by Sotia Lazu
“I know, I know. This will never happen again.” The naked man who walks out is as tall as me, though what I see of his physique without inadvertently ogling his cock is closer to Hermes’ built. The wet blond hair that comes down to his shoulders obscures his face. Focused on the towel he’s fastening around his waist, he swerves right, toward a heap of clothes piled on a rocking chair.
His back is to us, as he pulls on a wrinkled white shirt.
I know his eyes are cornflower blue, though. I know, because I’ve seen them before. Seen him before. Where?
My head hurts. I don’t get headaches. But this pain isn’t unknown. I’ve felt—
A dive in downtown Athens, five years ago, on my birthday. The night I caught Vallia throwing herself at Denny, and went out looking for trouble. This guy told me I reminded him of someone, and I told him to fuck off. He insisted, kept badgering me for my name, and I threw a punch. Used to channel pain and betrayal into anger back then. Into denial, more recently. Anyway, the guy’s aim was better than mine, and I... blacked out? Who the fuck can floor an Olympian?
My scar burns. He’s the one who gave it to me. Probably the one who made me forget, all this time ago. Which means he can’t possibly be human. A Titan we didn’t know about?
“What are you?” I spit out.
He snaps his head up, eyes wide even before his gaze lands on my face. He takes half a step back, and then he blinks between me and Cassandra, putting her behind him. “Cass, go,” he says. “This isn’t safe.”
She sighs and places one hand on his hip, keeping him in place as she steps around him. “Apollo, these guys are your brothers.”
Chapter Nineteen - Hephaestus
“Fuck me. He’s the misplaced progeny.” Ares’ exclamation comes to unravel the tangled thoughts swirling in my head.
Data. That’s what I need. It’s what I can process. And now I have all kinds of it.
Apollo—our lost brother—is here, and he’s the guy who gave me my scar.
My parents died in an explosion.
Cassandra knew both facts and has apparently kept them both secret.
So we have to start with her.
My brothers are asking questions I am not interested in. Who gives a fuck why C couldn’t find Apollo? Cassandra was obviously cloaking him, and she did an awesome job of it, since none of them recognized his immortal signature even when we were in the same apartment. I couldn’t care less if he’s ascended and she’s his soulmate.
Apollo is more interested in asking questions than answering them. How are we all here? How long has Cassandra known? Why did she erase his memory of meeting me?
“Shut up.” My voice doesn’t carry, so I boost it with a mental shove. “Shut up. All of you.”
Six pairs of eyes are on me now, the mouths beneath them mercifully shut.
“You,” I tell Apollo, “get dressed. We can have the family catchup when I know what happened to my parents. And how she’s involved.” I glare at Cassandra, who stares back at me.
“Can’t I get dressed?” she asks. “Sexist.”
Apollo rolls his eyes. With a flick of his wrist, she’s in flannel pajamas.
Her eyes throw daggers at him. “Flannel? Fuck you.” She wiggles her fingers, and the pajamas give way to a fluffy cream sweater and tight jeans.
“Yeah, you did that already. Remember?” Apollo stage whispers, as his clothes disappear from the chair, to wrap around him.
He’s ascended and Cassandra’s powers and the fact that they obviously just fucked indicate she’s his mate. Judging from the bondings I know of, he wouldn’t be cheating on his soulmate. Then again, his soulmate wouldn’t look at him as if she wanted to murder him.
“Tell me who you are,” I order Cassandra.
Her laugh grates at my nerves. “I’m Cassandra.” The duh is implied.
I clench my fists and press them to my thighs, so I don’t send them flying at Apollo’s smug face. “You know what I mean. Who are you? What are you to us? Other than Apollo’s soul—”
“I’m Cassandra,” she says again. She presses her lips together, her eyes hard. Bingo. She is his mate and really dislikes the idea.
“I’m not in the mood for this crap.” Keeping my tone conversational takes a lot of effort.
Ares, who’s been on the receiving end of my annoyance more than once, places a calming hand on my shoulder—oh, the irony—as Sei says, “I believe she means she’s the Cassandra, of Troy. Or was, in her first lifetime.”
Cassandra sneers. “This is my first life. Apollo made me immortal, as if the other gift”—her voice drips venom—“he bestowed upon me wasn’t traumatizing enough.”
“He made it so you’d see the future but nobody could believe you,” Hermes muses.
Apollo answers before Cassandra can speak. “I only gave her and the other oracles the ability to see what would come next. It was human nature that made people not believe her.”
“It was you who made it so I couldn’t see my own future,” she hisses back at him. “Your fault my sisters were turned into stars.”
Apollo huffs with the annoyance of someone who’s had this conversation a million times before. “I thought I was protecting you by not letting you see your future. Life would be dull, otherwise. And Zeus was the one who turned them into stars. He meant to do the same to all three of you, and I saved your stubborn behind.”
Cassandra’s eyes are luminescent as she jabs her finger at his chest. “You—”
“And you stayed alive after he faded?” Denny asks her, cutting her off. If the bond made her immortal, she should have passed away when Apollo did.
Hermes shakes his head, sorrow etched on his face. “Can’t imagine how you must have felt, going through all these centuries alone.”
Apollo’s laughter is a disconcerting mix of bitter and sarcastic. “It was her choice. I was here the whole time.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You didn’t die? You’re the original Apollo?”
“In the flesh.” He bows, much like Hermes did before Laura.
And now I have so many more questions that putting them in order is near impossible. So I shove all of them to the back of my mind and say, “Tell me what you know about my parents. Please.” I’m looking at Cassandra, but I’m fine with anyone answering. I need closure.
She sighs. “Let’s move this somewhere more comfortable.” She moves toward the other side of the room and motions for us to follow her. A door I didn’t notice when we blinked here, because it was at our back, leads to a hallway that opens to a spacious living room.
“Make yourselves at home.” Cassandra approaches a bar cart behind the sofa Apollo sprawls on, and pours herself a drink. “Anyone want anything?”
Just answers for me, though Ares asks for a glass of what she’s having.
I sit in an armchair so I can see most of the room, while my brothers squeeze together on the second sofa.
Cassandra joins us, wrinkles her nose, and sits as far from Apollo as his sofa’s length allows. “I assume you know about Nyx?” she asks.
Synchronized nods, except for Apollo, who arches an eyebrow.
“Well, she came after you, like she came after your brothers,” she tells me. “Your mother and I were friends, and she knew I was... magically talented. She confided in me, and I realized who you were.” She flicks her gaze to Apollo and back to me. “I had to help. I promised to cloak you from anyone meaning you harm. I had to make her and your dad forget you, but their memories would be restored the moment you had your powers and could open the box.” She hangs her head, rolling the tumbler of liquid between her palms, to one side and then the other. “Spelled them so they’d forget who I was too. Thought severing all their bonds with our world would protect you all.”
When she looks at me, there are tears in her eyes. “It was stupid. A gas leak. I woke up from a nightmare and called your mom. To her, I was a stranger, bubbling nonsense. She hung up on me repeatedly, until she stopped answeri
ng. I blinked to their bedroom. Tried to get them to evacuate. I was there when the floor exploded. They died instantly.”
I can’t swallow past the lump in my throat. I don’t need mind-reading, to know she’s telling the truth.
Ares, of all people, gets up and comes to kneel beside me. Clasps my arm. “It’ll be all right.”
“How?” I want to smash my knuckles in his face, but he’s no longer the asshole I loved to hate.
“Hades,” he says.
He doesn’t need to elaborate. When Hades ascends, he’ll have reign over the underworld. He’ll be able to find them for me. It doesn’t soothe the pain of getting this far only to find out they’re gone, but it does mean I’ll get the family reunion I never dared hope for. And now I know they didn’t want to leave me; they made that choice to protect me.
Apollo leans forward on his seat. “Now, may I ask something?”
He’s looking at me, so I shrug. “Sure.”
“How the fuck are you all alive?”
My laugh catches me off guard. “That’s what I was going to ask you. We were reborn. Chaos gathered us and raised us, so we’d be ready to ascend when we bonded with our soulmates.”
He tilts his head to one side. Clenches his jaw. “And you’re all bonded?”
“Hades and Hephaestus aren’t,” Sei says. “But for at least one of them, it’s a matter of days.”
“Hours,” I correct, to Ares’ amusement.
He stands and paces the length of the room. “But why didn’t you fade when we did?” he asks.
Apollo rolls his shoulders. “I didn’t let people forget me. I joined every Pantheon I could—staying relevant, you know?”
“It was the bonding.” Cassandra grimaces. “It kept both of us alive. A few years ago, I refused to believe it, but I’ve seen what it did—will do...? Never mind.”
It may be a combination of the two. If the bond sufficed, most of us wouldn’t have faded. Unless the bonding worked differently back then? It must have played a part, or Zeus wouldn’t have interfered.
“See? It’s a good thing. Why won’t you accept it?” Pleading bled into Apollo’s tone.
“I lost our bet. I’ll stick with you. Doesn’t mean I like it. Or you.”
From the smirk on his lips, you’d think her last two words didn’t land like punches to his solar plexus, but I see the pain flash across his eyes and his shoulders drop with defeat. “You have all the time in the world to change your mind,” he says.
I don’t care about what’s between them, other than as proof the bond doesn’t affect free will. “Did Zeus know you were bonded?” I ask.
Apollo shakes his head.
“When I recognized the bond, I ran,” Cassandra says. “My cloaking spell worked against all immortals, except for Apollo. Because of said fucking bond.”
“Because we’re meant to be together.” He throws his hands in the air.
“Well, I don’t know that”—she hops to the feet and plants her fists on her hips—“because thanks to you, I can’t see my meant to be.”
“This is between you two. We should get going.” Sei stands and straightens his suit. “Apollo, we’ll be happy to have you over, with or without your mate, to talk family matters.”
No we won’t. We still don’t know why Cassandra’s been hiding Apollo from us and us from him for this long.
Through our link, Sei says, “I’d rather that wait till we all have our powers back. We don’t know where these two stand.”
“I don’t sense any negative emotions from them,” Ares responds the same way, coming to stand beside me.
“You do realize I’m in the group call too, now the cloaking spell is canceled, right?” Apollo’s mental voice booms in my head. “And obviously, so is my soulmate.” Out loud, he adds, “So, soulmate, why keep us apart?”
Cassandra lifts her chin and looks at us like we’re plebes, begging for a handout. “If you met them before the time was ripe, we’d have more of that.” She points to the scar beside my eye. “I can heal that, by the way.”
For years, I’ve hated this scar. It became the culmination of the ways in which I was less than my flawless siblings. Now I have the chance to get rid of it, though, it’s a part of who I am. Part of how Laura met me. “No, thanks,” I say.
“You sure?” she asks. “No need to stay broken if you don’t have to.”
I meet her gaze, and I see her damage. Her chipped soul. Her heart, shattered once, thousands of years ago, and now shielded against the one person she’s doomed to love for eternity. She doesn’t trust herself with him. Is afraid she’ll lose control. Lose herself in him, only to be betrayed again. She’s not even mad at him. Just worried he’ll one day wake up and regret bonding her by accident, and then he won’t love her any more.
I know the fear of not being enough. I know her pain.
If I decide I like Apollo, I may tell him how to fix this.
In the meantime, priorities. My parents may be out of reach for now, but my soulmate isn’t.
I do the one thing I hate the most. Ask Ares for assistance. I stand and tap his shoulder. “Drop me off at my shop?”
Chapter Twenty - Laura
I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I expected this to take, but it’s been a full hour. Should I be worried something happened to Hephaestus, or did he ghost me? I mean, running off to a different continent would be the ultimate ghosting, yes?
He wouldn’t. I felt him change his mind about us. Felt him allow himself to love me. And even if he faked that, he wouldn’t leave me in his own office, where he eventually has to return.
Cazzo, did I push him too hard?
No. I’m being a stronzo. And an insecure one, at that. When I didn’t regain my senses immediately after the time jump, he was so worried. His fear that something happened to me screamed in my head, his mental voice a beacon, lighting my way back to him. And how he acted when he saw Aetna die...
Unless this is the most vivid drunken hallucination, and I’m still in bed—or worse, being murdered in a field somewhere—this divine man is mine, body and soul. And I plan to collect as soon as possible. I want to make him feel the kind of ecstasy he offered me. Welcome him in my body and feel as complete as Aetna did when her Hephaestus made love to her.
Assuming Cassandra delivered good news.
Great, now I feel like an even worse asshole, thinking of riding Hephaestus to oblivion, when he may come back brokenhearted.
Okay, I need to do something. Can’t sit on my fingers—thumbs?—till he’s back.
I get up from the couch fast enough my head gets light.
No, wait. It’s not orthostatic hypotension. It’s Hephaestus’s proximity. He and his brother Ares materialize close enough for me to burrow into Hephaestus’ arms.
“You’re here.” Could I sound more like a lovesick teen?
He lifts me in his arms and plunders my mouth. Claims it as his, thrusting his tongue between my lips, to seek out mine.
I dig my fingers in his extra-wide shoulders and wrap my legs around his hips. My skirt is practically a belt again, as he glides his hands lower, to cup my ass and squeeze.
“If I’m not needed anymore...”
I can hear the smile in Ares’ voice, and wave him off. I can apologize for being rude later. At least he stands behind Hephaestus, so I’m not mooning him.
“Fuck off, bro,” Hephaestus growls against my mouth.
Ares’ laugh can be heard fading away.
I assume he’s gone, by how Hephaestus swivels around, into the space his brother occupied two seconds ago, and takes two strides to the desk. He lets go of me with one hand, and I hear a bunch of stuff cluttering to the floor. Something definitely broke.
“Don’t care,” he thinks at me, as he plops my ass on the desk he just emptied. “Need you.”
I break the kiss and nibble on his bottom lip before lying back. I want to say, then take me. Instead, I hear myself ask, “Because I’m Aetna?” It’s silly. I shouldn’
t care. I am Aetna, and he and I shared a love before. And yet, I want him to want me. Crave me. Need me.
He straightens and studies me for a second, giving me the chance to once again appreciate how handsome he is. From the shadow on his shaved head, to the cordoned tendons of his neck and the mini-Cooper-sized span of his shoulders, down to the narrow hips and the hard length between them that’s pressing into me through a layer of denim, he’s all fire. All male.
My male.
“I wanted you when I thought it was a mistake,” he says. “When I was sure fate played a cruel joke on me, because how could a woman this beautiful want to spend eternity by my ugly-ass side?”
I reach for his right hand and move it to my chest, over my heart. “Can’t see your ass from right here, but I remember it being rather biteable.” Can’t see his legs either, damn it, but I can feel the hard muscles against my inner thighs. Delizioso.
“And then I found out you were brilliant on top of gorgeous,” he continues as if I didn’t speak, his eyes pools of silver moonlight. “We like the same things, and you’re gutsy—”
“Gutsy? Is this the 1950s?”
“—and witty, and make jokes when you’re embarrassed that someone really sees you.” He drapes his body over mine, to ghost a kiss on the tip of my nose before straightening again. “You are perfect for me, like Aetna was perfect for the original Hephaestus. And I need you by my side so I feel complete as a man, not as a god. Because you’re you.”
He wants me. He accepts me as a whole. Not just tits and ass. Not just a brain. He sees the whole woman, and he loves me.
Oh Christ, I’m giggling with joy, and it’s real. Not the fake crap I pull for photo shoots. “Quick, kiss me so I shut up,” I think at him.
Hephaestus laughs, and it’s the most musical sound in the world. I remember hearing it against a background of birdsong. I remembered it vibrating in my soul, as I laid my head on his chest. I remember how happy it made me.
I’m happy now. And falling for him. Or have I already fallen, completely and utterly? “My heart remembers what it feels like, to love you.” I hold out my arms, and he swoops in for another kiss. One that has my knees trembling and above mentioned heart threatening to jump out of my chest. I’m glad I don’t need my lips to talk to him, because I want this kiss to last forever, as I say, “Remind my body too?”
