The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 45

"What happened with Adriana?" I asked Rosaline. 

We were in the Chaos base, specifically in the room I had recovered in. I was supposed to be sleeping to prepare for our journey tomorrow, but Rosaline had barged in before I could. Apparently, even though it was her first time in this specific base, she knew better than me. (This made sense because this Chaos base was basically a more compact and significantly smaller version of Chaos' castle—which Rosaline knew like the back of her hand.)

The trip back here was pretty uneventful; with the help of the map I was carrying around, Rosaline had made a portal that made us appear close to the Chaos base. The rest of the way was quickly dealt with by riding on Charlotte and Aeschylus, with Psi being lugged over Rosaline's shoulder. (Rosaline didn't look like it, but she could knock out a man seven times her size and then easily carry him.)

Surprisingly, Aeschylus didn't complain about Rosaline. In fact, he admired her. As she was getting on, he bowed his head respectfully and ranted about how finally his rider could be a true representation of Lord Chaos.

I couldn't agree more.

The only reason why we didn't leave within the hour after reaching the Chaos base was because of Psi. He refused to come back to consciousness, even after Rosaline slapped him. So, being the concerned companions we were, we dumped him on a bed in the infirmary, and high-tailed out of there, leaving him as a duty to the doctors.

"The Void soldier?" Rosaline asked, plopping down on a couch with a weary sigh. "After I realized that Psi and you had disappeared along with a hellhound, she said she had dropped something a bit further back in the woods."

"What was it?" I asked. My voice was probably a bit muffled since I was talking through a closed door—I was in the closet, changing my clothes after all of my adventures.

Rosaline still understood me. "I don't know. But I have the feeling she was lying."

"What happened next? Did you capture her?"

"What?" Rosaline said, sounding confused. "Why would I capture her?"

"I'll tell you later. But what happened?"

"She just didn't come back."

"So what did you do?"

"Nothing. I waited. And when she didn't come back, I just went on forward with my journey."

I opened the door just slightly and popped my head out, struggling to get a shirt on that was a size too small as I looked at her incredulously. "Let me get this straight: after losing two of your companions, and then losing your third in quick succession, you didn't think of searching for one you could've found?"

"I kind of forgot about her after a few minutes," Rosaline admitted. "I was more worried about you and what Psi would do in my absence—and I'm glad I did."

"I'm glad you did too." Even though I knew I shouldn't have, I was flattered. 

"Was I not supposed to leave her?" Rosaline asked me curiously.

"She's the one who turned on me and made me hit  Psi, and indirectly made us tumble into the hellhound."

"She betrayed us?!" Rosaline exclaimed. "It makes sense, but still. I shouldn't have left her there." She got up.

I finally managed to yank the shirt over my body and stepped out of the closet. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find her and have a really long and nice talk with her." Because of the way she emphasized it, I doubt it was going to be anything near "nice." In fact, I knew it was going to be entirely the opposite. 

Rosaline took betrayal almost as seriously as I did—and that was quite a feat. Still, however, she did not have control to balance it out, though, in retrospect, I could've counted myself as an aspect of her control.

"Sit back down," I warned her. "You're not going anywhere."

Rosaline looked at me with a sparkle of amusement in her eyes, as though she found it cute that I was trying to lecture her; she was easily ten times as old as me. However, she stayed where she was. "Why?"

"I'm not losing you again."

"You're not going to," she said dismissively, though it was halfhearted like she knew it was a good point. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

I shot her a condescending glance. "More like a few days. We don't have enough time for your shenanigans. Rescuing Omega is our top priority, but it doesn't seem like we've done a lot of rescuing yet."

"How about I beat Adriana up, and you "rescue" her?" she asked hopefully.

"Let's do that on Psi," I suggested.

Rosaline sighed, though this time regretfully. "You know we can't do that."

"Why not?" I asked bitterly. "He's of no use to us."

"I think you know the answer to that."

I did. We needed all the allies we could get. Psi, even though I hated to admit it, was—compared to all of the other Chaos soldiers—the best bet to bring with us to save Omega. We didn't have a choice.

But as I tried to convince Rosaline that we could find someone else, she cut me off. "I wasn't finished with my story."

"Fine," I conceded, taking a seat on the bed. "Go ahead."

"She seemed to be in quite the hurry to get out of there. Which makes sense, after your explanation. But because of this, she dropped something."

I sat up straighter, intrigued. "What was it?"

"This." She pulled out an object.

"It's just a dagger," I groaned, rubbing my eyes tiredly.

Indeed, it was a dagger—but it was unnaturally beautiful. It was made out of Void gold and had engravings made out of a material that seemed not unlike to emerald. It was thin and light, as though it was meant for throwing.

"Not just a dagger," Rosaline countered.

"Then what is it?"

Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Our way to get into Deeplige."