Apollo's Protection

by Anna Edwards

  “I don’t want to leave him.” I press another kiss to Apollo’s lips. They’re cold now, his skin pallid. “Please.” The sob is ripped from my mouth, and I can’t stop the tears falling again. “What have we done Fontus? He came here to save us, and we ended up killing him. We should have left the island when we had a chance. He had no powers, but he stayed by our side. I don’t understand it all. Why? Why has this happened? Why is Pluto doing all these terrible things?”

  Tears are streaming down my face now. This is not a pretty cry—it’s an ugly one. I’m broken, and I don’t know how to carry on or to survive any longer. It’s only been a few days, but in that time I’ve been raped, beaten, watched Fontus nearly die, and now I’ve lost Apollo. Am I such a bad person that I deserve all of this? I just want to rewind time and be back on the beach, collecting shells before I was taken. I don’t think I can go on any longer. “Maybe we should just return to the house and do what Pluto wants of us? Coventina said Apollo had his powers. He just didn’t know it. If he had them, though, he’d still be alive. Nobody on this island tells the truth. We were doomed the moment we set foot on it.”

  Fontus opens his mouth to argue with me, but no words come out. He’s as broken as I am. His leg is now wounded, one of many injuries he’s suffered on the island, and his rough treatment at the hands of Ambrose still weighs heavily on him.

  “Let’s stay here a little longer.” He pulls me closer. We both lay there watching Apollo’s body, willing it to move and hoping for a miracle to happen.

  Eventually, I crawl forward and lay next to him. Fontus does the same on the other side. We wrap our arms around his cold body, and I allow my tears to fall onto his ivory skin.

  “Please, don’t let it be,” I whisper against his chest. “Please, don’t leave us.”

  My watery tears trickle down his chest, still covered in the green plant, the wounds no longer bleeding. One is directly above his heart. With my newly enhanced powers of control over water, I move my tears to form a heart shape over his no longer beating one. Fontus watches as his own tears fall.

  “Our god of music, the sun, and healing. The world will be a duller place without you,” I cry.

  A blast of light shines in through a gap in the ceiling of the cave. It lands straight on the heart and illuminates the water, making it glow. All of a sudden, I’m blasted by the light. It infiltrates my body, flooding all my pores with a surge of power I’ve never felt before.

  “Fontus,” I call warily as I’m lifted off the ground. “What is this?”

  He makes a grab for me, but the second he touches me, he starts to glow as well.

  “Eva!” he shouts.

  I can see him, but I can’t stop what’s happening to me. I’m rising higher and higher. Eventually, Fontus has to let go of me. When he drops back to the ground, my eyes go wide. All his wounds have healed. He looks completely healthy like he used to before he arrived on the island.

  “I healed you,” I spit out in disbelief.

  He looks down at his body and to where the spiked gill of the leviathan was shot into his leg. There isn’t even a scar showing now.

  “What’s causing this?” I’m scared. I can’t control what’s happening to my body.

  “I don’t know.” Fontus shakes his head. He looks just as worried as I am. He tries to reach for me again but is pushed back. Music suddenly fills the cave. Sensual and seductive, it fills me with a strange happiness. “Pluto must be doing something. Maybe he sensed your water powers. Fight it, Eva.”

  I’m high in the air now, and I feel content. I’m sure this isn’t dark magic. It’s coming from the light.

  “It feels too good to fight,” I tell Fontus.

  “Eva, please. It’ll be Pluto.” He’s racing up the steps to the upper levels of the cave to be nearer to me. “Fight it.”

  “Nothing that feels this good can be bad. Don’t you see … music, healing?” I look up at the sun, and it bathes the entire cave in a warm light. “It’s Apollo, his powers.”

  “Eva!” Fontus shouts at me, but I can’t go to him. The thought of Apollo sends me flying forward through space.

  I want to find him. The words are spoken in my head. I know this feeling. I’m teleporting. My father has helped me do it several times. I’m leaving the island behind. Apollo must still be alive somewhere if I’m leaving it. I just have to find him. “I’ll be ok, stay safe. I’ll return,” I shout back toward Fontus, not knowing whether he’ll hear me or not. All I know is there is warmth flooding my heart, and I have to go to its source.

  When everything clears, I’m standing in a room full of masks and colorful beads on the walls. Two women stand in front of me with their mouths wide open. One with vibrant red hair is wearing a blue summer dress, and the other with blonde hair is dressed more casually in combat pants and a green t-shirt. I feel familiarity with the second, despite the fact she’s glaring at me like she wants me dead for interrupting whatever conversation the two are having. I look around the room. Apollo’s here. I can feel him, but I can’t see him.

  “Apollo?” I question nobody in particular. Maybe he’s been projected into the body of one of these women? Possibly the second one who’s now baring down on me with lips pursed. She wraps her hands around my neck and pushes me back against the wall.

  “Where is my brother?” the woman asks, and it’s then I recognize and remember her from previous meetings. She’s Diana, Apollo’s twin. Whatever power I have inside me has brought me to the closest living soul matched to Apollo’s, and not the man himself. My entire body deflates, and my heart breaks for a second time that day.

  “He’s gone.” I allow a single tear to drop down my cheek.

  Diana releases me and steps backward.

  “No, I would know. I felt pain, but I still feel him. He’s alive.”

  I shake my head.

  “I’ve just left him in a cave on Pluto’s island. He wasn’t breathing.”

  “Where? Show me.” She’s desperate to get to him, but I can’t risk taking her to the island. My powers are completely unbound there now, but hers aren’t. She’ll be powerless.

  “I can’t. It’s too risky. We need to go to Jupiter and tell him.” I start for the door, but she stops me.

  “Who are you?” Diana asks.

  “Eva, a demigoddess and the daughter of Neptune. We have met before.”

  “A demigoddess, yet you can teleport?” Suspicion laces the tone of Diana’s words.

  “I seem to have acquired Apollo’s powers.” I don’t understand how I have these abilities, but if they will allow me to put a stop to what is happening on the island and save Fontus and by some miracle Apollo, then I’ll do whatever it takes. “Please, I don’t understand what’s happening, but I love your brother. I’ve lost him, and I’m broken. He wanted the people of the island saved, and I want to do it for him.”

  “He’s gone.” Diana places her hand over her heart. Her own emotions erupting in a painful cry of loss. I want to comfort her, but I can’t. I’ll break again if I allow my path to be swayed from stopping Pluto.

  The other lady, Selene, has been standing silently in the corner of the room during the entire conversation.

  “The spirits told me this would happen. The island’s so cold … magical. A creature created out of three different types attacked. Apollo thought himself invincible, foolish man. He died saving you and another.” She stumbles over to a chair, the weight of what she’s seen, leaving her weak.

  “Fontus.” I give Selene my other lover’s name.

  “A triangle of lovers. But Apollo feared to touch you because of the evil things you’ve had forced on you.” I don’t know who or what Selene is, but she knows so much.

  “Lovers?” Diana interrupts.

  “Please,” I beg. I need to go to Jupiter.

  Selene’s eyes roll back in her head. She’s seeing something else.

  “What’s happening?” Diana asks.

  “Eva, I love you. I’m here.
” Selene’s words have me taking a step backward. “Use my powers to rescue the children and Fontus. Live and love with him for the three of us.”

  “Apollo?” I question.

  “I’m here in this room. I’ve not passed over. There may be a chance for me, but I don’t know how, yet. Your strength allowed me to possess Selene. Diana, go to Jupiter. He’ll know what to do.”

  “Apollo.” I can barely speak. I’m so confused, elated, devastated—I don’t really know what to feel at the moment, “Please, come back to me … to us. We need you.”

  “I don’t know my path, or where this spirit world’s taking me. I’ll be with you and Fontus always. Finish what we started. You have the strength. It’s always been inside you.”

  “I can’t do it without you. Please, Apollo. How can we save you?”

  “There is a way. I need to seek the truth of it though. The island brought us together before it destroyed us—it can rebuild everything we have. It’s magical for a reason. The source of its life is the key.”

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know myself. Coventina was right. I always had my powers. I just didn’t know it.”

  “Apollo, you aren’t making sense. Explain more?”

  Silence.

  Nothing.

  “Apollo?” I reach out and touch Selene’s hand. “Please.”

  Her eyes return to normal, and she gasps for air.

  “That was extraordinary. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

  “Apollo?” I question again, hoping he’ll come back.

  “He’s gone,” Selene informs me.

  “Gone?” Diana pushes me aside desperate to find out where her brother is. “Gone where?”

  Selene shuts her eyes.

  “Back to the island. He wants you to return there as well.”

  Returning from the lake, I drip fresh water onto the vibrant green leaves still covering the lacerations on Apollo’s naked chest. The wounds still gape open, his lifeless form unmoving. Sitting beside him, I hold his hand and wait patiently for Eva’s return. I trust her, but I hope she’s safe. Whatever was happening, she was confident it would help us in some way.

  Eva suddenly materializes out of nowhere. Her bedsheet clothing’s now replaced with a pretty green cotton summer dress and a pair of flat leather sandals.

  “What happened? Where have you been?” I demand, relief coursing through me at the sight of her.

  “I found Apollo’s sister, Diana. She’s going to tell Jupiter and my father where we are. An oracle named Selene gave me a change of clothes before I returned.”

  “Does this mean you can teleport now? What about Apollo?”

  Her expression drops into one of sadness. “Having teleported me, I felt his power ebb as I reformed. He ... he spoke to me. He’s in the spirit world and doesn’t know if he can ever return to us. He said to finish what we started and save the children.”

  Before my heart can break for a second time, the power that had previously engulfed Eva swells up again. Gasping, the light hits both of us with the force of a tidal wave. The energy is immense. Divine. It encircles my being in warmth and a tranquility I’ve only ever experienced when basking in the sun. Entwining around us, it pulls us closer to Apollo’s body.

  Eva’s small searching hand finds my bare chest.

  We meet halfway, lips touching. Cupping her cheek in one hand, I taste her sorrow in our kiss. It isn’t the magic of the island causing this. I feel it in my bones, and in my soul.

  Whatever has us in its grip is purer … stronger.

  Eva’s tongue dances into my mouth, and the kiss deepens. Mindlessly, we cling to each other, still snuggling against our missing piece. The man I love. Whom I know Eva loves too even though she hasn’t voiced it. I’ve seen the way she looks at him … the way she looks at both of us. What’s between the three of us is more powerful than words. I fear without Apollo it might tear us apart forever.

  “Fontus,” she moans softly against my lips.

  The power around us hums. It’s not lustful like the enchantment back at the house, but it’s just as potent in its sweetness. A combination of air, earth, water, and fire—this cavern amplifies the elements.

  Fisting her hair, I swallow her breath on a rough kiss. The sunlight blazes brighter, becoming liquid heat around us, yet it doesn’t burn. It cleanses our bodies. My hand moves to Eva’s breast, and I fondle it through the material, finding the peak already hard and straining. There’s no thought of worrying about Nalos walking in and catching us.

  Eva’s fingers tangle in my hair, and breaking the kiss, she brings my head down to her breast. I don’t even hesitate. Pushing the cotton aside, I suck her nipple into my mouth. She mewls and clenches my hair in her grip. Urgency drives me. Shoving my hand between her thighs, I find her pussy and tease it into excitement. Once she’s wet enough, I thrust a finger inside her. Eva gyrates, fucking my finger as she reaches for the top of my shorts. Shoving them down over my ass with my free hand, I give her access to my steel hard cock.

  This is madness.

  We’re mourning and shouldn’t be doing this, but we just can’t stop ourselves. I know the desperation written over her face mirrors my own. We’re practically writhing on top of Apollo’s corpse.

  Curling her fingers around me, she pumps my length with her palm, smearing the pre-cum over the tip. Our moans and groans mingle with the sound of the waterfall still thundering into the lake while its waters lap gently at the bank. The music of nature. Of love.

  The energy builds in its potency, higher and higher.

  Taking Eva’s other nipple into my mouth, I graze it with my teeth, making her cry out.

  A sharp intake of breath startles both of us.

  My attention jerking down, I see Apollo’s chest rising and falling with no sign of the slash marks evident on his flesh. His skin is flushed, no longer pale and lifeless.

  “He’s alive! Apollo?”

  He doesn’t respond to Eva’s hopeful call as her hand slips from my cock to touch his shoulder attentively.

  Raising my head, I kiss his mouth lingeringly. “Apollo, I don’t know how this is possible, but please, wake up.”

  Again, there’s no response.

  “I don’t understand,” Eva says, sounding panicked. “How did he come back? Why won’t he open his eyes?”

  We’re both silent for a moment, trying to find the answer. Then it hits me.

  “We’re a triad. We’re a perfect three,” I point out in growing excitement. “I’ve heard legends about this but thought they were just stories.”

  “What are you talking about?” Eva asks with a look of confusion.

  “We brought him back with our love and through the magic of us beginning to have sex.” Cradling her breast again, I tweak her pebbled nipple. “We need to finish what we started and include him, or it will fade.”

  Biting her lip, her gaze falls to Apollo’s tattered shorts. Without a word, she helps me unbutton them, and then we ease them down his hips, over his ass, and remove them. If we were worried about getting him hard, that’s not a problem. The god’s impressive cock is thickening and growing harder as we watch.

  Gently taking a hold of it, I lick the end, flattening my tongue. Cupping his balls, Eva nuzzles them with her nose and uses her mouth to kiss the base of his cock. Licking, sucking, we worship his shaft until it’s pulsing with a need for release.

  Eva wastes no time straddling his hips, opening herself up to receive him. Keeping his cock in place, I grasp it while she slowly eases down onto him.

  “Oh my.” Eyes fluttering shut, her moan is breathy as she pushes downward, taking all of him until she’s sitting on his groin. “Fontus?”

  Petting her hair, I press a brief kiss to her mouth. “Bring him home to us.”

  Eva begins to move, riding him slowly, her breasts bouncing with the movements.

  For a few moments, I watch, enjoying the show, before moving b
ehind her and focusing on her ass. Positioning Eva forward, I suck my finger, and as I work it gently into her dark passage, she gives a sharp cry, but she doesn’t tense up. We’ve experimented a few times like this in the past, and I know she can take me. Easing my finger in and out, a second joins it as I move them in a scissoring motion.

  “Ready?” I ask.

  Eva nods, still fucking Apollo’s unconscious form. “I want you both. Please, Fontus, don’t tease me.”

  Satisfied she’s prepared enough, I press the crown of my cock into her and push in carefully. We both groan as I inch in slowly. I can feel Apollo’s dick through the thin membrane separating us. Grasping her hips to steady myself, I thrust forward before finding our rhythm.

  Neck arching on a crest of pleasure, my eyes snap open. The first thing I see is Eva above me, her brown hair rippling over her creamy shoulders, and her bare breasts bouncing as she rides my cock. Behind her, Fontus grunts as he pumps into her ass.

  One second I’d been a drifting incorporeal spirit, lamenting over the immortal life I’d left behind, and the next it had all come screaming back into existence. It feels as if an invisible cord has yanked me backward with the force of a truck. Everything is heightened. Hearing, touch, smell, sight, taste. The senses that had been severed while I was dead are now amplified.

  Reaching up, I take the heavy globes of Eva’s breasts in my hands, rubbing the nipples with my thumbs. Lust laden eyes jerk to mine, a look of joy lighting up her expression.

  “Apollo!”

  “I’m going to come,” I warn her, teeth gritted as I feel the tell-tale sign of lightening darting up my spine. But instead of getting off me like I expect, she grinds her hips down onto me harder. It’s all too much. Balls tightening, my orgasm is raw and primal. Eva cries out as her pussy walls contract around my shaft, and she tips over the edge just as violently. Fontus groans at the same time, his body tensing, finding its own wild release.