Siren Rises (The Rise of Ares Book 3)

by Jade Frances

  “Oh my God, I’m sorry, that was close,” I blathered.

  “Evvy,” Darryl whined, “this won’t work if you are worried about hurting us. Come on, fight.”

  “I can’t do this,” I threw my arms up in the air. “It isn’t going to work. I’m too worried I’m going to hurt someone.”

  “You haven’t even given it a chance,” Darryl walked up to me and grabbed both of my shoulders. “Take a deep breath, don’t look at us as your friends. Right now, we are the enemy.” I nodded, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them again, I pushed all my feelings and doubts aside.

  “Ok, let’s try again.”

  One after the other, they came at me, relentless in trying to get past me to the girls. I held them off, barely. Both Darryl and Adam had deep gashes across their cheeks. Barak and Egan were taller, their faces less accessible, so their injuries were to their arms and chest. At least none of them were seriously hurt. Pearce was the last to attack. We circled each other for minutes, neither of us wanted to make the first move.

  “Try to infuse the scythe with your fire Evvy,” Darryl shouted from his spot on the ground.

  I called to my fire, and without taking my eyes off of Pearce, I guided it up my arm and to the wrist that held the scythe. The handle was heating up and steam wafted into the air between us. But it wasn’t burning me.

  “Akila, no!” I heard Aresollo scream. I turned, confused, to see him running toward me. Halfway, his energy filled the air and he changed. By the time he had reached me, he was a massive white wolf, much bigger than both Darryl and Adam. I gasped and took in the beauty of him. His blue eyes gleamed in the dim light of the cavern. I stared at him in awe and shock. Until his jaws opened wide, and he tried to rip the scythe from my hand. His teeth sunk into my wrist as he jerked his head, trying to pull it free. My body reacted before my mind had caught up, and I kicked him in the ribs. He howled and jolted backward, releasing my hand, but the scythe scattered away from us both. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I rolled to the ground, grabbed the scythe and straightened back up. His teeth were bared, and low growls emanated from his chest as he padded toward me.

  “Aresollo, what are you doing? Calm down,” I held my free hand out low, whilst backing away from him. He snapped his jaw at me. “Stop,” I yelled. But I wasn’t getting through to him. Still, he advanced toward me, saliva dripped from his mouth, and there was a rabid look in his eyes. I sensed the others behind me, preparing their elements to fight. “Wait,” I told them and craned my neck to make sure they had listened.

  Aresollo chose that moment to attack. The wolf leaped into the air and was headed right for where I was standing. I had no time to move out of the way. His paws landed on my chest, which winded me, and knocked me to the ground. He had me pinned with one paw near my throat, and the other on the arm that was holding the scythe. With all his weight, I wasn’t sure if I could move, but I had to try. I reached up with my free hand and grabbed frantically at his neck. As I tried to hold his snapping jaws from my face, I squirmed underneath him to get my other arm free. There wasn’t much leeway, I was losing strength and his teeth were getting too close for comfort. I called to my fire in an attempt to singe him, only slightly. It didn’t deter him though. Mustering up all the strength I could, I yanked my arm free, and positioned the scythe between my face and his snout. His teeth clamped onto the blade and held it there. I called to my fire again and pushed it into the scythe. Steam emitted from the wolf’s mouth; it was burning him. I pushed more fire into the blade. It set the entire handle and blade alight. But still he didn’t let go. The smell of burning flesh and hair stung my nose. All of a sudden, he was torn away from me. I dropped the scythe and laid on the floor, panting heavily. Rose ran over and half dragged, half carried me away.

  “What the hell was that about,” I gasped and looked at the wolf as I sat up. Our guardians surrounded him and had him pinned to the floor, but they were struggling to hold him there. I watched as Theodore walked over. Green tendrils of smoke drifted from his hands and wrapped around the wolf. Within minutes it seemed to calm down against the restraints. Small quivers of energy vibrated through the air. When it stopped, laid out on the ground in the wolf’s place was Aresollo. He sat up and stared at his hands, as if disturbed by what he had just done. His face lifted and his eyes met mine. He shuffled back, with a look of horror, until he hit a wall behind him.

  “You are not Akila, who are you?” His voice reached me, even from across the cavern.

  I stood and cradled my wounded arm with the other. I stepped slowly toward him, closing the distance between us. Pearce moved to stand in front of me, but I pushed him aside.

  “Why did you do that? Why did you attack me?”

  “I could feel what you were trying to do. Something in me told me it was wrong. Why do you have a sacred object?” He stammered.

  “We need it to rid the world of an evil. One that you brought here.”

  “Me... why would I? Oh my God, Ares is back...” he branched off and began muttering to himself incessantly.

  “Hey,” I shouted, which snapped his attention back to me. “Why did you attack me?”

  Aresollo slumped down and folded in on himself.

  “If Ares is here, then we are all doomed. Your gift is fire, you cannot infuse that object with it. That is why I attacked, to stop you making a grave mistake. The power within that object can only be unlocked once by the person who wields it. You would have wasted your only chance.” His voice turned into a whisper as he turned his head away and closed his eyes. He was still healing from his injury, and the shift must have taken a lot of his energy. I clicked my fingers in front of his face.

  “Why can’t I use my fire?” I asked, but he didn’t respond. I shook his shoulder, “hey, why can’t I use my fire?”

  His lips parted. I leaned down to put my ear closer to his face.

  “Because Ares’s gift is fire,’ he whispered.

  “This can’t be happening,” I was pacing again. “how do I defeat someone who has an identical gift to mine!”

  “Maybe his is different,” Rose said.

  “Fire is fire Rose, how could it be different,” I snapped at her. “I’m sorry, this is just too much. Miles made a point of my fire being able to purify evil. What a load of...”

  “Evvy, enough. Sit down and we can talk this through,” Rose snapped.

  “All we do is talk, but there is never a plan, or a solution. How many more obstacles are we going to face? How many people have to die because I am not competent enough to fulfil my destiny,” I was getting hysterical. Someone tapped me on the shoulder.

  “What?” I snapped as I spun around. “Oh, excuse me,” I said when I didn’t recognise the Fae.

  “Sorry miss, Theodore asked me to take a look at the injury you sustained from the wol... Aresollo,” the young woman faltered, and her eyes darted between myself and Rose.

  “Sure,” I sighed and took a seat on the ground. I rolled my sleeve up and looked at the healer. “You’re young, I stated the obvious. She nodded and took my arm in her hands.

  “Just turned eighteen last week,” she said.

  “Why did you come here? You would be safer the further away from me you could get.”

  “My family were murdered by creatures, Theodore took care of me. I trust his judgement. It seems, there are many, that would follow you to the end of the world. That has to mean something right?”

  I slowly nodded. She placed her hand over my arm and closed her eyes; I winced as the cuts started to close and my skin knitted itself back together. Her energy was strong, much stronger than any other healer I had met. She’s too young to be here, she has her whole life ahead of her. When she was finished, bizarrely, she bowed and walked away.

  “You’re never alone in this Evvy,” Rose shuffled over to sit beside me. I twisted my arm around, looking at the bare skin where the deep wounds had once been. Now, there was just dried blood.

  “It’s a
mazing what the gifted are capable of, don’t you think?” I held up my arm to prove my point. “So many of them could do so much good in the world,” I continued, then paused, “mine isn’t a gift, it’s a weapon,” I muttered. Rose wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tight.

  “That isn’t true,” she whispered, “and if it was... then that goes for me and Sandra too. And many others that control the elements. We can do good Envy. Hell, what are we doing right now?”

  I laid my head on her shoulder and sighed. Someone coughed behind us. I didn’t bother to move, leaving Rose to acknowledge whoever it was. “Pearce says we need to pack up and move. We are sitting ducks for the Chimeras, and to be frank it unnerves me that they haven’t attacked already.” Barak’s voice was soft, he was so different from his brothers. The benevolent nature he had also made him an amazing match for Rose. Only a fool would find fault in their relationship. Which reminded me…

  “Have you told Sandra about your bond?” I sat up straight and looked between them both.

  “We have decided not to tell her until this is over. She has suffered enough loss, without losing the connection with our bond as well,” Rose muttered. Barak nodded in agreement and looked at Rose fondly. She gazed back at him, her eyes full of love and appreciation.

  “At least you don’t have to hide your relationship anymore, everyone has too much on their minds to worry about you two shacking up” I told them with a chuckle. “I’m happy for you both,” I added in a more serious tone, in case I didn’t have a chance to let them know in the future. I squeezed Rose’s hand and smiled at her.

  “Let’s move out,” Pearce barked from the other side of the cavern. I watched as Rose took Barak’s hand, hoisted herself up, and began to walk towards the rest of our group. I hoped with everything in me, that they would both survive this.

  Chapter 22

  As we navigated our way through the passages, I could sense the tension that was rising within the group. We turned another corner, only to hear the same hissing that we had in the previous ones.

  “They’re everywhere,” Pearce whispered.

  “It would help, if the only person who knew how to get out of this hell hadn’t lost his memories,” I replied. I noticed Quinn pushing his way through Theodore’s people and heading straight for us. I gripped Pearce’s arm and motioned with my head. Pearce took a couple of steps forward, positioning himself between the two of us. Quinn instantly sensed that he wasn’t welcome and stopped a few feet away. He held his hands up and glanced nervously around at those that were within earshot.

  “We need to speak,” he hissed. I stared at him for a moment and reminded myself that I did sense some light inside him. I tapped Pearce on the arm.

  “It’s ok,” I told him softly and called Quinn forward. “What is wrong?”

  “My Uncle allowed us passage through, but now that we have achieved what we came here to do, I feel that he is revoking our right to be here. I can feel the energy in the walls shifting. With the newcomers, it is ramping up. I’m afraid we do not have much more time, we need to get out,” he said quickly. I moved closer to the wall and placed my hand flat on it. I could feel the same energy flowing through them as I had when I first touched the runes when we entered.

  “I don’t feel anything different to before,” I turned to Quinn.

  “Look deeper,” he said.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on the flow. Just as I was about to give up, I felt an undercurrent. Darkness. It was seeping its way into the energy, Quinn was right. We wouldn’t have much longer to find our way out of here. And I, for one, didn’t want to see what would happen if that darkness overtook the light and we were still stuck in here.

  “Have you not passed through here before? Your Uncle lives in these mountains,” I said, as I pulled my hand away from the wall. Quinn shook his head.

  “I was estranged from my Uncle a long time ago, I have never passed through here,” he replied sullenly.

  “What about Ava? She had to enter through another passage with Aresollo. Have you asked her?”

  “Yep, and she came through the same way we did, only they got here before us. We may have to double back, or risk going through the Chimeras.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. Pressure was building in my head, but I couldn’t let it overwhelm me. There was more than just us to protect now, I doubted the healers had ever seen any form of battle.

  “Everyone take five,” Pearce shouted out. I opened my eyes to see him crouching down to my level. “This isn’t your choice to make alone, let’s talk to the others and figure things out.” I nodded and watched him walk off to gather our friends. Quinn moved to stand beside me, I stopped myself from flinching. He is only trying to help, I reminded myself. Once everyone had huddled around us, with the added extra of Theodore and Darryl now, Quinn explained to them what was happening. With the uncertainty of what would actually happen if we couldn’t get out on time, the group were shell shocked and speechless. Other than Sandra, of course.

  “Ok so our only options are, double back the way we came in, or try a different route and risk the Chimeras that we have all heard down every passage we try,” she threw her hands into the air, “Did anyone think that maybe, we just might run into Chimeras either way. My vote is for the way we came, at least we know there is an exit that way.”

  I was so used to Rose being the voice of reason that I stared at Sandra with my mouth slightly open. She had a point, the Chimeras seemed to be everywhere. Looking around at the group, I could see the realisation dawning on them too.

  “Ok,” Theodore cut in, “And how do we defend everyone here from them?”

  “We are just going to have to position ourselves around them,” Pearce replied. I rolled my eyes.

  “They scale the walls like nothing we’ve ever seen. They could go around, over, under if they really wanted. We couldn’t protect everyone. Theodore, I thought you said you brought soldiers, people that wanted to fight…” I tailed off and stared him in the eye.

  “That I did, however, at that time, I didn’t know that you had encountered the same creatures that sent them running from their homes. I don’t know how they would fare against them.”

  Each one of us, indiscreetly, turned around to look at the group that Theodore had brought with him. You could tell they were inexperienced between the nervous glances, and the way they carried themselves.

  “We have to tell them. They made a choice to come here, they must have known how dangerous it would be. The most we can do, is spread around like Pearce said and try our best. But if one gets through, they need to be prepared,” I told the group. They all agreed, and within minutes Theodore had gathered his people and was prepping them on our plan. I caught sight of Ava and Aresollo and pushed my way to them. When I reached them, I grabbed her arm and turned her to face me.

  “How much of the powder do you have left?” I didn’t start with niceties; I had no time for that.

  “One jar,” she quipped, “certainly not enough to get us out of here alive,” she added.

  “But it is enough to protect those that won’t be able to protect themselves, to give them time to make it out…” I gripped her arm harder and glared at her.

  “Ow, you don’t need to hurt me. I get it… if we run into hell, protect the weak.” She yanked her arm away.

  “They aren’t weak Ava, they just aren’t prepared. Make sure you use it to save more lives than one,” I reiterated and walked away. I could hear Aresollo muttering as I did.

  “You shouldn’t let her speak to you like that,” he was saying. I exhaled loudly, threw them both a dirty look over my shoulder, and continued my way back to the others. Cole was standing on the outskirts of the group and had been watching me. He looked curious and was glancing behind me at Aresollo.

  “Go speak to him,” I told him, “no point staring at him all the time.”

  “What if this is a good thing? He could change his ways, sta
rt over.”

  “Then go help him do that, I’m not interested,” I sounded harsher than I wanted to be, but I’d had enough of beating around the bush to save people’s feelings. We had bigger problems than Aresollo now. Cole looked taken aback but said nothing as he followed me to the others.

  “Everyone ready?” I asked as we approached. “Me, Pearce and Cole can take the front, the rest of you span out to the sides and the back,” I ordered. No one disagreed, but I hadn’t expected them to, anyway. “Right, let’s get out of here.”

  We made it back to the fall’s hours later, with no tribulation. Which was both comforting, but unnerving. There was no denying that the hissing behind us was growing louder. Each of us was on edge and questioning why the Chimeras weren’t attacking. But at least, for now, we were gaining ground on getting out of the mountains. I could sense the fatigue that was coursing through the group, but we had all agreed that we wouldn’t stop to rest until we had reached the small town that bordered the mountains. There, at least, people could wash and get comfortable in a bed rather than the stone ground. I pushed through people to get to the back of the group. The passages were much harder to navigate now that our numbers had increased. Which only made the thought of the Chimeras attacking, that much more frightening.

  “Do you guys want to head up front for a bit? Pearce wants to rotate,” I told Sandra and Darryl, who both looked at me with their eyebrows raised.

  “Don’t ask, I don’t know why,” I shrugged at them both.

  “Sure, this hissing is beginning to irritate me, anyway. I feel like attacking them, filthy reptiles,” Sandra said and began to push her way to the front. I smiled at Darryl, who grinned and took off after her. At least she still had some fighting spirit left in her. Adam joined me moments after.