“Well, then, what if I told you I’d give you the Seren Stone for your pledge?”
She stopped, not saying anything but cocking her head.
Oh, I had the wench right where I wanted her. She smacked her lips.
The avarice was strong in her.
“Mmhmm.” I shook my head, bobbing my delicate octopus braid as I did so. “All yours, and the only string is, you do my bidding when I call. I mean, really, you can’t ask for a more perfect trade, now, can you?”
Her already thin lips puckered. “You’ve never been willing to part with that. Why now?”
“Because it’s important to me?” I shrugged. She’d not wanted to know my reasons earlier, so tough kazungas, lady, I was keeping Hades my secret.
Her jaw clenched. “If you’re lying to me—”
“Oh, sister.” I gripped her shoulders and shook her gently. “Do you honestly think me capable—”
I stopped, remembering the Heretical Wars of 1002. Okay, so maybe she had a point.
I held up my hands. “On my honor as the Water. No tricks, no games. All I want from you is to rock their world, but only if I say so. Right now, I mostly mean to use you as a threat, but if they push me, you do it. So whaddaya say, Sis, deal or no deal?”
“What if you don’t need me to level them—do I still get it?”
Dammit, she would ask that. Grumbling inwardly, I swallowed thickly and nodded reluctantly. “Of, of course, Tiera.”
“You trick me, and I’ll bury you.”
She could try, the cold-hearted-evil-manipulative-taking-my-Seren-Stone-even-if-she-didn’t-do-anything shrew! But I wasn’t here to start World War III.
“You have my word.” We shook on it, sealing the deal. A powerful rush of energy imploded from between our palms, rocking the land beneath our feet and shifting the stones.
Figuring now was as good a time as any to make my escape before I was accidentally on purpose flattened in a rock slide, I vamoosed on over to the final sister.
This was the one I’d held off till the end because of who she was currently hiding. I had a couple things to say to young Persephone that I didn’t want my boy toy knowing.
Aria’s home was as welcoming as Tiera’s was not. There wasn’t land, but the skies were a glorious sunny blue, and angelic sylphs winged through the skies, their songs reminding me of Gregorian chants.
The clouds were so fluffy and white, and it was instantly notable to me that Zeus depended mightily on the abilities of this sister. A gentle breeze carted the clean scent of spring on it. Flowers of first bloom, my beloved sea roses among them, saturated my lungs.
For all her flaws, Persephone could make beautiful treasures. Following the trail of her scent, I arrived in moments to my sister’s castle in the sky. It wasn’t built of stone or coral or any other type of common building material but rather of cumulonimbus clouds that sparkled like diamonds.
Aria, already knowing I’d arrived, daintily appeared on the drawbridge, silvery white hair and gown billowing behind her in a graceful arc.
“Sister.” She smiled. “I’d halfway expected your arrival to come much sooner than now.”
“Oh?” I lifted my brow.
Her smile was secretive. “I am guarding Persephone’s body, after all, and the gossip in Olympus is that you’ve fallen rather half mad for my beloved Under Lord.”
I would be jealous of her turn of phrase, but everyone knew Aria to be in love with another. She’d never admitted out and out just who that other was, but I had an idea. Though since my sister never offered up the name, I honored her wishes by keeping silent on the matter entirely.
“I suppose I have.” I brushed my fingers across the sudden rainbow that arched beside me. “And now I suppose you know why I am here.”
“I have my suspicions.” Her grin was spun of pure delight. “But first, you may go visit with the captive, as I’m certain that is whom you greatly wish to see.”
Stepping to the side, she gracefully swept a hand out so that I might walk past. Nodding my thanks, I followed the glittering staircase downward into the deepest parts of the cloud to where no light penetrated and only darkness ruled.
Down here, the gentle breezes were more like raging zephyrs slamming like fists against my body. But I was strong enough to bear it. Head held high, I continued my downward trek until I’d reached the deepest and darkest threshold and stared at the lone figure suspended before me.
Persephone had her eyes closed as though in sleep. Her rich brown skin glowed like freshly turned earth; it was that glow that allowed me to see her at all. I knew if her eyes were open, I’d see their enviable color, a very stunning shade of amethyst.
She had hair the color of ebony and a facial structure that’d once made Zeus weep to gaze upon it. There was no fault with Persephone’s looks; she was spring eternal. Even down here in this pit of darkness, her flowers bloomed, covering her from head to toe in a gown of blood-red rose petals. Baby’s breath threaded through her hair in winding loops.
I had never been prone to fits of jealousy; I was perfect. But I must admit to suffering a tiny pang of heart at the sight of her. Persephone was my antithesis in most every way. She’d had Hades almost since the dawn of man, and yet she’d spurned his devotion.
“Why?” I asked her, but of course, she did not answer. I continued talking. Even suspended in sleep as she was, I knew she heard me. In some recess of her mind, she was aware of my presence.
Lifting a brow, I shook my head. “He would have given you the world, and you denied him. I think I should never understand you, Sephone. I should hate you. I imagine most any goddess would. You had his complete attention and devotion nearly all your life, but no more.”
I shrugged. “He truly is mine. In every way. And I do not say this to mock or tease you. It is simply fact. Should you ever wish to seek an audience with him, I would not deny you. And should you do aught to try and take him from me, well, you’re welcome to try, my beauty, for I am secure in the knowledge that no other will ever turn his head again.”
I’d not really known what I’d come down here to say to her, but the words pouring from my mouth made absolute sense to my heart. I could almost imagine Nimue clapping proudly behind me. I smiled.
“I will leave you with one final pearl of wisdom: the very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education. That is what this is, little flower. Embrace who you were truly meant to be, stop giving into the petty and vain selfishness inherent in our kind, and grow up. Take this time to think and mature. You lost something great, and you will never get it back. Mourn the loss of him now, and when the time comes for your release, smile, for the hour of your rebirth is at hand.”
With a farewell wave, I mentally patted myself on the back for a job well done.
Aria met me once I’d crested the top landing.
“You were far kinder than I’d have been.” She lifted a pencil-thin brow.
“I don’t know. I do not exactly care for the woman, but looking at her now, she looked so young. And it dawned on me that in many ways, she mostly is. Spring is birth. Persephone is like a young seedling, and I do hope she will grow up someday, but Hades did right by bringing her to you.”
“Ah, the wisdom of the eternal waters.” She brushed a thumb across my cheek. “And you should know that Hades did not bring her to me. Cerberus did, dragging her in one set of jaws. Very carefully, mind you. Even though the chit had cut off one of his heads, not a tooth punctured her body. No doubt Hades’ doing.”
“He is such a thoughtful brute that way.” I nodded, and she laughed.
“What need you of me, sister?”
“I simply need the threat of you, my dear. And what can I give you in return?”
“An invitation to the wedding.”
I hugged her. If there was a wedding, it wouldn’t be for a few years yet—at least fifty or sixty years from now. I wanted to make sure that once the honeymoon phase ended, we were still a perfect mat
ch. But I answered, “Done and done.”
~*~
I shook my groove thang when I entered Themis’s cave of wonders. I really did like her taste in music. Today there was a cheery pop beat blasting through her home.
Dressed in Spandex workout gear, Themis twirled on the balls of her feet, a sweaty, sloppy mess but laughing effervescently. Clapping her hands, she stopped the music, and her eyes sparkled.
“Praise be. I thought you’d never come.”
I raised a brow. Not like she’d called me back. I crossed my arms.
“Oh stop, pouting, Calypso. You could see my dilemma with your own two eyes. The man is as guilty as sin, and yet how could I honestly condemn him for that? I was in a pickle, and you know it.”
Not the way I saw it. Anyone with two eyes could figure out that he’d done what he’d done for a reason and that goddess or no, Persephone had needed a good spanking.
“Bah.” She swatted a hand. “Justice is blind and all that. Everyone tells me that I am to judge with the facts and with not my heart, but I find that organ growing softer with each passing day. I weighed Persephone’s sins, and they are many. I’ve no wish to release her from Aria’s keeping for the time being.”
But if she didn’t release Hades and prove he’d not killed the beast, then Zeus would still try to punish him. All knew there was no love lost between the brothers. Right or wrong, none of that mattered to Zeus. He wanted absolute authority, and Hades had always been a vexing thorn in his flesh.
She nodded. “Exactly right.”
But why not just reveal that Persephone lived, at the bare minimum?
“I tell them that, and they would scour the earth and all its hidden realms to find her. They would never stop, and Hades would still be tormented. And so my quandary remains. Hades is guilty, but my scales weigh him innocent. So what do I do?”
I had spoken with my sisters, and I’d come prepared in case she planned to fight me. But I could see now that there was still a way to use our combined forces to do my will.
Themis touched the tip of her nose. “And so our thoughts finally align. You know, you really are quite fascinating to speak with. Don’t be such a stranger, Calypso.”
I waved. She wasn’t quite so bad herself. “Yup. Till next time, bat.”
~*~
My final stop brought me right to Zeus’s throne room. I really hadn’t been in the mood to spar with each and every a-hole. I’d hoped by seeking a private audience Zeus, I could settle terms with him, one adult to another.
He glowered at me, he was naked, and there was a woman (again, not Hera) sucking on him loudly. There was another woman behind him shoving something into something. I wasn’t quite sure what, but I suspected there might be a carrot involved.
“What in the HELL do you want?” he thundered.
“Oh Zeus, Zeus, darling, why must we always fight so? I come not to shake the hornet’s nest today. I merely come on a peacekeeping mission.”
Broad nostrils flared. I could never see what women found so irresistible about him. Had to be magic. He was blinding them to his true form.
Actually, his true form was a complete mystery to most. Paintings had depicted him as a tree, once even as a swan, and as a man on many occasions, but I knew what he really looked like. I’d seen him born, after all.
But I’d vowed never to think on it again. And so I wouldn’t.
The women, like the good little sycophants they were, continued to service him, their perky little breasts bobbing up and down, up and down, as they squealed and exclaimed loudly as though pleasuring him were the best thing evah.
Honestly, I adored Death Boy, but I’d had to rub one out this morning. Pleasuring another was great, but getting pleasured was even better. But, none of my business.
“Peacekeeping.” He snorted as though he did not believe me. “Enlighten me, then, Calypso.”
“Toss out this ridiculous charge against Hades. Let him return to his realm and do what he does best: take care of his dead.”
When Zeus tossed his head back and laughed, bolts of lightning danced through his hall, filling it with the stench of ozone.
What a show-off.
“I think not.” He knuckled fat tears from his eyes.
I crossed my arms, remembering that I was here for peace. Peace. Peaccccce, ohhhhhmmmm, I mentally chanted. “What would you do with the Underworld, then? Hades can handle it now, but add torture to the equation and you’re looking at a big, fat, rotting mess. I hardly think you’d want that.”
His face contorted, and I knew what was coming. I’d seen that look on Dead Boy’s face a time or twenty. Curling my lip, I turned my back. I had no desire to see Zeus ejaculate rainbows, or whatever the hell he did.
Once I no longer felt the shudders roll through the floor, I peeked over my shoulder. The women were back to bobbing again, although this time they’d swapped places.
Ew.
“I’ve already chosen his replacement.”
Oh, how very convenient. That prick didn’t care if Persephone was dead or missing. His only concern was dethroning Hades. Because only Hades could actually make a power play for Zeus’s throne. Well, so could Psycho, but he was Zeus’s bitch in all things. But how could Zeus not realize by now that Hades had no desire to dethrone his brother?
Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I tried one last time to reason. “He’s got no plans to boot you to the docks, Zeus. Your title is secure.”
He lifted a brow, and at first I thought he was about to squirt out more rainbows, but I was wrong. “The gods are loyal to me. None of them would take his side, so my throne is already secure.”
“Oh, you fat bastard.” I stomped my foot. “I tried, but you’ve pushed me to it!” So angry I could spit nails, I exploded from this pathetic form into a geyser of water and glared at him. My words reverberated with the depths of my raw power. “Do as I say, or I shall see Olympus destroyed. You have three days, and then you are all gone. So I say. So it is decreed.”
A tsunami eighty stories high rolled through the confines of his chambers, sweeping the disgusting creatures away from me. Zeus was sputtering, slamming thunderbolts at my side, but I swatted them away.
“You are nothing, nothing to me, you fool! Today I rain fire. Tomorrow earth. And the day after that, I shall scatter you to the seas, a fate you shall never recover from. Send Hermes to me when you change your mind.”
Then, giving him one final, mighty shove, I returned to my home, to my sex slave.
All things considered, I thought I’d handled that affair rather well.
“Two points for Calypso. I think I deserve a gold star today.”
Chapter 16
Themis
“Father, what do you expect me to do?” I sidestepped a flaming disk of molten magma that punched a hole through his walls, nearly knocking the head from my body.
When Calypso had threatened to destroy us, she’d meant business. Apollo’s home had taken the worst of it; I did not envy that man. Whatever he’d done to her, he’d earned her lifelong wrath for it.
“I expect you to make that bitch stop!” he roared.
Father had been in a horrible mood for the past night. The moment she’d left, the skies had rained fire.
Calypso couldn’t control fire, which made this Fiera’s doing, and I had to hide my grin. I’d never expected her to speak with her sisters. How she’d corralled them into doing her bidding utterly fascinated me.
“I can’t. You know this. She is a Primordial and far beyond our control or punishments.”
I could feel his wrath burning holes through me. There were times I was grateful to be blind.
“Judge that man! Send Hades straight to Tartarus.”
I notched my chin. “The hand of justice is my own. Only I can sentence him and only I can weigh his sins. My decision has not yet been determined.”
“Damn you, girl,” he spat. “If I should discover you to be in cahoots with—”
I cro
ssed my arms. “Father, are we done here? I’ve much left to do before sentencing.”
Actually, I had nothing left to do but wait him out. If my wretched father didn’t suspend this ridiculous hearing, I would be forced to judge Hades. My last play was the hope that Calypso’s threats would change the heart of a rather hardhearted people. I didn’t hold out much hope, but as long as there existed even a shred of it, I’d wait this out as long as it took.
“Get out of my sight,” he snapped.
Turning on my heel, I made to leave when suddenly I felt the shift of magic. No longer did fire light the skies; now the very earth trembled beneath my feet with a violence that made my heart stutter.
Tiera’s turn.
Zeus pounded a heavy fist on his armrest as his beautiful castle began to crumble around his feet.
~*~
Hades
“Thalassa,” I murmured in her ear.
She slept in my arms, hadn’t moved a muscle the entire night. Last night, she’d crawled onto my body, pressed a tender kiss to my chest, whispered a sleepy “mine,” and then lost herself to Hypnos’s touch.
I’d been unable to keep from spying on her yesterday. There’d been a point in time when I’d not been able to see her at all and had lost her to a void of darkness, to a place where none but the most ancient of peoples could dwell and no one could enter without seeking audience first. But after seeing her threaten Zeus and seeing the shower of rain, I knew she’d gone to speak with her sisters.
Stroking her bare back, I gazed down upon her. She looked so very human today.
Her skin was flesh, her hair blond. And she was snoring.
I chuckled.
“How is it that I’ve gone all my life without knowing you, my Thalassa?”
Mumbling, she smacked her lips and wiggled her exquisite bum against my thigh. I hungered for her, but I found that I always did anymore. In a matter of days, the woman had grown vital to me, necessary.
Even if her threats didn’t work and I was exiled, I would return for her. Oftentimes in the Underworld, when a day had been particularly trying, I’d somehow always found myself at the river Lethe, admiring the supple beauty of its movements, always so feminine to me. Talking to it, telling it my deepest secrets, sharing of myself with those waters in a way I did with no other.
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