Gifted (The Olympus Brotherhood #1)

Whoa

Chapter 25

Alaric

I have died and gone to underwater heaven. Poseidon is without a doubt a disgusting being. But the man had taste in women. I stood in the center of a throne room. One girl sat primly on the throne; surrounded by five other girls. They were all dressed in white shimmery gowns.

"Did Freya send you?" The woman asked. She was a god damn bombshell. Brown loose wavey hair, big blue eyes that I couldn't help, but be drawn to. Pouty pink lips on porcelain white skin.

"Yes ma'am," I felt like I should kneel. I tried to, but I was still hurting from the fight. I winced in pain.

"You're hurt," she said with a voice as soft as spring rain. She quickly descended her throne to me, "Let me help you. We have a healing spring, my Lord."

My Lord? What the fuck? Between hearing Damon's pity party and this it's been a weird day.

"I can't get in the water, I need this blood to get us back to land," she didn't like that by her flinch.

"Sophie, can you take the blood out of his clothes and save it?" The women asked. The next thing I knew all the blood on me was bent off me.

"You all are Gifted?" I said shocked.

"No, Poseidon gave us abilities to better serve him," I started to sway.

"I have you," the woman said trying to hold me up.

"What's your name?" I asked. She walked with me leading me to a cave filled with jewels.

"Cecilia Green. You have to keep moving. I don't think we'll be able to carry you." We hit the curved cave stairs and made our way slowly down.

When we reach the edge of the spring I flopped down. She neatly knelt down next to me and started to undress me. Whoa

"I got this part," I said moving her hand away, "Thanks."

She gave me a warm sincere smile, "I'm sorry. Can you tell I've been here for too long."

"No, believe me I have no problems with you taking off my clothes; it's what follows next I don't think you want. I'm Alaric by the way."

"Pleasure to meet you. We're all very grateful you came to liberate us," Cecilia said.

"Yeah? I'm kind of doing a piss poor job of it right now," she flinched clearly not okay with my normal vocabulary. Clearing my throat, I asked, "How long have you been down here?"

"I lost count. The last thing I remember was seeing King Kong in a theater," she pondered.

"Oh, fuck me, so like the early 2000's?" I said now in my underwear.

"No, it was somewhere in the 30s; the 1930s," she admitted.

"That son of a bitch! That mother fucker!" I yelled. She flinched again, "Sorry, it's just..." I didn't know what to say.

"There's no need to apologize, some of the other girls have been here for much longer" Well that ends today just as soon as my ribs stop hurting, "Do you want help getting into the water?"

"No, thank you," I rolled over into the water. Instantly, I could feel the water healing my body. It wouldn't be long before I was back to my normal self. Then we could get the hell out of here and I could go find Freya. Floating on my back I looked over to Cecilia who was patiently watching me. I could tell she was lost in thought. I could only imagine the joy she was feeling at never having to step foot in this place again, "What are you thinking?"

She snapped out of her thoughts brushing them off, "Nothing important. Don't mind me."

"You're going to have to try harder to fool me. I wouldn't ask just to make small talk," I could compel her to talk, but that felt wrong.

"Truly it's nothing, it's not like I won't see for myself anyway," she quickly changed the subject, "Your wounds have almost healed. I'll go get the others ready." She turned and started walking up the spiral staircase.

"Hey! I know you all have been through hell being stuck down here with Poseidon. But, that's over. You don't have to censor yourself. Or be whenever he made you. Haven will take care of you. The Brotherhood will protect you and-"

She cut me off turning to face me on the stairs, "My lord, you don't have to lie to me. Freya told us about The Brotherhood and Haven. I think we've all had enough of people telling us what we can and can't do. We all just want to move on with our lives and put this ordeal behind us." What did Freya say? I knew she was unhappy being forced to stay at Haven, but that was for her own protection. Not that it did anything to help her. Shit.

"Did she tell you about The Order? Listen, Cecilia the world has changed a lot since the 30s. When we get top side you and the others should come to Haven. I'm not going to lie, yeah sometimes it sucks ass, but at the end of the day I know The Brotherhood will do their best to protect you and everyone on the campus. If you go out into the real world with no training and no protection The Order will find you and make no mistake, they will kill you or breed you." I didn't want to scare her with news of the Apocalypse too. But she deserves to know what exactly is at stake.

"I will let the others know and they can take it under consideration. But I highly doubt any of them would want to trade one prison for another," she said.

I stop floating on my back and got out of the spring standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at her I said, "Freya has different issues with Haven and the Brotherhood. I'm not going to lie to you I'm not a scout. So, I don't normally convince people to come to Haven. But I swear to the Gods above, the whole reason Haven exist is so people like us have a literal Safe Haven. You're Gifted, which makes you a target. A war is coming. And I'm not saying that in a bullshit way of we need to be prepared. I'm saying it literally, war is coming. And if Freya decides she's truly had enough of our world. You're going to need us a hell of a lot more."

"I cannot speak for the others. But, for myself I will think about it," she turned around and walked back up the stairs disappearing from view.

Once we got back to Haven a real Scout could talk to her. They would be able to convince her and the others there was an imminent threat. One that she couldn't handle on her own. Hell, one even The Brotherhood couldn't handle on its own. I got back in the spring thinking about Cecilia. Why was I so invested in a woman I just met? Duh, because she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And it pissed me off that Poseidon kept her down here for over eighty fucking years!

One step at a time, I had to heal first. Then I had to get us all back on dry land. Then finally, I needed to go find Freya. I had a bad feeling Damon wasn't going to be able to convince her to come back to Haven.