The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (47 page)

The third woman clenched her fist and
the waves of pain increased in frequency and forced Anath to seize
on the floor.

“Yes, dear
Grandmother
.
It
is I, Elpis, the Great Queen and Bane of the Gods,” Elpis said with
an evil smirk and looked at The Morrigan out of the corner of her
eye.

Bre took a step back in shock. Images
of the massacre at the Nemeton of Arras and the baby pulled out
from Haley’s stomach raced through her mind. Disturbingly enough,
the memory of Eoghan conceiving the baby replayed over and over
again.

“I’m going to be sick,” Bre said
bringing her hand to her mouth.

The Morrigan waved her
hand and the fire around Anath
disappeared
. Elpis screeched in fury
and sent a gust of wind into Anath when she tried to stand,
knocking her into the corner of the cave. Elpis snapped her fingers
and chains wrapped around Anath’s limbs, waist, and throat, pinning
her to the ground.

As
Anath struggled against her restraints, burn marks sizzled on
her skin and smoke rose up from the chains. Anath whimpered as the
chains singed her perfect skin.

“You witch. She could have
escaped!” Elpis rounded on The Morrigan
.
“Everything would have been
ruined!” Elpis’ hand shook in anger.

The Morrigan
laughed
,
and
suddenly a ring of fire circled Elpis, forcing to her kneel before
the goddess. Elpis did not scream
,
but held her breath and clenched her jaw,
refusing to give The Morrigan pleasure in her pain.

“You are a pathetic child.
I am thousands upon thousands of years older than
you
,
and with
greater power. You only have half of The Power, making you no match
for any god, let alone someone as powerful as me,” The Morrigan
gloated as she enjoyed Elpis’ suffering. “I can end your miserable
existence with a flick of my wrist.”

“Enough!” Eversor stepped
in between The Morrigan and Elpis. “We have a ritual to
perform
,
and you
need to find Breanna and her group so we can complete our
plan.”

The Morrigan glared at
Elpis
,
but nodded
to Eversor. She waved her hand and the fire disappeared.

Elpis stood
up
,
ready to
attack The Morrigan, but Eversor stepped in front of her and
pointed to Anath.

Elpis glared at Anath and held out her
hand to Eversor. He removed a dagger from his belt and placed it in
Elpis’ palm.

Rhea gasped upon seeing the dagger.
“How could they have found that? Oh no, my sweet son.”

“That’s the dagger that killed Mother.
Can it kill other gods?” Bre asked.

Rhea trembled as she said, “It is also
the dagger that killed your parents. It can kill anything it stabs.
A rare poison is injected into the victim when injured by the
blade, a poison that is rarely healed. The dagger was enchanted
centuries ago by the gods to kill Elpis. She was the most powerful
being in the world then and it destroyed her. It is the only blade
that can remove The Power from a vessel.”

Bre and Rhea held their breath as they
watched the horrid scene. Elpis took the dagger and sliced open her
forearm.

When she lifted the dagger, a thin
string of red light dangled from the tip of the blade. Without
hesitation, Elpis yanked Anath’s head back by her hair. Smoke
floated out from behind Anath’s neck as fresh skin burned against
the chains. Elpis then plunged the dagger into Anath’s chest,
piercing her heart. She withdrew the dagger and Anath’s wound
immediately healed. Elpis then sliced her palm open and held her
freshly cut hand on Anath’s forehead and chanted, “I bind one, I
bind you all. I bind one, I bind you all.”

Rhea grabbed Bre’s hand,
“We need to leave,
now
.”

Bre nodded, not wanting to argue with
her panicking grandmother.

Before they left, a baby
cried in the back of the cave.
Bre turned
around to see
The Morrigan
glide
over to a small
cradle and
lift
a
baby to soothe its crying. “There, there, Igraine. It is not time
to wake. You have many years left to sleep. Hush now sweet
babe.”

Bre extended her arm without thinking
and a white light erupted from her palm. Rhea and Bre were yanked
backwards until they woke up against the tree they had been sitting
under.

Rhea gasped, eyes wide
with fear. “Run!” she warned, pulling Bre to feet and
dragging
her
back
up the hill.

* * *

Bre and Rhea returned to the group to
find half of Romulus’ soldiers gone.

“Where did…” Bre started.

Romulus cut Breanna off in a hurry,
“They are at the pass preparing the archers for battle.”

“There will be no archers,” Breanna’s
said authoritatively, unafraid of her uncle.

“Excuse me?” Romulus said, shocked and
unaccustomed to someone speaking to him in that manner.

“Men will be fighting down in the pass
and I will not allow anyone to shoot arrows at us while we are
trying to save your behinds,” Breanna said and jabbed a finger into
her uncle’s chest.

Romulus laughed, “You were
right, Lys, she is feisty. My dear niece, we are not going to shoot
the arrows down into the pit, we are shooting the arrows into the
sky. My scouts have found an unusual amount of gold eagles in the
area. Where the eagles are, Elpis is
surely
to follow.” He winked and
headed towards the pass where they would make their final
stand.

“That ought to be fun. While we’re
fighting, dead birds will be falling on our heads.” Bre folded her
arms across her chest and shook her head as she watched her uncle
walk away.

“That sounded a lot like
Leo. I’m afraid he may have rubbed off on you.” Lysandros smirked
at Bre’s stunned expression
when
she realized how much she sounded like her
brother.

“
Rhea! We must leave. Now!
We are being recalled to Mount Olympus. A lock down of all the gods
has been issued.” Mars appeared next to his wife and grabbed her
arm.

“
That is because Elpis
bound the Phoenicians. With one swish of the dagger she can kill
the entire Phoenician pantheon.” Rhea explained what
they
witnessed in the
vision.

“We must go,” Mars
said, pulling
Rhea
closer to his side.

“Wait! You can’t leave us.
We need your help to defeat Elpis and Eversor. Giving
in to
the lock down will
only ensure their victory,” Cailean shouted, his anger getting the
best of him.

“That is your problem,
Gàidheal
,”
Mars
said
,
pointing a
finger at Cailean then
turning
to Bre. “The fate of the gods and the world are
in your hands, young Phoinix.”

Mars winked at Romulus and proudly
smiled. Before anyone could say another word, Mars and Rhea
disappeared in a puff of red smoke.

“That’s perfect! The gods
abandon us and leave us to fight
their
war!” Cailean yelled at the
sky.

“It is not their
war
;
it is ours.
They should run and hide,” Brian said calmly. “If Elpis acquires a
god from each pantheon and binds them, the world could lose every
god in existence. With the death of each pantheon, its
corresponding civilization will perish. We cannot allow that to
happen
.
Anath
must be saved before the Phoenician pantheon and its culture
are
destroyed.”

“How do you propose we prevent it?”
Lysandros folded his arms and squinted his eyes as a hundred attack
scenarios played out in his head.

“First
, we need to rescue Anath before Elpis kills her.” Brian
pressed his thumb and pointer finger to the bridge of his nose as
he desperately searched his mind for answers.

“But how?” Cailean asked
impatiently.

“I can summon her,” Bre positively
said.

Bre closed her eyes as she
pictured Anath and the cave in her mind. Bre wrinkled her nose as
the smell of damp dirt mixed with burning flesh filled her
nostrils. Thunder rang through the sky and lighting crashed to the
ground. Kneeling on the ground, next to Bre was Anath. The goddess
tried not to move while the chains
were
still wrapped around her. Bre
snapped her fingers and the chains unclasped, falling to the
ground.

Anath stood up, lightly rubbing the
burn marks on her skin. “Thank you, but I must leave. She cannot
find me. The survival of my pantheon depends on my
escape.”

“I am well aware of what is going on,
but…” Bre began but Anath cut her off.

“Listen to me, little…” Anath said but
her voice disappeared when Bre waved her hand.

“Speak when spoken to,”
Bre said glaring at Anath, her voice filled with venom. “You are a
member of the War Council that created this monstrosity. You
condemned Elpis and I to a life of misery. Therefore, you will
listen to me now. You are a goddess and you
will
help us defeat her. I don’t
care if I have to chain myself to you in order to keep you here.
Your kind knows full well we need divine assistance to win.”
Breanna leaned towards Anath,
eyes
narrow with anger, and whispered, “You owe me,
Anath. I saved you from that cave.”

Bre waved her hand and
gave
Anath her
voice
back
.

Anath immediately fired
back at Bre, pointing her finger as she berated
her
.
“You don’t
get it. You have already lost. The gods cannot help you now. Your
brothers are gone, you’ve damaged one of your protectors,” Anath
motioned to Eoghan
,
“Even your grandparents refuse to stand by you.”

Unexpectedly, the air
around the camp electrified
,
causing the hair on
Bre’s
and Anath’s
arms
to stand up. A
green light fell to the ground around the camp. “The Morrigan,” Bre
whispered to herself
.
“She broke through.”

Anath did not seem to notice as she
continued to berate Bre, “I owe you nothing. Be grateful you
possess such power, even half of it.”

“
And you should be
grateful that I do not have that other half, Grandmother,”
Elpis
said and
appeared behind Anath.

The group found themselves
face-to-face with Elpis and Eversor. Eversor folded his arms across
his chest, his
head
held high and smug. Elpis slowly walked towards Anath
and
cast an arrogant
smile as she noticed her grandmother’s trembling burnt hands and
wrists.

In the distance, hundreds of eagles
screeched as they rapidly approached.

Chapter 36

The Meeting of Two
Halves

E
lpis’ eyes flickered to the right where Eoghan stood,
unafraid and purposely staring her in the eyes to start a fight.
Her arrogant smirk turned bright and humorous
.
“Hello, Father.”

A
fire raged in Bre’s chest. It took
all
of her self-control not to lunge
at Elpis.
How dare you address Eoghan that
way?
Bre screamed in her head. Bre tried
to read Elpis’ mind to see what exactly she was planning to do with
group, but all was silent, forebodingly silent.
How?
she asked herself,
How can anyone hide their mind from
me?

“Mmmm,” Elpis closed her eyes and
blissfully smiled as if remembering something sweet. “You may have
my empathic powers, Breanna, but I can see your anger. It radiates
off you in waves of pink passion. Oh, how I have longed for that
fervor.”

“You are nothing but a hungry
warlord,” growled Lysandros.

Lysandros tugged on his
sword but it stuck in its holder. Eversor stood behind Elpis with
two fingers pointed towards
him
.

Elpis’ eyes blazed with
fury at Lysandros’ comment, her eyes wild with
anger,
but she spoke eerily slow,
“Do you want to see what I am hungry for, dear Guardian?” Her
tone
was
clear
and poisonous.

Elpis’ eyes flashed green
and Lysandros folded over, violently coughing. Warm, crimson
blood
spewed onto the
grass.

Elpis cackled at the sight of him,
“Your stomach is disintegrating, Guardian!” She turned to Bre as
she wiped tears of laughter out from under her lashes. “Now, Bre.
Oh, my apologies!” Elpis feigned social indignity and portrayed
sarcastic manners, “May I call you Bre? Lovely! Now Bre, What are
you going to do about this?”