Olympian Elemental Trials Series

Chapter 10: What Trouble has Dion Gotten into Now?

I pulled up short at the sight of a dozen Empousas outside my brother's old shire. My entire body jerked at the presence of massive power, unlike even the gods. What the f**k had the bastard gotten himself into now?

"s**t!" Poseidon shook his head beside me. "Empousas, here? What do they want with Dionysus?"

The wind currents carrying us faltered and I cursed, drawing up my magic to keep us in the air. "Whatever it is, it's so not good."

"I knew we should've ignored his text message." Poseidon frowned. "No doubt he's drunk and trying to seduce a demon of Hecate's or something."

The scent of the underworld clung heavily in the air. It smelled of graveyard miasma, rotting corpses, and blood. My brother's message had sounded urgent. "He wouldn't have contacted us both for a mere squabble even with a Titan."

Poseidon shrugged. "Guess we'll go see what all the fuss is, eh?"

"Yeah. Sounds like fun." Using my super speed, I dashed closer to the Empousas. "Hey, demon ladies, bet you can't catch me."

One closest to me growled, but I flashed her my most charming smile. As a messenger of the gods, I was swifter than any bird and if I wanted, faster than the human's jets too. Though their technology blew me away with growing envy.

"Hermes," she screeched. "Leave before Hecate adds you to our fodder."

I shrugged. "She'd have to catch me first."

"That can be arranged," a second Empousa flew forward.

Poseidon coughed. "Not to break up this...meeting but all we want is our brother."

"Stepbrother, isn't it? And all we want is the girl. Give her to Hecate and you all will live." The Empousa's black wings flapped.

"Girl? A human?" I asked. Why would Dion call us here for help if all the witch queen titan wanted was a mortal?

"There must be some mistake," Poseidon lowered his trident. "Our brother wouldn't interfere in Hecate's plans with some mere girl."

"Then why did he run from me and bring the girl here to his sanctuary?" A large Empousa with a partially tattered wing asked and I could only guess that my brother had fought with her to have her be damaged like that.

"I don't know." I paused. "Let us go and speak with him." There had to be a reason for all of this. Or our brother was just being his usual, selfish, egotistical self and had found a pretty young girl to share his bed. She was probably a witch and Hecate had claimed her as one of her priestesses.

"Our mistress is already discussing how he will die," the Empousa laughed.

Anger flared in my veins. How dare they harm him even if they do report to Hecate. Dion had gone through enough s**t in his lifetime. He didn't need more.

"A lift please?" Poseidon gripped his trident tighter. Unless we wanted to unleash a tsunami onto Greece, he'd be stuck on the ground fighting and the Empousas were in my domain...the air.

"Gotcha covered." I tossed an air pocket underneath him and he soared up to the closest Empousa, impaling her with his three-pronged weapon.

A few droplets of water danced around his air bubble and Poseidon would be able to move the bubble around where he wanted but I had to keep the bubble intact.

Zipping along the sky, I charged, colliding with her, both of us tumbling in midair. Another Empousa leaped into the fight and another. My adrenaline surged making their blows seem to hurt less. Before I realized it, I was battling five of them.

My magic focused on not letting them bite me and drain my blood, the air holding my stepbrother, Poseidon, up stopped. He crashed to the ground. A group of Empousas flocking to where he landed. Poseidon wouldn't be hurt from that short height. But if any of the Empousas drank a god's blood, they'd become invincible for a time, depending on how much blood they drank and what level of hierarchy the god was.

A set of fangs gnashed at my arm, and I jerked back, shoving a fistful of air into the creature's gut. She tumbled head over heels until righting herself.

Two more swarmed me, and I forced them tumbling in a whirlwind away. Beside me, Poseidon cursed. I spun. One of the damn Empousas was on his back, her claws digging into his shoulders as she lowered her mouth to bite him.

"Duck!" I blasted forth a ball of magical air that sent both of them smashing into a billboard sign. "Sorry, my bad."

My brother could yell at me later but I just saved his ass from getting chewed out by our father, Zeus. Possibly Hecate too as her Empousa would be too powerful for even her to control if it drank a god's blood.

Poseidon shot me the middle finger and I smiled.

"Love you too." I winked then dodged an Empousa headed straight at me.

They slashed through the air, wings furling as they tucked them down to their bodies and dove for the ground, pulling up short just before they struck.

"Something's happening." Poseidon launched out of the billboard. Water from a nearby stream drawing up to cushion his path down to me.

I thought about saying something smart but then my words stuck in my throat as people from inside the bar rushed out screaming.

"Not good, so not good." Poseidon readied his trident.

The Empousas took to the sky, looking like they were carrying something.

Before I could give chase and demand an explanation as to what the f**k was going on, an explosion ricocheted through the air. I was blasted several feet away, slammed into the side of a garbage truck. I shook my head, my ears ringing. Dion! Our brother had been in the bar that was now a pile of rubble.

Dizzy, I landed on the ground and ran to the smoldering debris. "Dion!"

Poseidon raked into the wood and cement with his trident. The three blades dug through the mess like the bar had been made from paper. Damn show off.

I kept up with him, hurling planks of wood and chunks of cement behind me along with my element of air. Ambulance sirens whirled adding to my agitation. Why hadn't Dion come out with the humans? And why wasn't he bursting through this rubble? Every second he didn't sent worry punching holes into my gut.

"Where the f**k is he?" Poseidon cursed echoing my thoughts.

"I don't know but do you feel his blood?" I asked. As a god over water, Poseidon would sense our brother and if his heart still pumped in his chest.

"Right." He closed his eyes, focusing on narrowing down the source of our brother and ignoring the water in the air from an approaching storm or water in the sewer system beneath us or any other source around us.

Most humans believe that out of all the elements, the fire was the strongest and best. But I've seen my brother turn a raging forest fire into a pile of steam. How water could channel through solid rock if long, hard, and precise enough. It's both soft and strong, fierce and gentle. Even my own element of air could only turn it into a cat 5 hurricane-more destructive than half a dozen tornadoes-and could expand to cover a huge swath of land and sea.

"There!" He pointed his trident to a cluster of debris three feet from us in the middle of the devastation.

"Tell me when I'm getting close." I whipped the air around the pile, moving layer by layer until I saw Dion's leg twisted at an odd angle.

Poseidon dashed forward, lifting our brother from the wreckage. "Dionysus! What happened?"

Dion squinted one eye open partially, the other was swollen closed and bruised. "Hecate...Paige...stop her."

With the Empousas it was easy to guess Hecate was involved since they worked for her but who in Mount Olympus was Paige. "Who?"

"Must save her," Dion continued with a groan. "Give me some ambrosia."

"Are you insane? That stuff made you lose centuries of your life." Poseidon looked from me to Dion and back. "Don't give it to him. He'll heal on his own in a few hours."

Dion grabbed Poseidon's pant leg, trying to haul himself up. "We don't have hours. Hecate has her and she wants to end the world."

"Okay, easy brother." I kneel to his level. "You're not making any sense. Tell us what happened. Who is Paige?"

He licked his cracked, bleeding lip. "Pandora's..."

"s**t, her descendant?" I asked. If Hecate had her this was much worse than anything in the last five thousand years. She'd need to learn her magic, control each of the four elements, and reclaim the hope that one of the gods had sealed in the box when the first woman, Pandora, had been given to the world of men. Zeus had planted a trap for her and mankind...plagues, suffering, pestilence and a whole bunch of other evils in that package...and had used Hera's gift of curiosity against her.

Many thought that Zeus had thrown hope in there just to be a d**k. But he hadn't done that. He wanted man to suffer. Hope was the only thing that shielded men and women from despair. A world without hope would've died a long time ago. Zeus had been furious when he found out and tortured and demanded the gods and monsters alike to tell him who had put hope into the box but no one had ever confessed. The guilty were not revealed even to this day.

"He's right." We were going to need all the help we could to get this Paige from Hecate. I turn to Poseidon. "Grab him some ambrosia."

"Seriously? You know what it will do to him."

It would turn him into an invincible god for thirteen hours but if we were going up against a Titan, we needed all the backup we could get including our cousin, Hephaestus. Which there was bad blood between him and Dion. Hell, I hadn't seen the god of fire, forge, and volcanoes in a millennium or more. Poseidon probably even less than me. But with Dion's past involving our cousin and Poseidon being little more than a stranger to Hephaestus, guess it was up to me to bring our cousin into the fray.

"This is a mistake." Poseidon shook his head. "We get the girl and send her on her way to lesser gods who can show her how to use magic and control the elements."

"You know that Zeus with each Pandora descendant able to wield magic has recruited more and more gods to his side. We don't know who to trust except our group." I frowned. "Even some of the goddesses have sided with him so it's not clear cut who would help or try to kill her." Much like Hecate if she was willing to try and harm Dion to get to this human.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Poseidon stole a ride with my help on a rain cloud and vanished out of sight.

"Hold on, brother." I helped Dion to stand. With the humans coming, we needed to move out of the way. We could make ourselves invisible but they'd be searching this wreckage for survivors. The best idea was not to be in the way or have Dion's shielding falter and our secret discovered. "We'll get you the ambrosia then all of us will confront Hecate and get Pandora's offspring back."

"It's worse than that," Dion panted. "I think Paige is like Ariadne was...Pandora reincarnated."