With renewed strength, Mirissa bolted to her feet. She felt a new power filling every cell of her being. She didn’t know where it came from but didn’t really care at the moment. All that mattered was taking Daedric down, once and for all.
********
Daedric’s rage erupted through him as he deflected the multitude of rocks and stones cascading down on him. It took far more effort than it should have. His nemesis, as Ares had taken to calling Mirissa, was getting stronger with every passing second, while he got weaker. So much so, her power threatened to dwarf his own if he couldn’t stop her soon.
It felt as though the entire mountain rumbled under his feet. Cracks in the two thousand-year-old temple foundation cleaved their way through the stone, toppling two of the ancient pillars. He raised his arms to erect a force field between him and the girl, hoping to block at least some of her barrage.
It didn’t work. One blast of her energy, and the invisible barrier disintegrated as quickly as it had formed. Although the admission filled him with rage, Daedric knew he would lose this battle. His only hope was to escape and come back at a later time.
A ball of energy, bright enough to illuminate half of the temple, shattered the darkness around him. The big one must have finally regained consciousness. I should have torn his head off when I had the chance.
Daedric threw another shield in place to give himself enough time to teleport without being pummeled. Just before he did so, the light from another incoming energy ball reflected off something at the base of a newly formed crack in the temple floor. He reached out with his mind and drew the item to him from the earth.
The scythe felt warm in his hand, as though it had always been meant to be held by him. In a wink, he was gone.
Chapter 21
“What the hell was that?” Mirissa asked nobody in particular. The awesome power she’d been drawing from seemed to have faded the instant Daedric disappeared with the weird curved sword. Although she remained fully healed and had use of all of her abilities, she felt nowhere near as strong as she’d been mere moments before.
She’d gone up against Daedric several times without feeling that kind of boost, so she knew he hadn’t caused it. Then what had? The only plausible explanation was the strange looking sword. She’d seen it in her vision and, as soon as he’d taken it away, everything had gone back to normal.
She turned to face her team. Although exhausted and perhaps a little disappointed they’d come up empty-handed, they looked none the worse for wear. “Thank you, guys. I know that wasn’t easy for you.”
“That’s an understatement,” Orano said, absently stroking his throat. “But, your powers are definitely getting stronger. No way you could have beaten him back that way before.”
“About that,” Mirissa began. “I don’t think it was actually me. I mean, they were my abilities, but something else was increasing their strength. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Greco came to her side, eyeing her still-extended snake. “It could be your ring. Its powers grow with yours.”
Mirissa shook her head. “No. The ring felt like it was being infused from an outside source as well. This is going to sound crazy, but I think it was the curved sword Daedric took out of the ground. When I first stepped on this floor, I had another experience like the one at Pella. I saw this place back in its heyday, Oracle and all. Then I went back even further. One of the gods buried that sword in the ground, right where Daedric found it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
Greco pulled the key from around his neck and handed it back to her. “That might explain why the key didn’t react to this place at all. After you engaged with Daedric, I zigzagged around pretty much the whole area and got nothing.”
“So, he wasn’t here for the box. He came for the sword,” Mirissa said.
“Looks that way,” he said. “But if it belonged to a god, why was it still here? This place has been built and rebuilt several times. Not to mention the hundreds of archeologists that have been scouring every inch of these ruins. There’s no way the sword you saw in your vision is the same one Daedric took.”
Beck cleared her throat from behind them. “Um, it might be possible. Every time they rebuilt this place, they did so to repair damage caused by plunderers. They kept as much of the original temple as they could. And as for the archeologists, their whole job is to preserve these ruins. Look around, guys. We destroyed an entire corner of an ancient temple, pillars and all. That’s what caused the sword to be uncovered.”
For the first time since Daedric disappeared, Mirissa looked—really looked—at what she’d done. Not only had she basically handed Daedric the very thing he wanted, but one of the world’s most famous ancient landmarks had been irreparably damaged. “The Greek government is gonna be pissed.”
*******
Flip leaned his forehead against the cold stone of the top row of the amphitheater. He’d arrived just as Daedric launched Mirissa down the side of the mountain. It had taken all of his willpower to not return the favor to the miserable half-breed, but he couldn’t risk alerting any of them to his presence. All he could do was watch as his friends—his only friends—got their asses kicked.
When Mirissa had leapt up to the temple floor after knocking Daedric back, Flip thought she might have a shot. But she’d just stood there, frozen. He’d been screaming silently at her to do something, but she didn’t. If he hadn’t risked exposure by redirecting the massive stone Daedric had hurled at her, she’d have been killed.
But that wasn’t what had Flip so concerned.
He’d realized something odd was happening after Mirissa teleported to the center of the temple floor. She’d obviously been in pain, judging by her stilted movements and the scowl on her face, but then she’d jumped up like nothing was wrong. She raised her arms, and all Hades broke loose.
Flip knew of her powers, but that display exhibited a force far beyond any capabilities she’d previously possessed. She’d dominated Daedric, thoroughly. Although he hated the demi-god and had many choice words to describe him, weak didn’t make the list. No, something else was going on.
And when Daedric drew the blade from the earth below the temple, Flip understood all too well.
The demi-god had somehow located Zeus’s scythe, which meant every god on Olympus, not to mention the other pantheons, could be killed.
Chapter 22
When Mirissa and the team arrived back at their hotel, they chose to put off much-needed sleep, instead congregating in her mother’s room. Beck opened her laptop to get an update on the storms. The harried reporter looked as though she’d been pulled out of bed and immediately stuck in front of the cameras. Her normal pristine appearance marred by disheveled hair, and makeup that did little to conceal the bags under her bloodshot eyes.
********
CNN Special Report
With only two days left until six of the largest hurricanes ever recorded make landfall throughout the world, yet another natural disaster has struck.
An earthquake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, originated on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and its effect will be devastating. The tsunami it generated is expected to send a wall of water more than twenty meters high to the western coast of the United Kingdom and possibly spread as far south as Morocco.
Although evacuations in these areas were already underway in anticipation of Stormaggedon, authorities fear that no amount of preparation will lessen the destruction a wave of this magnitude this will cause.
In related news, reports of impromptu prayer vigils are pouring in. Religions from every corner of the globe are banding together, putting aside differences that once led to war, in the hopes of staving off what they are calling “the end times.”
In this reporter’s humble opinion, that may be the one good thing to come of these catastrophes.
Stay with us here at CNN as we bring you all of the details of this worldwide emergency. I’m Julia Saxon, and we’ll be right back.
<
br /> As the camera remained on longer than expected, the final shot showed Julia Saxon reaching below her desk to retrieve a bottle of Jack Daniels.
********
With the report fresh in her mind, Mirissa called her mother, hoping for a bit of good news.
“He’s still unconscious,” Myrine said. “But you know what they say. No news is good news.”
Mirissa had never believed that particular phrase. In her experience, no news usually just meant that she hadn’t found out about the terrible stuff yet.
“You heard about the earthquake?” Mirissa asked.
“Yeah, I’m watching CNN. Don’t let it distract you, Mirissa. Everything that’s going on is being caused by the box. Once you close it, it’ll all be over. Now, bring me up to date on what’s going on with our mission,” Myrine commanded.
The conversation took just a few minutes, but Mirissa relished them. Once again having her mother in charge felt like a weight being lifted off of her shoulders. She sounded so strong and confident, like she understood everything going on and had already chosen the best possible course of action to take. Unlike Mirissa, who didn’t understand any of it and had absolutely no clue what to do next.
Beck pressed a few buttons on her cellphone and said, “I’m patching Julian into the call. He’s looking into the sword but needs more information.”
“I’m not finding any references to a sword at Delphi,” Julian said through a yawn. “What else can you give me?”
Mirissa told him about her vision and gave the best description of the sword she could. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had.
A knock at the door interrupted them.
“Can I come in?” Flip asked as he entered the room.
Mirissa nodded and placed a finger to her lips to indicate she needed him to stay quiet.
“All right. I’ll start the search and get back to you as soon as I have anything,” Julian said.
Before he could hang up, Myrine said, “No. Let the computer do its thing, Julian. You need to sleep. That goes for all of you. We won’t have any chance of finding the box and closing it back up if we’re all too tired to function when the time comes. Take a few hours and start fresh in the morning. That’s an order.”
When the lines went dead, Mirissa turned to Flip. “You doing okay?”
“Great. I don’t sleep much, so I thought I’d check in on you guys to see how things went tonight. Anything interesting?” Flip gave her an expectant look.
Although she wanted desperately to collapse into a deep sleep at that very moment, Mirissa couldn’t bring herself to blow the little guy off. “Kind of. We didn’t find what we were looking for, but we did happen upon something else that might be important. I don’t suppose you know anything about ancient swords.”
Flip straightened his shoulders. “As a matter of fact, I do. It’s kind of a hobby of mine. All things ancient Greece, remember?”
“Okay, have you ever heard of a long curvy sword being buried at Delphi?” Mirissa asked.
Flip’s brow wrinkled in thought as he scratched his chin. “It could be …” His voice trailed off as he shook his head. “No, that can’t be.”
“What?” Mirissa asked.
“Well, it sounds a little like the scythe of Zeus. But that’s just off the top of my head.” His gaze lowered and he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“What’s the scythe of Zeus?” Mirissa asked as Greco and Beck took seats on the end of the bed.
“Well,” Flip began. “Legend has it that Zeus killed his father, the Titan Kronos, with a scythe infused with great power. It’s the only weapon that can kill a god.”
Orano moved to stand directly in front of the little man, crossing his enormous arms. “Just off the top of your head, eh? Tell me, Flip. How is it that you happen to know about the one thing we’re looking into right now? The same thing, I might add, that our computer genius came up empty on not two minutes ago.”
Flip took a tentative step back and cleared his throat. “Just lucky, I guess.”
Mirissa slid in front of Orano to discourage him from pummeling Flip. “Why don’t we all take my mom’s advice and get some sleep.” She turned to Flip. “I’ll call you in the morning, okay?” The look of relief that washed over his face at the prospect of making a clean get away from Orano brought a smile to Mirissa’s lips.
As soon as Flip left, Orano started in on her. “You don’t really believe him, do you?”
Mirissa took a deep breath and fell into the chair by the window. “I don’t know.”
“Come on! He was part of Daedric’s team, he just showed up when we were at Pella, and now he knows all about the mystery sword? How many coincidences are you willing to buy?”
Mirissa rubbed her forehead against the headache threatening to ruin any chance she had of sleeping that night. “I admit there’s room for suspicion. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. For now…” She yawned. “Let’s call it a night.”
Greco waited for Beck and Orano to leave, then sat in the empty chair next to Mirissa’s. “Do you want to talk?”
“Not even a little bit.” One corner of Mirissa’s mouth curved in smile. “Can we please do this some other time? I don’t have the energy right now.”
Greco patted her knee and stood. “Fine. But don’t think that this means you’re off the hook. Come on, I’ll walk you back to your room.”
“You go on ahead. I think I’m going to sleep here tonight.” She stood to give him a quick kiss. “Thanks for understanding, Greco.”
The now-empty room felt almost too quiet. The craziness of the last few hours, although unproductive and really painful, had at least succeeded in keeping her mind off of her father. With nothing left to distract her, Mirissa’s thoughts latched onto the fear of losing him. A tear rolled down her cheek as she climbed in the bed that still smelled of his aftershave.
I’ll make everything okay, Dad. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure you’re okay.
Her last thought before drifting off to sleep was that it might very well be the last thing she ever did.
Chapter 23
The sun was just beginning its ascent, slowly pushing aside the darkness. Flip lay in bed, staring at the ceiling of his small hotel room. Since leaving Mirissa and the others hours earlier, he’d been wracking his brain, trying to figure out what to do.
Daedric has the scythe—the one weapon capable of wiping out the gods.
His first instinct had been to alert the Omega Group, but his position with them was precarious. Orano’s earlier suspicion had blown into outright accusations when Flip revealed his knowledge of the scythe. He’d accepted that it would be risky to tell them what he knew, but what choice did he have? They needed the information and couldn’t get it any other way. At least not in time to do anything about it.
For now, Flip needed to make a plan. He felt pretty sure Ares didn’t know about Daedric’s little side trip to Delphi. The god of war might be vindictive, but he’d never lay waste to his pantheon. No, it had to be Eris behind that idea. Even without the motivation provided by being locked in a box for five thousand years, that goddess would have gladly killed everyone on Mount Olympus just for the sport of it.
A shiver ran through Flip’s body at the thought of sharing what he knew with Ares. He had no idea how the higher god would react. He could possibly be grateful for the knowledge and reward Flip for his loyalty. But, just as possibly—and probably more likely—Ares would dole out a harsh punishment, leaving Flip even worse off than he already was.
As another option, Flip could do nothing, and let Eris carry out whatever revenge scenario she pleased. Surely a god of Flip’s stature wouldn’t be on her hit list. He could simply lay low and, as the humans said, let the chips fall where they may. Although, he didn’t understand what falling fried potato slices had to do with anything. The more he thought about it, the more appealing that option became.
He’d almost convinced himself to do just that, when his
mind wandered to Jill. She’d given him the most glorious gift the night before—his first kiss. Flip’s hand went to his lips as he remembered the moment. What would happen to his beautiful Jill—and his new friends—if Eris left no god alive who could protect the humans?
Flip sat up in bed, his decision made. Jill and the others needed him to protect them, and he damn well wouldn’t let them down.
********
“What do you want, horse companion?” Ares asked in his usual condescending tone.
Flip stood in the center of the palace’s great library, the only place Ares allowed others to teleport to. “I have news that you need to be aware of.”
“Then spit it out. I’m due in Zeus’s chamber for a meeting.” Ares paced the floor as he glowered at Flip, looking even more aggravated than normal.
Perhaps Zeus already knew about the scythe and had called the other higher gods in to deal with the problem. “What’s the meeting about?”
“Does it matter? When he calls, we go,” Ares said. His grimace belied his casual tone, and Flip wondered if perhaps he’d chosen the wrong time to bring bad news to the god.
“I’ll come back later. Enjoy your meeting,” Flip said with a crooked half-smile.
Ares grabbed him by his collar and pulled him off his feet to meet his gaze. “Tell me your news now, horse companion. I don’t want to have to tolerate your presence again.”
“Yes, Flip. Tell us your news.” Eris stood in the doorway, smirking at him with Daedric by her side.
Flip glanced from Ares to his sister, then back again. Feet still dangling above the floor, he leaned in and whispered, “Can we talk in private, Ares?”
“I don’t have time for your games.” Ares dropped him back to the floor. “Anything you need to say to me can be said in front of them.”
Pandora (Book 3) (The Omega Group) Page 11