Out of Excuses Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 8)

by S. E. Babin

  “Well.” It was all I could say.

  “I think you’re looking at the beginnings of an old fashioned siege,” said overly obvious Atlas.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I said.

  “Let’s see,” chipped in Hera. “We’re surrounded by angry magic wielders who are wanting to run you out of the palace. What exactly is your definition of a siege?”

  “Shut up, Hera.” I glared at her.

  Hades would know what to do. If he were here.

  “Where the hell is my husband?” I asked out loud.

  No one knew, but Hera added her opinion.

  “I’m assuming he’s trying to reach God.”

  I turned to look at her. “To reason with him?”

  Her merry laughter rang out. “Oh how I adore that after all this time you still think we can be reasonable.”

  I clicked my jaw together and stared out at the mass of immortals on my doorstep. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this.

  “I’m going out,” I told them all.

  Artie sucked in a breath. Atlas shook his head. Hera merely laughed.

  “That’s suicide,” Artie said.

  “If I’m going to step in and rule, I can’t hide from my people.”

  “Dear, that’s all you should do,” Hera said. “And you do it because all of these people are bloodthirsty heathens who will try to kill you at their first opportunity.”

  “Not everyone is bad, Hera.” I knew reasoning with her probably wouldn’t work, but I still wanted to try.

  “I didn’t say they were bad. But immortals want power. They know having power will make others hesitate before trying anything. And you have power right now.” She gave me a solemn look, one of the first I’d ever had from her that wasn’t dripping with disdain. “Leave the safety of this palace at your own peril.”

  Artie said nothing else. She knew me well enough to know how seriously I took threats of my peril.

  I squared my shoulders and used a burst of magic to open the palace doors.

  The sun was blinding. High in the sky by now, sunlight blazed down. Normally Olympus was temperate, sometimes downright cool, but today it felt like the sun matched the mood of the citizens below me. Foul and heated.

  Before I went outside I switched back into a chiton and knotted my hair up using magic. I took a deep breath and took a step out, sealing the doors behind me.

  The roar of the noise was the first thing to hit me. People yelled and screamed and flung horrible accusations around. I tried my best not to be scared, but fear was inching its way through my veins. How could I not be? I was one immortal whose power was dwarfed in comparison with everyone else around me.

  I held my hands up, sparking power between them. The noise lessened just a hair. I sent a burst of power out through the crowd, careful to keep it manageable in case I needed to hightail it out of here in a hurry.

  The voices slowly began to lower until we finally stood in complete silence. I stared out amongst the crowd and slowly let out a breath before I spoke, hoping and praying I wouldn’t screw this up.

  “Hermes is dead,” I began.

  “Yeah?” said a voice from below. “Where’s his body?”

  I let a grim smile touch my face. “We planned to put it on display for everyone, but you came into the palace throwing accusations and threats around. We deemed it necessary to cremate Hermes below in the crypts. His ashes will be sent via the River Styx to find his final resting place.”

  “How do we know you aren’t lying?” yelled the same voice I was rapidly tiring of.

  “You don’t,” I snapped.

  A disgruntled rumble started again so I held up a hand.

  “Hermes appointed my husband and me as the rightful rulers here. Hera stands by our side and supports us.” I was totally lying about Hera. “We hope to usher in an age of democracy and free will. No longer will Olympus be ruled by fear.”

  “Are you going to give us blankies and rock us to sleep at night, too?” shouted a female voice from afar.

  “Well maybe you,” I snapped. “Because it’s very obvious you need a hug.”

  Nervous laughter rang out.

  “I’m here to ask you to go home. If you’d like to bring a protest forth, it will be handled in an orderly and dignified manner, and it will be heard. Standing out here solves nothing. You’re better off handling this in the way you would wish to be treated, and if you think bringing a pitchfork wielding mob to my doorstep is the way I wish to be treated, you would be very, very wrong.”

  “What are you doing about this war?” came another voice.

  The palace doors opened behind me.

  “What she’s doing about this war,” Hera said with a sneer across her pretty face as she walked out, “is winning. And she cannot do that with you louts clogging up her front steps.” She sniffed imperiously. “I suggested she rain holy mortal hell down upon your heads, but your new queen chose to be civilized.” She turned to pin me with those icy blue eyes. “But in a few short days I will no longer fall under the rule of the Olympians and will not be subjected to their laws.” A fierce, wicked smile crossed her mouth. “Do you understand what this means?”

  An uncomfortable rumble rolled through the crowd.

  “It means I have nothing to lose by decimating you. I will kill you, your husbands, your wives, your children and even your precious pets if you continue to stand here threatening your new queen. My suggestion is for you to disperse immediately.”

  She turned and bowed to me. “And that,” she whispered, “is how you handle an unruly mob.”

  The crowd had already turned to leave before she walked back through the palace doors.

  I swallowed hard, doubt about whether I could do this settling down in my soul for a long stay.

  Chapter 26

  The first thing I did after avoiding certain disaster outside was head back to Asclepius’ clinic to check on Keto. I pushed open the doors and saw my friend lying on a long bed. His wings had disappeared, but his face was still etched in pain.

  “Hey,” I said as I sat down beside him.

  “Hey.” He stared up at the ceiling expressionless.

  I let out a sigh. “Let me guess. He can’t help?”

  He shook his head. “It’s beyond the realm of his expertise. He can only fix wounds from the immortals. Celestial beings are...quite different.”

  “So…” I drawled. “Skystone is the solution?”

  He barked out a ragged laugh. “Yeah. Can you go over to the closet and grab me some?”

  “Har har,” I responded. “I say we sit down and you tell me everything I need to know about breaking and entering in Heaven.”

  He stared at me blankly, but laughed a second later. “I’d forgotten how insane you are.”

  “Hey. I’m still here and quite alive thank you very much.”

  “You’re also the luckiest person I know.”

  That bothered me too. I’d escaped certain death a few times even when I probably shouldn’t have. I knew Tyche had been around a few times. What I wasn’t quite sure of was how much she’d been meddling in my affairs and how much of my “luck” was fabricated.

  “I think it was luck and mad skill, Keto.”

  He barked a laugh and clutched his ribs with a wince. “Mad skill. I’m sure that’s what it was.” He sobered. “What exactly are you going to do if you’re able to get in?”

  “Besides raise some hell?” I asked him with raised eyebrows. “I also plan to steal some Skystone.”

  “And?”

  Keto had been one of my best friends so he knew me really well. I blew out a raspberry. “Nothing.”

  “Abby.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’m thinking about killing him.”

  His eyes widened. “Him?”

  “Yep.”

  “As in God. The God?” His voice was rising.

  “Yes.”

  Keto said some really unflattering things about me underneath his
breath and then pinched the space between his brows. “For the love of everything that is good in my life…”

  “Relax. I didn’t say I would. Just that I was thinking about it.”

  “So you almost get yourself killed helping Hermes and now, when the threat of that isn’t even over yet, you think you’re just going to waltz into Heaven and kill their ruler? The supreme being of the Christian pantheon?”

  “I didn’t say it was a perfect plan.”

  “You are pregnant,” Keto said, switching the subject abruptly.

  I nodded.

  “With the Lord of the Underworld’s baby?”

  I cleared my throat. “I prefer to think of him as my husband, but yes.”

  He blinked. “Husband? Wow. You’ve been busy.”

  I patted my stomach and grinned at him. “Yep. Real busy.” I waggled my eyebrows at him.

  “Gross,” he muttered. He shifted and let out a soft groan.

  I glared at him. “Look, I know it’s a stupid plan. But you need your wings back and I need to find my husband.” The husband I didn’t think would dare go back to Heaven.

  If he wasn’t there, I was screwed. If he was there, I was probably still screwed. Either way, Keto was crippled without his wings, and I was crippled without my husband. God had given me the ability to contact him if I wanted to and the ability to enter his realm. Which wasn’t exactly Heaven. He told me no one knew where Heaven was, but that couldn’t exactly be true because like anywhere else, there were staffing requirements. It sounded a little insane, but running a kingdom on sheer magic alone was insanity and a massive power drain. So good kings and queens used servants and hired help to assist. I couldn’t imagine God had done anything less.

  “Do you know where it is?”

  Keto glanced at me. “Heaven?”

  “Of course, Heaven.”

  He nodded.

  I held a hand up. “Not the waiting room. Actual Heaven.”

  A long drawn out silence fell between us. His breathing was ragged but steady. I felt bad about what I was asking him to do, but he needed help and I needed my husband. Plus if this was the price we had to pay to avoid an all out war, I was willing to pay it.

  “It isn’t easy to get into Heaven, Abby.”

  “I had to die to get into the Underworld. I’m sure it can’t be worse than that.”

  He answered that with a look. The look that told me I was getting in way over my head.

  “It’s worse. You will be stripped bare when you cross this threshold into the next. Your literal body might die when you enter the Underworld, but when you cross into Heaven, you are reborn. You must shed your skin, come to terms with your sins, and only then will you be allowed to enter.”

  My lips twisted to the side. “That doesn’t sound terrible.”

  “Anything you’ve kept hidden will be revealed. Any secrets you have will be stripped from you. You will be...revealed. It’s the best way I can say it.”

  “So...like confession?”

  Keto rolled his eyes. “It’s not talking to a guy in a box. It’s different. Transformative. It’s why we cannot keep secrets from God for very long. When we pass through that veil, all of it is unearthed.”

  My brows knit together. So that was one of the reasons God was considered omnipotent. “Can we destroy it?”

  Keto choked out a laugh. “So first it was just breaking in and now it’s taking the whole thing down?”

  I stared at him innocently. “Not the whole thing. Just the veil you have to pass through.”

  Keto pondered this for a moment. “It’s not technically a veil. It’s magic. Powerful, ancient magic.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’m still thinking about it. I don’t know where we could get that kind of power.”

  The only people I knew with that kind of power wouldn’t help with something like this. Plus I wasn’t even sure they could. There was still another day to the eclipse. It was possible they were still under the influence of God’s magic. The other person, my husband, wouldn’t be able to help me because he was there right now. Possibly stuck, possibly wreaking havoc. I had no way to know.

  “I can ask my mother.”

  Keto gave me a sharp look. “Hecate? I heard she passed on.”

  “Yeah...no. I guess it’s a perk of marrying the Lord of the Underworld. Death doesn’t necessarily mean it’s absolute.”

  “Interesting.” Keto tried to sit up but couldn’t quite get there. I reached over and let him sling an arm around me. “Hecate might be able to help.”

  He straightened and squeezed my shoulder. “But you can never go back once you do this. If your goal is to end the war, this will do nothing but incite it. Why don’t you call for an audience with him first?”

  Everyone always laughed at me when I tried to reason with someone first. I knew God would come if I asked him to, but would he listen to me?

  “Do you think it would help?”

  Keto smiled painfully. “Probably not, but he might reveal information that could help you.”

  I sighed and stepped away. “I’ll try my best, but I don’t know that it will help.”

  “It’s all you can do. Taking a step like tearing the veil down will alert him immediately to your presence. It is unwise to go in alone. In fact, I’d advise you to take an army.”

  “I couldn’t even reason with the people outside. Raising an army is out of the question right now.”

  “What exactly is your goal?”

  “Skystone. Maybe kill God.”

  “Nothing else?” Keto struggled not to laugh. “It’s refreshing to meet someone with as little subterfuge as you have. You don’t want his power, you just want him dead.”

  “I don’t actually want him dead. I just want him to leave us alone.” I was kind of lying about not wanting him dead. Especially since he’d tried to kill me more than once. “It’s complicated.”

  “It always is.” He winced as he hopped down from the table. “Call the meeting first. Then we make a plan.”

  I nodded and left him in the clinic. I had to figure out exactly what I wanted to say before I contacted him. I figured he would at least show up, but I needed to make sure I kept control of the meeting. God was famous for twisting words around to suit his own purposes.

  I was more like the bull in the china shop who said exactly what she felt.

  I headed straight to find Artie.

  Chapter 27

  “I need word help.”

  Artie set her fork down and chewed slowly. “Word help?”

  “Yes.” I waved a hand around. “Help with the words. What to say to someone who constantly uses word sorcery.”

  She snorted. “I’m not sure word sorcery is a thing but please elaborate.” She put her napkin in her lap. “You have my full attention.”

  I scooted into the chair next to her.

  “I need to have a meeting with God.”

  Her eyebrows went up at that. “Why in the world would you do that?”

  “It’s like a parley. Right? Isn’t that what it’s called?”

  “Sure,” she said. “If you’re a pirate.”

  “As delightful as Johnny Depp is when he’s wearing eyeliner, he’s not the only person in the world to parley.”

  “Granted,” Artie said. “So you want a temporary truce while you’re talking. What is it exactly that you’re trying to do here?”

  “Hades might be trapped up there. I want to bring him home. And...Keto needs something that can only be obtained in Heaven.”

  Her gaze sharpened. “What does he need?”

  “Skystone. It will cure his shredded wings. He won’t be able to get back into Heaven, but he can at least restore his powers.”

  She let out a long, low whistle. “God will never part with that.”

  “He will if I have some leverage.”

  She sat back in her seat and contemplated me. “What leverage could you possibly have on God?”

&
nbsp; “I don’t have anything on him yet.” I stood. “But I plan to.”

  “Wait! What about your word help?”

  “I’ll be back. I just thought about something.”

  Artie shrugged and picked up her fork. “I’ll be around.”

  I raced down the hallway. I needed to find Hera. She was the only one cold blooded enough and crazy enough to assist me in what I wanted to do.

  Banging on the former queen’s bedroom door normally would have gotten me a fireball in the face, but even Hera balked at regicide. As much as my short queendom sucked already, there were some perks.

  She flung open the door, saw it was me, and a ladylike snort came from her. “What insane thing are you here to ask for?”

  I opened my mouth and hesitated.

  Her eyes widened, and a small smile appeared on her mouth. “That bad?” She held open the door. “Come in.”

  A few hours later after Hera had stopped laughing and telling me I was going to die, I slipped out of her room to find the kitchens and let her prepare for what had to be done. I was going to owe her if she succeeded. HUGE. I needed coffee.

  Baby Draco had been calm for most of the day, as if he either agreed I was completely insane or he agreed with my actions. Or both. Hard to tell with a baby I couldn’t speak to.

  Atlas was there making an enormous sandwich with more concentration than strictly necessary. Watching him I could tell he was the kind of guy who had to make sure his mayonnaise reached the exact edges of the bread. I was a slap and squish it kind of gal.

  “Hey,” I said as I stepped in the kitchen and grinned when I saw his face had drained of blood. A wide grin started across my face. We hadn’t been alone for awhile. Definitely not since I’d busted him with my best friend.

  “Hey,” he said, caution edging his voice. A lock of blond hair fell over one eye and made him look a lot more boyish than he actually was.