Metatron was as angry as I had ever seen a Seosten get. Actually, I was pretty sure he was as angry as I'd ever seen anyone get at all, with a possible exception of Maestro when I had ruined his spell to bring the Fomorian world here. And I hadn't actually seen too much of that, not the way I could see the Seosten man right in front of me as he practically turned purple from rage.

  And why wouldn't he be angry? He wasn't just losing Gaia, the prisoner he was supposed to be keeping locked up so she couldn't help wake up Arthur. No, this was so much worse for him and his reputation. Hell, it was pretty bad for his career. Because as it turned out, Gaia wasn’t simply taking those ships away temporarily. She was keeping them, both the fighters and the gunship.

  By that point, Gaia had stood up from the gurney. She was shaky, and very clearly needed some real nutrition, but steady enough to stay on her feet. Her voice remained even as she quietly but very clearly informed the Seosten leader that he wouldn’t get his ships back, ‘unless he wanted to swallow them, piece by piece.’ Which was the moment I realized that Metatron wasn’t the only angry person there. Gaia’s rage might have been more cold and calculated, but it was definitely still right up there with his. Pushing her right then, especially when she had control of all those ships, was probably a bad idea. A fact Metatron realized, probably making him even angrier.

  All I wanted to do was run up and talk to her. And if I wanted that, it was clearly taking everything Avalon had not to grab her adoptive mother and teleport away with her somewhere. She was rigid from the effort of not doing just that, eyes shifting back and forth between Metatron and Gaia. Honestly, in that moment, I genuinely wasn’t sure if she wanted the man to give up and just walk away, or try to push things so she’d have an excuse to fight these bastards a bit more.

  Metatron’s face seemed to twist in on itself a bit in something worse than grimace. It was like there was something deep inside of him that was trying to push its way out, before he got hold of it. As he took a step closer, the guards around him started to follow suit. But he waved them off with an angry snap of his hand before moving forward by himself. His voice betrayed just how furious and barely restrained he was. “Witch, you may think you have the upper hand now, but you are calling down danger, the likes of which you cannot even comprehend, upon this world.”

  Gaia, for her part, met his gaze without flinching. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she replied coolly, “what are you going to do about it? Help imprison me in stasis for a year? Murder my brother? Start a war with his people for not bowing to your authority? Enslave countless civilizations across the universe? Manipulate my species into becoming genocidal monsters, just to make them better disposable weapons in your war? Perhaps, if you truly want me to learn my lesson, when you have my brother killed, you can do so by desecrating my son’s corpse and turning him into a puppet.”

  After letting that penetrate for a couple seconds, she continued. “The time may very well come when I regret how events progress from here. But my soul will be damned to the deepest pits of every hell that has ever been imagined before I ever regret standing between my people and a creature like you. Earth is not yours. Humanity is not yours. If you want our aid in your war, you will negotiate for it. And the first thing on the table from your side will be the list of every single human still alive out on your battle lines, along with an agreement to trade out with volunteers, so they can be brought home to see those who thought them lost. Now, we are leaving. You can clean up here. When you’re done, take that demand back to your people. Let them decide how much they want our help with the Fomorians. And how many resources they can risk losing by doing this the hard way.”

  I could tell that the last thing Metatron wanted to do right then was let us walk away. Maybe he was even thinking about whether his people, especially now that they had been joined by all the troops and officers that had been on those ships, could still take us. They were a pretty big group, and the fact was, we had all been fighting for a while by that point. To say nothing of the fact that the Committee Loyalists and their own people would show up soon. This could get complicated.

  In the end, even though it seemed to be just about the most bitter pill the man had ever had to swallow in his life (which, given he looked like a very old Seosten, was pretty long indeed), he finally exhaled and gave a sharp gesture to his assembled army. “We will take your proposal to the Seraphs. Do not be surprised if their response is the arrival of a fleet to subjugate this entire backwater rock once and for all. We have, as they say, handled you with children’s gloves long enough. It may be time for you to learn just how easy your people have had it, all these years.”

  “Yes, well,” Gaia replied easily, “there must come a time when the frog escapes the pot, or dies.”

  After saying that, she actually glanced over at us and added, “As one of those responsible for your education, I feel I should note that frogs do not truly react that way. The effect being described was only achieved after lobotomizing the animals. In this case, it should simply be taken as a metaphor. Take it from an old witch who put more than her fair share of frogs in pots.”

  I knew what she was doing there. Even now, after everything that had happened and in this very tense situation, Gaia was trying to reassure us by keeping things lighter, making something kind of close to a joke. And the fact that she could do that at all made me feel better than I’d thought possible in that moment. After all that, she was alive. She was awake. She was okay. She was safe. Well, as safe as any of us were right then. At least we were all in the same boat right here.

  That was when I realized Metatron wasn’t glaring at Gaia anymore. Nor was he talking to all the troops assembled around him. No, he was looking at me. Feeling his gaze, I blinked up that way and saw how intently he was staring. There wasn’t anger there though, there was… I couldn’t tell what it was, honestly. But there was recognition of some sort, and definitely some emotions. It was enough to make me reflexively take a step back despite myself, before standing firm. Uh, did we have any encounters with Metatron at one of those rifts that I can’t remember right now?

  After a quick conference amongst themselves, the entire Flique confirmed what I’d thought. None of us had any memory of any interaction with Metatron at any point in any of those rifts. Which didn’t completely eliminate the possibility, of course. There was still a chance that the memory was suppressed. Or worse, that the Flick responsible for that hadn’t survived long enough to make it back and be recombined with me. We already knew one of us -- one of me -- had been erased when Invidia absorbed her. We didn’t have any memories of that, so who was to say it hadn’t happened at some other point, when some other me had encountered Metatron?

  Honestly, I was tempted to just ask the man straight up if he knew me. But before I could work out a good way of doing that, Avalon caught my arm and gave a slight tug. “Chambers, we have to leave.” Her voice was tense, and I could feel the heat in her hand from all that Phoenix power.

  She was right, everyone was backing away from the lot, while Metatron and his people stayed put. And we were leaving in style. Namely, by heading over to these transport beams, like the forcefield elevators back on the Fusion School (gods, how long had it been since I used those?), to be lifted up into the waiting gunship. The very same gunship that Gaia had just so very unceremoniously commandeered. Which probably meant Metatron would be back to glaring at her instead of-- nope, he was still staring at me. I was starting to think he hadn’t blinked at all that entire time, ever since he’d first laid eyes on me. He was just looking at me. It was weird.

  “Why is he looking at you like that?” Avalon asked in a very low, almost inaudible murmur, faced away from the man as she guided me toward the nearest lift beam. She had one of those privacy coins active in her other hand, keeping our conversation secret. And even then, she was still whispering, just to be on the safe side. “What happened between you guys, and when?” She paused briefly before adding, “And just how much do we need to worry about it right now?”

  I answered each of the questions in order. Not that it mattered when every single answer was, “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, and… I don’t know. Honestly, I have no idea why he’s staring at me. I don’t remember any extra interaction with the guy. Maybe he’s heard of me or something? I mean, it’s possible I have a reputation or something. He could be reacting to that.”

  “Oh, you definitely have a reputation.” That was Marian, cheerfully noting the fact as she joined us, along with my dad, Laein, and Miranda. Apparently Avalon had included them in the privacy spell. Maybe she only excluded Metatron’s people. “After everything you’ve done, why wouldn’t you have a rep? But yeah, no idea why he’s staring at you so much. That part’s kinda weird.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Maybe you should ask him,” Randi suggested. “What’s the worst thing he could do, not answer? He can’t really get angrier than he already is. If he could lash out, he would’ve by now.”

  Before I could reply to that, Marian shook her head emphatically. “Nuh uh. Never give your opponent more info than they already have. If you outright tell him that you have no idea why he’s looking at you, that gives him data he didn’t have before. He’ll know for certain that he knows more than you do. I mean, maybe that wouldn’t matter much, but maybe it would. You never… uh, know.”

  “She’s right,” Dad agreed. “If there’s one thing I picked up pretty quickly back when I was doing hostile interviews, you never want to give away how little you actually know. The more they think you already know, the more likely they are to give something away that they wouldn’t otherwise.”

  Yeah, they had a point, obviously. Much as I was tempted to just be upfront about it and try to get answers out of the guy, it was better to do so a little more subtly. Maybe someone else would know if I’d encountered him somewhere before. Like one of the Seosten working for Athena.

  While I was thinking about that, Shiori, Asenath, Percy, and Cerberus joined us right near one of the transport beams. As soon as they came into view, I dismissed the issue of Metatron and all that from my mind for a moment and dashed that way, embracing Percy tightly. “You’re okay!”

  I don’t think anything could’ve surprised Persephone more in that moment. Well, okay, maybe being greeted like that by Metatron himself would’ve done the trick. But still, the point was, she gave a soft gasp before quickly returning the hug, picking me off the ground in the process. “I am quite well indeed, Felicity! I am sorry if you were…” She paused, the words coming slowly, like someone who was speaking a fairly unfamiliar foreign language. “... worried about me?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed, “yes I was.” I knew it was silly. Percy was probably the safest person here. Maybe one of the safest people on the entire planet. Seriously, she was a Revenant inside of Kore’s body. The Olympians had spent a solid amount of time trying to find ways of getting rid of her if they had to, and couldn’t do it. But still, it was possible the Boscher who had flown off with her might’ve been able to teleport her across the galaxy or something, to get her out of the way.

  “We’ll tell you what happened later,” Asenath informed me. She had dirt and blood all over her left side, and that arm looked like it had been mangled pretty badly. It was healing steadily, but by the look of it, she had clearly been messed up. “But he’s dead now. Thanks to Shiori there.”

  My eyes shifted that way, seeing the equally-bloody Shiori. Quickly, I embraced her as well, then Senny, being mindful of that healing arm. There was a lot I wanted to say, and not nearly enough time or privacy (coin or no coin) to say it right then. We had to get out of here before things went sideways yet again. Honestly, the fact that Metatron had shown up with the Seosten ships made me feel less worried about the Committee, since he wouldn’t have come if he thought they’d be spotted by those guys. The Seosten must be doing something to stall them. But still, we really didn’t need to push our luck right now.

  So, we stepped into the transport beam and let ourselves be lifted toward the waiting ship. On the way, as we rose into the air, I glanced over at Metatron himself. Yup, still staring at me. Maybe he blinked while I wasn’t looking at him? Because he sure didn’t at any point when I was watching. He just stared in complete silence, not giving orders, not making threats or promises, just staring. It was like he had zoned out entirely and was lost in some… memory or something?

  I had no idea, and staring at the guy while he stared at me wasn’t helping us get any answers.

  Yeah, Story, who was the active copilot right then, agreed. Maybe he’ll stand still if we ask very politely for permission to possess him and scour his memories for a few minutes? Lest I think it was entirely a joke, she added, He might think he can just mindcrush us and let us have a shot.

  Let’s keep that option on the backburner, I replied. Even if we do have an advantage with you guys, I don’t want to take that sort of risk with a guy that’s eighty bajillion years old. He might not be an Olympian, but he’s survived this long for a reason. And… I dunno, there’s just something about him that really creeps me out, to be honest. I don’t think I wanna dig around in his head. At least not without some pretty hefty protection. Maybe the mental equivalent of a hazmat suit.

  We’d almost risen all the way up into the waiting ship by then. Glancing down, I saw Gaia rising below us, surrounded by Aylen, Gwen, and another dozen Camelot people. All of them were clearly on high alert, making certain the Seosten didn’t try some sniper trick or something. And, I was pretty sure, also subtly helping keep Gaia on her feet. She might’ve been awake right then, but after everything she’d been through, she probably didn’t have that much gas in the tank. If the Seosten thought they might actually be able to pull this out if they pushed things just a little bit more, it could end up getting really violent around here again. None of us needed that right now.

  Then we were in the cargo bay of the ship. Wait, no, this wasn’t a cargo bay. It was some sort of troop deployment chamber. The place was about twenty feet across by fifty feet long, with seats of varying sizes along both walls for soldiers to sit in before being transported down to start an assault. To the right, there was an array of rifles and other weapons mounted to the wall, waiting to be handed out. To the left was an open hatch, and I could see a corridor, along with another hatch on the opposite side leading to a chamber identical to this one. More of the Camelot people were being pulled up into that one, and probably into others along the ship. It really was a big vessel, and, from the look of things, an incredibly well-armed one too. No wonder Metatron was so pissed off about Gaia-- hold on, was this one of his command ships? Maybe even his personal battleship or whatever? Oh jeeze, yeah, he had to be pretty torqued.

  Um, Tabbris piped up, sounding worried, if that’s true, doesn’t that make it even more weird that he was spending all that time staring at you? You’d think he wouldn’t be able to tear his eyes off the woman who was, you know, actually stealing his ship. But it was like he barely cared about that from the moment he spotted you down there. I’m pretty sure he was obsessed with you.

  Stepping out of the way with the others, so Gaia’s group could join us, I grimaced. Yeah, you’re right, that does make it even weirder. And more concerning. But it’s not like this is the first time I’ve had a dangerous and incredibly powerful person strangely focused on me. I mean, on us.

  Story agreed. Exactly. It’s concerning, but we’ll just have to be careful and keep our eyes open.

  The instant Gaia was in the ship, with the lift beam deactivating and the hatch closing behind her, she staggered a bit. Aylen and Gwen quickly caught her, while Avalon moved that way. But she assured us, “I’ll be okay, I promise. Just give me a moment.” She took a couple slow, visible breaths before her eyes closed. I felt the engines kick in, as the ship began to lift higher into the air. “Though I must confess, I’m not entirely certain where we should be going right now.” That came through slightly gritted teeth, while one of her hands tightened into a white-knuckled fist.

  Before anyone else could say anything, it was Gwen who spoke. “Gaia, it’s alright.” Her hand took the other woman’s fist, squeezing it while she assured her, “my people have trained for this. If you disable the security measures, we can take over the ship and fly out of here. Just have the fighters recall to the hangar on autopilot and then you can rest.” She repeated that, a little more firmly. “You can rest, Gaia. Nothing is going to happen to you now. We have you. We have you.” After a brief pause, the woman added, “You’re home, Gaia. You’re with Camelot. You’re home.”

  That moment, I thought, mattered even more than everything Avalon or anyone else could have said. Gaia knew Avalon cared about her, and that she would do anything to help her. This was Gwen, Guinevere, wife of Gaia’s own brother (the brother she had betrayed and started a war against all those centuries ago) reassuring her. This wasn’t just Gwen telling Gaia that she could rest because everyone here had her back. It was so much more. This was Gwen telling Gaia, in those few very deceptively simple words, that she forgave her for all the shit that had happened.

  Gaia’s eyes had opened once more, as she met Gwen’s gaze. A long, silent moment of intense communication passed between them, before she nodded once. “The security is off. The other ships are docking. She’s all… all…” The rest of the sentence never came. Gaia had fallen asleep, slumping limply into Aylen and Avalon’s arms. That had taken everything she had left.

  Immediately, Gwen was giving orders to her people, sending them through the ship to take over the stations and get us out of there before the Seosten realized Gaia wasn’t controlling things anymore. But while she did that, and the rest of us quickly moved out of the way, my attention snapped back to the unconscious woman. Mostly because a glowing figure was stepping out of her. I barely had time to even start to consider freaking out before recognizing who it was.

  “Mama!” Tabbris hopped out of me and embraced the woman. “I didn’t know you were here!”

  Picking her daughter up and holding her close, Sariel nodded. “We didn’t want anyone to know that Gaia needed that much of a boost to keep that going.” Her gaze turned to Avalon and Aylen as they carefully laid the woman down on the gurney once more. “She’ll be okay. She just needs some real rest.”

  That was when she looked at me. Our gazes met, as I felt my stomach twist in on itself. After a long moment of that, Sariel spoke once more. “Hello again, Felicity. I’m glad you made it home.

  “When you’re ready, we should probably have a conversation.”

  Joke Tags: Hey? Flick? It’s Funny You Should Compare Metatron’s Anger To Maestro’s...