The Forge King

by Jovee Winters

  13

  Hephaestus

  Today I brought her a fiery ember from my eternal flame that I’d made some slight alterations to, if one knew where to look. I didn’t know why, other than seeing her fire the other day had made me think that maybe Aphrodite would enjoy it as I did.

  Fire could destroy, but fire could also create something divinely beautiful. Something pure and perfect. Aphrodite had always been like fire to me.

  I placed the floating blue flame upon her throne and waved my fingers through its heat. I didn’t know what I was doing with all these gifts, but I couldn’t speak. And these gifts, they were words.

  Words of contrition. Of mercy. Of begging her forgiveness.

  When she appeared today, she did not look well at all. Still heart-stoppingly beautiful, but there were dark circles under her eyes, and her pearly skin was washed out.

  She had to be nearing the end of her pregnancy, and I wondered if she was unwell because of it.

  I swallowed hard, fingers flexing as I wished for the umpteenth time that I could go to her. But as always, I could not.

  Themis walked into the great hall, and I shook my head. I looked at Aphrodite and only at her. She’d ignored my fire today.

  She’d merely stood there. And finally, Hades had been forced to take it away before she’d sat down.

  No matter how much I looked at her, though, she would not meet my eyes.

  I shuddered.

  “And so it resumes,” Themis intoned, and the colors shifted, and the room became something else, but I did not care.

  The only thing I cared about hated me, and she had every right to do so. Every right in the world.

  Aphrodite

  * * *

  Caly had been right. It was a shit show.

  I was abominable.

  A monster.

  Dressing him up like a court jester and parading him through the balls I’d known he’d hated. Calling him my ape. My monkey boy, created just to serve me.

  Tossing bananas at him and smirking at the cacophony of laughter my awful mockery had elicited from the others.

  The hate I’d felt for him had been so palpable, so thick that tears rolled down my cheeks from shame.

  I kept telling myself it wasn’t me. That wasn’t me. But it was me.

  I’d never been quite so cruel, but I’d not always been with him as I was now. And being forced to watch my cruelty, so close, I knew that deep inside of me, there was a part of me that could be just as mean-spirited and ugly as that bitch had been.

  She’d taken a different path in life than I had. She’d never made honest and true friends who’d helped her grow and mature and learn that she was so much more than she’d believed herself capable of. She’d only been consumed by beauty and passion, and in her constant pursuit for more and more of it, she’d grown ruthless and forbidding. Her arrogant pride, that was also as fragile as spun glass. If that Dite had ever even perceived an insult—whether intended or not—she’d become a raging ball of petty vindictiveness that knew no bounds.

  I’d hear her laugh, so like my own, when she’d force him to bed others in front of her. Giving him the impossible task of forcing him to make at least a hundred orgasm before he could take her. But of course, he never could. And she never had to feel his touch. She grew colder, each act more brutal than the last, until one day, I saw her look down upon him as if he weren’t simply just beneath her, but nothing at all. And what I couldn’t fathom, couldn’t understand, was why she’d clung to the obviously fake marriage as she had.

  It was clear she held no esteem for her chosen mate, so why stay? Why torture him? But more than that, what did she hope to gain by keeping him on such a tight leash? I knew myself well enough to know that she’d only have stayed if she’d benefitted in some way.

  But why the games? The constant torment of him? Parading him around, forcing him to endure such anguish? Why? She’d do terrible things like steal his legs away right before company came, hiding them from him so that he’d be forced to interact with others in a way that she knew would burn him up with shame. She’d willingly joined in Hera’s sport of him.

  I felt my stomach churning. Felt the leftover ambrosia turn sour inside of me. The children were quiet, as if they sensed their mother’s distress.

  I hugged them tight, trembling all over as I watched myself perform fellatio upon a rock dwarf, forcing Hephaestus to watch as I moaned and writhed, telling the dwarf that he was so good. So amazing. Knowing that I must have done that because I was not so subtly comparing my powerful beast to that little fellow.

  How dare she?

  How fucking dare she?

  On and on it went. And I heard laughter from the others around us. Just as it had been before. They loved the sport at his expense. It was all they knew. All any of them had ever known. Even Ares, who’d once been so protective of his brother, had sometimes been known to scorn and mock him too.

  Hephaestus was easy to torment because he’d always been too willing to take it. Why couldn’t they see what I always had? That if he should ever dare to end them, to move against them, none could really stop him.

  Maybe Ares. And even Zeus. But they were it. And they’d have to join forces to come against his might.

  He was so powerful. But he did not appear to them to be so because he did not even recognize his own strength.

  I watched him as he took a leather paddle to the backside of a woman who looked in some ways like me. Nowhere near as beautiful. But she had the blond hair. The blue eyes. The amazing figure. I’d stood there and laughed as he’d begged me to make him stop.

  He was covered in a netting of glittering pink.

  My powers. I used my powers against him. And that was as good as rape. Rain poured through his eyes as he made mush of the woman’s backside, and all around us, their vile laughter echoed through the rafters.

  I was sick. Dizzy. Furious.

  I could not bear this. I could not take this. There was ringing in my ears. A hot churning in my body.

  Themis’s power held me fast, but flames were licking at my body. Curling outward from me. Moving against her power. Moving and consuming it. She’d not really used her full power against me, and that was her first mistake.

  I heard the soft murmurings as those nearest me began to notice, but then the mumbles grew louder and louder as I became the towering inferno. That deadly beautiful fire that would kill and consume if I allowed it.

  And with a scream, I sent that fire outward, tearing down the walls of Themis’s unholy grip that kept me sealed to that seat, and finally freed of the shackles, I stood and glared at them all. Banishing that damned memory with a snap of my wrist. My tongue was not my own. I could not speak.

  But I could scream. And I did. I screamed with all my might, shaking the beams above us. The ground beneath us.

  Scattering the vultures like the pathetic creatures that they were.

  And when it was spent and I had no more, I fell into Caly’s arms, as weak as a newborn kitten, my fire all but extinguished now.

  Themis stood silent before me, her mouth pulled down into a tight frown. And I didn’t care. I just didn’t care.

  I could not stand to look at Hephaestus, though I felt his gaze like a fist to my gut.

  But I did not want to see the hate in his eyes after reliving such a nightmare. No wonder he’d set me aside. I would have done the same. Without a second’s hesitation. Why had he stayed with her? No amount of love could have fixed the wicked that was her.

  And that awful churning in my gut, I could no longer contain it. I ran out of Caly’s arms, uncaring who saw me get sick.

  I was a wreck. I had to get away. I would pay for what I’d done this day. But I couldn’t stand for them to gawk at his misfortunes, not even another second.

  I would do it again. A thousand times if I had to.

  Even if he didn’t love me anymore, Hephaestus’s pain was mine to guard. To cherish. To protect.

  Wi
th an angry swipe, I tore open a travel tunnel, and I didn’t look at Caly or Hades or anyone else. Because I couldn’t. Because if I did, I would break. And I was done being broken.

  So done.

  Hephaestus

  * * *

  She’d rejected my eternal flame, and yet she’d very nearly destroyed the great hall. And I knew she’d done it only for me.

  Was there still love in there? Was that love? Or something else?

  Gods above, what I wouldn’t give to know.

  I’d looked for Ares today, but he’d left as soon as she had, wearing a troubled look on his face and a dark gleam in his fathomless eyes and that made me worried for her. Because if he didn’t figure out a way to end this soon, then she’d see even worse than what she’d seen today.

  Aphrodite had been like a lioness the way she’d roared and screamed with such beautiful and agonizing rage. It had shredded my heart in two and had filled me with such warmth and tenderness toward her that I felt lost and confused and so damn fucking scared.

  Why had she protected me like that?

  I did not think my love for Dite could have ever blazed into existence again. I’d halfway feared that she’d killed even the last dregs of it off in me. But this wasn’t my Dite. This was a different one.

  A better one.

  The perfect one.

  And I was madly and so completely in love with her all over again, it was absolutely pathetic.

  I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. My palms and fingers itched to create, to make her something beautiful. But she’d rejected my fire. And I could only reason that meant she wanted no more gifts.

  And yet when she’d looked at me this morning, dressed as I’d been, I’d felt her desire coil around me like the tail of a charmed snake. I had no idea what that beautiful soul saw in me, and yet I was a greedy bastard because I wanted so much more of it.

  It was as though I’d been fashioned to love her and only her, but I’d been waiting for the right version. I simply hadn’t known it then. Because no matter how hard I’d tried to turn it off, to shut her out, I never completely could.

  As cruel and callous as she’d been, I’d always loved her, even knowing she did not deserve my love, so fucking willing to take whatever scraps of kindness she’d so very rarely shown me.

  Because I’d always known deep down that I could never actually love another but her. I was cursed to want her, to esteem her above all else. No matter what she’d done to me or how hurtful she’d been, it had only ever been her.

  But I’d been like a cornered and rabid animal when this Dite had one day appeared. I remembered the day very well.

  We’d long since stopped sharing a bed. And when I was at my forge, we could go weeks without seeing one another. It’d been a shock when she’d suddenly appeared there, with fire burning in her eyes and a smile upon her beautiful face. My name upon her tongue.

  I’d been so shocked, I’d merely stared at her.

  “Hephaestus.” I could still hear the echo of her voice from that moment. “I’m here, my love. I’m—”

  I shuddered.

  I’d roared at her. So discombobulated by her actions, knowing what I’d known, what I’d caught her in the act of doing just the week prior. And that love that’d turned to bitterness and almost hate had come pouring out of me. I’d sent her running, telling her I never wanted to see her again. That she’d betrayed me for the last time.

  The tears that’d poured out of her, the way she’d trembled and had turned as white as a sheet, I’d never forget. She looked like a woman who’d been broken and betrayed by the one thing she’d loved most in the world.

  I’d not believed it, any of it. And yet I could honestly say that I knew she was not the same from that day on. I’d seen her acts of kindness. The smiles she’d give to those who did not deserve it. The sweetness in her tone that had never been there before when she’d spoken. Her words so eloquent and thoughtful. There’d been a truthful sincerity to her that I’d despised, only because I’d yearned so badly that it might be real. But I’d been so snakebitten that all I seemed capable of doing was lashing out, refusing to accept it was more than just another one of her cruel mind games.

  Guarding my heart and soul as best I could because only she could utterly destroy me. I’d been so blinded by that fear that I’d failed to realize none of it had been an act with her. But she’d just kept trying. Kept returning back to me. Telling me that she didn’t know who she’d once been, but that she was only mine now, if I would have her.

  A wounded-animal sound vibrated off of me, and I roared to the skies. She’d tried so hard to make me see her. And it had been me that’d failed her most of all. But it was so hard to see that beautiful body and reconcile that it wasn’t the same person. Even now, to my everlasting shame, I had to work at remembering that it wasn’t the same person. Because that beautiful body had also been the very one that’d unmanned me far too many times, had stripped me of any ounce of pride or dregs of dignity I’d still possessed. The other Aphrodite had very nearly destroyed me.

  But this one did nothing but protect me. Time and again.

  She was my goddess. My true goddess. The only female I’d been destined to love.

  I closed my eyes and laid my head down on that hard, unyielding surface, and I dreamed of her as I knew now I would always dream of her.

  And when morning came, I was both sick and excited. Because I liked Dite’s memories. I loved living in them. Feeling them. Feeling her.

  I stared at myself in the mirror. Still a beast but no longer feeling quite like a monster.

  She might never want me back, but her memories had restored something in me I’d not realized I needed until now.

  She’d given me back my pride yesterday. And whether she accepted any more of my gifts or not, I took something from off the bench. Something small. So small, in fact, that most people would very easily overlook it. I tucked it into my breast pocket and turned.

  When I got to the hall, it was already packed to the rafters. Rafters that had been rebuilt overnight, not by me, but the job had been done well enough.

  I could feel the humming buzz of excitement through the room like currents of electricity running over my skin.

  Dite would be returning soon, and then I’d be forced away from her. I placed the little bird upon her throne. A dove fashioned from the purest diamond in the heavens. It sparkled every color of pink.

  Her favored color. I bit my bottom lip and began to turn, when I felt the power of air being squeezed behind me. And I knew, even before Themis’s power physically hauled my ass to my side of the hall, that it would be Dite.

  The crowd grew hushed, expectant. The excitement was palpable.

  Dare I think it, even reverent.

  Aphrodite had always been known as a vain and silly goddess, but she’d done the extraordinary yesterday, and her legend would only grow from that act of defiance. And that she’d done so for me. My heart quivered.

  She looked better today than she had yesterday. Her hair was long and free. It was all she wore. Not a stitch of clothing was on her body, exposing the voluptuous swell of her body to all.

  Heat flooded my veins. Blood coursed south, filling my body and making me stiff and hard. Painfully hard.

  Gods above, she was beautiful. And it didn’t matter how many times I’d seen her body… each and every time was another revelation. Another discovery.

  Her breasts were large and heavier than I’d remembered them being. Her nipples bright pink.

  I groaned. And I knew I was not the only one affected. All eyes were on her.

  I’d never minded for any of them to look upon her. Because when you had something so beautiful in your possession, it was only fair to share that type of beauty with the rest of the world.

  Her eyes looked haunted as they stared back at me. I wasn’t sure when she’d picked up the dove, but she held the tiny treasure in her hand. Her long blond lashes flickered like paint st
rokes upon her smooth cheeks, and then she sat. Causing her hair to cascade around her prettily.

  There wasn’t a thing she did that wasn’t pretty. I stared at her with all the longing in my heart, uncaring who saw it or laughed at me for it.

  I was falling fast and hard all over again for the female I’d once had the privilege of calling bride.

  Themis stepped forward. “Before we proceed, there is a matter that must be attended to. Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus’s seed, you have been charged with reckless endangerment, destruction of property, and contempt. How do you plead?”

  And the voice I’d not heard in days came out of her softly and dulcetly and so fucking beautifully that I felt the rain in my eyes.

  “Guilty,” she said, her eyes hooking mine and never letting go. I swallowed hard, knowing what came next would not be pleasant.

  Themis nodded once, and the scales of justice tipped. “So mote it be.”

  Aphrodite grunted, lifting high up on her toes as a deep and flaming-red brand marked her chest right between her gorgeous breasts.

  I grunted, tugging on the invisible binds that kept my feet cemented to the ground. The scent of sizzling flesh offended my nostrils.

  Gasps buzzed all around us.

  Dite was covered in sweat and glistening like a buffed diamond. In her hand, she still gripped the swan tight. My little dove was in obvious pain, and something inside of me snapped.

  I growled and began to tug on my invisible restraints.

  “Hephaestus, be still!” Themis warned as the walls around us began to tremor. There was a collective cry from the others. I felt their eyes upon me. Fear exuded from their pores. I’d been called a beast and worse in life, but this time, I felt like one too.

  I had to get to her. Had to hold her. Comfort her. How dare they mark her? How fucking dare they!

  And just as I was about to break through Themis’s wards, I saw her, looking at me, panting and white around the mouth, but she never made a sound. She only shook her head.

  Telling me softly, gently, to be at ease.