TWENTY
The atmosphere was in a state of panic when Sebastian and the others returned to Temple. Lead Arrows had started arriving. Golden Arrows and Lead Arrows alike were lining the hallways, talking animatedly in corners. There was a thick degree of separation between them, but they didn’t seem as preoccupied by social status as they had been only days ago.
When Aspen and Sebastian led their group in through the front doors of Temple, heads turned around the room and Arrows pointed, whispering urgently to each other. Nodding at a few, Sebastian and the others didn’t dare stop on their way to Psyche’s office. They were met at her office by Guardians who opened it without knocking. Russell moved Alex to a seat in front of Psyche’s desk immediately while the others stood, waiting for Psyche to speak. Russell was still concerned about Alex’s pale complexion. Psyche walked to Alex and knelt in front of her. “Are you okay?”
Alex nodded. “I really am. I’m just tired, and Russell is a worry wart.”
Russell scowled while Psyche chuckled. “He is, but you can’t tell him that. You did us a great service today, Alex, and we will not forget it.” Psyche stood and turned to the Guardians at the door, which stood open. “Go get Glen, and close the door behind you.”
The Guardians nodded and went to carry out her orders. As the door closed, Psyche turned to the rest of the group. “Are all of you alright? Was anyone hurt?”
Heads shook around the room. “We’re fine,” Victoria said. “But Mars…” she hesitated and turned to look at Rogan, who glowered.
Psyche nodded. “Sebastian told me Mars was taken when he called me on the way here. Cupid is sending Guardians to all of Mars’s Temples to bring the Lead Arrows safely into our Temples. Mars’s New York Temple was destroyed.”
Aspen gasped, and Rogan cursed. Sebastian didn’t seem shocked at all. There was a knock at the door, and Glen entered, followed by Venus. Psyche nodded to Venus. “I just finished telling them about New York.”
Venus pursed her lips. “Such a waste. If we don’t step in, Mars’s Temples will be like all Auster’s, his Temple members scattered to the winds.” She turned to Sebastian. “How soon can we start collecting blood for the lab to make into tablets?”
Sebastian shook his head. “We can’t.”
Psyche’s eyes widened as she stepped forward. “Mars didn’t return the notebooks?”
“He claimed to not have them. I looked through the car after he was taken. They weren’t there. Even if he did, they are in the wrong hands now.”
Psyche braced her hands on the edge of her desk, sitting shakily. Venus looked coldly at Rogan and Aspen. “You never saw Mars with the notebooks?”
They both shook their heads. Rogan spoke up. “There wasn’t time. He left straight from the meeting…”
Venus cut him off. “Yes, but there were several minutes between when he was released and when he came to the meeting that he wasn’t accounted for. He was supposedly packing his belongings.”
Sebastian looked up. “Did you search his rooms?”
Venus nodded. “They were clean.”
Psyche took a deep breath, shaking her head. “With the fall of Auster’s empire and the threatening of Mars’s, our world is beginning to show its cracks. If we stop providing services to the mortals, we will soon see a rift in the mortal world as well.”
Alex looked up from her seat. “What kind of ‘rift’?”
Russell looked down at her and swallowed before he turned to Glen. “The kind of thing you’d expect. Fights, murder, thefts. Literally no one will fall in love without us. Not even infatuation.”
Glen blinked. “If there is already war and fighting without your help, why are the Lead Arrows still needed?”
Victoria looked at him. “Without Lead Arrows, one would never fall out of love. They wouldn’t care about anything else but the love they’ve found. They’d ignore their jobs, their kids. There has to be a balance to everything.”
Glen swallowed. “Will this happen to me too?”
Evans looked over at him. “Yes.” Glen met her eyes. They were full of emotion as she continued. “You’ll eventually just not be able to find anything good in the world. You’ll stop wanting to live.”
Sebastian turned to look at Psyche. “I can remember part of the codes. I might still have something at the apartment. The bulk of my most recent research was in the notebooks, but all of my completed research from the last trial is backed up to my computer. I can go get it.”
Aspen walked forward to stand next to him. “I’ll go with you.”
Psyche nodded. “You made a good team before against the demon. Go get whatever you can. Watch each others’ backs. Rogan and I will work on getting the Lead Arrows out of Mars’s Temples and into ours.”
Aspen looked at Psyche. “Mars didn’t do this.”
Psyche nodded. “I know.” She sighed. “I knew in my heart he didn’t. I should have trusted that.”
Rogan looked at Psyche. “Will all of our Temples have to fall?”
Psyche placed a hand on his forearm. “Our hope is if we pull the Lead Arrows out of your Temples and place them under the protection of the Guardians, the demons will stop attacking. Whoever is sending them will see it is useless to send them against empty Temples. We just don’t have enough Guardians to send to all the Lead Arrow Temples. We’d fall short and leave ourselves unguarded.”
Rogan nodded. “Are you investigating Mars’s disappearance?”
“Cupid has gone straight to the place where you left him only minutes after you left. He took a legion of Guardians with him. Sadly, he was not optimistic.”
“Why not?” asked Victoria.
“It seems as though Auster’s powers are being used, which is really wise of his captor. Auster’s powers span the globe. Whoever it is can act from anywhere without being detected.”
Sebastian hesitated before asking the question on everyone’s mind. “What does Jupiter think about all of this?”
“He’s begun interrogating every god under his realm. He started with Pluto in the Underworld, for the obvious reason. But since Pluto is in charge of his own powerful realm, there was little suspicion on him. On top of which, he has been accounted for during all of the attacks.”
Rogan spoke. “He investigated all of you?” Russell turned to gape at Rogan, who shrugged. “It’s a fair question.”
Psyche nodded. “It is. We are going to be, yes, though we are low on the list. It’s our realm that is being attacked.”
“As well as ours,” Rogan said.
Psyche nodded. “I consider them as one, since one cannot survive without the other. The survival us all weighs on our ability to safeguard all Arrows from these attacks and maintain balance in the mortal world.” She turned to Sebastian. “We need to get information so we can start, Sebastian.”
Sebastian nodded and turned, Aspen joining him as they crossed the threshold. They didn’t speak again until they were out of Temple, away from the inquisitive eyes and ears of other Arrows. Sebastian turned to look at her. “What do you think?”
Aspen turned to look at Sebastian. “Mars was being threatened.”
Sebastian turned to her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Rogan was telling me on the way to the airport he often heard a female voice in the neighboring room where Mars was being held in your Temple. He couldn’t make out the owner of the voice, but it was a woman’s. She was usually arguing with him.”
Sebastian frowned at the sidewalk, considering this as they made their way to his apartment, flanked by two guardians. “And then when he was taken today, he said ‘stop her’.”
Aspen nodded. “Rogan said there was always a wind whenever the voice came to Mars. It would rattle his window. The actual person never was there. The door never opened or closed. Plus, whoever it was would have to get past Guardians stationed outside his door.”
Sebastian turned the corner onto the street where he lived. “Whoever it is isn’t stupid. Whatever she said to Mars must have scared him because he never confided in any of us.”
“He must not have given in to her, because she’s started attacking his Temples.”
Sebastian nodded, slipping his key into the front door of his apartment building. “He didn’t heed the threat, and now he’s being punished.”
Aspen swallowed as she looked up into Sebastian’s face. “What do you think she could do with the powers of the god of war in her control?”
Sebastian turned to look at her. “I don’t know, but it’s going to be a lot worse if the mortals are in a state of panic. They have too many weapons of mass destruction to be allowed to be emotionally unbalanced for any length of time.”
He entered the building, holding the door for Aspen. They took the elevator to the third floor where Sebastian’s apartment was located. A few feet from the elevator entrance, Sebastian came to an abrupt halt, holding up a hand to stop Aspen. They both reached for their guns, holding their weapons as they walked carefully down the hallway toward Sebastian’s apartment door, which was slightly ajar. Aspen took up a position on one side of the door while Sebastian took the other. Nodding silently at Aspen, he pushed the door open slowly with one hand while Aspen covered the area with her gun. Sebastian glanced over his shoulder into the apartment. He slipped silently through the door with Aspen behind him. They worked their way methodically through the apartment. Sebastian tired to ignore the destruction and wreckage of his place. Drawers were emptied, cushions slashed open. Glass was shattered in the kitchen. The security alarm’s wires hung from the wall where they had been snipped. Coming through the apartment from opposite directions, Sebastian and Aspen met in the living room, near a window which was open.
Aspen swallowed before speaking. “They came in through the window, left through the door?”
“Yes. You can see by the treads on the carpet.” He walked to the open window and looked out. There was no hand or footholds on the side of the building. He glanced at his feet on damp carpet as he faced her again. “Did it rain yesterday?”
Aspen shook her head. “Not that I remember.”
“This happened more than a day ago. Someone came here when Russell and I left town, after I got the message here about where you were.”
“You think someone was watching you?”
“There is no forced entry. Whoever it is came right in through the window, using wind. There’s no way to climb up here. Then, knowing I wasn’t here, they just walked in and disabled the security system.” He walked into the office, and Aspen followed. She carefully stepped around the papers and books scattered all over the floor. Sebastian walked to his desk and opened the drawers, which were almost all empty. He checked the contents, pulling some papers out and making a pile of them on the top of the desk. Kneeling on the floor, he opened the panel where the computer tower was stored. Glancing at the floor, he cursed before he rose up and placed the tower on the desk. It was dripping.
Aspen raised her eyebrows. “They put water on it?”
Sebastian nodded. “It’s password protected. They must have realized they weren’t going to get anything out of it and tried to destroy it. Russell works with computers a lot, I’ll take the hard drive to him, give him the passwords.” Sebastian popped open the cover and pulled the hard drive from its slot.
Aspen glanced around the room. “You think whoever was here was the same one that took your notebooks?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Evidence here points to the same person. They used Auster’s powers to get in. If it was the same person, though, that’s really bad for us.” Aspen looked at him silently until he turned to face her. “Whoever took the notebooks in Temple had to be able to get past security. Mars was invited, so he could go wherever he wished, but no one without Arrow blood can enter our Temples uninvited. If Mars didn’t take those notebooks, it could only mean someone else within the Temple is involved.”
Aspen nodded. “And that same someone would know when you were leaving and where you were going.”
“Exactly.”
Aspen shivered. “Mars is right about it being dangerous everywhere right now. No wonder he felt the need to run.” She glanced up at Sebastian. “Why do you trust me?”
Sebastian looked down at her in surprise. “You were nearly drained when I found you, steps away from going to the Afterlife.”
“You think I owe you?”
Sebastian shook his head. “Not at all. You were willing to sacrifice yourself for the Arrows. There are few people I could trust that much.”
Aspen smiled, in spite of herself.
Sebastian lifted a hand and brushed it on her cheek, pushing his lips to her brow. “You’re not what I expected at all.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sebastian laughed. “It’s okay. I meant that in a good way.”
Aspen shook her head, looking up at him. “No, I mean I’m sorry I left Temple like I did, following Mars.”
Sebastian shrugged. “No apology needed. The one thing we agree on is we are obligated to support our god. It’s also the one thing that can tear us apart.”
Aspen closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She didn’t like admitting someone reached her. In the business of being an Arrow, you couldn’t afford to invest your emotions. She swallowed as she turned and opened her eyes, walking toward the door of the office. She resisted the urge to run her shaking hand over her heart in an effort to push it back into her chest where it belonged.
Sebastian exhaled as she walked away, thinking some distance was safer. Who knew where they would be tomorrow?