Milo leaped to the side and the bolt of light hit the wall behind him, sending shards of marble raining down on him. Milo covered his head to protect himself for the most part and then rolled out of the way. James lowered his hand as Milo stumbled to his up feet and raised his sword.
"You're quicker than you look," James said as he threw another bolt of light. Milo caught it on the sword but the force of it sent him flying backwards into the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he choked as he fell forward into the shards of marble. James stepped down from the dais and said softly, "you should have taken my offer and left."
Milo looked up and then spit, "never!"
James sighed and raising his hand one more time said, "tell me what it feels like to die, okay Milo?"
Milo growled and then leaped out of the way again. The light hit the area right were he had been a moment ago and Milo rolled into the shadows behind the pillars. James growled softly and then glanced through the darkness trying to find Milo.
Milo pressed harder against the pillar he was hiding behind and took deep breaths. James was stronger than he thought, much stronger. For a moment he seriously doubted his entire plan. Someone hissed from above him and Milo looked up quickly, thinking there was something other than James prowling around the throne room looking for him. Someone waved at him and Milo's eyes widened as he realized why K.C couldn't find the council, they weren't missing, they were just hanging above her head where she couldn't see them. It was actually ingenious of James to put them up there. The person shook their head slightly and said, "gosh damn kid, it took you long enough to get up here."
A flash of light hit the space next to Milo sending him back out into the open. James lowered his hand and then with a smile said, "there, now I can see you."
Milo leaped back into the shadows but now his hiding place was not so secret. He glared up at the man who had given away his location and then hissed, "do you mind? I'm trying not to get killed!"
The man laughed and then kicked the man next to him, they both looked over and the others whispered, "shut up Dylan and stop telling James where he is! You idiot!"
Another bolt of light slammed into the pillar dangerously close to Milo's head and a shard of marble cut his cheek, spilling blood across his face. Milo choked in pain and placed his fingers against the wound. It wasn't deep, but it could cause problems later. The bolts stopped coming for a moment and Milo glanced around the pillar slightly, James was gone. Milo frowned in confusion and then from above him Dylan shouted, "behind you!"
Milo flipped around but it was too late, James sent him flying back into the open where he rolled and smacked the back of his head against the marble floor. Milo groaned in pain and he lifted his head slightly even though the pain was like knives in the back of his head, and followed James as he walked casually over towards Milo. Taking a deep, sucking breath of air, Milo tried to heave himself to his feet, only for James to wave his hand and send Milo crashing into a pillar off to the side.
Milo felt the pillar crack behind his shoulders and he slumped to the floor, his chin resting on his chest. A tiny trickle of blood ran past his lips and dribbled down his chin. James stopped in from of him and Milo lifted his head weakly to look up at James, who sighed and crouched down to say softly, "you could have done so much with your life. It really does pain me to do this."
He stood and raised his hand; Milo shifted slightly and then James smiled once more and the final bolt came. Milo raised his hand and the bolt slammed into his palm and died there. James took a surprised step back and Milo's hand shook then fell limply to his side. He took a deep shaky breath and then chocked in pain. James narrowed his eyes and raised his hand again, this time he refused to miss.
Milo looked up at James again and those blue eyes looked deep into James', those blue eyes that had been a part of Kate's features for so long now looked deep into James' soul. Down to the deepest parts that even James didn't know about. With a cry of pain Milo pushed himself up and slammed into James.
The two of them rolled across the floor, Milo struggling to gain the upper hand as they rolled closer and closer to the windows. By the now the council was awake and watching the spectacle before them curiously. Milo pinned James down and James let out a cry of outrage as he struggle underneath Milo.
The doors to the throne room opened and someone she shrieked at Milo. Milo looked over his shoulder in surprise and James punched him across the jaw. Milo cried out in pain and James threw him across the floor and out of the way.
In the doorway stood K.C and Christian, both of them nursing minor injuries and the moment James laid eyes of her, K.C knew she had just doomed herself. Christian threw her out of the way as James sent a bolt of light straight at them. Holding both his hands out the light shattered around him in a wave of power. Christian set his jaws and planted his feet, barely holding James back.
K.C grabbed for one of her arrows and scrabbling to her knees, she fired it in what she hoped was James' general direction. There was a cry of pain and the light stopped coming. Christian collapsed to his hands and knees, sobbing softly with the pain he was feeling. James set his eyes on K.C again, but before he had the chance to hit her, Milo leaped at him, and the two of them landed on the floor some feet away. The room was filled with sound as thunder boomed through the room, and K.C struggled to see through the flashes of blinding light from the lightening. Suddenly there was a cry of outrage and Milo's body rolled towards her. K.C screamed and tried to run at her brother but she was shoved backwards by tendrils of light. She hit the ground and rolled, when she looked up she saw James advancing on her brother, his eyes were wild and with a shaky laugh he smiled down at Milo and then said, "you're getting on my nerves Milo."
Milo looked up and before he could answer, James raised his hand and with a gust of wind Milo was carried towards the windows. Christian cried out, and K.C drew another arrow to fire, but by the time she had notched it and pointed it at James, her brothers body had hit the glass and disappeared into the rain and clouds.

Milo had fallen before, he'd fallen off swings and out of trees when he was younger, this was different though. There was no soft grass to catch him, or sand to break his fall. He was going to fall, hit the ground and die. He was going to die.
As he fell through the rain through, Milo smiled softly. He was going to die, and he thought bitterly, well wasn't that just great?
The wind howled, whipping his hair back and forth wildly as he fell. A wind current sent him tumbling in circles and as he tumbled through the sky, Milo remembered that someone had screamed his name as he'd been thrown out the widow. He'd known that voice from long ago, somewhere deep in his memory, a place he rarely visited.
Then with a horrible realization, as if it had just occurred to him, Milo realized he was going to die. Suddenly in that moment, he didn't want to die, what would K.C do? What would Clio do? What would his parents do if he died? If he didn't make it out of this, James would kill everyone, he would toss K.C out a window after him, and then he'd kill Christian, and Clio, maybe even Milo's mother. With this sickening realization Milo felt something grow in his veins. Lux had once told Milo that people will do the craziest things when they think the ones they love are threatened. In that moment Milo was prepared to do something absolutely insane to get back up to Olympus.
Persephone had worked with him for years to try and teach him how to disappear and reappear where ever he wished, and Milo had never succeeded. That changed now though, he thought as he closed his eyes. He pictured the throne room, with James, and K.C and Christian, with its golden marble walls, and the council in their glass cages hung from the ceiling. Then taking deep breath, he put himself there.
For a moment, Milo felt nothing at all, and he panicked for a moment, thinking he'd gotten stuck in between places, until suddenly he felt like he'd hit a wall and shattered through it. Landing hard on the marble floor he rolled and came up, wildly searching to see if anyone had seen him appear in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough, James took a wild step backwards when Milo appeared in front of him only a few steps away.
The wind from the broken glass window howled into the room, whipping everything up into the wild storm. Milo held his arm up in front of his face to shelter his eyes from the wind, and squinting against it he saw James moving quickly across the floor towards the thrones. Milo was sure he had felt fury before, this was a different kind of fury though. He'd been pissed off once when K.C had completely disobeyed him and almost gotten killed, but the fury Milo felt now was all consuming, like fire burning through his body, lighting his mind on fire. He crossed the floor quickly to James who flipped around and threw another bold of light, with a sweep of his hand, Milo deflected the light shattering in the air. James growled and then fired another bolt at him, only for that to be easily deflected as well.
Narrowing his eyes James leaped into the shadows and Milo glanced into them cooly, he'd been sure that he wouldn't kill James, but matters had changed considerably in the past two hours since they had leaped off the ground and started this whole thing.
K.C had pulled Christian into the shadows after he'd been hit by one of James' bolts when he'd tried to leap after Milo. She'd watched as James prowled about looking for her, and silently she had cried for her brother like she used to at night, and before she could even actually be scared, he was there. Milo wouldn't be coming to comfort her this time though, she was on her own.
James had spotted her and just as he was coming towards her, Milo had appeared. It seemed like the very foundation had shaken and K.C had wondered for a moment how powerful her brother really was.
She watched now as her brother walked from pillar to pillar, hunting for James. The look in his eyes was enough to tell K.C that he was out for blood, not just to defeat James. As he walked, that swirling cloud appeared around his feet and gained strength as Milo continued walking, when he looked at her. She almost started crying, her brother was gone, locked away inside of his other side, the dark side that he warned came with the powers they had. It had consumed him, the desire to hunt and kill James. It would kill him, K.C realized as she watched Milo walk by her.
"Milo." She whispered his name and the wind seemed to pick it up and carry it to him, he paused and looked over his shoulder at her. She sheltered Christian from most of the wind and then shouted, "you don't have to kill him Milo! You just have to beat him!"
"The only way to beat him is to kill him K.C." Milo's voice was louder than normal and K.C felt tears fall down her face, because that wasn't the way Milo talked, Milo was sensible, he listens to all options and made the most precise decisions based off those choices.
"Please, stop Milo!" She cried as she reached for her arrows, she was sure James was watching this, watching them fight, and was very carefully planning how he would exploit that. Milo glared at her openly and then gesturing around the room he shouted, "don't you see K.C, it's either us or him. I made a promise to you that I would keep you safe, and since I've failed at that, the only thing I can do is to remove the thing that could hurt you."
With careful movements K.C rose slowly and walked through the black cloud swirling around her brother towards him. The minute it touched her skin, it felt like she'd been doused in icy water and as she moved closer and closer to Milo, it only got colder. When she stood in front of him she whispered softly, "please Milo, stop."
He paused from answering, and in that moment K.C knew she'd won, she'd won an argument over her brother for the first time and it couldn't have been a better time to win than now. Milo's eyes widened and he shoved her out of he way and took the blunt of a blow in his chest. He fell backwards onto the floor and K.C screamed as she scrambled to him, the cloud was dissolving and when K.C reached Milo she found out why. Milo was bleeding, uncontrollable from a fresh wound in his shoulder. K.C curled her fingers around the hilt of the knife and yanked it out of Milo's shoulder. He cried out in agony and K.C looked at the infused gold that smirked at her in malicious glee. Panicked K.C looked over at James who was standing behind her, with a tight smile he laid a hand on her shoulder and then looking down at Milo he whispered, "I'm sorry you two."
He yanked the knife from K.C grip and then wiping it on his pants he turned and was about to walk away when Milo raised himself on one elbow and gathering what looked like the last of the strength he had, he threw a piece of the dark cloud at James. It hit James in the back sending him sprawling and the knife flying. Milo grunted as he shoved K.C toward it and hissed, "get it, get the knife."
K.C scrambled to her feet and took off across the room after it. James cried out in outrage and tried to throw a bolt of light at K.C but Milo was quicker, managing to collect James in the dark cloud as if it were nothing but water.
K.C grabbed the knife off the floor and clutching it to her chest looked around wildly for Milo to give her instructions, but her brother was now locked in a battle for his life as he stumbled backward trying to deflect the onslaught of bolts from James, and he was losing. His steps grew more and more drunken and his eyes looked glassy as he weakly tried to defend himself. K.C looked around wildly for what to do with the dagger and eventually ran across the room to her bow which she had cast aside to drag Christian to safety. She scooped it off the ground and then straightening up on the run she drew the knife like it were an arrow and praying to a god above that she wasn't a murderer, she let go of the knife hilt.
Time seemed to slow for a moment as the knife James in the back. He stumbled as if he were surprised by it and then he collapsed to his hands and knees, coughing up blood. Milo ran to him then, not caring if James wanted him dead, he need to make sure James didn't get up from this. His dark cloud wound around James like binds and when James collapsed on the floor, the cloud solidified into black iron chains.
For a moment there was dead silence and then Milo collapsed to his hands and knees as well. His vision was splotchy with blackness, and his shoulder was on fire, he was sure of it. The rest of his body, he couldn't even feel, except for the aching part of his mind that he used to control his abilities.
As he rocked back onto his heels he saw that the rain had stopped and the clouds were starting to roll out. He glanced over at James who was gasping for breath. James looked at him softly and then whispered, "I'm sorry Milo, I'm so sorry."
The word made Milo sick and he swallowed, trying to keep the bile in his stomach down. As he fell forward onto the floor, and into the wonderfully blissful darkness, he saw K.C running towards him.