Fires of Olympus: Books Ten, Eleven & Twelve (The Immortality Trials Book 4)
Page 1
Fires of Olympus
Books 10, 11 & 12: Poseidon, Zeus & Hades
Eliza Raine
Contents
Book Ten
Poseidon
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Quote
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Quote
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Book Eleven
Zeus
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Quote
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Quote
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Book Twelve
Hades
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Quote
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Thank you
Acknowledgments
Epilogue
Copyright © 2019 by Eliza Raine
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editors: Anna Bowles, Kyra Wilson
Cover: The Write Wrapping
Poseidon
The Immortality Trials
Book Ten
1
Eryx’s legs were moving before he even realised he was running. He launched himself at the Amazon at the same moment she slashed her sword through the air, only missing Evadne by inches as the blue-haired girl threw herself out of the way. Eryx grunted as he connected with the attacker and she dropped her sword with a clatter as they hit the ground, hard.
‘Eryx!’ He heard Evadne shout his name over the ringing sound of metal weapons clashing all around them, and he gripped the woman harder and kept rolling, spinning to make sure the writhing, cursing warrior was pinned to his chest. Then an awful wail echoed around them and the woman paused in her struggling. Eryx could see her indecision at the sound of Hippolyta’s pain, her hard eyes softening at the sound.
‘My Queen!’ she gasped, then struggled even harder than before. He tightened his grip, clenching his teeth, forcing out the image of Hercules’s bolt thumping into the fierce queen’s stomach.
‘Enough!’ came a bellow from the other side of the courtyard. Such a voice could only belong to a god.
Eryx’s muscles went completely slack and his roar of protest and confusion refused to leave his paralysed throat. The warrior woman slid slowly off his chest as an unnatural silence descended.
‘Are we all calm now?’ a silky smooth female voice asked. ‘I think you can let them go, my love.’
Eryx felt control of his body slowly return and he scrabbled to his feet before whirling around to find a weapon before the Amazon could attack again. But before he could find one, she had got to her feet and sprinted away. He checked on Evadne, who was standing at the edge of the courtyard, trembling but safe, then turned back and watched as the Amazon skidded to a halt and dropped to her knees along with a crowd of other warrior women. They were gathered around Theseus and Hippolyta. The queen’s clothes were drenched in blood, her face white.
‘Aphrodite, my divine love, please help her,’ Theseus begged, looking desperately up from Hippolyta’s face.
Eryx turned in the direction Theseus was looking and instantly dropped to his knees. Aphrodite and Ares were standing at the back of the courtyard, under a stone arch. The goddess of love looked impossibly beautiful in a floor-length teal gown, her flowing hair an icy pale blue. Ares was in his full warrior gear as usual, his face mostly obscured by his red-plumed helmet.
‘That’s up to Ares, I’m afraid,’ Aphrodite purred. ‘What do you think, my darling. Would it be all right if I saved your warrior queen? In the name of love?’
Ares scowled. His hard exposed jaw was scarred and stubbled.
‘She was beaten fairly in battle. She should die an honourable death,’ he growled.
Aphrodite turned back to Theseus and shrugged.
‘There you have it,’ she said.
Anguish crossed Theseus’s face as he held the bleeding woman. A few of the Amazons stood up, turning to the gods.
‘O great Ares, I do not believe the fight was fair,’ the woman who had attacked Evadne said loudly. ‘This man...’ She sneered at Hercules, who was still standing frozen with the belt in his hand. ‘... attacked with a concealed weapon. And we are to blame. The Amazons fight as a tribe but we were not there to protect our queen. Our shock at her taking a male lover led to her death. We must atone for that.’ The woman dropped her head. ‘Antiope, her second in command, is already dead. I offer my life too in sacrifice.’
‘And mine,’ another woman echoed. More and more women stood up, declaring their lives forfeit and Eryx gaped. They loved their queen that much? Would he offer his life for Antaeus’s? Once he would have done it in a heartbeat, but now he wasn’t so sure. Now, much as he tried to ignore it, there might be another reason for him to live. With an effort, he stopped himself looking at Evadne, keeping his eyes fixed on the gods.
Ares sighed loudly and a slow smile crossed Aphrodite’s face.
‘Fine! Save her,’ Ares snapped. ‘I’m not losing my best fighting tribe.’
‘With pleasure,’ Aphrodite said, her voice silky. She flicked her hand and Hippolyta made an awful gurgling sound, then went completely slack in Theseus arms. His alarmed eyes flicked between the goddesses and the queen. ‘She’ll wake up healed,’ Aphrodite said gently.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ Theseus whispered.
‘Oh, you’ll make it up to me,’ Aphrodite said, a twinkle in her eye.
‘This is supposed to be my Trial,’ barked Ares angrily. ‘And I wanted to let them fight. Why are you doing him favours?’
‘I’m sorry, my dear,’ the goddess said, turning her beautiful face to him. ‘You know how moved I am by true love. Please, take charge.’ She gestured at the courtyard, taking a step backwards.
Eryx, along with everyone in Olympus, knew that Aphrodite had many lovers, including Ares and Theseus, and he couldn’t help feeling that the god of war had just played right into her hands. Why did she want to save Hippolyta? Or did she just want to please Theseus? He supposed it didn’t matter to him,
as long as his own crew were safe.
Huge and hulking as they were, Antaeus and Busiris were easy to spot. His captain looked as confused and on guard as Eryx felt. Busiris was beside him, face unreadable, but the brothers, Bergion and Albion, hadn’t woken when the calls and shouts of fire had roused the others. They were probably still snoring in their cabana.
‘Theseus, you have withdrawn from the competition,’ Ares announced. ‘Hercules, although your methods are questionable, you are holding the belt. I will award you the win.’
Stony silence greeted Ares announcement.
Hercules bowed his head.
‘Thank you, mighty Ares,’ he said formally.
‘I will transport you back to your ships and you will get the next Trial announcement in six hours, at dawn.’
‘Ares, my lord, may I ask one more thing?’
The god’s jaw clenched at Hercules’s words.
‘I do not hand out favours, little mortal,’ he growled.
Hercules’s neutral expression flickered, but held.
‘It is not a favour, so much as a clarification,’ he said. ‘Hedone left Theseus’s crew this morning. To join the Hybris. I wanted to be sure you were aware of that.’
Ares took a step forward, his hand moving to the sword hilt at his hip, but Aphrodite quickly laid a hand on his shoulder.
‘We are aware of everything, Hercules. Hedone will return with you to the Hybris,’ she said.
Hercules bowed his head low.
‘Thank you, divine ones.’
Eryx turned instinctively to Evadne. It was as Busiris had said. What would happen to her on that ship now? He caught a glimpse of the dread showing on her face, before the world flashed white and he was back on the deck of the Orion.
2
Fury rolled through Lyssa as she paced the deck of the Alastor. How? How had he won? And so unfairly! How could the gods be so twisted, so cruel, so unjust? These were the same thoughts that had consumed her after Hercules had emerged punishment-free from his trial after killing her family, and she was aware how easily they could consume her again. But the anger was surging inside her, building into something she knew she couldn’t contain. Antiope, Epizon’s mother, impaled on Keravnos, Hippolyta pale and soaked in blood in Theseus’s arms, her mother... Red began to tinge her vision and her hands felt like they were too big, too powerful for her body. Hercules, holding the belt and his glowing sword, his lion-skin cloak spattered in the blood of others. Energy, massive and unyielding, was starting to flood her veins, and her head was beginning to pound.
‘Epizon!’ she sent the desperate thought to her first mate.
‘Captain?’ his mental reply came instantly.
‘Epizon, I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him, and then I’m going to make them all pay.’
‘Lyssa, calm down.’
‘They can’t play with us like this! They can’t rule an entire world like this!’ She was unable to stop herself shouting the words aloud. ‘We’re like damn toys to them!’
‘Lyssa?’ She whirled around at the sound of Phyleus’s voice. He was walking slowly across the deck towards her but paused as he saw her expression. Uncertainty flashed across his face.
‘They will all pay,’ she growled.
‘They will. But not tonight,’ he said quietly.
She let out a cry of frustration, guttural and feral and filled with the torrent of power that was building inside her but that she could not use.
‘You don’t understand! You can’t know what this feels like.’
‘Tell me,’ Phyleus said, stepping closer to her. She stared at him, her heart hammering, her skin burning.
‘I’m in a body that’s too small for me. I have the strength, the power to make bad people pay for what they’ve done, but I’m useless. I can see the people I love dying around me, can see people I care about losing everything. I can see blood and death and greed winning over all else but I can’t stop it, even with all this power.’ Tears of frustration made her eyes hot as she spoke, the truth of what she was saying almost physically painful.
‘You feel like a tidal wave smashing harmlessly against rocks. Or a tornado trapped in a box. Or a raging fire only an inch tall.’ Power continued to surge through Lyssa as Phyleus’s words rang through her.
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Exactly.’
‘Lyssa, you are going to make a difference to this world. You’re going to stop that sick man from becoming immortal and that alone will save countless lives. Your power will be released. And you will use it for all the right reasons, against all the right people.’
She drew his words into her, trying to make them louder than the blood rushing to her head as the Rage teetered on the edge of taking over. ‘And when this is over, when you’ve saved the world,’ he went on, ‘we’ll have a lifetime of sailing the skies, together.’
She stared into his warm brown eyes, and for a moment she could almost feel the wind in her hair as she soared through the clouds, her hand clasped in his, the world far beneath them. The red seeping into the edges of her vision leaked away. ‘No more pressure. No more feeling alone. No more anger.’ He stepped close to her, taking her hand as it started to tremble.
‘You really think we can have that?’
‘I know we can.’
She stepped up to press against him, her mouth finding his before she could register what she was doing. Her Rage morphed and whirled around inside her, desire, not just for him but for the life he’d just described, filling her completely. He kissed her back, hard, and she was vaguely aware that she needed to control her strength. ‘I will do anything to help you, Lyssa,’ he said, breaking their embrace and moving far enough back to look into her eyes. ‘Anything for a life with you.’
‘Why?’
‘I love you.’
The short, simple sentence rocked Lyssa, pounding through her overwhelmed brain. Love? How could he love her after only knowing her for a such a short time?
But she knew it was true. She could see it in his eyes, feel it in his kiss, hear it in his words. And more than that, she felt it too. They had a bond that went deeper than the spark of chemistry she’d felt between them when he’d first joined the ship. Something uncontrollable and undeniable. Something real. Emotion and energy ricocheted through her, and she realised her need for revenge and retribution was paling beside her need for him.
‘I need you,’ she breathed. His mouth quirked in a half-smile.
‘Not quite I love you too but I’ll take it,’ he said. ‘Save your Rage. We’ll beat him in the next Trial. And then we’ll celebrate.’
She stared at him.
‘I’m starting to think you don’t fancy me,’ she said.
‘Ohhh, I do. I very much do,’ he said, taking her hand and brushing it against the front of his trousers. Desire pulsed through her so hard her head hurt as she felt him. He was telling the truth. He did want her. ‘But I don’t want our first time together to be an outlet for your anger.’
He was right. Rage shouldn’t be what brought them together like that. But she needed to do something with her power, before she exploded.
‘In that case, I’m taking my ship for a spin. You might want to hold onto something,’ she said.
3
‘I knew you’d win!’ Hedone’s husky voice was full of excitement as she threw her arms around Hercules’s neck. He wrapped his own around her waist and lifted her up to him, kissing her deeply. Not only had he won, but he’d eliminated his biggest competition. With Theseus out of the Trials, immortality was as good as his. And at last, his beautiful Hedone was on the Hybris with him. Excitement spread like fire through his body.
‘Of course I won, my love.’ He set her back down on her feet and strode across the plush carpet of his living quarters to the bar, where he began to pour them both a drink.
‘What are you going to do with the belt?’ she asked him as he handed her a glass of ouzo. He scowled at it.
‘Kee
p it as a trophy of my victory,’ he said.
‘A gift from Ares shouldn’t be wasted. What do you think it does?’ Hedone was staring at the belt. Did she want it?
‘Anything made by the god of war has no place on your beautiful body,’ he told her. She smiled at him. ‘You don’t need to be anything like those warrior women.’
He lifted Hippolyta’s belt from where it lay on the couch and walked over to a large mahogany chest by the bookshelves. Dropping the ugly thing into the chest, he closed the lid. It could be displayed in his home after the Trials. For now he wanted no further reminder of that brutish woman. How Theseus could possibly love such a person was utterly beyond him. What a fool the pretty man was, to give up an eternal life for a chance to save a woman who didn’t even want to be with him.
‘I’m so happy to be here,’ Hedone said, drawing his attention back to her.
‘As am I. I’m sorry we couldn’t get any of your things from the Virtus,’ he replied.