“So, darling, are you going to cut to the chase? Why are you here?” Ares broke me from my wandering thoughts.
“To catch up. To see you. To talk.”
He eyed me suspiciously but dropped the subject and rolled his neck, letting loose the tension with it. I felt the tension in the room ease off a bit. He had a way of transmitting his emotions onto others, purely accidentally of course, but rage, anger, hate, sorrow—all devastating emotions that radiated from him. It came in handy for him in warfare, I suppose. If you were lucky, like me, he’d radiate love and passion.
“How’s my son?” he asked.
“More like you every century.”
“I doubt that. He’s your son through and through.”
“He acts like you. I’m glad you brought him up. You should come to see him in New York. The truth is I need your help with him. He stopped obeying me.”
“I’m busy at the moment here. Why don’t I just call him, give him a talking to, command him to listen to you,” he suggested.
“There’s more. He’s falling for this insipid mortal girl, and we have to stop it.”
“Wait,” he interrupted. “Why can’t the kid have his fun?”
“Your father says no. Something about her he doesn’t like. You know your father never embellishes on anything. All orders—no explanations.”
Ares laughed, throwing his napkin down, and then glared at me with those fiery eyes. “I knew it. Zeus sent you to stop me. To stop the wars. But you can tell him these mortals would have war without me. The Afghanistan Conflict has been fueled for forty years now.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never meddle in your little games. I sent myself. I came here to ask you to come back to New York for me, for Eros. He goes by Archer now. I thought, why not try again to be a family?” My words bothered him but did not sway him. I had gone with the truth, since it would be the only way to win him over.
“Just the three of us?” he questioned.
“Apollo’s in New York too, but he’s itching to leave.”
“What of your entourage?”
“No. I only deal with them when forced to. Your father paraded those mistakes around in front of me just to irk me.”
“Don’t call them that,” Ares groaned. “Those kids are our responsibility, but I agree. I don’t think there’s room for more in our family.”
“I disagree,” I said, pausing for dramatic effect, “I think it’s about time you give me another baby. Your father said he’d permit it.”
He almost choked on some lobster. He coughed, swallowed, and downed an entire glass of champagne. His hands tightened on the table, denting it.
“You’re breaking the table, darling,” I warned him, waiting for him to calm himself. “You know we make beautiful babies.”
“Could you do it all again? Raise them and then lose them like the others? I don’t know if I can. Isn’t that why we never asked Zeus to let us have any more?”
I unlatched his hands from the table. They had left molds of his strong fingers in the metal.
“Times are much different now, my love. The world is much safer than our Greecian days, and I will not let them go to the battlefront if they take after you.” I tried to reassure him by squeezing his hand.
Ares digested the conversation, relaxed, and poured us more champagne. The gears were grinding in his head. I could tell he was plotting, scheming, measuring my strengths and weaknesses against his own. Everything in life to him was evaluated like a battle.
“You know, I might be able to help you with that tonight, love.” He raised his eyebrow seductively.
My stomach flopped. This was so sudden, so rash. It all was true: another child to raise and care for after Archer left, another little one to fill up my half-empty heart. I wouldn’t be alone, but now? That would ruin some of the plans in New York. I’d have to give up Dan and my games that I thoroughly enjoyed.
“Will you come to New York?” I pressed.
“Is that the condition?” he bartered, the warrior in him trying to write up a treaty.
“If it is?” I answered his question with one of my own.
He tried to suppress the smile playing on his lips.
“What?” I asked coyly.
He shook his head. “You haven’t changed a bit.” Ares stood up, crossed to me, and offered me his hand. I gave mine to him. He pulled me up and drew me to him. “Dance with me.”
“There’s no music.”
“Be creative, darling,” he breathed into my hair. “I know you better than you know yourself.” I tucked my head under his chin as he wrapped his strong arms around me. He was the strongest god of all of us, physically. It was his strength that won me over, but it was dancing in his arms that first stole my heart from Hephie. “You don’t really want to settle down, do you? You’ve always been more about the chase.”
“Can’t a girl want two things?”
Ares pulled me out from under his chin, leaned down, and kissed me. It felt like millennia since those firm lips had touched mine. It felt like coming home. I couldn’t help but kiss him back. His arms held me in a tight embrace, his body against mine. He was so warm, with his rock-hard muscles pressed tightly against me. I felt my heart flutter as if a butterfly were trapped in my chest. I was in danger of falling under my own spell. All the doubts about our future vanished. I could do this. I could succeed in this mission and win him over, and after that kiss, I wanted to succeed.
“You always want two things.” He smiled at me, cradling my chin in his hands.
“And so do you,” I countered, pouting. I could tell the pout swayed him at last. Trick two always worked in the end. “Come with me,” I pleaded.
“Stay,” he countered. Then he sighed, anticipating my answer. “You knew coming here and begging me to come back wouldn’t work. Why’d you try?”
“To make you want me again,” I told him honestly.
His jaw tightened. “It worked,” he said glumly. The gears in his head were turning again, perhaps devising a strategy to keep me here with him. His eyes bored into mine, and what I had been waiting for shone through: love. His eyes glowed brightly, almost orange, like a fire was burning within him. I had succeeded in that task, but I needed to get him to come to New York with me, or all could be lost.
“Why deny it, Ares?” I touched his cheek.
“What?” he said, his voice soft and cracking as he ran his rough fingers over the smooth skin of my cheek.
“That you love me.”
He pulled me almost painfully tight against him and leaned in. “I never denied that.”
“Then come with me.” I threw him the most pitiful pout I could muster.
Then he kissed me but quickly pulled away. “Say it,” he begged, holding my face in his hands.
“What?” I toyed with him.
He then gave me an intense and intimidating glare.
“That I love you, Ares of Thrace, god of war, the most stubborn being on—” I was cut off with another kiss.
“It would have to be a real chase,” he said, suddenly letting go of all but my hand. “You’d have to be really hard to get. Challenge me; tease me; make me jealous; make it really difficult. Deny me again and again.” His grip tightened on my hand, insinuating this would happen.
“Hmm, this sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.”
“And our son?” Ares asked.
“Another game for you to win, darling. I can’t help you with him. If I knew how to manage him, I wouldn’t need your help on that front.”
And that was how the game began. I left Afghanistan without Ares, but he promised to relocate to New York as soon as possible. To ensure this would happen sooner rather than later, I made a list of soldiers from each side and chose people they’d fall madly in love with, hoping it would at least distract them from war for a while. I had over my quota for Zeus.
And so I went to deal with my son, dreading how far his disobedience had taken him in m
y absence. I hoped for his sake that Callie was in love with someone else.
Chapter 11Lucien
I kept thinking of the prophecy. Every day, it plagued me, yet I could not figure out how Callie could change our entire world. That did not seem feasible. For one beautiful, but not exceptional in any particular way, mortal to change us forever was not plausible. And Zeus? He’d never fear a mortal being, but what in the vision had him cowering? I was beginning to wonder about my own high level of intrigue. Why was I so drawn to her? The fact I was so interested in my best friend’s girl was depressing and made me feel like a rotten friend.
When I pondered on it, she and I did have amazing conversations; she was clever, outgoing, and kindhearted, not to mention beautiful. There was something about her deep, dark eyes; her soft, glowing skin; and I adored how her lips broke around her teeth when she smiled. I had always been led by my eyes before my heart, but Callie captured both without even trying. She enraptured me, even though she was only ever friendly to me, never flirtatious.
The Charities, although a chore to entertain sometimes, were a well-needed distraction. I took them—my darling friends of beauty, jollity, and charm—through Central Park, trying to keep them away from stores. I knew how dangerous they were when it came to shopping. I’d honestly once watched them drop ten grand in one outing between the three of them. Whose money it was or where it came from, I was afraid to ask. They could cajole money out of the tightest of men. After that, they had to see all the typical sightseeing attractions, and then we ended up at the mortal Emily’s party.
Emily’s house was packed with students from our school, but I found Archer immediately, just by scanning for Callie. He was by her side, their hands glued together. They were standing inconspicuously in the corner, oblivious to the people around them, talking in whispered, hurried tones. They were intimate already, their body language so drawn together and at ease, like they had been together for ages. I tried to conquer my jealous feelings, to not be annoyed by my friend when it wasn’t necessarily his fault. Plus, it wasn’t my right to be angry with him. My intense anger alarmed me. Was I truly falling for Callie?
The jealous feelings were easily suppressed when he saw me, smiled genuinely, and waved me over. How could I hate the one true friend I had in the world? I couldn’t let a mortal girl, no matter how beautiful and charming she might be, get between us. I walked over to them. Callie was glowing with happiness. The three “horrors,” as Archer called them, followed me, eyeing up all the boys as tasty treats.
“You survived. I owe you,” Archer told me.
“You do.” It honestly wasn’t such an atrocious day with Archer’s entourage, but I wouldn’t let him know that.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked me. “You should come around Callie’s. Her dad has some interesting artifacts from Litochoro.” I wondered exactly what he meant by his coded comment.
“Oh, don’t pretend to be interested to please my dad, Archer,” Callie said, laughing.
“No, I really was interested.” Then he directed his attention back to me. “You should come around with me, check ‘em out.” He really wanted to impart something to me, but it would have to wait.
“I can’t. I’m going to France.”
“How do you guys just do that, skip class and everything?” Callie protested.
“Permission slips. I’ll fake you one, and we’ll go to Paris.” Archer told her, his tone completely serious. He needed to act more human around her and stop showing off. The last thing he needed was to levitate or run like the wind in front of her and expose what he was.
“My dad would like that one.” She shook her head at Archer’s facetious comment.
“No, I’m not going to Paris. There’s something I need to look into in Nice. A family matter,” I said vaguely.
Archer gave me a concerned and quizzical stare. He wouldn’t pry in front of Callie, but he might ask for more detail later. I’d have to avoid him, or he’d pry the truth out of me.
“Not a big deal. My mother,” I said, rolling my eyes. I threw Archer off with a lie. It came out so fast that I didn’t realize I could do it. I lied to an immortal. How was that possible? My pulse spiked at the realization, and my stomach did an elevator drop. How could I lie? It was one thing to omit where prophecies came from, but normally, the truth came out of my mouth, no matter how painful or damaging it could be.
“Everything all right?” Archer gave me a critical glance. He knew something was up.
“I think so.” I tried to hide my shock from him. I stuck to being vague because this lying thing was new to me. “So, you’ll have to deal with this lot tomorrow. Sorry.”
Archer gave me a grimace.
Two of the girls went on their merry little ways, easily mingling, but Belle stayed with me. Usually, these mortal parties were a bore, but this time, I was actually having a lot of fun just catching up with Belle. What guy wouldn’t when talking to one of the most beautiful creatures ever born? Our reminiscing was interrupted by Emily when she sat down on the sofa on the other side of me, crying. The girl was full of drama, inventing it wherever she went. Linda came to soothe her.
“Emily,” Linda said quietly.
“Leave me alone!”
“Look, you’ve had a bit to drink. You’re rightfully upset, but let’s take this upstairs where no one will hear,” Linda pleaded.
“What do you think they’re doing up there? What a slut! Both of them!” Emily cried, tears streaming down her face.
“Who?” I ventured, forcing myself into the conversation.
“Your buddy and Callie,” Emily said Callie’s name with scorn. “They’re up in my room doing you-know-what.”
“No, they’re not.” I laughed. I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, picturing myself up in Emily’s room, and was there mentally. Archer and Callie were lying across the bed on their stomachs, side by side, talking. He touched her cheek gently, she blushed, and they kissed. It was a scene far more innocent than what Emily assumed. I left them alone, trying to dispel the image from my mind. I hoped, for Callie’s sake, that she had kissed him first. “They’re a couple of prudes, honestly. Making out maybe but not what you’re suggesting.”
“How would you know?” she lashed out.
“My cousin Archer is a gentleman,” Belle said defiantly.
This wasn’t good. If it came down to defending Archer, Belle would kill Emily—literally. I squeezed Belle’s hand to calm her down.
“Why can’t it be me?” Emily wailed. “I was saving myself for him,” she muttered in drunken slurs.
“Emily, quiet,” Linda begged.
Linda observed me and my hand on Belle’s. I instinctively let go. I didn’t want her to think Belle and I were together. I’m not sure why.
“I need to put her to bed. Can you help me clear her room out?” she asked Belle and me.
“Yeah, okay.” I was aware Linda had as big a crush on me as Emily had on Archer. Boys aren’t as insipid as girls make us out to be. We can tell. Linda wasn’t bad at all, and if I had to drown my sorrow for not having Callie, then why not Linda?
We went upstairs together, and on opening the door, we found the “fugitives” in the same position I had seen them in, watching TV and flirtatiously chatting. They were surprised at the interruption.
“You’re in Emily’s room,” I told Archer.
He got up quickly, taking Callie’s hands and helping her off the bed. The others approached behind me with a ranting Emily.
“Skank!” Emily directed at Callie. “I hate you!”
Callie gasped. “What?” The look of horror on her face was heartbreaking.
Emily pressed her finger sharply into Callie’s chest and said, “You stole him. He was mine. I love him!”
“Emily, I’m sorry—” Callie began.
“Don’t.” Archer put his hand up to silence Callie. “We have nothing to apologize for.” He took up her hand, squeezed it reassuringly, and led her ou
t of the room.
I began to follow them as Belle forcefully pushed Emily into the room. Archer eyed me to stay away, so I remained awkwardly in the doorway.
“Gosh, you’re really strong, Belle. She carried me up here,” Emily slurred and stumbled.
“Okay, Emily, go to sleep,” Linda said in a tone that betrayed she didn’t believe her friend and was equally embarrassed in the present situation.
“Who does Emily like?” Archer asked Callie. I couldn’t help but overhear the lovebirds.
She scoffed and said, “You.”
“Besides that,” he pressed.
“What?” She was confused.
“I mean, who would she be good with? We could play matchmaker, you and I.” He smiled at her. What was he doing?
“Um…Pete maybe,” Callie mentioned. “He’s really nice, and she thinks he’s cute.”
Archer closed his eyes for a moment, most likely matchmaking in his head, and kissed her at the same moment. I was sure Emily would be in love with Pete soon enough. What a bloody show off. What an idiot to expose himself. I wanted to strangle him. Didn’t he realize every little hint that he gave her to what he was put Callie closer to danger? Or was he too blinded by love?
“We’ll work on it on Monday,” he told her, feigning how they would talk Pete into going out with Emily.
I glared at him.
Archer noticed, gave me a confused and questioning glance, and then pulled Callie protectively against him.
I shook my head at him.
“I didn’t,” Archer mouthed at me. He claimed he hadn’t shot Emily or Pete, but he probably would.
I went back downstairs. I was sure he was clueless as to why I was bitter, which was a good thing since it was more than his carelessness that upset me. Since our welcome was overstayed, I gathered up the girls to leave. When we walked out into the cool night, Archer, who walked out first, abruptly stopped. Callie bumped into him and me into her, almost tumbling us like dominos.
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