Ebony Wings: Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Aidan

Aidan came to with a shrieking pain from his left shoulder. He felt the burning pain in shoulder. This time he heard himself scream.

He felt tears gather in his eyes and that woke him up. He couldn't cry, not here and not now. She was still amongst the shadowmen wasn't he? That's why he was in pain. They were torturing him in some way.

"Hold him down!"

"I can't, he's too strong."

Aidan blinked hard to try and get rid of his tears that were clouding his sight. He fought back harder against their grips.

"Relax Aidan." He heard a pleasant voice say.

Somehow that voice covered him like blanket, almost like a gentle caress. He felt himself relax, following the voices command.

"Eat this." A voice said as it stuffed something into his mouth. He began chewing on it slowly, finally being able to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was Zed in the distance, fighting the shadowmen. "Z" He tried to say but the action of chest compression hurt.

He felt someone run their fingers through his hair. He was pretty sure words followed them but we wasn't listening, he was still watching Zed fight. Aidan watched him cut through an enemy as a previously fallen enemy came back to life.

"Ze-" Aidan managed to say louder. He was trying to warm him or at least notify the people who were arguing around him that Zed was in trouble.

He felt warm fill his entire body as he swallowed the thing that the boy had told him to eat. He remembered this taste, it was ambrosia; food of the gods. It was meant to heal him he guessed the heat was just a side effect.

Aidan felt the pain in his shoulder subside a bit as the ambrosia did it's work. He couldn't relax though because one the shadowmen that had just gotten up was sneaking towards Zed, who was still distracted by the enemies in front of him.

"Zed." Aidan managed to say louder because his chest didn't hurt as much anymore. Why wasn't anyone listening to him?

The shadowman that was sneaking up to Zed had a pink stripe in his hair, a few strands that covered his face. The darkness molded itself into a spear. Pink-stripe raised it as Zed pulled his sword out of another shadowman's guts.

"Zed!" Aidan finally got his voice back, getting to his feet and then he ran.

He closed the distance fast but he was still too late. Pink-stripe lunged his spear straight into Zed's chest. Zed let out a cry of pain that pulsed through the night.

"No!" Aidan rushed forward aiming to tackle Pink-stripe but the shadowman side-stepped and then shoved Aidan to the ground.

Aidan tried to get up to fight but Pink-stripe gave a exagerated bow and then walked away with the rest of the shadowmen that had gotten up.

Aidan was about to pursue them but Zed croaked, "Ai-Aidan."

"Zed!" Aidan turned and dropped to the child of Ares's side. "Damn." The spear of darkness was still imbedded in his chest. "We'll get this out. Hang on." Aidan wrapped both fingers around the spear, aiming to pull it out.

However the minute he touched the darkness, it dissolved. Turning into small shadows and crept up Aidan's arms and into his sleeves.

"What the-" He started to say but Zed coughed and his attention was brought back immediately to his fallen friend.

"Hey buddy." Zed gave a strained smile as he coughed out blood.

"Shut up, don't talk." Aidan looked around desperately. "Help! Help! Anybody, Zed he's-"

"That's enough of that Aidan." Zed reached up and grabbed Aidan shirt. "Got a-" He coughed and took in a deep breath, his chest made an awful wheezing sound as he did that. "Punctured lung. You don't walk out of that easily."

"I said shut up!" Aidan put his arms under the boy's neck and knees. Aidan tried to carry him but Zed put all his weight down so Aidan couldn't.

"Stop with the heroics-" Zed coughed up blood on Aidan's shirt. "I'm- done for. No need to care about me."

Aidan shook his head. "You can't- Cecelia, she'll-"

Zed reached for the sharktooth necklace around his head. "Yeah I know about her- you don't have to tell me. I'm a dead man anyway." Zed put the necklace in Aidan's hand. "Hey, even when things settle down and you become do your own thing- remember me alright? There's nothing worse of a punishment for warrior than to be forgetten." Zed coughed again which led to a very bad vomitting of blood.

"Wow. I never thought that I would die like this-" Zed coughed and wheezed again.

"Zed!" Cecelia reached them and knelt down beside Aidan.

"Hey sis-" Zed coughed. "Sucks huh?"

"No-" Cecelia sobbed. "Don't go please."

Zed smiled. He tried to open his mouth to say something but he stopped half way, releasing a sigh as he passed on.

"Zed? Zed!" Cecelia shook him. "No-" She covered her mouth to hide the sob she was holding in.

Aidan bit his lip in an attempt to quell his sadness. He couldn't cry, not now.

Aidan felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at the face that it belonged too. Mike looked down at him with his hard and guarded green eyes.

"If you don't want to be sad, then get mad." Mike said, pointed at the crowd of Shadowmen with his chin.

Silena appeared beside then dropped Aidan's sword in his lap. "Come on, we got people to fight."

Aidan grit his teeth and scanned the battlefield searching for Pink-stripe. He found him fighting a child of Athena; the demigods of Camp Half-Blood had begun switching out the more injured demigods with more fresh ones.

Which just meant that more of them were going to die.

Aidan grabbed his sword and stood up. He imagined the blade getting longer, extending itself to full length. Arbiter turned itself into it's true form. The Glaive seemed to pulse with power, creating a steady beat with the pulse.

The weird part was that Aidan was sure than the pulsing matched his own pulse.

Aidan put Zed's sharktooth necklace in Cecelia's hand. "Stay out of trouble."

(WIP)