Half-Blood Academy 5: Magic Flame: a Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance Page 16

  Héctor kissed me, ignoring that we were on a battlefield. I flushed in delight at his affection.

  Poseidon looked at my mates woefully. “As demigods, you should leash your woman and keep her mouth shut.”

  “That’s why you’re so popular everywhere, dude,” I said with a grin. “The historians even assigned swine as your symbol to reward such a misogynist.”

  I made it up, but Poseidon wouldn’t know that.

  “Blasphemy!” he bellowed and trained his trident on me. My mates tossed their combined powers at the sea god, their energy beam holding back his killing current that mixed with nasty ice spikes.

  Paxton spat. “Don’t ever think about harming my mate, dick.”

  “Join me, brothers,” Poseidon shouted at Zeus and Hades. “Destroy them!”

  “How did all the brats get their fucking powers back?” Ares screamed as he failed to conjure up his power. “Héctor is a fucking demigod again. This can’t be happening!”

  “Hold your horses, Poseidon,” Zeus said. “Hades is right. I also want to give my bastard son a chance to turn away from his evil path and return to Olympus with me.”

  Poseidon pulled back his ice and water power, and my mates withdrew their beam, their fiery gazes never leaving our enemies.

  “Zak always dreamed of being a hero,” Zeus continued. “So he followed Ares, his half-brother’s lead, and headed to Earth to become one.” His lightning gaze snagged on Zak. “Son, I’ll give you a second chance. You can be a hero by my side.”

  A sudden realization hit me, along with guilt and remorse.

  I’d regarded all of my mates as mine. More often than not, I started taking them for granted. I thought we were a close unit and forgot that they were also independent of me.

  They had their own feelings and a life outside of our relationship. All of them also had extended family. The three extremely powerful beings in front of us were a father to my mates, and Zeus was Axel’s grandfather.

  No matter how hateful their fathers acted toward me, they were still my mates’ parents.

  It had never occurred to me until now how difficult it might be for them to cut their old family ties for me. I knew without a doubt that they’d choose me over anyone else, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt them to go against their fathers like this.

  As I quieted my own emotions and listened to theirs, their pain and rage lapped toward me through our bond.

  They were everything to me. They’d done everything for me. If I could spare them pain, I should and I would try.

  “Hey, God Zeus, God Poseidon, and God Hades,” I said, swallowing my pride. “I think we all got off on the wrong foot when we met. I shouldn’t have said those mean things to you, but you called me an abomination first, and then sent us into the pit of the black dome where the smell is bad. But we got out. So, no harm is done. Let’s call it even and bear no hard feelings. You’re my mates’ parents, so we really don’t want to go against you. We can all try to be reasonable, can’t we, as adults? We can start over. You can say some nice things to my mates, and they’ll say some back. And then we’ll part ways. We’ll even invite you to visit us when we have a big party on Earth.”

  “Silence, abomination!” Zeus said without hesitation or mercy. “Your existence is illegal and thus must be terminated.”

  “Says who?” Axel challenged. “You aren’t the law of the universe.”

  “Axel, how dare you disrespect your grandfather!” Ares hissed. “May lightning strike your corpse!”

  I sighed ruefully. “It seems we can’t work things out. I tried.”

  “Choose, son,” Zeus said, swiping his scepter in our direction, and I put on a shield in case he was being sneaky. “Choose wisely, demigods. You have one last chance to turn away from your evil ways. If you want to live, abandon the demon spawn and return to your fathers, and all will be forgiven. Be the hero you were born to be and not the traitor of your own race.”

  “How’s this?” Paxton said, flipping off the god king. “Fuck you.”

  “My mate is everything to me,” Zak said. “When you tried to hurt her, you made an enemy out of me. From this day forward, I denounce you as my father. You’re nothing to me, and I have only one family—my mate and my bonded brothers. I vow to live and die for them.”

  Hot tears burned behind my eyelids. “Oh, Zak,” I whispered.

  “There’s no use bargaining with them,” Héctor said. “They’re the worst cheaters in all the universe. That’s how the Titans lost the war.”

  “To this day and forever, we defend our mate to our last breath,” Axel vowed, wrath burning in his amber eyes.

  I let out a sob of gratitude. “Guys!”

  Zeus’s face turned purple in rage and he thundered. “Cut her down! Cut them all down!”

  Lightning flashed across the sky of the Void, the sound of seething ocean raged somewhere, and death light swallowed Tartarus.

  The gods leveled their weapons at me. Spears of lightning shot from Zeus’s scepter, a flood of ice spikes poured out of Poseidon’s trident, and death fire like hissing snakes with wings, all surged toward us.

  “You won’t harm my mate!” my demigods roared.

  Waves of energy shot from my mates, colliding into the gods’ combined forces. My mates were getting better at working together. They were one mind, one voice, and one force against our enemies.

  “I’ll take care of the bad actors, beloved,” I told them. “You watch my six.”

  And the Living Flame blasted out of me, crashing into the gods’ powers. This time, I held my ground.

  “What is that?” Poseidon demanded.

  Hades’s eyes widened. “That’s the power I sensed in her earlier. It’s glorious and destructive beyond measure. We must subdue her.”

  “That’s the Living Flame! Lucifer and I searched for it for months when we cut her open,” Ares said. “The shrewd fiend was hiding it from us!”

  “You’ll die today, Ares! I’ll cut you open inch by inch,” Axel screamed in fervent hatred for his father.

  My mates had heard from Loki’s dukes how I had suffered in Hell.

  Axel and Héctor peeled away and charged the war god with a battle cry, their blades raised high. Zak and Paxton guarded me on either side as the Titans rushed toward us. Zak kicked a Titan away while his blade slashed another across the shoulder. Paxton wheeled as he ducked under a Titan’s ax, then buried his blade into his opponent’s chest.

  The prison sentinels also moved toward us. Soon we’d be swarmed by their sheer numbers. I couldn’t retract my Flame to shield us since I was locked in battle with the gods. Sweat coated my forehead.

  A bellow sounded from the silver dome, followed by echoing battle roars. Then Dad charged out into the prison yard, leading a dozen Titans. They dashed through the open door and sprang toward us with rudimentary weapons, like kitchen knives, spoons, and forks. Some of them simply waved their bare hands, ready to pound into anything that moved.

  “We stand with our Princess!” one of Dad’s Titan lackeys called out, and Dad’s other followers yelled “Aye!” and flashed their fangs at me in a savage, fond grin.

  They would probably never return to civilization after such long imprisonment.

  “My heir, the pride of the Titans, has come and freed us,” Dad roared, wielding a rustic mace. “It’s time we fight for my heir, for honor, and for our old glory!”

  Zak and I shared a look while he crossed his blade with a prison guard.

  Dad’s inspirational speech might be out of style. But he was a Titan, and his Titan fellows got it as they shouted, “Fight for the heir! We’ll go down in glory!”

  Even they could see the odds were against us, despite adding their numbers.

  Dad gave another bear-like roar before he crashed into Cronus. They hissed, exchanged insults, and smashed their weapons toward each other’s head.

  “Gather round!” Zak barked.“Defensive formation!”

  “Protect my La
mb, Axel!” Héctor shouted. “I can take that fucker alone.”

  My Héctor blasted Ares with his death light, but Ares defused the attack with a golden shield. I blinked. The God of War had lost his power in the Void. Where did he get the shield?

  The answer struck me a second later. Zeus brought the shield for him from the blacksmith god’s armory. The King of the Gods chose his true born over Zak.

  Héctor leapt and slammed his sword on Ares’s shield, and Ares stumbled.

  “You brute!” Ares twisted out of Héctor’s reach, then lunged and thrust his blade toward the soft center of Héctor’s throat.

  Héctor ducked like a flash and brought up his sword to parry against a series of jabs initiated by Ares. They were both excellent swordsmen. Ares may have temporarily lost his godly power, but not his strength and speed. And he was best known for his unbelievable velocity.

  The two warriors lunged, retreated, and lunged at each other again. The duel would go on for a while. Through the mating bond, I felt Héctor grow more anxious as he desired to take down Ares quickly so he could come to my aid.

  “I got this, Héctor!” I shouted.

  I wouldn’t want one mishap resulting in him losing his life. Ares was one of the most cunning, formidable foes.

  “Focus on taking down that son of a bitch!” I added.

  Maybe I shouldn’t call Ares that, since it insinuated that Axel was the grandson of a bitch. I hoped Axel wouldn’t take it personally. I meant well.

  I was distracted for only a nanosecond, worrying about my mates’ feelings and safety, and the gods took advantage of it. An iota of their combined forces bypassed the shield of my Flame and speared my guts.

  Pain shot up from my stomach to my chest like a burning iron rammed up to my heart. My vision blurred, and I saw death stars wheeling around me in infinite space.

  I thought having the Living Flame in me meant I could take on the original gods. I’d underestimated my enemies. There was a reason they had defeated the Titans, their forefathers.

  I clenched my teeth, shoved down the pain, and pushed my power toward the gods with more effort until I realized that they were chipping away at my power while I patched up the tiny hole in my Flame-shield.

  These leeches were power thieves, absorbing their enemies’ magic to swell their own. Hades grinned at me while he used the death fire to drain me.

  The legend said that I had the power to unmake the gods, but I must make sure to strike them at the right moment. I was no longer the ruthless Marigold who hunted in the Crack. Great power begets greater responsibility.

  And I was still learning about the Living Flame—its range, scale, depth, and limit. I’d used part of it to blast open the black dome. If I just blasted the gods with all I had now and passed out without vanquishing them, my mates would be dead.

  As I locked my power with the gods’, I was learning their strength, weakness, and essence, endeavoring to find an opening to strike and guarantee a win.

  The gods nipped at my Living Flame, and waves of pain throbbed in my head, yet I still held.

  The battle raged around me.

  While my mates and my father’s team culled our enemies, the opposing army also thinned our numbers. We couldn’t afford to lose any more warriors.

  Yet I still had to wait to deliver one fatal strike and incapacitate the gods.

  Pain twisted in me, and sweat dampened my armpits.

  Then howling rose in the distance. The sound of a great force approaching turned everyone’s head. The battle froze for a second as a spectacular sight loomed into view.

  Queen Lilith stood tall on the platform of her majestic carriage driven by hundreds of beasts, a diamond crown sitting between her horns that burned with silver flame. Three dozen Amazon-like armored warriors, some of them having tried and failed to seduce my mates in the Ivory Tower, flanked her.

  Lilith raised her angelblade into the air and roared. “To war!”

  Angel yowled beside the queen, and her warriors shouted bloodthirsty battle cries.

  “Defend the Princess of the Void!” Lilith screamed, and the Amazon warriors echoed.

  I grinned. Mom had come. And she brought my hellhound.

  “What the hell is that?” Hades shouted.

  “That’s Queen Lilith,” Tartarus offered. The warden had been darting his eyes back and forth, watching the battle in fascination. He’d kept his mouth shut until now. “She’s quite famous here, and in Hell and Heaven. No wonder you haven’t met her before. Whenever you came to the Void, you never lingered. You came in, checked on a few Titans, and left as soon as you could. Unlike this time. Isn’t the Queen of the Ivory Tower a sight to watch?”

  “The demon queen!” Poseidon spat. “She bred this abomination spawn with a delinquent Titan.”

  “She was once the most powerful archangel. She ranked above Lucifer before he stabbed her in the back,” Tartarus said with some sympathy. “She might not take it kindly if you call her daughter a demon spawn or an abomination in front of her. Queen Lilith has a formidable temper. Her warriors are all mean, too, though very sexy.” Over Poseidon’s glare, he stepped back and raised his hands in surrender. “I’m just giving you a heads up.”

  The beasts turned in unison and spun the carriage toward the gate.

  Lilith leapt off the spinning carriage, as lithe and powerful as a lioness. Her warriors followed suit.

  “Battle!” the queen ordered. “Kill everyone in your path!”

  “Show no mercy!” The warriors in sexy armor charged through the gate ahead of their queen to clear the path for her. Angel bounded after them.

  Half of the prison sentinels peeled away from attacking us and rushed to meet the Amazon warriors’ challenge, and one-third of the remaining guards deflected, walked away, and stood with Tartarus on the sideline.

  Lilith stalked toward the gate in her dark glory. As all eyes fell on her, she let herself radiate like the morning star. Her silver eyes shone so seductively that even the original gods sucked in a breath as lust swirled in their eyes.

  “My Lilith, my beautiful flower,” Dad murmured, an adoring smile breaking on his savage face, while he still rammed his mace into Cronus’s scythe.

  Only Dad would call the formidable archangel queen a delicate flower. Perhaps that was why Mom had an eye for him and even had a child with him.

  “Don’t you dare look at her like that, Cronus,” Hyperion roared, his foot stomping Cronus’s knee. “You pig!”

  Cronus staggered, but he tore his gaze from Lilith and charged Hyperion. They resumed slashing at each other.

  While I thought Mom was trying to seduce the enemies to death on the battlefield as the Queen of Succubi, a pair of silver wings dusted with a golden lining shot out of her back, and an angelblade in her hand sparked hungry crimson light.

  Mom found me in the fray, and launched into the air with a grin. Halfway to me, she suddenly changed direction in midair.

  While Ares cocked his head to see Lilith better, Héctor thrust his blade into the war god’s chest. At the same time, Mom swung her angelblade wide, faster than sin, and a head rolled on the ground, its amber eyes wide open in utter shock.

  Ares, the infamous God of War, was dead.

  “That’s how I repay anyone who hurts my little girl.” Mom smiled sweetly, completely at odds with the vengeance in her tone. “I never forgive.”

  CHAPTER 17

  __________________

  The King of Gods roared in grief and rage, waking up from a shocked haze.

  Lightning struck the ground and the domes with vicious force, while thunder rolled across the battle-red sky. Storms seethed on the horizon, heaving toward us.

  My mates bellow their battle cries, their combined powers forming a shield over us.

  I wiped the sweat on my brows with my free hand and stole a glance at Axel. His amber eyes iced over. A muscle twitched in his tightened jaw. He shook a lock of hair out of the corner of his eye and sliced his sword tow
ard a Titan who tried to get to me.

  “Control yourself, brother,” Hades called. “If you use any more of your energy, the abomination will beat us!”

  “The demon queen killed my son,” Zeus bawled, tears and lightning shooting out of his eyes.

  “I feel your pain, brother,” Poseidon said. “But you need to rein it in. The Hell spawn is gaining on us. Your emotional pain will open a crack for her to exploit, and she’ll light us up with her unholy flame. The hybrid is even stronger than a pureblood Titan!”

  “The demon harlot and Hade’s heir killed my favorite son!” Zeus repeated in a great distress.

  Lilith laughed chilly, silver fire dancing in her eyes. “Your son was lucky to die a quick death. For what he did to my daughter, I should have sliced open his bones, gutted him, and played with his innards before I ate his black heart while he watched.”

  That was indeed one demon queen. How she must have raged in her spyglass room, unable to do anything when Lucifer and Ares cut me open inch by inch in search of my Living Flame.

  “I’ll fry your abomination daughter and burn her to dirt before I take your head, demon harlot,” Zeus said.

  “Right, you impotent prick.” Lilith laughed more. “Come to Momma and see how I’ll spank you.” She was baiting him.

  “Hang on, Zeus,” Hades shouted again. “We’re almost there. We just need a bit more time to drain her, and the victory will be ours.”

  Héctor spread his wings, flew up toward the gods, and swept his blade toward Zeus, totally mimicking Mom, as he realized that the gods couldn’t divide powers while they engaged with me so heavily.

  The rim where my Flame and the gods’ lightning, ice, wind, and death light collided had created a blazing vortex. Everyone tried to stay as far away from it as possible.

  But my Héctor was brave and ruthless.

  The tip of his blade bounced off an unseen force field and bent out of shape. Rains of sparks fell from the edge of the force field. Héctor hacked at the shield again and again, but he couldn’t bring it down.

  The original gods were the most formidable force in the universe when they merged their powers, until I came along. No wonder they wanted to eliminate me.