Betrothed To Jack Frost Box Set

by Alex Gedgaudas

  Hermes raised a brow as he looked out the windshield at the heavy winter falling down on the roads. It was falling in thick drops. Elle was lucky the truck was still able to drive in this weather. “I’d say he’s in a remarkably bad mood at the moment.”

  “And the hurricanes? And the giant earthquake in Tokyo? Who’s causing them?”

  “Boreas’s passing leaves a very large gap in the way things are run involving elements,” explained Hermes. “The king controlled all things winter. With his death, this makes it so many ice deities and immortals wish to claim his throne because they sense weakness in Oritya’s reign.”

  “So it’s like the winter mafia?”

  “More or less.” Hermes shrugged. “So to sum it up, word on the street is Jack is wanted alive for trial. You, you’re wanted alive or dead—”

  “That’s insane!” Elle interjected, taking another exit and keeping up her speeding. She mentally bet Hermes placed some kind of enchantment on her truck to make sure police didn’t pull her over. “I didn’t kill anyone! Besides that, Boreas is a god! Like my being pathetic and out of control with my powers could’ve killed him!”

  “Hey, don’t bite the head off the messenger god.” Hermes shrugged. “I know you didn’t kill him. So does Apollo, Artemis, Hera, and even my father, mostly because he has Hera who automatically says you didn’t do it. Anyway, the problem is Oritya wants you back to the kingdom either alive or otherwise. Everyone is up in arms about it one way or another. The Chinese gods and deities want your head, while the Egyptians believe wholeheartedly you didn’t kill the king. Zeus is attempting to forbid anyone from killing you, but there are far too many bounties on your head. He cannot possibly rein everyone into order. As you just witnessed, the Norse are leading the charge, wanting to use you as a bargaining chip for riches and wealth.”

  Elle trembled with fear, wondering if he was about to explain anything good attached to his awful news. “That’s it? That’s all you got for me? The king is dead and the queen thinks Jack and I killed him? Gods and other strange creatures want me dead or alive to use to gain a prize? What about an autopsy for Boreas? Don’t you guys check for fingerprints? Witnesses? Something?”

  “What, do you think this is a cop show?” Hermes snickered, shaking his head. “There is none of that. Boreas was poisoned. The last anyone witnessed, he and Jack had an argument at the dinner table prior to your poisoning. The next morning when you were retrieved for questioning, you were gone and Jack was uncooperative regarding your whereabouts.”

  “Where does you finding me come into play?”

  “I’m the God of Travel,” said Hermes with a touch of arrogance. “I can find any soul among the living or the dead. It’s a bit what makes me special, to be honest…”

  “Hermes!”

  “Apologies, I’ll stay on topic. The new full Queen of Winter’s Throne—Oritya—has declared you are to be brought back dead or alive, regardless of the prophecy,” he muttered. “You now have a very large amount of bounty hunters on your tail to gain a string of constellations and a galaxy that Winter’s Throne has offered as a reward for you.”

  Elle didn’t know what scared her more: that Oritya wanted her dead or alive or that bounty hunters got to collect an entire galaxy upon hunting her down. “Jack was brilliant,” said Hermes, his tone holding strong venom. “He obviously killed his father in order to frame you. Now you’ll have the vast majority of Winter’s Throne wishing you dead!”

  Hermes’ words annoyed Elle greatly. She would have glared at him had she not been driving. “Don’t blame Jack! He didn’t do it.”

  The young god stared at her in surprise. “The guy hates you, Elle. It doesn’t take a lot to imagine that Jack killed his own father to secure his arranged marriage to you would be dissolved—”

  “He let me leave!” Elle shot back angrily. It was solely Jack Frost who gave her the opportunity to run. No one else provided her such an option.

  Hermes snorted. “Uh, yeah…that’s obviously because the dude planned on framing you for murder afterwards. Your first encounter he tried to stab you to death. Obviously, this was all him.”

  Elle defiantly shook her head as she watched the road. She now felt she knew Jack well enough to know he would never hurt his father, let alone frame her for his murder.

  Elle slowed down her driving of over seventy miles per hour to look out at the sky outside her windshield. Even though the sun was setting, she could still make out the monstrous cloud looming over the horizon. It was at least five miles wide, looking entirely similar to a large cloud of ash that was swirling together.

  “Oh no…” murmured Hermes, his hazel eyes holding strong fear.

  “What?”

  Hermes stared open mouthed at the sky outside the windshield, gently beginning to shake. “Mother Nature is very angry,” he whispered with what sounded like fear. He let out a loud gasp of pain as his left arm shook violently. Elle slowed her truck down and pulled off the interstate as she tried to muffle a surprised yelp. Slowly appearing on Hermes’ arm were long bloody scratches, spelling out three jagged words across his now-torn flesh.

  S U R R E N D E R T H E G I R L

  Elle and Hermes locked gazes. The fear behind the god’s eyes caused her to realize that whatever placed the strange scratches on his forearm was something that shouldn’t be messed with. “What’s doing that?” Elle asked carefully, nearly breathless with fear.

  “Lady Gaia…” Hermes whispered, looking more terrified than Elle could ever remember the young god being. It caused her to wonder: how bad was this Mother Nature if an Olympian feared her?

  “W-why does she w-want me?” stammered Elle.

  Hermes didn’t answer. Elle thought it must be from him not knowing how to answer the question. It wasn’t that. Fear was painted across his face after the sky darkened a horrible black and purple color.

  That was the moment a very large five-mile wide cloud of dust started to circle in place. It created a very monstrous tornado that soon devoured a nearby farmhouse. Panels of wood and tin flooded the sky as the tornado shook apart the entire farm and uprooted it from the ground. From the direction, the beastly storm was coming, the massive cyclone was headed right for the truck Elle was driving.

  Hermes trembled slightly as he snorted. “I’m a lot of things, but a coward is not one of them. It’s not the tornado you need to worry about, Elle! It’s the person Lady Gaia sent to arrive inside of it. I can’t expect there’s a good reason that she would be here…”

  The way he said the word she caused Elle to tilt her head up to stare out of her windshield. There was no need to worry about dying. The tornado had started to dissolve before it got too close, stopping the wicked harsh wind attacking the outside of the truck. The rocking of the vehicle stopped. The extremely large clouds of black and purple slowly began to dissipate as the storm seemed to be coming to an end.

  Elle grabbed onto Hermes’ uninjured arm as she shook with fear. “Get us out of here!”

  But Hermes only shook his unruly blond head. His face was so horribly milk-white he might have been able to give Jack a run for his money on who had the paler complexion. “I can’t…” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “My powers are diminished at the moment. Not to mention, no one disrespects Mother Earth when she gives a command.”

  Elle took that as meaning he wasn’t about to cross the wrath of the Titan Queen responsible for this massive tornado. Elle couldn’t be mad at him—Hermes looked utterly terrified of the force known as Gaia. Elle buried her head into his shoulder, completely expecting her death to come in only a few moments.

  “If you can teleport at least yourself, go,” Elle encouraged, determined not to cry as she shook in her seat. “Save yourself.” But Hermes only shook his head softly. He wasn’t going to leave her to face this individual alone. It made Elle realize he was a really good person. She couldn’t imagine many other gods and goddesses would have stayed with her if they were in the same predicament.r />
  Hermes looked cross as he glared out the windshield at the new arrival. Elle squinted to see the woman who quite literally landed out of the storm looked at ease as she walked. Elle had half a mind to run her down with the truck. But she gave in to the insane notion that perhaps this new arrival was a friend. If she wanted to kill her, she most likely would have done it already. It was amusing to Elle that she based whether or not an immortal was friendly solely on how fast they wanted to kill her. As the woman came forward, Elle couldn’t help but notice her eyes. As the blood-red color slowly disappeared, she had a soft coffee-brown color instead. Instantly, Elle felt like she knew the woman, but she couldn’t recall them having met before.

  “Who is that?” The woman did not stop walking until she was merely twelve feet from the front of the truck.

  “Hey, sexy, whatcha doin’ out here?” a man yelled. Elle hadn’t noticed that there had been another vehicle out on the road with them. Exiting a pickup truck even rustier than Elle’s grandfather’s was an overweight, bearded man. He got out his run-down Chevy and made a beeline for the woman. The man’s truck was the only other vehicle on the road besides Elle’s. He was shirtless and wearing a pair of overalls, easily showing off his large amount of body hair. He was alone in the truck.

  The goddess, dressed in the revealing outfit, simply walked down the middle of the stretch of empty highway. She ignored the man as he approached her. The man started shouting what seemed to be concern that the woman was walking in the midst of a tornado. The ravishing dark-haired beauty turned her head to look at the man before giving a swift twist of her hand. The man suddenly started on fire as if he had been doused in gasoline before someone struck a match.

  His entire body enveloped with flames. The man’s screams were echoing loud enough for Elle to hear it from inside her truck. She yelled in terrified fear as the man soon fell to the hard ground, clearly dead.

  As the woman came closer, Elle wanted to plow her down. She grabbed at her steering wheel only for Hermes to shake his head. “I’ll be surprised if you’re able to start it up. Gaia clearly wanted you two to converse,” he said solemnly.

  As the dark-haired woman approached closer, Elle found she looked to be in her late twenties. The woman had olive-toned skin that went quite nicely with her nearly black hair and dark eyes that Elle found looked strikingly familiar.

  “Who is that?” asked Elle again, inwardly wondering if she already knew the answer. She and the woman both looked alike in physical appearance, but Elle’s skin wasn’t quite as olive-hued, and her hair was not quite as dark.

  Hermes grimaced but didn’t get to answer before someone else beat him to it. The goddess could hear her question from outside.

  “Come now, Evangeline, you don’t recognize your own mother when you see her?” the beautiful woman called loudly, a small smile playing at her full red lips.

  Elle gaped at the new arrival, stunned down to her very core.

  Hermes looked livid as his lip curled in foul disgust. “Yes, Elle. Meet the monster who birthed you,” he muttered darkly.

  Chapter 21

  Instantaneously, Elle found the goddess Pele had transferred the three of them to a strange type of living room setting. Elle jolted, surprised to find she was now standing instead of sitting. Teleportation was a strange phenomenon that she would never quite be used to. Noting that gods and goddesses decorated their houses and temples in theme to their god-like ability, Elle wasn’t surprised Pele had her enormous living room decorated in mostly reds and browns. It resembled the inside of a volcano. Pele had paintings of mass fires and burning trees on her walls. A twelve-foot fireplace was blazing a strong fire in the corner, completing the fiery look quite nicely. The volcano goddess gracefully flitted over to her leather brown couch opposite of where Elle was standing before taking a seat. Lifting a long slender leg to drape over another, Pele set her hands together as she watched Elle with a rather hopeful expression. She first bowed her head and closed her eyes while she brought her cupped together hands to her forehead. She looked as if she were praying. “Thank you for finding my daughter, Madam Gaia,” said Pele respectfully.

  As soon as her words were spoken, a very large crack of thunder issued nearby, causing Pele to smile. She soon turned her attention back to Elle. “I’m certain you have many questions, Evangeline.”

  Elle watched her quietly, disgusted that a woman who so easily burned someone to death was actually her mother. A muffled snort caught Elle’s attention. Looking around wildly, Elle found herself surprised to find Hermes was nearby and sweating profusely. While Elle found the room just fine in temperature, the poor Olympian looked to be suffering from heatstroke.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “We’re underground below lava,” Hermes explained in a mumble, sweat covering his forehead. “I’m not used to such a hot temperature.”

  That was strange. Elle couldn’t find a difference in the temperature from where they were now from when they were outside in the car a few minutes earlier. It surprised Elle to find the bag Jack had packed for her was still with her. It laid on the floor just a few feet away.

  “I’m afraid I cannot allow you to go, God of Travel.” Pele smiled coyly. “There’s a good chance you’ll inform your daddy of where to find my daughter. I can’t have that…not yet.”

  That was when Elle noticed Hermes was not able to move. His wrists were bound by iron cuffs. He was kneeling in a drawn circle that looked like a large pentagram. To top that, he looked deeply in pain as his soaking wet dirty-blond hair clung to his forehead in sweaty clumps.

  “Let him go!” Elle cried, moving to help him before a very large and ugly dog emerged from the shadows. It growled immensely at Elle.

  “What are you doing to him? Knock it off!”

  “Sit down, my daughter, please,” said Pele, gently holding onto her long leg. She made no motion to call off the monster dog that was still growling at Elle. “I suppose you are wondering why I had neglected to make an appearance until now.”

  “I honestly haven’t given it too much thought,” snapped Elle angrily, getting on her knees to help Hermes, only for the monster dog to snarl at her once more. The beastly animal came out of nowhere to come closer. They were hellhounds. The only difference between these hellhounds here and the ones with Hel were that these wore large blood-red collars as if they were simply a type of pet.

  Elle found there was no way out of this room. Hermes was trapped inside the pentagram, and the iron cuffs seemed to be sucking away his energy. One hellhound guarded the entry way leading out of the massive living room while the other watched over Hermes to make sure he wasn’t assisted in an escape.

  Pele had a small smile. “Do not mind the mutt. He is but a gift from an old flame of mine.” She chuckled at her own wording. “Dear Hades always did enjoy spoiling his lovers. My, my, Evangeline, you really have Matthew’s stubborn demeanor, don’t you?”

  Elle glared. “Don’t talk about my dad.”

  “You mean my former husband?” asked Pele curiously. “Why don’t you sit yourself down so we can discuss this more personally?”

  “What do you want?” snapped Elle before tossing her hands up. There was no way possible she could happily communicate with this woman after causing Hermes pain. The guy was a lovable goofball who held the presence of a silly younger brother. Elle shrugged. “From what I can gather, you had Gaia help you find me. You can make an entrance; I’ll give you that. Now let’s cut the small talk. What do you want with me?”

  Pele lifted a dark brow in amusement. “Why is it you assume I have an ulterior purpose other than to share a reunion?”

  Elle nearly snorted. “You’ve had a long time to find me. Obviously to wait until now, you either want something from me, or you want me as a bargaining chip like everyone else currently hunting me.”

  Pele giggled. “You are a suspicious one. That’s another trait you inherited from your father. I’m quite relishing that you are so
very similar to him in behavior.”

  “You haven’t said I was wrong,” Elle pointed out quietly.

  A grin spread across Pele’s red lips. “I suppose you aren’t too far off that I brought you here for a specific purpose. Though I can hardly believe you feel I would be after you to use you as a bargaining chip!” She giggled some more.

  “Yeah, because it’s so hard to believe a woman who sold her before she was conceived is capable of wanting to use her,” Hermes snorted, sarcasm saturating his words.

  With a twitch of her hand, Pele gently flicked her hand to tighten the iron shackles on Hermes’ wrists. The material sizzled his skin, causing Elle to realize iron was dangerous to use against the gods.

  “Stop!” Elle yelped. The gruff-looking hellhound snarled at her once more.

  Pele glared at Hermes. “I permit Evangeline to speak with disrespect because she has a right to be angry with me,” she responded coolly. “I will not take disrespect from you, son of Zeus.”

  “How can you be so cruel to someone you made my godfather?”

  “Hermes was Matthew’s choice as a godparent.” Pele sniffed. “Personally, I was pulling for Hades, Poseidon, or Triton to be your godfather. However, Matt did not wish for one of my exes to be your godfather. I gave in to his idea. Hermes was a kind enough fellow…before you hid my husband and daughter from me,” she hissed in the god’s direction, tightening the shackles around his wrist once more.

  “Ahhh…” Hermes groaned in discomfort. “Spare me your indignation!” he shot back angrily. “You were all too willing to send Elle off to Hera the moment she was born. You received a dowry for her the moment you became pregnant! You never looked at her as a child, only a bargaining chip.”

  “She is part of the ancient prophecy. Do not tell me what my actions should have been, Hermes,” Pele shot back vehemently. “I did what was expected of me!”