The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (34 page)

Concentrating was
difficult
.
Bre
squinted her eyes to see as the light around her dimmed
further.
Blurry
,
black masses moved towards her family and friends. The clanging of
metal on the ground signified to Bre that her group
had
relinquished their
weapons.

I vant Broters
Tree
.
they kelled
my fater and broter
.
Bounty on zere heads
, Bre’s powers
translated.

Got it!
Cole fiercely cheered
;
but it was too much for Bre. Her
vision went black and
her
body fell limp, numb in her
extremities.

That was all Bre could
handle
, but
it
was enough for the brothers to pick up the translation
key.

“Ah
,
you must be Blythe,” Leo shouted
in Blythe’s native tongue as he handed his sword over to a portly
soldier
,
who then
threw it into a pile of swords on the ground.

“Alard’s son?” Cole
asked
,
also in
the same language as Blythe, “Of the Germanic tribes?”

Startled by the men’s
ability to speak in his native tongue and their realization of who
he was, Blythe loosened his grip around Breanna’s throat.
Bre
only
managed
a faint, jagged gasp
,
but it was more than she received a second ago. The light
around her seemed brighter
,
and the black spots were smaller in her
vision.

“
You kelled my broter,
Boyden, and my fater, Alard.” Blythe shouted.

“That we did, but not
easily. They attacked our lands in the north
.
It was a good death for great
warriors
.”
Nikolaos tried to calm the situation since
Blythe
still held Bre
hostage. “Just release the girl and we will go with
you.”

Nikolaos was glad
that
only his siblings
understood what he said. If Alina
had
heard, she would surely kill
him.

Leo looked stunned at
Nikolaos while Cole shook his head
.
“We hear there is a bounty on our heads.” Cole
added trying to change the subject.

“Aye, zat is vhy two of you vill
live,” Blythe responded as he shifted his stance.

The brothers looked cautiously at each
other and answered in unison, “Two?”

“Aye
.
One vill fight me and die and zuh
oter two vill serve for zuh bounty
.”
Blythe tossed Breanna to the
ground where another soldier restrained her arms.

Blythe reached behind his back and
unclipped a double-headed axe. “Zince, your fater iz not here, I
vill fight and kell the eldest. Now pick your veapon.”

“We are just passing by.
All we wish to do is reach Arras and from there we move on to
Cymru. We don’t want any trouble here,” Brian
added
,
unsure of
the conversation between the brothers and the man who held Bre
hostage.

Blythe spit on the ground at Brian’s
feet. He did not understand Brian either.

Brian was stunned. He
turned towards the brothers and noticed Cole’s slight movement of
his pointer finger
tapping
the side of his head. Brian responded with a
barely detectable head nod, realizing it was the psychic bond
between Breanna and her brothers. He bit his tongue, daring not to
speak again in case it worsened the situation.

One of Blythe’s men pushed
Nikolaos forward towards the pile of weapons. Nikolaos picked up
his own broad sword.
Not
a second later
,
Blythe lunged at Nikolaos. The fighting and
clanging of metal echoed through the silent meadow. Blythe
was
the
smaller
of the two,
standing 6’ tall while Nikolaos was
6’3
”.
Nikolaos
should have had the upper hand, but Blythe’s muscle more than made
up for the height advantage.

Breanna
,
now restrained by her arms instead
of
her
throat,
coughed and gasped as she watched Nik fight
the
battle that got her released.
Alina and the group looked on in horror as they watched the men
battle. Each warrior gave the other cuts
on
their limbs
,
but neither
struck
a fatal wound.

Breanna barely knew
Nikolaos, but it did not matter to her
;
he was family
,
and she would die for family. Now
that she could breathe again, anger boiled in her chest. Before
she
could try
to
summon her powers, the ground shook and the wind went
still.

The men stopped fighting,
scared of the earthquake
, and
the soldier restraining Bre
became startled
and loosened his
grip. Bre
slammed
her elbow into the side of her captor
and
ran in between Leo and Cole, who
watched her cautiously.

“It’s not me, I swear,” Bre answered
their questioning looks.

“No, it’s Alina,”
Lysandros replied fearfully
,
staring at the Etruscan Queen.

“Mother?” All four of Alina’s children
asked, stunned at the power she exuberated.

A loud crack
sounded
and the earth
split in front of Alina, creating a division between the Germanic
soldiers and her group, but more importantly, her
children.

Blythe ranted in his
Germanic language. No one except Bre and the brothers understood
him until a wave of yellow light coursed out from her head and
crashed into everyone else.
She had passed
on the language key to everyone else.

Blythe
jumped over the crack in the ground to continue his fight
with Nik. As he brought his axe above his head
,
he called out to Alina, “I vill
not let cheap tricks of a minor goddess keep me from my
revenge.”

“Uh-oh,” Lysandros’ jaw
dropped as he stared at Alina
. Rage
filled
her eyes as they changed from hazel
to black.

Alina cracked her neck and
narrowed her eyes as she bellowed, “
Cheap
tricks of a minor goddess?
I’ll show you
what cheap tricks I am capable of!”

Just as Blythe lunged at
Nikolaos, another hole appeared with white smoke gushing through
the opening, hurdling Blythe backwards. The rattle of armor filled
the air
,
accompanied by moans of pain and war cries. When Blythe stood
up, he found himself surrounded by Celtic ghost soldiers. The
ground rumbled once more and a howl echoed through the earth. A
large white dog with red ears bounded upward from a newly formed
crack.

“Cnaimh!
Tàmadh
!” a voice erupted
from Alina’s mouth, but it was not her usual sweet tone. It was low
and raspy, almost evil.

The Celtic hellhound
lunged at the Germanic tribe, tearing limbs from bodies while ghost
soldiers sliced them apart. The ghost army and Cnaimh destroyed
Blythe’s soldiers. The bloody
takeover
ended with a
satisfied
howl by
Cnaimh. He trotted proudly back to Alina with a bloodstained
muzzle. In the middle of the soft
,
wheat grass meadow was a blood soaked circle of
dead German
warriors
. Kneeling in the center, stunned at his loss, was their
leader, Blythe.

“My…my men? Who are you?” Blythe
asked, fear shaking his voice.

Alina whistled and the
ghost soldiers vanished into white smoke.
She
clenched her fists and
the
gaps in the
ground closed.

Alina moved closer to the
kneeling soldier. “I am the Daughter of Death
,
the Wielder of the Dead, and
Commander of the earth’s depths. Arawn is my father.” In the
background, Cnaimh howled in respect for his master. “I let you
live so you will spread the word of my coming. I have spared the
lives of many in my
absence
, but now I have returned to
my homeland. I want you to tell of the horrors that I have summoned
here
.
Your story
will be their warning. Tell them to stay away from my family. If I
have summoned the soldiers of the underworld once, I will do it
again. I will spread my carnage upon those who dare cross
me.”

Alina placed her index finger in the
middle of Blythe’s forehead. The color drained from his face,
turning from pink to ash. He gasped for air and clutched at his
chest.

Alina could feel his heart
slow as his lungs struggled to
breathe
. A sickly sight to watch.
Even the brothers, veterans of death and destruction, winced as
their mother
slowly
drained Blythe’s life.

“
Your Majesty,
stop
.
He has been
warned and defeated,” Brian called out, but Alina was too fixated
on Blythe to hear him.

Alina enjoyed the power
she had over his life. She enjoyed being in control, the feeling of
torturing those who would cause her family pain. She stared down at
the dying soldier with a cruel smile as she reveled in his fear.
She had never before used her powers for such a cruel
deed
:
never to
control death. It shocked her how much she loved it.

Breanna was startled by
the amount of fear she had towards her mother.
She feared
her as if Alina
had
attacked her. Her
powers overwhelmed every sense in her body. Bre experienced
Blythe’s terror as he slowly died
from
Alina’s
cruelty. It nauseated her as she
watched and felt every second of his death. Even though her heart
pumped steadily, it felt as if it would soon stop.

Bre took a deep breath to find the
courage to approach her mother. Lysandros reached out and grabbed
her arm, but Bre placed her hand over his as if to say ‘It’s ok, I
can do this.’

“Mother? You’re killing
him. He cannot warn anyone if he is dead,” Bre said softly and
touched her mother’s arm. Bre remembered her mother’s touch as warm
and comforting, but as she stood torturing
Blythe
,
her skin
was freezing
.
It
stung Bre’s skin.

“I can bring him
back,
if
I so
choose.” Alina’s eyes widened as she realized she had the power to
resurrect him and kill him all over again.

“Please, Mother, this isn’t you. This
isn’t how a queen acts,” Breanna pleaded, trying to appeal to her
rational thinking.

The group watched in terror, unsure if
Alina would respond to Bre or take her anger out on her in her
blind state.

“This is how the Queen of
the Damned acts, child,” Alina said coarsely, choking the life out
of Blythe. Breanna
saw
his eyes start to glaze over.

Leora, I need your
help
, Breanna
said psychically
to her
tiger.

Leora purred next to
Alina
and
sent a
warm, calming sensation to her.

Alina’s knees buckled as she was
overwhelmed with loving emotions. She gasped as she looked down at
the almost dead soldier and recoiled her finger from his forehead.
She fell backwards in fear of her own powers.

Lysandros ran to help her
up
,
and Brian
reluctantly healed Blythe.

Alina hid herself in
Lysandros’ arms and buried her face
in
his shoulder. She was too
ashamed; she could not bear to face anyone. She sobbed at the
thought of
frightening
her children and friends.

Lysandros cradled her in
his arms and
gently
rocked back and forth, attempting to soothe himself as much
as Alina. He had always known Alina as a formidable foe to their
enemies but never a merciless bearer of horrid torture. Oh, but how
wrong he was about her gentle exterior.

Breanna grabbed Blythe’s
sword and tossed it in front of him
,
with
Nikolaos behind her
for
back up. “Go, before
I finish you myself. Spread Alina’s warning, because neither she
nor I will give another one.”

Blythe stared at
Bre
from
his
knees, unsure of what to do, too afraid to turn his back on any of
them.