The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (30 page)

She glared at Brian over her shoulder
and he clearly got her message of 'do not tell me what to
do.’

Alina paused for a
moment.
“She is The Queen,”
she finally said.

Leo threw his hands up in
the air
.
“You
said she had a great power
,
not that she was The Queen! Perfect! That is all
we need to add to this mess.”

“Silence,
Leo
.”
Cole shot
him a dirty look.

“There is no greater power than The
Queen,” Alina responded.

“That makes us the council,” Nikolaos
placed his hands behind his head and sighed.

“What do you mean The Queen? What is
the council?” Bre asked anxiously.

“Let me help,” Brian strolled passed
Alina and stopped in front of Bre.

Before Breanna could
protest, Brian held his hands on either side of her temples.
Electricity shot through her body
,
and
she slumped forward onto her
knees.
Someone’s
arms grabbed her waist, pulling her into a cocoon of warmth
as she feebly knelt in the grass.

Chapter 24

The Return
Policy

B
reanna gritted her teeth in pain as images and information
attached themselves as if they were her memories from childhood.
Brian’s power filled in the holes about Elpis, The Power, and
Eversor. Brian dug deep into his own memories to show Bre his
training under Eversor and the stories Eversor told him about his
personal vendetta with the gods.

Brian swayed
unsteadily
,
almost losing his balance from the weakness in his legs. His
power
drained
as
he forced Bre to remember all
of
her dreams from the Blood-Moon terrors that
plagued her birthdays.

Tears
formed
in Bre’s
eyes
:
not from
the pain, but from the
strong
emotions in the memories. The
story
,
now
complete
,
rolled
through her mind like a film sequence.

Bre gasped when Brian let go of her
head.

Brian stumbled backwards,
his legs buckled unable to support him. Cailean caught his brother
and slung Brian’s arm around his neck to
support him.

“The
dreams
…
they were
real. They are not just nightmares. They’re her memories, aren’t
they?” Bre tried to hold back her tears
.
“Poor Elpis. The gods destroyed
her life
and
then
solely blamed her for her actions.”

“Elpis was a furious and powerful
woman. She hunted, attacked, and killed many gods. She was good at
it. The six pantheons feared her and feared what she could do to
the world they sought to protect. She needed to be stopped,
Breanna. Do not pity a woman who earned her death,” Cailean coldy
responded.

“Do you blame her for being angry?”
Eoghan softly interjected.

Bre jerked sideways at the
sound of Eoghan’s voice next to her. She had not felt his firm
embrace around her waist during the ordeal. She did not realize it
was his warmth that supported her. Eoghan’s worried expression and
tight grasp made her blush. She quickly wiggled out of his
clutch
,
but fell
forward onto all fours. Across from her, kneeling on the ground and
rubbing their temples to rid themselves of nasty
headaches,
were her
brothers.

Brian followed Bre’s
quizzical stare and answered her unasked
question
.
“You
and your brothers are connected psychically. Once you learn to
control it,
it
will
become
an advantage over your enemies. Until then
,
you will be invading each other’s
privacy.” Brian’s voice was weak as he tried to catch his
breath
.
“Also, I
am not sure what limitations
it
has, as it has already expanded into reading
others' minds.”

Brian motioned
Cailean
to bring him
back to the fire. Cailean helped his weak brother walk back
to their campsite
,
where Lysandros still sat anxiously watching
the
events
unfold.

All of a sudden,
Bre
started
uncontrollably sobbing. She pulled her legs to her chest,
wrapping her arms around them and buried her face into her
knees.

Eoghan inhaled sharply at
the sight of her. He stared at her
,
too afraid to touch her and unsure of what was
happening until two words, barely above a whisper, escaped her
lips
.
“He’s
gone.”

Bre raised her head. Her tear-reddened
eyes locked with her brothers’, imploring them for help. Nikolaos
was closest. He immediately slid over to her side. Bre fell into
his protective embrace as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled
her onto his lap. The images of the dagger in Remus’ chest and The
Power drawn out from his heart kept replaying in the four siblings
minds.

Leo turned away from the
group, his eyes
stinging
from rising tears. Cole rolled onto his back and
ran his fingers through his hair, slightly pulling at the roots. He
pursed his lips together to control his jagged breaths.

Bre cried harder as her
brothers’ remembered the last time they saw their
father
:
The image
of how mad he was when he banished them to live with the Danes. But
Breanna saw something in her father’s face that the brothers did
not at the time, the concern for his children. The rage in his eyes
and voice was fear of losing them. No parent wants to burry a
child. She had received that same concerned wrath when as a young
girl she rode an unbroken horse and fell, hitting her head on a
rock.

Alina reached down and
swept Bre’s hair from her damp cheeks. Her mother’s touch jerked
Bre out of
her
brothers’ memories.

Alina
sighed
,
but her
breath was jagged as it escaped from her trembling lips. Her
voice
was
weak
and sad as she said, “Now do you understand? The Power is beyond
anything on earth. It is the soul of life itself, but it is also
the soul of your predecessor. The six pantheons of our world
created it to end suffering
:
to give the world new hope. With its rebirth in
our timeline, a life had to be taken. Unfortunately, that life was
your father’s. Life for a life, Breanna, don’t you ever forget that
lesson.”

“But if…if I’m The Queen and you still
have half The Power in you, doesn’t that make you part of The Queen
as well?” Breanna’s voice was low and soft.

“No
.
I am nothing more than
a
vessel. The powers I
have are due to my godly parents. The fairies, my mother’s people,
were entrusted to hide
half of
The Power. They decreed
it
could only be passed down from
one god to another through birth. Arawn and
Rhiannon
,
being
two Celtic gods
,
passed it on to me at my birth. It is why your father and I
had such a strong connection. The two halves of The Power were
drawn each other. I am only keeping it safe until you are ready to
receive it,” Alina responded.

“I thought you were a
demigod? Your mother was a goddess who gave up her throne to marry
a mortal. Pwyll is not a god
,”
Bre stammered.

“No, Sweetheart. My
father, your grandfather, is Arawn, Celtic god of the dead and Lord
of Annwyn. I am a Death Goddess in his court. Think of me as
the
general of a ghost
army. As I said before, this makes you and your brother’s demigods,
immortal so long as you are not wounded beyond magical repair.
Everyone here, with the exception of Eoghan, is a demigod. You
being The Queen makes them your council and one of them your
guardian,” Alina sighed heavily
.
“I should have told you this years
ago.”

“But…” Bre had other questions, but
stopped when Nikolaos’ voice invaded her mind.

Stop, Breanna. You must
understand that she must die in order to give you The Power. Just
like Father
.
Bre
heard Nikolaos’ voice crack
as he said
it
.

A ball formed in Breanna’s
throat as she fought back more tears in her already stinging
eyes
.
I have
already lost father, now I have to lose her too
?
She is a goddess, how could she
die?

The brothers remained silent,
struggling with their own emotions.

“I don’t want this. Let me
give it away. I’ll give it to Eversor
,
or whoever wants
it
.”
Breanna
beseeched her brothers for comfort, but they had none to
give.

“This is your destiny, sweetheart. You
and your power will transcend history,” Alina said and swept Bre’s
her hair behind her ear.

“No,” Bre said quietly, staring at the
ground and shaking her head.

“What do you mean no?” Alina asked
cautiously, knowing her daughter’s defiant mind all too
well.

“No
.
I will not become The Queen.”
Breanna looked Alina directly in the eyes and spoke with
authoritative precision.

Alina pushed her shoulders
back and held her head high. Her eyes narrowed as she slowly
exhaled in an attempt to control her temper. “You
are
The Noble Queen.
Like it or not, Breanna, it is your duty, and you
will
accept it.
That
is how I raised
you. You have come of age now
,
the sole heir to the world
in which
we exist. Now if you would
excuse me, I have a dinner to prepare.” Alina spun on her heels and
stormed back to the fire
.
“Lysandros, those rabbits better be skinned by
the time I get back there.”

The group heard Lysandros’ distant
chuckle and a knife sharpening against a rock.

Breanna
started
after her
mother, wanting to continue the conversation. However, Nikolaos
grabbed her arm
and gave
her a stern look
:
a look her father wore when cross with her.
“There is no need to begin an argument. You now know how her story
will end. Do not make it harder for her. Enjoy the time you have
left.”

Eoghan cleared his throat behind Bre.
Bre furrowed her eyebrows; she had forgotten he was there. Knowing
he was there sent her into a blind rage, her powers boiling in her
chest. She wheeled around and backhanded him so hard he spun
clockwise, facing the other direction.

“You knew! You knew my mother would
die and you kept it from me! You kept everything from me!” Heat
radiated from her body as she screamed at Eoghan.

Bre whipped her hand in
Eoghan’s direction
, sending
a gust of wind
that
flipped
him through the air then slammed
him into the ground
, knocking the wind out
of him
.

Bre heard Leo’s
thoughts,
Ha, serves him right. Get
him
!

“I did not know she would
have to die, Breanna,” Eoghan said through coughs and
gasps
.
“That is
something only soothsayers and your mother’s family
knew
.”
Eoghan
desperately tried to think of something to calm her down. “However,
think of this
.
Her father is Arawn, Celtic Lord of the Underworld. When she
does die
,
she
will be comfortable as Princess of the Dead and will be reunited
with your father.”

It was the wrong thing to
say
.
Breanna lost
all self-control and her powers took over her body. She sent
another gust of wind at Eoghan that slammed him backwards into a
tree.

The force of Bre’s attack left an
Eoghan-sized dent in the tree trunk. Eoghan lay unconscious,
bleeding profusely from the back of his head.

Breanna’s brothers sensed no remorse
from her as The Power surged through her body, feeding her anger.
Cole conjured a ball of water and tossed it at her head, snapping
her out of her power-induced trance.

Bre gasped at the sight of
Eoghan’s crumpled body at the base of the tree and rushed to
Eoghan’s side
.
“Oh, Gods!”