Apollo's Secret

by A Y Venona

  “Brothers,” Zeus said to the crowd. “We can now embrace death to return home. I shall see you all to our next life.”

  Zeus drank the red liquid inside the small vial; in an instant, he disintegrated into dust. The rest of the elder gods except Janus imitated his action, and they too followed his fate.

  Around a hundred of the gods died that day. Those who remained left the Brunn to mourn their son in private. Except for one who stood quietly, unobtrusively as he watched the scene before him. Janus.

  It took a couple more minutes before the only noise left echoing in the garden was the wail coming from Alexander’s family: his two fathers—Hector and Lawrence—and his uncle, Terrence.

  While cradling Xander’s body, Jason gazed at the sword with eyes blurry with tears. He knew his fate was sealed. He would follow Alexander soon.

  “Not so fast,” Melo said. “All is not lost. Lawrence, snap out of it. We need to—” Melo stopped when he noticed Janus standing behind him. “Oh, I see, you stayed. Are you scared that there will be no reincarnation waiting for you?”

  Janus strode toward them. “I’m here to help.”

  Some sort of realization dawned on Melo’s face. “Are you here to make sure he is dead?”

  Janus knelt close to where the family was huddled around Alexander. “I saw what you did earlier. However, I believed that no matter how it happened, Alexander sacrificed himself today. The curse is broken.”

  Melo’s gaze shifted to Lawrence. “We can bring Xander back. I cast a Mortal Curse on him to displace his soul out of his body just in time when his death portal opened.”

  Lawrence met Melo’s gaze “You what?”

  “You did this before. You brought the soul back to his body. You can do it again.”

  A whimper escaped Lawrence’s lips.

  “You helped Daniel twice,” Hector whispered to his ear. “I’m confident you can bring our son back.”

  With a new hope rising inside him, Lawrence wiped his tears and kissed his son’s forehead. “I’ll bring you back.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Terrence asked beside him. “I can bargain for his soul. I’ll cross into the portal to close it and so he can return to his body.”

  “No,” Janus said. “Alexander will not accept your sacrifice, but he will accept mine.”

  They were all left stunned at Janus’ offer. Was this a trick?

  “Very well,” Melo replied for his family. “Then let’s start the process.”

  Jason remained in his catatonic state as he watched them reached out for Xander’s soul to accept Janus’ bargain. He watched them rejoice when a confirmation from Xander was received. He watched them with the eyes that were full of wonder, questions, doubts. He watched when Janus finally drank his own poison that turned his flesh into ash. He watched this unfold right there in front of him.

  “We need to heal his wound,” Lawrence said, his hand caressing his son’s cheek.

  “Here.” Melo handed a pouch to Lawrence. “Apollo spent his last days perfecting that herb.”

  Lawrence’s eyes wrinkled in confusion. “Father made this?”

  “This is his Plan B.”

  “What are you talking about, Melo?” Hector’s angry voice echoed in the garden. “Don’t tell me you planned this to happen.”

  Melo stared at them before he answered. “I lied when I said Apollo did not share his secret. He did. Together we searched for a solution. And this was one of them. That herb is capable of healing the wound faster.”

  Hector moved close to his son as he carefully pulled the sword out of his son’s stomach. As the blood squirted out, Lawrence opened the pouch and poured its powder content onto the wound. The green substance triggered a clotting that immediately stopped the bleeding and also sealed the wound.

  “Now this,” Melo said, as he handed a vial with a silvery liquid inside it. “Dab this on his nostrils.”

  And for the first time as though awakened from his catatonic state, Jason showed a semblance of awareness. He tightened his hold of Xander’s body and moved him closer to Lawrence so the latter could do what Melo instructed him. He brought Xander’s hand close to his mouth to kiss it. And with bated breath, he waited.

  It seemed like forever before they heard Xander gasp. And when Xander opened his eyes, Jason closed his and cried.

  Chapter 26

  A Week After

  “What are you doing?” Xander asked. They were on the bed, completely naked. But while Xander was on his back, enjoying the after sex languor, Jason had his head on top of Xander’s stomach and appeared to be listening to something very intently.

  Jason shushed him, an endeavor that failed miserably.

  “You know our kind does not physically get pregnant, right?”

  Jason crawled to Xander’s side.

  “Melo did not really explain it to me. I…” He hesitated. A flush crept across his face. “I can’t help myself imagining you with a… you know…swollen belly.”

  Xander stared at him, his golden-green eyes appeared to be gleaming despite the natural light coming from the huge window right across from their bed. Then slowly his lips curved into a smile.

  “Do you want to know?”

  Jason moved to sit straight up in bed like a dutiful pupil ready to hear a lesson from his favorite instructor.

  Xander shifted to his side, facing Jason. “Unlike a pregnant female with fetus in her womb, our kind carries a Shii, which is like an infant soul. We also don’t have a specific due date as to when the Shii is going to be born. The gestation can be a year long or, perhaps, years. Lawrence carried me for five years before I was born.”

  Xander smirked at Jason’s dumbfounded face.

  “So it’s likely you’re going to be pregnant for long?”

  “More than likely.”

  Jason raked his hands through his hair and then rested them on the back of his neck. With his mouth open and eyes wide, he was an image of a man completely awestruck.

  But the playful buzz in the air took a somber tone as Xander’s expression turned serious.

  “But a Shii cannot be delivered without its Shi'a. Shi’la is the bearer of the soul, me, and the Shi’a is the father of the soul, you.”

  “What if the Shii is ready to be born, but the Shi'a is not around?”

  Xander’s gaze drifted toward the window. The greenish lake offered a temporary distraction, a way to stall him from answering Jason’s question. Then Xander realized that Jason needed this truth to prepare him of the possibility…

  “The Shii and the Shi’la can both die.”

  Jason pulled him for a very tight hug. “Then I’m not going to leave your side then.”

  Xander scrunched up his face. “No way. I will have to need some space. And besides…” He wiggled himself out of Jason’s death grip. “I’m a full bloodied shiane. Melo said that I may be carrying this Shii between five to ten years.”

  After several kisses and reassurance from Xander, Jason started to relax and persuaded him to continue talking about their kind.

  “When the soul is ready to detach from me, it will seek yours to collect your DNA. It will enter you through your mouth and then comes back to me. But some Shii before it returns to the Shi’la spends a short moment outside of the body to share its life force to whoever it feels connected to. And that's how our kind has some sort of affinity to either animal or nature. Sometimes too a Shii enters an animal nearby and from that animal, a new species will be born. That's why some of our kind declared themselves gods because to them they were instrumental in the creation of a new life. In reality, these werekin or faes are not really their creations, but their brothers especially the werekin."

  “Why especially them?”

  “Because when the Shii left Were, the god of the werekin, instead of going back inside Were’s mate, the Shii entered the animals that were specifically selected for that occasion and stayed there.”

  Jason's eyes widened. "So the Shii was born
from the animals, which I assumed werewolf, bear and the big cats?"

  “Only bear and the bigs cats. The wolf came from Fenrir’s Shii. That’s why the werekin are different from any other shifters. They are technically Were’s children.”

  “Are you telling me the werewolves are my brothers?”

  "Well, their ancestors were your brothers. The werewolves of today are like thousands of generations removed from the firstborn."

  Jason blinked rapidly, which amused Xander to no end.

  “So Fenrir was like a hundred thousands years old?”

  “They probably stopped counting their age once they reached one thousand.”

  The sudden pensive expression on Jason’s face alarmed Xander a little.

  “What is it?”

  “What if it happens to us?” Jason asked, his frown deepened. “What if our Shii will be born in an animal?”

  “Does it matter?”

  "No, it doesn't. But if it happens, I will introduce myself as their father, and not as their god."

  Xander leaned closer to him and kissed his lips. “That’s why I love you. And you know what? I’ll raise them with you as our children.”

  Jason pulled Xander on top of him, their groins touched. His hand cupped Xander’s ass. But Xander took the hand off him.

  “We need to get ready,” he said, his voice gentle to appease his disappointed mate. “They are waiting for us.”

  ✽✽✽

  “Follow me,” Melo told them.

  Their group—consisted of Lawrence, Hector, Terrence, Jason, Xander, and Melo—passed through a tunnel of bookshelves before they rode in an elevator that took them up to the top of the tallest tower where it opened to a room that looked like a marriage of science and magic. The walls were metal instead of marble and filled with colored buttons instead of gemstones. The center, however, had a huge ball of crystal, the only evidence of the magical nature of its owner.

  None of them had any idea why Melo took them to his secret lair.

  “This is Apollo’s plan A,” Melo said speaking to them as he spread his hands by way of introducing the place.

  “Apollo built this?” Lawrence asked, surprised and amazed.

  “We did.”

  Xander touched the slanted desk attached to the wall. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was actually a computer screen.

  “What is this place, Melo?” Hector asked. His voice was edged with suspicion.

  “We built this place purely for communication by merging technology and magic. The whole area is a huge computer charmed with Portal Spell, of course, courtesy of Apollo and me.”

  Xander watched his group fell in complete silence. It amused him to see a complete bafflement on Lawrence’s face, an expression that came by in rarity. He cleared his throat.

  “Uncle, can you further elaborate us to Apollo’s Plan A?”

  Melo gazed at Xander with a sad smile.

  “You all need to understand that Apollo was desperate to find a way to spare his grandson, Xander, from going through the whole sacrificial ritual. So he came up with this theory that death could be a portal back home despite the imposed Omega Curse. To test this theory, he had to be on the other side.”

  “The other side?” Lawrence asked though the tone of his voice suggested that he knew what Melo meant.

  “The reincarnated life. Anyway, so he performed a ritual…” Melo’s voice faltered.

  “He killed himself,” Lawrence finished for him.

  Melo’s gaze drifted to the crystal ball.

  “It’s the only way. He concocted plan B first before he sacrificed himself.” Melo paused to take a deep breath. “The plan is for me to stall the Legion from executing the ritual of breaking the curse while waiting for Apollo to communicate from the other side. It was just very unfortunate that Janus stumbled upon Apollo’s old diary.”

  "Stumbled? Melo, there's no such thing as an accident with you," Lawrence said as he took a few steps closer to Melo. The tension in the air intensified that Xander prepared himself to immediately intervene if he had to.

  “When Fenrir died, Lawrence, I thought it was time for plan B, that Apollo did not make it. The others, those who died including Apollo himself deserved to another chance. Don’t you think so?”

  “So there’s no journal inside the secret vaults?”

  "We didn't lie about the journal. I supposed to encode it in another language and teach it to someone deemed to be worthy of the knowledge so that if I die at least someone will be here waiting for Apollo's first contact."

  “But why did you invite us here if this is a failed experiment?” Hector asked.

  The mirth returned in Melo’s eyes as he gave them a cryptic grin.

  “Because of this,” he answered, gesturing at the crystal ball.

  Everyone looked confused.

  “Okay?” Lawrence asked. “And?”

  “Just wait,” Melo said as though they were being petulant and impatient.

  It took them a couple of hours before the crystal ball glowed to which Lawrence grimaced in annoyance.

  “Melo, I can make any ball glow. What makes this any special?”

  “Is that you, Lawrence?”

  This was one eerie moment because the voice came from the crystal. It was faint but clear. But for Lawrence, who had had experiences communicating with a soul displaced from the body, this kind of magic— though unprecedented—was not what unnerved him. It was the voice that came through the crystal. It was familiar.

  “Go on, answer him,” Melo urged like it was normal to communicate this way.

  “Yes,” Lawrence answered, his voice shaking.

  Silence. And then.

  “Oh, son, I missed you so much.”

  “Father?” Lawrence answered as tears flooded his eyes. Hector wrapped his arm around him.

  Xander watched his fathers with a joyous smile when Jason nudged his arm. He glanced to his direction.

  “What’s going on?” Jason mouthed.

  Xander pointed at the glowing crystal and mouthed back ‘Apollo. Observe.’

  “Melo, are you there?”

  “I’m right here, Apollo,” Melo answered, walking close to the ball.

  They all took it as a cue to gather closer to the crystal ball.

  “It’s a success, Melo. I was reincarnated back home,” Apollo answered.

  “But, father, are you sure you’re not talking to us from the realm of Hades?”

  “I’m very certain the realm of Hades is bigger than a ship.”

  “What do you mean?” Melo asked.

  “I’m on a ship.”

  “Like you’re sailing on a water?” Jason chimed in.

  “Whose voice was that?”

  “It’s Jason,” Melo answered. “Fenrir and Muzil’s son.”

  “Oh,” Apollo replied. “Melo, don’t tell me you told them?”

  “I…I executed our plan B.”

  “You didn’t wait for me?”

  “Fenrir died, Apollo. I can’t wait any longer.”

  Silence came after that. Lawrence started to panic.

  “Father? Are you there? Talk to us.”

  “I’m here. Did it work?”

  “It did. Xander’s all right. He’s here with us.”

  “Oh, my little grandson.”

  "No longer little, granddad."

  “You also have a lovely voice,” Apollo answered as everybody chuckled.

  “You said you’re on a ship?” Xander asked.

  “Yes, about that. It’s a spaceship. And, Alexander, I met a couple who knew you.”

  “Yes, I met a couple who knew Alexander.”

  Xander’s forehead furrowed. “Who?”

  “Their names are Adrian and Elian. I’m aboard their ship called Atlantis.”

  Without Jason’s arms around him, Xander would have collapsed on the floor. Perhaps, he was exaggerating, but what the hell?

  The entire room was unnervingly quiet when another voic
e, not Apollo’s, floated over the crystal.

  “Who are you talking to?”

  The speaker's voice was familiar. Xander had known that voice by heart. It was the voice that had once irritated him but learned to love. It was the voice of a young man who stole his first love.

  It was the voice of Adrian’s mate.

  It was Elian Gustan.

  With his heart bursting with joy, Xander touched the crystal and called out the name.

  “Eli?”

  Other Books in the Same Universe

  Soul Spell Book One

  I, Elian Gustan, find myself in an unfortunate predicament. Adrian Larsa, the captain of the most elite group of alphas, shows me so much love I’m so loved-up. But here's the rub: it’s a love of the brotherly kind. Yes, it's cute, but its cuteness has long run its course and now becomes a major heartache because Adrian is not my brother. He is my soulmate. But then again I might be mistaken. I mean, who knows really?

  Enter Alexander Brunn, the most beautiful man on the planet. He is as heroic as Adrian. Together, they are the perfect couple—too perfect that they make me feel like a villain in my own godforsaken story.

  And then here comes the Gatherings, the anniversary of the Founding of the Seven Realms and the only event that the gods attend. This year turns out to be full of surprises from good to bad—to worst. Guess who gets the worst part?

  Set in the same universe as Alpha Academy, this book is an m/m suspense and scifi-fantasy romance with an mpreg theme. It contains a certain tragic element but with a satisfying HEA ending.

  Alpha Academy Duology

  Alpha Academy Book One

  Daniel Saga’s life is about to change forever. At age eighteen, the next full moon will bring his first shift into wolf form. Daniel comes from a long line of betas, and his fervent prayer is that he not disappoint his family. But in the world where there are several types of werekin, there is a likelihood that he may end up a gamma, an omicron, or his worst fear—an omega. He is certain that becoming an alpha is not an option for him. Or is it?