Legends and Myths of the Demigoddess 1

by Owen Oakley

  Had my tiny hands done it alone I’m sure I would’ve broken every bone in my hand, but magic was on my side and the satisfaction of seeing Demetri fly back into the mantle of the fireplace was priceless.

  I didn’t stop there if I did, I’d lose the edge. My mist teleports me to his side.

  As soon as I pick him up by the shoulders, he counters it by pushing me back a few feet and slamming a fist in my chest, his hand glowed a royal blue and whatever he used, lit me up.

  A graceful landing wasn’t in my future when I landed by Roman’s bubble who was half-way out of it.

  Blood trickled from my head and disorientation took over. I vaguely knew where I was. Something blurred everything around me. I crawled on all fours and grabbed my chest. God my chest hurt so bad.

  “Sabine can you hear me?” It was Roman inside my head and I wish he wouldn’t, it already felt like someone had scrambled my brain around.

  “No!” I couldn’t help but cry out in pain, Roman’s word roars so loud my brain splits into.

  But he wasn’t doing it for the hell of it, it was a warning that I didn’t take to heart in time. Demetri was upon me picking me up by my arms like a rag doll, all because he was my mate and I needed him. I loved him and I wouldn’t hurt him, too much anyway.

  If this is what it would take to show him, I wouldn’t harm him, and I was not like the prophecy then so be it. We all have to bleed at some point.

  I didn’t recognize him anymore, his pale gray eyes that once held mystery and a tinge of care was gone; only anger whiffed from him.

  He squeezed me hard before his head bashed into my skull once, twice and after the third blow I saw stars.

  Roman was trying his hardest to finish getting out of the bubble I created for him. I tried not to think about what he was dealing with seeing the woman he loves being beaten and him unable to do a thing to stop it.

  The same fate meets me as Demetri sends me sailing in the air to the same mantle, I threw him into. My back arched and along with bones cracking.

  I cried out in pain, my breaths slow and steady. Every breath brought about a shooting pain, hard for me to bear.

  Demetri doesn’t move he stands there and wait. More blood poured from my nose and I spit to clear the excess in my mouth.

  On shaky legs I stood up clutching my side. I wanted this to be over, but I wasn’t dying today. A flicker of something unreadable past Demetri’s face but it was gone a moment later.

  I wince as I opened my arms out by my side, aware of the pain that seeped into my broken and bloodied body. “Do it,” I tell him. After those words everything happened fast.

  Roman escapes the bubble, Demetri sends a fatal spell my way and Traci appear at my side a few feet away, running. The latter was not a part of the plan. Traci should be at the haven with everyone else.

  She steps in front of me right as Demetri’s spell took aim and absorbs whatever he sends my way.

  Traci hiccuped once; her perfect face frozen in place. I caught her before she could fall, leaning her against me while I lowered her to the ground. The rush of energy surged through me even with a few broken ribs.

  No, No, No! This was not supposed to happen this way. Traci wasn’t supposed to be here. I would’ve disappeared to the haven I created for us before Demetri could kill me.

  Tears threatened to fall but I suppress them. Just like that the love and tolerance I have for Demetri had gone out the window.

  Traci was my sister and friend. This is the thing I protected the people I loved from, we were so busy fighting each other, it was no wonder Tor was always a step ahead of us.

  I roared so it was deafening to even me, making everything around me tremble and shake. Roman stayed back but his eyes glistened while Demetri just stared.

  My heart ached for Traci and it did for Demetri because fate destined us as mates, and we were fighting. I had the power to bring someone back from the dead, but Traci died thinking she was saving me, how would she feel about being resurrected? Or did she know that it would be better for her to die and come back then me and have no one to bring me back?

  Demetri took a step forward and my head snaps to his direction, stopping him with a glare. “I’m sorry I never meant to hurt her Sabine,” he says. A sob escape my lips and my cheeks became stained with tears. Just when I thought I could run into his arms and I would forgive all, he says, “Only you.” I close my eyes and the last thing I witness before Traci and I vanish is Demetri readying another spell to send my way and Roman running at him with full speed. The bastard was trying to kill me again!

  Once just wasn’t enough. As though we hadn’t just lost one of the sweetest people I knew. After all of that he still wanted me dead.

  That changes things.

  My body was lying over Traci’s shielding hers, I didn’t know what to expect when I created the forest and I didn’t know who was with me and who was against me at this point.

  Fox licked the side of my face and I never seen a more welcoming face. I smiled still letting the tears flow.

  Everyone’s here.

  Strong arms wrap around my shoulder and kiss the top of my head, I knew Cairo’s touch and his scent from anywhere. My face was still buried in my arms and I doubt if anyone knew I was lying on a body and especially Traci’s, but it was time to face the music.

  I stop with my back turned to whoever was here, building the courage to turn around.

  “No!” Someone yells out, and I knew they see Traci’s pale face and the hole singed through her chest. I break down.

  “Traci,” one nymph rushes over to her body, checking for a pulse. It was no use, Traci was gone.

  The same Nymph catch sight of me and gasped. “Demigoddess, where are you injured?”

  Cairo turns me around in one motion, grabbing my face and lifting it to his face. I was a mess and if I thought my roar was savage and full of rage his best mine times ten.

  I couldn’t see behind him but after his furious roar that someone had hurt his mate had passed a dozen more echoed his sentiments, followed by howls and growls of tons of wolves, and my Nymph sisters singing songs of mourning for Traci, others of revenge.

  Upon stepping around Cairo my breath hitched in my throat and I choked another sob at the surrounding support. After Cairo told them what I was— I know he did because he was an Alpha of honesty and integrity— they still stood with me in drawls.

  A wolf that looked ten times bigger than the rest came forward, throwing his head back in a loud, piercing howl. When he was finished, he lowered himself on his front paws and bowed his head, the other Wolves followed until the Centaurus and Nymphs were on their legs or bowed on their knees. They pledge themselves to me, to follow whether good or bad, they wanted me as their leader.

  Cairo stepped beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist. I was happy to have him next to me. My weight sagged against his and he supported me with ease.

  “We build,” he whisper in my ear. We had plenty of trees that needed to be blessed so they would grant us permission for us to use them to build homes for these people. My people.

  I created this place so we would never go hungry and never want for anything else. I was home. Looking back at Traci, there was still a decision to be made and it wouldn’t be easy, but I felt a little better with the assembly before me.

  With them everything was possible.

  “We build Fallland for us and other creatures of the wild,” I reply because there would be more to come.

  Their demigoddess was home.

  Epilogue

  52

  Demetri

  M uch had changed in Ardam, if one could still call it that. No matter how hard I tried to spare witnesses, the word still spread about the run in between the Lord and the demigoddess Nymph. It didn’t go over well with many of the citizens here. Many left going to various realms, the very realms Tor controlled. A testament they rather be ruled by a warlock than me. I opened the portals and gave a select few who could pas
s as human the option to go to the Earth realm. It hurt, but it’s everything that I deserved and much more. Many sought Sabine, but I wasn’t sure if anyone found her. Her location was another puzzle within itself. No one could find her, not in the human realm, or any other realm.

  She’d fallen off the grid, brilliant, I’d hand it to her for sure.

  My steps were heavy as I took the stairs two at a time down to the dungeon level. The torches switched to life just as I passed them before stopping at the cell close to the end of the hall. A soldier stood guard, and I nodded for him to open the door and then leave.

  I regretted that day almost six months ago, and I’d trade all my power in just to turn back time and redo the things I did and decisions I made. It was terrible.

  The dream mage was no more. All I had were nightmares of Sabine’s bloodied, broken body that I caused, and Traci’s dead body; unmoving, with burnt flesh tainting the air.

  I hated this dungeon. I did not understand why my parents built it and more so why I did what I did after Sabine disappeared. Just mistakes on top of mistakes.

  How did we get here?

  “Well look who graced me with his presence,” Roman said with a snort.

  I sighed, refusing to meet his eye. What could I say to make this situation better? I imprisoned my brother right after things went south. Forgiveness from him or Sabine wasn’t in the cards.

  He laid face up on a cot in the room’s corner and I took a squat on the opposite end. He had a full beard that made him look older and more distinguished, not like the incubi who was amused by everything and carefree.

  “I don’t know how to make this better. I’ve had time to think things through.”

  “Before or after half the realm left you high and dry?” I tilt my head at him, and he laugh in response. My mouth goes dry and I’m unable to form a coherent sentence. He had changed, then again, we all had.

  “How did you know that?” He gives me one of his nonchalant shrugs that I’ve loathed since he was a teenager. It only showed that our bond ran deep, and he wasn’t my brother through birth, but he was in many other ways and that’s all that mattered.

  “It’s just that everything got out of hand and you man, you came at me even when things were over. I couldn’t...”

  Roman leapt from his spot on the mattress and crowded my space. There was no way I could use any of my magic here, the entire cell was designed to suppress a prisoner’s power. No shifting for Roman but no magic for me and if we had to go hand to hand combat; I would have my work cut out for me.

  “You’re goddamn right I came for you! Do you know how hard it was for me to watch you beat Sabine to a fucking pulp like an animal!?” He grabbed my shirt pulling me face to face, so we were inches apart.

  “I know but I can’t change that, I thought and believed what I was doing was right. I was trying to protect all of you from her!”

  He pushed me against the wall and threw his head back, laughter spilling from him.

  “You’re kidding right?”

  “No! She’s dangerous! I may not have gone about things the right way, but you can’t deny that if she goes dark, there will be no returning her from it. A taste for dark magic is a carving that cannot be sated.”

  Roman stares at me.

  “If she goes dark? Demetri you have your head up your ass, don’t you? Sabine has gone dark thrice now, one of which when she was fighting you!” I just stand there with my mouth agape.

  “Yeah, nothing to say now right?”

  Before I could respond Aiden rounds the corner but skid to a standstill, his eyes widening after seeing me. I narrow my eyes at the Fae who hadn’t been around either. How did he know where Roman was kept? My gaze shift from him to Roman.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Aiden bounce from one foot to the other his face still hard as stone. I hated this, we were once all so close, grew up together and now we were distant as ever. Roman hated me and I’m sure Aiden wasn’t far behind.

  “I came to get Roman, but since you’re here, I guess you come to let him out,” he says in a manner that was a statement. I came to let him out but there was no need to stray off topic here.

  “If I did or didn’t, it doesn’t matter. Why were you coming to get him?”

  Aiden all but rolled his eyes he placed his bulging arms across his chest. Time had passed but damn what was he on steroids?

  “I’ve located Sabine.”

  My heart stuttered, and I couldn’t get past wanting to see her again even for a second. But a few things were still unclear and before I went anywhere, we would have to hatch them out.

  I turn to Roman whose face was beaming from Aiden’s news. “Let’s go!”

  I block their paths, and they both sneer at me, but I don’t let it deter me for the information I need. “You said Sabine had gone dark three times before, once when we,” I let the words hang in the air but not too long, not wanting to open old wounds. “When we fought. What does that mean?”

  They both threw their heads back in defeat as if they’d planned it, before turning to go back into the cell once again.

  I run my hand through my hair blowing out a breath.

  “It means I’ve seen Sabine use her dark powers and now? All that’s left of the dark forest is ash, oh it’ll grow back, but not any time soon.” What in the hell? Why hadn’t he told me this? “She killed me by accident, all because —”

  “You see what I mean? She’s dangerous!”

  “No, she’s passionate about those she loves and care about.” Jealousy blazed and I put a lid on it before the guys could see. “We went through hell in the forest and Eilien.”

  “And the other times?” He exhales.

  “She was questioning Christopher Amotte, and he was a bastard, he got what he deserved and walked away unscathed. Both times she lost control until she faced you. I’ve witnessed what she’s capable of. She could have killed you just like that,” he says, snapping his fingers with emphasis. “Demetri, she had no light magic in her left. She depleted it all getting us back to Ardam and the only thing she had was the dark and she was in complete control of it.”

  I fell back against the wall and slid down to the floor.

  What had I done? Shoot first ask questions later. Sabine was guilty in my book never innocent.

  “How can I make this right?” Roman opened his mouth to speak but Aiden cut him off.

  “That’s for you to figure out!” He snarls with gnashing teeth. His fangs lengthened as he took a step closer. I couldn’t blame him. “We,” he said gesturing to him and Roman, “are leaving to go be with our mate. She won’t be able to do this alone.”

  All I hear is “our mate” nothing else registers. That hit me hard and have me on my feet in seconds.

  “Your mate? What the hell are you talking about?”

  Aiden squares his shoulders, never the confrontational one but something in him also changed, towards me.

  “Roman told me everything. The seer spoke of Sabine’s five mates and I intend to help her defeat Tor. I’m not letting her down.”

  Five mates?! Cairo, Roman, and Aiden that’s three. Who in the hell are “the other two?”

  Roman and Aiden exchange wary glances, holding a silent conversation that only made me envious and think back on the ones Roman and I used to share.

  “Kieran and —”

  “You,” Roman finishes.

  I sway on my feet. I had tried to kill my mate, and she needed me and the others to help her. If we or should I say “I” couldn’t make this right our worlds would suffer. I collect myself for a moment, taking a few deep breaths before clearing my clouded head.

  “Well then let’s go,” I say moving to the door. Neither of them moved a muscle. I stopped turning to face them.

  “You’re not going. There’s no way in hell we’re letting you anywhere near her. We’ll talk with her and if she wants to see you, then we’ll send for you but that’s that,” Aiden says with fi
nality.

  Only that would not work for me, at all. This couldn’t wait we had already let the issue fester enough. It was time to rip the gauze off and let things heal.

  “Oh, I’m coming, as you said she’s my mate too.”

  Roman hands turn into fist, and I prepare myself for whatever he wanted to do. Aiden stepped up releasing a low growl.

  “She needs all of us, including me. I messed up, but the past is the past.”

  Aiden shook his head, however, Roman gave a smirk as he placed his hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “Let him,” he whisper to Aiden.

  “Are you crazy,” Aiden hiss back at him.

  His change of heart was not comforting, in fact it was making me wary. I rub my sweaty palms together, wiping them off.

  “If she doesn’t want him as a mate fine, he comes back to Ardam and we find another way to defeat Tor but I’m certain that Cairo is looking forward to seeing him.”

  Sweat now pooled at my brows, and my stomach was in a knot. How could I forget about the crazy ass alpha Centaur? This would not be pretty.

  The guys turn to me and I swallow hard.

  Yeah, those looks weren’t ominous at all.

  Time to pay up.

  53

  F allland was a large mystical forest island surrounded by a huge body of water with a combination of fresh and saltwater. I promised everyone that we would never want for food ever again and we haven’t for the last six months. We could fish for days and there would still be an abundant supply of fish, crab, oysters, lobsters and any other marine life we could think of. The wolves were happy because deer also were plentiful and other wild game.

  I wanted us to build, but I had no clue what that meant. A few huts here and there and later we’d progress to houses and so forth. But the magic and physical efforts turned this place into something out of a dreamland.

  Houses were built into the trees but not just any tree house. The trees granted us permission to be made into houses. It was amazing, and it took over three and a half months to complete but it was more than worth the wait.