Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus Read Free Page B

unable to face Diana. ‘Where are you going to lock me away?’
    Diana frowned. ‘Lock you away? Child, why would we do that?’
    Emily’s emotions started to well up. ‘Because I’m dangerous and I hurt Pegasus.’
    ‘Oh, Emily.’ Diana pulled her into a tight embrace. ‘No one is going to imprison you. Your powers got away from you, that is all. It has happened to all of us. We just did not expect to find your tears quite so potent.’
    ‘My tears?’ Emily sniffed. ‘I don’t understand.’
    Diana explained that the amphitheatre caretaker had watched her run to the stage and saw how the flick of her tears had caused an explosion that shook all of Olympus. He was far enough away to be hurt, but not killed. However, the blast did destroy the theatre and create a huge crater. Pegasus finally found her suspended high in a tree several kilometres away.
    ‘I-I don’t understand,’ Emily said. ‘My tears caused an explosion?’
    Diana nodded. ‘We do not really understand either. When the Flame emerged from you, Vesta said their full powers would be released. But she never expected them to be this potent. Even your tears are filled with the power of the sun.’
    She couldn’t even cry without hurting herself or everyone around her! Every day was getting worse and worse. She was no longer a person, a girl with a bright future ahead of her. She had become a nuclear bomb waiting to go off.
    ‘I don’t want it,’ she finally said in a whisper. ‘I don’t want any of these powers. I didn’t ask for them. I just want my old life back with my dad.’
    ‘I am sorry, but you do not have a choice,’ Diana said. ‘You were born with the Flame. It is part of you. But I promise, you can learn to control it. Do not fight your powers, Emily. Embrace them and accept them as your allies, not your enemy.’
    ‘And if I can’t learn?’ Emily asked.
    ‘You must,’ Diana said as she stood and crossed to the door. ‘Rest now. You will feel better soon.’
    Emily doubted she would ever feel good again. She climbed stiffly from her bed and walked over to one of the windows. She sat on the ledge and quietly watched the activity below, just like she used to do from her apartment window in New York.
    But this wasn’t Manhattan she was looking out over, with its heavy traffic, police sirens, crowds and shops. It was Olympus. The light breeze blowing through her hair was sweet and warm, not polluted like New York’s smoggy air. She watched winged Olympians and large birds soaring together in the clear blue sky. Butterflies the size of cars fluttered around, playing a kind of tag with some young children. Down in the square, centaurs and giants walked and talked together as casually as people would in her own world. Everywhere she looked, Emily saw amazing things. But watching the world below only added to the feeling that things would never be normal again.
    ‘Dad, where are you?’ she said miserably. Emily no longer grieved over the death of her mother. Somehow in this strange and wondrous world, she always felt her mother’s presence hovering near, as though all she needed to do was reach out to touch her. It was her father who occupied all her waking moments. His rescue now seemed impossible. How could she help him if she couldn’t even help herself? She was a dangerous monster – unable to cry without the fear of hurting or killing someone.
    Lost in misery, Emily was unaware of time passing until she heard a gentle knock at her door.
    ‘Emily?’ a deep voice called. ‘May we enter?’
    Emily reached for her robe. ‘Come in.’
    She was surprised to see Jupiter enter her room. Although she, Joel and Paelen lived in his massive marble palace, she only ever saw him at mealtimes. But even then, those banquets were so big and noisy, she never got to speak with him. He had never been to her quarters and the one time she did manage to speak privately with him was when she’d begged him to let her return to New York to