so I interrupt. “So is all your magic just murmured spells over fires?”
She flashes me a smirk. “No. My magic could have wreaked havoc on the Underworld. And in the beginning, it did. But Hades used his powers against me, and defeated me each time. The magic inside of me could’ve kept fighting, but it was hurting every time I brought it down to that terrible place. When I finally accepted that I might be a match for a god on the surface, but I wasn’t in the Underworld, I stopped using my magic and just waited. Waited for the right moment. But this thing, it isn’t a god. It has something that feels like a god, but it’s not. So you two will get to see what else my magic can do.”
“Well, if there is a right moment to use those stronger powers of yours, it’ll be when we face this thing,” I tell her. I mean to keep things light, but my words come out strangely dark.
She nods, and her gaze hardens as she glances back at the door.
Suddenly, the fire is quenched, leaving behind nothing but burning coals. Smoke rises above it and the shadows close in around us. I alight my wings, but it’s like seeing through smoke. The light from my wings bounces off dark, unnatural clouds. And the fact that we can’t see most of the room… it makes the whole thing more frightening.
We’re all tense. All waiting.
From out of the shadows come two figures. They aren’t like the lost souls or Andros. They’re not like the illusions of people in the bar. They’re more like dark, shadowy figures. I can see both their faces, and even clear eyes peeking out from the darkness. I can see their strong forms, and the necklaces at their throats. Both wear red gems that glow, seeming impossibly bright against their shadows. They’re almost like people that have had all the light inside of them sucked out.
Orion and I stand. We hold out our swords, and our stances are those of warriors. I tell myself that this is like all the monsters we’d fought. If we work together, we will prevail.
One of the figures smiles, then spreads out wings behind him. They’re black and sickly, but they suddenly flare with flames.
“A phoenix?” And then it hits me. “Conley?”
It’s like all the air is sucked from the room. A phoenix was the source of the evil I’d been feeling? A phoenix I knew? He’s even the man who’d found the children’s bodies on that terrible day.
“And that’s Peter, a human liaison with the gargoyles,” Orion says.
“Neither of them are what they were before,” Hecate explains, and I can tell she’s standing not far behind us. “Be careful. They’ve been given unnatural abilities.”
Conley’s smile is eerie, sending a shiver rolling down my spine. He lifts a hand toward me, and I act without thinking, springing toward him with my sword. The metal blade stabs straight into his chest, but the blade passes through like air.
His smile widens, and red magic rushes from his hand, slamming right into me. I hit the back wall. My sword is left behind, and it takes me a second to catch my breath before I spring from the wall once more.
Orion attacks the other enemy beside me. His body is in its stone form. But from the corner of my eye, I see his sword passing through the Peter man like it had done with my enemy.
More magic leaps from my opponent’s hand, but this time I expect it and dive out of the way. He continues to attack over and over again as I leap around the room. My thoughts go a thousand miles a minute. If my sword won’t hurt him, what will?
Suddenly, the fire is burning brightly once more. I know it has to be Hecate’s magic, and I hope it’ll help us here. I grab a piece of wood from the fire, ignoring it when my hand screams in pain, and throw it at Conley. The flaming wood goes right through him, leaving behind the creepy figure, untouched.
Damn it. What am I supposed to do?
A ball of bright light blossoms in the center of the room. I glance behind me to see Hecate murmuring, her hand outstretched to the light. It chases away the smoke and the shadows. But the two figures remain. They look so strange cloaked in light, but still shadows.
I roll and grab my sword from the ground