The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (44 page)

“Yes
,
and I saw your face when she told
you that you would have to make the decision about the brothers. I
did not want you to go through that. I thought I would be saving
you from how I feel now!” Cailean shouted back.

“I did make a decision,
you overzealous fool! I decided to leave the brothers alone. If you
had just come to me and discussed this like, oh I don’t know,
an
adult
, we
would have come up with a proper plan. We will not be able to
defeat Elpis without them!” Brian continued to yell.

“Why did Andraste come back last
night? What did she say?” Bre asked trying to break Brian's
murderous stare, afraid for Cailean.

Brian ignored Bre. “Remove the spell,
Cail,” he warned, pointing a finger at Cailean.

“I can’t. The spell can
only be removed when the
cosmos
deems it necessary,” Cailean
said grimly
.

Irate and shaking, Brian
lunged at Cailean and almost freed himself from Eoghan’s grasp.
“Are you telling me you
cast
the Nádúr spell, the most sacred spell in our
religion? You bent nature’s will to do your beckoning? You should
know that you cannot command the universe like that! It will end up
commanding you!”

“You heard what Andraste said; they
needed to fight another day. I figured the world will know when it
needs its heroes,” Cailean tried to diffuse his brother’s temper
with logic.

“Brian, answer me,” Bre walked over
and grabbed Brian’s face with both hands, forcing him to look at
her. “What did Andraste say last night?”

Eoghan still had a firm grip on Brian,
hoping he would not make another move towards Cailean.

“She wanted me to know our fate
resided with the brothers’ involvement in the battle. She
insinuated that if the brothers were removed that the world would
be safer,” Brian explained.

“How will the world be
safer if they do not fight? How is it better that they are frozen
like statues? What is this spell?” Bre desperately asked with
tears
forming
in
her eyes.

Brian eased his tension
against Eoghan as he listened to the desperation and trauma in
Breanna’s voice. “I believe Andraste wanted us to understand
that
they need to live
for another time. They could have died in this battle and she did
not want that to happen. However, what this means is that we will
fail in this battle. I don’t know how we can defeat Elpis without
your brothers, Breanna.”

Eoghan let go of Brian and took a deep
breath. “We will have to find a way. We are powerful as we are and
Breanna is The Queen. There must be a way to fight.”

“There is always a way to fight, but
there is not always a way to win,” said Brian, locking his defeated
eyes with Eoghan’s.

Brian turned and walked
back to the cave entrance. Eoghan followed his chief in
silence
,
leaving
Bre alone with Cailean. Bre walked up to the glass and tears fell
from her hazel eyes, freezing when
they
touched the ground near the
glass.

“I am so sorry, Bre. I thought I was
doing the right thing to help you and Brian. I wanted to protect
you all,” said Cailean moving closer to Bre.

To his surprise, Bre wrapped her arms
around his neck and hugged him tightly. She released him then
kissed his cheek. Bre slipped her hand into his as she said, “I
know. I can feel your grief. I am not angry with you, Cail. I am
angry with Andraste. I’m just afraid of what will happen to us once
we face Eversor and Elpis. Not so much me, but you, Brian, and
Eoghan. ”

Cailean looked back up the
path that
led
to
the entrance and tugged on Bre’s arm. “I am not sure of the future,
but I can be sure that I will protect your brothers. I can hide
them and they will not age or die in this spell. They are time
locked until the universe releases them from
it
.”

Bre tightly held on to her
wolf
pendant
with
one hand. With her free hand, she pressed her fingers to her
lips
, and
then
pressed them against the glass. The glass that held her brothers
captive burned her fingers from
the
cold.
Bre wove her free arm around
Cailean's as they jogged towards the entrance.

Brian and Eoghan
waited
outside
with their arms folded across their chests, deep in
conversation.

“
Let’s
go
,
you
two
.
We need to
plan. I have a feeling
that
in three days we
can
expect company,” Brian said
coldly.

“Wait one second,” Cailean
raised his hands and shouted, “C
leocadh
agus dìdean
!”

As soon as he said the
last word, the ground rumbled and rocks fell from the ceiling,
collapsing the entranceway. A wall of dirt and rock blocked
anyone’s path to the brothers, but Bre’s heart jumped at the
thought
that
it
blocked her brothers’ path out. When the dust settled, the air
rippled around the entrance and the cave completely vanished,
turning into a clear field and blank rock wall.

“The first thing you’ve done right all
day, Cailean,” Brian’s tone was cold and cruel. He turned and
headed back to camp. “Let’s go!” he snapped over his
shoulder.

Eoghan followed him up the
hill
,
too afraid
to speak. He had never seen his chief in such a cruel mood before.
Bre hugged Cailean one more time and thanked him for hiding her
brothers. Bre and Cailean silently walked back to camp. There was
nothing left to say to ease
each
other’s pain.

When Bre and Cailean
reached the camp, they found Brian exiting Lysandros’
tent
,
holding on
to his blanket. He immediately confronted Cailean. Bre conjured a
small shield charm from her palms to
keep
the brothers apart.

Furious, Brian waved Lysandros’
blanket through the air as he shouted, “Where did you hide the body
this time?”

Chapter 33

Pride and
Sacrifice

M
ore annoyed than surprised, Cailean quickly rebuffed the
allegation
.
“I
haven’t done anything to Lysandros! You searched my mind. You would
have seen if I had!”

“Then where is he, Cailean? He
wouldn’t up and leave with impending doom heading our
way!”

Brian turned away from Bre’s shield
charm.

“I don’t know, Brian, but
apparently he has because I
didn’t
do
anything to him!” Cailean’s temper
rose
,
against his
internal judgment.

A sense of peace came over the group.
Cailean and Brian calmed down, while Eoghan stretched out in front
of the fire and folded his hands behind his head. Breanna yawned
and leaned against a tree.

Brian
saw Leora out of the corner of his eye and
shook his head to snap out of the
calm.
“Leora,
enough!”

Leora snorted at his
command and intensified the emotion.
Brian’s
legs
became
weak and
lazy
, forcing him to
sit
. The potent emotion affected
everything living in the camp. The horses relaxed on the ground,
Aurora and Clover rolled in the grass getting comfortable for a
nap, and
even
Lupa yawned while resting her head on a protruding tree
root.

“Easy girl,” Bre said. She lazily
walked over to Leora and patted her head. “You are going to put us
all to sleep. We have far too much to do.”

Leora did as Bre asked and Brian and
Cailean snapped out of their peaceful bliss. Bre pointed a finger
at Brian, silently warning him not to attack his brother
again.

Brian stormed off to his
tent then returned with a rolled up
,
yellowish parchment. Brian waved
his hand and a large wooden table appeared. He tossed the parchment
into the air and the thin paper glided down to the table fully
extended.

“I woke up this morning with this map
next to my bed. I can only assume Andraste left it for us,” Brian
said without looking at any of them, especially his
brother.

Bre
had
never heard him speak in such a
cold and distant tone. Her hands balled into fists and
she
clenched
her teeth
. His anger
made her angry.

“This is a map of Cymru.
This is our camp,” he
said and
tapped at a particular spot. When he pulled his
finger away, a brown spot appeared on the map where he pressed
down. “Now, over here, on this island, is where The Morrigan and
Eversor hid from the other gods centuries ago. I am assuming this
is where Eversor took baby Elpis
.”
He
pointed at an island at least a hundred
miles away from where they camped.

“It would take a week for
them to reach us
,
even if they knew where we
were
,” Eoghan said as he measured
the distances in his head.

“You underestimate how
powerful they are. Just as Bre can disappear and reappear, Elpis
and Eversor can do the same. However, they have more experience and
can
pinpoint
their locations over great distances,” Brian
explained.

“That is a lovely
thought,” Cailean shook his head
,
thinking about how foolish he was for taking away
three other sources of magic and locking them into nature’s alarm
clock.

“Exactly, that is why we
need to prepare more vigorously. We
can’t
beat them in hand-to-hand
combat anymore, which means we will have to use more strategic
moves,” Brian explained.

“Do you remember the story
you told me of three-hundred Spartans who fought the Persian army
and held them off for days?” Bre asked with a hint of excitement in
her voice. “Look at the valley pass here. The entrance to the
valley is barely big enough for two small people. Eoghan and I can
take on Eversor and Elpis if we can hold them at the entrance. I
have been over there with Nikolaos. The Cliffside is lined with
hidden caves
,
so
you and Cail could attack from above.”

Brian examined the map and
nodded
.
“That has
potential, Breanna
.
let’s go see this passage.”

The four remaining members
of
the
group
stood in the middle of the valley pass planning their attack. For
the rest of the day
,
they practiced spells and
strategized
. They barely took breaks
for water. The schedule even drained the animals.

Tensions were high with everybody,
especially Brian and Cailean.

“Brian!” Breanna scolded as she healed
Cailean from a blast caused by one of Brian’s “practice”
spells.

“Unnecessary, Brian!”
Cailean yelled as he watched the burn mark
disappear
.

“It’s practice, Cailean. If that had
been Eversor, you would have been dead,” Brian defended his
actions.

“I get the feeling you wouldn’t mind
that,” Cailean said coolly.

Brian whipped around to
face Cailean. Cailean glared at his older brother, unafraid of what
he would do and ready to defend himself. About to bait his brother
into another verbal fight, Cailean stopped when a flinch of
guilt
and
pain
appeared on Brian’s face. Brian recovered his brief moment of
vulnerability with a burst of anger that sent a lightning bolt
crashing into a nearby tree
,
followed by a scream of fury.

That night, they ate their
food in silence. The o’Conaills ignored each other,
and
Eoghan and Bre snuck
glances while the other was not looking.

Cailean went to bed first.
Brian followed minutes later, but the
sound of
sharpening metal rattled
from his tent. All that was left were the animals, Bre and Eoghan.
Bre sensed Eoghan’s emotions consuming both their thoughts, begging
for release.

The firelight danced off
Bre’s hair and
glimmered
in the flecks of gold in her eyes. It took all of
Eoghan’s strength not to take Bre in his arms and finally tell her
how he felt about her. She astounded him. He was defenseless
against her looks, attitude, and power. She was everything he never
knew he wanted until this journey began.

Bre became awkward, unsure
of how to act around him. Everything she did or said seemed more
formal or proper than their usual friendly and close behavior. Her
chest tightened from her fear of
the
exponential growth of
her
own
feelings over
the
past
few
weeks
, and even more
because she felt
his
feelings:
the longing for her to look or
speak to him, the protectiveness of his gaze, and the love silently
pouring out of his heart every time he stood next to her. His
emotions mixing with hers made it difficult to distinguish between
the two.