Chapter 23
A Family’s Connection
Two days of riding with minimal rest and they were still a week away from the Gaulish coastline, where they would set sail to Cymru.
Breanna trained with at least two members of their group whenever they stopped to rest. Cailean worked on her sword fighting, Alina and Brian worked with her to control her magic, and Eoghan worked with her on flawlessly fighting in pairs.
The strong bond between Bre and Eoghan amplified their skills. In addition, with her new powers, Bre sensed and influenced his movement.
Bre also convinced Nikolaos to teach her a few tricks of his own, magic that he developed over the years.
Leo and Cole laid their riding blankets on the grass while the horses grazed and watched Nikolaos and Breanna practice with lightning bolts on a tree. At first, Nikolaos conjured the bolts for Bre, but she quickly learned to summon and mold the electricity herself.
“I still don’t understand why we are traveling with them. We leave the comforts of the Danes to come here and fight a war for a girl none of us know,” Leo said as he picked a blade of grass, holding it between the heels of his palms to make it whistle.
“Comforts? We lived in a makeshift house, barely big enough for the three of us, and it was freezing. Not to mention the hundreds of enemies we had hunting us. Are those the comforts you are referring to?” Cole was astonished at Leo’s loose definition of comfort.
Leo finally made an ear-piercing whistle that caused Cole to wince and press a hand to his ear. Cole punched Leo’s arm and snatched the grass from his hands.
Rubbing his arm and pouting, Leo responded, “It’s more than we have now, stuck in a tent using sweaty, smelly horse blankets to cover up. At least back with the Danes the gods favored us. Here, we rely on Mother for protection from the Celtic pantheon when we ourselves are Etruscan. Come on, Cole. If I say it’s risky and foolish, what in Tartarus is running through your overly logical mind?”
The sound of wood splintering and the cheers of an eighteen-year-old girl startled the men, who anxiously turned to their brother and Bre. Cole’s racing heart calmed when he saw Bre, safe, throw her arms around Nikolaos’ neck in excitement. Leo and Cole laughed when Nikolaos turned to them, shocked at Bre’s celebratory embrace as she hung from his neck with one of his arms wrapped around her waist.
“What’s running through my head is that our father is dead, our mother is condemned to death, and that my little sister will be alone when the battle is over. We were exiled from our former life, little brother. This is our chance to rejoin our family. To get back what we lost,” said Cole.
“You mean ripped from us,” Leo corrected, raising an eyebrow at Cole.
Heartbroken and overwhelmed with a brief moment of solemnity, Cole watched Bre blissfully prance around, excited about her new powers, unaware of their hidden burden. The same protective spirit he held for his brothers now included Breanna. He needed to shield her from as much tragedy as he could.
“So long as I am near her, Leo, she will be safe. She will live,” Cole said, not taking his eyes off Breanna.
Leo shook his head in frustration. “We are all going to a miserable, fiery death.”
Cole lightly shoved his brother on his side and smiled. “It is cold and rainy in Cymru. We’ll die a miserable, cold death.”
“I still don’t like the outcome,” Leo said and shoved his brother back.
Cole chuckled, “Unless the fact that you look like you’re twenty when you’re really forty-two somehow passed you by unnoticed, maybe I should remind you that we are immortal.”
“Yes, but for how long!” Leo threw his hands in the air.
Cole placed his forehead into his palm and shook his head. “You make my head hurt.”
Suddenly, Breanna let out a squeal of panic that caught everyone’s attention. Nikolaos had moved on from creating lightning bolts to grabbing them midair.
Nikolaos tossed Bre a bolt, hoping she would catch it before it hit her. As it drew close, she panicked and tried to roll out of the way. The lightning bolt was faster than she was and slammed into her shoulder, leaving a nasty burn mark.
Eoghan quickly stood to dash to Bre, but Brian grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. Alina and Lysandros did not move from preparing dinner.
Lysandros clenched his fists with bated breath, worried as he watched Nikolaos and Bre.
Alina patted his arm and smiled comfortingly at him. “Don’t worry,” Alina assured Lysandros, “They need this time together. She needs to get to know her brothers.”
Alina’s soft touch and sweet smile eased Lysandros’ nerves, but still gave an unnerved, sideward glance at Nik.
Cole stood, concerned for Bre. “Everything alright, Princess?”
“Bootlicker,” Leo grumbled under his breath as Cole stood up.
Cole grabbed his blanket and flung it in the air to get the grass off. With a subtle twist of his wrist, the corner of the blanket whipped the side of Leo’s head with a loud crack. Cole smirked at Leo’s vulgar exclamations as he headed towards Nikolaos and Bre.
“Everyone alright over here?” Cole asked and flashed a kind smile at Breanna.
“We’re ok, Cole.” Nikolaos leaned in to look at Bre’s shoulder. “Nothing that cannot be mended. Here, I can heal this and Queen Alina is good with clothing.”
Nik held a hand over Breanna’s wound and a blue light radiated from his palm, warming Bre’s shoulder.
Cole understood Nikolaos’ subtle hint. Breanna did not know they were her brothers. All she knew was that they were three soldiers her mother brought to help her family.
A pang of guilt in Cole’s gut for not being around as Breanna grew up caught him off guard. They could have taught her so much. He was a master of magic, better than Nik, and Leo refused to develop his. Nikolaos was a great at diplomacy, which he learned from Lysandros and their father. Then there was cheeky Leo, who was good for his yammering vulgarity, complaints, and pranks. This coincidently worked well on their enemies for quick escapes.
Breanna nudged Nikolaos with her elbow as he stood still and somber next to her. She jested, “Don’t you ever smile or laugh?”
“Ha! Nikolaos laugh? The day he has a good time and relaxes is the day I have to figure out what spell he is under,” Cole said, bent over laughing.
Breanna and Cole laughed at Nikolaos’ expense. He stood there with his arms folded behind his back. He acknowledged the humor with a small smirk and said, “Are you two finished? Can we continue with your lesson, Your Majesty? Cole, go hunt something.”
“Wait, Cole can help us.” Breanna placed a hand on Cole’s arm before he walked away.
“As target practice?” Nikolaos sniped.
“Ouch! Clever, Nik,” Cole laughed, and then turned back to Bre after giving Nikolaos a feigned look of pain. “How can I be of help?”
“You said you were the master of magic out of you three brothers. Why not help me learn what the o’Conaills cannot, or I should say will not, teach me?”
Shivers ran through their bodies as Nikolaos and Cole exchanged apprehensive glances. “Breanna, I never said that,” Cole said, defensively shifting his body closer to Leo and Nik
“Yes, you did. You just said that Nikolaos was great at diplomacy, you were a master of magic, and that Leo is good with yammering vulgarity, complaints, and pranks. If you are the master, then let me be your pupil,” Breanna said, bending her hands back and cracking her knuckles, waiting impatiently for Cole’s response.
“Complaints and pranks, huh? You were thankful for my pranks and yammering in our fight with that ugly elf in Álfheimr!” Leo shouted as he gathered his blanket and tripped over his feet, rushing to confront his brother.
“Hush, Leonidas,” Cole barked, waving a dismissive hand at his little brother.
Leo shut his mouth and his expression changed from annoyed to vigilant at his brother’s tense command. Cole only used Leo’s full name in seri
ous situations.
“Breanna, I never said those things. I thought them, yes, but I never said them,” Cole slowly said, staring at Bre pensively.
Leo arrived with his blanket slung over his shoulder. “Great. now she can read minds?”
“Enough, Leo!” both Nikolaos and Cole said in frustration.
Leo gave them a nasty look, but listened.
“Can you hear anyone else?” Cole asked.
“I can hear you three just fine,” Bre said impatiently. “Let’s get on with the lessons. I want to learn new spells so the next time I meet Eversor I can…”
Nikolaos cut Bre off, “You just heard Cole’s thoughts, and if you can combine this power with all of your other ones you can offset your attackers. It is important that we figure out what is happening.”
Breanna stopped talking, rolled her eyes and scrunched her face up, concentrating on listening. Two seconds later, Breanna huffed and flung her eyes open. “Nobody is thinking!”
“How about now?” Cole strained his face as he tried to think “loud enough” for Breanna.
Breanna! Bre heard Cole screaming her name without moving his lips.
The situation startled her and she stumbled backwards. “What is going on? How are you doing that?”
“You are doing that,” Cole reached for her shoulder but she dipped it out of his grasp.
Cole instinctively grasped his dagger handle when sparks flickered between Breanna’s fingertips. A long forgotten memory of sparks flickering from his fingers replayed in his mind. The incongruous event occurs when an individual first develops their powers. The memory ended with a boat exploding because he got scared and lost control. He sympathized with her anxiety, but he had to calm her down before somebody got hurt.
Breanna glanced at Eoghan by the fire, laughing nostalgically with Brian as they recounted old stories. She longed to call out to him, but he had done so much for her in the past few weeks that he deserved to relax. She turned back to the brothers, uncomfortable as they silently stared at her with uneasy eyes.
“You don’t need Eoghan and we are staring at you because you could blow us up or set us on fire if you lose control of your emotions,” Leo snapped.
Leo’s brothers and Breanna stared at him in shock.
“What?” Leo asked, irritated.
“Where did that come from?” Cole faced Leo with his arms folded across his chest.
Leo grew even more frustrated. “She said she wished Eoghan was here and didn’t want us staring at her.”
Leo started talking with his hands. His brothers always made fun of him for being so animated, but they found no humor in this situation.
“I never said any of that,” Breanna paused, worried. “I may have thought it, but I never...” She stopped abruptly because they were all thinking the same thing.
“Great! Now I can read minds too?” Leo shouted, “It’s contagious! How did you? Why did you? Aww come on.” Leo started pacing back and forth, muttering to himself.
“I didn’t do a thing,” Breanna said as she held back a laugh at Leo’s ridiculous, panicked state.
Nikolaos shook his head and rolled his eyes at Leo’s overreaction.
“There is nothing wrong with him, Nik, this is his normal state,” Cole chuckled.
“He didn’t say that out loud, Cole,” Breanna noted.
Nikolaos and Cole’s jaws dropped and they gawked at each other with wide eyes. Leo continued to wave his arms around emphatically. “I told you it was contagious!”
The group around the fire overheard Leo’s voice, and then Cole heard Lysandros reply, The only thing contagious is the annoyance you create.
Cole burst out laughing while Leo stared daggers at Lysandros.
“Perfectly stated,” Cole said, trying to catch his breath.
“His lips didn’t move and I heard him as well,” Breanna once again noted.
Leo pleaded with Cole, “Will you fix this? The last thing I need is for the three of you to hear my most personal thoughts.”
“Why? So we don’t know when your pranks are coming?” Nikolaos asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Exactly! It’ll ruin all the fun,” Leo said and started to pace again.
“Let me try something.” Cole’s face scrunched up while looking at the group by the fire.
Leo burst out laughing while Nikolaos disapprovingly shook his head and said, “Not funny, Cole.”
Breanna gasped and smacked Cole’s arm, which snapped him out of his thoughts. “Do not talk about Eoghan that way. Besides, that is not proper language to use in front of a lady.” Breanna blushed from Cole’s comment about Eoghan. “Not proper at all.”
Bre looked at Eoghan and noticed he had not heard any of Cole’s remarks. Otherwise, he surely would have sought a fight.
Cole smiled devilishly at Breanna but apologized for his crude remark. “I just wanted to see if they could read our thoughts as well. Just to make sure Leo was not completely paranoid.”
From a distance, all four of them heard Alina’s thoughts, I don’t know how I will tell her they are her brothers.
Cole, Leo, and Nikolaos gawked at each other and then cautiously turned to Breanna.
Bre looked between her mother and her newly acquired brothers with the same open-mouthed expression. “What did she say?”
“Uh, Mother? You might want to handle this one,” Nik called out, pushing his brothers back, away from Bre. He put his body in between them and her.
Alina turned to them and saw her sons backing away from Bre.
What is wrong? Breanna heard Alina’s thoughts.
“They are my brothers?” Breanna shouted with more anger than she intended.
“Do not raise your voice to me, young lady. Be mindful that I am still Queen,” Alina was surprised at her daughter’s rage.
“You said ‘I don’t know how I am going to tell her they are her brothers.’ Well, you just did,” Breanna’s anger steadily grew.
“Did you read my mind, young lady?” Alina walked down the hill with her finger pointed at Bre, scolding her daughter.
“Yes, this is my fault! Because I have full control over these damned powers.” Bre threw her arms in the air, mimicking Leo’s animation.
Breanna’s sarcasm shocked Alina, “You listen to me, right now,” Alina’s singsong Gaelic accent came through thicker than Bre had ever heard. Whenever her mother was angry, her accent came out; but her burr had never been this thick. It was as if she had never left Cymru. “You do not speak to me in that manner. Yes, they are your brothers. Yes, you are all immortal demigods because I am a goddess. And yes, you have a magical connection between you. How extensive it is, I cannot be sure.”
“Don’t blame her. She has been through a lot; We all have. Bre is just coming into her powers and apparently we have new ones as well,” Cole said, attempting to calm his mother.
“But you need to tell us everything, because it is obvious you have been hiding facts,” Nikolaos added.
Alina looked at her four children, debating whether she should tell them what she knew.
From behind her, Brian called out a warning, “Tell them Alina, or we will."
She glared at Brian over her shoulder and he clearly got her message of 'do not tell me what to do.’
Alina paused for a moment. “She is The Queen,” she finally said.
Leo threw his hands up in the air. “You said she had a great power, not that she was The Queen! Perfect! That is all we need to add to this mess.”
“Silence, Leo.” Cole shot him a dirty look.
“There is no greater power than The Queen,” Alina responded.
“That makes us the council,” Nikolaos placed his hands behind his head and sighed.
“What do you mean The Queen? What is the council?” Bre asked anxiously.
“Let me help,” Brian strolled passed Alina and stopped in front of Bre.
Before Breanna could protest, Brian held his hands on either
side of her temples. Electricity shot through her body, and she slumped forward onto her knees. Someone’s arms grabbed her waist, pulling her into a cocoon of warmth as she feebly knelt in the grass.
The Phoinix: Age of Demigods Page 50