Goddess Trials

by A Lonergan

Hestia complied. “Hecate was my mother, yes, but she was more powerful than both my sister and me. I wouldn’t have been able to open it hours ago, you had to weaken it with your power before it would even accept my blood.” Hestia shook her head. “I sensed it weakening and knew I had an opportunity if you think I would have been able to do that a few hours ago, fine. But you are giving me more credit than I deserve.”

  “You are leaving out the fact that Hecate left her power to you.” Artemis cocked her head at us.

  “It matters not, yes, it made me more powerful, not that powerful.” Hestia shook her head in disbelief. “I get that you all have trust issues, but you need to suck it up. I’m not a good enemy to have, I will promise you that.” She scowled, and Shaskia’s face relaxed some.

  Hestia had a point.

  “You are right,” Shaskia put both of her hands on either side of her face and took a deep breath. “The most important thing right now is stopping that wedding.”

  That was when things started to slow down, and my mother took in a shocked breath. “Crawley,” Her hands fluttered to her mouth. I had forgotten about the damage Apollo had done to me and the added damage Hestia had done to drag out the ceremony.

  “It’s alright, mother.” I put my hands on her shoulders to steady her.

  Hestia made a pained face. “If you think his front is bad, you shouldn’t see his back.”

  My mother closed her eyes, wracked with torment. “Why aren’t you healing?”

  “Apollo has the immortal blade.” I rubbed the stubble sprouting from my chin.

  “The what?” Shaskia looked at Artemis, confused.

  “It is a blade forged from Adamant, Cronus castrated Uranus using it. It is one of the strongest elements ever known. Zeus is supposed to be the only one that has it. Perseus’ sword was forged from it, he cut Medusa’s head off with it. If Apollo has it, it is hazardous indeed.”

  Prometheus chose that moment to make his presence known. I could have made the rudest face, but I kept it blank instead. If he made my mother happy, then I needed to accept him, at least a little bit.

  Prometheus held up his scarred arms. “It’s what Zeus used to keep me chained to the top of the mountain. It is the only element that can kill a god or restrain one.”

  Shaskia covered her face with her hands, she was just as speechless as anyone else.

  “How are we going to prevent him from marrying Jessa?” My mother grasped Prometheus’ hands in her own.

  “We don’t,” Hestia said. I jerked my head away from my mom.

  Shaskia didn’t like Hestia enough, and she wasn’t helping her cause. “Why the hades not?”

  Artemis wrinkled her eyebrows. “Because Apollo expects it. He will have the blade with him at the ceremony.”

  Chapter 24

  Jessa

  Apollo’s sons gave me about as much information as I could want but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough, and we were running out of time. My heart ached to visit Crawley, to know that he was all right. I hadn’t seen Apollo in days it seemed. I needed to send his son’s off to the valley soon but didn’t know the best time to do it. I was nervous enough as it was.

  Artemis was missing, Apollo was missing, and I needed to know that Crawley was holding on. I paced the floor in my pajamas. I hadn’t left my room since I had spoken to the sons. They brought me food and left me alone. The only one that bothered me was Perseus. He still had high hopes for a future union with me, even though Apollo was standing in the way now.

  A knock at the door had me rushing to pat my wild hair down and smooth the wrinkles from my sleep clothes.

  Apollo came in and gave me a glare.

  “What’s wrong?” My heart dropped. Had he realized I had been conspiring with his sons? Had he found out that I had told Zeus everything?

  “Like you don’t know!” He flew across the room and pinned me against the wall. His hand was wrapped around my neck while my feet dangled right above the floor.

  “P-please, makeup will only be able to cover the bruising so much. I can’t walk down the aisle with a handprint around my neck.” I struggled to get the words out and breathe at the same time.

  He took a deep breath and released me. I tumbled to the floor and draped my neck in relief. “You’re right, love. I’m sorry, sometimes my anger gets the best of me.”

  I looked to his loafers and tried to calm my erratic heart and mind. “What happened?” I moved my eyes up his body and met his blue ones. They had softened a fraction.

  “You haven’t seen Crawley without my permission, have you?”

  I shook my head slowly, trying to think of a reason he would be so mad and why he would be asking these questions.

  “Hm, well, I can see that you are telling the truth.” He slammed the door on his way out.

  His sons were still posted outside of my door, when I knew Apollo had been gone for a while, I peeked my head out of the door.

  Brace gave me a worried glance. “You’re not going to like this.”

  “Well, go on with it.” I nodded my head, waiting for him to continue.

  “Crawley escaped.” His words made me feel like the floor had fallen out from beneath me.

  I held onto the door frame for dear life. “What does this mean?”

  “Apollo has nothing to hold over your head anymore.” Brace smiled at me encouragingly. “You can leave.”

  My face dropped. “Do you really think its that simple or do you just hope for the best?” Brace shrugged. “He won’t stop. He won’t stop hunting my family or me until I comply with his demands. He’ll find some way to ruin my life, over and over again.”

  Brace shook his head and looked away. I continued on, “I don’t even know what happened to my mother, do you know what that feels like? That maybe I’ll find another one of his prisons, and she’ll be there, or maybe I’ll find her dead, or maybe I won’t find her at all. I don’t ever want to think that way with Crawley, or Shaskia or just well, anyone!”

  Brace looked horrified at my words, and I couldn’t figure out why until I realized I had spoken of my mother. It had been so long since I had let it out since I had worried or even let my thoughts drift that direction. “What? What’s the matter with you?”

  He looked at the floor, causing his hair to fall forward and cover his eyes. “I know what happened to her.”

  “Excuse me?” My voice came out in a little squeak.

  “Brody, out there, won’t speak to you because he was the one to do it, he can’t face you. I hardly can.” Brace raked his fingers through his hair, and it reminded me so much of Crawley I could have cried. “Apollo forced him to torture her and Apollo helped. I wasn’t allowed in the room, but I had to carry her body out when they were finished.”

  “Her lifeless body?” I asked, numb.

  When he looked up at me, his eyes were full of tears as he nodded his head. I nodded with him, in shock. I had never imagined that I was going to really find out what had happened to her and here I was, getting more answers than what I had bargained for.

  I wasn’t surprised. Nothing Apollo did surprised me anymore and the pain that I had expected? It wasn’t there either. I just stood there beside the look-alike of Apollo and felt nothing.

  Then I felt it. It was almost as if a weight was lifting from my chest. I felt a single tear roll down my face as I took a deep breath. She was better off being in the underworld and a part of me had always known that she wasn’t alive. It was why Apollo had started coming for me. He wouldn’t want my mother, she wasn’t in her prime anymore, and though she was beautiful, Apollo only needed her for information on her powerful and youthful daughter.

  “Are you okay?” Brace touched my shoulder, and I wiped the tear away with the back of my hand.

  “A part of me always knew the truth but was in denial about it. It feels weird to hear it though. It feels weird to know that an accomplice to her murder is in the hallway, that I am about to lead him to my people.” I folded my arms
over my chest, in thought.

  “It’s not like that. Apollo holds our families too, at least he did mine, and I’m not sure about Brody’s, they were in the prison you destroyed.” Brace sat down on the bed and watched me.

  “You don’t think he has your family anymore?” I sat beside him.

  “I know that he’s killed most of them off. I’m the most rebellious of his sons, and unfortunately, I have paid the price. I never thought he would really do it, I guess.” Brace shrugged before standing up and leaving the room.

  Chapter 25

  Crawley

  Shaskia and my mother spoke quietly in Shaskia’s home. With my beast’s hearing, I still couldn’t make out what they were saying. I was growing irritable by the second. I didn’t understand why we had to wait to go get her. I didn’t realize what the big hold up was. Beast was itching just below my skin, and I knew he would rip through if I didn’t get answers soon.

  Finally, my mother opened the front door and gave me her famous determined look. “Spit it out.”

  She grinned at me. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

  “Then why are you smiling at me like that?” I asked.

  “Because I have a feeling that you are close to a shift and I’m very nervous.” I had been so engulfed in my own feelings and thoughts that I hadn’t smelled just how anxious she was until she said something.

  I took a deep breath and calmed my beast. There was no need to be irrational, at least, that was what I told myself.

  “What is it? I’m calm now.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “I’m calmer than I was.”

  “We aren’t going to go get her.” I took another deep breath.

  “What do you mean?” It felt like fire was coursing through my veins.

  “Jessa knows you are here and she knows you’re safe, but she has chosen to go through with it. We aren’t sure why, but it is her decision, and we must respect that.” My mother looked at the ground, sadness floated around her in thick waves.

  “I love that all decisions are made without me! Like I am a damn child or something.” I turned away from her.

  “You’re acting like one! She is doing this for a reason, you can’t change it!” My mother touched my arm and forced me to turn back to her.

  “Maybe, I can talk her out of it,” I whispered.

  “You talk as if you don’t know her at all.” She rested her flaming head on my arm and wrapped her arms around me.

  “I just… I just don’t know what to do. She can’t.” I pushed my palms into my eyes and growled.

  “Why not? You have no claim on her.” My mother gave me a sympathetic look. “Come sit,” She pulled me away from the people filing around getting their early morning chores done around the village. Many had stopped to try to hear what the commotion was about.

  I sat beside her on the back of Shaskia’s cabin, and she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “It’s time that you tell me.”

  “Tell you what, momma?” She rubbed my back like she had when I was a small child before my father had ripped me from her.

  “Tell me how you really feel about Jessa.”

  Well, that was a tough one.

  I pulled from her arms and leaned back against the wood planks of the cabin. I brushed my fingers through my hair and let myself think of Jessa. I hadn’t done it. I hadn’t really thought of her in a long time. The last time I had honestly thought of her, I was in the pit, and her face and her stubbornness was the only thing that had kept me sane for so long. I held on, hoping that she would change things. I held on knowing that she would be strong enough to defeat Apollo and here she was, playing right into his hands.

  She was smarter than this. She was more intelligent than his ploys. I knew she had to have a plan, and I didn’t know why I didn’t trust it. My beast wanted to be in control, and I was having a hard time letting Jessa have her way. She was independent, strong and determined. She was possibly the bravest woman I had ever met, besides my mother and yet, I hadn’t had this talk with myself again. I thought of her hair and her eyes, the way they changed with the fire in her blood.

  My mother nudged my arm with hers. “Do you love her?”

  Did I know what love was? I had never had the example growing up. I had never thought that I could love someone. Attraction came quickly, but love? I remembered what Cent, the young centaur, had said and how he had seen the way I was around her.

  “Momma, I don’t know if I know what that is.”

  Her face fell. “I wish that I had been able to give you that. I wish that I had been there after or that your father would have given you that example that you so desperately needed. But you father had other plans for you. A war machine against the gods. I guess you were always destined to defy them.”

  “I can’t start my day without thinking of her. I can’t imagine my life without her in it. When I think of her, and she’s not with me, my chest gets tight.” I rubbed the spot over my heart. “My father thought he was doing what was best for me, in his own ways.”

  She winked at me. “Sounds a lot like love.” She stood up and looked me in the eyes. “Your father was many things, but he did love you, in his own strange ways. Where do you see yourself in five years?”

  “With her beside me. Maybe, married. I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Isn’t that what you do when you don’t want to be away from someone? Is that what you do when you feel like you can’t live without them?”

  “That’s usually what you do, yes. But maybe you should wait to see how all this plays out.” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Right now, she has to defeat Apollo, and after that happens, she’s not going to know what normal is.”

  I nodded my head in agreement before she walked away. I noticed Prometheus at the edge of the property and narrowed my eyes at him. The lying oaf.

  Hestia took that moment to reveal her presence then sat beside me. “That was some pretty deep shite you were talking about.”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t in the mood to talk feelings with a stranger.

  “It’s okay to open up.” She shrugged.

  “There is nothing to open up about.” I turned away from her.

  “I’m not the enemy here. You must see that, right?” Her voice pleaded with me and made me feel guilty. The only person she knew here was me, and I was being a jerk.

  “I’m having a hard time just staying put,” I said, my tone much softer than before.

  “I wish I knew the feeling, but I do not want to go back.” Her eyes held horror.

  “Good thing that you don’t have to,” I held out my hand and watched her. Hestia’s eyes grew round and surprised as my hand transformed into a monstrous paw. As I shifted it back, I tried not to grimace. The pain was still there, just not as terrible as a full shift.

  “What they were saying about you is true.” I could smell her fear but a little bit of curiosity as well.

  “Yes,”

  She looked at the sky, in thought. “What do you plan on doing?”

  Before I could answer her question, the air shimmered in front of us, and two blonde men fell through. From where I couldn’t say, the portal zapped closed as quickly as it had opened.

  Beast started to growl as we both realized who the men were that had invaded our territory. Before I could rip through my skin, Brace spoke. “We aren’t here to harm you, or your people. Jessa sent us.”

  I rushed to my feet and ran at him with a speed I didn’t know I possessed. I picked him up by his shirt collar and let my compulsion take over. “What did she say?”

  “She is to marry Apollo,” The man struggled, and I released him, slightly. “But you must be there, you can’t let her go through with it. You haven’t seen what he has done to women, you don’t know the lengths he will go for his own pleasure.”

  I shook my head and let him fall to the ground. “I do know the lengths he will go to.”

  Hestia put her hand on my arm and winked mischievously. “
Time to crash a wedding.”

  Chapter 26

  Jessa

  I was in my last dress fitting when the door burst open. Perseus ordered the dressmaker away and gave me a heated look. He marched across the room and grabbed my face. When he pressed his lips against mine, they were full of desperation and pleading. It was nothing like kissing Crawley. I didn’t melt or want to get lost in his arms. My stomach twisted into knots.

  I shoved his body away from mine and tried to regain my composer. He tasted like whiskey and sadness. “You can’t be so reckless. What if Apollo came in?”

  “Then I would die with no regrets,” Perseus observed me. Though he had tasted like alcohol, his eyes were clear.

  “That is very foolish.” I turned back to the mirror and tried to smooth out invisible wrinkles in my remarkable dress.

  “Not if I have a chance.” He said as he came up behind me.

  I shook my head. “You don’t.”

  “You can’t possibly be in love with Apollo!” He roared.

  “What do you know about love?” I asked as I whipped around.

  He thought for a minute before he answered me. “I know that you shared more affection with your bodyguard than you did with him…” He trailed off as realization seemed to smack him in the face. “He has Crawley, doesn’t he?”

  I shook my head in sorrow.

  “He has to have something over you, and your bodyguard and Artemis have been missing. You hardly leave this room, and for someone being so in love, Apollo isn’t by your side often.” Perseus leaned against the door, in caution.

  “He had Crawley, Crawley escaped.” I sat on the edge of the bed and watched his eyebrows draw together. “You don’t have to understand why I am doing this, but it’s bigger than I am and if I don’t, this will never end.”

  Perseus nodded before he fled from the room. For a brief moment, I wondered if I had made a mistake, but it also didn’t seem to matter. There was nothing more that Apollo could take from me.