OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  If Apollo knew Morpheus had her then he’d want in on the action and Morpheus wasn’t that keen on sharing. “No, I simply know the depraved things you do in Apollo’s Temple.” Morpheus looked down at Alena and then tilted his head toward Raven. “I know everything, such as how you hate her, you dream she died and freed you of the burden of being her Son, don’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, the King of Dreams made his arm whole, cocked it back and drove the blade down with all of his might.

  Before he knew it, Raven sent the spear sailing across the room. It pierced through Morpheus’ solid arm just below the elbow, causing him to drop the blade and scream in pain. “I said get away from her.”

  With a cold sneer, Morpheus pulled the spear from his arm then cast it to the floor. Wiping away the Ichor, the wound sealed behind his touch. “You can’t kill me. Just give me what I want.” He reached for the blade but a heavy ball of ice shot across the room to obliterate it before his eyes, turning the gleaming steel into shards of shrapnel that flew into his ghostly body.

  Raven called his spear back to his hand to re-arm himself. “I’m bettin’ you didn’t bring another weapon and you’re too cowardly to make yourself solid again. Get the fuck outta here before my Father comes home.”

  Ares’ Son was a little prick and one Morpheus never suspected would stand in his way. Yet here he was, unarmed, with his plan foiled. “And what? You’ll keep this just between us?”

  “Sure,” Raven began to nod slowly. “Yeah, yeah, I will. You keep her but she stays alive and I won’t tell a soul.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Take it or leave it,” Raven scoffed.

  II

  While Raven and Morpheus tried to come to an accord, Ares returned to the Fortress. Slamming the door behind him, he drew in a deep breath to shout out Raven’s name but suddenly found Rose in his arms. She clamped her little hand over his mouth, raised her index finger to lips and let out a ‘shhhh’ sound while she stared at him sternly. Ares was stunned on several levels, not the least of which was the new knowledge that Rose could teleport at will. “What is it?” he mumbled behind her hand and watched her point upward.

  Onya burst out of the doorway to the kitchen when she heard the door slam. “Oh, my Lord! I…”

  “Quiet woman,” Ares hissed, pulling Rose’s hand away from his mouth. “Get the others, go to your rooms and lock the doors.” He began to hand Rose off to Onya but the little girl clamped her hands around his neck, shook her head, and was steadfast in her determination to stay with her Father. “Go, quietly, quickly.” He turned back to Rose. “Who’s up there?” The hands around his neck released, she laid one palm over the other, then nestled them on her cheek to feign sleep. “Morpheus?”

  Ares came home ready and raring for a fight but this was not the one that he’d prepared himself for on the journey back to Olympus. With the blink of his onyx eyes, the hooded sweatshirt disappeared replaced by his studded battle vest and gauntlets. “Ready?”

  Rose nodded swiftly and laced her little hands around his neck again.

  Ares drew his sword and the two of them disappeared from the foyer. They reappeared just outside the bedroom door just in time to hear Raven making his bargain. With a power burst of energy from his hand, Ares blew the door open. “Really? You’re so willing to sell her out…again?” The sword in his hand ignited with a loud whoosh.

  The words just spilled out of Raven’s mouth without any thought behind them. “He’s got her! He’s had her this whole time!” He pointed the tip of the spear at the King of Dreams. “I just stopped him from driving a dagger through her heart.”

  In one swift motion, Ares settled Rose on the floor and charged at Morpheus, leaping over the King-sized bed and the sleeping woman upon it as he let out a warrior’s cry. Landing on the other side, he stood between Morpheus and Alena as he struck out with the flaming sword. It passed through the King of Dreams, temporarily dispersing him in wisps of colored smoke before he came back together to float upward toward the ceiling. “Get down here you coward!” He tossed a fireball from his palm, it burst through the ceiling and into the room above but did Morpheus no harm.

  Crinkling his nose and letting out a haughty little laugh, Morpheus looked down at the irate Ares and the sleeping Alena. “You two were made for each other.”

  “I know, now give her back!”

  “Never,” Morpheus crooned. “I’ve put her where you can’t touch her, you can’t find her, and the fire you send to her every night does no good other than to frighten her. Let her go, Ares.”

  Sword brandished before him and his other hand balled into a mammoth fist, Ares seethed, “I’ll never let her go.”

  “That’s how she got where she is now,” Morpheus sneered, “your selfishness and arrogance.” The King of Dreams took in the quick motion of Ares’ stare breaking away from his to glance at Raven who sneered back as his eyes shouted; I told you so. Then the God of War returned his heated gaze to the enemy at hand. “She was happy with me, let her go Ares, and I’ll stop torturing her.”

  “Torture?”

  Morpheus raised an eyebrow as he licked his lips and sighed out his words, “Jaakim, Cernunnos, Apollo, let’s not forget you. So many more that you don’t even know about. Over and over, that’s all she sees and she screams, Ares, she screams and whimpers endlessly.”

  Everything in his sight went red and Ares lost it. Fireball after fireball flew from his palms as he tried to strike at Morpheus to no avail. Chunks of marble fell from the ceiling, crashed to the floor, destroying the table and chairs. “You freak! You think you can take my woman? Get down here and face me like a man.”

  Rose cowered behind her older Brother, her little hands clasped to the jeans behind his knees as the room crumbled around her. Raven stood there looking from her to his Mother and then his Father fighting so valiantly but getting nowhere with the battle. Morpheus just kept laughing and taunting Ares, making him angrier, in turn making the God of War lose even more control as he exhausted himself waging a war he couldn’t win. The battle called to him as it raged, it called until he had no choice but to enter the fray, Raven brought up his hands to fire ice balls at Morpheus. Like Ares’ fireballs, the ice went right through the King of Dreams, it was doing no good, and it seemed this was a fight Father and Son couldn’t win. Then one of Raven’s ice balls intersected with one of Ares’ fireballs just before they impacted Morpheus’ chest. The combined force threw the King of Dreams back against the far wall.

  “YEAH!” Rose cheered from behind her Brother as she peered at the battle from the back of his knees. “‘Gain…do ‘gain, Ray-Ray. Help Ma-ma.” Her nose wrinkled as she raised a little fist and shook it in the air at Morpheus. “Get…him.”

  In the Under World, as she struck her sly bargain with him, Tisiphone said he and Ares had to do it together. It seemed Rose knew it as well. Raven took a swift glance at his Father to see Ares looking back at him, together they turned toward Morpheus each letting streams of their respective elements fly from their palms. Where the burning red fire met the cold blue ice it turned a deep purple, Raven thought there was something familiar about it but Ares recognized it as the same energy that bound him to Alena. It shot through Morpheus, lit him up like a Christmas tree and made him shriek in agony. “Give her back!” Raven demanded.

  “She’s mine,” Morpheus sneered as he did the only thing he could think of—he retreated to the safety of the Dream World.

  Without meaning to, he took three unwelcome visitors with him.

  III

  Raven and Ares suddenly found themselves face down in powdery snow. Shaking their heads as they rose to their knees they stared at each other with distrust. “What did you do?” Ares accused. “How long have you known he had her?”

  Raven held his hands up in front of his body to ward off his Father as he looked around,. “A few days,” he confessed, “no more than that, I swear. Tisiphone told me.”

  “When were y
ou going to tell me, tell me about your Mother and the things you’ve been doing in the Mortal World?”

  “We got bigger problems,” Raven huffed, wiping snow from his jeans, grateful for the fact that nothing was more important to Ares than Alena. The God of War would put the world on hold in order to get her back and that might buy him a few hours. “Where the hell are we?”

  “The Dream World, we got sucked in when Morpheus retreated.” Ares stopped to catch his breath and his bearings when he heard a strange sound coming from the snow. It sounded like little teeth chattering together. “Rose!” Ares dropped to his knees and furiously dug through the snow. When Raven saw him he did the same; both of them dug deep until they brought up the little girl. “Oh, Rose.” She was blue and shivering but her eyes were open and she reached out for her Father. “You shouldn’t be here, little one.” He shook his head at the sight of her pink nightgown. Ares cradled her in one arm as he opened the vest and then tucked her inside to keep her warm against his skin.

  “She still had a hold of me when we…warped…in here,” Raven explained, wishing he had a coat or even a shirt to give her. But, while she was shivering, she looked snug and happy inside Ares’ battle vest. “It’s ok, Rosie, it’s ok. Don’t be scared.”

  “Mmmmmmm……Mmmmmmm.” Rose tried to speak as she shook with cold but it was difficult so she pointed off to the distance and tried again. “Mmmm…Ma…Mmmammma, Ma-Ma.”

  Ares and Raven followed to where she was pointing and saw a single spire jutting out of the Kingdom of Dreams.

  The finger waving in the air turned into a little fist and she raised it victory as she shouted out, “Mmm-mooon!”

  “What is with the moon?” Raven huffed. “Onya said she’s been screaming about the moon all night.”

  Ares sneered, looking up at the burgeoning orange orb in the Dream World sky, knowing it was ripe with magick. “Happy Halloween,” he crooned and then looked down at his youngest child. “Good girl, Rose, I told you you were smart, didn’t I?” Rose grinned and then winked at him, making Ares chuckle. “Oh, if your Mother had her way you’d be all dressed up in a silly costume tonight bugging all of your relatives for candy.” That made him smile wide at first but it waned quickly as he nuzzled his forehead to hers. “Next year, I promise, you’ll have a proper Halloween and a proper Christmas, your Mother will see to it.”

  Kneeling in the snow Raven stared at them in utter confusion. Off the top of his head he agreed holidays had been lacking since Alena took the tumble and Rose had missed out but still, “Someone wanna fill me in here? I am on this ride so a little knowledge might be helpful.” He stumbled to his feet not bothered much by the cold settling into his bones.

  Ares stood with him and began leading the way through the box canyon to Morpheus’ sprawling palace deep within the rock walls. “It’s Halloween, the one night a year when the veil between the Mortal World, the Dream World, and the Underworld is so thin you can read a newspaper through it.” He looked around as he continued walking. “It’s the one night a year we can get in here uninvited. Only here is he corporeal, only here can he be harmed. With the Hunter’s Moon at its apex magick is on our side, Morpheus is at his weakest tonight, and getting out of here should also be easier.”

  Raven scratched his head, wishing his Mother had instilled him with a bit more genetic memory on her part. “Shouldn’t he be strongest tonight?”

  “The light is too bright, look at it shine, it lights up this whole canyon. The light is his greatest enemy.” Ares looked down at his Daughter cuddled up inside his vest, her shivering was subsiding and her blue lips were beginning to turn pink. “Mommy told you, didn’t she?”

  “Yep,” Rose chimed and wiggled her cold toes against her Father’s side.

  Bare feet traipsing through the deep snow, Raven looked down at his little Sister who was looking back at him. “Yeah? I don’t suppose she told you who Shar Draíocht is, did she?”

  Rose’s mouth dropped in an ‘o’ as her strawberry eyebrows rose over her gray eyes and she put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh, no’ell.”

  “No tell? Humph.”

  “Where did you hear that name, boy? In the Under World? Did Tisiphicore tell you that when she told you about your Mother?”

  Raven stopped walking. “You know who it is?”

  Ares nodded but didn’t say anything.

  The glint of moonlight on pure silver caught Raven’s eye as Rose played with the Willow medallion around Ares’ neck. “You know where the Dark Kingdom is too, don’t you?” Ares just stood there silent. “Well who is it? Can you answer that much? Who is Shar Draíocht?”

  “The last known Fae Queen of the Dark Kingdom. She disappeared quite a long time ago.”

  “So then, you wouldn’t know anything about her great-granddaughter?”

  “About her, and her great-great-grandchildren.” Ares looked down at the little girl in his vest. “You know that too, don’t you? Though I doubted your Mother was even aware of it, I see I was wrong.”

  “She is from the Dark Kingdom, a Dark Fae, she lied to Zeus, to you, to all of us,” Raven huffed, suddenly angry and no longer in a mood to rescue the woman who gave him life. “Bitch.”

  “Your Mother is from the Golden Lands, and, you know, at least she didn’t incite a worldwide riot and then unleash an abominable plague that’s wiped out nearly all of North America. No, you did that.” Ares took a step toward his Son and Raven took a step back. “It seems we have a lot to discuss after we get out of here.”

  “Must be my Dark Fae blood,” Raven huffed, trying to shrug off Ares’ comment though the weight was great.

  “No,” Ares corrected, “it’s your Olympian Ichor.”

  “If she’s from the Golden Lands and not the Dark Kingdom and….”

  “When we get out of here! Now move forward,” Ares ordered and gave Raven a light shove. “I know everything you’ve been up to and you have a lot to answer for so just shut up for a while.” A few yards further toward the palace in the deep biting snow Ares suddenly stopped, cocked his head to the side and listened to the faint sound of Alena screaming coming to him on the wind.

  “What is it?”

  Holding an arm under Rose’s bottom he glared at Raven. “Can’t you hear it? Your Mother is shrieking.”

  Raven didn’t hear anything, he strained as hard as he could but heard nothing than the howl of the wind. Rose was squirming in Ares’ vest; she had her hands clasped over her ears and her eyes closed tight. Before Raven could say that he heard nothing, Ares started to run. Overhead the bright light of the orange moon was blocked out as if by a swift moving cloud. Raven looked up just as Ares started barking.

  “Move! NOW! Move your ass!”

  In the dark sky, Raven took in the sight of an overly large bird winging its way to the single tower. For a split-second Raven watched his Father’s back sprint away from him before he got his own long youthful legs moving. “Fuck it,” he muttered to himself just before he shifted into his totem, the raven and took flight.

  Charging straight ahead, Ares looked up but didn’t stop, when the second shadow passed over him and was met with the sight of the man-sized raven. “Son of a bitch!” He shook his fist in the air at his Son before glancing down at the little girl nuzzled against his chest. “Hold on to me tight, Rose, hold on.” She pushed herself against him as far as she could and tried to wrap her arms around him but they were far too small to meet at his back. In mid-stride, Ares shifted into his own totem, the black and gray wolf. With Rose clinging to his belly by his fur and starting to cry out, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck with his teeth and flung her onto his back without stopping. Her fingers sunk deep into his thick fur and her little legs clamped to his flanks.

  “Ooooo,” Rose shrieked excitedly, “Rah-de da WOOL-FF! Yah! Yah! GO!” She kicked her Father in the side as though he were a horse and rode him the same way as she leaned far forward and low to help cut the wind.

  To the sound of h
er joy and the call of the coming battle, Ares let out a howl as he ran at breakneck speed, traveling so swiftly his overly large paws barely broke the snow and instead bounded over the top.

  High in the air, Morpheus zoomed toward the parapet and the screeching Alena caught in the clutches of a never-ending nightmare. His wings beat hard and steady along with his heart as he neared and readied himself to get his hands on her. With his mind full of vile thoughts, it came as quite the shock when a sudden impact forced him to go spiraling toward the ground. He tried to flap his black wings harder but they wouldn’t move and for a moment, he didn’t understand as he looked down to see his wings wrapped around the front of his body. He didn’t understand the sudden pain in his shoulders until a sharp stabbing pain at the top of his head brought him around, he looked up to see he was in the talons of a huge raven that was pecking at him as they wound their way to the snow. “Get off of me you little prick!”

  Raven’s answer to that was sinking his talons further into Morpheus’ tender but solid flesh as he drove his beak into the head of the King of Dreams.

  While non-corporeal in the Upper World and unable to call items to his hand the way his other relatives did, here in his own element Morpheus ruled. In his hand he materialized a new dagger to drive upward into Raven’s thorax. The giant bird let out a cry of agony as warm salty Ichor rained down him and its talons released just before Morpheus hit the snow. Regaining control of his command of flight, he spread his wings to change course and fly upward once more.

  “‘Yight! ‘Yight!” Rose called out from below as she held on to Ares thick mane as they raced toward the doors of the palace.

  In more pain than he’d ever imagined, Raven understood his little Sister’s message—keep him in the light. To the others she may be stupid as hell but he knew better; if he kept Morpheus busy and in the moonlight, then Ares and Rose would have a better shot at gaining entrance to the palace in hopes of rescuing Alena. Bleeding and sore, Raven bent his head back letting out a river of Ichor that turned the pristine snow below crimson. The maneuver allowed him to turn around in mid-sight without slowing down so that he could meet Morpheus head on.