The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (42 page)

“
Very wise, young one,”
Andraste replied. “I am the goddess of Celtic Magic and Divination.
I felt that you should know a part of your future.” Andraste
answered bluntly.

“
You are the reason for my
nightmares growing up, aren’t you?” Bre’s power
boiled
in her veins.

“No
.
The Blood-Moon is connected to The
Queen at birth. It provided The Queen’s life in order
to
educate and prepare
you for your choice
:
a choice you
must
make without bias. I came to give you clarity.
You can learn from your future just as you can learn from your
past,” Andraste said and walked over to
a
smoldering stump.

“Oh, no
.
Did I do that?” Bre stared at the
half-missing tree. The beautiful field they fell asleep in was now
burnt, just like the battlefield in her dream. “Did that happen
because of what I saw in my dream?”

“It is not what you saw,
My Queen. It is what you can
,
and will
,
do.” Andraste waved her hand and the tree and
field were whole again.

Panicked
, Bre grabbed Nikolaos’ arm,
digging her nails into his skin. “What woke you up?”

“There was a purple light
around the tent
, and
then I felt the ground shake. I immediately got up and saw
you shooting gold light towards her,” Nikolaos replied, nodding at
Andraste.

“
I protected them, didn’t
I?” Bre turned back to Andraste, “Just like in my dream, with those
other men. The princess in my dream is me, but who are those
men?”

“Spoilers
.
There are some events that you must not be aware of until
they happen.” Andraste lazily picked an apple from the tree and bit
into it.

“Then what is the point in
showing me?” Bre asked
,
agitated.

“So you will make the right choices.
In order to have the future you want, you need to make the right
sacrifices now.” Andraste tossed her half-eaten apple to the ground
where a rabbit nibbled on it.

“That future doesn’t seem
so bright
.
Maybe
I don’t want it
,”
Bre said defiantly.

“You don’t understand.
That future may or may not end the way I showed you. Its ending
depends on what you decide now. Make the right
decisions
,
and
maybe your future will have a brighter outcome. Don’t make any
decisions and it could end darker.” Andraste shrugged
and
then picked up the
rabbit, stroking its soft fur. “Choices will
be necessary
sooner than you
wish
. Choose wisely
.” with that final warning, she disappeared in a puff of
black smoke.

“Will someone please explain what just
happened?” Bre demanded, facing Brian and Cailean.

Brian pressed his thumb and pointer
finger against the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Andraste
is trying to help us in her own special way.”

“That was special alright.
She could have gotten us killed making Bre use her powers like
that.” Leo sheathed his sword and headed back to his tent.
“Well
,
now that
we know our future will be bright and perfect, I’m going back to
sleep.”

“Leo is right.” Nikolaos
paused
,
surprised
to hear himself say
that
.
“We all need to get rest. Apparently there is a
lot left to figure out.”

Nik and Cole walked back to their
tents.

“Come on, Bre,”
Eoghan
said and
held out his hand.

“I can’t let that go. How
am I supposed to sleep knowing I
could
kill you all in my dreams?”
Bre threw her arms up in the air as Eoghan walked behind her and
pushed her back to camp.

“I can whip up a temporary
binding spell that should keep your powers in check through the
night,” Cailean said
, throwing
his arm around Bre’s shoulder.

Brian walked back to his tent, afraid
of what the right choices meant and if Bre could handle them. He
decided to channel the future to understand Andraste’s concern. He
hid himself in his tent and meditated in front of a bowl of
water.

In Breanna’s tent,
Cailean
cast
a
binding spell that instantly made Bre
fall
asleep
.

“I thought it was a binding spell, not
a sleeping spell,” Eoghan raised his eyebrows at
Cailean.

“I put a little
more
oomph
behind
it,” Cailean smiled
.
“Get some sleep, Eoghan. We’ve had a rough couple of
days
,
and
more
are
yet to
come,” Cailean said
. He
patted Eoghan’s shoulder
and walked
back to his
tent.

Eoghan watched Bre as she slept and
gently stroked her hair. “How could I leave you? You need
me.”

Tonight was not the first time Eoghan
met Andraste. Five mornings ago, when Bre had gone looking for
Eoghan and he refused tell her where he went, it was because
Andraste warned him not to.

Andraste surprised Eoghan after he
decided to survey their surroundings. She left him with a word of
warning and showed him an image of two graves. One tombstone marked
with his name and the other marked with Bre’s. Andraste explained
that if he walked away from the fight she would grant him
immortality. He could then live to fight many wars alongside Brian
and Cailean.

However, it meant Bre would face
Eversor and Elpis alone. It also meant that she would die without
him by her side. Andraste warned that if he stayed with Bre, he was
sealing his own death. Her words echoed through his memory, “Your
future is open, young Gàidheal. Forsake The Queen to fight for the
world, or die beside her and the world will suffer your
loss.”

It pulled at his guts to think that he
would have to leave Bre.

Bre shivered in her
sleep
,
and Eoghan
instinctively lied down next to her to keep her warm. Feeling his
warmth, Bre inched closer
,
burying her face in his chest. He smiled and
pulled her tight against his body. Eoghan drifted to sleep holding
Bre, nestling in her silky hair.

* * *

A couple tents over, Brian woke from
his meditation in a sweat. He hurried outside and vomited behind
the nearest tree. The chilly night air felt good against his hot
skin and calmed his stomach. He walked to the fire where Andraste
sat, waiting for him.

“You knew this was never going to end
well,” Brian accused, irritated with the goddess.

“I know everything, Brian. I am a
divination goddess,” Andraste said flatly, her voice void of all
emotion, “And you should know by now that this will never end, let
alone end well. Otherwise, there was no point in creating The Power
all those years ago.”

“She is a child.” Brian looked over at
Bre’s tent.

“She is no child. At
twenty-one she is five years past being of age. She is Queen of two
lands and heir to the world’s throne. Her domain is wherever she
walks. You know this, Brian. Why are you playing
the
fool?” Andraste kept
her tone light and inquisitive as she stroked a sleeping rabbit in
her lap.

“She will die without the
gods’ help
.
How
will her death help the world?” Brian asked
,
frustrated.

“She will die many
deaths
,
and her
sacrifices will help the world. The Queen is a lonely and sorrowful
being that is born into a deadly life. I do not know any who would
trade places with her,” Andraste spoke.

Brian exhaled and slumped
forward, gesturing his surrender. “What do I have to do?” His
voice
was
void of
hope.

“Help her make the right
decisions. The future depends on
it
.”

“Yes, you keep saying that, but what
decisions?” Brian cracked his neck, trying to control his rising
temper.

Andraste did not answer but merely
looked over at Nikolaos’s, Cole’s, and Leo’s tents.

“No! There is no way I can do that!”
Brian stood up, outraged.

“Then the world will suffer Elpis’
victory and the gods will be no more,” Andraste said.

“With the brothers’ help we can defeat
Eversor and Elpis. If we remove them from the fight, we will
certainly lose,” Brian argued with the goddess.

“Heed my words, o’Conaill.
You will not succeed in this fight regardless. Make the right
choices and some may live to fight again. The Phoinix must burn.
You must make your decision within three days’ time.” Andraste
stood
and
gently
touched his arm, giving him a
pitiful
look before
disappearing.

Brian knocked over the bench he was
sitting on and knelt down next to the fire. Peeking out from his
tent was Cailean, who overheard Andraste and Brian’s conversation.
He called out to his brother, “Bri, you alright?”

Brian’s head jerked
towards Cailean’s tent, startled by his brother’s voice. “I’m fine,
Cail. Just heading back to bed. Get some rest
,
we need to talk in the morning.”
Brian walked back to his tent and closed the flap.

Cailean went back to
bed
,
but his mind
raced with Andraste’s warning. He knew Brian would never take Bre’s
brothers away. He could not make that decision. Brian was a
good
,
moral man
and looked at Bre as his own daughter
.
There was no way he could hurt her
like that.

Cailean had to make this
decision for his brother. He decided to sleep
, hoping
his mind would be clearer
in the morning.

Come morning, his mind was far too
clear.

Chapter 32

A Brother’s
Decision

T
he following morning, Brian woke first and headed to the
stream for a swim, trying to clear his mind. He shivered as
Andraste’s unnerving warning replayed in his mind. How could he
explain everything to the group and make them
understand?

Brian, always a calculated
individual, absentmindedly walked to the stream with a
thousand
thoughts and
questions swarming through his mind. “I am too emotionally
involved. I cannot get rid of the brothers
,
my best friend’s sons. How would I
even be able to do it? They are immortal. I could not kill them,
there has to be another way. How do I save them, but remove
them?”

Brian dove into the cool
water. The crisp stream refreshed his senses. Further upstream, a
mother bear taught her cubs how to fish. She drove her head into
the water and
reemerged
with a fish flopping in her muzzle. As her cubs
tried to imitate her, they tumbled over and completely submerged
themselves into the stream.

Brian laughed as the
innocent cubs frolicked with each other, learning from the other’s
mistakes of how to swim and where to jump. One cub jumped too far
and struggled to get back to his family
,
when suddenly another cub bit,
clawed, and nudged its sibling back to safety. Mama bear finally
herded them back to shore where they promptly ate their breakfast.
She stood watch as her babies tore into their fish.

As Brian watched the
mother bear shield her cubs from harm, a revelation broke
through
his dulled
senses. “That’s it!” he yelled to himself. Mama-bear grunted at his
startling outburst. “I am the oldest
.
It’s my job; they’re my cubs. They
will
all
survive
the pending battle and the brothers
will
be a part of it.” Brian
commanded as if addressing Mother Nature.

Brian waded back to shore, threw his
clothes on, and ran back to camp to wake everyone. His decision was
final and he would fight anyone who told him otherwise, even the
gods.

When Brian arrived back at camp,
Cailean had rekindled the fire with a fresh kill of rabbits
roasting over the flames.

“Cail!” Brian walked over
to him with a big smile
.
“Nice choice in breakfast, little
brother.”

“Good morning, Bri. I wondered where
you went off. I was up early. I couldn’t sleep,” Cailean rubbed the
back of his neck and averted eye contact.

Brian honed in on Cailean and stared
him down. “What’s wrong, Cail?”