The firefight lasted a few more seconds until Aison caught sight of his mother watching. “Oh, hi, Mom!”
Cassandra glanced at her mother and waved but went right back to shooting her brother as fast as she could. A heartbeat later, the two sprinted away, disappearing into the vineyard, popping off shots and laughing the entire time.
It was at that point that Euryale snapped out of her semi-daze. “Hey! Get back here, you two! What in the Fates is going on?”
“They’re having a paintball war.”
Euryale pivoted right as Alex trotted up to her. He, too, sported a paintball marker, mask, and a few splats. “Why are they having a paintball war? And why do we have giant cannons outside our house?”
Alex chuckled as he glanced over her shoulder. “You noticed, huh?”
“They were hard to miss.”
“Well, the answer to both is Uncle Ares brought them.”
“Uncle Ares brought them.”
Alex nodded. “That’s what the kids are calling him since he gave them their presents.”
“Those presents better not be that artillery.”
Alex balked.
“They are?” Euryale said, arching her brow. The initial surprise lasted about a millisecond, and then the stress of the day and meeting with Athena quickly caught up to her. Her fingers dug into the sides of her face, and she groaned. “Alex, how could you possibly let him give our kids those things?”
“I didn’t!”
“They’re outside out house, Alex!” Euryale shot back. “They’re outside with live shells just waiting to go off! Why would you ever think I’d be okay with that?”
Alex’s usually light demeanor faded. “Hey, now, I’m not stupid.”
“You—” Euryale caught herself before she lost it completely. Her head dropped, and she rested her chin on a pair of pressed-together fingertips. “I know,” she said softly. “I know. Today is not going well, is all. I’m sorry I snapped.”
Alex pulled her in and kissed her forehead, which ended up leaving a smear of paint across her cheek. The transfer of goo was enough to defuse the situation, and they both shared a laugh. “Ares brought the artillery over about an hour ago,” he said, keeping his voice low and calm. “I figured, well, maybe if things went bad with Athena, it might not be a good idea to insult him by rejecting his gift to the kids.”
“Oh…”
“It did go bad, right?”
Euryale nodded. “Understatement of the year.”
“Figured,” he said before squeezing her. “Anyway, I convinced him maybe the kids ought to start small first, you know, which would give us time to figure out what to do with the cannons. He liked that reasoning, and at first, wanted to come back with heavy machine guns. I talked him down to paintball.”
Euryale titled her head up so she could look directly into her husband’s serene, adoring eyes and smiled. “You talked Ares down to paintball?”
“Yeah,” Alex replied, his chest puffing with pride. “Impressed?”
“Alex, you always impress me.”
The two stood there for a few quiet moments, embracing, but the peace didn’t last long. In the stillness, Euryale’s mind quickly returned to her troubles with Athena. She couldn’t understand why the goddess wouldn’t grant her sister’s freedom, especially after all Euryale had done for her. And the more those thoughts turned in her head, over and over, the more she could feel her temperature rise and her muscles tighten.
Euryale toyed with her fangs with the tip of her tongue, fantasizing about how good it would feel to sink them into Athena’s neck and pump her full of venom. If she shut her eyes, she could hear the goddess’s screams and feel her hands push against the gorgon’s body in a vain attempt to break her hold. The old, coppery scent of what would be the Olympian’s blood would fill the air, driving her serpents atop her head into a frenzy, and then, when Euryale tired of it all, she’d petrify the goddess and put her on display.
Where? That was yet to be decided, but probably outside her home to serve as a warning to all that she was no one to be trifled with.
“Honey?” Alex said, tapping her gently on the shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Huh?”
“You’re rattling.”
Euryale twisted in place and looked at her tail, which indeed was rattling. “I’m done being walked over,” she said. “I know I’ve said it before, but I mean it, Alex. I’m done, and if Athena doesn’t come around and accept my perfectly reasonable demands, it’ll be the last mistake she ever makes. I’m not giving her Perseus back for nothing in return.”
“So…wait…She just wanted her hero freed?” Alex asked, obviously trying to put together the pieces that seemed plain as day. “Like, that would’ve been the end of it?”
“No, that wouldn’t have been the end of it,” Euryale spat. “She’d know, they’d all know, I was still their plaything—that we were all their playthings.”
Alex cringed, albeit only momentarily. He quickly recomposed himself, but Euryale could easily tell it was all an act. “This sounds bad,” he said.
“I told you the conversation didn’t go well.”
“Yeah…yeah, you did,” he said. “What did you want in return?”
“Stheno.”
Alex’s mouth twisted. “Stheno. Your sister, Stheno? The one she turned into a whale? The one she squashed me with?”
Euryale nodded and blew out a sharp puff of air from her nose. “Yes. She says her punishment is to last for eternity, and I’ll be damned by the Fates if I’m going to let that happen.”
“But what can you do? What can we do? She’s Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War,” Alex pointed out, his face growing three shades paler as he spoke, and then six more when he added one last thing. “She’s also the favored daughter of Zeus. I mean…like…Zeus! The ruler of Olympus!”
“I know who she is, Alex.”
“But…Zeus! This isn’t Ares we’re talking about, and he was scary enough,” Alex said. “He’s not a mindless brute we can trick, and say what you will about his extramarital affairs, but this is the guy who took down Typhon and Cronus!”
“I don’t care, Alex!” Euryale screamed, driving an elongated claw into his chest. “She’s my sister! My sister, damn it! I will not sit here in Olympus, living a life she couldn’t even dream of and pretend everything’s just peachy!”
“But you’re talking about going to war,” Alex protested. “I understand where you’re coming from—”
“No, Alex, you don’t. You don’t understand a damn thing.”
“Sweetie—”
Euryale narrowed her eyes, and she jabbed him in the chest again. “Don’t you dare ‘sweetie’ me on this,” she said. She sucked in a breath, but it did nothing to help alleviate the unbearable tension throughout her body. As such, all the gorgon could do was grab a pair of unlucky vipers atop her head and yank them hard before spinning around and slithering off so she didn’t shred her husband to ribbons.
“Euryale, wait!” Alex called out as he tried running after her.
He didn’t get far. Euryale twisted in place and pointed finger at him, which alone was enough to stop him dead in his tracts. “You will never understand, Alex,” she said, tears of anger and sorrow glistening in her eyes. “Never. You hear me? You will never, ever understand what this is like.”
To his credit, Alex nodded, and though he wore a pained look upon his face, he stayed standing tall, and the tone in his voice was nothing but gentle. “I would if you’d tell me.”
Euryale snorted and forced a smile before clearing her eyes. “I tried, Alex,” she said. “I tried.”
With that, the gorgon stormed off.
* * *
At the top of the tallest spire in her estate, Euryale wrestled her chimera.
She grabbed Tickles, the family pet, by its horns and tried driving it to the ground. The monster bleated playfully before bucking her in the chest and sending her sprawling across the hay-lined floor
.
“Am I crazy?” she asked the monster as she picked herself up. When Tickles chirped, she threw up her hands in frustration. “Well? Am I?”
Tickles’s only reply was a prompt pounce that Euryale narrowly avoided. She slipped to the chimera’s side and grasped the mane on his lion head, trying to guide it by her body while simultaneously trying to throw it off balance by wrapping her tail around his waist and pulling him over.
Tickles, however, reared back before she could fully anchor herself onto him, and with a heavy swipe of his right paw, claws sheathed, he swatted Euryale across the face.
The gorgon spun with the blow, the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. As quick as she noticed it, she ignored it, instead choosing to focus her energy, her rage, on her thoughts.
“Why? Why do they still hate me?” she asked, throwing herself at the chimera. “Why am I not good enough?”
Tickles met the charge head-on, and the two wrapped themselves around each other. Across the floor they rolled, trading strikes that would’ve snapped the bones of any mortal but only left bruises on each other.
“And Alex! Of all people in this world who should be at my side…” her voice cut off as she choked on her words. Though she now had the lion head of Tickles in a firm lock, her heart wasn’t in the sparring match, not with that thought now running rampant.
Her grip weakened, and Tickles slipped free. But instead of continuing the fight, Tickles walked around in front of her and nuzzled the gorgon gently.
“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted, stroking the top of his goat head. Tears fell now from her cheeks unabated. “A goddess would. A real one, that is,” she admitted. “But what am I? An imposter at best. Someone not even her own husband will stand behind.”
A cough interrupted her monologue, a cough she knew all too well.
Euryale steadied herself and cleared her eyes before turning around to face Alex. Her husband stood at the top of the stairs that led into the room. He fidgeted with his hands that were held at his side, and he flashed her an awkward smile.
“Do you have a moment?” he asked.
For a brief second, Euryale thought about kicking him out. She didn’t need complications or another fight. She needed someone to support her, and as pessimistic as she was that she’d never get it given how this day had gone, she dared to believe—after all, if there was one thing true about her Alex, it was that he never, ever gave up on her.
“I do,” she finally said.
Alex approached her with slow, careful steps. “You’re right,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re going through, but I don’t have to, either. I married you for better or worse. So, however you want to handle all this, I’ll be at your side, forever.”
Euryale stood there, statuesque, for a few heartbeats before throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around his neck. She squeezed him tight, quietly crying with relief as she buried her face in his neck. One of his hands snaked across her lower back while the other gently caressed the back of her head. The gorgon stood there, sinking into his loving embrace for a lifetime before she realized she should probably say something.
“Promise?” she said, leaning her head back and smiling through her tears.
“I promise,” he replied. He then toyed with one of her snakes for a moment before adding another thought. “You know, you might not have to actually go to war with her.”
“I’m not giving Stheno up.”
“I know. I know,” he said. “I mean, if you maybe found a way to reverse the spell yourself, you wouldn’t need to use Perseus as a bargaining chip. That would show her up at the same time, you know.”
Euryale’s gaze drifted to the side as she thought about what he’d said. It had a lot of merit, and there would be an unparalleled satisfaction she’d get while seeing Athena’s curse come undone by her very hand. That said, however, practicality seemed to get in the way. “But how?”
“Hera is the undisputed queen of curses, is she not?” Alex said. “And didn’t Jessica find her secret lab?”
“She did.”
“Then I’d wager a woman as clever as you could find whatever she needs in that lab to counter whatever spell Athena cast on her sister.”
A devilish grin spread across the gorgon’s face, and for the first time that day, Euryale felt as if things might actually work out in her favor. “That’s a really good idea,” she said. “A really, really good idea.”
“Thought you’d like that,” Alex said, kissing her softly.
“Very much.”
“What do you need me to do, then, to help?”
Euryale thought about his question. There was probably a laundry list of things he could do, but one task in particular stuck out that he had to do. “Get some food as well as some chain and a spear,” she said. “Then go run around the underworld, like you’re on your way to check on Perseus, or better yet, like you’re going to move him.”
“You want me to keep Athena busy following me, you mean.”
Euryale nodded. “Absolutely. Think you can manage that?”
Alex laughed. “Euryale, my love, if there’s one thing I’ve learned how to do over the past year, it’s how to keep her attention.”
Chapter Schemes
“Look! Look! That’s her! That’s really her!”
The unexpected voice, deep but full of enthusiasm, snapped Euryale back to the then and there. She’d been so lost in thought, trying to stay one step ahead of whatever Athena was planning (but likely still a thousand behind), that she hadn’t even realized she was at the foot of Hera’s estate. While that itself was a bit of a shock, what she hadn’t been expecting at all were the two cyclopes who stood at the base of the steps, wearing bronze helms and clutching highly polished decorative shields and spears.
Right as she stopped, the one on the right nudged the one of the left with his elbow. “Told you she was taller.”
“Told you she was prettier,” the other whispered, nudging him back.
Euryale couldn’t help but blush from the unexpected comment. For thousands of years, her looks had driven men and women to their deaths, literally, and the last thing she’d ever expected from anyone other than Alex was to be called pretty.
“Thanks?” Euryale said, stammering over her reply. “And hello?”
“Sorry,” the right one said. “Kyros and I were just talking about you.”
“Nothing bad,” Kyros quickly added. “We wanted to meet you at your coronation, but you know, Zeus wouldn’t allow it.”
“He wouldn’t?” Euryale asked, feeling like she was missing a lot to this conversation. “Why?”
The cyclops hiked a thumb toward Hera’s abode. “Guard duty till this mess gets sorted out, but at least I got Pelagon here to keep me company. Not a bad guy to be stuck with, all things considered.”
“Oh, I see, well, that’s something at least,” Euryale said.
Before the gorgon realized what was happening, Pelagon tossed his spear to the side and darted over to Euryale, his large feet thundering against the cobblestone road as he came. The moment he reached her, he fumbled around as his hand dove into a leather pouch hanging off his waist before he whipped out a smartphone. It wasn’t one of the prized Olympi-phones Hermes had made for the Olympians, but it was still one of the messenger god’s creations. While it could only do some of the things an Olympi-phone could, and wasn’t quite as indestructible, it was still eons ahead of anything the mortals could dream of coming up with.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Pelagon said, leaning his shoulder against Euryale’s and making a face as he stuck the phone out for a selfie.
Before he could hit the button, Euryale backed out of the shot reflexively. “What’s going on?”
Kyros smacked his face with an open palm. “Knock it off, Pel,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t run up to celebrities like that. It’s creepy.”
“Yeah, but…she doesn’t mind, right?” he replied, eyes looking t
o Euryale for confirmation. “And the kids! I’ll never hear the end of it if they found out I ran right into her and didn’t get a picture!”
“Why do you want a picture with me?” Euryale asked. “I’m hardly anything special around here. This is Olympus of all places.”
The two cyclopes exchanged confused looks before they each grinned like awestruck schoolboys. “You don’t need to be modest around us, Goddess of Stone,” Kyros said. “There’s not a soul in this city who’s not infatuated with you, and rightly so. Freed Athena. Stopped Hera. Took down Typhon. By the Fates, we should be groveling at your feet for the next thousand years.”
Pelagon chuckled nervously. “But you’re not going to make us do that, right?”
Euryale sighed and flashed them a sweet smile. “No, I’m not,” she said. “I’m not the sort who needs that from others.”
Kyros clapped his hands together, fire and excitement gleaming in his ginormous hazel eye. “Of course, you aren’t!” he boomed. He then hunched over and dropped his voice to a playful whisper. “And between you and me, you’re my favorite Olympian. Just don’t tell the big man that, right? He can be a little touchy about those things.”
“I won’t. Promise.” Euryale then turned to see Pelagon fidgeting with his phone, lines of anxiety spread across his brow. “Come get a picture if you’d still like. I don’t want you to think I’m rude.”
The cyclops beamed like a kid given free rein in a candy store. He bounded over, struck a pose, snapped a picture, and then snapped a couple dozen more before he finally had enough self-awareness to realize he was getting carried away.
“Sorry,” he said, straightening and stuffing the phone away.
“You’re fine,” Euryale said, patting one of his massive arms. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have matters to attend to.”
“Of course!” the cyclopes said in unison. They hurried back to their post, but the moment Euryale made for the stairs to go into Hera’s estate, Kyros nervously cleared his throat and spoke. “Begging your eternal pardon, your highness,” he said. “But I’m afraid this area is off-limits.”
A Storm of Blood and Stone (Myths of Stone Book 3) Page 3
