by S. E. Babin
“Abby!”
I sighed. “Zeus.”
His magic wavered. “What?”
“You heard me!”
Dike was screeching so loudly I had to scream to be heard.
“Why on Earth would he do something like that?”
There were a million reasons. Because he disliked me. Because he didn’t trust Hermes not to show up to the challenge. Because he wanted me to be with Typhon. He wanted me far, far away from him. He was angry over the contract I now held with Hades. The reasons were vast. But one thing I couldn’t explain was why he’d given me the means and ability to make myself mortal.
Unless he just wanted me out of the way.
He was a hard guy to figure out sometimes.
“Because he wants me to marry Typhon, I suppose.” It was both the easiest and the hardest response I could give him.
I glanced over. Hermes’ jaw tightened. He remained silent.
Figured. I again focused on the spell and sent a tendril of love magic toward her heart. Dike screamed even louder as she sensed what I was doing. I broke the spell in pieces, shattering one shard of it at a time until there was nothing left. When it was over, Dike blinked at both of us in confusion.
“You can release her now, I think,” I said to Hermes.
He gently brought her down and set her on her feet.
“Better?” I asked.
She stared at Hermes.
I glanced at him once and let myself out of the room.
Whatever those two had to say to each other was none of my business.
It was time for me to leave. And time to find that pain in the ass cherub
Chapter 8
I blinked into Cupid’s house under a cloak of invisibility. I’d crushed up another one of Clotho’s pills to continue hiding my power signature. I didn’t know if it would hide me from someone like Zeus, but I felt pretty safe with Cupid.
However, when I showed up in his living room, Zeus was standing there. I should have been surprised but I wasn’t. Nothing with the gods surprised me anymore.
I tensed, ready to get the hell out of there if he sensed me, but...nothing. Clotho’s herbs were a freaking miracle. She needed to bottle these and sell them on the black market.
“Dike should have her now,” Cupid said.
“Good.” Zeus wasn’t smiling or even acting cordial. “Maybe she’ll keep her out of my hair for awhile.”
“What about Hermes?” I cringed as I watched Cupid lounging against his dirty couch. They ignored the captive women still sitting against the wall whimpering and watching them with wide, sad eyes. Sometimes when I thought Zeus might be mellowing out, he’d do something like this or...not do something. In this case, release the innocent women that Cupid was holding hostage. I gritted my teeth and stayed silent.
For now.
“Make the spell fade over the next two weeks. They won’t know what happened. Hermes will consider it a rebound thing. Dike will chalk it up to sowing wild oats.”
“Very well. Anything else, my lord?”
Zeus looked at the exact spot I was standing and grinned. Widely.
Shit.
“Yes,” he said to Cupid. “Duck.”
The look on Cupid’s face was pricelessly confused. I grinned even though I knew Zeus couldn’t see me. He had somehow sensed me, though, but didn’t seem too worried about my presence. At least, not for himself.
“Duck, my lord? I don’t follow...” His voice trailed off.
Zeus disappeared from the room. I lobbed a massive wallop of straight pink magic at Cupid. I so rarely used my love magic anymore I had forgotten the full extent of its power. It sank right into his heart and lit up his entire body. He blinked once. Twice.
I dropped the concealing cloak and stepped in front of him.
“Hello.”
He sank off the couch onto his knees. “My lady. My queen. My-”
“Shut up, Cupid.”
He lowered his head and stayed silent. I wouldn’t leave him like this forever. I did plan to use this to my advantage, though. I had no idea the extent of his magic. It was dumb on my part to assume the arrows were his only power especially when mine was so whacked out.
My gaze fell on the women once again. “What was your plan with them?”
Cupid swallowed hard but he was unable to resist answering my question. “They were to stay with me. But no more. I only want you, Queen.”
My upper lip curled in distaste. “You’re a pig, Cupid. You know that?”
“I’m a pig,” he repeated.
“That’s right.”
I walked over to the women and undid all of their restraints. I put my finger up to their lips to tell them to be quiet and called over my shoulder to the person responsible for most of this. “How much money do you have?”
His brows knit together. “I don’t understand.”
“Treasure. Gold,” I snapped. It was likely he wasn’t carrying human currency, but I figured several pounds of gold would translate nicely into a change of life for these women. I’d do my best to erase the trauma, and hopefully, there wasn’t anything more than just the kidnapping. I stopped and appraised Cupid.
“I’ll have to see, Queen. I’ll have to -”
“Did you do anything to these women?”
His eyes slid away.
I exhaled heavily. One of the women - a tiny brunette in the middle of the rest of them let loose a loud sob. I kneeled down next to her and reached out to touch her filthy hair. I’d been doing this job for only a little while and it was the second time I’d found something like this. I sent a small burst of healing magic into her body. The most I was capable of now. I’d have to practice a little more with Hecate’s power before I’d feel comfortable enough to do a full healing. It was enough to start the healing of her worst injuries. Her mind was something else entirely.
I wasn’t a violent person. I wasn’t someone who felt I had to answer vendettas.
But I was sick and tired of watching innocents become victims to something they didn’t understand.
“Only her?” I asked quietly.
“Ye - Yes.” I couldn’t see him, but his fear permeated the air around us. As it should.
I sealed the room preventing anyone from entering or leaving before I popped out to make an unscheduled visit.
“He assaulted one of them.”
I didn’t say hello. I didn’t apologize for barging in to his vacation home, the one he thought I didn’t know about. He had several of them scattered around the world. I didn’t know about all of them. Yet.
He could have killed me in a single blow but…he didn’t. Thank the gods for small favors.
Zeus blanched and looked like he was going to throw up.
So he hadn’t known. This made me feel a smidge better.
“I’ve rarely asked you for anything, but I ask this of you now. Cupid deserves to be punished.”
“And what punishment shall you bring upon him?” Zeus rubbed a hand over his tired face. As many centuries as he’d spent playing games, sometimes people still surprised him. Except this one was a sickening surprise.
“I think we should leave that up to the victim.”
His gaze met mine. Serious and solemn. Zeus was a lot of things, but he respected the virtue of women. Yes, he used to be a notorious womanizer, but he did not tolerate crimes of this nature.
He sighed, a world of sadness and regret in it. “If it is any consolation to you, Aphrodite, he held those women long before I enlisted his help.”
“But you did nothing to stop him once you knew.”
His mouth tightened.
“You are as much to blame.”
A stricken look flickered across his face before it settled into blankness. “Try as I may, I cannot seem to escape you. I am sorry it happened in such circumstances. Very well, Abby. You may play judge and jury. Allow the woman to be the executioner if you must.” He paused and steepled his fingers close to his face. “Allow no
one to find his remains.”
With a nod, I disappeared.
The scene was exactly how I’d left it. Cupid trembled in fear, his normally cocky expression wiped from his face and replaced with something that told me he knew I was having none of it. Regardless of his feelings for me, magically put there by yours truly, Cupid knew there was a reckoning. All my magic did was warp his feelings and allow me to control him. It didn’t allow me to control his deeper thoughts. Unless it came to me. He could only speak well of me and could not resist my bidding.
I wanted to get back to my old life. Or at least get some kind of a break from seeing horrific things, but as my gaze found the woman again I knew that my whining was nothing...absolutely nothing compared to what she was going through. I could take it away from her if she wanted. Make it so she never remembered it. I couldn’t make it go away. Only the memory of it, not the actual act. Few of us could…
A light bulb came on. Maybe Clotho could.
I scrambled through my pockets for the stone she’d given me oh so long ago. The one I never used but always remembered to carry. The one where she reminded me she wasn’t a servant.
This was no ordinary request.
I held the stone in the warmth of my hand, ignoring the curious gazes of the people around me and summoned her.
Moments later a gentle breeze surrounded me and Clotho’s unnerving silvery gaze fell upon us all.
She took one look at the woman. “Aphrodite. You ask too much.”
“I know.”
“If I change this one thing, it has the potential to change other more important things in the future. Things I cannot begin to explain.”
I took in the woman’s haunted gaze and how her eyes flickered to and away from Cupid. No one should ever have to live with that. “I know.” Now that I’d seen the women and knew what happened firsthand, I couldn’t live with only taking the memories away.
“You will owe me a great boon,” Clotho said.
“Don’t I already owe you several?” I quipped but bit my lip in remorse. This wasn’t the time for jokes.
“A boon sealed with your immortality.”
Oh. That kind of boon.
I knelt down to the woman and slowly reached to brush a dirty curl away from her face. I explained who I was and, while most people would have scoffed and dismissed it, all of these women knew I was speaking truth. There were some unexplainable things happening tonight and sometimes truth was stranger than fiction.
“We can make this so it never happened. Do you want that?”
The woman’s gaze darted to mine and back to Cupid. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them tightly. “He said I was going to stay with him forever.” A tear tracked down her dirty cheek exposing a swatch of ivory skin.
I shook my head. “No.”
“I don’t want to stay with him.”
She reached out and grasped my hand tightly between her own and nodded once. “He will be punished?”
Of course, he would. Even if we erased this experience for her, Cupid was still guilty. I nodded once. “His punishment is yours to name.”
Her gaze narrowed at that statement and the first spark of life I’d seen since I came in earlier this evening burned in it.
I released her hand and stood. “I accept the debt of a boon.”
Clotho bowed her head. “Very well.”
I held up a hand. “First allow her to decide Cupid’s fate.”
I’d never heard deeper sobs come from a grown man in my entire life.
Artie and I were in our jammies shoving caramel popcorn in our faces when the doorbell rang. This was officially the longest Halloween night ever. I grumbled under my breath and untangled myself from underneath my fuzzy blanket.
“You better be Ed McMahon!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
“He’s been dead for almost a decade!” The voice yelled back.
I froze in mid-step. Why on the god’s green earth was Hades knocking on my door? Zeus would have just plowed right in and stolen my popcorn. I hurried over to the door, opened the peephole and let my new boss in.
He grinned at me and swept into my home. A low whistle came from him as he stared around at the new digs. “Damn. I have great taste.”
I snorted and motioned him into the living room. “I’ll give you a tour if you promise you’re not carrying news of doom and gloom.”
I hadn’t seen him since I rushed into the Underworld a few hours ago and made everything weird. But since he wasn’t acting like things were weird, then I wouldn’t act like they were either. We were just two folks...err, immortals who had a hot and heavy makeout session because the other one put some serious magical mojo on the other one.
No biggie.
I hadn’t yet told him of my weird visit with Artie’s as of yet unnamed maybe sorta fling. In fact, I hadn’t told Artie about it yet either. I was planning to spring that on her later this week. I wanted the chance to bond with her, hang out with her, do girl things, then spring it on her that I ruined her life and had gotten her kicked out of the Twelve Olympians country club.
I was generous like that.
Sigh.
I assumed he was here about Cupid. The punishment the young woman had come up with was rather dastardly indeed and I had left it up to Clotho to deliver our errant evil cherub to the Underworld. Of course, his victim had no idea that burning in hell meant that we could deliver him ourselves instead of waiting for him to die, but deliver him she did.
But that wasn’t all she wanted. While I couldn’t stop thinking about the young woman and the fate that had befallen her, I did my best not to think about Cupid because right now the no longer immortal being was sitting in a maximum security prison created by the handsome dude standing in front of me. It was no ordinary Shawshank. His victim’s anger had propelled her creativity to dazzling heights and what she’d come up with had given me nightmares for weeks afterward. This was one of the main reasons I’d handed Cupid off to Clotho. She had more of a thirst for violence than I did. Let’s just say the food wasn’t the worst thing about where this dude went.
“I bring you tidings of good cheer and news of Cupid.”
I raised a hand. “The tidings are all good. I’d rather not hear about Cupid.”
His gaze warmed as he stared at me and a blush crept up my neck when I thought about how he’d kissed me.
I cleared my throat. About how I forced him to kiss me, I guess. Geez. One of the best makeout sessions I ever had was influenced by my own magic. When I thought about that too much it made me cringey. And a little angry at myself.
Hermes wanted nothing to do with me so what’s the first thing I do? I go chasing after someone completely unavailable and make a complete ass out of myself. I was a walking talking poster child for therapy.
“Cupid has...passed,” Hades said. His voice was quiet but, daresay was there an undercurrent of amusement there?”
“Passed what?” I asked, momentarily confused. “A gallstone? We don’t get gallstones.”
He grinned at me and closed and opened his hands in a poof motion. “He’s shuffled on from this mortal coil. He’s pushing up daisies. He’s dancing with -”
“He’s dead?” I screeched. How in the world had that happened? He hadn’t suffered for that long. For him to have died without experiencing the pain and suffering his victim had infuriated me on a cellular level.
I hadn’t seen Clotho since the delivery so it’s not like I had checked on his welfare or anything. Time passed differently in the Underworld so I had no idea how long Cupid had suffered. But it appalled me he’d taken the easy way out.
“Abby, it’s not like you think.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a dark look.
“Zeus took him.”
It was the absolute last thing I expected him to say.
“He...took him? When? Where?”
He looked over and noticed Artie staring at us with avid inte
rest. “Ah...may I have a cup of tea?”
I narrowed my gaze at him. Stalling. He was stalling. Or he was trying to give Artie the opportunity to leave us alone. She wasn’t one to always get the hint and since she had a semi-crush happening on Hades, I didn’t think she’d leave even if she got the hint.
“Tea?” I echoed.
His eyes sparkled at my annoyance. “Yes. I prefer Earl Gray if you have it.”
“I don’t.”
He grinned and with a tiny wisp of air produced a box and handed it to me.
“Look at you. So generous.” I snatched the box out of his hand and made my way into the kitchen to make his stupid cup of tea.
Except...he followed me in and when I went to reach up and open the cabinet, he locked me in between his body and the counter, his arms on either side. I turned around abruptly and backed all the way up to the granite. His face was inches from mine. I leaned back a little more and swallowed hard.
“Err, I can’t make your tea if you don’t move.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “I don’t want any tea.” He loomed over me, dark and dangerous.
I, on the other hand, was tiny and blonde and a little bit freaked out. My glamour had worn off. Hadn’t it? Was he still under the effect of my magic? “I’m not a mind reader, Hades. What do you want?”
“You visited me.”
“Yes.” A blush started at my neck and wound its way up my face. “A true gentleman wouldn’t bring that debacle up.”
“I never claimed to be any kind of gentleman.”
No. He was the freaking devil. I guess that automatically negated gentleman status. I swallowed hard and stared at him. His gray eyes were silvery in their intensity. “Can we not talk about it? I’ve already apologized. I said it wouldn’t happen again. It was my fault.” I could hear myself rambling.
“What if I want it to happen again?” His face was inching closer to mine.
I squeaked and blinked out of the circle of his arms several feet away, brandishing the tea box like a weapon. “Bad idea. Verrrry bad idea.”
He turned and leaned back against my counter. My kitchen was huge but felt like the size of an icebox with him in it. “And why is that?”
