Please Review! Only two more chapters left!

Chapter 18

Lucius

She tossed and turned all night. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a wink of sleep with her feeling this way. So I stayed by her side and wiped her forehead with a cloth all night. Every so often she would whimper and I would squeeze her hand. When I touched her she seemed to feel better, but I didn't want to smother her.

She only woke up two times during the night to throw up. Near the morning hours she began to sleep more peacefully, and I found myself falling asleep in the chair I had pulled up next to the couch.

I'm woken up by Phoenix, who's shaking me frantically. "Lucius! Lucius you have to get up! Please get up!"

It takes me a couple minutes to come to. I must have been really tired. "What's wrong?"

Phoenix is standing in front of me with two swords. I recognize one as mine, and the other as hers. Starlight and Sunlight. Funny how our swords fit our heritage.

She hands my sword to me. "There's an attack on the camp."

"Who's attacking the camp?" I ask, as I jump to my feet.

"No one knows. No one has ever seen things like this before."

"Like what?" I ask her.

She holds her hand to her stomach and a look of pain crosses her face. I ease her down gently onto a couch as she recovers. Then she starts talking is if that never happened. "There are monsters that seem to be made entirely of fire, and they burn almost as hot as the sun. And there are other monsters that shine as bright as starlight, and are almost as cold as the moon."

She holds her hands to her stomach again. After a minute she continues in a whisper. "They need us there. The others can hold them back, but we're the only one who can defeat them. You're resistant to extreme heat and I'm resistant to extreme cold because of our parents. We have to go."

That's when I notice she also has her bow and arrows strapped to her back.

"Oh no!" I exclaim. "I don't want you out there while you're sick."

"I'm not sick!" She yells back. Although her face convulses and the next second she's throwing up into the bucket.

I rub her back gently. It seemed to calm her down, and it felt really good to have a genuine excuse to touch her. She sits back up with a slight tainted smile on her face.

"Okay, I'm sick. But I have to help." She looked determined and I know that there's no way I'll be able to stop her if she wants to go.

"Alright." I agree. "But don't you get hurt, or I'll have to rescue you."

She smiles. "I won't need you Sr. Knight. I can hold my own."

"We'll see." I smile and then lean down to kiss her gently.

We exit the cabin and rush smack into a full blown battle. Phoenix had been right about the monsters. They looked like something straight out of a nightmare. Or out of the depths of hell. You take your pick.

The monsters were either like blobs of an element, or they had some vague shape to them, as if they were trying to imitate some form.

I glance at Phoenix and then we both charge into battle. She doesn't use her arrows often, but when she does they fly straight and true into a monster. The monster then disappears in a flash of light and Phoenix collects her arrow.

Mostly we use our swords. We attack left and right, always covering each others backs. Briefly it crosses my mind that I'm finally getting that fight with Phoenix, although we're on the same side now. Our war with the monsters is almost like a dance.

We twirl around each other, defeating the monsters and protecting each other. A jab here, a strike over there, a jump, kick or punch. The entire thing was like magic.

A glance at Phoenix erases all the worry I had about her. She was indeed, holding her own, and still managed to look kick-ass beautiful. I smile when she looks at me and smiles. This girl was mine.

We fight for a long time. Our movements become automatic. We fight without thinking. The monsters just seem to keep coming and coming. I was starting to become tired, and I could tell Phoenix was too.

Suddenly, Chiron comes over. It still amazes me that he was a centaur. He grabs me and Phoenix and hauls us onto his back. The he gallops out of the fight and drops us off by a bunch of other demigods that are resting.

We collapse from exhaustion. Someone gives us water and we gratefully chug it down. I watch Phoenix, grateful that she doesn't seem like she's going to throw up. She was right; doing things did keep her occupied. I have to admit that a number of things to do with her cross my mind even though we're in the middle of a battle.

I quickly shake my head of these thoughts. I had to concentrate. We were in the middle of a battle.

Suddenly Phoenix grabs my shoulders. "Lucius!" She yells of the roar of the battle.

"What?" I yell back.

"The prophecy!"

"What about it?" I don't see why this was a big deal right now.

"It's the reason this is happening!"

"What?"

Calmly, she repeats the prophecy. "Two half-bloods born of dark and light

Enemies the Son of Dawn and Daughter of Night

Appearances are naught but an illusion

Elements destruction over unneeded confusion

To storm or fire, the world must fall

If the truth is not told to all"

"I don't get it!" I yell at her, again in order to be heard above the ruckus.

"Don't you see? The first two lines, they refer to us! That we're supposed to be enemies! But the third lines, Appearances are naught but an illusion: it refers to the illusion of hatred, because we love each other! And the elements destruction, that's because of the confusion. Everyone thinks that we hate each other, when we don't! Storm or fire, they refer to the sun and the moon! Which are our parents! They're going to destroy the world if we don't tell everyone!"

That actually made sense. "Alright! But how are we going to tell everyone? We're still in the middle of a battle!"

She looks around and then stands on a chair. Then she yells out on the top of her lungs. "I'm in love with Lucius!"

Only a few people seem to hear, and none of the monsters disappear. She gets down from the chair and the rain seems to pelt down even harder. Then something hard hits my head. I look up and notice that it's begun hailing.

"What are we going to do?" I yell.

Then I see Phoenix's face. Her eyes were shut and it seemed like she was listening to something. She swayed too and fro and looked like she was going to fall.

I grab her. "Phoenix!" I yell out.

Her eyes flicker open. She looks at me with sadness. "I know what I have to do."

I'm about to ask her what, when she leans in and kisses me. Her lips are tender on mine and I taste the salty taste of tears.

She breaks off and I see that she's crying. "I love you Lucius." Then she kisses me passionately one more time and then she runs off into the battle.

Momentarily I'm shocked, but it doesn't take me long to run after her. I see her up ahead, talking to James. She points in my direction and says something to him, but I can't hear. I notice she has a megaphone in one of her hands, and Starlight in the other. James nods and then runs in my direction.

I continue running after her, but James stops me and pins me to the ground.

"Get off me!" I scream at him.

"I can't!" He yelled back. "I promised Phoenix!"

I wrestle with him, trying to throw him off. My broken hand still throbs and I suddenly think it's a miracle I could have used it earlier. James on the other hand, has better control oh his busted hand and is able to keep me on the ground.

"What did you promise her?" I yell at him.

"To make sure you didn't stop her!" I catch a glimpse of his face and notice that he's crying too.

Horror floods my heart and body. "What is she going to do?" I scream.

Suddenly I hear her voice carry out though the entire camp. "Attention everyone!"

Miraculously, everyone does stop. Even the monsters stop. Everyone stands there listening to what she has to say. I manage to get to my feet, but James holds me still.

Phoenix seems nervous for a second. She's up on the hill by the Golden Fleece, and I can tell she's concentrating really hard. She must be zapping everyone's emotions so that they wouldn't fight and would listen to her.

"I need to say something!" She's yelling through the megaphone so her voice carries farther.

"I'm in love with Lucius Masterfield! The son of my mother's sworn enemy!" She takes a deep breath. "My mom and his are using the earth's elements to try and destroy the world because of me."

She pauses, and I can't help but be a slight bit proud of her. Phoenix had gotten over her stuttering problem. I would miss that.

Then she says something that completely wipes any thought from my mind. "Mother, you'd better be listening! Please, stop the fighting! I offer you myself as a peace deal."

She drops the megaphone on the ground and then seems to look straight at me. I can see that her lips make out the words 'I love you'. The she takes Starlight and plunges it into her heart.