Typhon's Revenge

Chapter Thirty

WIND

FOUR MONTHS LATER...

It had been four months since Aileen and I had that talk. Four months of peace. I couldn't say that I would call us friends but at least all of the hostility and fighting was behind us. Not only that, but I had been working on the way I responded and the way I reacted to certain things like Aileen's sudden change in plans and the way she tried to teach us to fight. I had to be more patient and she was also trying to be less controlling. I would say the two of us were growing in our own ways.

Andrew wasn't a problem either, after our talk, Aileen had seemed to understand what I was saying, but it wasn't until a couple of weeks later that she was sincere with me. She told me about her talk with Andrew and all that had been said between them. She told me that she wasn't sure if she wanted to be in a relationship then, especially not with Andrew. I tried to offer her my support and advice from when I found out I had been cheated with, even though I knew I probably wasn't the most qualified person to do so.

"Don't worry. The last thing on my mind right now is boys. Right now, our priority is this mission. Okay?" She had said and I only nodded my head.

But since then, I could talk with Andrew without feeling Aileen's daggering gaze at the back of my head. In fact, it was as if she didn't notice we were there.

Another person that had changed was Andrew. He seemed... distracted. I didn't know how to explain it. But there were more than a couple of days he could barely manage to get up from bed because of the pounding headaches he had to endure. Mason had checked him and said there was nothing wrong with him and he'd give him a serum to numb the pain. After all our time here, he had perfected the serum and could now make it without even needing to check the recipe.

In our time here, he had also matured. He was now our official healer and now he didn't even have to touch us to know what was wrong with us. His powers had become much stronger and precise. I would never pick up a fight with him, he could probably destroy the ground under me and leave me floating in midair for hours as I tired myself just to prove a point. I did have to say though, it seemed that temper of his ran in the family, although he was much more understanding than Aileen.

Aileen's powers had returned to normal after we had our talk. She was more in control of everything and during these last few months, she had taken the time to help her father out. It seemed like the both of them were bonding quite well. Aileen never returned to her room in the guest wing, but she would occasionally invite Alex and me to hang out in her chambers when she had the chance. Which wasn't often. She always had something to do around the castle.

Noah had made it his personal task to help her through her transition from warrior to a princess. I knew she could still fight like a warrior, but she also behaved differently, more educated and righteous. A pearl of certain wisdom had embedded itself in her eyes and it made you feel reassured and at peace to confess even your darkest and deepest secrets.

As for me, I was also much more in control of my powers and emotions. I could even use my powers without even moving my hands. But still, there was something about me that felt off. I hadn't mentioned this to the others but, every once in a while, I would also get these really painful headaches. Normally, it happened when I was in the shower with my mind drifting into my thoughts, and then suddenly, it was as if I crashed into a wall. As if I couldn't access an important memory. Then the headache would set in and I'd have to pretend everything was fine. Even so, I had a feeling Mason knew I was faking, because some of the times, he would sneak glances my way and eye me carefully as if analyzing me.

I would look away and pretend that everything was fine and normal. But I had a feeling something bad was coming. And it wasn't just because sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming like a crazy person because of a nightmare I couldn't remember. But it was much more than that.

My parents had sent me news of what was happening on the surface. It was worse than I would have imagined.

While we were here training, the world above us was in chaos. Countries were fighting against one another and threatening each other without a clear motive. More and more people were now taking justice into their own hands and it was a bloodbath out there. And that was just human behavior. But the world was also spiraling.

Floods. Hurricanes. Snowstorms. Electrical Storms. Tornadoes. Eruptions. Whatever it was, you named it and it was all happening on the surface. And not on a small scale or dispersed. No. It was all happening simultaneously and causing notorious damage. A lot of people became casualties of this phenomenon and the others who managed to survive, most of them were left without a home. It was madness.

To someone who didn't know anything about the world with gods looking over them, they probably thought they were witnessing the end of the world. If they weren't killed by human wars, they were killed by natural disasters. My father had said it had worsened drastically in the last couple of weeks, even his campaign had been put on hold because my hometown was entering a state of emergency where they had critical curfews and tight rules to follow.

Us Elementals knew what was happening. The final war was almost upon us and Aileen had already warned us a month before. She said Hades was worried because they still couldn't locate their enemy, it was as if he had vanished out of thin air, but was still making himself known on the surface.

She was also worried and I could tell by the way she had tried to push us to the limit this last month, claiming that we needed to be ready for anything and the sooner, the better.

Which was why we had all finished our training in a couple of months.

Right now, we were sitting in the common room, watching the news of a new, huge forest fire that couldn't be put out and that was devouring thousands of acres with each day. With a sigh, Aileen grabbed the TV remote and muted the news. "This is horrible. We should be doing something, not just sitting here watching the news. But my father insists we should wait until Zeus calls us forward. Have you been able to reach your father?" She asked as she turned to me with frustration in her eyes.

I frowned and shook my head. I had tried to reach out to him but there was never any reply. At first, I had been hurt and confused, he said that as soon as I had my powers, he would come looking for me. But that day hasn't arrived and I was scared that Zeus was the kind of man everyone made him out to be in the books. Just a man who cared for nothing more than his own gain. So it didn't take long for my hurt to turn into anger. I couldn't believe he was ignoring me and keeping me and the others in the dark. He couldn't win this battle by himself.

"Maybe he's too busy with the war that he forgets to answer your calls," Noah said from where he was sitting. He had become so close to Aileen that he almost followed he everywhere and she never questioned his intentions but I could tell he still bothered Andrew more than he admitted.

We still hadn't found out anything about him. Rubie disappeared and hadn't returned. Alfred had said she hadn't shown up to work since the first day we were there and when I asked Noah, he didn't seem to care. "Rubie? The old librarian? I didn't know her very much but she told me she was... retiring. I don't think we'll see her now."

I had raised an eyebrow but kept my mouth shut. Something about the way he said that made me think that was a load of bullshit. Something had happened and he had known what. Since then, I couldn't push myself to trust him anymore. Just like Andrew, I didn't feel enchanted by his charming self anymore. I thought there was something he wasn't telling us and I wanted to find out what it was.

"We can't just sit here and watch this happen for much longer. At some point we're going to need to help them," Zeus said as his eyes remained glued to the TV screen.

Aileen nodded her head and sighed, "I agree. Which is why I wanted to ask you, Have you had any more dreams? Or well, nightmares."

Andrew nodded his head and his eyebrows furred together.

"Then I think it's time we go to the Oneroi, we're ready," Aileen said with confidence in her voice and Mason and I shared a look.

We had completed our training but we hadn't fought against anything before since then. It would be our first time.

"I think that's our best option. Maybe Zeus has been genuinely trying to reach out through dreams and something has been blocking him," Mason suggested and it did make sense. Especially considering the circumstances.

"Okay, and when do we leave?" I asked with my arms crossed. The sooner we knew about what our dreams meant, the better.

Aileen chuckled and shook her head, "it's not possible today because of the hour. At dusk, the tide of the River of Lethe grows. And the bridge is flooded. If we were to leave now, we wouldn't make it back in time."

I sighed in frustration but nodded nonetheless.

"So then we'll leave after breakfast," I said with a shrug and everyone agreed.

After that, we went to dinner and everything was normal. I wasn't really in the mood for talking, or eating, so I played with the food for a while before Andrew asked me, "are you okay? You seem a bit off today."

I nodded my head and tried to smile as I turned to him. "I'm fine. I'm just tired and my head hurts a bit but I think it's because of all the stress."

Andrew nodded his head in understanding and told me I should excuse myself and head to bed. For once, I took his advice and said goodbye to everyone before heading out of the room.

I walked in silence through the hallway. My steps were small and measured as I moved. I felt as if I were sleep-walking.

With a sigh, I shook my head as I tried to clear the fog in my mind, and when I opened my eyes again, I saw Noah walking through one of the hallways in front of me.

Curiosity and maybe a little of of frustration got the best of me and I decided to follow after him. He did look kind of alert even though the hallways were empty. Well, besides me.

I kept my steps silent and soft against the ground as I followed him at a safe distance. He was heading towards the exit of the castle and my headache started to grow inside of me.

Clenching my jaw tightly together, I pushed through the pain and kept my mission in my mind.

Suddenly, Noah came to a stop a couple of feet away from the door and his body seemed to twist painfully as he fell to the ground. My eyes widened and I almost gasped when I saw his body contort backward.

He didn't scream as his bone broke but his face was filled with pain. When he was able to straighten himself again, he was gasping and something in him had changed.

As if feeling my gaze, he turned towards me with his head moving stiffly in my direction. As soon as his eyes landed on me, my heart stopped as his pitch-black eyes looked at me. They seemed to pierce into my soul and I felt an immense void fill me.

Suddenly, the ground seemed to move under me and the next thing I knew, I was falling into darkness.