud. He’d been introduced earlier as able to translate if the need arose.

  Allegra beckoned the man, who took a long pull on his cigarette, then stubbed the still burning butt on the deck, grinding it down with his heel. Kyaswa’s expression remained bland as he sauntered over, taking his time as if to make it clear that Allegra was not his boss.

  She bit her tongue and forced a neutral smile on her face. “Kyaswa, could you be so kind as to translate for me?”

  The man eyed her for a moment then tugged his cap down over his eyes and waited.

  “Could you ask them how they came to be on the ship?” Allegra shifted to look at Athena, giving her a pointed look before flicking
a glance at their unwilling translator. “Athena, could you record the interview please?”

  The fact that the proceedings were now a formal process seemed to draw a more serious attitude from Kyaswa who straightened, his expression going from bland and uninterested to serious. He proceeded to relate Allegra’s question to the father who replied haltingly, his eyes filling with tears.

  “We work hard, my wife, my children, me. But we cannot afford the landlord’s rent and taxes. So we tried to find a way to go to a better place.”

  Allegra frowned. “Taxes?”

  The man nodded as Kyaswa relayed the question. “The landlord, he asks for sixty percent of our earnings. But we pay rent first and then the tax, so there is not much left to buy food and to pay for school and clothing.”

  Anger simmered within Allegra, and she shared a glance with Athena. No wonder the Mranman government was unwilling to assist the NGS operation to save these people.

  “How did you end up on the ship?”

  The old man’s face darkened. “We heard about the captain Uzana who will take you across to Indus for a fee. We came to see him, and he said yes. We paid, and he took us on board. But things were not as he promised.”

  Allegra frowned then nodded, “Please go on. What happened when you got on board?”

  “Captain Uzana separated the families. He sent the men to a separate hold, and the women to another. He took the young girls, to keep them upstairs. He said to protect them from the other men, but I was not so sure. We kept asking where they were but none of his men would tell us. Until one of them got drunk and laughed at me when I asked when I can see my daughter. He said she already fetched a big price on the slave market and that when we docked her new master would come to fetch her and we would never see her again. He laughed at us, calling us fools for thinking we could escape and that now we were doomed to spend a lifetime as slaves never to be free again.”

  “Did he tell you where the captain was sending you to work?”