Daughter Trilogy Bundle (129 page)

“
She won’t turn on us, because she’s going to need us to aide her in her reign.  No queen leads an army without generals.  We’ll have a higher place than the Cole’s.  We’ll have the stature we were meant to bask in,” she admonishes.

“
And Gemma?  Is she going to join the betrayal?” he pries, and I realize I hadn’t even given that any thought.

I had only seen the two of them, but it
’s possible I just missed her.  She would have told them about all my other secrets though… right?

“
She would have if you hadn’t forced her into the arms of Ther.  Now she’ll never leave his side, but our position in Rhea’s army will allow us the ability to grant her amnesty.  She won’t fight her own parents, and Ther is the last thing we’re afraid of,” Edgar growls.

Slash
’s head falls back as if his strength is completely gone, and Ava’s smile burns while the earth swirls in her eyes. 

“
It’s done,” she murmurs proudly.  “It’s finally done.  Devin has no clue where she is, and it’ll be too late even if he does show up to try and heal her again.  Summon her,” she orders to Edgar, and my stomach leaps into my throat as he walks over to the koi pond that had seemed so completely harmless on my way in.

From his pocket, he pulls out a piece of black, volcanic rock that resembles a black block of glass and then throws it into the water.  They both smirk as the ground beneath us begins to rattle, a warning of the power confined in the depths of the earth.

Shit.  This is happening.

I stumble slightly, but I keep mum as the crumbling and cracking sound intensifies.  I shiver as the sky turns a burning red and the wind stirs with a wild wrath I hadn
’t been fully prepared for. 

That
’s why I can’t use it.  It’s betrayed me and joined her.

The vines get dangerously close to my secret hiding place as the tornado winds race against them, pushing them to creep upon me.  They bow until they break, and I
’m forced to duck and jump while barely missing their deadly grazes. 

Crap.

Slash is still lying on the ground while wearing my disguise, and I’m almost certain I’ve gotten him killed.  He’s supposed to be trying to sneak out right now.  I told him to get the hell out of dodge if Rhea threatened to show up.

The red sky thunders fiercely as the rain starts to pour, and I suddenly I find the literalness in what I thought to be a metaphor as the lightning slices through the sky to open its veins.  The rain falls in heavy, red, bloody drops, and it splatters to paint the ground.

The bleeding rain.  It’s actual bleeding rain.

The dark swirls of shadows almost rush from the cracks of the shaken earth, and once again I see literal in what I assumed to me a metaphor.

The shadow comes.

Nadia
’s dreams of the shadow is real.  It violently spins into a growing, monstrous storm, and then it condenses into a tight cyclone until suddenly it’s no longer a shadow… It’s her.

The long, red dress dips with a loose dangle at the chest while the haltered top is fitted with thick, golden chains.  Death
’s heart doesn’t compare to the black hue of her hair, and her lips carry the same dark charm in their color.

Her swirling orange and black eyes match that of Safina
’s, and the long slits of her dress rise to her thigh on each side to show off her sleek legs as she struts barefoot over to what she assumes is my corpse.

I brace myself.  If she tries anything, I
’ll have to react whether I’m ready or not. 

Please wake up Aphrodite or Kaos.  One of you needs to be here right now, damn it.

My frantic inner pleas are met with utter silence, and I tremble as I continue to watch the goddess kneeling beside me.

“
So this is her?  The girl foreseen to end my life?  It’s not possible,” she growls, and her voice is almost hollow in itself.

“
Yes,” Ava quickly answers with an eager and slightly fearful tone.

“
So you killed the girl with such ease when she evaded the traps of my daughter and destroyed her twice?  You killed the girl who took down Pyrrha after so many failed attempts by the immortals of our time?” she muses somewhat skeptically.  “How?”

“
Athena’s garden, ma’am.  She came here on her own, and we capitalized on the rare opportunity,” Edgar answers with a stammering boy’s finesse.

“
And her daughter?  How did you kill her?” she inquires, and the blood rushes from my body.

Aster.

“We haven’t,” Ava says while lowering her eyes, and I feel my body go limp with the rushing fear slowly subsiding.

“
What?” Rhea blares.  “You summoned me early?”

“
We had to.  We have no idea where she hid the child, and now they’ll most likely suspect us to be the ones who killed her,” Ava cowardly explains.

“
So you didn’t summon me because you killed the girl prophesied to destroy me and her daughter promised to have even more power than she?  You simply feared for your own lives.  Am I right?” she seethes.

They both stare at the ground shamefully, and Rhea takes a handful of petals from one of the towering beauties behind her.  I cringe when the petals turn to ash beneath her deadly touch, and then she strokes the cheek of her faithful servants.

“You two have been precious.  You did well in delivering information and feeding me with knowledge of the world I had been banished from,” she coos, but there’s an ominous tone in her voice that brings my skin to a crawl.

“
Anything for you, my queen,” Edgar almost whispers, and I can see both of them praising her with their eyes.

Suddenly, their faces darken beneath her touch, and Rhea smiles as the veins in their faces turn black with the poison she
’s pumping through them.

“
It’s so sad you had to disappoint me so close to the finish line.  Perhaps in another life,” she sighs, and they heave loudly as they struggle uselessly to gasp for air. 

I cover my mouth to silence my near squeal that begs to spring free, and then I see her eyes completely glaze over with the volcanic stir as the ground beneath her feet singes and wilts under her strut.

She leaves them to die as she breathes in her chaos, and I stay hidden as she heads toward the ocean while her rain pounds down harder.

I have to act now while her back is turned.  Maybe Aphrodite will come forth then.  I can
’t just let her get away after bringing her here.

“
Adisia!” Devin screams, and I almost lose my breath in frozen fear as he leaps through the garden.

Rhea
’s eyes narrow from the adjacent beachside, and I see Theia stumble to a halt as she stares her down.

“
Theia.  What a long awaited and pleasant surprise,” Rhea murmurs with wicked malice as the sky darkens with swirling cyclones.

“
Fuck!” Kry spews when he gazes upon the too powerful goddess who shouldn’t be here.

No!  I
’m not ready, and I’m the only one who can kill her.  She’ll kill them all!  She’ll kill Devin.  He’s not supposed to fucking be here.

“
No.  No.  No!” Devin screams as tears pour from his eyes, and he jerks the body he thinks is mine from the ground.

I dart out from behind the crouching spot, and his tearstained eyes gush with a feverish flow when he sees me standing in front of him.  He drops Slash to the ground and charges toward me.

“I thought-”

I cover his panicked lips with my finger, but he knocks it away to pull my lips to his.  His trembling breaths rattle against my angst-filled ones, and then I stare over at the woman who still doesn
’t know I’m not dead.

She
’s here now though, and she can’t crawl back into the earth. 

“
Damn you,” Slash growls while rubbing his head.  “That bloody hurt,” he snarls, and then his body shifts into his own.

“
What the fuck have you done?” Gemma blares as she stares at her parents dead on the ground.

“
They were-” Slash starts, but I interrupt him quickly.

“
They tried to stop her from rising,” I lie.  “She doesn’t know I’m alive, and this is our only chance to stop her,” I continue with merciful deceit.

She sobs uncontrollably as she throws her body over the lifeless duo that I never intend to reveal the truth about.  Slash
’s eyes show an acceptance for my sparing words, and Devin’s eyes stare toward the beach at the two titans glowering eye to eye.

“
You were never stronger than me,” Rhea smugly snarks to Theia.

“
I never wanted to be,” Theia murmurs without fear.  “This can go differently than last time,” she adds.

“
What now?” Hale whispers as he steps over the deadly shackles that once bound Slash.

“
I need Aphrodite or Kaos or something,” I whisper back.

Devin
’s lips consume mine again, and this time I feel him provoking the powers within me.  Something stirs from within, and suddenly I feel the power I’ve lacked.

A strong, confident storm brews around me despite the sky it
’s forced to share, and I back away with the white eyes I thought to have abandoned me.

Devin looks worried, but he takes my hand as I begin stalking toward the back of the bitch in red.  Each step takes me farther from the garden, and then smoke bellows free from the hellacious fire consuming the life of death
’s promise inside.

Gemma is circled by the flames, but she doesn
’t care.

Ther rushes over and pulls her mother and father from the fiery blaze, and Gemma collapses back down on them while he consoles her grieving disaster.

Rhea’s eyes jerk to the crackling downfall of Athena’s pride, and she looks shocked to see me walking among the living.

“
Impossible,” she snarls.

“
That’s what everyone keeps saying,” my echoed voice taunts, and then I feel the daring, confident, arrogant tone of Kaos interjecting as well.  “I won’t go that easily.”

She smirks lightly, and then I pull one of her cyclones to my side as the storms brew with more ferociousness when the flames swirl with it in a fiery spiral of death.

Asteria rages throughout me as she bashes her power from side to side to reunite herself with me and my forgotten body. 

“
So what’s it going to be, girl?” she says with her cool, wicked tone.  “Do you wish to kill me or join me?  Though, just because an oracle foresaw my death doesn’t mean you’ll actually succeed in taking my stubborn life.  The earth has been very generous to me these many centuries, and she’s rewarded me with my old powers along with a few new ones.”

I decide to skip the creepy monologue, and the power within me starts to stew, boil, and explode from me in the form of the magnificent white fire I
’ve missed.  It blazes toward her, and then I smile when her winds prove to be an ineffective barrier against my stronger force.

My moment of confidence shatters, though, when my power rattles around her without so much as charring her red dress.  Her smug, wry smirk infuriates me.

“I’m the prodigy of fire, girl,” she taunts.  “Unlike my daughter, I was the straight embodiment of fire, magma, and so very much more.  And to think I almost feared you,” she laughs, and then her arms swirl the vicious winds full of my own blaze.

I try to snuff out my fire, but it has grown too wild in her hands for me to control.  Screams erupt from behind us, and I can hear the battle raging I didn
’t even know existed.

Harpies, sirens, hellhounds, furies, and various other entities have sprung free from the ground to join their puppet master.

Rhea’s wind grows stronger against me, and I fight to keep the white flames from reaching the others.  Warm drips pour from my nose, and the red stain prove it’s blood as it falls to the white sands beneath me.

No.  I can
’t lose to her.

Her laughter breaks free, but a desperate Aphrodite uses her power only meant for her pregnant children as it crumbles the hoard of rabid fiends behind me to their feet.  Rhea is forced to stagger backwards from the unexpected jolt, and I can hear the screeches of the excruciating pain erupting from the vicious fleet.

Jace isn’t here, so he can’t help out with the damn hellhounds, but with them subdued, they wont’ need him as much.  If he’s not here, then Nadia’s vision can’t come true.

“
Do it while they’re down!” Devin yells to the others, and I’m forced to keep all my attention on the unfathomably powerful devil in front of me.

She strains back now, making it all the more impossible for me not to over exert myself, and more blood drips from my nose.  I at least have some faith that she
’s not invincible now though.