33. In Which an All-Consuming Magic Threatens the World
Chapter 33
In Which an All-Consuming Magic Threatens the World
H er door thrust open, and the light from the hall flooded into the room as if it were a ray of hope. Evander stood framed in light, panting. Bruises marked his face, and blood covered his hands. The storm around Ellie swirled as he stepped into the bedlam. A scream came from somewhere in the dark and sounded otherworldly. Lightning whizzed past his head, and he ducked.
“Ellie?”
Another scream. Another streak of lightning.
“What happened?”
Ellie scrambled away, backing up further into the dark room, tripping over lamps, books, and clothes.
“Get away!” she yelled and sent a fireball blasting at him. “Monster!”
Evander froze as the door swung closed behind him. In his desire to return, he had forgotten to shift back into his human form. He stood before her as the veritable monster Athena created. Wearing the Greek warrior armor, swords strapped to him, his wings arching overhead. Stepping further into the room, he shifted quickly back into a semi-human form. Wings and swords hidden, he remained dressed as a hoplite.
“Ellie,” he cooed, hands outstretched as if gentling a wild animal. “It’s me. See, it’s me.”
A strangled cry tore from her, and she sent magic streaking across the room. It smashed into the wall and fell like shards of glass to the floor.
“I’ll kill you like I killed that thing.”
“What thing?”
She didn’t answer; tears slipped over her cheeks, glistening in the moonlight pouring in from the busted balcony door.
“Darling, what thing?” Stepping over a broken lamp, he advanced on her shaking frame. All her magic tumbled forward in waves of power, bursting their tightly held dams and flooding the room. Her entire body shook with the strength it took to keep the tidal wave at bay. She wiped a tear with the back of her shaky hand.
“Ellie. Please, it’s me.”
“You asshole!” she yelled, and light burst in the room. “You locked me in here. I couldn’t escape. I couldn’t breathe,” she cried as tears ran down her face faster now.
Electricity snapped, zapping his outstretched palm when he tried to reach for her. He snatched it back in pain, rubbing the hurt.
She pointed a finger at him. “That thing came after me. You locked me in here with it, and it wanted me. I could sense it. Its icy fingers, death. It was death. Coming, pulling me towards it. I couldn’t escape! Trapped. I was trapped.”
Wide eyed, Evander looked around the disheveled room. That’s when he saw the spear lying on the ground with the shield on top, a flaming inverted sword etched into the metal. Thanatos . Evander grew ashen as he stared and slowly raised his gaze to meet Ellie’s wildness.
“I was trapped, alone,” she hissed, wiping more tears from her face. Her hands shook, the power in her groaning, begging to be released. The air around them charged as Ellie’s control slipped further. He sensed the tug of her magic against his own. She pinned him with a deadly stare as a strong breeze gathered at her feet.
His hand found his hair as he strode over to where the shield and spear lay. Bending down, he studied them, running a few fingers along the ancient wood.
“You took down a Chthonian?” he said, his face full of worry.
“A what?”
He rose to stand. “A Chthonian warrior. A warrior without a soul.” He watched as the wind around her ankles increased in intensity.
“The hall?”
She was trying to calm herself, trying to focus on anything but the groaning of her uncontrolled magic that threatened to engulf them.
“A portal,” he said. “A portal opened, and I knew it was the daemons again. So, I did what I thought would keep you safe. I pushed you in here and sealed the room using magic.”
“You? You are magic? Not just your swords?” she rubbed her temples. He could feel the pounding in his own head of her power pulling against him.
“Yes.”
“There was no one in the hall. I looked. I looked out the peephole and saw nothing. Heard nothing. I screamed for you when that thing came, and you didn’t come. You didn’t come. I killed it surrounded by fear, trying to keep myself from losing control. Then you burst back in here looking like you got your ass whooped by a drunk bull.”
Sparks flew from her fingertips, hitting the wall across the room. When they hit, they zig-zagged across the wall, leaving charred marks on the wallpaper.
“I never would have left you alone had I known. I didn’t mean to trap you; I was trying to keep you safe.”
Rubbing her temples, she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.
“So, you shoving me in the cabin and locking the door was a safety measure?” She opened her eyes and gave him a pointed look. “And you didn’t know the winged-guy-from-hell was in here waiting on me?”
“No, or I wouldn’t have left you alone without protection. I didn’t know there was a Chthonian.”
“Protect me? From what? From hell?”
“No. From her threat.” The words flew unchecked out of his mouth. His breath caught in his throat as Ellie narrowed her eyes at him.
“Whose threat?”
His mind went blank. He couldn’t tell her about Athena, about the threat on her life, about Hypatia and the book, and what she might be. Or his part in all of it. Not with her powers tumbling out of control.
Ellie’s face darkened, and the surrounding wind snapped to life.
“Who sent you?”
Oh, she was more clever than he gave her credit.
He raised both eyebrows high on his head. “Ellie.”
“Don’t, Evander,” she snapped. “I have had two types of creatures from hell attack me for what, I don’t know. But that isn’t all, is it? Who sent you?” Her eyes grew colder the longer he avoided the answer.
He attempted to say something, but she interrupted.
“You say you don’t want to lie. Then tell me the truth.”
“I can’t, Ellie. I swore an oath.”
“An oath. A vow.” She mocked him. “That’s certainly convenient, isn’t it?”
The room sparked with unchecked magic. The lights snapped on all at once, startling him with their brilliance.
“Who sent you, Evander?”
“A goddess.”
Something flashed across her face. “What goddess?”
“A goddess; does it make a difference which one?” he lied. “I’ve disobeyed my orders in more ways than I can count.”
He knew she would hate the answer as soon as he said it. Her life was more important than his now. He was treading in shark-infested waters, and now one of them smelled blood.
His plans dissipated the longer he stood in the ruins of her room. The goddess had sent a Chthonian, just like she said she would, and the creature had found Ellie. Once word got out one had died, they would send others. Legions didn’t like to lose warriors, and the army under Thanatos was ruthless, soulless warriors without consciousness. Ellie was no longer safe in this realm. Athena would never stop looking for her; the evidence was now clear. Valerius wanted her alive. Athena wanted her dead. Ellie was in grave danger.
“You’re here because someone, some goddess, sent you. To do what, exactly?” She spat the words out of her mouth as if they were sour. “Who?”
“Ellie.”
Lightning snapped in her eyes, and he stepped back.
“Who?”
“Listen to me.” He reached for her, knowing it was dangerous. Knowing she could kill him in her current state. “Ellie. Ellie, look at me.” Gently, he wrapped his fingers around her shoulders. “I would never hurt you. I would never—not after that first night. The first time we played dominoes. I knew I wouldn’t hurt you. That you had no idea what you had in your possession.”
He watched as something crossed her features, something dark. Recognition. Her clever mind at work, reading between the lines of what he was saying. He saw it as soon as the conclusion was reached.
“Hurt me,” she all but growled. “Hurt me? You were sent to kill me?”
“Ellie.”
“That’s it, isn’t it? You were sent here to kill me.”
She moved quickly, faster than he could react. The Spartan dagger hung from his fibula and lashed around his waist. The one Athena enchanted to kill her. With the flick of her wrist, she had unsheathed it and thumped the handle against his chest. The carved handle struck his chest above his crest twice, and the dagger pointed at Ellie. His breathing stopped. She couldn’t possibly know what she held, but if he didn’t stop her, she’d end up harming herself.
“Do it,” she snarled, taunting him. “Do it. It was always going to end this way. Do it. Do it. If that’s what you came here for, do it. Kill me. Kill me like they killed my parents.”
Both hands shot into the air as he stepped away, vehemently shaking his head. “I won’t. I won’t hurt you.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
The storm gathering in her eyes flashed as the air snapped and crackled. The wind moved at Evander’s feet, swirling. She held the tip of the dagger to the spot just above her heart.
“This was all a lie.” She pressed the dagger into her skin. “All of this. All lies. I was drawn to you and all along you were here to kill me.”
Wind gathered around them as the disaster of her room was sucked into the vortex. He took an involuntary step backward, and lightning flashed inside the maelstrom forming around them.
“I’m so stupid. I should have known. Should have seen it.”
“Please, Ellie, hand me the dagger. I want to keep you safe.”
“Safe? Keep me safe? Who’s going to keep me safe from you? Just like Penn, you’re just like him. You claim safety, but what you really want is isolation. Isn’t it? Do it. Kill me. I am nothing to you. Nothing but a means to an end.”
Piercing her skin, a trickle of her shimmering blood spilled over the tip of the blade, then another. Her blood slipped down her chest in slow droplets, one at a time. She didn’t react, but he felt the pushing of her powers against his, trying to break the barrier he had put up to protect them inside the room. Her words were wounding him much like the blade, cutting into him with their pain and their honesty. He was like Penn. She was better off without him. He had left her alone to fight a monster, all the while being one himself.
“All this time, you weren’t protecting me but deceiving me. Why didn’t you kill me that night in my bed? What? You wanted to fuck me first?” Tears rolled down her cheeks as lightning cracked and sizzled all around them. Evander could feel her losing all control, knowing that no one was safe once she did. Not him. Not her. Not any passenger on the ship. She was a bomb ready to explode.
“Ellie,” he yelled over the whirling wind. “I was given orders, but I wasn’t going to obey them. You have become far too important to me. Do you hear me? None of us. We were all in agreement after you were attacked. We needed to find the Book of Pandora. ”
“The book?” Her eyes snapped with the lightning that surrounded them “The book? The one Moreno gave me? That’s why I have to die? A damn book?”
She waved her hand, and the tome flew out of the ether towards her. Stunned, Evander watched it smack into her grasp.
“Take it,” she screamed at him. Fire mixed with the lightning, adding to the pandemonium surrounding them. “Take it. Take the book.”
“You had it all along.”
“Take it!” Her hair shimmered as if it were on fire as her voice rose.
“No,” he said stubbornly. “I care about you, about your safety. No matter what you think. You need my help, Ellie. You need all of us. Whatever Valerius has planned involves you, and he won’t stop sending the daemons after you until he has you. The Chthonian will find you again; you aren’t safe. I can’t let something happen to you.”
The grimoire disappeared as quickly as it had been summoned. The dagger in her hand hung at her side; Evander eyed it, trying to calculate how he could disarm her. Her blood had pooled, suspended against her skin. If she was, in fact, the destroyer of Olympus, he had to keep her blood from touching the earth. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks. Jamming a knuckle in the inner corner of her eye, she rubbed, leaning over against the pain. Her powers rolled, pulling his with it, her tight restraint stretched to the breaking point. He was alone with the woman who could destroy his world, and she was about to implode.
The door to her room burst open with a shuddering slam on the wall behind it. Syren came flying into the room, frantic and wild, Liam close behind. She skidded to a stop with a look of pure terror across her face.
“Evander,” Liam yelled above the noise of wind and lightning.
“You!” Ellie hissed, sending a lightning bolt straight towards him. He ducked as it sailed past and hit the wall. Syren moved to stand between Liam and Ellie as if protecting one from the other.
“I see. You had to call in backup. All those pretty words about you accepting me and how I was important to you were lies. I let you in, Evander. I haven’t let anyone near me in years and I let you. But I was never anything to you, was I?”
“No!” He stood his ground.
“Get away from me.” She shoved him hard, pushing against him, against the rage.
“Ellie. I’m not leaving you.”
A streak of lightning whizzed past his head. The last of her control snapped. Her eyes were wide, the storm inside them swirled.
“Evander!” Liam yelled, but he ignored him. “Get out of there!”
“No.”
She shoved him again. Although truth be told, she only rocked him back on his heels.
“You ass. Get away! Fuck you. Fuck all y’all!”
“Ellie!”
She was breathing hard, her hands shaking, sweat gathering at her temples. Sparks flew from her fingertips. This time, they struck the floor, burning the carpet as the wind picked up, tumbling faster. As lightning flashed above her head, the swirl drew objects from around the room.
“Ellie!”
Her hair joined the wind that whipped around her head. Her palms glowed with energy and magic. Raising her hand, she watched it intently, turning it over so her palm faced up. Electricity gathered within her palm, and she looked entranced, mesmerized by the formation.
“Evander!” Liam yelled just as Ellie wiggled her finger, and the ball of electricity shot out. It slammed into Evander, knocking him off his feet. He groaned as he hit and held his shoulder, watching helplessly as another ball of electricity began forming in her hand.
Maximus! Camulos! Evander heard Liam screaming in his mind, calling to the others. Evander rose from the floor, clutching his prosthetic arm where her first blast hit. It was useless now, the electric bolt short-circuiting the arm. Ellie’s eyes glowed, lightning shooting in sparks all around her.
Camulos and Maximus appeared in her room as she lifted off the floor. Her power tumbled in uncontrollable bursts as the wind surrounding them kept her and Evander locked in the center, making it impossible for the others to reach them. Another bolt shot towards Evander, but he moved out of its way. The next flew across the small space and struck him in the stomach. His body jolted backward, and he hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Camulos stood at the brink of the swirling wind and closed his eyes, centering himself, drawing his power, and then something shot out from him, like a bomb going off. It struck Ellie, and she screamed, falling to the ground in a heap. Motionless. The items her swirling wind had picked up fell with her, encircling her. Camulos stooped down to collect the dagger that had clattered to the ground.
A blinding light exploded in the room.
The empty cabin fell silent.