Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus Read Free

here?’
    Pegasus gently nudged her and led her back towards Jupiter’s palace to find Vesta.

    Emily spent a long afternoon back in the Temple of the Flame struggling to learn how to master her powers.
    Vesta patiently explained how to pull back the flame, to control it. But every time Emily summoned the powers, they became uncontrollable, and flames shot wildly from her hands and around the Temple.
    ‘I can’t do it,’ Emily complained, defeated.
    ‘Child, you must focus,’ Vesta scolded. ‘I can see your mind is elsewhere. If you are not careful, you will lose control of your powers completely and hurt yourself as you did earlier today.’
    Emily’s eyes shot over to where Pegasus stood at the entrance of the Temple. He lowered his head guiltily. He must have told Vesta about her burning her own foot.
    ‘Thanks, Pegs,’ she muttered.
    ‘Do not blame Pegasus for telling me what happened,’ Vesta said. ‘He cares about you and does not wish to see you harmed.’ Vesta rested her hands on Emily’s shoulders. ‘Emily, you must understand. You are the living Flame of Olympus. Your power feeds the flame here in this Temple and it keeps us alive. Countless generations ago, I took the heart of the Flame to your world and hid it in a child. It has passed from girl to girl throughout the ages until it finally reached you. You were born with this power. I am sorry that we have had to summon it from within you to save Olympus. But the moment you sacrificed yourself in this Temple you changed. Emily, you carry the power of the sun deep within you. If you do not harness these powers soon, you may do yourself and everyone around you a great harm.’
    Emily looked down at her burned sandal. She already knew how dangerous her powers were. She had accidentally burned up enough items in her quarters to prove it. It was reaching the point where she was running out of secret hiding places for the singed victims of her powers.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she finally said. ‘I’ll try harder.’
    Turning back to the plinth, she looked into the brightly burning flames. They were fed by her and were the only things in Olympus her powers couldn’t damage.
    ‘All right,’ Vesta said patiently. ‘Look into the flames. I want you to focus on what you intend to do. Visualize yourself doing it. Then concentrate and carefully release the power within yourself.’
    Emily lifted both her hands and concentrated. She imagined that she was a giant blowtorch and turning on the gas. She felt prickles start in her stomach and flow up her spine and flood down her raised arms towards her hands. ‘Come on, Em,’ she muttered to herself. ‘You can do it.’
    Suddenly a wide, wild stream of fire shot out of her fingertips.
    ‘Very good. Now concentrate,’ Vesta instructed. ‘Control the stream, Emily. Make it tighter.’
    Emily held her breath as the raging flames shot out of her hands. Concentrating as Vesta taught her, she pulled back and refined them until they became a narrow beam of red light. But the tighter she pulled back, the more intense it became.
    The beam of light shot through the flames in the plinth and across the Temple until it hit the far wall. It did not stop. It burned a narrow hole right through the thick white marble and continued out into the sky over Olympus.
    ‘Cut it off now, Emily,’ Vesta warned. ‘Just think stop !’
    In her head, Emily imagined shutting off the gas to the blowtorch. But nothing happened. She mentally turned all the dials and flicked all the switches that controlled her powers. But once again, the beam would not stop.
    ‘Cut it off, Emily,’ Vesta cried. ‘You must make it obey you!’
    Emily tried again and again, but nothing happened. As her panic increased, so did the intensity of the laser-like flame. It pulsated as it tore through the skies over Olympus.
    ‘I CAN’T STOP IT!’
    A sudden blow from behind sent her tumbling forward and she fell to the floor. With her concentration broken, the