Omega by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online Page B

vacate the forest around me. The sound of machines
wasn’t present, but the animals were fleeing something. I had no
idea where to go once I left the forest and remained where I was,
on the verge of panicking yet knowing that was the worst thing to
do in a crisis.
    I miss Herakles. He would know what to do and where to
go.
    Twenty minutes later, the unmistakable sound
of someone running through the forest reached me. I rose and
hurried to a hiding spot close by, anxious to see who followed.
    “ Lyssa!” Niko’s quiet cry
reached me before he did. “Or … Alice. Whatever your name is. We
need to go. Now.”
    I peeked at him through the brush. He
reached the tree stump, his gaze sweeping expertly around the area.
He was sweating – and bloody. One hand was caked in it and there
was also blood on his shirt.
    “ C’mon, you little
shit!”
    With some hesitation, I stood. “Are you
hurt?”
    He whirled to face me. “No.”
    “ Is someone else hurt?” I
asked.
    “ You could say that.” He
strode over the cord towards the lake, oblivious to the importance
of the red boundary marking the edge of my world.
    I walked until my toes reached the rope,
torn about leaving. “Shouldn’t we wait for Father Ellis?”
    Niko didn’t stop. “No.”
    “ He can’t move as fast as
us.”
    “ What is your
name?”
    “ Alessandra.”
    He spun to face me, backpedaling as he
spoke. “They’re gone, Alessandra. They took a different route out
of here.”
    My jaw dropped open. “They left me?”
    “ These people pursuing you
– pursuing us –
aren’t the kind of people I’m used to dealing with. This is SISA.
They have the gods’ blessings to kill fast and without mercy.
Running was the smartest thing for them to do.” He wiped his
bloodied hand on his pants. “You can come with me now, and we’ll
make it out of here by the skin of our teeth, or you can stay right
there and wait for SISA to get you.”
    Gone. In all my preparations for the
apocalypse, or perhaps this incident, I understood being alone to
be a part of the scenario but wasn’t quite able to wrap my head
around it any more than I could the fact I was allegedly important.
How could I go from being constantly surrounded by forty people to
… alone?
    Why didn’t they take me
with them? This hurt more than
anything.
    “ Fine. Good luck.” He
turned away.
    “ Wait!” I cried and
started forward.
    Realizing what I had done, I twisted to look
at the red cord boundary I had spent most of my life avoiding. I
was leaving it, the safety of the forest, my past, my home …
basically everything behind me.
    It was scary and exhilarating all at
once.
    Niko wasn’t waiting.
    Unable to stop and contemplate the world
behind me, I charged ahead and ran to his side. My eyes went to the
sky automatically, and I sought whatever creature had tracked me
last night. Reminded of the rope around my wrist, I wished I’d
thought to ask more questions about its power, about what I
supposedly was, about what in the name of Holy Olympus was going
on.
    And … how could the priests just leave me
with a mercenary they didn’t trust? How was I so important – yet
not worthy of a farewell?
    The idea they were watching over me out of
obligation and had never wanted anything to do with me stung hard.
I kind of considered them to be my extended family, however
dysfunctional that was. I never suspected they didn’t feel the
same.
    “ Where are we going?” I
asked Niko to take my mind off the pain.
    “ You tell me. Where did
your priests want you to go?”
    I was quiet.
    Niko glanced at me. “They didn’t tell you,
either, huh? Great. Well, you’re not coming home with me. I don’t
even think I can go home if you’re important enough for teams of
SISA special forces to smash through the forest.”
    “ I don’t know where to go,
Niko.”
    “ Just … pick a place. It
won’t matter so long as it’s away from here.”
    “ Washington
DC.”
    “ Worst place to be when
the