Daisy St. James and the Forge of Fire ✔️

Chapter 11. An Unlikely Alliance

 After two hours of walking through the maze, with Dr. Beaumont's diligent mapping, they found themselves approaching another door in the maze.

"Another puzzle," Dr. Gillespie muttered. "This one should be interesting. Hopefully it will be as easy as the other one."

"Yeah," Daisy muttered. She stepped through first, entering a large chamber, with multiple entrances coming off of it, a golden door at the end. There was a large statue in the center. It was of Cerberus, the three-headed dog. There were spouts made to resemble the statue throughout the room, spouts leading into a water feature separating the entrances from the center piece.

But that wasn't all that was in the room.

Kneeling at the center base of the statue, reading what was inscribed in Ancient Greek was Phoenix Abrams. And he wasn't alone. Daisy recognized the chilling eyes of his aunt, Olivia Abrams— an assassin who could vanish and reappear at will. She, and two boys— the Tremblay brothers, burly young men who were more of use for field operations than studying at a lab— stood over Phoenix, ready to protect him.

"Mis dioses," Cassandra whispered as the others filed in.

Thomas turned bright red and leapt across the water, landing in a run towards Phoenix.

"Wait, no!"

But Daisy's cry wasn't needed, as Malcolm Tremblay moved out of formation, wielding a sword that looked to be made of onyx, glimmering malevolently. Thomas ducked the blow, and Daisy leapt after him, drawing her knife.

"Thomas!" He looked just in time to see her knife flying at him, and snatched it out of the air, and weaved between Malcom's swings with a sword.

Daisy turned around just as Byron Tremblay swung at her with a fist, and she leapt out of the way, falling to the ground. She didn't get a chance to scramble to the ground as Byron pinned her to the ground, delighting in her terror as she kicked wildly.

"Get off her!"

Phoenix pulled Byron off of her right as Dr. Gillespie pounced on Olivia Abrams, the two engaging in a physical brawl.

"What are you doing?" Byron demanded as Daisy scrambled to her feet, unable to comprehend the action around her. Gwen and Cassandra went to help Thomas, who was barely avoiding Malcolm and was unable to get in any hits of his own.

Before Phoenix could answer, Dr. Winchester pulled her shotgun from off of her back and cocked it, holding the gun to his head. Phoenix froze, putting his hands up. But he didn't look afraid at all.

Byron started towards Dr. Winchester, but she merely arched an eyebrow and pulled the trigger— but nothing happened.

She frowned, checking the safety, and that was long enough for Byron to knock it from her hands. Dr. Winchester responded with a kick that sent Byron flying back. Daisy grabbed Phoenix's arm before he could continue.

Dr. Beaumont rushed to Dr. Winchester's aid, although she wasn't much use, and Dr. Rosales was trying to pry Olivia Abrams and Dr. Gillespie apart.

Phoenix whirled around, and for a moment he looked angry— then his coffee-colored eyes widened at something behind them.

"Daisy, look!"

She turned to see that all of the doors were sealed off— and the spouts were spewing more water, so fast that the droplets were white and spraying rainbows in the strangely bright room. The water was rising, faster and faster.

"It's going to kill us," Daisy whispered. She turned to Phoenix. "What's the key?"

"I didn't get a great look, but we need to find the pieces to a lyre, and a sequence of notes, they're supposed to be hidden in the room," Phoenix said.