Page 47 of Goddess of Storms

"Oh, sweet sister, I will get what I want. Once I have knocked you out, next I will do the same to your men, but theirs will be permanent." He smirks.

"You can't even keep your footing with my mini cyclone. How can you match my powers?" I ask.

"There is more to fighting than weapons, Harper," he remarks.

Then there is a scream of pain, and my guard and wind falls as I see the large gash on Nile's leg. He grips the wound now dripping blood but continues to fight on.

Hermes is now in my face as I turn back towards him. He took a hilt of his sword and hit me in the temple with it. Stars blur my vision, but I zap him with a blast of lightning and he flies back from me.

"You little bitch, you really zapped me."

"I'm not a tease, when I promise I deliver. Besides, you think you can hit me in the head with your sword and I'm just going to take it? I told you, you'll never have me."

I glance at a solider creeping up on my left and I zap him, blasting him back into a dumpster. "You're next," I motion to Hermes. "We can stop this now or I'm going to have to ruin your face, too. I know how much you love it."

His hands raise to his face, "You wouldn't dare."

"I told you that the only thing that will stop me is our father. You need to be taught a lesson. If marring up your face is what gets it through your skull then so be it."

In the palm of my hand, I hold on to the bolt, it is small but it grows with each step I take towards him.

"Sister, we can talk about this," he whines.

"You better pray to our father, he will be the only one that can take this blast and live on."

"Father, I'm sorry. Please don't let Harper destroy me. I just wanted someone to love me. Is that a bad thing? Please save me, father."

Harper

Raising my hand towards my brother, I know that my bolt hits my mark as he howls out in agony. I don’t let his pain deter me, I promised to punish him if he wouldn’t let me go. He didn’t, so I don’t have any guilt about this.

He begs me to stop.

“That’s funny coming from you. You begging me, I asked you to let me go and you refused. This is justice for the years of hiding and not being with my family or my men. I told you that I wouldn't stop until our father ordered me to. I don't see Zeus here to save you, brother. Maybe your guilt is finally getting to you."

He howls again and then there is a hand on my shoulder, then another and Stone in my view. "Harper, it's time to stop." His voice is calm, and unnervingly so.

Phoenix and Nile agree from behind me.

"You need to stop, I think he got your point," Nile whispers behind me.

"I can't, I won't back down. He needs to pay for what he did to me, to us," I plead with them.

Phoenix runs a finger on my cheek. "He has, he lost. He doesn't have you, we do. The lesson you taught him will be etched on his face for the rest of his life. There'll not be a day he doesn't remember that you took action and your life back from his control."

I have the bolt shimmer and it fades.

"That's our girl," Nile says, squeezing my shoulder.

The three of them envelope me in a hug and I cry. They are tears for taking what was mine back and that I didn't lose it all in the process.

Peeking over Stone's shoulder, I watch as Hermes holds his face and scurries away from the four of us. I don't say a word, but the look on his face tells me it's over.

Stone sweeps me off of my feet, "First stop, a pharmacy to patch you three up and then a month-long vacation?"

"Sounds good to me," I reply, leaning into his chest. "Somewhere with water."

"Well, good thing we know a captain," Phoenix remarks.

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