She let out another animal like shriek and the ground trembled beneath them.
‘OLIVIA!’ he shouted above the howl and crackle of the flames.
Unable to even recognize him Olivia swept him aside, throwing him back as she drove her fist into the ground. It shook so violently it threw everyone to the ground. Mac lost his grip on Zachary’s sword which went skittering across the floor, as he grabbed Tammy and tried to break her fall.
Theo tried to suck in a breath but it had caught somewhere in his throat, at the white hot pain in his chest. His veins were burning; he could feel the fire and flame of where she’d struck him spreading throughout his body. It was like being burned alive from the inside out. His back arched off the ground and he screamed out in agony, his vision blurring a strange shade of green.
Suddenly, as quickly as it had come the pain was gone, he slumped to the ground, drawing in a shaky breath as he rolled over. Pressing his hands into the hard packed earth he pushed himself to his knees. Glancing down at his hands, his eyes widened in surprise. He climbed unsteadily to his feet lifting his hand and pushing back his sleeve. A thick ropey vine of deep emerald green now ran the length of his arm, entwined with the other colors branded into his flesh and he suddenly understood.
Feeling the familiar cool slide of the metal down his arm his fist gripped tight onto the pommel of his broadsword. As he lifted the huge weapon the black blade glowed with the familiar, ancient, elegant script in gold, silver, blue, purple and now…green. She had infected him with Demon fire when she’d attacked him. He gripped the pommel with both hands and raised it in front of him, the blade bursting into multicolored flames.
God fire, she’d given him God fire. He looked up, his eyes locking on Nathaniel. Now he had a weapon that could kill a Demon Demi God.
Hades shook his head, the ringing in his ears subsiding as he pushed himself once again to his feet. Glaring across at his brother he bared his teeth and barreled toward him. Tacking him to the ground they rolled, punching wherever they could reach and slamming each other to the ground. Suddenly the ground beneath them groaned and heaved, breaking the two brothers apart. They rolled to their feet breathing heavily, the ground suddenly lurched again and they both stumbled.
Zeus looked out across the lake between the charred stumps of the burned out trees. The giant stone gateway was open; its black iron gates flung wide and its inhabitants pouring out in a poisonous stream.
‘Still think we shouldn’t have killed her?’ he growled at his brother as he disappeared in a swirl of gold.
Cursing loudly, Hades flashed through the woods in a swirl of electric blue flames, heading toward the Hollow and desperately trying to reach it before his furious brother.
Nathaniel groped in the dirt. His fingers wrapping around Zachary’s sword as he ripped it from its scabbard. His eyes were filled with madness as they locked on Olivia. She had cheated him, she’d denied him, she’d robbed him of the Hell book and now she wielded the power that should have been his.
His vision narrowed on her, his mouth peeled back in a furious snarl as he rushed toward the flaming creature that was once Olivia West. He raised the sword over his head as he reached her and with a scream of rage he brought the blade down toward her.
It clashed against another blade raised just in time to protect her. The force of the blow drove him to his knees. The sword clattered away harmlessly to the ground in a shower of multicolored sparks.
Theo looked down at the pathetic creature Castor kneeling before him. He felt no guilt, no remorse. All he could see before him was the selfish creature who’d caused Olivia and Temperance so much pain.
‘Please…’ Nathaniel looked up at him, his hands raised in supplication.
Theo’s face hardened and he swung. Bringing the blazing sword down, he split Nathaniel’s body from the top of his head to his gut like a ripe corn husk. The two halves of the demon lord fell apart and collapsing to the ground, shriveled up into a dry gray desiccated shell. Four bright balls of light burst from the severed corpse, hanging in the air for a moment before shooting up into the sky and disappearing. For a second Theo breathed a sigh of relief, the souls Nathaniel had stolen were now free.
Theo looked up abruptly at a bright swirl of gold at the edge of the clearing. Suddenly an unfamiliar man was standing in its place, his hair blonde and his eyes dark as they locked onto Olivia. He growled angrily as he stalked forward.
‘ZEUS NO!’ Calypso came running into the Hollow followed by Roni, who though dirty and disheveled was more or less in one piece.
Zeus ignored her, his furious gaze locked on Olivia.
Calypso ran forward, diving and rolling, transforming into a huge wave of foamy seawater which crashed across the clearing churning up the soil as it went. The violent wall of water slammed into Zeus washing him back to the edge of the woods as Calypso stood, shimmering in her watery form in front of Theo and Olivia.
Zeus climbed to his feet, soaking wet, his eyes blazing as he swept his wet hair from his face. He yanked a lightning bolt from the sky and hurled it at Calypso sending her flying back across the ground. Roni dropped to her knees, pulling the injured Goddess into her arms protectively.
Hades appeared in front of him drawn up to his full height, his blue black hair alight and blazing with Hell fire.
He glanced over at Calypso who was lying in Roni’s arms, a smoking hole in her chest.
‘Was that really necessary?’ he asked coldly, ‘she was one of us.’
‘She was in my way,’ Zeus grated coldly. ‘Now step aside while I deal with that abomination or you will suffer the same fate.’
‘No brother,’ Hades shook his head, ‘you will not harm her.’
‘Look at her!’ he hissed.
Hades turned and glanced at the woman he’d fought to protect, now standing so tall she towered over him, her body comprised entirely of multicolored flames, consumed by the ancient powers. His gaze tracked over to Theo who stood tall and immovable in front of his wife. His dark hair whipping back from his face and his blazing sword clenched in his fist.
‘Zeus,’ Theo replied his eyes blazing dangerously, ‘if you take one more step toward my wife, God or not, I will kill you.’
‘There is none of her humanity left,’ Zeus answered angrily. ‘The woman you are trying to protect is gone; all that is left is a creature of instinct alone. She cannot be controlled. She will only bring death and destruction.’
‘You’re wrong brother,’ Hades answered, ‘you underestimate her.’
‘Stand aside,’ Zeus growled.
‘No,’ Hades shook his head, ‘for once in my life I’m going to do the right thing.’
‘And so are we,’ Mac and Tammy, stepped hand in hand to stand beside Hades in front of Theo and Olivia.
‘We are too,’ Charles, Danae and Davis, limped bloody and battered from the tree line to stand the other side of Hades.
‘As do we,’ Diana and Herne stepped up beside Hades, nodding to him respectfully and joined by Tommy and Jake.
‘Zeus,’ although Diana spoke softly there was no mistaking the authority in her voice, ‘we will not allow you to harm her. Stand down and let events take their own path. It is not up to you to decide the fate of these humans.’
Zeus stared at the defiant Goddess angrily as Hades turned to Theo.
‘Theo, Zeus is wrong,’ he told him softly. ‘Olivia is not gone, she is lost, adrift and overwhelmed by the power. You are the only one who can reach her, you have to ground her.’
‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Theo frowned.
‘The same way she found you when you were lost to your own madness,’ he replied. ‘You two are bound to each other, call to her and she will hear you.’
Theo turned away from the others, tuning them out as he focused on the fiery creature in front of him.
‘Olivia?’ he called to her softly, his blazing sword disappearing from his hand and flowi
ng back into his arm.
She couldn’t hear him; she continued to stare up at the skies as if she were seeing thousands of worlds and infinite universes.
‘Olivia?’ he raised his voice a little louder.
‘You’re wasting your time,’ Zeus replied coolly, ‘she doesn’t even know who you are anymore. Her mind is too weak to withstand such a power.’
Hades turned to glare at his brother.
‘And you wonder why the mortals stopped worshiping you,’ he growled, ‘when you treat them as such weak inferiors.’
‘They are inferior,’ he blinked in confusion as if wondering why it wasn’t obvious to his brother.
‘You haven’t seen the things I have,’ Hades murmured as he turned back to Theo and Olivia. ‘In my experience their spirit and will is stronger than you can possibly imagine, they are capable of truly incredible things.’
Zeus scoffed quietly.
‘Olivia?’ Theo called out to her, ‘I know you can hear me.’
The ground heaved and shook beneath their feet, accompanied by an alarming cracking sound deep inside the earth below them. The wind suddenly turned, blowing the acrid stench of burning toward them. Mac turned to look into the woods, the trees were partially obscured with smoke and glowing a strange sooty orange.
‘The fire’s turning,’ he shouted in alarm, ‘it’s heading straight for us!’
‘That’s the least of our worries,’ Charles breathed heavily as a pair of red eyes appeared in the darkness of the trees, followed by another pair and another.
Thousands of pairs of eyes appeared in the darkness, the air filled with low growls.
‘We’re surrounded,’ Danae unwound her whip. As it unfurled to the ground it blazed with light.
Mac grabbed Zachary’s sword from where it had been thrown from Nathaniel’s grip and pulled Tammy protectively behind him. The sound of weapons being drawn ran through the clearing as they all turned their attention from Olivia to the circle of flaming woods surrounding them. Even Zeus turned, drawing a lightning bolt and grasping it in his fist. Hades moved to stand beside his brother, a flaming ball of Hell fire in his hand.
‘I hope she’s worth it brother,’ Zeus turned to look at Hades.
Hades’ mouth curved into a smile as they stood side by side before an army of Hell creatures.
‘Theo, you’d better hurry,’ Mac yelled as the first creatures surged through the tree line into the Hollow.
‘Olivia!’ Theo climbed up onto a section of the split tree so he was closer to her height, ‘Olivia please! I know you can hear me. The Hell gate is open. You have to close it! Or all of this was for nothing. This is not what you wanted, this isn’t who you are!’
Olivia stared up into the night sky, watching suns spin out of nothingness, observing galaxies born of chaos. Infernum was showing her the beginning of time itself. It was fusing itself to her consciousness, not just showing her but teaching her the vast secrets of the universe, showing her how to control the most ancient and volatile powers. It was so vast, so all encompassing. Nothing else mattered. She reached out and grasped a sun in her grip, a writhing mass of hot gas and light. She realized all she had to do was crush it in her fist and it would be gone.
‘But why would you want to?’ a voice echoed in her mind.
‘Because I can,’ she replied.
‘But why?’ it questioned again. ‘Has it offended you in some way?’
‘No.’
‘Then why destroy it?’
Olivia frowned.
‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,’ the voice returned.
‘The power?’
‘Is neither light nor dark, it does not have to destroy, just as it does not have to create. It simply is.’
‘Then what is its purpose?’
‘That is something you shall have to figure out.’
‘Why me?’ she asked in confusion.
‘Because I have waited a very long time for you.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You will in time,’ the dry voice seemed wryly amused.
‘Time?’ she pondered the random word, her mind seeming to drift in another direction.
‘What is your name?’ the voice asked softly.
She frowned again.
Did she have a name? She couldn’t quite recall.
‘I don’t know,’ she shook her head in confusion, ‘do I have a name?’
‘Yes you do,’ it replied.
She thought back and as her mind drifted she saw a tall dark haired man, with deep brown eyes. He was smiling at her; she was lying naked in his arms as he stroked her skin.
‘Who is he?’
‘Do you not know?’
She went back and searched her hazy memories, they were scattered and unclear. The more she tried to hold onto them the more they slipped away. She returned to the image of her lying in his arms, the feel of his skin hot against hers, his fingers tangling in her long dark hair.
‘Olivia,’ he breathed against her mouth.
‘My name is Olivia,’ she muttered.
The memory sharpened in her mind, as she wrapped her arms around the dark haired man, breathing him in as he made love to her.
‘THEO!’ she gasped.
‘Wake up Olivia,’ the voice echoed distantly, ‘wake up.’
Olivia pulled in a sharp breath, her lungs filling with smoke. She glanced around and saw the woods burning around her. Why the hell did everything look so far below? She raised her hands to her face and studied them in confusion. Her skin was a translucent mass of writhing flames; she glanced around her feet to see small figures fighting. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the details, it was like trying to see through a multicolored kaleidoscope, everything she saw was through a curtain of flame.
Through the animal like snarls, the clash of weapons and the snap of flames she heard something, heard her name. She looked down at the smaller figure below her and blinked. She sank down so that her huge face was at his level.
‘Olivia,’ Theo breathed heavily, his sword was once again in his hand dripping with black blood and he bore wounds at his temple and down his side. ‘Olivia you have to stop them.’
She stood slowly, looking out across the lake to the giant stone gateway which had been breached. Reaching out her hand, the giant black iron gates suddenly snapped closed and locked. She looked down to the ground where her earlier dragonflies had melted and dripped to the ground leaving a paint-like smear across the blackened earth. She concentrated on that smear of color. It twitched and moved; then it lifted and fluttered. Suddenly her two dragonflies blazed back to life, shooting up high into the sky.
They circled her twice and landed in her cupped palms, where they swirled together into a giant ball of churning colors. When it finally slowed and unfurled, a small fire drake uncoiled in her hands. It was beautiful. Like her dragonflies it was comprised entirely of flames, the stunning multicolored God fire. Smiling to herself, Olivia launched it up into the air. As its dragon-like wings opened it burst into bright flames and doubled in size. It swooped down low, plowing through the creatures. Every one of them it touched exploded into a shower of black ash.
Olivia reached out to the fire sweeping through her woods, feeling the heat and flame. She smothered it until it petered out, exhausted and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake miles wide.
Slowly Olivia began to shrink down to her own size, her flames banked down, her translucent skin began to mottle and change until it was once again flesh colored. Her familiar whiskey colored eyes locked on Theo, who stood watching her.
‘Theo,’ she whispered.
He grabbed her and crushed her to him, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair, breathing her in.
‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he breathed.
‘Never,’ she pulled back and looked into his dark eyes, holding his face in her hands.
‘Always,’ she murmured reaching up and pressing her mouth to his.
His hands gripped her tighter as the kiss deepened, for a few moments he allowed himself the comfort they both needed before pulling back. He glanced down at her belly, placing his hand over their children, his legs almost buckling in relief when he felt them kick beneath his palm.
‘They were safe Theo,’ she told him as her eyes filled with tears, ‘they were always safe.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Tommy whispered, ‘what happened to the Hell book?’
‘She is the book,’ Diana murmured, her eyes shining with pride. ‘It is a part of her now.’
The sound of a throat clearing had them both turning to face the rag tag band of Hell survivors in front of them. Although there were a good many injuries and they were very dirty she was happy to see all her friends. Tommy stood to the side cradling Beau, who wagged his tail in relief. Jake was also there, as was her father and his half siblings. Her gaze swept over Hades to land on a tall imposing man who looked just like him, except that instead of Hades’ black hair and piercing blue eyes, he had blonde hair and dark eyes.
‘Zeus I presume,’ Olivia stepped out of Theo’s embrace, but he stayed close to her, hovering protectively as if he didn’t trust the God’s intentions.
Zeus watched the human female with curious eyes, his gaze swept over her swollen and obviously pregnant body. The fire drake swept over them with a cry of triumph and landed on Olivia’s shoulder, once more shrinking to roughly the same size as Beau. The fire drake’s beautiful lithe body and dragon like wings snapped with brightly colored, jewel toned flames as it eyed the God Zeus intently.
‘Olivia I believe your name is?’ Zeus replied as he watched her with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.
‘That’s right,’ she replied frankly, ‘now I think it’s time we get a few things straight. I don’t like the way you’ve been throwing your weight around. This is no longer your world, you chose to leave for your city in the clouds and from now on that is where your authority begins and ends.’
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 197
