Rise from the Ashes (The Fated Book 1)

by Candy Crum

  Joe’s mouth had fallen open as he listened to her story. “More than you know, yes. I think he is the descendant of the Greek god, Poseidon. I am the descendant of Apollo. That’s why we’re searching for you. There is a lot to explain, but we can’t here,” Joe said, speaking quickly. “I could get pulled back at any time. Look, we are travelling southwest. We were told some vague, riddle-like directions from a dead oracle – long story – and we figured out that we should go to Dallas. She also told us that witches could hear our conversation. If they were watching, they could have understood the instructions that we were given. It makes sense because, honestly, it didn’t take us very long to figure it out. That would explain why Darius was taken down so easily. I haven’t met one, but I’d assume witches are very powerful. If they were seen travelling northeast, then it’s because they are coming for us. They must not have known about the two of you, or at least didn’t know where you were. I have to get back.”

  “What?” Jess asked, voice a little frantic. “You can’t just say all that and disappear! This is all too much!”

  “I know it is,” Joe said. “There is so much more. Trust me. When I head back your friend should wake up. I assume so anyway. This has never happened before. If he was as worried as you say he was, I think he is what triggered my episode. He connected to me somehow. I’ll explain everything when we meet. The math may not be correct, but it will be close. We are closer to Little Rock than you are. There is a town west of that called Benton. We planned to make a pit stop there. If I’m correct, we should be crossing into that town around the same time. Meet us there. I have to go. I’m being pulled back.”

  “Wait! What’s your phone number?” Jess asked.

  Joe silently cursed himself for not having thought of something so simple sooner. He was only able to make it through the first seven numbers before being pulled back.

  “What did you see?” Alee asked when Joe opened his eyes.

  Joe adjusted in his seat, acclimating to his environment.

  “Thanks for pulling over, Sis,” Joe said.

  “Eh. You weren’t seizing, or anything,” Alee said. “Plus, you were saying something about Poseidon, so I figured you were just fine.”

  “Did you find the descendant of Poseidon?” Brittany asked.

  “I think so,” he replied. “In fact, I’m pretty sure that I found all three of them. Though, one of them has been kidnapped. They said he’s a big guy, a football player, and he was easily taken down by two women in a red car.”

  “Witches,” Brittany said. “Had to be. If he’s big and athletic two women couldn’t have easily taken him.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Joe said. “Cass is the name of the guy that I think is Poseidon’s descendant. The girl, I have no idea, but since she was with him, I’m hoping that she’s one of the three we’re looking for. She said she has our birthdate.”

  “Where were they?” Kylie asked. “Were you able to see anything about where they are heading?”

  “They’re on this same interstate heading right for us. Our next stop is in Benton. I told her to meet us there. I gave her my number, but I only got through the first seven digits before I was pulled back,” Joe replied.

  “How do they even know that the football player is on this stretch of road?” Alee asked. “They could be anywhere.”

  “She said that Cass heard a voice, I’m assuming from Poseidon, and he told him to find the football player and save him. It’s possible that he’s just going off instinct. His fear for the other guy was strong enough that I think he triggered my vision. So if that’s possible, then I’d say it’s possible that he’s following some weird, supernatural GPS,” Joe said.

  “Joe,” Brittany said. “Do you think that you could trigger your vision again in order to find the other guy? There is probably a reason why Cass hasn’t found them yet.”

  “What do you mean?” Kylie asked.

  “They’re witches,” Brittany said. “They have the power to do almost anything that they want. The police are looking for them. They have to be. They also know that we are. Why on earth would they stay in the same vehicle that they kidnapped him in? There are state cops all over the interstates at all times. There is no way I’d risk that, if I were them.”

  “You think they ditched the vehicle?” Joe asked.

  “Possibly, but the more likely situation is that they camouflaged it with magic. If they stole another car, then they’d have to leave the red one behind. Evidence. As soon as the cops found out there was a stolen car, and the red one was left behind, they would automatically know what the new car was that they were driving. The only smart thing would be to use magic to change the color, or the make and model entirely. I don’t know how much magic they’d have to use to make it look like an entirely different car, but changing the color would be easy enough,” Brittany said.

  “You’re a little scary,” Joe said.

  Brittany laughed. “I don’t mean to be. I’ve just been taught all this stuff my entire life. It’s normal to me. I talk about it like I would about going to the store to get milk.”

  “Well,” Joe said. “I would love to try to figure out where they are, but I have no idea how to trigger this. It just happens. I have no control.”

  “If we are all strong enough as a unit to help me open the portal to hades, why couldn’t we be strong enough to help Joe trigger a vision?” Kylie asked.

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Alee said.

  “Maybe not,” Joe said, becoming optimistic. “But it’s worth a shot.”

  “Can’t the witches see that?” Alee said.

  “From what Agatha said, I think they can only see through spirits,” Kylie said.

  “I don’t know what the rules are,” Alee said. “But I’d still be careful. We have no idea what, or who we are messing with.”

  Brittany reached forward, placing her hand on Joe’s right shoulder without saying a word. Kylie followed suit, placing her hand on his left shoulder.

  “You really think this will work?” Alee asked, still driving. “Is it safe for us to touch you? I don’t want you pulling me in like last time. We would wreck and die.”

  “Let’s just try it with us, then,” Brittany said. “Close your eyes and focus on the football player. If he has any ties to us at all, you should be able to find him. You probably wouldn’t be able to find a normal human since you can’t control your gift.”

  Joe did as he was asked, closing his eyes and concentrating on the one that he wanted to find. If the girl was correct, they were within a couple hundred miles of them. After a few moments passed, Joe began to feel very tired, dizzy.

  Joe inhaled deeply as he was pulled from himself and into a car. He was sitting in the back seat next to a slumped over boy about his age. The boy had a large build, his arms and chest muscular from working out. His wrists were zip-tied together in the front and the seatbelt seemed to be the only thing holding him back. He was unconscious, but Joe couldn’t tell if it was from exhaustion, or something a bit more nefarious.

  Looking into the front seats, he saw two women; one blonde, and one brunette. As they drove, a sign approached on the right hand side of the road.

  LITTLE ROCK – 50 MILES.

  They were roughly an hour closer than Cass and his friend. They were almost equal distances away from either group.

  “Hello there, Mr. Sawyer,” the brunette said.

  Joe’s eyes darted upward to look into the rearview mirror. He saw the brunette’s dark chocolate eyes staring back at him. He could tell by the slight crinkling in the outer corners that she was smiling.

  “So nice of you to join us.”

  Κεφάλαιο XVII

  SATURDAY EVENING

  Arkansas

  Joe jolted awake, breathing heavily as he did. His phone was ringing. He wondered if that was what woke him, but he didn’t care at that point, as he was very grateful to be out of the other car.

  “Did you see anyth
ing?” Alee asked. “Wait, who is that?”

  Joe looked at his phone. “It’s an unknown number. It might be that girl.”

  He slid the green button across the screen.

  “Hello,” he said, breathing a little heavy. “This is Joe.”

  “Thank God!” the voice on the other side said. “I can’t tell you how many people I called trying to find you. Three unknown numbers. It could have taken forever.”

  “That’s for sure. Luckily they were 056, or you’d have been at it all day. So I’m guessing you called around fifty-five people before getting me,” Joe said.

  “Most didn’t answer,” she responded.

  “Joe,” Alee said. “We need to talk. Put it on speakerphone if that’s the girl.”

  He sent the call to Bluetooth, so the conversation could be made through the car instead of the phone.

  “Hello,” Kylie said. “Welcome to the group.”

  “Hi,” Jess said. “I’m Jess.”

  “I’m Cass,” Cass said. “But it seems that you already knew that. Jess told me what happened when I woke up.”

  “This is the weirdest thing ever,” Alee said. “This doesn’t even make sense anymore.”

  “No it doesn’t,” Joe said. “So to answer everyone’s questions, and to fill the others in a little, I tried to force a vision. It worked. Unlike what just happened with me invading Cass, sorry about that, by the way, I found myself sitting in the car in the back seat. There was a guy slumped over on the other side. He was definitely a bigger guy, so I’m assuming that was your friend. Up front were two women. One was blonde and the other was a brunette. I sat there trying to gather info, which I managed to do. They are fifty miles outside of Little Rock, so they are getting close.”

  “Sounds like we all need to speed up,” Cass said. “We need to catch up to them.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Joe said. “You will. One way or another.”

  “What makes you say that?” Jess asked.

  “They are heading for us. She knew that I was there. She called me out by name. I’m assuming that’s why I woke up so abruptly. She called me Mr. Sawyer and said that it was nice of me to join them, so that’s great. Point is: they are heading for us, Cass. I don’t know why, but they are. I don’t know if they know that you exist. I’m guessing that they do. That also means that they are planning for war. Because there’s no way they expect the two of them to go up against six other people, seven if Darius is able to come around and get involved. They would be insane. That means they plan to use magic, or do something way worse. We have to be careful,” Joe said.

  “What’s the plan?” Cass asked.

  “Stay on the path you’re on. I didn’t get a great look. I couldn’t tell what kind of car it was. All I can tell you is that it had tan leather interior and black exterior, judging by the hood. I only barely made it out. And the steering wheel said that it was a Dodge,” Joe said.

  “Dodge Charger,” Jess said. “That’s what they kidnapped him in, but it was red.”

  “Ha!” Brittany exclaimed.

  Everyone in the truck looked back at her for a moment.

  “Uh… Sorry,” she said.

  “Why is she ha-ing over there?” Cass asked.

  “The witches didn’t waste the time, or power to change the make and model of the vehicle, only the color. Probably the interior, too. I had a feeling that would be the case,” Brittany said.

  “This is unreal,” Jess said.

  “Trust me,” Kylie said. “I know. At the very least, the rest of us were kind of eased into this. Brittany grew up with it, Joe and Alee had a couple of days to process it, and I’ve had about a day adjust. You guys are being thrown right in the middle.”

  “Certainly seems that way. Increase your speed,” Cass said. “So will I. We need to get to them soon.”

  “What are we planning to do when we get there?” Alee asked. “We have no plan.”

  “I’ll work on that,” Brittany said.

  “If you can, call us when you get closer,” Cass said. “We need to make sure that we have a solid plan in place. Thank you. For all of this. It means a lot to have help.”

  “I have a feeling that we will be helping each other out quite a lot,” Joe said.

  “That’s true,” Brittany said. “We still have quite a lot to talk about and catch you up on.”

  Joe told Cass to update them if anything changed, and that they would also drive as fast as possible without risking being pulled over. It had been a while since they’d allowed the gryphon out to stretch, and Joe worried she might be getting hot in the back, being covered up.

  Joe asked Alee to pull over, so that he could check on their precious cargo. After making his way to the bed of the truck, he pulled back the cover, exposing the gryphon and allowing her fresh air.

  The gryphon gave him a sharp look, a quick, short screech coming forth.

  “I’m sorry you’ve been stuck back here,” Joe said. “We think we’ve found the others.”

  She screeched again, nodding violently. She looked angry.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “I wanted to let you know we can’t let you stretch just yet. We have to get there as quickly as possible. That, and I wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything.”

  She screeched again, gesturing wildly with her head.

  “I don’t understand,” Joe said again. “You need something, but I don’t know what.”

  The gryphon let loose a low growl before lifting up and extending her long neck out toward Joe. He jumped a little, but didn’t back away as she once again continued gesturing with her head. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to say ‘no’ with the way her head was moving, or something else. He only understood that she was frustrated.

  The gryphon screeched again before leaning over and bumping his left side hard, pushing him toward the cab of the truck. She stretched again, pushing him a little further.

  “Oh,” Joe said. “You want us to get back on the road?”

  She nodded hard, just once, before plopping back down in the back with a thud, grabbing the cover with her beak and yanking it back over herself.

  Joe climbed back in the front, buckling himself in and closing the door.

  “Well, that was pointless,” Joe said.

  “What happened?” Kylie asked. “Looked like she was yelling at you back there.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. I wanted to stop to check on her and make sure she was ok. Apparently she already knew what was going on, and I think I was just called stupid by a gryphon,” Joe said.

  “I knew I liked that big bird,” Alee said.

  “Ha-ha,” Joe said. “You actually stopped, so it was meant for you, too.”

  “Well, that’s not nearly as funny,” Alee said, smiling.

  She pulled back out onto the road, accelerating to a comfortable speed just above the speed limit. The entire truck fell silent as everyone worried over the potential battle they were driving into.

  All of them teenagers, children for all the world was concerned. Still, they were being given the weight of a burden unlike any other. The days of worrying about football games, who was dating who, sneaking out for a Saturday night party, and friends had disappeared in a single day. Each of them saw their lives abruptly stop, and turn into a direction that was in stark contrast to the one they believed they would lead.

  They were chosen.

  Fated.

  They each fretted over their insecurities, too afraid to speak of them for fear someone else may lose confidence in everything, even though they were all bonded. Not only in their future mission, but in their worries, their abilities, their paths.

  The road ahead, both in literal and metaphorical terms, would be the hardest thing they had ever faced. In those quiet moments they shared, in the calm before the storm, they knew they were preparing for war, and that getting Darius out of the hands of two powerful witches would be their first battle.

  Κ�
�φάλαιο XVIII

  LATE SATURDAY EVENING

  Arkansas

  Joe began to get antsy. Though the sun wasn’t ready to set in Arkansas as it would have been in Indiana, the sky had still been a bit pink behind them. Over the past half-hour, the skies had turned grey and rain began to fall. It was slow at first, but it was beginning to downpour. It had been a while since he’d heard anything out of Cass. Joe and the rest of his group had been parked in Benton for about ten minutes. Not wanting to wait any longer, Joe grabbed his phone and made a quick call to Cass. He allowed it to go over Bluetooth as he had before.

  “Hey!” Cass said. “Where are you guys?”

  “We are actually parked in Benton,” Joe said. “How far out are you guys?”

  “We are about thirty minutes out, I think,” Cass said. There was an audible sigh before he spoke again. “I don’t know if those witches are still on this road, or somewhere else. They might keep going, and we’re going to be stopping in Benton to meet up with you guys. What then? Do we have a plan?”

  Joe was about to speak when he was taken over, his phone falling to the floorboard as blackness engulfed him. He felt exhausted. Over and over again he was pulled into some vision world, the overuse of power exhausting him more and more each time.

  Only a few short moments passed before light filtered in. He looked around, taking in yet another very different view from what he was used to. He wasn’t inside his own body, or in a body at all. Instead, he looked down from a hundred feet or so in the air. It was a very omniscient perspective over all of the life below him. It seemed like he was looking into a virtual reality, somehow controlling a camera from inside of the truck.