The Light of Love

Chapter 14: Elio Atwood

A/N: The Greek phrase below is a loose translation to "Sunlight is in the bow." :) Also TW: Blood descriptions at the end of the chapter.

Elio's heart was going a thousand miles a minute. So, so many reasons as well. Cody had been fast as light when he took Elio as his bunk-mate in the tents, Cody's nerves kept playing love songs on the radio, and Typhon had shaken the ground and they all bolted. Elio cursed, there was no sunlight for his bow. He needed to take it out manually, it wasn't hard, just inconvenient. He muttered some Greek to get the bow to unfurl.

"To fos tou íliou eínai sto tóxo" he muttered and the bow unfurled and landed in his hand

He smiled as the celestial bronze glimmered in the darkness. Wait... why was there no moonlight? Elio looked up and his stomach dropped, there was a billow of smoke above them and they saw the monstrous giant pinned under the peak. The peak could explode and free him, and then they would all die before fighting. Liam would never get home to Florida, Asher would never see his daughter again, Cody would never get to fly freely, and Elio... He would never tell him how he feels. Elio was scared, he looked at his friends, they definitely felt the same way. 

"Guys... are those telkhines?" Liam pointed to the peak of the volcano

Sure enough, the dog-seals were mining at the peak, squealing a horrifying song. Cody had his bow and Liam had his knife. Asher pulled out a giant battle axe and Elio's mouth fell open at the way Asher wielded it with such grace. He spun it and caught the blade.

"They're nothing." Asher looked downright murderous, "They aren't standing in between me and my daughter."

Elio was shaking, he was actually scared to get in Asher's way with that monster of a weapon.

Cody shook off his sweater and his wings spread as he grabbed his arrow and nocked it, suddenly, Elio had other things to do than stare at his friend's weapons. He blushed but quickly looked at Liam, he was hovering with his magic shoes and dagger. He stared at Typhon as the ground shook. Cody went airborne as well and Asher let out the most terrifying bleat a goat could ever utter. Elio stayed where he was as they charged the mountain. Cody took to the skies with Liam, Asher vaulted up the mountain at shocking speeds, finding footholds no smaller than a folded dollar bill and leaping up the side and Elio struggled behind, with a broken ankle and bleeding cuts, he was struggling until Liam noticed and handed him the bucket hat. It sprouted wings and Elio was now the second airborne archer, Asher was higher up the cliff face than they were and the telkhines were in shooting distance. Elio notched an arrow and shot, he prayed he would hit and he did, a shot in between the eyes as a telkhine crumpled to the ground. The others roared and hail started pounding down, the frozen hail was the size of rubber balls and knocked Elio and Liam spiralling to the ground, into the crater of the volcano, Liam had caught himself and got to the edge of the crater and crawled out of view. Elio screamed as the hat kept pulling up, but he kept falling down.

"You still owe your debt, sun spawn." The voice boomed

Elio didn't say anything, he just wailed as he was still being pulled, the lava only a few hundred meters below. He screamed and prayed on all the gods for help. But he kept falling, the hail scraping his head, making him bleed. He screamed one last time and then felt something pull him up, it wasn't the hat this time. He opened his cut eyes and looked through the blood and saw Cody. Cody was pulling him up with effort, his wings beating wildly and his face coated with blood mixed with icy shards. He looked at Elio and they locked eyes as Cody kept his wings going against the hail, the feathers coated in blood. For a moment, he saw Cody's tears run down his face as his blood parted with the water. The lava was only fifty feet below and the hail was melting around them. Elio felt the searing heat of the lava and thought one thought, Cody. 

He felt the lava pulling at him, the heat growing until he felt himself getting colder. This is it, I'm dead, he thought. But then he hit the mountain peak and saw Cody holding his hand.