Out of Excuses Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 8)

by S. E. Babin

  I nodded. “And I will try not to die.”

  A soft snort came from him. “You always know the most romantic thing to say to me.” One of his hands brushed my stomach. “Keep our baby safe.”

  I didn’t tell him that I thought maybe Baby Draco had more power in his tiny thumb than I had in my entire body. Neither one of us was prepared for that right now. I’d felt the hum of his power for days now, but I was really good at acting oblivious to a lot of things. I preferred to stay oblivious to this for as long as humanly possible.

  I linked our hands together, brushed my lips against his one more time, and left him standing there staring after me.

  It was show time.

  Chapter 15

  I stepped outside to the tower overlooking the massive crowd of immortals standing below us. Thousands of people stood below us, restless and shifting nervously back on their feet. I knew how they felt. They’d just had a coronation, and it was breaking protocol to do it again so soon. It felt like a weakness to me, even though the Fates insisted it was the right thing to do.

  I frowned. We still didn’t know if the Fates were on our side right now, even though Clotho had appeared to me.

  My gaze shifted over to Artemis. Her hair shifted with the wind and her posture was tense. Her magic had faded a touch more over the day. Atlas stood beside her, powerful and strong. Also, silent. He was a great catch for someone, and as soon as we were able to free him, he could go out and find someone.

  I looked up at the tower Hades would be standing in and saw his shadow move slightly. He was there.

  I nodded.

  It was show time.

  Hermes stood behind me for a moment. He drew in a quick, short breath and stepped up beside me. “I’m feeling generous. Are you sure about this?”

  If i could have punched him in the face, I would have. “You ask me the greatest favor anyone could ever ask a friend and less than a minute before it begins you give me an out?” My words were harsh and whispered.

  He stiffened beside me. “You’re right,” he said in a low voice.

  “You’re damn right I’m right,” I growled at him.

  “I didn’t mean it anyway.”

  “Keep it up and this is going to be much more real than you would prefer.” I gave him a quick death glare, then slapped on a smile and turned to the crowd. “Get up there and act like the fake leader you are.”

  “Ouch.” He winced. He reached over and squeezed my fingers before he stepped up to the podium and waved to the crowd below. A smattering of applause broke out.

  Most of them were old school and wanted Zeus back. Hermes had never been extremely popular. Wait till they get a load of the next ruler.

  They were going to just love this.

  Hermes cleared his throat and began to speak to the crowd. I relaxed my shoulders for a second, taking in the precious few moments of normalcy I had left.

  Artie took a step over to me and put an arm around my waist. “If you want, we can zap out of here and back onto my couch for a Supernatural marathon.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and barely escaped letting out a sob. “I would give my left foot to be able to do that with you.” And I meant it.

  Silence fell between us, broken only by the sounds of Hermes lying through his teeth to the immortals.

  “How did we get here?” I asked her after a moment.

  Artie sighed. “Was it ever really escapable?”

  “Yes,” I said immediately before I snorted. “No,” I said right after that.

  Artie scoffed.

  “Maybe,” I admitted.

  A small smile played around her mouth. “If you knew that taking another path would lead you away from this…” Her hand patted my stomach. “Would you have made different decisions?”

  I thought about my silvery-eyed husband, the trials we’d gone through, the friendships I’d made, the deaths I’d caused. “No,” I whispered as Baby Draco shifted inside of me. My gaze met her subdued violet one. “But I would take back what happened to you. I’d take back every second of that and leave Zeus on the throne if it meant you didn’t have to suffer. I mean that with every fiber of my being.”

  Her gaze dropped. “I know,” she murmured. “But maybe this is my path to walk. Maybe this is what Fate has in store for me.”

  I scoffed. “Based on everything you’ve seen with the Fates, do you really believe that?”

  Her eyes crinkled at the sides. “How do you not realize that they were single-handedly leading you to this moment?”

  From Clotho’s adamant refusal to know anything about this moment, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that was actually true. “Ummm,” I said.

  Artie chuckled under her breath. “Fate cannot be avoided forever, Abs. You can throw detours at it and perhaps delay it, but in the end, the Threadweaver and the Cutter will catch up to you.”

  I glanced over to Hermes and could tell by his fidgeting that his speech was almost over. I stiffened. Keto would be here soon.

  “Artie,” I whispered urgently. “Whatever happens next, do not freak out.”

  The only surprise on her expression was a lift of one of her perfect eyebrows. “I don’t know why I haven’t quite trained myself to be terrified when you utter words like that, but I think it’s because I find myself wondering what you could possibly come up with next.”

  “That is a pretty fatalistic attitude,” I muttered.

  She snorted with amusement. “I’m still alive and technically still immortal, so right now, this is the only entertainment I might have for the next 50 years.”

  My lips twisted as I stared at her. “Fair enough,” I grumbled. “It’s going to be wild,” I whispered and stepped away from her.

  Hellfire rained down from the skies seconds later.

  Chapter 16

  The screams and chaos was overwhelming. No one remained unaffected. At the first sign of the deadly magic, Hermes jumped back off his his podium and turned to me with bewildered eyes.

  I only felt a little bit guilty about it. That’s what he gets for making me do this.

  “Abby?” he questioned.

  “Shut up and do what I tell you,” I barked.

  My gaze flickered over to the tower, only to see the outline of Hades’ hands working to funnel magic to the person I hadn’t seen yet. Wherever he was, he was either cloaked or hiding behind something.

  A second later, massive white wings blocked out the sun as the massive figure attached to them came swooping down over us.

  I choked on a horrified laugh.

  God was going to be so, so, soooo pissed at us.

  Keto fired blast after blast of Hellfire down at the crowd, taking extreme care to avoid the immortals as best he could. A shot of Hellfire was not something any of us would come back from, which was why my husband rarely used it.

  But the person Keto was disguised as was going to get us in a metric crap ton of trouble.

  God had four main angels he used to do his bidding on Earth. I used bidding loosely because the last encounter I’d had with one of his minions almost ended in my death.

  Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael.

  Keto was currently wearing the disguise of Gabriel, a massively muscled, dark-haired angel. He swept through the skies wearing wings of snowy white, a maniacal smile on his face.

  This was going to cost him and as much as my heart swelled at the risk he was taking, I knew his life was not going to be the same after this if he was caught. And...considering the sheer amount of chaos he was causing right now, Keto was definitely going to get caught.

  Artie let out a squeak as she studied the sky. “Who is that? Is that a freaking angel?”

  I clutched her arm, brought her close, and whispered in her ear. “It’s Keto.”

  She blinked rapidly several times. “Holy, holy crap. He’s going to be in so much trouble.”

  “Yes,” I said grimly.

  The immortals below had finally gathered their wits about them and
were beginning to send magic back at Keto, which put this whole operation in jeopardy. Thousands of us versus one of him had the potential to end in disaster. I nodded at Atlas.

  He stepped up beside Artie, and I stepped away from her. With barely a wisp of power being used, an impenetrable shield appeared around her, one she could not step out of. She squawked with outrage as she beat against the flexible shield. He gave her a look of sympathy, mouthed sorry, and shot up toward the sky to “take on” the angel Gabriel.

  Hermes was standing there watching the entire thing with wide eyes. “Abby, this is insane. I didn’t want any of this.”

  I stared at him incredulously. “Did you just think you’d waltz up to your podium, announce you were defecting and expect everyone just to be all oh, okay, no biggie, dude?”

  He blinked at me, his face pale with shock. “No,” he whispered.

  “Right. No. You have to die for this to happen, bud.” I looked up at the sky. “And even though I didn’t expect Keto to go quite so rogue, this is damn near brilliant. Instead of your father being blamed, we now officially get to take a shot at God.”

  Keto gave me a stare and a nod. He raised his hand toward us.

  “Now get down, idiot.” I waited for the blast of Hellfire to leave Keto’s hand, prayed his aim was perfect, and shoved Hermes down to the ground.

  Hellfire was named appropriately was my first thought as it felt like my skin was boiling off of my bones. My second was holy crap, I’d better never make my husband super angry.

  All the noise and chaos from below was drowned out from the roar of powerful magic surrounding us. I tried to shut my eyes before it hit, but I was too late. My eyes burned and sweat rolled down my skin. I could barely concentrate on what I was supposed to do next.

  I licked my lips and hovered my hands over Hermes’ face. Or, at least I hoped it was his face. I was temporarily blinded.

  I focused my magic on him, took a ragged breath, and covered him from head to toe with a glamour. My luck was both good and bad because Hermes was unconscious right now. Good because he seriously looked dead. Bad because if he stirred before we could get him out, all of this would be for naught.

  Tears rolled down my face, half from stress, half because I couldn’t see shit. I could hear Artie screeching promises of bloody murder and the sounds of battle above us, hopefully Keto and Atlas.

  A shuffle of footsteps beside me had me stiffening before a soft imperial voice said with deadly calm. “What in the hell is going on here?”

  Hera. Both terribly late and right on time. Just like always.

  “And why in the world is Atlas fighting an archangel?”

  She was waiting for me to respond and since I couldn’t see her expression, I didn’t know what to say. Should I pretend I’m shattered with grief? Had she seen me lay the glamour over Hermes? Was she about to blow this out of the water for us?

  “Oh for the god’s sake,” she muttered. The wash of cool magic floated over me, instantly healing my eyes.

  I gasped, blinked, and stared up at her. “Thank you,” I croaked.

  One perfect brow rose. Cool blue eyes stared down at me. Her gaze flashed over Hermes and something akin to concern floated over her expression. She knew our end game, but she didn’t know the details of it.

  I opened my mouth, paused, and quickly shut it.

  “Start at the beginning,” she ordered.

  I winced. “Don’t have time,” I rapsed. “We need to get him out of here before he wakes up.”

  She took in the scene one more time, shook her head, and nodded at me once. “Go.”

  I didn’t wait a millisecond before I blinked Hermes out.

  Hades set on the edge of the bed in the tower’s one and only room. His head lay in his hands. My husband looked absolutely zonked. He startled when I appeared, and Hellfire gathered in the palm of his hands.

  “Whoah,” I breathed as I laid my now deposed friend on the bed. “It’s just me.”

  He rose like liquid and in two steps he had me crushed in his arms.

  “Oof.”

  “When I saw the Hellfire come down so close to you, I died a little inside, Abby.” He breathed in the smell of my hair. “Are you well?”

  I snorted. “Temporarily blinded,” I admitted, “but Hera fixed me up.”

  His broad shoulders shuddered so I held him a little tighter.

  “It’s fine,” I whispered. “We’re good.”

  “The baby?”

  Baby Draco gave a solid kick that even Hades could feel. He sucked in a wondrous breath and stepped back a little. His hand crept down to my stomach as a wide, awed grin spread across his face.

  Tears filled my eyes. “I’d say the monster is just fine.”

  As if in protest, he kicked me a little harder.

  Both of us laughed, Hades a little more ragged than mine.

  I pulled him closer to me and squeezed him against me. “We made it.”

  “Yes, but what happens next?”

  I sighed. “We pretend that we know what the hell we’re doing and go to claim the crown?”

  “Enough of this,” a weary voice said from beside us. “I’d tell you to get a room, but it appears you’ve already figured that part out.”

  I eyeballed the now awake Hermes. “Nice to see you back in the land of the living.”

  He held a hand up and touched the back of his head. He pulled his fingers away with a wince. “You tackle like a linebacker.”

  “It needed to be convincing,” I said, though I didn’t feel even an ounce of guilt for shoving him down. I suspected I wouldn’t feel guilty about anything involving Hermes for a long, long time. You know how sometimes a friend would ask you something and you wouldn’t even blink over the request, but then they’d ask for something that made you swallow your tongue but you still went along with it because they were your BFF forever?

  This particular request was not only one that made me swallow my tongue, it made me fear for my life and the life of my husband and unborn child.

  But I loved him, and at one time, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, so I couldn’t turn him down.

  Hermes knew that and used it to his advantage.

  Just like I might have done had I been in the same position.

  From the sad expression on his face, I knew he knew what I was thinking.

  “Thank you,” he said solemnly. He reached into the front of his shirt and produced a small packet of papers. “You will need these.”

  Hades reached out and plucked them from his fingers. “What are these?”

  A sad smile crossed Hermes’ mouth. “The throne.” He swept a hand out. “My belongings.” He sighed. “The entirety of Mount Olympus.”

  Hades’ mouth thinned. “Abby,” he growled.

  “We’ve already agreed,” I reminded him. “This is our opportunity to do things differently. To unite everyone.”

  If it were possible for my husband to glare a hole into Hermes, the guy would have been swiss cheese.

  Finally Hades nodded and passed the papers over to me. With a quick burst of magic, I hid them. These were not something we wanted to get lost. While I was thinking about it, I sent a copy back to my Asheville home and a copy down to the Underworld.

  People were going to question this from now until the rest of our lives if we couldn’t unite everyone. I didn’t want to take any chances.

  “What will you do now?” Hades asked Hermes.

  I knew exactly what he was going to do and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about it.

  “There’s some land,” he began, “in Tennessee.”

  By the time he finished my husband was wearing a look of utter shock. “A farmer?” he spat. “We did all this so you could be a farmer?”

  I barked out a laugh at his expression. “Temporarily,” I reminded him. “And not a complete farmer. More like a helper until he can figure out what to do with himself.”

  Even Hermes look abashed at
his half-cocked plan.

  I held a hand up. “Look, I was living in New York and the only problem I ever had was wondering what color nail polish to wear for the weekend. Hermes has been a diligent servant to his screwed up father and was forced into a position he didn’t really want. If he wanted to trek through the Himalayas and make yak milk, I would be supportive of it.”

  Both men gaped at me.

  “You thought about your nail polish every week?” my husband asked.

  I gave him a steely look. “You have no idea how many nail polishes there are. Plus it goes by season. And then it depended on what my plans were.”

  One dark eyebrow rose.

  I huffed a laugh. “It’s complicated.”

  “Of course, darling,” Hades said.

  Hermes covered his mouth to hide the grin forming there. “While I don’t see myself becoming a yak farmer, I do appreciate your support.”

  Hades was still staring at me. I rolled my eyes at him, and said a little prayer for my fingernails. I hadn’t been able to paint them because every time I turned around these last several months I was fighting for my life. No one could maintain a manicure during that kind of stress.

  A soft knock on the door made us halt all conversation. We turned wide eyes to each other. I whispered, “Did you tell anyone?”

  Both men shook their head.

  Crap. Crap. Double crap.

  I tiptoed over to the door. A soft feminine huff sounded from the other side. “Seriously, Abby. You’ve always underestimated my intelligence and I find that completely laughable. I know you’re in there and I know our newly dead monarch is in there too. Open the damned door.”

  I bit my lip and turned to see what Hades and Hermes though. My husband was trying not to grin and Hermes looked a little green.

  I sighed and opened the door to see Hera standing there.

  “So...faking your own death and pissing off God, eh? Crude but genius. Next time don’t leave me out of your plans. I can make things lots easier for you motley lot.” She breezed in through the doorway, her light floral perfume drifting past my nostrils. I shut the door behind her.