The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

  Teddy gasped as it looked like the Firenz queen became a target of one of the Beasts.

  But then Teddy gasped again when, right before it made a slash with its claws, the queen disappeared into thin air.

  And suddenly, emanating some ways away from where Silence had been before, a stream of fire came from nothing, but shot all around, creating a wide circle of flame around the pit.

  Those within the circle of fire, including the rulers and the Beasts, were stuck there.

  But those without it were kept out.

  “We have Silence! Concentrate on one!” True bellowed.

  The men and women (gnomes, fairies, pixies and sprites) of the rulers dealt with the remaining enemy within the circle of fire as Mars fought his way to his queen.

  She reappeared as he hefted her up with one arm so she sat atop his shoulders. She curled her legs under his arms, tucking the tops of her feet against his back.

  True drew up Farah in the same manner.

  Cassius raced to Elena and hauled her up on his shoulders.

  Aramus hefted up Ha-Lah.

  And…

  Teddy’s heart jumped when…

  They…

  Let…

  Fly!

  Teddy nearly stood to watch as fire soared from both of Silence’s palms, at the same time one of the Beasts was swept up in a whirlwind it seemed was created by Farah who was twirling a hand around. And his body elongated grotesquely as Elena held her arms out, hands palm down, anchoring its feet to the stone.

  It writhed in agony and Teddy’s stomach clutched as its brethren roared in camaraderie and started to make their way to their sibling.

  As swift as they were, they were too late.

  Of a sudden, Ha-Lah raised an arm and an angmostros reared up over the cliff, one of its heads rising high, then bowing low, its monstrous mouth open.

  It clamped down, not fully having the thing in its gullet, and as its lethal teeth pierced flesh, black ooze shot from its middle before its bottom half exploded in a burst of the same.

  A cacophony of hideous shrieks filled the air from the remaining Beasts.

  The angmostros head slithered away, jaws dripping ooze, gullet rippling with its swallow, as all the prophesied turned on the advancing brethren.

  Silence held one back by fire.

  Farah one by wind.

  While Ha-Lah called a wave and took one off its feet.

  It slipped along the rock and fell over the side of the cliff.

  Silence resurrected the fire the wave had doused and then hurled a ball of flame that struck her Beast in its face and threw the creature back.

  The one to its left suddenly shrieked and batted at what appeared to be nothing as the fur covering its body opened up seemingly on its own, blood flowing out.

  “The Mystics are keeping it occupied! Concentrate!” Princess Serena screamed.

  Fire, wind and the return of the sea creature commenced.

  The Beast that flew over the side climbed back up it, made the top and raced through the circle of flame toward its stretching sibling.

  But the angmostros clamped down and black ooze blasted out.

  A mauled body that seemed to come from thin air flew across the rock and landed with a sickening thud on its back.

  Teddy saw it was a man from The Mystics.

  His gaze jumped back as the Beast being opened up by imperceptible blades caught another of its invisible tormentors in his huge clawed hand, making him visible.

  Without delay, the creature rushed the hole and tossed the man inside.

  “Retreat!” Mars’s Trusted from The Mystics shouted.

  “Oh, gods,” Moira whimpered.

  That Beast turned, like his remaining brother, to the prophesied.

  “The one to the left!” Cassius shouted just as Mars yelled, “Focus on the right!”

  The blue streams of the tridents struck the one to the right.

  He bellowed, and then in a flash of fur and cries and grunts of men, the blue streams of the Mer stopped, and that Beast came to halt beside his brother, his claws wrapped around the staffs of a collection of tridents.

  And with a squeeze and a crunch, they broke with a spray of blue sparks and the halves fell to the rock.

  On no.

  One of them began to walk toward the prophesied.

  But he stopped when a stream of fire hit the stone before him, coming from Silence.

  “Not a fucking step closer,” Mars growled.

  The thing’s head seemed to descend more into hits neck before it popped out, the fur withdrew, the claws receded.

  And suddenly, before them stood a remarkably handsome, fit, naked blond man.

  The man Teddy had seen back in that horrid glade in the forest of Wodell.

  “Gads,” Moira whispered, before she sneered, “That’s a nifty damned trick.”

  “I am Daemon,” the Beast man said.

  No one spoke.

  Daemon didn’t mind.

  “We admire you,” he told them, lifting a hand to the other Beast, who Teddy’s eyes went to and he saw not a Beast and not a man, but an attractive blonde woman, though her body was cut in many places and oozing blood. “Let us have the god and then we will rule beside you.”

  The thing calling himself Daemon took another step forward.

  Both heads of the hovering angmostros dipped closer.

  Dragons flew in from all sides and flapped, suspended in the air, red eyes aimed to the Beasts standing on stone.

  “Not another sirens-damned step,” Aramus warned.

  “As we admire you, we do not wish to destroy you. And thus, you should know, we are holding back,” Daemon warned in return.

  “If that’s the case, your brothers probably should have given it their all,” Cassius drawled.

  Teddy and Moira pressed closer when Daemon’s head whipped to Cassius and he flashed awful teeth his way.

  “Touchy,” Mars said.

  “Do not play with us for we are finished playing with you,” Daemon threatened.

  “Care to wager?” True asked.

  “I will kill you last,” Daemon promised.

  “But we’ll kill her first,” True said.

  And then another inhuman shriek as the female fell facedown to the rock with a sword sticking out of her back.

  Cassius’s and Elena’s lieutenants stood beyond her, the man called Mac clearly being the one who hurled his sword, for he was still bent forward with the effort of doing so.

  Instantly, fire blasted at Daemon while wind took the she-creature up and Elena reached behind her to snatch up her bow.

  And one after another after another, with a swiftness that was impossible to believe, she strung it and let fly, each arrow that embedded itself in the female Beast making her body jump with the impacts before small coral and purple explosions burst from each wound.

  But this time, Ha-Lah did not call her creature.

  A wave rose up over the cliff, arched down in a pointed gush, sucked the body into its torrential wet, and then it fell to the rock with a crash, water mixed with black sludge shooting out where it landed.

  With the end of the third Beast, there was no pithy repartee.

  The prophesied immediately turned their powers on the final one.

  But Daemon raced away, one step, and then two, and he was back to Beast, darting this way and that.

  The men put their women to their feet, and the instant they had them on land, the witches hurled their magic at him.

  The skies grew light, such were the streaks of blue, red, green and white as wind, fire, water and magic flooded the space, coming so quickly, Teddy couldn’t keep track of it.

  The angmostros heads descended and snapped wherever the flash of the Beast could be seen.

  The dragons sent ruptures of flame.

  “They have to get him, they have to get him, theyhavetogethim,” Moira chanted.

  And suddenly he took form.

  As his human self.<
br />
  Right at the edge to the abyss.

  And when he did, the magic being hurled by the queens stopped immediately.

  And Teddy’s blood froze in his veins.

  “Does one of you care about this one?” Daemon called.

  And he held Faunus aloft by the throat.

  “No,” Teddy whispered.

  “Let him go!” Mars roared.

  Moira’s arms came around Teddy.

  And Teddy’s eyes grew scratchy, he stared so hard at his warrior in a demon’s clutch.

  And memories of words said in the past surged into his head.

  You have my love.

  And you have mine.

  You have my devotion.

  And you have mine.

  And adoration.

  You can be quiet now.

  “No,” Teddy whispered again.

  Moira held him tighter.

  You will come home. To Firenze. Where it is warm and where you will know affection and respect. You will be Teddy’s sister. He will see to you. Through Teddy, you will be my sister, and I will see to you as well.

  Teddy watched as Faunus turned his head as best he could in a grip he was fighting against, both of his big, strong hands wrapped around Daemon’s forearm.

  And he looked Teddy’s way.

  Do you love me?

  Yes.

  When did you fall in love with me?

  It began when you kissed me after you fucked Saturn that first time at Lorenz and Nyx’s.

  I am sorry, mio amore, but it took me longer. I liked you very much and wanted more from you. But I knew it would go much deeper when you annoyed me greatly by demanding to put your life at risk to become a spy.

  Faunus’s eyes found Teddy’s.

  I am here as the one who loves him. I am here as the man who has given him my heart, to share with you the depth of your profound mistake, so you can think on that until you rest on your pyre.

  Still held by the Beast, Faunus’s beautiful black eyes looked right into Teddy’s.

  This look was not a call for help.

  Most handsome. I could keep you full of me for days. You’ll be beautiful shooting before me with me moving deep inside.

  Faunus’s look was a call to hold.

  I have a vast and beautiful family, Tedrey.

  If we live them right, our whole lives are filled with family and that means you will one day be uncle to my children. Does that feel insignificant?

  Daemon lifted Faunus up higher and Teddy saw him begin to transform into the Beast.

  Those claws, when they came out, would take his warrior’s head.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” he bellowed, rose up, and tore over the rock.

  “TEDDY!” Moira shrieked.

  “TEDDY!” he heard Saturn roar.

  But Teddy raced.

  Daemon’s head turned to him and Teddy saw his surprise.

  He then saw his lips begin to curl up.

  And when Teddy didn’t stop, he watched the thing’s eyes get wide.

  Faunus kicked him in the stomach.

  Daemon lost hold.

  Faunus’s boots hit the ground.

  He was free.

  But he was too close.

  Teddy would make him safe.

  He hit an unsuspecting Daemon in the chest.

  And Teddy and the demon toppled over the side.

  Into the Mouth of Triton.

  “NOOOOOOOO!”

  Falling, Teddy heard Faunus’s shout.

  Alive.

  Teddy closed his eyes.

  And smiled.

  Right before his head struck rock and his neck broke.

  King Mars

  At the Edge of the Mouth of Triton

  MAR-EL

  “NOOOOOOOO!” Faunus boomed.

  Mars raced forward and caught his man about the chest and ribs before Faunus threw himself over the side.

  They struggled.

  But both suddenly stopped when a great shaft of light burst out of the mouth straight into the heavens.

  Mars’s gut dropped.

  Fuck.

  “No,” Faunus whispered, head tipped back, staring into the sky.

  Mars kept hold, but now not for fear he’d go after his lover.

  They both knew his lover was gone.

  Now, as his father would do, as any good king would do, he held his man in order to hold him up.

  The light gleaming out of the hole stopped.

  And they again stood in a day that was night.

  “You would have defeated him,” Faunus said dully.

  They would have.

  Mars didn’t verbally confirm.

  And he did not, for they would have, but it was without a doubt Faunus would have been lost to the fight.

  And his Teddy knew this.

  So, he took his place.

  “Fucking Teddy, he always has to be the gods-damned hero,” Faunus bit.

  Mars had nothing to say to that either.

  But from what he knew of the man, this seemed to be his bent.

  They were attacked from the side by a brunette.

  Only then did Mars let go, for Faunus now had someone to hold up.

  She grasped his man’s arms as she peered over the mouth and screamed, “Teddy!”

  “Moira,” Faunus murmured.

  “Teddy!” she shrieked.

  Pain for another shredded Mars’s insides.

  Fortunately, as this occurred, Mars felt Silence slide her arms about his middle.

  He guided one of his around her shoulders and held her close.

  Saturn approached them and sandwiched the woman between the two warriors, his eyes cast down into the mouth.

  Mars felt his friends gather at his and Silence’s sides.

  “T-Teddy,” she sobbed and then collapsed to her knees.

  Faunus and Saturn went down with her.

  The rays of the sun pierced through the night as another angmostros appeared over the side of the cliff.

  Atop one of the heads was a stunning, redheaded woman with a mermaid’s tail glittering brilliantly in the increasing daylight.

  “He was always one to make the most of an entrance,” she called.

  Right before something shot out of the hole.

  It darted into the air, then speeded down like a javelin, before it twisted, arse aiming down, and landed on the head of the other angmostros, which dipped slightly on impact, but mostly held strong.

  And there sat a man who looked a lot like Aramus, except he had a head of short, tight, curly black hair and a much longer black beard.

  Not to mention, the lengthy, winding tail of a Mer king.

  “It is done!” he pronounced grandly.

  “You took love!” Aramus shouted in fury.

  “I did not take it, Sea King, it is love!” the mermale shouted back. “It gave itself!”

  “You’re a sirens-damned son of a bitch!” Aramus raged.

  “And I made your many-greats grandfather king so I could get to you,” the mermale returned.

  Aramus had no retort to that.

  The redhead smiled benevolently down at them through all of this.

  The mermale tugged on a spike of the head of the beast he sat atop, and it swung toward her.

  The instant they got close, he reached for her and took her into a hearty embrace.

  “Erm, am I watching Triton and Medusa have a snog?” Silence asked.

  “Yes,” Mars answered.

  “Faith,” she breathed.

  Dragons floated down to the stone all about them and Silence broke away from him to approach the trio holding onto each other at the edge of the mouth.

  She crouched, knees together, legs to the side, and murmured, “Let us get you to the castle.”

  “I-I-m not l-l-leaving him,” the woman called Moira declared. “N-not yet. He never left me. Not ever. Not ever. So I need to stay with him.” There came a sniffle before she finished, “For a while.”

  “Al
l right, love,” Silence said soothingly. “Then we’ll all stay for a while.”

  She received no response to that, but Mars heard a sob come, stifled against Faunus’s throat.

  Faunus dropped to his arse on the rock and Saturn shifted with him. They arranged the woman so she was somehow seated in both their laps, with their arms all about each other.

  The men stared into the abyss.

  The woman kept her face tucked into their bodies.

  And Silence rose to stand behind them.

  Mars joined her, pulling his mantle from his shoulders, wrapping it around hers, this before taking his wife in his arms.

  Elena and Cassius came up on his right side.

  Aramus and Ha-Lah to their right.

  True and Farah to Silence’s left.

  Serena and Chu to their left.

  Lahn, Tor, Apollo and Frey gathered around.

  Jorie came to stand behind his sister.

  The lieutenants walked (or limped) to join them.

  Cassius gave Mac and Hera a look.

  Mac, one side of his face bloodied and scraped, that side of his leathers jagged and torn, gave Cassius a shrug.

  Gnomes pushed to the front.

  Pixies drifted.

  Sprites zinged.

  Zees walked forward boldly, as was their wont, and sat at the edge of the mouth, feet dangling.

  If Mars was correct, there were five Airenzian highwaymen amongst them.

  The angmostros carrying risen gods shifted from the cliffs then slunk under the sea and swam away.

  “Bloody hell, Aramus,” he heard a man say. “What the fuck happened here?”

  “I’ll tell you later, Magnus,” Aramus muttered.

  Mars sighed.

  In the horizon, the sun was journeying to The Mystics.

  Mars heard Faunus’s murmured words floating up to him, and he knew Silence did too with the way her hold on him strengthened.

  “How do I live in a world without him?”

  “You do it knowing he refused for there to be a world without you,” Saturn replied.

  Mars closed his eyes.

  He opened them when Silvanus shouted, “He will always be remembered!”

  “He will always be remembered!” the Zees cried.

  “To Our Brother Golden Hair!” Silvanus yelled.

  “To Our Brother Golden Hair!” the rest of them bellowed.

  And it was then, Elena put her fingers to her lips, floated them out, her lips pursed like she was blowing a kiss.

  And a rainbow shot out of the Mouth of Triton shafting all the way into forever.