The Phoinix: Age of Demigods by S. L. Mancuso

  * * *

  “Get away from her! Breanna, wake up!” Breanna heard Nikolaos screaming.

  Breanna opened her eyes to find a woman in a brown and grey dress standing over her. Bre lay on the ground outside, instead of in her tent where she originally fell asleep. It was still dark out, and the cool air brought goose bumps to Bre’s skin. Their only source of light was the fire Cailean stoked before going to bed.

  “What do you want, Andraste?” Brian asked the woman as he scurried in front of Bre. Lupa stood next to him, baring her teeth with a low growl.

  Nikolaos, Cole, and Leo had their swords pointed at the woman. Lysandros grabbed Bre and pushed her behind him. Eoghan ran to Bre and cupped the side of her face, “Are you ok?” Bre felt shear panic coming from him, as if her heart were about to give out.

  Bre nervously moved out of Eoghan’s worried embrace and faced Andraste.

  “I do not need to justify my business with you,” Andraste calmly dismissed Brian.

  “No, but apparently I am your business, and you will justify it to me.” Bre moved out from behind Lysandros and confronted the goddess. She lightly touched Nikolaos’ arm. “Put your weapons down. If she wanted to hurt me, she would have done so while I slept.”

  “Very wise, young one,” Andraste replied. “I am the goddess of Celtic Magic and Divination. I felt that you should know a part of your future.” Andraste answered bluntly.

  “You are the reason for my nightmares growing up, aren’t you?” Bre’s power boiled in her veins.

  “No. The Blood-Moon is connected to The Queen at birth. It provided The Queen’s life in order to educate and prepare you for your choice: a choice you must make without bias. I came to give you clarity. You can learn from your future just as you can learn from your past,” Andraste said and walked over to a smoldering stump.

  “Oh, no. Did I do that?” Bre stared at the half-missing tree. The beautiful field they fell asleep in was now burnt, just like the battlefield in her dream. “Did that happen because of what I saw in my dream?”

  “It is not what you saw, My Queen. It is what you can, and will, do.” Andraste waved her hand and the tree and field were whole again.

  Panicked, Bre grabbed Nikolaos’ arm, digging her nails into his skin. “What woke you up?”

  “There was a purple light around the tent, and then I felt the ground shake. I immediately got up and saw you shooting gold light towards her,” Nikolaos replied, nodding at Andraste.

  “I protected them, didn’t I?” Bre turned back to Andraste, “Just like in my dream, with those other men. The princess in my dream is me, but who are those men?”

  “Spoilers. There are some events that you must not be aware of until they happen.” Andraste lazily picked an apple from the tree and bit into it.

  “Then what is the point in showing me?” Bre asked, agitated.

  “So you will make the right choices. In order to have the future you want, you need to make the right sacrifices now.” Andraste tossed her half-eaten apple to the ground where a rabbit nibbled on it.

  “That future doesn’t seem so bright. Maybe I don’t want it,” Bre said defiantly.

  “You don’t understand. That future may or may not end the way I showed you. Its ending depends on what you decide now. Make the right decisions, and maybe your future will have a brighter outcome. Don’t make any decisions and it could end darker.” Andraste shrugged and then picked up the rabbit, stroking its soft fur. “Choices will be necessary sooner than you wish. Choose wisely.” with that final warning, she disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

  “Will someone please explain what just happened?” Bre demanded, facing Brian and Cailean.

  Brian pressed his thumb and pointer finger against the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Andraste is trying to help us in her own special way.”

  “That was special alright. She could have gotten us killed making Bre use her powers like that.” Leo sheathed his sword and headed back to his tent. “Well, now that we know our future will be bright and perfect, I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Leo is right.” Nikolaos paused, surprised to hear himself say that. “We all need to get rest. Apparently there is a lot left to figure out.”

  Nik and Cole walked back to their tents.

  “Come on, Bre,” Eoghan said and held out his hand.

  “I can’t let that go. How am I supposed to sleep knowing I could kill you all in my dreams?” Bre threw her arms up in the air as Eoghan walked behind her and pushed her back to camp.

  “I can whip up a temporary binding spell that should keep your powers in check through the night,” Cailean said, throwing his arm around Bre’s shoulder.

  Brian walked back to his tent, afraid of what the right choices meant and if Bre could handle them. He decided to channel the future to understand Andraste’s concern. He hid himself in his tent and meditated in front of a bowl of water.

  In Breanna’s tent, Cailean cast a binding spell that instantly made Bre fall asleep.

  “I thought it was a binding spell, not a sleeping spell,” Eoghan raised his eyebrows at Cailean.

  “I put a little more oomph behind it,” Cailean smiled. “Get some sleep, Eoghan. We’ve had a rough couple of days, and more are yet to come,” Cailean said. He patted Eoghan’s shoulder and walked back to his tent.

  Eoghan watched Bre as she slept and gently stroked her hair. “How could I leave you? You need me.”

  Tonight was not the first time Eoghan met Andraste. Five mornings ago, when Bre had gone looking for Eoghan and he refused tell her where he went, it was because Andraste warned him not to.

  Andraste surprised Eoghan after he decided to survey their surroundings. She left him with a word of warning and showed him an image of two graves. One tombstone marked with his name and the other marked with Bre’s. Andraste explained that if he walked away from the fight she would grant him immortality. He could then live to fight many wars alongside Brian and Cailean.

  However, it meant Bre would face Eversor and Elpis alone. It also meant that she would die without him by her side. Andraste warned that if he stayed with Bre, he was sealing his own death. Her words echoed through his memory, “Your future is open, young Gàidheal. Forsake The Queen to fight for the world, or die beside her and the world will suffer your loss.”

  It pulled at his guts to think that he would have to leave Bre.

  Bre shivered in her sleep, and Eoghan instinctively lied down next to her to keep her warm. Feeling his warmth, Bre inched closer, burying her face in his chest. He smiled and pulled her tight against his body. Eoghan drifted to sleep holding Bre, nestling in her silky hair.