One that I knew none of the others would favor.
Sean’s blade bit into Oz’s forearm as he blocked a blow, and I took that moment to enact my plan. With a rush of speed, I darted between Casey and Kierson and dove beneath Oz’s wing to tackle Sean. The second my arms wrapped around his waist, I jumped into the air and let my wings carry us away. Oz’s angry outburst followed me up to the roof of the Victorian, where I dropped my brother. He tucked and rolled, then sprang to his feet, unharmed.
“Your wings cannot save you,” he snarled, bloodied weapon raised against me.
“No, but if Eos allows it, my fire and lightning and myriad other tricks could.” I raised a blade to stop an overhand blow headed for my shoulder, and the clang of metal reverberated through my body. He stepped into my parry, pressing his formidable weight forward.
“Your greed will be your undoing,” he said, voice low and menacing.
“I have no greed, and I do not wish to take your place,” I said, shoving him back as I twisted my blade free. Fire crept up my throat and I released it, being careful only to drive him back and not scorch him. He may have been invincible, but he could feel pain. I wanted to minimize the damage I caused in my efforts to free him.
He dove out of the way and popped up into a fighting stance near the ledge of the roof. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“I will not need to,” I said. Electricity licked at my fingertips, and I pointed them at him as I strode forward. “I just need you to be still.”
I let loose a bolt of lightning, allowing it to strike his legs. They buckled, and he fell to his knees. He fought hard against the involuntary convulsing of his body, as I had done when Zeus had tried to end me, but he could not overcome it—just as I had planned.
A shock ran through me as I clamped my hands around his head, but the prickling sensation felt good. With a deep breath, I reached out to Sean, allowing my mind to connect to his. What I found awaiting me was a storm cloud of darkness I had never encountered. Some of it was his. The rest was Phobos’.
How easy it must have been for him to take hold of my twin.
I could not help but wonder if Ares had told the fear god this beforehand.
Paralyzed by the charge still coursing through him, all Sean could do was stand by and curse in garbled outbursts while I worked, but I knew that would not last forever. Time was of the essence.
“Let him go, Phobos,” I muttered as I pushed through the thick black carpet that shrouded Sean’s mind. It was like a moat surrounding and protecting it from others, and I wondered just how hard his life had been to have erected such a barrier on his own. There was so much of his energy in there that I knew it was not only Phobos’ doing. It clung to me the harder I pushed through, slowing me down.
Phobos’ laughter echoed through Sean’s mind. “You cannot make me. This one likes me here. He and I are not so different in many ways—”
“You are nothing like my brother,” I snarled, mentally clawing at the web encasing my twin’s mind, “and you will leave, or you will pay. It is that simple.”
“I wonder what you will do if you are able to cast me out?” he taunted. “How many of your beloved PC warriors are being killed while you spend your time here? Perhaps your precious Dark One will perish…you know I am able to be elsewhere and here simultaneously, do you not? Perhaps you are doing precisely what I hoped you would. Perhaps you have made yourself and the others vulnerable to my attack.”
I ripped and clawed through the heavy darkness with a sense of urgency I had not previously possessed. For as much of a trickster as the fear god was, a liar he had yet to prove himself to be. There was no time to be gentle.
“I am sorry for this, Brother,” I whispered in Sean’s mind as I broke through his wall of protection that Phobos had capitalized upon. “This might hurt a little.”
With that warning, I sent forth a mental blast of energy that roared through the confines of his skull, ricocheting off the bone and demolishing any barrier in its way.
“You will never have him again,” I growled as I felt the last of Phobos’ energy dissipate into nothing. Then I ripped my mind back into my own body and dropped my hands as I staggered back, eyes darting across the roof to see if Phobos had made good on his threat. All I found were the warm brown eyes of the Dark One only inches from mine and my confused brother lying on the roof at my feet, brow furrowed as he stared at me.
“Something has happened,” he said as he tried to piece things together.
“Yeah, the fear asshole happened,” Oz answered, “and if you don’t get your shit together and call off your boys, a whole lot more is going to go down—including the number of your living PC bros.”
As though he had been hit by a wave of memory, Sean’s now-emerald eyes went wide. “Khara…” He sprang to his feet and crushed me in his hold. For a moment, I wondered if he would ever let me go. “I’m so sorry, Khara. I didn’t…I never would have...”
“It was not you,” I said, interrupting him in the name of expedience. “Phobos hacked your mind and spun reality, using the truth to craft his deceit.”
Sean pushed me away just enough to meet my gaze. “Can you forgive me, Sister?”
“There is nothing to forgive.”
“What you can do is save this shit for later and help clean this fucking mess up,” Oz growled, eyes cast down to the sliver of street we could see between houses. The three of us moved as one toward the roof’s edge, then jumped. Without wings to slow his fall, Sean hit first and rolled twice before hopping to his feet and running toward the fray. Oz and I followed close behind.
I had hoped that Sean’s connection to the PC would be enough to stop this war. I had thought that perhaps breaking Phobos’ hold on his mind would break the others’, but it was clear from the battle still waging that that was not the case.
“How do we stop this?” Sean asked.
I looked to the twisted mob of warriors and found Muses standing among them, hands upon the heads of two brother warriors.
“We have to break into their minds—one by one.”
The apparent futility of this effort was plain in Sean’s expression, but he nodded in understanding. “Then that is what we’ll do.”
With conviction I did not share, he stormed into the crowd, blades raised, and began disarming our brothers still held in the fear god’s thrall and tossing them back toward us. Kaine, Raze, and my mother soon joined us and kept the prisoners incapacitated while I worked to clear their minds of Phobos. It was exhausting and painstaking, and it took far too much time. I knew that there would be no way to save them all at this rate, and my heart sank at the thought.
Just as I was about to grab hold of another mind, a booming sound thundered through the abandoned neighborhood, and the ground shook so violently that I nearly lost my footing. Then another rocketed through the battle area. And another.
I looked into the distance, and for a moment, I could not believe what I saw. A giant of a being, far taller than the Victorian, ambled toward the battle with a sword the size of a vehicle in its hand.
“What is that?” my mother whispered, horrified by the being.
“The Fates,” Oz sighed under his breath. “You didn’t get a chance to meet them in Chicago, new girl. Guess now it’s time.” He thrust the prisoner he held at my mother, then started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” I called after him, hoping he was not about to do what I feared he was. Kaine followed behind him, and with a quick whistle that cut through the din, Raze and his white wings fell in with them. Together, they took to the air. “Oz—”
“He will be fine,” my mother said, grabbing my face to pull my attention to her. “You are playing your role in this, Khara. Let Oz play his.”
I dared a glance past her to where the trio flew, twisted, and wove around the surprisingly nimble giant, his blade slicing through the air with terrible speed. It felt as though whatever blows they landed had little to no effect
on the being.
“I should go, too,” my mother said under her breath, the smallest hint of longing in her voice.
“Then go,” I said, gripping two prisoners’ heads in my hands. “I will manage.”
With a nod, she took to the air, her glorious white wings highlighted by the smallest hints of moonlight. She swarmed the giant with the others, attacking then diving out of reach. It was an elegant dance of violence and grace that I could have watched forever, had the context been different. But that giant was my family, and I did not wish him dead.
I forced myself into the minds of those I held in my hands and quickly expelled Phobos. It left them addled when I pulled away and dropped them to the ground, but I had no time to explain. There were well over a hundred of them, and time was against me.
This is a waste of time, Eos snarled, and I could feel her beginning to challenge my efforts. We need to find him!
“And we need to stop my brothers from killing each other,” I snapped back.
I raced to cast Phobos out of as many minds as I could, avoiding their swords in the process, a task not easily accomplished amid a battle. Sean found me yet again and held his ground while I worked, but the futility of the task grew painfully obvious the longer we tried. And the consequences of my slowness lay all around the ground at my feet. Blood and gore and bodies filled the street in front of the Victorian.
And every time a soul was slain, I felt it.
Fear permeated my resolve, and I lifted into the air to get a better look at the breadth of the war waging around me, searching for those I had grown closest to: the Detroit PC brothers. Casey held his ground with Drew at his back, but they were encircled by far too many of their own. Blood ran down both of their faces. I did not know whose it was.
As panic surged, I searched for the twins, though they were far easier to find. Kierson’s death cry had rung out around us too many times to count in that short time. I wondered if he and Pierson had worked hard to protect one another; the former while Pierson had a vision, and the latter while Kierson’s cries rent the air. They, too, were covered in blood. Pierson’s arm was limp at his side, and Kierson—my sweet, loyal Kierson—had a gash in his leg so deep that it barely remained attached. And yet he fought like the warrior he was.
But would not be for long if the tides did not turn.
“Khara!” Sean shouted from beneath me.
But I couldn’t spare him a glance. My eyes had locked on the angels in the distance battling the giant—and the one who dove before a blow could strike my mother. Black wings blurred and then were knocked away with a backhand so hard that the sound of the strike overrode the din of battle. Oz rocketed toward the Victorian and crashed to the ground. For a moment, he did not move.
In a flash, I was at his side, weapons pulled to protect him while I worked. Sean joined me moments later.
“Save him,” he said, eyes black as night. “I have your back.”
I pressed my hands to his heart and searched for the injuries I knew he must have had. Locked in on them, I sent the Healer’s energy out in waves until he shot up to sitting, nearly cracking me in the face.
“This is hardly the time for a rest, Dark One,” I said, pulling him to his feet.
His sly smile disappeared when he saw Sean.
“Get back out there,” my brother said. “I didn’t help her save you for your own good.” The leader of the PC let a smile of his own spread wide before the two of them joined the fray together to secure me more minds.
But I did not share their resolve.
On the far side of the waging war, I saw a spot of bright white. Phobos was watching the chaos he had created, this gory means to an end that I knew I could not stop in time.
The weight of reality pressed down upon me; the weight of watching my family slaughter one another as though they were enemies. All because Phobos had a deranged desire to reunite with the sister he had murdered.
I could give him that, I thought.
I could make the madness end.
“This all stops if I leave,” I muttered to myself as I paused amid the battle. “If I give him what he wants…”
I began to walk toward where Phobos stood, observing. Then an iron grip wrapped around my arm.
“No,” Oz said, realizing what I had planned. That one word was full of so many emotions, they were hard to decipher. Perhaps if I had had time…
“Let me go,” I said, pushing a hint of Drew’s commanding tone into my voice.
“I can’t,” he said even as he did as I bade him, his features twisted in anguish.
“This is the only way.” I stepped back, and he lunged for me. I threw my hand up to thwart him. “You cannot follow me, Oz.”
He froze in place, eyes wide and filled with fury. “Khara—”
“Tell them I love them,” I said as he struggled to get past my command. “And remember…my heart will always be yours.” I forced a sad smile at him as he raged to get free. “Perhaps I will see you all again in the Underworld.”
As Oz’s unholy roar rang out through the neighborhood, I ran for the spot where Phobos stood in all his pale glory. The cries of my brothers—those still in possession of their minds—eclipsed Oz’s when they realized my plan. But it was too late for them to stop me. Phobos reached out his hand for me, and I extended mine to meet it.
Let us end this, Eos hissed in my mind.
The second my skin met his, we disappeared.
24
I opened my eyes to the darkness of my dreams—the ones Phobos and I had shared together—and wondered for a moment if something had gone terribly wrong. If perhaps I had grossly miscalculated his desire, and I was, in fact, dead. But I was quite certain that I would have been in the Underworld were that the case, and this was not my father’s kingdom.
He is near, Eos said in my mind. It is time for you to make good on your agreement. It is time to let me get what I have waited an eternity to claim.
“Give him death and be done,” I said as I readied myself for her to take over.
First, he will answer for all he has done. Then, he will die.
Without hesitation, she pushed past my lowered defenses and secured herself at the helm of our shared vessel. Had I not been certain that our interests aligned, I would never have agreed. But Eos had knowledge of Phobos that I did not, and if she could use it to be rid of him more efficiently using my power, then I was happy to allow her vengeance. It was well deserved.
“Phobos?” she called, a sweetness in her voice that would have given me pause had I not seen how easily she could manipulate Ares. How seamlessly she could fall into whatever role was necessary to meet her goal. “Phobos, it’s me…Eos. I know you are here. Do you not wish to see me? Have you not orchestrated all of this just to get me back?”
Out of the inky abyss walked a pale figure. “Is it really you?”
I felt the muscles of my cheek tighten with a smile. “It is, Brother. I have taken hold of this vessel. It is mine to command now.”
“And Khara? Where is she?”
She stepped closer, but not close enough to touch. “Does that matter? Would you rather she were here?”
His shadowed features came into view, his frown plain on his countenance. “Of course not. Everything I have done, I have done for you, just as you said. The vessel Ares found for you before was not strong enough to contain you without great magic, but this one is. I knew the moment Khara emerged into this being—the day her wings were born—that she would be the one. Her wing-birth called to me in this place and pulled me from my solitude, all because I knew she was the way back to you. The daughter of an angel and the god of war—how could she not be the perfect place to house karma incarnate? A being born of perfect balance—of both Light and Dark?”
“She will be missed,” Eos said, inching toward him. Though her voice was cool and calm, and her movements easy, I could feel the fire of anger stoking deep in our shared belly. “Her brothers, her lover…they will no
t rest until she has been retrieved.”
At that, he smiled, the gleam of it cutting through the darkness. “But they cannot find a place that exists only in my mind,” he said, and a cold shiver ran down our back. “Because that is where we are, my love. In the realm splintered from my mind, fractured the day you died.”
“You mean the day you took my life?” Her voice was soft and low and without any hint of the pulsing rage that coursed through her borrowed body.
His dark eyes narrowed at her for a moment, and I wondered if the time had come. If she had poked a hole in his reality that he could not overcome.
“Is that what you think happened?” he asked, stepping closer still. “You think I killed you?”
“I remember your hands around my throat and pain and the world going dark. That is all I can recall.”
“Your memory betrays you,” he said, an edge of anger rimming his response.
“And all this time, I thought it had been you who murdered me,” she countered. “So tell me, then, Phobos, how did I die, if not by your hands?”
He visibly stiffened at her question, and his hand flew to his forehead to brace it. “I don’t remember. But I would never have killed you,” he said, voice straining against an unseen force. “I loved you more than any other.”
“It was never your love for me that I doubted,” she said, stepping closer. “It was your sanity—”
His hand flew away from his face to expose wild, angry eyes. “My sanity is fine—”
“Is it?” she pressed, and I grew nervous. Pushing Deimos was a bad idea at best, but pushing Phobos seemed suicidal. Her plan for exacting vengeance on an unsuspecting party had taken an unexpected turn. One that I feared we might not survive.
Eos looked about the black, vacant space that seemed to stretch on forever, then back to him. “What do you call this place, Phobos?”
“The Always and Never,” he replied. “It is where I come to escape the earthly realm.”
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