Devin breaks the ground free of all moisture and the watery attack rushes the group only to be sizzled out by the flames of some. I feel the green springing forth as the clouds rumble again, and the rain falls to aide Devin's need for water.
The air spins around us, and I feel the strangling effects as it materializes into a choking hand. I pull the wind to fight the air and free myself from the suffocating clutches.
When my attempts to free myself fail, I decide to detain her by giving her something to chase after. More spiraling death whirls drop free from the sky at my behest, and she quickly begins trying to slice through them.
These are stronger though. The bitches within me are finally working together.
My eyes glow white as Asteria takes her turn against the monsters on the other side, and the winds form a massive collection of cyclones to give way to a beastly storm.
Safina's eyes grow wide in disbelief.
"Asteria. Impossible," she blares.
"She's the one," another whispers almost too quietly to hear.
I smirk at the secret she didn't know I had as the others continue their attacks. Camara whirls her fans through the air, and I give them a momentum boost as the winds guide them through the hoard of Athena bitches.
Slicing connections and piercing screams rattle through the air as the successful launch continues on its path.
I deny the conductor any more lightning, but I offer him a chance to ride on my swirling doomsday device as the hands of my winds jerk him into the storm.
The air bitch is keeping the others back, but she can't stop this one.
Another beast brews beside them, and Safina is pissed when she sees she wasn't as prepared for me as she thought.
"Why didn't I fucking know she carried Asteria with her?" she screams to a guy.
I'm smirking at my victorious success, but then Camara drops to the ground beside me, and I see the ashes running from her lifeless body.
No!
Deacon yells for her and loses concentration, opening him up to a blazing flame. Devin turns to deflect it, but it connects with Deacon before the ripple reaches it.
I scream as Deacon falls to the ground beside his love, his eyes glazed over and devoid of any animation.
Devin turns to Theia and yells, "Get out of here!"
"No!" she screams. "I won't leave you!"
"You have to. We're going to need you to undo this. Go now before it's too late," he pleads.
Vines surge through the air and bring her to her knees. Gemma starts untangling them as Devin spins my rain at her attackers.
They have so many versus our so few. We weren't prepared for this, but they've planned this down to the last detail - with the exception of my Asteria I can't properly use yet.
Gemma's eyes fall flat, devoid of any life, as she drops to her knees with a blade stuck in her back. Her parents scream, but they're stuck in the thick of the fight, unable to reach their daughter.
Kry and Ther face off with the front line as they send their own attacks, but it's proving more and more ineffective against the fully ready counters devised for all of us.
Devin and Phillip rush to free Theia, and suddenly I feel the vines wrapping around me, jerking me to the ground.
I fight against them, but I can't move. I scream in agony as they squeeze against my waist, and Devin turns to see me bound by the green beasts.
"Adisia!"
He starts racing toward me, but the vines suck him down as well.
"No!" I cry helplessly as I watch him struggle in vain.
Phillip is next as the army of green seizes him completely. Ava struggles to free us, but she's met with the ashes from Safina as the life is sucked out of her.
Her husband screams as he watches her fall to the ground, and the ashes consume him as well. Kry and Ther begin slicing through the vines entangling Devin, and Hale fights against the army alone.
Safina whirls her ashes at me, but Hale dives in front of them. I scream as he collapses to the ground - dying in my place. His body shrivels to dust in front of my eyes.
Everyone is crumbling, and Ther and Kry are no exception. I scream with Devin as the life is pulled from them by the hands of two Athenians, and they collapse to the ground.
The chaos stops as the only ones left stirring are the ones in control. Those of us not who aren't dead are bound - our lives resting in the hands of the devils in front of us. The harsh breaths laced with triumph fall through their lips effortlessly as I gasp for each breath that finds my lungs.
Safina walks in front of me, her strut casual and confident, as she glides across her battlefield. She smirks as she stares down her nose at me - her fucking crazy eyes swirling their menace and their malevolent glow.
"It's funny how differently this could have gone. Asteria has apparently lost her touch," Safina mocks.
I can feel the white and green both sparking within me, doing their best to work together and find a way out of this.
She grabs Devin's chin and jerks his eyes up to meet hers, making my heart slap my chest on its way to my throat.
"You've been a pain in my ass. Those seeing eyes have caused me a lot of hard work. It's nice to know they'll soon be closed forever," she snarls.
"No! Please no," I cry.
"Take me. You want me, not my son," Theia begs.
Phillip still struggles, but suddenly he's gasping for air, and Theia cries harder.
"Please take me," she whimpers.
"Oh I'll make sure you get what's coming to you. For now, just sit tight," Safina snarks.
The strength of her full blood titan self is somehow summoned, and Theia suddenly breaks free from the restraints to charges at Safina while releasing her ripple.
Safina flies through the air and against the SUV where my brother had been. The car rolls across the road several times, and lands completely smashed.
I scream as I see the impossible to escape deathtrap that has just taken my brother's life.
"No!"
Tears overwhelm me as Theia is restrained once more. Her neck snaps, and Phillip is laid to rest when he almost frees himself.
Devin's eyes show his undeniable pain and fear, his eyes dripping from loss and terror, as he tries to free himself and reach me. There's no hope now. Theia's dead. There can't be a rewind. This is it.
Safina yells, "No! The titan was supposed to be last, you idiot!"
She flings the ashes toward the disobedient vine-holder, and the girl drops to the ground. I sob uncontrollably as I stare at Devin, knowing this is the last time I'll ever see him.
"I'm sorry," he breathes.
Safina rips his head backwards, forcing his eyes to stare into hers once more.
"This is all your fault," she yells to him, but then looks to me. "If you hadn't come into the picture this would have gone according to plan," she scolds.
What? She's won. What has gone wrong?
"Please let him go," I sob.
She smiles at me as the poison from the vine starts being released into my body. The deadly, excruciating burn flames against my skin as it slithers through my blood. I see the veins in my body turning as black as her heart as it steals my life with its slow, tormenting creep.
"No! Adisia, no!" Devin pleads as he continues his useless struggle against the vine prison.
I cry harder as the burn weakens me, dragging the breaths from my lungs.
"I want you to see something before you completely fade into the darkness of Athena's wrath," Safina murmurs with an eerie promise.
She bends down to Devin's mouth, and her dark lips cover his soft ones.
I scream loud enough to deafen the air as Devin squirms violently under her touch. The ashes release into his mouth as she draws back, and malice sparks proudly in her eyes.
His eyes slowly start to lose their swirling life, and they fade to be duller and duller until his spark is completely gone.
No! No! No! Please, God, no!
The tears flow vigoro
usly in disbelief as he falls to the ground, and I fall forward to expel everything from my stomach as the sickness and loss overtake me.
My piercing shrieks rattle the ground below us as I feel every wall for miles around breaking under the strain.
She laughs mercilessly at my screaming agony, and the vines around me suddenly shatter as the white and green form in unison within my eyes.
A new voice falls through my lips as my mind spirals into the shadows of the great goddesses within. I surrender it all - giving them compete control when I have no reason left to fight and no will left to live.
"You stupid fool. You have no idea what you've just done," my new voice says - Asteria's voice.
My feeble mind does nothing but drown in its misery for the loss of my love, and Aphrodite joins the conversation.
"You shouldn't have killed him. You shouldn't have come out of your tomb," Aphrodite mocks, menace drenching every syllable in her words.
I feel a power stirring vigorously as the air around me is sucked clean of the oxygen and the Athena warriors loose their power without it. Their plants die as they sink to the ground, ashing over to nothing, and the men's glasses shatter from their faces.
"Kill the rest," Aphrodite's voice says to the men now under her spell.
They do as instructed and turn on the women. Screams erupt as powers collide, and their army becomes mine.
Safina stumbles backwards with her mouth gaped open as the powerful women within me stalk toward her.
She scrambles to deliver her ash attack, but the ashes never reach my possessed body. They fly back into her mouth, and I can feel the power surging through me as it intoxicates both goddesses ruling me.
Light surrounds me suddenly, and blinding explosions erupt from me, leveling everything in front of me until I stand alone with the embers sparking on their way down.
The air is almost black, and Safina's body wastes away in front of my eyes. She now looks no different than the ashes she once cast into my love's mouth.
The once green, lively world is shattered along with everything in it, and I'm completely alone to stare at my apocalypse. Life has been drained from the planet and my eyes burn as more power radiates outward to light the blackened sky.
I drop to my knees in front of the place where Devin once lay as the goddesses subside suddenly, forcing me back in the driver's seat of my body.
I sob wildly into my hands that are stained with too many deaths to count. The poison hasn't lost its affect, it was merely temporarily restrained.
I feel the weakening effects and the power of death's promise pulling the air from my lungs again. Tears flow down my paralyzed cheeks as I stay frozen awake for the moment.
I stare at the dead sky I've created, and my mind begins working in reverse as memories of everything Devin and I have done together form a melody and sing me to sleep.
Each tear represents a day with him, and each stab of pain represents a day lost. I feel the ground beneath me spinning, and there's some radiant power flowing from me again, but I don't know what.
I'm dizzy while lying perfectly still, and the earth trembles beneath me to retract its deadly news as the backward force of the air whips around me. The darkness consumes me as I gasp for my last breath, and I stare at Devin's resting place, though his body is no longer there.
The grass turns green as the scenes around me change back to what they once were, but I can't watch any longer. My last tear falls, followed by the last exhaled breath that evades my lips.
I’m so weak and...and...
Reliving the Storm
I wake up with a pounding headache. It feels as though I've consumed an entire bottle of vodka, but I barely had a glass of wine last night.
"Adisia!" Clara squeals as she dives onto the bed and falls beside me. I laugh a little at her excitement despite the vicious hammering inside my head. "Can you believe I'm getting married in just a few more days?" she giggles out in her shrill pitch.
I laugh again as I sit up to meet her eyes. I feel a sharp pain against my heart, but I don't know what's wrong. I feel like something is missing - like there's a void in me that wasn't there yesterday.
"What's wrong?" she prompts, her eyes gauging mine with concern falling across her soft face.
I shake my head as I try to compose the slight panic attack I can't explain.
"I don't know," I murmur as I stare into the mirror at the blue eyes hiding secrets I should know.
End of Book one. Book two, Daughter of Asteria. Available now on Kindle.
Currently, I have nine published books, and I'm in the process of releasing more. For more information on my other romances, "like" my author page - C.M. Owens. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I love feedback.
Thank you so much for reading Daughter of Aphrodite.
Thank you so much to all of my facebook fans. You guys are incredible.
Thank you to my sister, Tonya. You're the reason I gathered the courage to publish my first book. I love you.
Thank you to my other sister, Danielle. I love you.
Thank you, Daddy. Your belief in me has always given me strength.
We’ve reached the end and it was great having you. Thanks for coming along and reading each character’s story. I hoped you enjoyed the stories as much as we enjoyed writing them.
Immortal Dreams Page 83