The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (19 page)

There was a gasp behind them and the
twins twisted around to see a woman standing about five feet tall
with brown hair tightly pinned up and golden-brown eyes. She was
dressed in a white robe fastened with gold buckles. She could not
have been older than forty. The twins sheathed their bloody swords
as the woman ran towards them with her arms open.

“
My
babies!
” she cried as she grasped the
twins in a tight hug. She barely came up to their
chests.

The twins were startled but each
wrapped one arm around her, circling her in a giant hug. “Mother?”
They asked the woman clinging to their waist.

“Of course I am! I prayed to the gods
to let me see you once more and finally they have answered my
plea,” she pulled them down by the collar of their tunics and
kissed both their cheeks.

Rhea’s tears of joy ran down her face
as she turned back towards Lupa to embrace the wolf who brought
back her children. Behind Lupa appeared a soldier dressed in all
black with a gold three-headed dog on his breastplate. Rhea stopped
walking when she saw the soldier. She turned on the spot to face
her children and smiled.

“
At least I got to see you
one last time,” she said as she touched the side of their faces and
looked behind them at Amulius.

Somehow, Amulius got to his feet while
the twins were distracted and now teetered behind them with his
dagger. With the rest of his strength, he pushed the startled twins
out of his way and grabbed Rhea by the shoulder. He drove the
dagger deep into her stomach, smiling victoriously.

Romulus whipped his sword out while
Remus caught their mother as she fell backwards. A loud crash
knocked Romulus off his feet and a booming voice yelled out, “He’s
mine!”

Mars stood seven feet tall
swinging his sword through the air. The black metal of the sword
glistened in the torch light with
Bellipotens
etched in red down the
middle of the blade. The hilt was gold with the handle wrapped in
red leather.

“You have done enough damage to my
family, Amulius! Twice you have tried to kill my children and now
you slay my woman!” In sudden alarm, Mars turned to Rhea. He
pointed a finger at the soldier now standing over Rhea. “Touch her,
Pluto, and so help me I will storm the gates of the underworld to
fetch her myself.”

The twins hadn’t noticed the soldier
standing behind Remus bending over to touch Rhea’s hand. Remus
flinched and covered his mother’s body with his own, protecting her
from the soldier. He attempted to inch his mother away from Pluto
while Romulus scrambled to his feet to help. Pluto clenched his
fist and the boys writhed in pain.

“Enough!
They are not to be touched!” roared
Mars.

“No one is beyond my touch, Mars,”
Pluto said in an eerily calm voice. “Do not challenge me, nephew. I
am the eldest of the three Godly Kings in our pantheon. Your
father, Jupiter, is the youngest of us three. I will put you both
down if I must.”

Amulius fell to his knees, no longer
able bear his weight. Mars was outraged by his uncle’s scolding. He
reached down to pick Amulius up with such ferocity his neck snapped
back, making him look like a ragdoll.

“
You don’t get to die that
easily, Amulius,” Mars growled.

Mars held him in the air with one hand
and slowly pushed his other fist deep into Amulius’ chest. The
dying king howled in pain as his ribs cracked one by one from Mars’
grisly attack. Despite how angry the twins had been with their
uncle, they felt sorry for what their father was doing.

Pluto heaved a sigh,
“Mars, you really must learn to control your temper. It does not
matter to me who I take first, but I
will
take them both. You, of all
gods, should know how a battle ends.”

Pluto glided over to Amulius and
touched his shoulder. Amulius stopped screaming and fell limp. Mars
flung Amulius’ lifeless body off his fist, revealing a gold ball of
light in his clenched hand.

Just as Pluto bent down to touch
Rhea’s hand, Mars threw the ball of light into her chest, making
her entire body shimmer gold. The light grew brighter until the
twins could no longer bear to look at their mother.

When the light faded, Rhea stood with
her hair flowing down past her shoulders, dressed in a crimson toga
with black braids wrapped around her body, emphasizing her curves.
No longer five feet tall, she now matched Mars’ height. She walked
over to Mars and looped her arm around his, gently rubbing his
bicep with her thumb. She smiled down at her children as they
looked at her in amazement. She was a goddess.

“Try to take her now, Uncle,” Mars
confronted Pluto arrogantly.

Pluto sighed heavily and looked upon
Rhea pitifully. “She does not deserve an immortal life full of
misery. She has suffered enough in her lifetime at the hands of
Amulius.” Pluto said in a cool tone, “You have condemned her to an
eternity of war and death. I would have placed her in the Elysian
Fields with her father. Now you have made her a Patron of
Soldiers.”

Pluto shook his head disappointedly at
his nephew and turned towards the door. He stopped just before the
threshold. “Forgive my rudeness,” he said turning back to Rhea, “I
believe congratulations are in order. It is your wedding day. Allow
me to give you a present.”

He opened his arms and slammed them
shut creating a gust of wind that pushed the twins backwards. The
twins checked their bodies for anything unusual; tails, wings,
another set of arms, or horns. There was nothing visible but they
felt different. Silver light expanded out from their chests and
engulfed them. After a few seconds, the light faded and the twins
gawked at Mars and Pluto, frightened about what
happened.

Mars howled with laughter at Pluto’s
‘present’.

Pluto addressed Rhea. He spoke with a
hint of warning combined with pity, “Your children have been
blessed with the essence of the River Styx. They remain immortal,
but they are each other’s weakness and can only be killed by the
other. This is meant as a comfort for you, but a regretful
punishment for my nephew.”

Pluto shook his head disapprovingly
once more then vanished in a puff of silver smoke.

Mars clapped his hands and two golden
crowns appeared on top of the twins’ heads, “You are the Twin Kings
of Alba Longa.” He laughed loudly as he and Rhea shrank down to
their children’s height.

Mars was still laughing as Rhea hugged
her children. She held them both and rested her head on their
shoulders as she squeezed them. She whispered in their ears, “Rule
justly like your grandfather. He was a good man. You were destined
to be here.”

Rhea blew them a kiss then vanished
with Mars.

* * *

Back in Remus’ throne room, the Twin
Kings were calm, no longer fighting Cailean and Brian. Cailean knew
they were running out of time as the rams picked up speed and
force. The banging rang through the room as a constant knocking due
to Cailean’s time spell. If Romulus’ men broke down the door, it
would shatter both the protection and time spells and they would
all be dead.

Cailean sent out a psychic
message to his brother,
Brian, they are
almost through the door. If you can hear me, you need to make this
last memory count
…

Chapter 16

The Blood of
Fate

C
ailean had no idea if his brother could hear him anymore. He
ordered his men to get ready in case Romulus’ soldiers broke down
the door. Remus’ army moved in formation alongside Cailean’s
without orders.

Brian heard Cailean’s warning and
found the final memory they needed the most, the memory of Remus
leaving the palace on Palatine Hill. It had to be short but
painful. Brian decided he would not show them both the same memory
but would switch each other’s memories of Remus leaving.

Brian forced their subconscious minds
to remember the throne room at Palatine Hill. They had ruled there
as Twin Kings for three hundred years. Their power was
unchallengeable and epic. They had never lost a battle, but even
through their war campaigns they were fair and just, as their
mother instructed.

The memory of this night immediately
brought tears to both Remus and Romulus. This was the night they
lost each other…

* * *

“
Remus! I have been
looking for you all night. Come celebrate with me. After all, this
is the night we became kings,” Romulus drunkenly sauntered over to
Remus and threw his arm around his shoulders.

“Whoa! Easy there, Rom,” Remus
steadied his brother, “How many times are we going to celebrate the
murder it took to retrieve the thrones?”

“We didn’t kill old Amulius, Remmy.
Father did. We merely reaped the benefits,” laughed
Romulus.

The twins walked outside into their
courtyard, Romulus released Remus’ shoulder and raised his arms
towards the night sky. “Mother! Can you hear me, Mother? Goddess of
Soldiers, are we not your greatest warriors?”

“Rom, leave mother alone. I’m sure
there is some battle going on somewhere that she needs to
attend.”

Romulus faced his brother and said
with excitement, “Then we should be in it, Remus! For no battle is
great until we ride into the thick of it.”

“Let’s go, Rom. Your royal ass needs
to rest in order to continue the eight day celebration in honor of
ourselves,” Remus said, grabbing his brother’s arm and slinging it
around his neck. He helped him up the stairs where a guard met them
and took Romulus to his room.

* * *

Remus broke off into Romulus’ memory
and joy immediately filled his soul. It began with Romulus
sprinting into Remus’ bedchambers to wake him up. It was the fourth
day of the celebration where the Twin Kings would fight each other.
He could not wait. He loved sparring against his
brother.

Romulus flung open the doors to Remus’
bedroom with a giant smile that pulled at his cheeks. “Wake up,
Remmy!” To his surprise, the bed was empty and not slept
in.

Something was wrong; he felt it in the
pit of his stomach. He searched every room to make sure his
intuition was not wrong. The doors flew off their hinges as he
stormed into the throne room, rage surging through his veins and
heightening his strength. Romulus whipped around and screamed for
his soldiers. He would find whoever kidnapped his brother and
destroy them mercilessly.

Romulus ran to his throne to grab his
necklace and noticed a slight difference. When he picked up the
wolf charm, he held Remus’ half and painfully realized his brother
chose to leave him. He slumped into his throne and stared at Remus’
golden wolf. When the soldiers came into the room, he waved them
off and told them to cancel the celebrations.

“There will never be a celebration of
the Twin Kings again,” Romulus said with detestation, slamming a
closed fist on the arm of his throne.

Lupa skulked out from behind the
thrones. “He loves you, Romulus, but he was never a war raging man.
Peace belongs in his heart, where it has never belonged in
yours.”

“We are the Twins of Mars.
War is
everything
that we are. We are the world’s greatest generals. Do not
tell me peace belongs in his heart. It has never existed in our
life, let alone in his heart,” Romulus snidely retorted.

“Have you never noticed that you are
each other’s opposites? He is peace to your war, calm to your rage,
and logic to your impulse. Just like the halves of that wolf charm,
you complete each other but you were never the same.”

Romulus said nothing as he sat in his
throne, running his fingers over his brother’s charm.

“Grieve your brother, Romulus. You
need to understand that your lives will never be the
same.”

Romulus leaned forward and buried his
face in hands. His shoulders shook as he silently cried into his
palms. Lupa laid her head on Romulus’ knee and licked his hand in
an attempt to comfort him.

* * *

Grief filled Remus’ heart. He had
never known how much him leaving hurt Romulus until he felt it for
himself.

* * *

On the other end, Romulus sunk into
Remus’ memory of the night they parted.

He saw Remus looking over the
courtyard. Remus chuckled as he heard Romulus laughing at his own
jokes as the guard helped him to his room. “Oh Rom, what are you
going to do without me?”

Remus walked somberly towards the
throne room. He went over to the twin thrones, where he saw
Romulus’ half of the wolf charm. He picked up Romulus’ charm and
replaced it with his own.

We are here, Remus,
Brian’s familiar voice echoed in Remus’
head.

The pain in his chest was unbearable
as he headed out of the throne room. He almost could not bring
himself to leave, but three hundred years of war got tiring. As
much as he loved his brother, he needed peace, and Romulus would
never be happy with that. He reached the outer wall of the palace
and saw three of his closest friends waiting for him with a horse:
Brian, Cailean, and his second in command, Lysandros.