I reached out and found the person responsible for the sucker punch, making sure my hand was touching bare skin before releasing a powerful charge through me to him. Soren's body lost control as it bounced around, jerking and jiggling while the electricity coursed through him. His control over his own magic slipped and my vision returned, once more as though someone had drawn back the blanket. I momentarily wished I knew whose powers he was abusing but I didn't have time to think too much.
While he was still out of control I landed a punch of my own, this time right into his chest aiming for the spot where I hoped I might cause an agitation of the heart. The likelihood of my managing to stop his heart and kill him was low. He could've already united with his God. Or, although we called him Soren still, it was entirely Coeus in charge. Either way a deathly blow to the heart wouldn't be enough to stop him but it would be enough to slow him for now. It would give me a chance to regroup and figure out what the hell I was going to do if my powers didn't work on him.
Or so I thought.
Soren was moving again, this time with a renewed look of hatred in his eyes. He moved toward me with the delicate grace of a predator, his hands balled at his side. I had no idea what other tricks he had up his sleeve but I was sure if he managed to take my vision again it would not be fun figuring them out.
I conjured another lightning bolt, carelessly tossing it from one hand to the next as I waited for the right moment to strike at Soren. But the moment didn't come, or maybe it did and I missed it. Either way I lifted my hand with every intention of throwing the lightning bolt when something hit me again from the side. This time I was better at taking the blows, releasing the bolt haphazardly before ducking into a roll that threw me through the fire. I landed on the other side in front of Griffin, momentarily disoriented.
"Val?" I caught the stray lightning bolt before someone else could.
"Safe," Griffin assured me as I turned back toward Soren.
"Good." I threw myself back into the flames, holding the lightning bolt out like a spear but as I dashed toward the Titan he was ready for me. He caught the bolt, turning the tide of the fight and before I had the chance to stop him, he drove it right through my chest.
"AIDAN!" I heard Savannah scream but I couldn't see her. Everything seemed to stop for a moment as the searing pain of my own power coursed through me. My body wasn't prepared to handle the magic in such a way, it reacted in the only way it could: it allowed the bolt to do as it was intended. Kill.
It felt like a sword as it sunk into my body. My chest burned and unlike the flames, the scorch mark it caused didn't heal right away. Zeus' shock was translated in the silence that followed this turning of the tides. My knees buckled from under me as I slipped to the ground, coughing. Blood filled my mouth, the taste not foreign but surprising. At least in the quantities it was coming in.
Was I dying?
I coughed again, choking on the blood streaming down my throat as the rest of my body fell to the ground. The darkness from before descended once again, but before it claimed me, I felt Savannah rush to my side. Her arms went around me, and mine around hers as a moment of panic seized me. If this was truly it, who was going to keep her safe?
The darkness claimed me.
I didn't know what to expect from death but what I got wasn't what I thought it would be. The darkness remained, always hovering close, but I was still conscious. In fact, the world around me shifted until images from my life began to play out. This must've been what people meant when they said they saw their lives flash before their eyes. But this wasn't a memory.
Savannah sat in the bathroom, using the toilet as her seat as she stared at her hands like she thought they were the Devil himself. Someone knocked on the door and my view shifted to it as it creaked open revealing myself.
"Everything okay? You've been in there for a while." She stood abruptly and smiled at me, shaking her head.
"Yeah fine, got lost in thought."
"Glad you came back to me," I teased, making her smile.
"Me too." She moved toward me and kissed me. I remembered this day, it was two days before everything went to hell in the throne room. We were getting ready for our coronation. I didn't understand why I was seeing everything from Savannah's point of view.
"I'll be quick, I need to change."
"Seriously, be faster than Hermes going around the world."
"Five minutes, I swear." She held her hands up like she was taking an oath before smiling again, ushering me out of the bathroom to wait for her. I was always waiting for her. It came with the territory. I left the room and my vision remained hovered on Savannah as she moved her hands again, lifting her t-shirt and throwing it onto the pile of laundry. She turned to look at herself in the mirror, turning to her side to examine her body.
"Goddess of Childbirth," she whispered to herself, shaking her head with disgust. "Not yet, not now. It's too soon, I'll lose him." She kept her hands hovered over her belly and concentrated. I watched the last thing I ever expected to see her do again. Her bright, lively magic glowed from her hands and lit her belly. She watched herself in the mirror, heartbreak lacing her features as she watched the glow appear and disappear. When she dropped her hands, she turned to look at herself in the mirror again and this time I sensed something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it.
At some point she had started crying, she looked at herself in the mirror, fussed with the lines of mascara on her cheeks and went to change. By the time she came out to meet me and I remembered this part, she was cheerful again like she didn't have a worry in the world. What was going on?
"What happened?" Griffin's voice pulled me back to reality, surging the lingering darkness far away from me. I felt myself take a deep steady breath that seemed to calm the growing panic in my chest. I couldn't remember why I had been worried or what had upset me. Surely, I would remember again when it was important.
"Soren drove Aidan's lightning bolt into him." She touched the tenderness on my chest and I wanted to flinch as a sharp burst of pain flowered on my chest.
"He'll be fine," Griffin reassured her making me want to grunt at them. I was right here, they didn't need to talk like I was dead.
"What if he's not?" Savannah's voice was edged with fear but also worry.
"He's Zeus, he's the most stubborn jackass I know."
Savannah, my beautiful and loving girlfriend, laughed, "This is true." She touched my face and I grunted this time, ready to make my reappearance.
"You both don't need to talk like I'm not right here..." Talking hurt, I decided. But it was better than listening to the two of them talk about me.
"Are you healing?" I thought about it for a moment, concentrating on the sensation still blooming on my chest. I could feel my body sewing itself back together but it wasn't at the pace I was used to.
"Slower than normal. It doesn't feel right."
"No... You're right. something is wrong, Soren upped the ante and I-"
"Asher, this has to be Asher. He wasn't here at first." The thought hit me. Our plan hadn't included having someone to keep an eye on the mysterious God and we didn't know the extent of his powers. This had to be it.
"Do you think it's the prophecy?"
"What prophecy?" asked Griffin.
"The one Atlas was always going on about. Cronos, too. He talked about something big was going to come, like he knew the details."
"Something like this?"
"Maybe. Through dark and dust do yet they rise. Once more may they cast their eyes. Yet from their slumber, did they wake. A demon whose powers shall retake. The heavens and earth must fall. A new King intend they to install. The sun of one, and King of all." As they spoke, I considered what she was saying. It made sense.
"Yet from their slumber did they wake a demon whose powers shall retake... ‘they’ would be us. When our Gods woke, we woke whatever Asher is, as well. The heavens and earth must fall... That's already happened. It has to be the prophecy,
it's coming true," Savannah spoke hurriedly, her eyes wide and fearful as she gazed at me.
"The son of one," I frowned, already knowing where this was going. "Atlas said he released our Gods prematurely once and that's what kick-started the prophecy, didn't he? Son of one... King of all." My stomach sank. Damnit, don't you know how to keep it in your pants? I scolded my God before forcing my eyes open so I could properly see Sav and Griff. "My son. Zeus must've impregnated someone when he woke the first time. Asher must be my son.... Son of one, and king of all. I'm the king of all and only my bloodline could claim that."
Savannah looked grief stricken at the idea I had a son. Well, not me, but Zeus. Still, it was a hard blow to our relationship. Something scratched at the back of my mind trying to make me remember something important I was forgetting.
"What does it mean if he isn't a specific God?"
"He's only half-God, for one, which means he can be killed. But his powers would be non-specific, I guess. He has no domain over which to rule like the rest of us. He would have magic at his disposal. He's been training for centuries for this moment, that's why he knows so much about us - about our king."
"You're still King of the Gods though, couldn't you give him a domain to rule over like mud or something useless? Then, he wouldn't be a threat."
"I don't think it works like that and the only person who would know is Atlas..." My chest tickled as the end of the healing process began. I coughed as the itch climbed my throat. I checked my chest, seeing the pink flesh regrow there. "And Atlas had to be the one who trained him on how to use magic. How else would he have known about who he was and what he was supposed to do? Atlas was the only one of us that was free to reign."
Silence fell between us as we took a moment to consider her weighty realization. We have been played this entire time. Cattle herded and put in place for some scheme for power. Not only did we have to bring down someone who we knew nothing about, we had to bring down a Titan who claimed it would be nearly impossible to kill him.
"Val," Griffin snapped us all back to the present, "Val is missing. Have either of you seen her?"
"I thought you said she was good."
"She was, but I lost track of her. And you've lost track of Soren."
"What does Val have to do with any of this?" I didn't understand their fascination with Valentina. She only just came into her power and as it was her Goddess wasn't anyone particularly renowned.
"She's your daughter too... Does that mean anything?" Savannah finally spoke again, her face a perfect mask of nothing. She was holding something in, the one thing she couldn't hide was the look in her eyes and I knew those like the back of my hand.
"I don't think so, but we have no way of knowing."
"Are you strong enough to go back out there yet? I need to find Val, but I don't know if I can fight off Soren and save her at the same time."
"I'm strong enough." I still had a mostly gaping wound but it was still healing and that was the important part. As long as I was still healing I still had my magic. I rose, shaking Savannah's grip off me as I braced myself on my knees and took a deep breath.
"Aidan."
"I'm fine. You stay here, we'll be back in a minute."
"I'm coming with you." She ignored my command this time and went over to Hunter, who was still trying to douse the flames. "You need to go forward and break a path through for us to find Soren." He nodded before taking off to do as she asked. I didn't waste any time sticking around to wait for the others as I followed Hunter's trail.
"Soren, come out, you bastard!" I walked further into the flames, hell-bent on finding him so I could finish the job and go after Asher, who must have Valentina at this point.
"There." Savannah spoke from behind me but I was too engulfed in my own search to turn.
"What?"
"There." She sounded surer this time and as I turned she explained: "Someone's made an invisible portal. It had to be how they got here." I opened my mouth to suggest maybe we don't go through the bad guys' portal but make our own when Griffin ran full tilt at the portal and leapt through it. He left me no choice and Savannah was hell-bent on staying firmly at my side so I reluctantly led the charge, leading us straight through into Titans only knew what.
Chapter 4
"Welcome, father, uncle... step-mother." I hated the way he looked at Savannah like she was nothing better than the dirt on his shoes. I hated how he called us by familial names when I could never accept him as a son. If he wanted to be seen as family, he should've acted like it instead of plotting this entire time to bring us down.
I still couldn't wrap my head around how convoluted this had gotten. Atlas was in on it, no doubt now, and yet he had still brought us to Olympus and taught us how to use our powers. Sure, it was to save face but what I couldn't understand was why bring up the powers. Everything had happened so fast after our ascension he could've gotten away with a few more weeks of ignorance.
Unless it wasn't a plot to take control of Olympus but also to destroy earth. Because, besides us, that was the only other place which had suffered in all this. I couldn't understand why Asher or Atlas would have a problem with mortals.
Valentina whimpered from where she sat cuffed to a chair looking weak and pale. According to Griffin, she had been fine not more than a half hour ago. What had happened between then and now to put her in such a condition?
"Let Valentina go and we might let you live," I gritted my words out, holding back the rolling anger I felt going through me as I stared out at Soren, Montgomery and Asher.
"It's cute, you still think you're calling the shots. You're not the Almighty Zeus anymore, just Zeus. Boring old... Zeus."
"I'll give you boring," and cue Savannah's incessant need to do something stupid. This was exactly what I was spoken to her about. Before I could do anything to stop her though, she was already moving toward them. I barely had flinched to catch her when Montgomery threw his hand out and closed it around her throat. Her eyes widened, grabbing his wrist as she tried to pry herself free.
"Foolish," Asher was bemused, "alright. This is how things are going to go. You are going to surrender your powers to me, all of you, then as a show of my ability, you will be executed for the people to see."
"What is with you people and your need to rule the world?" Griffin found his bravado finally as he spoke, moving closer though his eyes were constantly on Valentina. He should know better than to give his target away like that.
"It's not ruling the world, Griffin. It's the power such a position comes with. It's like a drug, I'm sure you understand." Asher goaded him with a smile. "What do you say?"
"Go to hell."
"Been, it's dead. I thought someone who partied as well as you, Griffin, would liven it up a bit."
"I have a few suggestions I would love to run by you, if you're open to hearing them," Griffin said, his tone thick with sarcasm.
"Sure. What are you thinking?" My eyes flicked from Savannah to Valentina as I wondered what the hell Griffin thought he was doing. I thought I knew him a little better in the last twenty-four hours and yet he risking Valentina’s condition to play Asher's games. He was King of the Underworld, as much as I wanted the kill, I knew Hades had to have the power to take lives.
"Blood-red walls, preferably of the Demi-God kind." Asher moved, clasping at the air as the gesture made an invisible force close around Griffin's throat. He choked beside me, coughing and gasping for air.
"You've gotten a lot braver. My sources told me you were a spineless waste of a God. It looks like I might have to have a talk with those sources." He glanced at Soren who backed away but I noticed was favoring his right side. I grinned smugly to myself. At least I had managed to land a blow to him.
"We're at an impasse. What do we do? Kill you all, slowly and with pleasure, or you surrender like the waste of powers you are, and I kill you slowly and with pleasure?"
"Option C," I declared, moving next to Griffin's side once more as I conjur
ed a lightning bolt to my hand. Without wasting any time, I tossed it toward Asher, aiming instead for Valentina. She'd used the bolt before, if I didn't hit the magic that was holding her, at least she would be able to break it herself.
Asher thought I was aiming for him and ducked, rolling out of the way as he landed in a ball not far from us. Valentina slipped off the chair into a heap, gasping softly in pain. I hoped the bolt hadn't hit her and done any damage. But Griffin ran for her, leaving me free to deal with Asher. Part of me knew I wanted to save Savannah first but she wouldn't want that. She knew what I had to do tonight before this got any further out of hand than it had.
Asher threw something at me that made the floor explode under my feet. Apparently, Soren had gotten his tricks from my son. I leapt to avoid falling into the pit and having to break my ankle again before tossing a lightning bolt at Asher. It was off target - his cold, black and shriveled heart, but it didn't matter. I wanted to land any kind of damage.
As I skirted around, trying to get a good vantage point to set off another bolt, I spotted Savvy in her struggle against Montgomery. I felt myself burst with momentary pride to see she had managed to sink her teeth into his forearm, effectively cutting him off from being able to chokehold her anymore.
Asher used my distraction to his advantage though as he sent another blast, one that actually hit me this time. It felt like I was being hit by an eighteen-wheeler as the blast threw me into the wall and I felt my consciousness begin to slip.
"No, not again... How does this keep happening?" Savannah gripped the back of the toilet as she puked into it again, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "It's not scientifically possible."
I looked around the room but she was alone. Who was she talking to? She heaved again and I had to look away, the sight turning my stomach. I hated when people were sick around me.
All Hail the King: Modern Greek Gods YA/NA Series (Grace of Gods Book 4) Page 3
