As the nights had passed, she’d grown more and more easy in my arms, even to the point now where her foot actively sought mine, and she rubbed her cold little toes against my warm ones.
I shook my head. “Can I kiss you, Medusa?”
She looked stunned. “Wha… what? You wish to kiss me? You? You wish to—”
Feeling foolish, knowing I’d pushed her too far too soon, I thinned my lips. “I am sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me toni—”
Before I could finish my thought, her lips were suddenly on mine. But her inexperience with kissing showed. She did not move her lips, she merely pressed them to my own.
It was probably the worst kiss I’d ever received, and yet it was also one of the best. My soul felt as though it’d literally just slipped free of its moorings, and I was sailing, flying as high in the sky as my little bird could.
Hunger rose up in me, and I couldn’t keep from wrapping my arms like bands around her smooth waist, pulling her even tighter between my thighs. She moaned, moving just a little and opening wide for me. I slipped into her mouth, tasting the cherry of her tongue and making a groan of gruff approval. Fire licked through my veins and screamed to burst free of my fingertips.
When I would make love to Aphrodite, I would release the flames, bathe us in them. She would release her own, and together we would create an inferno of lust and love. But my little bird was a mortal.
A precious and all-too-fragile little mortal.
I winced, pained by the need to release and knowing I could not. My body began to burn all over. I soon began to shake and tremble, and sweat broke out on my back. I needed to leave. Needed to get away from her before I burst with a flame so hot I would incinerate anyone and everyone within this cottage.
As though she knew I was not well, she pulled back and planted her forehead to mine, panting as heavily as I. I did not want to go, but I had to. I could not hang on for much longer. My skin burned. My eyes no doubt were full of raging blue flame. I opened my mouth, ready to tell her I needed to leave. Now.
But then her tiny, cool little hands were on my hot, warm cheeks, and she was singing beneath her breath a song I’d never heard before. It was a melody of such astonishing beauty that the fire soon gave way to peaceful waves of calm, and the need to release the flames fizzled out completely.
Gasping, I patted my chest, unable to believe that with just a few hummed chords, she’d calmed the raging beast in me. Blinking, I stared back at her flushed and lovely face.
“How… how did you calm me, little bird? What magick did you use?” I asked, awed and astonished by what she’d just done.
Her answer was merely a mysterious smile, then she said in a low whisper, “I am tired tonight, my sweet war god. Will you hold me?”
My soul shook. She’d never called me a pet name before. The moment felt enormous. I wanted to grab her up and swing her around, claim her lips again, and tell her… I wasn’t sure what. But instead, I nodded and lay down, she climbed on top of me, and together, we breathed a deep sigh of relief when her wings enveloped us both.
Our breaths were a precious lullaby in my ears. Her fingers played over the war plate I wore. She did not want me unclothed, and though I used my godhead to soften the metal enough that it did not bite in her precious flesh, it was still made of god steel. Her fingers were drawing lazy circles upon the armor.
“Does it bother you?” I asked, my voice so loud in the thick, comfortable silence between us that it almost sounded like a crack of thunder.
She glanced up at me from beneath her long lashes. My heart trembled at the sight. When had this little bird crawled beneath my defenses and made me love her?
The thought that I should was both terrifying and right. Because whether I should or not, it did not negate the fact that I absolutely did. In fact, I’d fallen in love with her so slowly that I’d not realized I was in love until I was in it so completely there was no getting out of it.
“Take it off tonight, Ares. Please.” She whispered the last.
I didn’t even ask her if she was sure. In a blink, I vanished the plate and could hardly breathe for the pleasure of feeling her petal-soft skin against my own. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Does this hurt you?” she asked as she began to squirm, no doubt to move off me.
But I tightened my grip and looked at her. “Never. Stay in my arms, little one.”
She nodded, and I rubbed a hand down the long length of her chestnut curls, over and over, soothing us both with the repetitive caress.
After several minutes of silence, I asked, “What is wrong with you tonight, Medusa? Normally, you’d have fallen asleep by now. But your thoughts are restless, and there is a darkness there I cannot quite place my finger on.”
She groaned and buried the tip of her cold nose into my chest. It was probably my imagination that she took a sniff of my skin before answering, “You know me too well. It’s very bothersome to have no secrets from you.”
I chuckled, and she finally moved, glancing up at me with a tiny smirk upon her mauve lips.
“Talk to me. What is the matter?”
She sighed. “Nothing. Well, okay”—she grimaced—“something, I guess. Someone saw you hugging me the other day by the library. There is a rumor floating about now that I’m a loose woman of no morals and that once you’ve had your way with me, you’ll leave just like you guys all do.”
Heat burned through my belly, and the fire that I knew I could not lose control of threatened to punch out of me. But I was holding something infinitely precious to me and would never knowingly harm her. So I took several deep, calming breaths before trusting myself to speak. “Don’t listen to them, Medusa. Not all us gods are like my father.”
She shook her head. “No, of course. I know.” Her smile was wimpy as she patted my chest. “Of course. You are not like that.”
But even as she laughed mockingly at herself, I knew she did not really mean it. She was full of doubt, and I heard it ringing clear as a bell.
Grabbing her hand, I looked at her until she was forced to look at me. I never let her gaze drop. “Listen to me and listen well. I do not know what this is between us. All I know is this. It is sacred. And it is pure. I am not in the habit of falling for mortals. In fact, you would be my first.”
She blinked, looking startled at my proclamation. “You… you—”
But I did not let her finish because I was not done yet. “But what this is, it is ours. Yours. And mine. No one else’s. Do you understand?”
She still looked stunned, like she was having a difficult time processing my words. “You can’t… you can’t truly mean this.”
“I do not speak words I do not mean. I do not have time for games. And I thought that you felt as I do.”
She gasped. “I do. You must believe that. I do. I don’t understand how this has happened, and I don’t know that… that—”
My heart warmed to hear her stutter her way through the sweetest and most nervous proclamation of love ever. She was nowhere near as smooth and talented at seduction as Dite had been. But Medusa’s admission moved me far more.
“Oh, little bird,” I chuckled as I stroked her cheek. “I do like you. Very much.”
Her smile grew wide. “Do you wish to have sex, Ares? With me?”
The shift from ingénue to suddenly so blatantly talking about sex completely shocked me, and I couldn’t help laughing, which Medusa clearly did not at all like. She started to wiggle, trying to shove up off me.
“Will you stop it?” I grumped and tightened my grip just enough to hold her but not hurt her. “You’re not going anywhere. Ever. I laughed because I do not expect sex. I did not declare myself simply to gain from you. I declared myself because sometimes, it’s nice when someone you care about knows it.”
She began to slowly settle down. “I thought you mocked me.”
“Oh, little bird. If you only understood how deeply I feel for you. But when we make love for the first tim
e, and believe me, I will be your first, it will be because the time is right for us both. Now sleep. For I am very tired, and tomorrow comes all too soon for you.”
I kissed the crown of her head, gently rubbing her wing tips, and soon my little heart fell to sleep with a soft smile upon her face.
As for me, on the other hand, a stiff cock made it almost impossible to relax at all. But I meant what I’d said. I would wait until she was ready, because she was worth it. She would always be worth any cost.
Chapter 14
Medusa
He was gone. But I was in love, and he loved me back, and this was the most glorious, wondrous day in my entire life.
I never wanted to leave my bed. I could smell him everywhere. The sharpness of his woodsy scent and even the slight burn of his fire that I’d yet to see rage in all its glory.
Tracing my bottom lip with my finger, I sensed my stomach twist and dive in on itself, and I thought about the touch of his mouth to mine. The fullness of his soft skin as he’d gently explored my own. Razor-tipped butterfly wings flew madly in my stomach. Was this love? This terrible yearning and desperate ache?
I remembered his callused fingertips tracing the line of my spine through my shift. The way my body had both seemed to melt for him and come exquisitely, almost painfully to life… Was that love?
I thought it must be. My thoughts were entirely focused on him this morning. What he was doing. What he was thinking. Whether he missed me as desperately as I missed him.
A smile wreathed my face as the warmth of early morning sunlight bathed my body through the tiny opening of my bedroom window. Outside, I heard the song of sea birds.
My room that was so familiar seemed somehow… changed today. Brighter, maybe. The dull yellows of my wall now gleamed just a tad, seeming to almost be hiding flecks of gold within that I only now saw.
Giggling and feeling both stupid and stupidly giddy, I took one last deep inhale of the spot where he’d been last night.
I’d kissed him. I’d actually kissed him, and he’d liked it. I might be a virgin, but I’d felt his tremblings and the infinite care with which he held me, and traced me, and once more, I heard the ghost of his whispers… “I am not in the habit of falling for mortals. In fact, you would be my first.”
Stretching my arms above my head, I nearly sang with joy. Instead, I settled for squealing happily. I knew I would have to tell my mother the truth eventually, but for today, this beautiful secret was mine. All mine, and I would treasure it.
Then my door opened, and Mother’s face peeked in. Her eyes were haunted, and a terrible feeling of foreboding crawled over my flesh, making me feel short of breath. She looked at me solemnly, and I knew she knew. I wasn’t sure how or when she’d figured it out. But I knew my mother’s looks well enough to know disapproval when I saw it.
Her mouth tipped downward, and she said five words that made the heavens shrink up—“Medusa, come to the kitchen.”
Then she closed the door, and I placed one hand over my now-heaving stomach and the other over my mouth to keep the scream trapped in my throat.
How had she learned the truth? We’d been so secret. So careful. Had she heard the rumors?
The beating of my heart slowly resumed its normal pace. That must be how she knew. It had to be. She’d heard the rumors in the marketplace yesterday, surely. That was all this was. I wet my lips and nervously got up and quickly got ready for the day.
Mother had already planned to keep me home from the temple. She’d needed my hands to help with the wash. And I was glad of it. Anything to get me away from that goddess awful place. Even chores were a welcome reprieve.
Staring at myself in my warped looking glass, I noted the paleness of my usually olive-toned complexion and the dark circles beneath my eyes that Ares himself had remarked on last night.
Brushing a hand down my cheekbone, I nodded at myself. I would put on a good face, and I would not let her know what I’d done in the night. It wasn’t like anything had honestly happened. He’d kissed me.
Well, I’d kissed him first. But still, that was as far as things had gone. Apart from us realizing how deeply we cared for one another.
Even with my nerves, I couldn’t help smiling at that thought, though it didn’t last long when I heard the footsteps close to my door. Tying an apron around my waist, I made myself ready for the long day of backbreaking work.
This is nothing, I mentally chanted with each step I took. But once I arrived at the kitchen and saw her sitting there, no baskets of draperies or clothing to mend or wash, everything changed.
She swallowed the tea in her mouth before sighing and finally saying, “Medusa, I saw you. You and him. This morning. In your bed. Lying together as lovers do.”
The tremblings started first in my hands, then worked up my feet, to my knees, and my thighs, until finally, I slid down the wall, unable to keep upright any longer.
“I wanted to keep this from you, child, for as long as I possibly could. But the look on your face this morning, and on his…” Her voice hitched, and she averted her eyes but not before I saw the shimmer of tears burn hotly through them. “Oh, my poor, sweet child. You do not know. I never wished to bring you heartache as I’m about to bring you now. But you must end things with him. Medusa, you can never lie with that male. You could have had a sweet gentle mortal, boy, eventually. Maybe. Father and I had hoped. But you can never, ever lie with a god. Not ever. For if you do, a terrible curse will befall you, and it will be the ruin of us all.”
“Moth… er,” I started sobbing uncontrollably, not even certain it was because of this curse that she spoke of but because, for the first time, I believed her. It was not rage or anger that held my mother in its grip now but true and deep fear. Fear so thick it lashed out at me and made me feel as though I’d drowned in misery of the acutest kind.
“The oracle said that you would become the worst monster this world has ever seen or will ever see the day your body knows the intimate touch of a god. That there would be one with lightning burning in his eyes who would utterly consume then destroy you.”
I was feeling as though I walked through a haze, and the first thing that popped into my head was that Ares had fire in his eyes, never lightning. And yet, it was possible the lightning was simply a euphemism for emotion. Anger. Rage. Lust. Her paranoia made more sense now.
“The fact that you are not changed tells me you and he did not make love, but I warn you now, my daughter, you must end this with him. Forever. Not just for your sake but his too. The gods will end you should you become the thing they fear. A woman of stone with hair of serpents.”
I didn’t know when it had happened, but I was no longer on my feet or even sitting, for that matter. Next time awareness hit me, I was curled up on the floor, gasping for air, clutching at my stomach, and feeling as though I needed to retch, but nothing came up. Her hands were on me, and she was whispering how much she loved me and how sorry she was. That she knew I was in love and she would never wish to steal such joy from me but that she did it purely from love for me.
And I cried not because I didn’t believe her but because, for the first time, I finally did, and now I knew what I had to do. It was not concern for myself that told me I needed to end things with Ares for good. It was love for him. I’d never understood my mother more than I did in that moment.
Despair, thick and choking, consumed me. Darkness beckoned, and all I could see was this dark and twisted creature of stone and snakes crawling out of a hole and consuming all it saw and had ever loved.
By the time my crying ceased several hours later, there was nothing left in me. I felt purged but empty. I could not smile any longer. There was no joy in my world, no color even. Everything was dull and gray. I would see Ares one last time, and I would break his heart.
My sisters were here with me now too. Six arms were wrapped tightly around me, all of them whispering to be strong and hang on and saying that someday, this would all be better.
Nothing could ever be better. This was a devastation that I wasn’t sure I had any hope of coming back from. I’d fallen in love so completely with him that he was in me and I was in him. But this was bigger than what I needed or wanted or even what he wanted. This involved the fate and safety of the world and those around me whom I loved as dearly as my own life. Maybe even more so.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I said only a few words. “I will do it, Mother. I will end things with him tonight.”
Then I patted each of their cheeks before I slipped out of their cage of arms and made my way to my room. I sat down on my bed and stared at the wall before me, my soul as bare and empty as the wall itself.
I knew I would never be the same again.
Poseidon
* * *
I’d been silently watching her for days, following her every move while keeping invisible and still. Gods enjoyed being seen, being worshipped and honored and praised, but most of us could conceal our identities, and like me, a few could even become naught more than a haunting spirit.
I’d watched her awake in the mornings. Watched her laugh. Sing. Dance when she thought no one looking. I’d watched her grow furious or be as steady as the sea. I’d seen her in his arms night after night.
I knew my nephew well enough to know this wasn’t merely lust that drove him to her bed but more. Ares was not like his father or me. While outwardly he projected an aura of power and strength, inwardly he was more like his deformed brother, Hephaestus—burning with the notion of finding his one true love, desperate to simply belong to one person. Ares was a fascinating study in dichotomy.
But he’d gone and entangled himself with a woman who could well spell the ruin of us all. The Fates’ prophecy spoken over me all those months ago suddenly made sense.
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