by Tamara Gill
Zeus laughed. “Oh, do enlighten me.”
Chloe turned and met his gaze. “They have something to live for. Life. To make every day count. What do you live for? Nothing. You have no purpose. Every day you sit on your golden throne with your thunderbolt to do what? Humans with their fickle blood make the most of what time they have. They love with passion. Live with fierce longing, while you, a god, idle away on top of the world and do, nothing.” A muscle ticked at Zeus’s temple and Chloe smiled.
“My power on you may have worn off, my dearest child, but it is easily rectified.”
“There are worse things in life than being mortal. You cannot hurt me now.” Chloe walked over to Zeus and gazed at the man she once worshiped. “Do your worst.”
“Perhaps it is not you that I can do my worst to.” Zeus laughed and his court looking on with interest laughed as well. Chloe glanced over at them all and looked at them with disgust. How pathetic they were to follow and have no independent thought for themselves. Each and every one of them scampering after Zeus to ensure they never befell his wrath.
Well not her. Zeus may be the father of all gods but he was also just her father. He could no longer hurt her anymore than he already had. “Explain,” she said.
“When I cursed you to live your mortal life I also cursed your beloved druid. I made him immortal which is not something your Scotsman wished.” Zeus laughed and the sound echoed throughout the hall.
“I know this, so what is your point?”
Zeus’s smile sent a chill down her spine. “I will simply revoke my curse and make your love a mortal once again.”
Chloe stepped back as a multitude of thoughts crashed down on her. If Cian was made mortal it would make him over eighteen hundred years old. He would age within a moment from a young man in his prime to nothing but dust. Her stomach clenched. She couldn’t allow it. Just the thought of losing Cian after finding him again was an unbearable burden to even visualize. “I will not let you kill him,” she said, raising her chin. “You’ve have had your fun, Zeus. Why can you not let us be?”
“Humans are to be played and toyed with. Especially human’s who dare to love a god. I am not forgiving.”
“I beg you. Do not do this to Cian.”
He smiled. “I feel we have had this conversation before. Do not be so naive, child. If you would only stop thinking with a human’s immature mind you would understand. Do you think your druid does not know what I could do to him? That I could take back the immortal curse whenever I choose.”
“I’ll kill you before I let you touch him again.” Never had Chloe felt such rage. It coursed through her body, igniting her temper to flame. No need to steal fire from Zeus’s lightning-like Prometheus, they way she felt right at this moment she could produce it all on her own.
“You are amusing, child, but I’m not destined to die at your hand. And do not forget who I am. I command you to return here to Mt Olympus. You will marry a god of my choosing and forget the mortal plane.”
Zeus turned his back on her and returned to his throne. Chloe glared at his billowing robes and wished he’d trip over or better yet, fall off his mountain and die. “And what if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll return you here anyway and your druid will die. There is no choice.”
Chapter Nine
Chloe thought of Cian and within a moment she landed at the base of his bed. He sat up and threw the bedcovers to the side. Chloe’s mouth fell open at the sight of his nakedness storming toward her. A pain thumped hard between her thighs and she bit her lip to stop moaning over his masculine charm. She could not allow him to die. She would never allow Zeus to take him from her again.
He grabbed her arms and gave her a little shake. “Where have you been? I thought I’d never see you again.”
“What do you mean?” she said frowning. “I was only gone a few minutes.”
“No you weren’t. You were gone three weeks. You know time between the realms do not coincide. Your realm moves at lightning speed compared to earth.”
Chloe shrugged out of his clasp and studied him. She couldn’t help doing so, for so long her powers had been denied, and so too it would seem her sex drive. And yet being the Chloe of old once more had also returned her need for men. Well, one man in particular.
She ran her finger over Cian’s heaving chest and smiled. A light dusting of hair covered the corded muscles running down his abdomen and she kissed him, savored the taste of Cian forever on her tongue.
He sighed and pulled her against his chest. “What did Zeus decree?”
Chloe read the worry in his eyes and tone. “I’m to return to Mt Olympus and to marry a god of his choosing.” Chloe sat on the edge of his bed and ignored the multitude of curses coming from her highlander. After all, he had a right to be angry. She was angry.
“I will not obey him,” she stated.
Cian turned and she watched him. He stood still and she knew he was thinking. Lost in thought as to what their next move would be. “Was that all he asked?”
Chloe shook her head. “No. There’s more.” She paused as the image of Cian ageing before her tormented her mind. She would not allow it. “You are to return to your mortal life. You will no longer be immortal.”
She waited for Cian to comprehend what her words would mean for him. His eyes narrowed before he came to sit beside her. Chloe sniffed back the sob that wanted to burst free. A goddess did not cry and yet Chloe did. She had become quite fond of crying in the mortal world. It may never help the situation but it did allow a form of release once unknown to her.
“Don’t cry.” Cian pulled her against him and the smell of aftershave tickled her nose.
“Do you understand what my father’s decree will mean, Cian?”
“Aye, I do lass.” He sighed. “Sometimes I’d wished to return to my mortal self. I’ve lost you so many times, and each time it became harder and harder to let you go. I cannot do it again, Chloe. No matter how much I love you.”
Chloe sat back and frowned. “What are you saying? That you want to die? That no matter what happens between us, that this will be the final life we’ll have together?”
“Yes.”
Chloe sat shocked to her core. Never had she thought Cian would speak in such a way. She had no illusions the many lives he’d led. Looking for her and making her fall in love with him was hard and becoming more so with every year. But a love such as theirs that refused to die no matter the obstacle could not be over. “I refuse to believe that.”
Cian paced over to a trunk and pulled out a pair of jeans. He tugged them on, struggling with the zipper when his penis had other ideas on what to do. Chloe bit back a smile when she noted the worry lines about his eyes and his shaking hands.
This was not a time for laughter.
“I can’t lose you again, Chloe. And if that means I die, well at least it means I die happy. I’ve lived for a very long time, lass. If my dying keeps you safe and back into the fold of your family then I’ll die happy.”
Panic tore through her chest. He meant it? “No. I don’t want to live with them. I want to live with you.”
Cian ran a hand through his hair and tousled it. “It seems you cannot have both.”
“Yes I can,” she repeated wishing to stomp her foot like an errant child.
“No you cannot!”
Chloe turned at the commanding tone of her father. He stood beside a window in the room, his rage evident by the unworldly flame which flickered in his gaze.
“You should listen to your human druid, Daughter. For in this instance he actually speaks the truth.”
Cian pulled her behind him and Chloe watched her father pace before them, his silk robes billowing about his sandaled feet. “Why can you not find it in your heart to let me be, Father? Have we not suffered enough under your decree?”
Zeus looked nonplused. “Perhaps, but it amuses me to do so. Now, say your goodbyes. At least I’m allowing you one this time.”
Chloe gasped and clutched
at Cian’s jeans’ band. Bile rose in her throat at the thought of losing this life with her wonderful highlander. How could Zeus be so cruel? Just when she’d found Cian again he was to be ripped from her. Forever. “No.”
“No.” Zeus’s tone chilled Chloe’s blood. “No, Daughter?”
Cian turned and kissed her. Hard. Chloe threw her arms about his neck and clutched him tight. With every glide of his tongue, with every caress of his hands he showed her how much he adored and loved her. Never had she felt such passion and sorrow mixed altogether within an embrace and her lungs seized in her chest. The thought that this would be the last time she would kiss him tormented her. How could she lose him now? This could not be the end.
Pain tore through her chest and pierced her heart. She couldn’t live without him. It was impossible. “I love you Cian McKay and I will see you again. I promise.”
He smiled and she stifled a sob. “For a thousand years you’re all I ever wanted and loved, goddess Chloe. Do not despair if you cannot hold true to your promise. I wouldn’t want that kind of sorrow to fill the rest of your days.”
Chloe let the tears stream down her face. “It’s not fair. I’ve only just found you again.”
“I know.” Cian pulled her against him and she reveled in the sound of his beating heart; a heart that would soon cease to beat at all. “Life is often not.”
“Please Father,” she begged. “I’ll leave with you and marry any god you wish me to but please let him live.” Chloe felt Cian stiffen at her words but she kept her attention fixed on Zeus. Surprisingly for a moment her father thought on her proposition before he laughed and she knew her pleading had fallen on deaf ears. Or better yet, an unforgiving temperament.
“You have proven before not to be trusted. I need you in court where you’ll marry at my decree. You are a god, Chloe. Not a mortal deemed for this life. Today I will right my mistake and make you one of us once more and your druid will return to his mortal self. That is my decree.”
Chloe met Cian’s gray gaze and although the color was not warm, only love shone from the window to his soul. “I’ll move heaven and earth to have you back.” Chloe kissed him again. “I love you.”
“As I you,” Cian said wiping away her tears.
“I grow bored,” Zeus said thumping his thunderbolt against the wooden floorboards.
“Druid of immortal vice
Take thy gift of mortal life
No longer caught in an undying light
Through all the ages I take your life.”
Cian pushed her away as he fell to the floor. Chloe kneeled before him and watched as pain seemed to create havoc with his body. She took his hand and cursed Zeus to Hades. How could anyone be so unforgiving? So cruel?
Chloe kept her visage devoid of reaction but inside her body screamed its horror as Cian grew old before her eyes. No longer was her highlander young and in his prime, instead a man as old as a millennium sat before her, his body slowly turning to ash. She sat there, unable to move as the life she longed for disintegrated before her eyes.
Chloe stared at what was left of Cian and her anger and the need for revenge coiled like a snake inside her stomach. Zeus may have won this day but he would not win their war. If it took her a thousand years, she would get her highlander back.
“Come,” Zeus said holding out his hand. “Our work here is done.”
She stood. “I will never forgive you for this,” she said. “I was willing to do as you bid but to not grant me my one wish to keep Cian alive you’ve left me no choice.”
“And what choice is that.” Zeus laughed and thunder rumbled across the sky.
“You will see.” Chloe shimmered into the clothes of a goddess and accepted who and what she was. “Soon,” she said and thought of the one deity who could help her. Only problem was, he was more untrustworthy than her father was and he was a titan.
And her father’s greatest enemy.
Chapter Ten
“A beer please,” Chloe said, as she sat down on a stool in a downtown New York bar. The man beside her visibly stilled but kept staring at the mirrored wall across from them that was covered with shelving and alcohol. Chloe took a sip of her beer and smiled at him in the mirror.
“Lelantos, you’re a hard Titan to find.”
He glared but didn’t reply. Chloe rallied her nerve and turned to face him. His lovely suit spoke of power and wealth, as did his finely chiseled aristocratic jaw and relaxed air. But it was his eyes that gave him away; old as time itself, they stared back at her without a sliver of welcome.
Chloe couldn’t blame him. The titans had, after all, been overthrown by her own father, Zeus. But it would seem Lelantos had escaped captivity at Tartarus. She knew why he wasn’t there. For the same reason she was here talking to him. He had the power to go unseen.
“I need your help,” she said. Lelantos sipped his whisky and continued to ignore her. Chloe squashed her temper and knew it wouldn’t be wise for her to argue with the only deity who could help her. “I need you to make me go unseen.”
At that Lelantos turned toward her before looking about the room, a frown across his brow.
“I’m alone, if that is your concern. I’m also not leaving until you agree to help me.”
“You walk around New York dressed like a god and then you state you wish to go unseen.”
Lelantos laughed and Chloe noted a group of women tittered over him at a table behind them. “You are a contradiction.”
“Perhaps, but I still need your help,” she said, not willing to let Lelantos get the better of her with his wit.
“Why should I help the daughter of Zeus? You should know better.”
He was right. Lelantos had no reason to help her. Zeus and he were immortal enemies but perhaps this was the only card she had to play. Their hatred for one another could work in her and Cian’s favor. “Then do not help me for me but because of the hatred you hold for my father. He intends for me to marry an immortal of his choosing and to live on Mt Olympus for all time. I’ve disobeyed him and have earned his mistrust and wrath. He has killed the man I love.” She cleared her throat as saying such words cut past her larynx like a knife. “I need to find the Gorgons to use their blood and then I need you to make me unseen by the gods after that. Forever.”
He threw back his head and laughed and power radiated from him like an inferno. Were he not in mortal form, his presence would scare even the most powerful god. Chloe swallowed her own fear over the titan. She had heard of them as a child, told of their cruelty and strength. It was like making a deal with the devil himself. “Please,” she begged.
“Well,” he said, throwing back the last of his drink, “since you asked so kindly, of course.”
“Really?” Chloe sat back and wondered if it really would be this easy. But something about the cynical twist of his lips said otherwise.
“No. Now fuck off.”
Chloe allowed all her power to flow throughout her veins. She pulled forth the strength of the gods and let Lelantos see in her eyes just who he was dealing with; someone just as powerful and nearly as old as he was. There would be no ‘no’ in their conversation today. “You will or you’ll find yourself back in Tartarus before you can gather air for your next response.”
Lelantos drew breath and Chloe clasped his throat and thought of the Titan’s childhood home and now prison for all the Titans since the war with Zeus. She read surprise in his eyes as they landed on top of a mountain, the chilling wind whipping at their clothes. Had she not been so friggin’ angry she may have enjoyed the view. But not now. Lelantos had something she wanted and he would give it to her.
“I see your temper runs as fast and hot as your father’s. Not a very attractive trait for a female.”
Chloe ignored his barb and stepped back. “Out of your hatred for my father, I need you to help me. I’ll do anything, but I must have your assurance that you’ll make Cian and myself unknown to the gods when I have him back.”
He
studied her and Chloe wondered how many women fell at the Titan’s handsome feet daily. For all his human glamour he was impossible to be thought of as ordinary and normal. No. Normal would ever be word she would associate with him.
“Just say I do help you, Chloe, are you sure you’re willing to do anything I wish.”
Doubt crept up Chloe’s spine but she squashed it like a bug. If doing anything kept Cian alive and she with him than that was a small price to pay. “Anything,” she promised holding out her hand.
Lelantos smiled and pulled her hard against his chest. “Then so be it, goddess. I’ll hold you to that promise. Now,” he said, sliding a finger down her jaw, “let’s go play with the Gorgons. They’re always a lot of fun.”
Chloe ignored his sarcasm and brought forth in her mind the image of an island off the coast of Italy and the cave in which the Gorgons slept. It was the last known location she had of them and she hoped with all her heart they were still there. Lying in wait to be needed again.
By the gods.
Chapter Eleven
The cave was chillingly silent apart from the sound of dripping water somewhere in the dark. It smelled of damp earth and death; two scents that were neither appealing nor comforting. Chloe kept silent and followed Lelantos into the depths of the earth and wondered where these Gorgons were hiding.
Waiting ...
“Have you ever encountered a Gorgon, Lelantos?” Chloe stopped as a hissing noise sounded to her left.
“No. Now shut up.”
Chloe glared into his back and hoped he would follow his own decree so she wouldn’t have to hurt him. He was certainly living up to his heritage of being a Titan. Never had she met such an obstinate, pigheaded immortal in all her life.
Before Chloe could react, a shadow whipped past her picking her up and throwing her across the cave. She hit the stone wall with punishing force. Pain tore through her back as she landed hard on the cave’s dirt floor. It took her a moment to gather her wits before she sat up and spat out the mouthful of crap she’d gotten in her mouth.
