The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (49 page)

“A crazy idea that usually worked,”
added Cailean.

Their conversation was
interrupted by a scream
and
the sound of something being
electrocuted
,
accompanied by a blurry, flickering image of Elpis in the
middle of the pass. The image disappeared seconds later.

“What in the heavens was
that?” Lysandros said as the rest of the group
stared
,
speechless and in shock.

Breanna chuckled. “She tried to
materialize in the valley and found the trap I left for her and
Eversor.”

“Ha! You
cast
a lightning curse.
Well done!” Cailean clapped loudly as he laughed.

“Nicely done, Breanna, but
if we want that dagger
,
that trap needs to come down
,”
Brian
instructed,
pleased with her spell
work.

“Aww, can’t we leave it up for a
little in case she tries again? You have to admit it was
entertaining.” Cailean laughed.

Lysandros chuckled, “You are beginning
to sound like Leo and Cole.”

Cailean grinned at Bre and shrugged
his shoulders. “Nothing wrong with a little humor.”

Bre snapped her fingers in
the direction of the pass “There
.
It is done
;
no more trap.”

“Ok
.
Now that the evil monster from
Tartarus can appear behind our shields, what is the plan to get the
dagger? And how are we going to fight her?” Lysandros asked
impatiently. “Oh! And let’s not forget the last time we fought
Eversor, he multiplied himself!”

“Then we fight each
Eversor the best we can
.
We defeated his clones once before, we can do it
again,” Brian answered resolutely. “Bre, you are the only one who
stands any chance against Elpis. She will first come for Anath.
Stay with her until Elpis shows and we will distract
Eversor.”

Bre nodded at Brian, concealing her
terror as her stomach knotted behind a mask of
conviction.

“She loves Eversor, right? Maybe if I
cast spells on him she will try to deflect them, causing her harm,”
Bre suggested.

“Good idea, but Eversor
has his own magic
,
remember? He can deflect spells all on his
own
;
he doesn’t
need Elpis,” Brian pointed out, smashing any hope she had at
returning the physical and emotional pain Elpis
had
caused her.

Lightning crashed behind
the group and Eversor and Elpis appeared
,
Elpis
slightly charred because of Bre’s
trap.

Bre couldn’t help but smile at the
disheveled woman. Elpis was furious, mainly because she fell for
Bre’s trap. If looks could kill, every one of them would have
dropped dead on the spot.

Elpis pointed a finger at Bre and
calmly warned her, “Bring me Anath and I will let your friends
live.”

Chapter 37

One Advantage

T
huds from the bows echoed as arrows descended
upon
Elpis and Eversor.
Eversor pulled black powder
out of
his pocket and blew it at the archers. Breanna
and Brian tried to summon the wind to blow the dust back at
Eversor
,
but
Elpis swiped her hand and tossed the two into the wall. Before
anyone could stop it, the black cloud disintegrated a batch of
archers.

“Like I said, give me the goddess and
I will let them live…for now.” Elpis’ evil soul glistened in her
eyes, shining through the beauty of her face. She exhibited no
remorse for killing those archers. Her revenge against the gods
poisoned her thoughts to the point of blatant disregard for human
life.

Anath stepped forward. “What happened
to you? You used to be good and pure. You used to help people, not
harm them. Elpis, you were born to stop war.” Anath stretched a
hand out to Elpis, hoping to appeal to whatever humanity remained
in her soul.

“What happened? Did you
honestly ask me that?” Elpis shook with anger as she recoiled from
Anath’s hand. “You killed me, Grandmother. You took me from my
parents then killed me when I got angry about it! You gods were
jealous of my powers
:
jealous I made a life that you wished you could live. You
created this monster,” Elpis pointed to herself, “now you will
die
at its hands
.”

Elpis clenched her fist
and Anath jerked forward
,
as if grabbed by the front of her shirt.
Before
Elpis
pulled Anath closer, Bre yelled out “
Teine
” and a blast of fire hurled
towards Elpis’ chest.

Elpis tried to shield herself but the
blast slammed her into the rock wall of the valley. Elpis stood
with burn marks across her body and the ends of her hair
singed.

“How quickly you forget,
Elpis! If I cannot defend against you, you certainly cannot defend
against me
,”
Bre
bragged and pushed Anath behind her, shielding the
goddess.

Bre cupped a hand in the
air and swirled a finger over her empty palm. Water bubbled from
the ground at Elpis’ feet and coiled around her legs. Elpis tried
to scramble away but it was too late. The water traveled up her
body and rushed into her mouth. She gagged as the stream of water
filled her throat, inhaling
it
into her lungs.
The
liquid
poured out from her nose, continued
under her skin, up to her eyes,
and
then streamed down her cheek from her tear
ducts.

Eversor grabbed another
handful of black powder, ready to blow it at Bre’s friends, but
Whisper sprinted up and slammed his hoof into the ground, causing a
small earthquake. Eversor lost his footing and fell. The powder
flew out
of
his
hand and into the gentle wind that streamed through the pass. Bre
whipped around at Whisper’s commotion and froze as the black
particles swirled over Eversor and Whisper.

Distracted by Whisper,
Bre’s spell on Elpis vanished. Freed from the water, Elpis created
a gust of wind
that
blew the black powder away from Eversor and Whisper before it
disintegrated her husband.
She
then threw an energy ball at Whisper.

“Noo!” Bre screamed, racing towards
Whisper. Suddenly, the purple light of a protection spell wrapped
around Whisper. Behind Whisper, Brian lowered his hand and nodded
at Bre, knowing Bre’s power could not save Whisper from
Elpis.

In retribution, Bre sent a ball of
black light at Eversor but Elpis stepped in front of him. The ball
slammed into her stomach. She clutched her chest, gasping for
air.

Eversor, now back on his feet,
conjured the same double-headed axe he had the last time he fought
Bre.

“Prepare yourselves, boys!” Brian
called out.

Eversor slammed the axe
into the ground, sending a shock wave through the pass. Dust flew
into the air, clouding everyone’s vision. The violent quake made
several archers fall from their caves and
break
their necks on impact. The
sound of their bodies thumping to the ground churned Bre’s stomach.
She prayed she would not find Eoghan’s body amongst the
dead.

When the dust
settled
,
the
group faced over a hundred Eversor clones and one extremely angry
Elpis.

“Well that’s not exactly a fair fight.
Here we go again.” Brian charged at an Eversor clone, starting the
epic battle they were warned about.

Before Brian
reached a clone
, a dead
eagle fell between
them.
Dead birds rained into the pass as the men
fought. Bre’s shield charms fell
;
the last barrier between them and the eagles
failed to protect the ones Bre loved. They were now vulnerable from
the ground and from above.

Unexpectedly, something
weighed
heavy
in
Breanna’s pocket. When she reached inside, the rock she picked up
back at camp the night before warmed her hand.
Then
,
a memory
replayed in her mind like an alarm going off, reminding her of
Arawn’s hint.

“Earthquake on Delos,” Bre whispered
to herself.

The nightmares that
plagued Bre all her life clouded her vision as she held onto the
stone. Arawn mentioned Delos as a key word to trigger the memories
once Bre
had
the
stone. Finally, the memory of when Elpis found her parents appeared
in Bre’s mind. Elpis’ parents lived on Delos.

Bre gripped the stone
tighter and the air cooled around her and Elpis. Small clouds
of
breath
escaped
their mouths. Time stopped around them, halting the battle. Bre
glimpsed her friends, suspended mid-attack.

Only one other person remained
unfrozen…Elpis. She tried to conjure an energy ball to hurl at Bre
but she could not summon her powers.

“How? The Power is not capable of this
while divided,” Elpis said in shock.

Bre smirked, tasting
Elpis’ fear as it dripped down her throat. Bre knew something Elpis
did not, something that gave
her
a dangerous advantage.

“My mother was not mortal.” the ground
shook as Bre’s grip tightened around the onyx stone. “She was the
daughter of Death, Queen of the Dead, and Commander of the Earth’s
depths.”

Elpis stumbled backwards, her breath
jagged in her chest. “She was a daughter of Arawn.”

Bre nodded and a crack
appeared in between the two women. Arawn’s favorite hellhound,
Cnaimh, bounded up next to Bre. The dog slowly circled and growled
at Elpis. Smoke poured out of the crack
,
and suddenly two figures
appeared
.
Elpis
gasped
.

Elpis
spoke, barely above a whisper, as tears dripped down her
face, “Mother? Father?” Elpis fell to her knees and cried at their
feet. “You’re demigods, how can you be dead? Who killed you?” Elpis
wept.

“About a decade ago there
was an earthquake on Delos. Demigods are only immortal so long as
they are not mortally wounded. Hundreds died on Delos from the
destruction
, your
parents among them,” said Bre with an evil smile, the same
evil smile her mother had when using her Celtic powers over the
dead.

Elpis’ parents, Tyreneas
and Arelia, walked towards their crying daughter
,
but Bre clenched the rock tighter.
Suddenly, Remus and Alina appeared in front of Elpis’ parents and
stopped them.

Bre jerked her hand and
yanked the ghosts of Tyreneas and Arelia to her feet. Alina and
Remus confronted Elpis. Alina conjured an energy ball to toss at
her
,
but Arelia’s
pleas for her daughter’s life stopped Alina’s attack.

Remus put a hand on Alina,
gently pushing her behind him
,
and stepped closer to Elpis. He drew his sword
and raised it high above his head, ignoring the desperate screams
of Arelia. As he swung the sword down, Elpis drew the enchanted
dagger and caught Remus’ blade. She deflected his attack then
dodged his back swing.

When Elpis regained her balance, she
lunged at Remus with the dagger. Unsure if the dagger would hurt
her father, Bre summoned Cnaimh to attack. She twirled the rock in
her hand and pulled her parents safely behind her.

Elpis caught the hellhound
in the leg with the dagger and
he
howled in pain. The ground rumbled as Bre’s anger
grew. Her anger forced
it
to respond and
widen
the crack in the
earth
.

When Elpis tried to attack
the injured dog, Bre squeezed the rock
,
and Elpis’ parents shrieked in
pain.

Cnaimh limped back to Alina where she
tended to his wounds.

“Stop! Stop hurting them, please!”
Elpis begged.

“Then remove the binding spell from
Anath,” Bre demanded.

“Never,” Elpis said, disgusted by the
thought.

Bre squeezed the rock
tighter. Elpis’ mother hunched over, making gurgling
noises
,
and her
father clutched his chest as he coughed up dust.

“Remove the spell or I
promise they will suffer an eternity of this torture. I can make
them bleed, I can make them turn to dust, and I can cut them
endlessly with poisonous daggers because I own them.” as Bre spoke
of the tortures, blood spilled out of Arelia’s mouth and Tyreneas
coughed up more dust. Then
,
gashes appeared all over their bodies with green
ooze pouring out from the wounds.