134

❤️ Phoenix Story ❤️

"I don't believe you," Kira said with crease brows. "Tell me who you are right now."

"I just told you who I am, my love." Edgardo said, shaking with laughter at Kira's angry face. "And you still don't believe me."

"Storm only has two brothers which I know of," Kira said, lifting the sword so that it came in contact with his chest. "Just because you look and talk just like him doesn't make you his brother." She added not believing a word. What does he take her for, a child with no brain?

"Let me get this straight, Juno, this can't stop me," Edgardo said, touching the tip of the sword that was pressed against his chest which disappeared from her grip in a twinkle of an eye. "And I am Storm's brother, his elder brother. We are from the same father and mother." he added carefully.

"I find that very hard to believe." Kira told him with a twisted mouth. It is not possible. Storm could have told her. "Try something else, something more believable this time around." she added.

"If you don't know the full story, don't just conclude." Edgardo said softly. "You see, Ariadne and Phoenix were once married and I was born afterwards." He added, smiling.

"What? Does that mean Storm isn't illegitimate as I was made to believe?" Kira asked with her mouth open wide.

"I am not talking about Storm, my love, I am talking about me. Leave him out of our conversation," Edgardo said with gritted teeth. How can she be talking of another man in his presence, but he smiled nevertheless at her. "You are beautiful when you are angry, my love." He added, throwing a kiss at her direction.

"Don't call me that, I am not your love," Kira said, gagging at those words.

"You are, you've always been Juno, you just don't know that yet," he said, closing the distance between them and pulling Kira abruptly to his body, ignoring her attempt to get away from him. "I have been patiently waiting for this moment to have you in my arms. I have always been nice to your mother even when others fear me, I know she would give birth to triplets and I choose you my love. I have been watching you since Juno and believe me my love for you is still intact so count yourself lucky to be worthy of my love, of me." he added with his chin up.

"You are sick in the head." Kira gasps out.

"Yes Juno, I have been sick for a long time and you are my cure," Edgardo said and pecked her on her forehead, lingering there for a minute, breathing in her scent ans loving it.

"Let go of me this minute, you have no right to touch me." Kira said with lower eyebrows.

"I have every fuck.ing right to do so my love. Like I have told you, I have been patiently waiting to have you in my arms. I can't wait to have you under me while you scream in pleasure and in my name. Once everything is over and under my reign you will have everything, I will fulfill every of your wishes and need." Edgardo promised.

"You can start right now by letting us go." Kira said as she stopped struggling against his body. He was strong, she can see that now.

"That can never happen sweetheart. I won't let go of you not when I have you in my arms. No one can take you away from me." Edgardo told her.

"Why? Don't you know by doing this you are making me hate you more and more." Kira said with a flushed face.

"Oh you will come to love me with time, I will soon have all the time in the world to change your mind about me."

"I need Storm himself and not you. He will find me and kill you."

Edgardo smirks. "He doesn't know what he is up against and besides I needed you out of the way first to get my plan in motion." he told her. "Don't worry sweetheart, I will let you attend his funeral and let you shed a little tears for him if that will satisfy you."

"I will be attending yours instead." Kira gritted out.

Edgardo opened his mouth to say something but shut it then closed his eyes and started moving his head side to side. He opened them after a while. "I have to go now my love." he said and kissed her, forcing her mouth. He let go of her when Kira bit his lower lip hard. "Feisty, I like it." he added licking his lips in slow motion. "I can't get enough of you."

"Don't you try this rub.bish with me next time or else I will bite off your lips." Kira warned him.

"I don't have time," Edgardo said and the walls around then began to scatter around, though he made sure none of the stones touched them.

Kira held Gwen hand and blinked when she saw they were no longer in that room but now in a cave.

"This will be where you will be staying for now until everything is settled." Edgardo told her.

"What about food?" Kira asked, not for herself but for her sister. "We can't stay hungry until you are back."

"I never planned for her to come with you. I don't know why you made her follow you to the market. You should have gone alone so don't expect me to bring something for her but for you, I can, my love," Edgardo said. "Besides if you haven't figured out I wasn't the real one we won't be having this conversation."

"Whoever you are, I hate you and I will find a way out of this miserable place."

"You can try your luck but believe me when I say this, you are stuck with me forever and there are no two ways about it." Edgardo told her. "Try to behave yourself while I am gone. And also don't try to shout or scream for help, no one will save you not to talk about hearing you." With that being said he walked out of the cave and when Kira tried to come out of the opening an invisible block prevented her. "See, you can't run away from me again. Take care my love." he said to her and within the blink of an eye he was gone.

Kira screamed as she continued pushing herself against the opening, against the invisible block.

"Juno, stop that, you are hurting yourself," Gwen said behind her. "She said it's no use, we can't get out of here." She added.

Stopping not because of what Gwen had told her but because her body, especially her shoulder and hands are beginning to hurt her.

"She?" She turned around to face her sister, walking to meet her.

Nodding her head, Gwen pointed at her left side and Kira noticed a cell which didn't noticed before. Inside was a woman who looked as if she was going to die at any moment, she was staring at them. Her dark skin made her pause in her movement. She looked so much like Storm and the man who had left them. Was there a connection?

"Who are you? Did he also hold you against your wish?" Kira asked as she regained her composure and walked to the cell instead. "Why didn't I notice her before?" she directed her question to Gwen still not taking her eyes of the dark skinned woman.

"You were busy talking with that man who looked so much like Storm and I was busy surveying the place when I noticed her." Gwen answered with a slight shrug.

"Who are you and why do you look like Storm, I mean he has your color?"

At the mention of his name, Phoenix stood up from where she was sitting and came closer to the iron bar and held it. "How is he? Is he okay?"

"Who? Storm?"

"Yes, Storm."

"He is fine, now who are you? You haven't answered my question."

"I'm Phoenix, his mother." she answered and started coughing.

"You're Storm's mother?" Gwen and Kira asked at the same time. Their eyes widened in shock.

Nodding her head while still coughing and when she was able to control it, she said aloud. "He is my son."

"Then who is that guy that left us? He said his name is Edgardo and he is the elder brother of Storm and I don't believe him one bit even though he looked like him."

"Edgardo is telling the truth, he is also my son." Phoenix drop the bombshell.

"I find this hard to believe, Edgardo and Storm are both your sons? How come? Care to explain because I am hundred percent sure Storm doesn't know he has an older brother not to talk of the one that looks exactly like him." Kira said. "So start talking, how come?"

"Juno, she looks sick, are you sure you want her to-" Gwen began but got Interrupted.

Phoenix nodded head at her. "I'm fine," she said to Gwen and sat down on the floor. "I got married to Ariadne against his father's wish and gave birth to our first son, Edgardo, who became a torn on our flesh. The gods blessed him with powers and he uses that to his advantage, then we didn't know he was born with magic. He was a stubborn child who wants everything and if nothing ever goes his way he either kills or burns that person. It wasn't easy back then to have a child you can't control, and that made us get scared of him. He killed a lot of people, I don't want to even remember the past." She slowly began and stopped to take a deep breath.

"What about the gods, you should have summoned them to take back their gifts, why didn't you?" Kira asked.

"We did, his grandfather did, he summoned the five gods to take back their gifts back from Edgardo and he killed three out of five. He killed and took their powers. He was just twelve years old. It was then we got to know that he was born with magic. The remaining two gods went back and no matter how we called them for help, they turned their back on us. Because he was able to kill three gods and stole their powers, he became a god. When he turned eighteen, he wanted to rule instead of his father and that was when the real trouble began. Dean wanted to rule but because he doesn't have the strongest of the elements, the throne was given to Ariadne but Edgardo stood in the way, just like his father he possesses the element and would take no for an answer. That was when we decided to involve Aelfric and as you can see how it all turned out." Phoenix explained. "We killed him."

"How did he die?" Kira demanded.

"Apparently it seems like everyone wants him dead after he destroyed everything so since I was his mother, a little bit of my blood and Ariadne's own and magic we were to kill him and burn him, then bury his ashes. It was a great war and people lost their lives." Phoenix answered.

"Well, he is still alive and has taken us as a hostage," Kira said. "Are you sure it was the real Edgardo you all killed that day? If he had powers wouldn't he have done something to deceive you all?" she asked.

"That was the real Edgardo, back then he didn't know he could be killed so he carried himself higher than everyone else and we use that to our advantage."

"And somehow he is back and still alive and looks a lot like Storm," Kira said. "What happened after the war? Why did Ariadne get married to Rose and why did you leave?"

"After everything was finally over, Ariadne's father pinned everything on me and told me how my womb was cursed to bring forth a child that had created such havoc. He was somehow right and the people who survived the war started calling me names and of course my skin color wasn't helping instead it made it worse. To have the support of his father and the people, he decided to do as his father said and agreed to marry Rose, I had to leave, I couldn't bear the hurt and pain so I ran away. It was then Dean decided he wanted to create his own kingdom and become an Emperor or else he would wage war on them. Another war was something none of them wanted so Ariadne agreed and divided the Kingdoms into two. Since the whole kingdom wasn't whole again, he decided to name his own side Ashland and Dean named his own Kudarma. To make sure that none of his brother people ever crossed to his own side, he build a wall."

"Then after you ran away, what happened? Didn't he ever come to look for you?" Gwen asked.

"I discovered I was pregnant with Storm but I couldn't tell Ariadne or go back to the Palace. He tried looking for me but I made sure he couldn't find me. I gave birth to Storm all by myself," Phoenix said with proudness. "I didn't want my son isolated from the people because I was living in one of those mountains beside the wall, so I decided to live in Altamon. I took care of my son and make sure no one knows it was us until one day, I sense him." Phoenix told them.

"Sense who?" Kira demanded.

"Edgardo, and I knew he would come for me so I decided to do the right thing and give Storm to his father. If he stays with me he would be in much danger so it was the only way I could protect him. That night when I gave Storm to his father and returned to my place, he was there already, waiting for me. And ever since then I have been staying here. I have been sick and it gets worse when he comes. Most times I wonder if he was the one who made me sick. Well, that's my story." Phoenix finally finished telling her story.

"You've been through a lot, Phoenix and I am sorry about that." Gwen told her sadly.

"It's okay, I'm not dead yet," Phoenix said. "I am grateful to be alive until now." she added.

"So he locked you up here because you were part of what killed him then and he didn't want it to repeat itself?" Kira asks.

"Probably."

"He is so evil to do that to his own mother," Kira said. "I wonder why Storm looks like him.

"Only the Creator knows why. Edgardo is dead to me," Phoenix said. "He wants you Juno, he has been talking about you a lot, non-stop. He is obsessed with you." She added after a while.

"Why me? Why not someone else? Why must it be me."

"He has told your mother that he is going to marry one of her daughters. And he knows who it was. He knows you. But he died after you and your sisters were born and now that he is back, his obsession for you has increased."

"Even though I got to know him recently, I hate him," Kira said in anger. This Edgardo has come to ruin her remaining perfect life. First it was Rumi and now him. Why can't he choose Rumi, they are a perfect fit for each other. "I love Storm and he can't change that."

"What are we going to do?" Gwen asked, even though she was scared a bit, she couldn't stop herself from getting hungry. "I am hungry, we are powerless against this Edgardo, we are at his mercy. I wished one of us had magic, it would have come in handy." she added with a sigh and sat down on the ground.

"What about your mother? Is she still alive?" Phoenix asked.

"She is still alive though she is now caged by Dean for now, she will be out soon." Kira answered. Once she is out of this godforsaken place the first place she is visiting is Kudarma. She will drive a sword through the heart of Dean, because of him, she walked inside the trap of Edgardo. She could have noticed it wasn't the real Storm but she couldn't blame herself, Edgardo really did well on his own part. It was as if he was there when she, Gwen and Storm were discussing. "Well if you must know, Ariadne is dead. He was killed by some assassins."

"I already know that, Edgardo had told me," Phoenix said. "Tell me Juno, how do you meet my son, I mean Storm?"

Sitting down on the ground like them, she smiled. "Well, we met while we were little, we became friends then Rumi separated us and I grew up in Dean palace, I became Dean's lover then he sent me and Kando to Ashland to kill all of the late Emperor children and then I met Storm again, he came with Gwen. Though we had our ups and downs, but we are together now." Kira explained the shorter version.

"Who is Rumi?" Phoenix asked.

"Our sister," Gwen answered. "We discovered we are related. She is the only one who has magic like our father. Me and Juno don't have one."

Kira stood up and gestured with her hands towards Phoenix. "Move back, please."

Phoenix did as she was told. "What are you doing?" she asked when she moved away to the side of the cell.

"Getting you out of there then we have to come up with a plan to trick Edgardo. I won't sit down here and watch him succeed." Kira explained and started kicking the iron bar hard.