VI || undercovers

LOCATION UNKNOWN
Day 11

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Suddenly, I felt a grip on my arm as sharp nails dug deep into my skin and a painful groan sounded, but it wasn't mine. 

When I looked down at my own arms, it was smeared in shimmery amber. There was nothing left in the dead youngling in front of me, not even a single trace of light in its eyes. Her grip on mine was slipping down the length of my forearm. Guilt paid a visit to me again and this time I could feel the burn against every inch of my skin. At the horrific sight of my own doing, I let out a hoarse scream of distress. 

My body jerked and when I opened my eyes again, I appeared in a different room. I turned my head around frantically, with my heart lurched in my throat and every muscle in my body tensed to the verge of snapping. I couldn't remember the last time I ever felt this overwhelming fear and my blood was freezing in my veins when I heard a familiar voice echoing within this small space, "Iva." 

The hairs on the back of my neck rose and I stilled when I realised that my wrists and ankles were tied to the bed. The reluctance I felt was stopping me from turning my head around because I already knew the person who stood beside me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I exhaled disappointingly, "Isaiah."

"Good to know that you still recognise me, beautiful. For now, I want you to keep calm and listen to me first," Isaiah spoke in his deeply accented voice. He kept his voice low to a near whisper and I lifted my head and eyeballed around the room, noticing that there weren't any cameras and there wasn't any one-way glass to monitor my every move. Before I could say any word, Isaiah held onto my hand and added, "They're always watching you. Divine beings don't need surveillance devices if they want to keep you in check."

"Why is a human working with the divine?" I hissed through gritted teeth. "And why you, Isaiah?"

"First, you have to trust me that your presence here is totally out of my expectations. I only found out about you after Olivia told me about it," Isaiah explained while lacing a cold chain on my wrist. He instructed, "Second, you have to keep this bracelet on and never take it off." 

When I saw that it was the white gold chain that Jax gave me, I pulled against the restraint with all my might and refused to let Isaiah wear it on me. Tipping my head back, I glared towards him with all the anger that boiled within me, but I went still when I saw his irises. Isaiah was one of them — divine.

"You—" I gasped, suddenly unable to feel any air in my lungs.

"I meant no harm," Isaiah firmed. "I know what you saw and it's because of the bracelet."

When he removed the bracelet from me, I saw his irises turned from pale grey to obsidian — the colour that resembled mortals. I thought I was imagining things until he wore the bracelet on me again and I saw it all clearly. Unsure, I asked, "What's this bracelet?"

"It works as an amulet," Isaiah replied. "It grants you divine protection from roaming all over my realm." 

"Your realm?"

"You were playing with the children in my wife's garden," Isaiah smiled tenderly at the mention of his wife.

"You're—"

"Your Big Boss," Isaiah chuckled. "Hades."

I was too bewildered to even respond to that revelation. All this while, I had been surrounded by these divine beings without even noticing anything off about them, for crying out loud.

"You must know about Jax, right?" I asked.

Isaiah nodded in silence, moving on to wear my locket necklace around my neck. He only mentioned, "I'm in no place to talk about anything between the both of you. If you have any questions, he's the only one who can speak for himself."

"You're the Ruler of the Underworld," I stated.

"Thanatos and I do not meddle with each other, darling," Isaiah said simply. "I can't stay here for long, or we may be found out."

"I still have many questions." I was almost frantic in trying to hold him back.

"I don't have all the answers to your question because I'm also part of the knowing circle," Isaiah smiled. "I've sent a word out to Jax, and you'll follow Olivia out of here three nights from now."

"Isaiah—"

"Iva, what you see may not be the truth," Isaiah interjected. "All of us have a mission, and we're just in the midst of it, understood?"

I finally had a tad bit of an idea of everything I had witnessed till this point. Nodding slightly, I dropped my gaze to the pale white tiles on the ground and slumped against the bed. Isaiah was about to leave when I asked again, "Am I really Morpheus' daughter?"

"You definitely are."

"He's having fun watching my life gets screwed all over?" I laughed dryly.

"Rather—" Isaiah smiled sadly. "Morpheus had been deep in his sleep since we established the knowing circle. It's been 170 mortal years, darling."

Before I could ask another question, Isaiah stood up and left the room. I was left in this enclosed space, all jittery from claustrophobia and suffocating thoughts. Dropping my gaze, I looked at the white gold chain around my wrist and felt an ache in my heart.

Wife to the God of Death, who would've known?

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LOCATION UNKNOWN
Day 14

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All that Isaiah said was right. Since wearing the bracelet again, I remained dreamless without weird sensations of roaming around the blasted and barren Underworld. I also never dreamt of the dead youngling again — as though nothing had ever happened. Except that the guilt was still rotting through my being, reminding me that it was my own pair of hands that had reaped the life of an innocent.

I opened my eyes again, scanning the familiar and irksome surroundings that were minimally furnished and pungent of antiseptics. They had held me captive for the longest time, and I was growing desperate from hoping that Olivia would turn up. It had been two nights since Isaiah visited but no one stepped into this room and gave me any hope of being rescued.

Frustrated, I hopped off the bed and stood close to the door. The sound of footsteps sounded from the other side, and I felt a wave of fear, knowing that it could be anyone — what if it was those Titans again?

I remained apprehensive until the door slowly creaked ajar and Olivia appeared in sight. She placed a finger on her mouth, gesturing for me to remain silent as she grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me towards her. She whispered, "Stick close to the wall and move to hide away from the surveillance devices."

I nodded in understanding and she moved ahead to leave the room. Holding no expression against her pretty face, Olivia walked normally while holding onto a stack of clothes as though she was fulfilling her duty to bring me fresh sets of clothes. At this point, I had no other choice but to trust her. Sticking my back on the wall, I walked at her pace and followed whenever she took a turn. The ease in my heart started to settle when I knew that Olivia had trusted me enough to follow her through the plan because she never once turned to face me and walked at a pace that I could follow comfortably.

At a final turn, Olivia finally released herself from the tension and gazed towards me. She instructed, "Walk right through the door and don't turn back."

"You're not leaving?" I asked.

"No," Olivia said simply and there was so much more left in the unsaid than all that was spoken. I didn't intend to stay any longer, so I turned and headed for the door. I was one step out when Olivia added, "Please take care of my baby girl, Iva."

The door slid close, and I remained stunned by her words. I couldn't react until a voice from behind jolted me into attention right away, "Iva."

My body jerked sharply towards the voice and my eyes stared right into a speckling pair of greyish-blue eyes. They shone and paled into the shade of the moonlight, and I stopped breathing at the look of a familiar face right ahead of me. I felt a sudden weakness and my legs weren't able to hold me up any longer. My body swayed but a pair of strong arms quickly pulled me towards him, supporting my falling self — but there wasn't anything to support my heart that was tripping over the darned divine attraction.

Frowning at the reminder of all that Coeus said, I used all the strength I had in my body to push myself off his hold. Yet, Jax didn't move a single bit and held me even tighter, saying, "I'll accept your temper anytime later. For now, just bear with me and let me bring you back to Lethe."

The thought of being dragged back to the living nightmare behind me brought some rationality back as I halted all struggle and followed Jax obediently. I was too weak to move any faster, so he bend forward and swept me off the ground. His slightly trembling hands gripped firmly onto me and if I didn't look closely enough, I would've missed the fear he held in his expression.

Did he fear my death leading to his own or did he earnestly fear losing me?

Jax strode fast, walking towards his car as he placed me in the passenger seat and quickly returned to the driver's seat. I pulled on the belt and buckled myself in while Jax wasted no time to kick the engine off and swerved out of the dark, quiet compound.

Yet, the silence was short-lived, and Isaiah was right when he said that the Titans didn't need surveillance devices to know my whereabouts. They could easily track me down because I was after all, still a mortal. Sirens blared deafeningly through the air and Jax rammed harder on the accelerator. He cautioned with alert, "Iva, pick up the gun beneath your seat."

I quickly reached below the seat but didn't manage to pull out the gun that got stuck underneath. Jax reached towards the interface which pulled my seat back and revealed a weapon stash underneath. Wasting no time, I held the SCAR rifle close to me and waited nervously for Jax to give any signal for combat. He was unexpectedly calm when he said, "We're not going to fight until the situation calls for it."

My eyes took a quick glance at the side mirror and noticed that there were at least four cars chasing us from behind. They were catching up fast, surrounding our rear as two cars tried to sandwich us between them. Still, Jax remained unfazed as he rammed the accelerator further and skillfully manoeuvred the car away from their threat. One moment we were on the road and the next moment, Jax took a sharp swerve and drove into a random warehouse.

Sounds of screeching tires and violent gunfire pierced through the air as I sat in the passenger seat with my heart stuck at my throat. My body was already in a weak condition and the sudden rush of adrenaline in my blood nearly caused me to faint right over. I gripped the rifle harder, and my hands were shaking slightly from the exertion.

From the side, Jax said firmly, "Don't be afraid, latreía mou. I'm here." 

a/n.

the rescue happened! it's been a while since i wrote any adrenaline high scenes. i can't wait to get to the next chapter. oh right, are you guys surprised by Isaiah?