by Meg Xuemei X
The mortals and immortals around us widened their eyes and dropped their jaws. They never thought there’d be a day when the Olympian goddesses would fight among them.
“Hi, Cass,” some goddesses greeted, and some nodded at me.
“Thanks for coming,” I said, flashing them a warm grin before wheeling toward the Goddess of Plants and Fertility. “Uh, what weapon will you use, Demeter?”
She was like a farmer, I assumed. There was never a record of her using a weapon.
Two handfuls of wheat mixed with dirt formed in her palms, rising into the air and swirling faster and faster.
“Good,” I said in approval. “Toss them into your opponents’ eyes when you get close to them.” I grinned wickedly. “Damn, it’ll hurt.”
She nodded, her gray eyes all ice and steel. “That’s what I plan to do, but I don’t need to get close to them to do that. And Poseidon is mine to destroy.”
Alaric once told me about Demeter’s story at my urging. In her desperation to escape the sea god’s pursuit, Demeter had changed into a horse, but the asshole had shifted into a stallion, overpowered Demeter, and then raped her. None of the gods had ever helped her.
“That motherfucker is yours,” I said. “Take him down by the balls.”
The fucking sea god had flooded Lorcan’s city and destroyed many innocent lives.
Reys and Pyrder stalked toward us. Alaric still didn’t like any gods or goddesses (except me, of course), even though the goddesses were on our side. He eyed them suspiciously while he kept his distance from them in case he lost his cool.
“We need to rearrange the battle squares,” Reys said. “We’ll place the combat goddesses in front of every mortal troop.”
The mortal generals all nodded their agreement and looked noticeably relieved.
“The goddesses you’ve got on your side are trash,” Athena snickered. “Just like you, Cassandra Saélihn. You don’t stand a chance.” She thrust a hand forward toward the Earth army beneath the bridge, and her clear, powerful voice reached every corner. “What do you say, my Earth people? Your ancestors once worshiped me and built me shrines. Will you follow your ancestors’ footsteps and pay me respect so I’ll continue protecting you? Will you give up Cassandra Saélihn and get your treaty? War or peace? Your choice.”
“There’s only one goddess for Earth,” Amber shouted through a microphone. Damn, where did the pip get hold of the device? “And that is Cass Saélihn! And I’m Earth’s seer. I’ve foreseen Earth’s victory! To victory! To war!”
Hephaestus gazed down at her, full of pride, and bellowed, “To war! The victory is Earth’s.”
“Hephaestus,” I shouted. “Get her under the terrace!”
Amber was not trained in battle, though she had the heart of a warrior. I didn’t want to lose my best friend. Hephaestus nodded and dove into persuading Amber to leave her post and move to safety on the edge of Hell, guarded by Hades’s force.
“To war!” the army shouted as one.
“We’ll never kneel. We’ll never bow to the alien gods!” someone shouted, and the army echoed the cry.
“Never surrender!”
“The true Earth Goddess’s mates—High Lord of Night, Princes of Sihde, and King of Hybrids, the Earth’s true defenders for eons—will lead you once again and drive out the alien invaders!”
The earthling army roared, “To war!”
They stood with my mates and me.
CHAPTER 18
Athena untied her white cloak, dropped it on the bridge, and stomped on it, discarding the symbol of peace.
“So be it,” she said, her voice hard as ice. “You’ve chosen your doom, earthlings.”
“Unworthy Earth worms,” the God of War snarled. “We’ll put your little goddess on a spike, and then we’ll burn all of you. Before the end of this day, not a single one of you will stand.”
I flipped him the bird with two hands, and his eyes glowed red with rage. None of the gods knew how to take insults with grace and good humor. Well, they’d have to learn to adapt or perish. I voted for perish.
They’d come to the modern Earth.
“You’re right, brother,” Athena said. “She’s indeed the rudest brat.”
She raised her spear into the clouds, calling for war.
Thunder rolled across the horizon.
Fireballs appeared out of nowhere and exploded, burning half of the sky.
But my mass of darkness had spread out, covering the entirety of New York, shielding the city. Reys pushed his newly gained dark fire up to enhance my shield again.
My mates were a quick study. As Lorcan had said, they were war lords with eons of battling experience.
“Hades!” I shouted. “Are you with me?”
“I’m with you, daughter,” Hades said. “Go get them.”
“Shield my people!” I yelled, and Hades’s darkness joined mine, weaving a stronger shield.
Somewhere in the middle of the city, horns blew, full of solemnity and unity. The whole city tensed like a bow, ready to release arrows.
My mates and I stood at the frontline. Reys remained by my side to guard me.
The army hadn’t retreated an inch, yet fear and anxiety were thick in the air. They couldn’t help it.
I levitated into the sky and turned, letting the generals and soldiers, mortals and immortals see my face—the goddess’s face, full of clarity, purpose, and a will of hardest steel.
Then I let my power whip around me like a windstorm, flames of black, blue, and red ablaze in my hair. My two-toned eyes glowed violet and gold.
“Courage!” I shouted, my voice reaching every corner of the city, my every word dripping with power, and all eyes fixed on me with utter awe. I could feel their fear dissipating as their bravery, their determination to protect the land, and their rage at the alien gods worked to recharge their spirits. That was quite good. “My people, my chil—” I swallowed the rest of the word just in time. Shit, I shouldn’t call them children. I doubted they’d be thrilled to be called children by me, since every warrior was older than me in human time. That was just Earth Goddess talk from my genetic memory.
My mates might be cracking up now. I turned to peek at them. They weren’t laughing. They nodded at me in pride, their eyes of different shades and colors glowing just like mine, their powers crackling in the air, ready to be unleashed on our enemies.
“Well,” I continued, barking louder to make up for the anticlimactic moment due to my stutter. “I’m with you! I’m Cass Saélihn. Today I’m with you. And today we fight! We guard our home, our land, our cities, and our Earth. No one will take from us what is ours! And we don’t allow trespassers. The alien gods aren’t welcome!”
The army shouted as one. “The alien gods aren’t welcome! We don’t allow trespassers!”
“So we fight them today!” I roared. I was glad that my voice sounded powerful instead of high-pitched as I’d been worried it would. “We’ll defeat them. Many of us may perish, but we die free instead of in chains and in cages. We die to protect our home planet. Those who survive will carry the torch and tell the children of our children of this day, that we fought and won their freedom for them. We won’t be forgotten. We’ll be remembered in history. I’ll remember you. I’ll remember you all. Are you with me?!”
My mates roared in agreement.
The army bellowed, led by the good shifters, “Where you go, we follow!”
War horns blared again, and drumbeats rose from somewhere.
The gods flung their collective powers down at the army, battering my shield. Straining pressure increased inside me, churning my insides. If they kept at it, my shield would finally break, and our army would scatter under the enemy’s brutal show of force.
We’d be defeated before we’d even started.
The only way out of this was to turn defense into offense.
I must take the fight to their homeland and let them focus on me.
I eyed the bridge of jade—th
e path between two worlds—and shouted for my companions to give me space. They immediately did.
With a roar, I shifted into a dragon, my scaled snout pouring fire toward the Olympian gods.
They jumped back from the front of the bridge and cursed in Olympian tongue. My offense worked. They stopped hammering on my shield and trained their sole focus on the dragon.
People were fascinated by dragons, even the gods.
Athena, Ares, and Apollo raised their shields to block my fire. I’d have a word with the God of Blacksmiths for making such effective shields for my opponents, if I survived this.
Poseidon surged his endless ocean current to douse my waves of fire.
I needed to get closer to them, so my fire would burn hotter. First I needed to ascend higher, then dive.
I flapped my massive blue wings and soared. I flew so fast that I was staring down at the gods now. They were all giants by the earthlings’ standards, but compared to my dragon form, they were puny.
I could swallow the lot of them and chew their bones.
The gods raised their spears, swords, and shields, awaiting my next attack. They didn’t look panicked. Instead, the major Olympian fighters posed like fucking dragon slayers as they spoke amongst themselves.
“I didn’t expect that ignorant, immature brat to be good at public speaking,” Ares grunted. “She even beat our house speaker.”
Athena looked offended and enraged.
What a sore loser!
“In fact, she was quite good at it when she put her mind to it,” Apollo said. “She made an excellent speech when I had my mages throw ice storms and hail at her, too. She performs best when she’s pissed. The foul-mouthed brat has street smarts.”
“I’m going to cut her fucking dragon head off and decorate my wall with it,” Ares vowed, as if it were a done deal.
“Can we make a compromise, Ares?” Apollo said. “It’s such a waste to slay the most powerful goddess.”
“She killed my son!” Ares roared.
“Well, if your dickhead sons hadn’t shown up to torture her and beat her to within an inch of her life, she wouldn’t have transformed and gotten away,” Apollo said. “And things would be different. Do you realize how hard it was for me to acquire her in the first place?”
Ares turned to glare at Apollo, eyes glowing murderously red.
Apollo raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. Fine. Take her head then. But you’ll be the one to fight her, and I’ll serve as backup.”
“I have your six, brother,” Athena said, training her spear toward me, thunderbolts twirling around the spearhead. She was waiting for me to get closer before making a strike.
A genetic dragon memory flashed before my eyes. The Olympian gods had all fought the dragons before. Though neither side had won, the Olympians were experienced with battling dragons.
On the other hand, I was a dragon in training.
I didn’t exactly know how to fight effectively in this form other than spitting white-hot fire and swinging my wings and claws at my opponents.
The prophecy didn’t say I would kill the gods with my dragon fire.
The only weapon that could kill them was the Blade of Five Elements. I looked scary as a dragon and the earthling army cheered for me, but I was actually at a disadvantage in my beast form fighting a bunch of gods on the bridge.
I couldn’t take them down with blunt force.
I had to fight dirty, go sneaky, and stab them in the back with my elemental blade.
In my Cass form, I had more magic.
I shifted in the air and landed in a crouch on the gods’ bridge.
To my great relief and satisfaction, I wasn’t naked this time.
I was clad in red leather with my tight top, pants, and boots hugging me like a second skin. I looked badass, even without my dragon spitting a long stream of fire.
And I didn’t face my enemies alone.
My mates alighted right beside and around me. They’d teleported here. I didn’t dare to turn to grin at them since the murderous gods stood right before us, wanting to cut us down.
My mates growled at me, but their eyes were fixed solely on our foes.
They’d shouted for me to wait, but I’d still taken off as a dragon. I felt guilty for making them so worried and scared for me.
They hated it when I was reckless, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t a team player. I just didn’t have time to play it nice and slow when war was bearing down on us.
They could spank me all they wanted when this was over, if I survived.
“Hello, miss me?” I purred, facing the God of War, the Goddess of War, the God of the Sun, and the God of the Sea in the first row.
My mates snarled in warning. I rolled my eyes.
“Mates,” I said. “I wasn’t flirting with them. That will never happen. Ever. They aren’t my type, not even close. Couldn’t you hear the irony in my tone?”
“Even so, we don’t like you purring to anyone outside the circle of your mates,” Pyrder said firmly.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll just be less interesting then.”
Really, were we having a lovers’ quarrel while the gods were so ready and keen to charge us and cut us to ribbons?
“You need not worry about appearing interesting when you deal with anyone except for your mates, dulcis,” Lorcan said.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll start over with a new opening then.” I waved a hand at the gods. “Hello!” My voice was harsh. “God of Number One Asshole, Goddess of Bitch Injustice, God of Unregistered Rapist, and God of Douchebag Kidnapper, who else do we have here?”
The four mighty gods looked more than enraged, and the rest of the gods appeared stunned and perplexed at their elite peers’ new titles. But a roar of laughter from beneath the bridge broke the silence.
Hades was the only one who was having fun. He loved war even more than Ares, for he could harvest a truckload of souls and cash in on everyone’s misery.
“You’re the most intolerable creature that ever existed,” Athena said, then turned to Ares with an order. “Tear her to pieces, brother, and then feed her to the wild dogs. I can’t stand the sight of her.”
“Maybe you should let Medusa look at you instead, cunt,” I said.
The gods were all shocked to silence.
“Right, bitches,” I said. “I, Cassandra Saélihn, speak for those who have no voice and defend those who can’t defend themselves. So, I ask all of you, one last time, politely: Kindly get the fuck out of my realm right now and go home to wipe your own asses, and I might just let you live.”
The gods bellowed in fury. I shrugged. They were determined to erase us and see Earth in flames, so it didn’t hurt to add fuel to the fire and rile them up even more.
Athena’s face burned in purple rage. She raised her spear and thrust it toward me, but Lorcan intercepted her strike. His flaming sword slammed into her spearhead, and his blue fire locked into the lightning bolts she shot at me.
“Dare you fight me, vampire!” Athena hissed.
Lorcan bared his teeth. “Dare you try to lay your dirty hand on my mate!”
He wouldn’t call her bitch or something worse like cunt. The High Lord of Night was too classy to curse. He wasn’t good at throwing insults, either, unlike me. He didn’t have the habit of threatening his opponents. He just went ahead and slew them.
They lunged at each other again and engaged in combat. Athena thrust her spear and Lorcan swung his sword.
Alaric crossed his blade with the God of War, though they had no problem calling each other the worst names. They slashed and parried and jabbed, each desperately trying to outmaneuver the other.
“I’ll take your whore of a mate after I’m done with you, my bastard brother,” Ares sneered. “I’ll rape her corpse over and over.”
“You’ll never get the fucking chance, no brother of mine,” Alaric said. “Because I’ll cut your pathetic dick off. It stung, didn’t it, Ares, to be rejected
and spat at by my mate over and over?”
Ares roared in rage, his nostrils flaring, yet he couldn’t spit fire, unlike me.
“Give up, Alaric mate. You can’t teach the pampered little shit how to be a real man.” I shouted a snide comment. “It’s not in him, no matter how much gold he’s willing to pay in his attempt to be a man.”
Ares threw all he had into one strike, and his explosive strength sent Alaric flying backwards. The God of War made his way toward me. I didn’t flee but beckoned him to come get me with a twitch of two fingers, which enraged him even further. I stood firm, my other hand gripping the Blade of Five Elements.
I hadn’t wasted my element of surprise on a minor god. I’d decided to target one of the powerful four first. I’d been seeking openings while I kept tossing fire at the second-tier gods to push them back or burn them.
They had all raised shields and thrown their offensive powers at my mates and me, attempting to overwhelm us with numbers.
Alaric cut in between Ares and me before the war god reached me. My demigod mate could match Ares’s speed. He knew that Ares’s talent was his incredible velocity.
“Don’t even try,” Alaric said. “You’ll never get near my woman.”
“Thanks, baby,” I said.
“Baby? Really? Now you’ve got nicknames for us?” Alaric chuckled while swinging his sword to block Ares’s spear, his boot kicking the war god in the stomach. He instantly followed up with his blade, sending it sailing toward his opponent’s neck. Ares ducked swiftly, bellowing like an animal, and charged Alaric like a bulldog.
“Quit making such annoying noises, Ares,” I barked.
“I’ll cage you. I’ll make you bear my children. And then I’ll break you apart piece by piece,” Ares yelled. He had a lot of rage and hatred issues.
“Right, keep vomiting up pretty words you can’t keep, impotent douchebag,” I said with a yawn. “You bore me.”
I ignored his incensed curses as I pushed my fires forward to keep the gods in the second row at bay while keenly watching for any opening to stab a major god in the back with the Blade of Five Elements.