Turmoil: Book Three of The Shadow Goddess series

Chapter Seventeen

“Are you sure about this?” Cassius asked as we entered back into the barrier, closing it behind us.

“No. I’m not.” I shook my head, my eyes carefully following those in front of me. “But trust has to start somewhere. And I have to believe that my people wouldn’t give up the islands location without fully trusting these people.”

“You’re right. And I’m sure your people here will keep an eye on them.” Cassius pulled me into his side and I curled myself under his arm.

“Maybe it’s time we gather everyone in place anyway.” I murmured. “Maybe it’s time we finally get this over with. I’m tired of waiting Cassius. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of the worry, of the exhaustion. I don’t know how much long I can take the anxiety and the constant strain of waiting for Zeus to make his move.”

“How can we make a move first though Rose? If we all gather in once place, we would be revealing our hand to him. He would have our numbers, our power. He would have everything he needed to destroy us. We can’t do that. We can’t give him what he wants. Something tells me that’s exactly what he wants. He will get tired of waiting soon, I’m sure of it.”

I didn’t answer, not right away. Was he right? Was Zeus basically trying to smoke us out? It would make sense. He had been around for thousands of years, maybe longer. He had the patience to wait me out. But I didn’t have the luxury he did. My patience wasn’t as built up as his. I was growing anxious. Angry. But so was he, Zeus had waited a long time for his plan to come to fruition. Now I was in his way. I was a kink in a plan he didn’t expect. How much longer could he actually wait for me to come to him? And how much longer could I wait for him to come to me? Which one of us would break first?

“You might be right.” I finally relented. “But what are we supposed to do? Sit and wait for him to attack and hope we make it on time?” I looked up at him.

“Can you transport more than one or two at a time?”

“I…” I furrowed my brow. “I don’t know.” I admitted. “I haven’t tried.”

“Well. Maybe now would be a good time to start practicing transporting a group, or maybe even your army all at once. That way we can all get there instantaneously. He wouldn’t stand a chance.” When I looked back up to Cassius a smirk was playing at the edge of his lips.

“Cassius. You don’t understand the magnitude of power that would take. If, and that’s a big If. I could do that. There is no guarantee I would even have the power or the strength to go after Zeus when we get there. And only I can kill him. The while situation would be counterproductive.”

“Not if you had two other gods to help.” He argued. “You and Hades can train me in my powers. I can help you and so can he. We can lend you our power to help you transport, teleport, or whatever. Everyone where we need to go.”

“And what about everyone else around the realm? What about the camps?” I asked.

“Do they have magic users? Witches? Warlocks?”

“Of course.”

“Then send word. Have all of them ready and on standby. They can all gather and have a spell ready to portal to whatever location is required.” He smiled down at me.

“Wow, you’ve really thought about this, haven’t you.

“I have.” He nodded, his face turning grim. “Not much else to do the past few months you’ve been gone. While I didn’t know you had camps spread around the realm and I didn’t know your powers had grown so much I had thought of just about every scenario I could.”

“You’ve done well.” I squeezed. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me Rose.” He bent down and kissed my head. “I will always be here to help, no matter the situation. Now, why don’t we go find the others and check on our new additions.”

I chuckled at the way he sneered when he said the last words. He really didn’t want to let those people into the island. And I understood. He didn’t trust easily. Neither did I. but it was like I said, we needed as many people as we could get. If they wanted to help fight Zeus then we had to at least try trust them. The titans would keep an eye on them, they would never be left alone. So we really had nothing to worry about right now. If even one turned out to be disloyal, all of them would be arrested and questioned. In my mind, it was the only logical thing to do. They did all come together after all.

“Rose, our guests are waiting at the edge of the island by your mates cottages. Though you’ll have to attend to their homes.” Atlas sighed, running a hand through his brown hair.

“Of course. Can you find my men and send them that way please?”

“Those men of yours are a pain in my ass.” He grimaced. “Especially that guard of yours.”

“You mean Aaron?” I questioned, smiling.

“Yes, that one. He thinks I am. Well, we are not guarding you well enough.”

“What?” I burst out laughing. “Who said I needed guarding?”

“He did. He can’t seem to get it through his thick skull that it is you who is protecting us.” The sneer on Atlas’s face was priceless.

“I’ll talk to him.” I told him snickering. “Until then, I need to go take care of our guests.” I patted his bicep lightly before whisking Cassius and I away to the edge of the island. When we got there the group of shifters had all shifted back to their human form and I was met with a group of very nude man, women and children. Freaking children. Were these people crazy. Pressing my lips into a thin line I waved my hand, clothes materializing on each person. I seriously did not want to look or talk to a group of naked people. There were also more vampires I hadn’t noticed were among them. I wonder where they had come from. Did they turn into bats or something? Whatever.

“Silver.” I shouted; my voice harsher than I intended. When he stepped forward, he brought a very large, and I mean mountain large man, with him. Cassius went rigid beside me, angling his body slightly in front of me, blocking the mountain from getting to me. “It’s alright.” I whispered to Cassius, laying a hand on his shoulder. “He can’t hurt me. I stepped back up beside Cassius. I observed the mountain standing beside Silver. He stood at least seven foot tall, maybe taller. His thick chest was only out done by the broadness of his shoulders. His masculine torso tapered off into a slender but still thick trunk. His legs powerful, straining against the pants that had materialized against him. The man had beautiful long blonde hair that was braided into a cord along his right shoulder. His skin a ivory that was marred with scars from previous battles. High cheekbones and a stubble covered squared jaw. The man was beautiful, the scars and fierceness of his look didn’t take away from that. But his eyes. Damn his eyes. They were beautiful, hypnotizing. This man’s eyes were ice blue, with a sunburst of bright gold around his iris.

I shook my head, turning from Hercules and back to Silver. “Silver, you said you came to join a battle, yet you brough children. Explain.” I demanded.

“I apologize your highness, but my people could not leave our young behind. We had no choice but to bring them.”

“And what do you plan to do with them when the time comes?” I asked.

“Do you not have children here?” He arched a brow.

“We have teenagers. Teenagers who train to fight should the island be breached. But no children. I have not allowed one child to enter the island. I refuse to have a child’s blood be on my hands.” I looked over the crowd, looking to the children who were cowered against their mothers and sighed. “But I also won’t turn them away. But you must protect them. The island is safe. But should Zeus somehow find the location and all of them attack my barrier, it will fall.” I warned.

“Understood.” Silver bowed.

“Now, who are you?” I turned to Hercules beside him.

“This is Ace, he can not speak.” sadness entered Silver’s voice.

“Why not? If you don’t mind me asking.” Silver looked over to Ace who studied me for a moment. I don’t know why, but I liked this mountain of a man. There was something about him. On the outside he looked mean, angry, aggressive and stern. But in his eyes, there was so much more. There was a deep sadness and longing. There was pain. His aura, though flared a brilliant peach color. Was filled with blue and red. Ace turned and gave Silver a single nod, before turning back to me. His blue sunburst eyes, boring into mine.

“In his last battle.” Silver’s voice brought my attention back to him. “Though he won, he was taken captive,” My breath caught in my throat, my eyes snapping back to Ace. “They tortured him mercilessly. Ace, can you take your shirt off?” Silver turned to Ace. I wanted to shake my head, to tell him no. But Ace didn’t give me time. In one swift movement he whipped his shirt over his head. He stood rigidly in front of me, every muscle in his body was coiled, ready to snap. And for some reason it pissed me off. It pissed me off that Silver wanted to put Ace’s past on display like this. It wasn’t Silver’s to show.

Yet, I couldn’t help but look. But gasp at the horrific sight before me. Whoever did this to him was cruel. No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t cruel. Malicious, soulless, evil. This was without a doubt the most horrifying thing I have ever seen on a living person. “This…No…” I shook my head, stepping towards Ace. “How could someone be so….So…”

“Cruel?” Silver Asked

“Soulless.” I corrected. “No one. No one with a soul could do such a thing.” Whispered.

“They done that to him, after cutting his vocal cords so he couldn’t scream.” Silver told me.

“What?!” I shouted, whipping around to Silver wide eyed.

“It’s sad, but true.” Silver nodded.

“No. That is not sad.” I growled. “That is terrible, awful. Atrocious. And so many other things.” I turned back to Ace and looked him over. “Do you mind?” I asked, holding my hand up to him. “I want to try something. It won’t hurt. I promise, I won’t hurt you.” When he nodded, I couldn’t help but smile. I walked up to him, standing onto my tip toes and reaching up and gently placed my palm over his throat. I willed my healing power into him. Willed it to soothe over his vocal cords and repair what had been cut. I felt my power as it grabbed onto him and soothed over him, healing him. I smiled as I pulled back, and dropped back to my feet.

I backed up a few paces and watched Ace. His eyes were wide as he looked at me, his own hands going up to grasp his throat. He seemed reluctant, unsure. Like he didn’t quite believe what I had just done. I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. I knew I could heal some things, but not all. Vocal cords being severed was something I wasn’t sure about. Some scars I could heal, others I couldn’t. My power seemed to pick and choose what I could and couldn’t heal. I’m thrilled I could do this for him.

“What did you do?” Silver stepped forward; his face scrunched in confusion.

“Just wait.” I urged, holding my hand up. I waved my hand, a cup of water appearing in my hand. I handed it over to ace who took it, drinking it down slowly. “Try.” He looked at me, his blue and gold sunburst eyes gleaming.

“Ho... how?” He rasped, making silver gasp in shock. His eyes turning to me.

“You healed him?”

“I did.” I smiled. “And to answer your question, I don’t know. Somethings I can heal, others I can’t. That’s why I said I wanted to try. I wasn’t sure.”

“Why would you heal him though? You don’t know him,” Silver asked.

“So, what if I don’t know him?” I turned on Silver. “He’s been through enough. He deserves to be healed. To have a little bit of his life back. I don’t have to know him to give him that.”

“Rose has a big heart.” Cassius stepped forward then and pulled me into his arms. “She will help anyone if given the chance. If she thinks they deserve it.”

“Th…tha…thank yo…you.” Ace’s voice rasped painfully.

“Take a day or two Ace, drink water. It will be a little while for your voice to fully return.” I told him gently. “Until then, rest your vocal cords until they finish healing.” He nodded, his eyes glowing with his gratitude. “Now on to your housing. How many do we need?” I turned to Silver.

“How many what?”

“Homes? How many homes?”

“Uh…Maybe ten? Fifteen?” he guessed. “With five bedrooms each. We can all share.”

“Alright, if, you’re sure.” I shrugged. I pulled my power to me, levitating myself into the air. Power surged around me, growing as the image in my mind became clearer. One by one the hoses came into existence, appearing out of nowhere. Or what would seem to be nowhere. It was me and my power that created it. Created everything here. When it was done, the houses finished, furnished and completed, I drifted back down to earth. When my feet hit the ground I swayed, the world spinning. I used too much power between losing control of my emotions, healing Ace and conjuring the houses. Before I could hit the ground though, massive arms caught me. Arms that were not Cassius’s. I looked up into Ice blue and gold sun burst eyes. Questions and concern blazed within them.

“I’m fine.” I assured him, righting myself as Cassius came and took me from his arms.

“Are you sure?” Cassius asked, tucking me under his arm.

“Yeah, used too much power in a short amount of time.” I smiled up at him. “I just need a minute.”

“Mommy, mommy look.” The joyful screams of a little boy hit my ears. Everyone turned to look and saw, the little surprise I had added. All the children raced behind the boy to the small playground, beaming smiles on their faces.

“Thank you, your highness.” Silver turned to me and smiled.

“You’re welcome. Now go rest. We will talk more later.” When I turned to leave, I was pulled from Cassius and suddenly encompassed in what I could only describe as a freaking oversized weighted blanket. I was so stunned that I froze to the spot.

“Than..thank yo…you.” Ace’s whisper made goose bumps rise on my skin. I smiled and hugged him back the best I could.

“You’re welcome.” I pulled away, going back to a very angry growling Cassius. “Hey, it’s alright.” I murmured, cupping his face in my hands. “He just wanted to say thank you.” Cassius, pulled me to him, grasping me tightly. Still growling lowly in my ear he took off running. He was fast. Like really, really fast. My head swam as the scenery blurred around us. Well, I guess the others won’t be meeting us there.