Iridescence

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

VANESSA

Things were starting to get bad. At first, the room we'd entered had been empty, but all of a sudden, impossible creatures started to appear. I'd never seen anything like them before.

They had the bodies of bears, the heads of horses, and sharp talons for hands. They also had the fangs and tongues of snakes.

Jenna screamed in pain as one of the creatures clawed her arm. "Na!" Lucky shouted as he raced to her side. The creature licked Jenna's wound before Lucky flung it into a labyrinth with all of his strength. He examined Jenna's injury in horror as blood poured out and her arm started to turn black.

"Move," Krissy said. She started forcing Water into the wound to cleanse it. Poseidon and Tethys took over as more creatures tried to attack. Krissy blasted several away from me and Billy with a tsunami wave.

"What are these things?" Jack demanded. "They're, like, out of a nightmare or something!"

My eyes widened in realization. "Jack, you're brilliant!" I exclaimed.

"I am?" He asked in confusion.

"They're dream demons," I explained. "They usually don't exist in the waking world."

"How do we fight them?" Krissy asked. "I'm trying not to drown us with all of this water I'm flinging around."

"I can trap them in labyrinths," Lucky volunteered, "but more might show up."

"My athame will work on them," I said, "but there are way too many for me to take on alone."

Billy summoned an army of shadow creatures. "You're not alone," he said shyly as the shadows awaited his command. I smiled at him, finding his willingness to run into battle beside me without question incredibly endearing.

"I know," I replied. "Let's see what we can do."

Billy and I started to fight against the creatures. Lucky opened labyrinth after labyrinth, trapping as many inside as he could at a time. Apollo was busy healing Jenna's arm as Poseidon and Tethys continued to cleanse her infected wound.

Hermes was running in circles to herd the dream demons into the center of the room. Jack kept teleporting out of the way of attacks, occasionally moving others to safety as needed. Prometheus tried to set the demons on fire, but they didn't seem to burn. The flames irritated but didn't hurt them.

Ares and Nike were stabbing at the creatures furiously. It didn't kill them, but it slowed them down. Nemesis started ripping their tongues from their mouths, causing the creatures to scream in pain. I stared at this in shock and horror for a moment.

"Vanessa, are you alright?" Billy asked as his shadows kept one of the demons from attacking me.

"Yeah," I replied. "I just didn't expect Nemesis to start ripping out tongues."

"One of those tongues poisoned your ally," Nemesis pointed out. "This is a fitting form of revenge."

I could hardly argue with that, although her vicious assault seemed a bit cruel to me. I focused on using my athame to banish the creatures I could reach back to the dream realm.

"We can't keep this up much longer," Lucky said. "There are too many of them."

"We need help," I agreed as Jenna, now fully healed, flung her javelin into one of the demons. It hissed at her and lunged toward her. Jenna pulled her javelin out and Jack teleported her to safety before the demon could injure her again.

Delightfully on cue, Emily and Morpheus came into the room. Jake and a spirit were right behind them. The spirit looked about seventeen years old. He smiled at us mischievously, although there was a hint of sorrow in his eyes.

"Nero..." I mumbled as Theadora recognized his eyes.

Jenna looked up in surprise. "It is you," she said after a moment.

Nero's eyes lit up a bit as he saw her. "It is," he confirmed. "You can just call me Adrian."

"Yay, another Water deity!" Krissy declared. "Welcome to the party!" She splashed him with Water magic playfully.

Adrian laughed and sent it back at her. "Spirits can use elemental magic?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, not all spirits, but apparently spirits of reincarnated Gods can," Jake replied.

Hades and Hecate finally joined us in the room. "We crossed over everyone you and Jake freed, Emily," Hades explained.

"And it looks like we've entered a dream fight," Hecate added as she looked at the creatures. "I have seen these demons at the crossroads between the dream realm and the waking one."

"My children, this will take all of us," Morpheus said as he looked at the increasing number of dream creatures.

I immediately took his left hand. Emily took his right one. Lucky hurried over to us and took one of my hands and one of Emily's. As the four of us connected to each other, a tremendous blast of power shot through the room. The force of it sent the demons flying into the air.

I focused and the demons shrank into the size of the babies of their species, who weren't nearly as intimidating as their grownup versions. They were almost cute, in a creepy way.

Lucky opened up a huge labyrinth. I could tell it took a lot of energy to create. He forced it shut around them.

Emily and Morpheus looked at each other as we all continued to hold hands. The gate to the dream realm opened. Together, we sent the labyrinth full of dream demons through it, trapping them where they belonged.

As we released our hands, our power remained, but it wasn't as overwhelming anymore.

"That was impressive," Hermes said.

"Yes it was," Jenna agreed, "but we have to keep going. Altheos was trying to slow us down with those creatures. We need to find Artemis, Faith, and Eliza. We're close. I can feel it. That's why he distracted us."

"She's right," Apollo said. "I feel Artemis... It's faint, but she's not far from here. We should be able to find her, and hopefully she's still with Faith. Then, we'll just need to find Eliza." His voice shook slightly on Eliza's name.

Before we could move on, a chimera rushed toward us. Jake jumped between its fire breath and Emily. He redirected the flames toward the ceiling as Adrian dropped a large amount of water on it. The chimera let out a sad whimper as it temporarily lost its firepower. Its expression resembled that of a cat whose owner had decided to give it a bath. I was busy giggling at that, so I didn't notice the second chimera, who came into the room and promptly tried to kill me.

Billy jumped in front of me and created a shield of shadows to protect me. My eyes widened with surprise as I watched the shadows swallow the chimera. It vanished in an instant, leaving only a bit of smoke behind. I was about to thank Billy when a spear was flung through the air. It was heading right toward him and there was no time for him to escape.

I put my hands up and shouted, "Watch out!"

Billy turned around and saw the spear coming. He gasped as the spear turned into a swarm of butterflies before his eyes. They scattered and passed harmlessly around him, peacefully fluttering their wings and making him smile. I let out a sigh of relief that my magic hadn't failed me and he was safe.

"You saved my life!" Billy cried as he pulled me into his arms. To my great surprise, he kissed me. I relaxed and kissed him back, very much enjoying the experience.

I'd never kissed anyone before, but in that moment, I knew that I never wanted to kiss anyone except for Billy. Everything about it felt right. The kiss lasted only seconds, but it felt like millennia as my soul connected to his. When he released me, I couldn't stop smiling.

"Yeah, girl! Get your man!" Lucky cheered, which made me laugh as Billy blushed.

Ares cleared his throat loudly. "If the hormonal teenagers are finished, we still have a battle to fight," he pointed out.

"Oh, hush, Ares," a new voice said. "They needed to fully connect as consorts. Let them have their moment."

"Aphrodite?" Poseidon asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to help," she replied. "I won't fight, but I'm going to strengthen the consort bonds that have newly reformed. It will help the girls succeed in their quest."

"Battle is no place for a Goddess of Love," Ares protested.

"And love is no business of a God of War," she countered. "Stay in your lane, Ares, and I will stay in mine."

I smiled and decided that I liked Aphrodite. She was much feistier than I'd expected her to be.

"Do your thing, Aphrodite," Poseidon said. "Then we can get on with the fight."

I felt my connection to Billy strengthening. He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer to him again. I knew I belonged beside him. I snuggled against him, placing my hand on his chest as he held me around my waist, and I felt at peace despite the threat we were facing.

"Oh, you two are just adorable!" Aphrodite gushed.

"Yes, yes, they're very cute, good for them," Hades said dismissively. "Pick up the pace, Aphrodite."

She huffed at him before she moved on to Emily and Jake. "Emily, darling, stop resisting," Aphrodite said gently.

"I'm trying," Emily mumbled.

Aphrodite looked sympathetic. "Jake's life is tied to your life, Emily. You don't have to be so worried about losing him."

Emily took a deep breath and released it. She took Jake's hand and nodded at Aphrodite. "Go ahead," she said.

I felt Emily and Jake connect to each other. A flame appeared between them. It burned brighter as their bond strengthened. When it vanished inside of both of them, I knew it had worked.

"The rest of you will have to wait," Aphrodite said, "but I'm not finished yet."

"That sounded like a threat," Hades mumbled.

"Alright, everyone," Jenna said a bit awkwardly as Aphrodite looked her way. "Let's go rescue Artemis and Faith."