by M. W. Muse
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Author’s Note
About the Author
Goddess Secret
Copyright © February 2013, M.W. Muse
Cover art by JTLW Design © February 2013
Penning Princess Publishing
Maumelle, AR 72113
www.penningprincess.com
ISBN: 978-0-9882130-2-9
This ebook belongs to vzyl at 64 70 67 72 6f 75 70 forum. I hereby acknowledge that I have shared this book outside the forum without permission from the original poster if I earn profit or rewards for providing access to this ebook. I also accept responsibility for advertising and providing a hyperlink to this forum.
Dedication
To my mom for knowing the difference between constructive criticism and glowing praise…and for not being afraid to shower me with both. Any talent I have pales in comparison to the multitude of those you possess. Your gifts come effortlessly, and I hope to one day shine in this as you have in all that you do.
Chapter One
Legacy’s throat was on fire, the need to scream trying to overpower her.
She was having a nightmare, but that wasn’t unusual. She’d spent all summer dreaming about tornados, storms, lightning, snakes, Adin, River, Medusa, and a little girl, who turned out to be her.
She’d found out at the beginning of summer she was becoming a goddess and would be going through changes up until her eighteenth birthday. Lissa, her guardian, hadn’t told her any specifics of her mother or of these changes, so she’d spent the summer figuring out everything. Well, some things.
The biggest revelation? Learning her mom was the Greek goddess Demeter, A.K.A. Anesidora, A.K.A. Pandora. Yeah, it was confusing. But what was equally mind blowing was learning she’d been created in the likeness of Persephone, a goddess abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. The abduction was the reason her mother wanted to recreate Persephone. Demeter wanted a better destiny for her. A new legacy.
She hadn’t had to learn this all on her own. She had River to thank for helping her accept the unimaginable.
River Rysaor was a new best friend to her, though he seemed hell-bent on making it difficult. And being the son of Medusa, one of the gods who wanted to hurt her and Legacy’s mom, kinda put him in an awkward position. It was because of River’s connection to Medusa that Adin didn’t trust River. Well, that and the prophecy. It had been prophesied that she would be with River as long as Adin stayed alive. Yeah, that hadn’t gone over well at all with her boyfriend, Adin.
She never really thought of herself as a sappy person, but she knew she loved Adin and he loved her. She also knew they both wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, no matter how long their lives were. Her eighteenth birthday signified the ascension into her godly status, but Adin was mortal for all intents and purposes. Sure, he’d descended from the Greek gods like she—and River—had, but Adin hadn’t ascended on his eighteenth birthday. As far as she knew, that meant he would die after a normal, humanly lifespan. Star-crossed lovers and all that.
The dreams she’d had over the summer also helped her with everything. She’d learned to embrace those dreams and dissect them for any and all clues. She’d taken refuge in them because they’d helped her with her own acceptance of who she really was.
Her dreams were therapeutic, really.
But what was unusual about the nightmare she was currently having was that she wasn’t asleep at all. She was living it.
“Legacy,” Adin murmured.
She shook her head as she stared through Adin’s windshield. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say about this new revelation. What could he say, really?
Adin had taken her to a banquet at his new college where she’d met a woman named Venus. Her name meant love, and Legacy knew she’d been created in the likeness of Aphrodite, the goddess that Adonis was bonded to. And Adonis was the god Adin had been created from. This meant Venus was here for Adin. Legacy knew this had to be the case because one of the lessons she’d learned over the summer was that there were no coincidences.
And just like she had no control over her bond with River, she knew Adin had no control over any bond with Venus.
So here she was, spending the ride back to her house crying—trying not to scream—feeling Adin’s gentle touch as he caressed her knee while he effortlessly handled his sports car. He was trying.
It wasn’t working.
As she thought about how unfair this was, her body began to shake as a new round of sobs consumed her. She covered her face and leaned away from Adin. Gods, this was so unfair.
With both hands grasping her cheeks, she noticed immediately that one felt so hot that it almost burned while the other was like ice. A bone-chilling sensation crawled down her spine. Each hand was a completely different temperature than the other. Of course, this was nothing new…just another facet of her freakiness she’d discovered. But, she hadn’t needed that ugly reminder right now. She held her face in her hands and cried uncontrollably.
A muffled sound from outside the car caught her attention, and she slid her hands down her face to look.
Rain.
It pounded on the car.
A torrential downpour would be her guess as she stared out the windshield, unable to see hardly anything else. But as she watched the scene unfold, she could feel Adin’s eyes on her. She shook her head and covered her face again, unwilling to look him in the eyes.
It was raining because she was crying. This was part of the changes she was going through. She was going to be a goddess and inherit Persephone’s abilities, and her emotional state was linked to the weather. She knew this, but she couldn’t control it. Lissa had said she needed to learn how to deal with her emotions, as they related to the weather, so she could harness her abilities and not cause any harm. She realized now that learning to control her emotions would be extremely difficult.
After Adin pulled into her driveway, he got out of the car and ran to her door. He helped her out, and they both hurried up the porch and out of the rain. Rain that she just caused from her sudden depressed state. Surreal was the only word she could think of to describe that feeling for the moment. It was one thing to learn about something after the fact, like the blow she’d taken with the lightning, but a wholly other thing to understand a phenomena while it was actually happening.
The porch light was on, but the door was locked. It was late, but for some reason, Lissa wasn’t here. She glanced at the driveway and didn’t see Lissa’s car where she normally parked it. Legacy didn’t care why her guardian was gone. She had way too much on her plate right now.
She glanced at Adin before fumbling in her purse for her house key, though she couldn’t stop her breath from hitching while tears continued to fall. Adin stood right up against her, rubbing her back, not saying anything. He was such a wonderful man. He’d loosened his silk red tie he’d donned to match her dress for the evening, and it clung to his damp shirt, his hair even curlier and unruly from the moisture. He truly was the hottest guy in her world, one who she never thought she’d be lucky enough to have, and he was hers. But for how long?
Once she retrieved the key, she struggled to get it in the keyhole and started to get frustrated. She knew how to use a damn key! But for some reason, it would not g
o in the hole. Adin waited patiently for her to unlock the door, but when her frustration manifested into the thunder, he finagled the key from her hand with ease and unlocked the door for her.
She stormed inside the house, threw her purse on the table, and walked straight into the bathroom while more thunder sounded. She stared at herself in the mirror, listening to the thunder and rain.
She was a mess. Her makeup was streaked all over her face, and her hair was a wet, frizzy cluster. She couldn’t do much about her hair in here, but she could at least do something about her makeup. She washed her face while she cried some more. When she managed to get all her makeup off, she walked out of the bathroom with the towel still in her hand, drying her face.
“I’m going to change,” she said without looking at Adin, too distraught to even find the irony of using the word “change.” She continued dabbing her face and started up the stairs.
“Okay,” he whispered.
She knew he wouldn’t leave. Even though she didn’t want to talk about the events of this evening, she knew Adin too well. He wasn’t going home until he had a chance to speak, to console her.
When she got upstairs, she decided to deal with her hair before changing. She walked into the bathroom and started pulling out the bobby pins. She watched herself in the mirror while she let her hair down, and she started crying again. She didn’t stop until she had all the pins out and her hair combed through.
She walked into her bedroom and rummaged around her drawers until she pulled out some cotton shorts and a tank top to sleep in. After she changed, she sat on her bed with her arms wrapped around her knees and cried again. Gods, she was a bumbling mess. She cried for several minutes until she heard a knock on her door.
“Can I come in?” Adin asked.
“Yeah,” she said, and her voice broke. She grabbed some tissues off her nightstand and wiped her eyes while Adin entered.
“Lissa left a note downstairs,” he murmured. “She had to go out of town. She’ll be back tomorrow night.”
“Okay.” She still didn’t look at him.
Not even when she heard Adin walk toward her and felt him sit on the bed beside her did she look at him.
“Y-you can leave…I-I’ll…be f-fine.”
“No, sweetheart.”
She nodded while she tried to catch her breath. She really didn’t want him to leave, but she knew there wasn’t anything he could do for her. She knew her being upset was probably torturing him, and she hated causing him anymore pain than what he probably already felt by this wretched revelation.
He reached up and stroked her hair, and she lost it again. She sobbed into her hands, but now Adin didn’t have the excuse of driving not to hold her. He reached over, put his arms around her, and she leaned into him.
She didn’t realize how badly she needed him in this moment until he surrounded her with his warmth. As she leaned closer, she threw her arms around him and clutched as tightly as she could while she cried into his neck.
Adin lifted her up as he scooted onto the bed and put her on his lap. He held her tightly while she cried. And she did just that for several minutes.
“Sweetheart, please calm down,” he begged as he gently rocked her.
Her need for his comfort was too great for her to bear any longer. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes for the first time since they left the banquet. His blue eyes were lighter than normal because of the redness surrounding them. He had been fighting his own tears, and she was sure it was because of her reaction to the news of the evening rather than the news itself.
She ran her fingers into his hair and grabbed his head, forcing his lips onto hers. She kissed him as strongly as she could while she twisted in his lap so that she was facing him, straddling him.
Adin kissed her back, but was startled by her reaction. He reached up and tried to dislodge her fingers from his hair.
“No,” she mumbled.
She pressed herself closer to him, and he stopped trying to free her hands. Instead, he put his hands on her arms and pushed her back. He stared into her eyes while her breathing hitched again.
“Legacy, we have to talk about this,” Adin whispered.
“I know, but I can’t. Not right now.”
Adin nodded and held her for several more minutes while she continued to cry. She wanted to hold him, but she needed him to hold her. He hugged her tightly and buried his face in her hair.
“Will you stay with me tonight?” she whispered into his chest.
“Yes.” It sounded as if this were a decision he’d already made. “I need to run to Grandma’s to get some clothes.”
She nodded. He stood up and kissed her forehead before leaving.
Adin’s grandma lived next door to her. He once said that he thought his grandma lived next door to her for a reason. She was brought here so that she and Adin could grow up together, so he was probably right. Although they had their own free will to develop whatever relationship they wanted, what they wanted was to be together. She assumed the gods figured that would happen, but Adin’s grandma living next door probably served a purpose.
As she thought about growing up with Adin, their free will, and the gods’ hopeful thoughts that the two of them would choose to be together, she began to cry again. It seemed as if there were so many forces that wanted them to be together, but then there was the prophecy about River and now Venus. These two factors felt monumentally unfair.
She was able to pull herself together long enough to get ready for bed when she heard Adin walking into the house and up the stairs. He stepped into her bedroom and looked at her sitting on the bed. He was already wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a loose v-neck t-shirt. She got up and turned down the covers, and they both climbed in the bed, but she kept her back to him. She didn’t know if he wanted to try and talk tonight, but she knew she was in no mood for that. They’d have to save this conversation for the morning.
Adin put his arm around her and snuggled up against her back. She cried while he ran his fingers through her hair, but she tried to take deep breaths to stop the waterworks.
“I love you,” she whispered. And she did. She loved him more than she ever thought was possible. She wanted to love him forever, and it felt as if she didn’t have a choice about that—because she knew she would love him forever.
Adin squeezed her tightly. “I love you too, sweetheart,” he breathed into her ear.
She knew Adin loved her, but now with Venus in the picture, she didn’t understand what this could mean for them. She didn’t want to understand because she didn’t want to think about her. Not right now at least.
Adin continued to stroke Legacy’s hair until she cried herself to sleep.
And then the dream started. No solace for her tonight. It was a familiar one about weather, not that that helped her sleep any easier. She dreamed that a tornado was coming, but as soon as she realized that she needed to take cover, the sky turned a vivid pink color. Without the warning of thunder, lightning fell from the sky, but this was the strange lightning from before. It glittered and fell like confetti, disappearing before it reached her. As she took cover from the peculiar lightning, Adin was sitting at a patio table under a side porch of a traditional house—a house she’d later discovered was his mom’s house. Adin watched her approach him without getting up. Once she was at the table, he looked at her and handed her a broach with the numbers 1887 painted in the center on the enamel.
“Be careful,” he whispered with a protective look in his eyes.
Then it was over, just like when she had dreamed it several times before. But she knew she had talked to Lissa before the banquet about this very dream. She asked her about the lightning, and she realized that it represented her father’s love. Her father was Zeus and the lightning bolt was his symbol. Why she had this dream again, she did not know.
She spent the night tossing and turning, but at least she didn’t cry anymore. Every time she shifted positions, Adin moved too,
making sure he always had his arms secured around her.
When she awoke again, she was lying on Adin’s chest with his arms around her. Since he was still asleep and she knew that she had kept him up most of the night, she slipped out of his embrace without disturbing him. It was still early, and she hoped he would get more sleep without her here.
After quietly leaving her bedroom, she went downstairs and contemplated her dream. She wondered why she had it again since she had discovered the hidden meanings in it already. She’d discovered the house in her dream was Adin’s mother’s house. The numbers 1887 identified the street address to Medusa’s store where she’d worked. And the lightning represented her father showering her with his love.
She was still sitting in silence thinking about this when she heard Adin coming down the stairs. She looked over at him as he walked around the couch to sit beside her.
“Hi,” she murmured.
He bent down and kissed her forehead before sitting. “Hi.” He yawned. “You should’ve woken me up.”
“I hoped you’d be able to get better sleep without me there.”
“Not possible.” He stroked her hair and looked into her eyes. “How are you?”
“Well, I’m not crying, but I don’t know if I’m any better.”
“I hated seeing you like that,” Adin mumbled.
“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t take the surprise as well as I should have. I know better than to let my emotions get the best of me.”
“Legacy, just because you’re going through changes, it doesn’t mean you have to ignore your feelings.”
She nodded, but she didn’t think he was entirely accurate. Lissa had said she needed to learn to deal with her emotions or the earth would suffer, she would suffer, and her loved ones would suffer. Last night was proof that Lissa was right because Adin had suffered.
“What are your thoughts about last night?” she asked, looking down at her hands as she nervously played with them in her lap.
Adin took a deep breath and moved his free hand to place it over hers. He kept stroking her hair while he spoke. “I think the same thing you do,” he whispered.
