Hera, Queen of Mortals (Goddess Unbound)

by Thomas, T. D.

"Seriously?" he replied.

  "Yes," I said. "It's worked so far."

  I rang the doorbell. "But get ready with proof, just in case."

  "Proof? What ..." Darren started.

  But the door opened.

  The girl I'd seen walking into the house stood in front of us. She had an impatient look on her face. But when she saw Darren, she blushed.

  "Darren!" she exclaimed. She took a moment to compose herself. "Um, hey! What, um, are you... I didn't know you knew where I live. Is this ... are ... why are you here?"

  "Can we come in?" I asked, hoping to take advantage of how distracted she was. "It's important."

  The girl opened the door wider, and we headed inside. But her brow was furrowed. "What's this about?"

  "Is anybody else home?" I asked quickly. I didn't hear anyone.

  "No," the girl answered. Her eyes went wide when she realized she probably shouldn't have said that. She swallowed. "Why? What's going on?"

  "Don't freak out, Teresa," Darren said. "We just want some help with something."

  "With what?" she demanded.

  "A secret party," Darren lied. He shrugged casually. "You know, for after grad, or whatever."

  "Oh!" she said. Her eyes brightened.

  "No, that's not it," I said, shooting Darren a dark look. "Teresa, the truth is there's something important I need to tell you, but it'll be hard for you to believe. But I can prove it, so just listen. You see, I'm not really..."

  Thud.

  "I thought you said no one was home," Darren said.

  "No one is," Teresa replied, eyes wide.

  Thud.

  "What was that?" she demanded, her voice shrill.

  "They've found us," I said tersely. "We need to get her out of here. Now."

  "What do you mean?" Teresa asked. "I'm not going anywhere! Not until someone tells me what's going on!"

  But Darren grabbed her wrist and started to haul her toward the door.

  Teresa went pale. She struggled to pull herself loose, but he was too strong.

  "Oh, my god! Oh, my god!" Teresa screamed. "Are you guys kidnapping me? Somebody help me! Help!"

  "It's not us you need to worry about," I muttered.

  But she was past listening. All she could do right now was scream.

  I went to the front door and opened it.

  A tall, broad man stood on the front step. "Hera, I presssume?"

  His tongue flickered out as he spoke.

  I slammed the door shut and locked it.

  "Pythons!" I said. "Monster snakemen. Run!"

  Darren pulled Teresa toward the kitchen, but the patio door burst inward, spraying glass everywhere.

  "Upstairs!" I shouted.

  We whirled and ran for the stairs, but the python at the front door had already kicked it in. It leapt at us.

  Darren smashed it in the knee with a brutal kick, and when it fell to the ground, he finished it off with a kick to the head. But more pythons were running in from the kitchen.

  "Take her! Go!" Darren shouted at me.

  I dragged Teresa up the stairs. She wasn't resisting anymore, but she was too stunned to actually move on her own.

  Darren was lightning. He moved so fast I couldn't even see. Punches. Kicks. Blow after blow.

  Bones snapped. Blood flew. But there were just too many pythons.

  One managed to land a lucky punch to Darren's stomach. Darren doubled over. Two pythons grabbed his arms. The others punched and kicked. Over and over and over again. More times than I could count. Finally, Darren hung limp between the two pythons, bleeding and brutalized, half-dead.

  "Ares!" I screamed, still dragging a petrified Teresa up the steps.

  Ares appeared in the doorway. He'd grabbed a tire iron from Darren's car. He rushed into the middle of the pythons, swinging wildly. He brained a python to his right, smashed one in the face on his left, elbowed another in the ribs with a satisfying cracking sound.

  But Ares was relying on the element of surprise. It couldn't last. The remaining pythons circled him. Even with the power of regeneration, he couldn't take them all on. They'd bring him down and then beat him until his powers finally gave out.

  The pythons were still in their mortal forms. They couldn't risk changing yet. Someone could see them. They were as vulnerable now as they'd ever be. That left me with only one option.

  There was no time to convince Teresa to become a Hero. She wouldn't believe me. She just wasn't ready. She'd fight the transformation. Forcing it on her now would just kill her.

  Instead, I closed my eyes. I let my body follow my inner vision.

  I flew down the stairs. Pythons whirled. Either they'd forgotten about me, or they hadn't expected me to come back down. Either way, their mistake. Their last mistake.

  I punched one of the pythons holding Darren in the throat. It doubled over, gasping for air. I'd put all my weight behind the punch; it'd never breathe again.

  The other python dropped Darren and tried to grab me. But I leaned back as far as I could, and it grabbed only air. Then I kicked it directly in the groin, and it sank to its knees. A kick to the head and then a stomp on its chest. When I heard the crunch, I knew it was done.

  Ares didn't hesitate. He took full advantage of the distraction I provided. When a python turned away from him to face me, Ares smashed it so hard in the back of the head that the tire iron embedded itself in the creature's skull. Without pausing, Ares swung the iron again, still attached to the python. It slammed into another of the monsters. Ares managed to pry the tire iron free just in time to swipe away a third python who was trying to punch him.

  A python charged Ares, but at the last second, Ares ducked, and the python catapulted over him, carried by its own momentum. It slammed into a python on the other side. Two more pythons rushed forward and grabbed each of Ares' arms, but with a roar, he pulled his arms together and crushed the pythons into each other.

  Two pythons left.

  I leapt on the back of one of them, raking its eyes and then jamming my fingers into its mouth and yanking its cheek as hard as I could. The python's head jerked right. It was too disoriented to throw me off. Ares hammered it directly on top of its head with the tire iron. I released it as it sank to the ground.

  The last python fled for the door.

  Ares hurled the tire iron with all his strength, and it sunk into the python's back like an axe. The creature toppled to the ground, twitching until, finally, it lay still.

  Then, all around us, the bodies started to wither and crumble into dust. Soon, even the dust was gone.

  Magick. There could be no evidence of monsters, no violation of the sacred Rules.

  Ares let out a triumphant war cry.

  "Really?" I asked witheringly.

  "That felt so good!" he thundered. "It's been way too long! Have you ever felt so good in your entire life? It's better than anything, better than ..."

  "Don't," I interrupted. "And stop bellowing. You're going to traumatize Teresa even more. And I'd like her halfway sane if I'm going to awaken divine power inside her."

  "Killjoy," Ares grumbled. He paused. "Um, where is Teresa?"

  I whirled. She was gone. I'd left her on the staircase.

  My stomach churned.

  "She must be hiding," I replied.

  I bolted up the stairs. I heard Ares stomping up behind me.

  I searched desperately, tearing open doors, room by room. Finally, I got to the last room.

  I opened the door.

  There, on the bed, was Teresa. Or what was left of her. I tried not to gag. Blood soaked the sheets of the bed, pooling on the floor. Splatters of gore coated the picture of her family hanging on the wall.

  Then I saw it. Written in blood above her bed were two words: He returns.

  I went cold. Ares was swearing furiously.

  "They must've climbed up the outside of the house and come in through the window," Ares guessed.

  "It's happening," I murmured so softly not even Ares
could hear me. "It's happening all over again. This is how it starts. First one death. Then two. Then five. Then..."

  A siren pierced the air.

  "My queen, we need to go!" Ares urged.

  He pulled on my arm, but I shrugged him off.

  "Damn it, Hera!" he swore. "Let's move! We can find other Heroes. Come on!"

  I shook myself.

  "Get Darren," I said softly.

  "Hera..." Ares started.

  "I said get Darren!" I yelled, my eyes blazing.

  Ares took a step back. I'd scared him. I used to scare everyone. But now, now it took something extraordinary to remind them of who I was. To remind me.

  When Ares left, I knelt by Teresa. I didn't want him to hear what I had to say.

  "I'm so sorry, my child," I whispered, caressing her hair. I gently kissed her forehead. "But I swear to you, on all that I am, all that I was, I will make them pay. I will make them all pay."

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Darren drifted in and out of conscious as we drove to the hospital. Blood foamed at the edges of his mouth with every breath. His face was an unrecognizable mash of swelling bruises and cuts. I didn't know much about mortal bodies, but I knew if his face looked this bad, whatever was happening inside his body was probably far worse. He didn't have long.

  It felt like forever, but we finally arrived. Jason screeched to a stop, and Ares leapt out with Darren. When we handed him to nurses in the emergency room, they peppered us with questions, but Ares wisely lied and said we'd just found him this way.

  "His amulet," Jason hissed.

  "Invisible to mortals," I said.

  When Hephaestus had forged them millennia ago, he'd incorporated a small cloak around the amulets. Mortals couldn't see them, and without realizing it, they'd avoid touching them.

  And so we waited. And waited. Demeter and Jason fell asleep. Ares looked remarkably unfazed for having just been through a vicious battle. But then again, he lived for that.

  I however didn't. And without even realizing, I finally drifted off.

  "Hera."

  The hair on the back of my neck and along my arms rose. I shivered with excitement. I bit my lip.

  No word had ever been spoken with more adoration, more reverence, more love. No one said my name that way. Not even Zeus. Not anymore.

  His arms were around me before I could even turn around. I felt the warmth of him against me. Strong. Familiar. Safe.

  "I missed you," Justin whispered.

  "I missed you too," I murmured.

  I let myself melt against him. We stayed like that for a long time, until I felt the tears, and the ache became too painful to ignore. It filled up the hollow space he'd left inside me. It swallowed me whole.

  "You can't keep doing this," I told him. "It's too ... painful."

  My voice broke as I spoke. I never used to be so weak. Athena wasn't the only one who'd died the last time we'd come to the mortal world. Justin had died. And I'd died too. Everything that made me me had died. I'd been a shell ever since, carved out, empty, a husk.

  "I know," he murmured. "But I can't stay away from you. It hurts too much."

  "You have to," I begged.

  I didn't recognize myself with him. So happy. Happier than I'd ever been. And sadder too. Feeling him against me, I wanted to cry. And I never cried. Well, almost never.

  I choked down my tears, as Justin stroked my hair. He kissed the top of my head. "Hera. It's safe here. You can let go."

  "I can't," I said. "I have a mission. A world to save. Your world."

  "It's not my world anymore," he reminded me gently. "It doesn't have to be yours. You could stay here. With me. This could be our world!"

  "And what? Leave everyone else to die?" I asked.

  He said nothing. There was nothing to say.

  "I'm already failing them," I murmured. It took all my strength not to cry. "Just like before. It's happening all over again, Justin!"

  "You're not failing," he assured me. "And it's not over. You still have fight in you. I can feel it. You're fighting me, aren't you?"

  He laughed softly, and I couldn't help but smile slightly.

  "I just don't feel it," I confessed. "I ... I don't know what I feel anymore. What's happening to me, Justin?"

  "You're changing," he said.

  "But that's just it!" I replied, turning around to face him. "I don't change. I'm a god. I'm perfect."

  Justin gave me a half-smile. "Maybe there are different ways of being perfect."

  I went quiet. Justin was right. Something had changed. But it wasn't me. At least, it wasn't just me. He was different now too. He seemed paler than when I'd last dreamed of him. Faded.

  Then again, maybe it was just me. Just my imagination. Just my memory of him slowly disappearing.

  "Justin, do you think..." I stopped myself. "Am I going crazy?"

  "You're a god," he reminded me. "You can't go crazy... can you?"

  "I don't know," I admitted.

  I used to know everything. I missed that. Being so sure. It was the safest feeling in the world. Now the closest thing I had was being with Justin, and he wasn't even real. Just a memory of someone I loved. There was no safety anymore.

  Justin brushed my cheek with his hand. I pulled away. There were no tears for him to wipe away. There never were.

  "Why are you here?" Justin asked.

  "I must've fallen asleep," I replied.

  "But why here?" Justin pressed. "Why me?"

  "You know why," I replied.

  "Yes. But it's not what you think," he answered cryptically.

  "What are you talking about?" I asked.

  "You're here because you have something to tell me," Justin said. "Something you need to say. Something you can't say to anyone else."

  "And what's that?" I demanded.

  "You know," he replied. "In your heart."

  I glared at him. But he just stood there. He let me hate him with everything I was. Until I was out of hate. Out of anger. Spent.

  "She's dead," I whispered, surprised as the words poured out, words I didn't even realize I'd been holding in. "My Hero. She's dead. She was so young. I should've been more careful. I should've paid more attention. If I were myself, if I were the old me, this never would've happened. I wouldn't have let it happen. But I'm not. And I did. And now she's dead. She didn't do anything wrong. She didn't deserve it. And her parents are going to come home, and they're going to find her, and they're not even going to know why. What it all was for. How special she was."

  Justin took me in his arms. He held me as tightly as he could. I folded into him, and he just held me. We stood there for a long time. I was racked with sobs. But no tears.

  "You can cry," Justin whispered into my hair.

  I pulled away. "No. That's just it. I can't. I can't be this way. There's work to do."

  "Hera..." Justin began.

  "No," I said fiercely. "No. I have to go back. I want to go back. I have to avenge her. And the only way to do that is to stop this, stop ... feeling."

  "It's okay to feel," Justin replied.

  "Maybe for you," I said. "And maybe for other gods. But not for me. Not now. Maybe not ever."

  Justin leaned in to kiss me, but I stepped back before he could reach me.

  He sighed. "Hera..."

  But the world around us started to darken. Justin's face changed. I saw fear and sadness. He was losing me, and he knew it.

  We only had seconds left.

  I opened my mouth. I wanted to tell Justin that he'd see me again, that'd I'd be back soon. But I couldn't. I never lied, and I wasn't about to start now.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  "Hera!"

  Hands shook me awake. I blinked at the harsh, electric lights overhead.

  Ares' enormous shadow blocked them out. When he was sure I was awake, he stepped aside, looking meaningfully at the woman in scrubs standing beside him.

  "Sorry to wake you," she said. "My name is Ana. I have an upda
te on the guy you brought in."

  "How is he?" I asked groggily, as I sat up.

  "I was just telling your..." Ana started. She left it hanging.

  "Friend," Ares supplied.

  "Friend," Ana repeated. She blushed and looked down. "I was telling your friend that the guy you found is doing much better, but I'm not exaggerating when I say he was beaten within an inch of his life. You're sure you didn't see anything?"

  I didn't say anything.

  "No," Ares interjected.

  When she looked at him, he grinned, and she blushed again.

  "Can we see him?" I asked.

  "Um, are you family?" she asked.

  It was a dumb question. She already knew the answer. She wasn't thinking clearly. She was too distracted by Ares.

  "The rules are family only right now," she informed me.

  "Oh, for the love of ..." I started.

  But Ares interrupted smoothly. "You know, in some ancient cultures, saving someone's life makes you their family."

  He flashed Ana another grin.

  She fought back a smile. "Rules are rules."

  "Some rules are meant to be broken," Ares insisted, taking Ana's hand. "You sure you can't make an exception? For Good Samaritans like us?"

  Ana bit her lip. She didn't say anything. She just looked at Ares for a long time. A very long time.

  "You're hot," she breathed. "Really hot."

  Ares' grin widened.

  "But if you think I'm going to let you in just because you keep flashing me that grin, you've got another think coming," she finished.

  With a pained but determined expression, she pointedly turned her back on Ares, facing me instead.

  "You seem like someone who appreciates rules," Ana told me, "so you get where I'm coming from, right?"

  I cocked my head. Ana was very young and very pretty, but she wasn't an idiot. She was just really good at acting like one around men she liked.

  "I do," I told her honestly. "But it's important that we see him. Really important."

  "Look, I'm sorry but the best I can do is keep you guys posted," Ana replied, "if you want to keep waiting."

  "We've already been waiting," I replied.

  "Ana, Ana, Ana. You're killing us here," Ares said. "Let's just talk about this."

  "You're not helping." Ana and I snapped at the same time.