The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (25 page)

Breanna coughed and lifted
her hand
as
best
as
she
could towards her animals. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed to them. She
pulled at the grass trying to inch closer but whimpered from the
pain.

Brian detangled her
fingers from the grass
.
“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I need them,” she said in a hushed,
painful voice as if her throat burned to talk.

Brian looked over to the animals and
saw Clover, Leora, Aurora and Whisper each trying to move closer to
Bre.

Alina shook Brian’s
arm
and pleaded
,
“We don’t have time. She is fading. We need to heal her
now.”

Alina placed both of Bre’s
hands across her chest
, and
then held her hands over Bre’s as a blue light
glowed out from
her
palm. The rest of the men
then
placed their hands over Bre and
the same blue light emerged.

A warming sensation
soothed Breanna, and she
closed
her eyes
. Her favorite lullaby her mother used to sing hummed in her
ears. Then
,
coldness took over her body and a gush of warm liquid pulsed
from her mouth. She retched at the metallic taste of her own,
pushing more blood up from her abdomen.

“This isn’t working,” said Brian, his
voice and hands shaking.

Bre felt the warm glow disappear from
her head as Brian stopped his healing spell.

“It has
to
.
She can’t
die. She’s not meant to die,” whimpered Alina.

Nik eyed his mother,
troubled by her choice of words. He caught Cole’s attention with a
nod of his head and mouthed the words,
“
meant to die
?”

Cole shrugged and laid a comforting
hand on his distraught mother.

Bre felt sprinkles of
water on her hand. She forced her tired eyes open to witness her
mother crying. She reached up to touch Alina’s face, but before she
could reach it,
her
hand dropped to the ground and her breathing
stopped.

Alina cradled Breanna’s
head against her chest
and
sobbed into her daughter’s hair, “Not my baby.
Not this way.”

The group whipped around
at the terrifying sound of a wolf baying
.
When Brian turned around, he was
face to face with a giant grey and white she-wolf.

“
Lupa?” Brian
asked
,
startled
by her presence.

“Give me the princess,” she
growled.

Lupa nudged Brian
out
of her way without
waiting for a reply and walked to Alina, still cradling her limp
and broken daughter.

Alina stared the wolf in the eyes,
“Can you save her?”

“No,” Lupa said
bluntly
, looking
over to the motionless animals in the
grass
,
“But I
know who can.”

Alina held out her arms and placed Bre
over Lupa’s back. Lupa bounded over to the four animals that
painfully crawled together in a circle. She shook Bre off her back
in the middle of the circle then quickly returned to Alina’s
side.

The animals were
weak
,
but
they
sat up, each of
their chests glowing in a soft yellow hue that expanded
outward
, encircling
the five of them. No one could watch as the intensity of the
light
grew
.

The night fell silent. There was no
wind, no crickets, and no sound of animals rustling through the
grass. Nature seemed to wait in anticipation.

"How did you find us?" Eoghan
whispered to the o’Conaill brothers.

“Cast
a tracking spell on The Power. All we had to do was follow
the trail, which got strong once we entered Gaul," Cailean
explained.

“Yea
.
She got powerful quickly when The
Power hit her," Eoghan
said as he
tried
to
peek
at
Bre and the animals
. His eyes burned, forcing him to turn
away from the blinding light.

"Remus is dead. It was his half of The
Power you saw. We were the ones who sent it," Brian
added.

Eoghan’s mouth dropped, surprised.
“Did you know he had it?”

“I suspected but I didn’t know until I
glimpsed Remus’ memories,” Brian said, running a hand through his
hair. He turned to look at Alina but shinning feathers of the eagle
caught his attention. He nervously started to pace, whispering to
himself in Gaelic.

Cailean watched his
brother suspiciously
.
“What are you thinking, Bri?”

“
The Birds of Elpis,”
Brian whispered to Cailean and Eoghan.

Cailean’s heart fluttered at the name.
“Are you kidding? The Birds of Elpis?” he accidently
shouted.

Cailean’s exclamation
caught everyone’s attention. They looked between Cailean and Brian
expecting one of them to explain
their
meaning
.

Brian looked puzzled
searching for the right words
.
“The Birds of Elpis
are
a long story.”

“Well give us the short version,
o’Conaill,” Leo said impatiently, holding up a hand to shield his
eyes.

Brian squinted to see what
was happening behind the light but had to look
away
.
“You have
all heard stories of Elpis, the first Queen. Elpis is no bedtime
story…she is a fact. She would use gold eagles for an aerial view
of battles
.
she
could see through their eyes. They were sacred animals under her
reign. It was crime punishable by death to kill one, even by
accident. When Eversor murdered Elpis, a rumor surfaced that the
gold eagles absorbed her spirit. Even to this day, people in her
old kingdom believe she exists in these birds.”

“Are you telling me a dead goddess
lived in this hunk of fowl?” Lysandros asked, disgusted as he poked
the bird with a stick.

“Well
,
an eagle normally keeps attacking
people who are waving swords at it, and they often land on eighteen
year-old girls just to get petted, don’t they?” Leo’s sarcastic
tone surprised no one, but Cole looked impressed with his quick
reaction time.

“She is not just an
eighteen year old girl,” Alina said
,
running her hand through her hair,
tears welling in her eyes.

“What are you saying?” Nik asked,
eyeing his mother suspiciously.

“I was afraid this might happen,”
Alina stood to continue the conversation.

“Your majesty?” Cailean asked
confused.

“When Remus’ Power
transferred to Breanna, I believe Elpis’ spirit awoke in the
eagles. Eversor is not our only concern anymore
.”
Alina shivered with
fear.

“What power?” Nik asked aggressively.
Alina ignored him.

“Does Eversor know about Elpis’
spirit?” Lysandros asked.

“I’m not even sure
what
we
know
about
Elpis’
spirit. I was not around her during her reign. I only know
what Eversor shared with me. Nevertheless, if he does not know
about it, it will not be long until he does. With those two
reunited, it won’t just be Breanna’s new powers they’ll want,”
Brian worried.

Out of the corner of his
eye, Brian saw his sack sway back and forth.
Suddenly
,
something shot out
of
its side and jetted to the center of the light
that surrounded Breanna and her animals.

“The pendant!” Cailean
shouted.

T
he light faded
,
revealing Breanna and the animals back to full health. She
wore a silver dress
,
pinned together by two crimson wolves at the straps of her
shoulders. Remus’ gold wolf
pendant
hung around her neck. Three thinly woven silver
vines rested on top her head with small rubies embedded in every
other leaf. It formed a crown
,
held in place by two strips of hair braided
around the base. Her eyes were bright silver with flecks of
green.

Everyone knew it was
Breanna
,
yet
somehow not quite her. They instinctively bowed as peasants
standing before a queen.

Breanna gestured
that
Eoghan
rise
from the ground.
She greeted him with an affectionate smile and flung her arms
around his neck. He grasped her waist and held her as close as
their bodies would allow.

In his arms, Breanna’s
appearance returned to the outfit she wore when Eoghan rescued her
from the palace. Her dark brown hair tied into a ponytail and her
eyes returned to Eoghan's favorite color of hazel with flecks of
gold, as if nothing
had
ever happened.

A nerve-rattling screech echoed
through the night, startling the group. The eagle came back to life
and dove at Eoghan.

Lupa hurdled over Eoghan’s
head and caught the eagle in her mouth before it could sink its
talons into him. There was no fight; the wolf was too big and too
quick for the eagle
.
One jerk of Lupa’s head and the eagle fell
limp
in the wolf’s
muzzle.

Lupa tossed the dead
bird
aside
and
spit silk feathers out of her mouth. She
lay
down
,
licking her chops and the fur on
her legs
in an attempt
to remove the foul taste of eagle blood.

Lupa coughed and another gold feather
floated out of her mouth. “Ugh, I hate bird, let alone The Birds of
Elpis. Incredibly bitter.”

A puff of black smoke
appeared and a man bent down to examine the dead eagle. Cailean and
Brian instinctively jumped in front of everyone. The man folded the
wings over the bird’s chest and snapped his fingers. Flames rapidly
spread across the eagle’s body. The scene had
the
feeling of an ancient burial
rite.

He turned to Lupa and
said,
“You killed my wife,
mutt…”

Chapter 21

Face to Face

T
he sky lit up a dull pink just above the horizon. Eversor
stood
in front of the
light
, arms folded across his chest,
hiding his face in shadows against the rising run. Behind the
comfort of the shadows, his eyes wandered over Breanna. “So you are
the future Queen, huh? Well I have to say, I expected
better.”

Alina stepped forward,
putting
herself
in front of
Bre
. “I know you. You are the guard I fought at the
palace.”

Eversor gracefully bowed to Alina.
“And you are that queen I thought I killed. What a shame. That
would have been a good death for you. Now that I know who you
really are, I am afraid that you will suffer more than you ever
thought possible.”

Observing
his surroundings, Eversor closed his eyes and
deeply inhaled the rich scent of wheat. "I know this place. Elpis
was always here because of warring tribes."

He bent down to grab a
handful of dirt and rubbed it nostalgically between his fingers.
"Ah, yes, La Tene
. That was
a good war. Your father received many good
soldiers in this war, Alina."

Alina shifted
uncomfortably at the
mention
of Arawn. She was now on Celtic
territory
,
but
did not feel the strength of her father's presence yet.

"Welcome to the lands of your dear
mother, Princess Breanna," Eversor addressed Breanna with open arms
and a smile.

Before Eversor made
another remark, a dagger shot at his chest. He caught it with
unnatural speed and twirled it through his long fingers. “Nice
aim
.
If I were
seconds slower I’d be dead.”

“What a shame,” Leo called out from
the back of the group.

Leo’s tone made it obvious
that the dagger was his. He seemed angry and disappointed
that
his plan
did
not
work
.

Eversor chuckled, “It’s
Leonidas, if I remember correctly. Now Leo
…
may I call you Leo?” Eversor did
not pause for an answer. “You know I am immortal, so why would your
pathetic excuse of a mind think an ordinary dagger would kill
me?”