The Flame of Prometheus (The Prometheus Project Book 1), page 10
Clausen’s large hand reached for my tunic, ready to tear the fabric from my body when the steel door to my cell slammed open.
A tall, lithe woman stood in the threshold. Her hair hung in dark coils around her shoulders like tendrils of shadows against the Military camo she donned. “What the fuck is going on in here?”
“Initiation,” Clausen growled. “Would you like to join?”
My lungs seized. My head reeled. Would this woman be my savior or just another assailant?
The woman crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “You know damn well ‘initiation’ practices have been banned, Clausen.”
“That is Major General to you. And I don’t give a damn—”
“Oh, but I bet my brother gives a damn. You know Sancus is such a stickler for the rules.” The woman examined her sharp black nails, stark against her smooth, light-brown skin. “Oh, and then there is Osouf.” She huffed a bemused laugh. “You know, the one who is standing in the way of your promotion. Yeah, this”—she gestured vaguely to where Clausen straddled me in the cell—“would definitely be a setback. If Osouf were to find out, that is.”
Clausen shot the woman a glare.
She shrugged. “Your choice.”
With a heavy grunt, Clausen stood. I remained lying on the floor, my body frozen.
The woman shielded her eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, put that thing away.”
“Oh, I know you want a piece of this—”
As Clausen made to move toward the woman, manhood still exposed, I sliced my good foot across, kicking Clausen’s legs out from under him. I jumped back up to my feet as the soldier fell face-first to the floor.
“You bitch!” Clausen turned and lunged for me, but I tumbled out of the way.
“Second Lieutenant Gillian and Lieutenant General Osouf, I request your assistance at jail cell 4152,” the woman chimed in a communication device.
Clausen whirled. “What did you just do?”
The woman’s dark brows flicked upward. “I would get the fuck out of here before Osouf shows up.”
Clausen glanced from where I stood—hands bound but ready to grab for the aluminum desk chair—then to the other woman. She shrugged.
“I am not finished with you.” Clausen pointed a thick finger at me before bounding out the door and through the hall.
My savior—who introduced herself as Private Aletheia Gillian but insisted I call her Aletheia—remained perched against the door frame, picking at her black nails as Lieutenant General Osouf and the other soldier, Second Lieutenant Gillian, bickered about what to do with me outside of my prison cell. I remained seated on the thin cot in the far corner of the dank room, bound hands shaking in my lap as my mind tried to process the assault.
I didn’t let it.
“I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna fucking kill him,” the Lieutenant General whispered, his harsh words distracting me from the trauma that clawed at my mind.
“We will deal with him later. We need to focus on what to do now. You have an undocumented person close to shock in that jail cell.”
My throat grew tight.
“I don’t know what to fucking do, Sancus!”
“Well, she can’t stay here.” Aletheia countered, eyes still fixed on her cuticles. “She’s not safe. You saw the footage. She made an ass outta him, so he’s gonna come back and finish what he started, promotion or not.”
“Will you both keep it down?” the other man, Sancus, growled.
The men’s voices turned into hushed, indiscernible whispers. My ears strained, but it was no use.
I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. I am so fucked.
When I opened them again, a message panned across my vision.
One(1) New Message(s). Would you like to play New Message(s)?
With a swipe over my right brow and a quick tap to my right temple, I selected ‘yes.’ Video footage began playing, and my surroundings were replaced with an image of Metis’ face in his laboratory.
“Red.” His rough voice eased my aching heart. “I have no idea what the bloody damn is going on. Yer team has not returned to Base yet, so neither Hoenir nor I have been debriefed on the status of yer mission. Hopefully, they’ll arrive soon so we can get some damned answers, or we’ll have to plan for the worst. In the meantime, stay alive. I’ve attached a file…” Next to Metis’ cyber eye appeared a blue folder. “…which’ll indicate a new cover story for ya. I am hopin’ it’ll buy ya more time until we are able to extract ya from Imperium’s prison. If it contradicts too much with falsified information you’ve already given, you’ll have to adapt accordingly. I’ll get an extraction plan to ya as soon as I am able, but it could take some time.” Metis pursed his lips, and his good eye softened. “I’m aware ya were not trained for this, but yer smart, Red. If anyone can survive this, it’s you.”
Metis’ face and surroundings faded, replaced by the surrounding jail cell and another prompt.
Open file?
Yes. I selected by tapping my right temple.
I scanned through the file containing Metis’ utterly absurd cover story, and bile rose in my throat at the irony. I was nearly raped, and now Metis wants me to pretend I’m a—
“You could just throw her into the Excelsisan Integration Program.”
I flicked my eyes toward Aletheia.
“What?” the two men questioned in unison.
The Private shrugged. “She is obviously not safe here—no woman is—we don’t know for sure that she is Resistance, so we can’t torture or kill her, and we don’t know where she is from.” The girl looked to me, brown eyes assessing. “Place her in the Integration Program.”
“What’s the Integration Program?” I asked, pretending to scratch at my temple while I prompted the file displayed on my retina to disappear.
Osouf finally walked through the door, pushing past the woman, and the man—who I presumed to be Second Lieutenant Sancus Gillian—was on his heels. He was a dark-haired and freckled-skinned soldier, shorter than both the Lieutenant General and Aletheia.
“It’s a program usually for Media and Humilis minors who are gifted enough to climb the social hierarchy. It is very difficult to be accepted into the program, and the application process is long and tedious,” the Second Lieutenant answered.
Osouf crossed his arms. My pack was strapped over a broad shoulder. “And I can’t just let some woman we know nothing about into Excelsis. I have a city to protect. How about you give us some real answers, like why you have contraband material in your backpack.”
“Contraband material?”
He stepped closer, and I flinched. Osouf’s green eyes softened, probably noticing the trauma reflected in my eyes. He swung the pack around, placed it on the wooden desk across from the cot, and pulled out a white box. “The three pairs of brown-irised contact lenses—they are prohibited in Humilis.”
I looked away.
“My keeper prefers the color.”
“What?” Osouf leaned in closer. The Second Lieutenant shifted, standing at attention while the Private still leaned against the doorway.
I rolled my eyes. “My keeper prefers my eyes to be dark brown.”
He crossed his arms. “And what is your natural eye color?”
Shit. I couldn’t lie to him. What if he asked me to take the contacts out? What if he demanded to see the real color of my eyes?
I bit my lip. “An odd amber color.”
The Lieutenant General’s brows furrowed. “Let’s see.” He stepped closer to me and held out a hand.
One by one, I plucked the contacts from my eyes and placed them in the palm of his hand. There was a shimmer of recognition that flickered across his features, but it was quickly replaced by his soldier’s mask of stern authority. “Interesting…” he muttered.
My heart stammered in my chest. There was a part of me that wanted him to recognize me—to see the small girl he used to run around manors with and terrorize his nanny. But if he did recognize me, then what? There would only be more questions. More problems.
Osouf started closing his palm when I stopped him with a hand, our fingers touching, and my skin burned. “If you don’t mind, Lieutenant General,” I started a little too eagerly, “I would like to continue wearing them. My keeper was able to get a small prescription in them to assist my vision.”
Osouf looked down his nose but uncurled his fingers. I plucked the contacts from his palm to cradle them in mine.
Osouf continued to rummage through my pack, and he pulled out the orange medicine bottle filled with the pills Metis created.
“What are these?” Before I could open my mouth to spout some lie, he shook the bottle to stop me, the pills tapping along the side of the plastic bottle. “I would tell the truth, we took samples. Our lab is processing them as we speak.”
Then why the hell do you need to ask me, Lieutenant General? I wanted to snap. Instead, I swallowed the retort and looked Osouf in his beautiful eyes. “It’s medicine to change the color of my hair.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “Again, my keeper prefers this color.” I fingered my dyed hair, glancing up at the Lieutenant General through my lashes.
His eyes softened slightly. “What is your natural hair color?”
“A muddy blonde.” I stifled a scoff. The Lieutenant General couldn’t verify unless he stripped me down.
“And why would your keeper care so much about how you look? Humilians hardly care about such things.”
I bit my lip and took a deep breath, preparing myself for the lie Metis had concocted for me. “Because Lieutenant General, you are correct. I am not a Humilian woman, and my keeper and I were conducting illicit activity.”
The whole room seemed to still, everything hanging on a breath at my confession.
“The truth is, sir, I am a brothel worker from Media, and we were in Humilis to find new—” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “To find new recruits.”
The two men stared at me.
“Well, shit,” Aletheia murmured.
Sancus shot Aletheia a glare, but Osouf’s eyes remained fixed on mine, searching.
“Forced or by choice?”
“What?”
Osouf sighed. “Are you a sex worker by force or by choice?”
My cheeks heated. “Not by choice, sir.”
“And the people you were ‘recruiting’?”
I looked away, as if ashamed. “Not by choice.”
Osouf’s face drained of color as he shoved my belongings back into my pack and threw it on the cot. “You may keep your things, but you are still under surveillance. You will remain here until—”
“Sir, hasn’t she been through enough?”
The Lieutenant General and I both snapped our attention to Aletheia. Osouf and the Private exchanged knowing glances.
“She would be a good candidate for the Excelsis Integration Program.”
Osouf glanced over a shoulder, and our eyes met. Electricity seemed to spark in the air between us, and his eyes flickered from the energy. The Lieutenant General ran a hand through his sandy hair before he glided toward me and knelt at my feet. He pulled out a key, and in a few swift movements, the Three-Star General unlocked all my chains.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “My apologies. Believe me when I say Major General Clausen will be reprimanded for his actions and will receive adequate punishment for his deeds.” Osouf’s voice was flat, distant.
I nodded, my heart still racing, my chest heated to a flush.
“It’s fine.” My voice was brittle. “It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before,” I lied.
Our eyes were locked on each other, breaths dancing in the empty space between us. Finally, he rose and turned toward the Second Lieutenant and Private.
“Take my speeder and bring her up to First,” Osouf explained as he pulled out a small black object from a pectoral pocket and tossed it to the man.
The Second Lieutenant glanced at me. I rubbed my wrists, raw from the handcuffs.
“Take Sirius with you. You know the code. Make yourselves comfortable.”
The man grabbed Osouf’s shoulder. “Sir, I don’t think—”
“Sancus, take her to First. That’s an order.”
With a tight salute, the Second Lieutenant Sancus Gillian relented. After a dismissal from his commander, Sancus gestured for me to follow him.
I rose from the cot, pack clutched closely to my chest, and hobbled toward the Second Lieutenant.
As I passed Osouf, he gripped my arm. I turned to meet his gaze, and my heart dropped to my stomach as his eyes turned cold. “Do not think for one second you are out of the woods, Ms. Stevens.” He emphasized my name like he knew it was fake. “Every move you make is being watched. Every breath you breathe is a gift I have given you. Any step deemed out of line, and the Second Lieutenant has orders to incapacitate you in whatever measure he deems necessary.”
I swallowed—my only response before the Lieutenant General released me, leaving me breathless. His scent of wood and earth still lingered in the air, and his green eyes were still pierced on my retinas as I exited the cell.
CHAPTER 11
Sirius sat in the back of the vehicle, tail wagging and tongue out like he got an early start on vacation as Second Lieutenant Sancus Gillian and Private Aletheia Gillian led me onto a landing pad jutting out from the huge prison complex. Sancus opened the speeder’s back door for me while Aletheia climbed in the front. The stench of wet dog hit me as soon as I entered the vehicle, which was not as welcoming as Sirius’s sloppy kiss across my nose. I wiped away the saliva, smearing it away with my forearm, and scratched him behind the ears. Sirius’ fur was damp like he had just received a bath, but it was still a comfort that eased my soul. I stifled the urge to hug the beast, to use his comfort to forget about my pain, which was all-consuming.
My ankle.
My heart.
My mind.
I felt like I was splitting at the seams from all the hurt and betrayal in the past few hours.
The ‘speeder’ Osouf mentioned was nothing short of a small aircraft. It was different than the hover vehicles I recalled from my childhood—leaner, not quite as boxy, and it had wings that popped out when Sancus switched it over to flight mode, so instead of just levitating over the ground, the speeder actually flew. I was jerked backward as we shot higher and higher into the sky.
We soared over rural Humilis, then bounded over industrial Media, until we finally reached the shining beauty that was Excelsis. Sancus steered the craft around the Circulum in the Clouds. He pointed to various buildings that glittered and gleamed like they were made of stars, a stark contrast to the brick and concrete buildings I noted as we shot past Media. Parks were littered among the sleek buildings, the grass bright green despite the impending winter. Various birds flew to and fro, but as I studied them more closely, I noticed there was a strict pattern they kept. No, not a pattern—a boundary—like they were fluttering from end to end in an invisible domed bird cage. I remembered Metis informing me about the atmosphere controlling force-field surrounding Excelsis. It was similar to the walls surrounding Imperium’s boundaries, but it stretched like a bubble, completely encasing the highest Circulum.
I felt Aletheia’s dark-brown eyes on me through the wing mirror as Sancus aimed the speeder at a large, glowing purple rectangle within the forcefield. I didn’t meet her gaze as we zoomed right through it, my eyes burning from the bright, amethyst flash as we entered Imperium’s highest Circulum. Sancus drove the vehicle on a small runway before switching it back over to hover mode. There was a quick jerk, and then we cruised through the streets of Excelsis. Sancus rolled down his window. A light, balmy breeze kissed my cheek as I peered out my window, entranced by the soaring buildings and the Excelsian people strolling down the trames.
It had been so long since I had seen so many people.
I gaped at the citizens and their ornate clothes. Most wore Coalition plum, white, or black, but all were heavily embroidered with metallic threads or intricately bejeweled—so different from the dull, scratchy clothes back at Base.
The vehicle slipped to a smooth stop before a tall, glass building.
I met Sancus’ golden-brown eyes through the rearview mirror. “Where are we?” I asked sheepishly, my hand instinctively gripping Sirius’ black fur. I had kept my hand on Sirius’ back throughout the ride, his coarse coat and familiar musky scent keeping me tied to reality instead of slipping into a dark pit whose shadows already clawed at my mind and scratched at my soul.
“Callum’s flat.”
Wait.
“What?” I leaned closer to the soldiers, but Aletheia was already crawling out of the vehicle.
Sancus turned to look at me, his freckled brow crinkled. “What?”
“Who’s flat?”
“Oh, sorry.” Sancus shook his head. “Lieutenant General Osouf’s. We go way back, so I am used to calling him by his first name.”
Aletheia’s door shut, and Sancus extended an arm to open his own.
My eyes widened. “Which is…” I needed to hear him say it one more time.
“Callum…” Sancus paused. “Why?”
Impossible. As much as I tried to deny it to myself in the interrogation room—as hard as I tried to push away any possibility—the reality was that the Lieutenant General was once my best friend.
My vision blurred into a memory of a huge mansion and a small boy welcoming me through an ornate wooden door, his eyes shining in the sun. In my memory, I glanced upward to see a stone wolf.
Direwolf. The word rang in my mind.
The legendary beast was carved on a large marble crest. Its eyes were made of large emeralds, and it appeared to be snarling down on me, teeth bared and threatening, and below its maw were carved letters. Osouf.
I blinked. “Nothing. I apologize. It’s just—” I stammered. “It’s just such an odd name for an Excelsian, don’t you think?”
Gillian’s eyes narrowed, flicking to the rearview mirror to look at me. “I suppose.”
