CHAPTER TWO ~Luke~
I can't help glancing at her limp body on the bed. My hand absentmindedly strays to my neck, where a red leather string is looped through a small pendant. The pendant was my dad's, before I jumped into this mess I had lived with my father. I'm not saying they were the best times of my life, but they definitely weren't the worst. I don't blame him for not really knowing how to be a father. My dad was a player even before I was born, and well he hadn't expected me. I was more of a servant than a son to be honest. On top of that he had another kid. A older boy he obviously liked better than me. I wasn't even allowed to eat at the same table as "his family". I stayed quiet, hidden in my room, while He, his son, and his wife ate in the dining room. The pendant is small and shaped like a crescent, a moonstone, held to the string with black wire, wrapped around the stone to keep it in place.
She's been sleeping for a good 6 hours since she arrived. Noelle won't shut up about what happened.
"It was him. I know it was. He's the only one who could do something like this." She says, her worried eyes drifting towards the bed. Noelle shakes her head, I can tell she's on the verge of tears, she's grown so close the Alex over the past few months. Jordan's grip tightens on Noelle's hand. They've been together longer than anyone can remember. A daughter of Athena and a son of Kratos make a pretty deadly combination, when Jordan isn't fighting alongside Noelle, he's battling with his twin sister Jayden.
"We can't be sure." Hannah says, her long blonde hair in the usual high ponytail. She turns towards Via, who has made her way across the room and is standing over the bed. "Via, what can you get?"
Via pushes a strand of her light blue hair out of her face. She shuts her eyes lightly and after a minute of silence her eyes are moving fast under her eyelids. Her eyes open as a loud gasp escapes her lips. She's breathing heavily and I can see she's about to collapse. Right before she falls, Evan is behind her, holding her up.
"What did you see?" Evan asks, helping her to a chair. As Via sits down, Evan kneels by her, clutching her hand in his own. The Poet and the Dreamer, another deadly combination. Via shakes her head.
"She has to wake up." Via looks up towards the rest of us. "She's dreaming of him. Except, they aren't dreams. They're memories." At that, talk starts up immediately.
"Wait. So you're saying Alex has met him before?" Kyle speaks up and Via nods slightly.
"But all the memories of him were ripped from her mind and replaced with fakes ones. Now, they're all flooding back to her. If she doesn't wake up soon she'll drown in her own memories." I glance at her limp form once again.
"What can we do?" I ask and a cold laugh pierces the air.
"Why do we need to do anything? It's not like she's got anyone who'll miss her. if she dies, so what?" Christian's voice pierces a silence, only to be followed by another silence.
The silence is broken by the sound of knifes exiting their sheaths and before I know it Jordan is trying desperately to hold Noelle back. The tears have finally slipped from her eyes. I rush to help him, grabbing her wrists.
"Noelle! Let go of the knifes." I practically yell. Noelle looks back at me with sadness in her eyes. Slowly, but surely, she lets go of the knifes and they clatter to the ground. I let go of her wrists as she melts back into Jordan's arms. As I look at Noelle I can't help but feel my anger rising. I turn, walking to Christian and slamming him against the wall.
"Who do you think you are? You don't get to decide if she lives or not. You aren't a god." Christian just laughs.
"Of course I am. My mother doesn't associate with mortals and I shouldn't have to put up with them either." Christian pushes me back and I stumble.
"Oh get over yourself. You're a demigod, you're not a god!" Kyle shouts, everyone looks at him in silence. His eyes filled with a pure hatred that's been there since he met Christian. Hannah puts a gentle hand on Kyle's shoulder, they may not be the same age, but they're siblings of the same parents. Their mom had a thing for Ares.
Christian just scoffs and storms out of the cabin. I don't know what we expected from him, mister I'm too cool to associate with any of you.
As long as he doesn't join Devon. We all know his main goal, once again my eyes drift to Alex, laying limp on the bed. What is it about her that draws me like a fly to light? Devon Moren has been building his army of demigods for as long as any of us can remember.
"We can't just let her die. Devon has been following her since we were all in diapers, Cassie, Apollo and even us have been protecting her since she was small. If she dies now it would be all for nothing. At the very least we need to find out why Devon is so obsessed with getting his hands on her." Hannah speaks out.
"She's a person, not a guinea pig. She doesn't know her power and we're not gonna force it out of her." Evan speaks up, still clutching Via's hand.
"Evan's right, how would any of you feel if you were being prodded and poked at." Via chimes in. "It took me 4 months to figure out my powers. and another 6 on top on that to control them."
"Well we don't have ten months." Hannah fires back, without her usual friendliness, her Ares side is coming out.
"Oh look the hulk can do math! It's a miracle." Jayden spits out. Oh no, this won't end well. Kratos and Ares, Not a good mix. Hannah and Jayden will rip each other apart. Two girls with fighting in their blood and an aggressiveness to match.
"Stop." Kyle's thundering voice bellows out. "Fighting will get us no where." He says in his disappointed father voice, that both Kyle and Hannah have heard before. Jayden quiets immediately, though Hannah is harder to quiet. With a fire in her eyes she walks up to Kyle.
"Don't talk to me in that tone of voice, ever. I am your sister, not your daughter." She says in a stern voice. She plows past Kyle, bumping him on the shoulder as she walks out of the cabin, most likely on her way to her own.
At this, everyone quiets. Kyle sighs looking at his feet. He's the oldest of us all, 17, the same age as Devon. Because he's the oldest, everyone looks up to him, some of us consider him the leader of our little group. But I don't. Just because you're a year or two older than us doesn't make you a leader. Even his temperamental sister would make a better leader.
"Luke. Will you come with me?" I turn my head towards Jayden and nod, desperate to get out of here. I follow Jayden out the door, but before I exit I sneak one last glance at Alex. As I step out of the cabin and come into view of the 12 other cabins.
As we walk I can tell we are headed to the training cabin. My hand wanders to my neck again, rubbing the smooth edge of the moonstone. It's a thing I do when I'm anxious. I don't know why I'm anxious, something just feels off. We enter the training cabin, drawing back the curtain to reveal the large open space, walls lined with weapons of all sorts.
"Grab a sword, we need to work on your training." I laugh, but do as she says, picking up a lightweight sword, probably the only type of sword I would ever use. My passion lies in magic, which I have thanks to my mother, Hecate.
"Thanks." I say facing her, sword in hand.
"Don't thank me yet." She says with a smirk. As she lunges toward me, sword in hand, I duck. She stronger than me, but I'm quicker. I hop up, just as she steadies herself. Her smirk still lies on her face, I'm determined to wipe it off. She swings with her dominant hand, (her right) and I counter. The clang of metal on metal makes me smile. I've always been my most focused in battle.
"So, Luke. Got the hots for anyone here at camp?" She says as she swings her sword again. I'm stunned, and shocked.
"What?" I ask in the seconds before her sword hits mine, near my hand, sending it across the room. The next thing I know, she's tripped me, I'm on the ground, with her sword at my throat. She smiles triumphantly, and I glare. "That's cheating!" I exclaim as she draws her sword away from my throat, and I sit up.
"All's fair in love and war." She said with a smirk. "But seriously, who do you have your eye on?" She asks, suddenly getting serious. I stand up, brushing myself off.
"Uh..." I stamper. "I-I don't know.. No one really." My answer doesn't seem to satisfy her though because she smirks and raises her eyebrow. "What?" I ask, scared she might suspect my feelings.
"Everyone knows you've got the hots for Hannah." She says, leaning against the only wall clear of weapons. As she says this I can't help but burst into laughter.
"Hannah? Sorry, too 'Kyle's sister' for me." Jayden stifled a laugh. "Also I'm not into blondes." It looked like Jayden was gonna laugh again, but she quickly stopped, staring at something behind me. I frown and turn around, seeing a devastated looking blonde named Hannah. She quickly turned away, and ran out of the cabin. I ran after her, only to find her standing outside of the cabin, frozen in place.
"Hannah?" I ask. I turn towards what she's looking at, a black cloud, spreading it's way towards her. Suddenly a piercing scream escapes her lips, as she crumbles I catch her and start towards the main cabin, calling Jayden to grab some weapons and meet at the main cabin.. Hannah's whimpering in my arms. "Shh... whatever you saw Hannah, it wasn't real. Hannah? can you hear me?" I say quietly.
"I-It looked s-so real..." She whimpers again as a tear falls from her eye. I barge into the main cabin. Everyone's eye shift towards me.
"We need to get out of here." I say urgently. "We're under attack." At this everyone gets up, taking a weapon from Jayden and heading out the door. Finally, Jayden sets the rest of the weapons on the table and heads out, leaving me, Hannah, Kyle and Alex in the cabin. Kyle, hasn't said anything. He's just staring at Hannah in my arms. His emotion blunt on his face, his eyes so worried and scared.
"What happened?" He asks, not taking his eyes of Hannah, whimpering in my arms.
"I think it was a fear demon." I answer and I can tell he regrets what he said earlier. He turns around, cursing under his breath. "We need to get them both out of here." I say, meaning Hannah and Alex. He bites his lip, but nods, picking Alex up off the bed. I feel a pain in my chest seeing him hold her, but shake it off. As we walk out the door, I can hear the sounds of fighting.
"Luke! To your right!" Kyle shouts out and I turn to see a black cloud, charging after me. Holding Hannah in one hand, I use my other to push the demon back with magic. It is stronger than I expected, and I can feel my legs trembling. I squeeze my eyes shut trying to concentrate. I can feel Hannah, wiggling out of my grip. I open my eyes and she's standing next to me. I start using both hands to push the black cloud back.
"Go! Go with Kyle and Alex to the car! I'll hold them back as long as I can." Hannah hesitates but nods, turning and running after Kyle. I can feel the demon pushing against my magic, slowly but surely. I keep pushing, thinking of Alex and Hannah. I sense Jayden, Jordan and Noelle coming towards the field I've created and I allow them through, but hold everything else back.
"Go! They're waiting in the car! Via and Evan aren't out yet!" Some of the demons are pounding on field, with their fists, with whatever they have. Each time the field is hit, it feels like a hit to the head, but the field doesn't waver. The three hesitantly start towards the car. I can see Via and Evan fighting to get to the field. As they easily pass through I fall to my knees but keep my hands out, holding the field up.
"Luke! Come on! We need to go!" Via yells, but I shake my head.
"Go! I'll hold them back, get to the car and tell them to drive!" I yell back.
"We're not leaving you!" Evan chimes in. I feel my head pounding and I know the field's about to fall.
"I'm not giving you a choice!" Still holding one hand towards the field, I swing the other around and push them back, towards the car.
"Luke!" Via is yelling, she says more, but I can't hear it. I feel something sticky sliding from my nose and taste blood in my mouth, I keep pushing them back towards the car until the finally stop struggling and go there themselves.
I go back to using both hands to push them back, and I don't stop until I can't hear the car. Even then I continue holding them off. Suddenly a splitting pain fills my head and I cry out, clutching my head, the field falling. The entire army of monsters begins running at me and towards the way the car went.
"Let them go." A deep, booming voice says, stopping them. I start coughing, and see the grass stained red. I look up to see a figure walking through the black cloud. I can't see him clearly but I can hear him, and it's too hard to forget that voice. I hear the triumphant smirk in his voice.
"We have all we need right here." Devon says. "Hello little brother."
*Daughter*Of*The*Gods*
My eyes slowly drift open and for a second I can't remember where I am. I look up and see the metal door with the barred window. I remember now. I've been here before when I was younger, not even 11 years old. When my brother first decided he hated living like less then the gods.
"Ah! You're awake!" I turn my head slightly to the left to see Devon sitting cross legged on the floor. He stands quickly. Immediately I try to lunge at him, only to realize my hands are shackled above my head. Devon smiles.
"Oh so feisty. You must calm down, and I really would prefer you did it on your own account." I scowl.
"And if I don't?" I spit out at him, tugging on the shackles. Devon just smiles.
"Would you like a demonstration?" He asks and before I can say anything a black cloud comes through the cracks in the bars and surrounds me.
Suddenly I'm no longer in the cell, but my hands are still shackled behind me. I see Alex, running towards me, but Devon comes from behind me and embraces her. I try to yell at her to get away from him, but nothing comes out. I try to go to her, but my shackles forbid it. They start kissing passionately and all I can do is sit there as Devon pulls a knife from behind his back and slides it easily into her chest. She gasps, and terror fills her eyes. She only whispers it, but it echos in my ears louder than a siren. "I loved you."
In the seconds before she hits the ground the vision fades away, and all I can see is a smirking Devon. My breath is heavy and shaky, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of my tears.
"One silly little fear demon isn't gonna scare me off." I say as confidently as I can, though he's still smirking. Devon turns, headed for the door. Before he shuts the door, he turns back.
"It wasn't fear, it was the future." The door shuts and the lock clicks, but I can't hear any of that. All I hear are Devon's word's repeating in my ears, echoing over and over. As soon as his foot steps fade away I let myself cry.
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YOU ARE READING
Daughter Of The Gods
RomanceAlex has grown up her whole life in Madame Cassandra's Orphanage, and she's hated it. The cruelness of the boy down the street and the strict attitude of Madame Cassandra. All she's ever had was her music and the sun. What will happen when even that...