He was adrift on a dark sea and he couldn’t see any stars. Morrigan was, and always had been, his true north.
And he was suddenly very grateful to Aphrodite for seeing it and pushing through her own sadness to fulfil her power. She was indeed wise and kind—deserving of all of her gifts, and deserving of the love she helped others achieve every day.
He had to tell her. The old Ares who lived in fear would never admit these things to her, to Love. But he wasn’t going to be afraid anymore. That wasn’t who he wanted to be and holding on to his fears of the past, to his sins of the past, they were great anchors holding him down—drowning him. He had to let go.
He had to surrender. He’d been fighting it so long and so hard, he hadn’t been able to see the victory in surrender.
“Dite, can you hear me?”
She appeared in his living room, her dress a cloud of pink glitter and her face was bright—happy. An inner glow radiated from her in a nimbus. She was every inch the Goddess of Love. “Yes, Ares?”
His throat tightened with emotion, not from what he’d lost, but for the chance she’d given him. He knew he could still lose Morrigan, but he wanted to go to her with a clean conscious and a clean heart.
“You look beautiful.”
Aphrodite smiled and her glow intensified.
“I wanted to apologize, Dite.”
“For what?” She took his hands.
“For all the things I did to hurt you.”
“Oh.” Her light dimmed.
He tilted her chin up with his thumb and finger. “Sincerely.” He nodded. “I loved the competition of trying to outdo each other. I was caught up in the Love vs. War and I think I started to believe the stories about us. I believed the hype. But I never let go because I was afraid of what was on the other side of us.”
“Ares—”
“These are things that need to be said. Some are a long time coming. It’s not a rehashing of old fights, or tearing open old wounds. Hopefully, it’s healing them. Will you allow me?”
The kind smile was back. “Yes, I’ll allow you.”
“I thank you for our children. For always loving them and never trying to turn them against me no matter what shitty thing I’d done.”
Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them back. “Oh gods, it happened.”
He didn’t answer her, but instead continued with his list. “I thank you for seeing the best in me when I only showed you the worst. I thank you for all the long years you’ve given me. I thank you for the shelter that you’ve been against the things I wasn’t ready to accept or even acknowledge.”
He inhaled deeply and the rest of his fear receded, the dark sea was in low tide. For the first time, he had hopes that someday, it might even dry up.
“And I thank you for the gift you gave us both when you left me. You deserve so much better than us.” He nodded slowly. “And thank you, gentle goddess, for the love in my heart even though I didn’t want it. I couldn’t do this for you while we were together, but I can now.” He got down on his knees, the mighty God of War, and said, “I concede the battle to you. War surrenders to Love, and it is to your name I pray.”
Aphrodite was openly crying, but the tears that fell down her cheeks turned to rose petals. The nimbus behind her that had been building went supernova and light exploded from her as her power increased.
The prayer of one god to another was the greatest gift they could share. It increased power, longevity, strength, youth… but it had to be genuine and heartfelt.
As evidenced by Aphrodite’s burning countenance, it was all of that and more.
“Tell her.” Aphrodite reached out a hand and cupped his cheek. “Tell her because she thinks she fell alone.”
“I will.” He was still afraid, but what he felt for Morrigan was more powerful than his fear.
“Ares, you know that courage isn’t the absence of fear, right?”
“I always knew that, but I thought it was something people told themselves so they wouldn’t be afraid. Something to put the fear in a cage.”
“It’s a wild thing, much like love.” She kissed his cheek again. “Thank you. You were right. All the places left in me that still needed to heal are whole, better than new.”
“Be well and be happy.”
“You too. Don’t ever doubt that you deserve everything Morrigan has to give you.”
“That sounds like a threat.” He laughed.
Aphrodite shrugged. “I’m sure that it is, but you’re her perfect match. Always have been, always will be. My blessing didn’t make you love her any more than you already would have. It just helped clear a few obstacles.”
Aphrodite disappeared leaving his temple smelling like roses and chocolate.
He had one more thing to do before he faced Morrigan.
16
MORRI
M orrigan still went to meet Poseidon for their pizza date.
While Aphrodite assured her that Ares was in love with her, he either couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it. She wasn’t going to sit home and moon over him and wait for him to figure out she was a princess in a tower.
She was a dragon. She didn’t need a white knight. Morrigan just wanted him.
Of course, she’d be honest with Poseidon about her feelings for his brother. She wasn’t that kind of dick.
To be fair, Poseidon was a great kisser. He was great at a lot of things. He was practically perfect. Her life would be so much easier if she were to fall in love with him instead of his brother.
She waited for him outside of Pomegranate Pizza and when he appeared, she said, “I’ve got something I have to tell you.”
“You slept with my brother.” He raised a brow.
“I—well… that and other things.”
“I’ve got something to tell you as well.” His expression was similar to Ares’s when he thought she was going to smite him.
“What did you do?”
“You should come down to Atlantis and see.”
“Were you in on this thing with Corvinus and Ares, too?”
“Possibly. You should just come see.”
“You know I hate Atlantis.”
“There’s more to Atlantis than the club, Morri.”
She sighed. “I’m going to be pissed, aren’t I?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe a little bit. But it was important to us that you were safe.” He held up his hand. “Before you get your knickers in a knot over us trying to save you, it’s not because you’re a goddess. You’d do the same thing for someone you care about—god or goddess status regardless.”
“What did you do to Dagda?” She pursed her lips.
“You wanna get that pizza first?”
“Poseidon.”
“A guy has to eat, and Dagda isn’t going anywhere.”
“Compromise. We’ll get it to go.”
“Are you sure you want to risk that? What if we end up with golden apple slices?” he teased.
“Then I guess it will be a good day for you. Only promise you won’t run away from me if we did.”
“Morrigan, my brother wasn’t running away from you. He was running away from himself.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about him. Everyone wants to give me advice and keeps telling me how much he loves me. No. I don’t want to hear it from anyone, but him. I don’t want advice or the pitying looks because they know I’m in for all that nonsense Aphrodite went through.”
“Okay, one more question and I’ll drop it. Do you think you’re in for everything Aphrodite went through?”
“No, not really. I think he loves me, but he doesn’t want to. We all know how Ares is when he sets his mind for or against something. We’re going to avoid each other for a few days, but he’ll miss me. Then we’ll go back to the way things were before the apple slices and it won’t matter.”
“I see. So what are you doing here with me if you’re in love with my brother?”
It was a fair question. “Well, I
was hoping we’d have pizza, hang out and be friends.”
“But not kissing friends.”
“Not now, but I’d like to after I get over Ares.”
“Have you given any thought to the possibility where you end up together?”
“No. Don’t be daft.” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “Look, if you don’t want to hang out—”
“I definitely want to hang out. I like you, Morrigan. I won’t say I’m not attracted to you. I’d have to be rock not see you’re beautiful, but any goddess I’d date I’d want to be friends first. Real friends. Not just ‘hanging out until I can get in her pants.’ That’s not how I do things.”
“So pizza and…” She waited for him to finish the sentence.
“Pizza and whatever you want if you still want to spend time with me after you see what we did to Dagda.”
She laughed. She felt guilty about it, but she couldn’t help it. “I can’t blame you guys that you wanted to protect me. I know you only had the best intentions, especially if Corvinus was with you.”
“Where is he, by the way? I thought he’d want to come and give me The Talk.”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t been home since he left with Ares.” She went inside the pizza place. “Of course, I did call him a traitor. He might be waiting for me to cool off.”
“That’s probably wise.”
The cyclops behind the counter handed her a large pepperoni with pineapple and extra cheese. “On the house, you guys. Forever.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Morri reassured him.
“I shouldn’t have had the apples in the store. From now on, they’ll be delivered to Priapus in the wrapping. That way there won’t be any mix ups like that again.”
Morrigan accepted the pizza. “Thank you.”
“And tell everyone about my new policy?” He nodded hopefully.
“Of course. I really hope no one thought it was your fault. It was all Dagda’s fault. He’s the one who switched out the pizzas. People should know that the golden apples can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. They can only heighten desires that were already there. Especially if they’re long ignored.”
“Thanks for the PSA,” Poseidon teased.
“I hate to think that this place would lose business because of something like that.”
“He’s probably doing fine, but it’s cool that you care.” He put his arm around her waist. “You ready to go?”
She nodded and they were somewhere she’d never been before. It was like a penthouse apartment, but under the water. There were windows on all sides and outside the farthest wall was what looked like an anemone garden. The same strange creatures from the Pearl Gardens pressed themselves against the glass, seemingly to have a look at her. She waved and they gyrated their bodies in response.
“This is an amazing place. Where are we?”
“We’re in the deepest part of the Aegean.”
“It’s so beautiful. If I had all of this, I’d never come topside, either.”
“For all my strength and power, being on land makes me tired. I can do it, but I’d rather be in the depths.”
He led her to another room that was exactly like a beach. Exactly. From the sand, the strange sun blazing overhead and even the water that lapped at the faux shore.
“What is this?” She was delighted.
“I built it for a goddess I used to date. She didn’t like being so deep under the water and I didn’t like going ashore.” He shrugged. “Our compromise.” Poseidon motioned to the ocean. “If you dive out too far, it will take you outside. Which you’re more than welcome to do, but I’d prefer to give you fins and gills for comfort and ease of travel first.”
“All the luxuries of the beach with none of the hassle. No dude-bros kicking sand in anyone’s face and no animalcules trying to crawl into your bikini. I like it.”
She took a piece of pizza and inspected it carefully before biting into it. The warmth of the sun on her face felt real and she leaned back on the sand.
There was nowhere she had to be, nothing she had to do. Not even the person next to her wanted anything from her, except her time. The only thing required of her was to just be. It had been so long since she’d had that.
Only, she wasn’t really free. She had to find out what they’d done to Dagda. As much as she wanted to let him endure whatever punishment they’d constructed, there was part of her that knew it wasn’t right.
They were the last of their pantheon and as such, they tended to absorb whatever remnants of power that were left. Dagda, with the resentment and darkness in his heart, had absorbed all of the negative emotion of the gods and goddesses who’d gone before.
It had twisted him into something dark. Something he wasn’t meant to be. He didn’t need to be punished, he needed help.
What he’d done was wrong, and her initial reaction had been to want to see him punished, but that was ego—pride.
She’d noticed an increase in her own power and with that came responsibility. It was her job to care for him just as it had once been his job to care for her.
She hated these moments of epiphany. They were damned inconvenient.
“From your sigh, I take it we won’t enjoy our pizza until I show you what we’ve done with Dagda.”
“I’m afraid that’s how it has to be.” She put her pizza down.
“Come, I’ll show you.” He took her hand. “Are you ready for a tail? We’ll have to go out quite far away. I can’t have Fred so close.”
“Fred. The Kraken? You locked Dagda in with the Kraken?” She was incredulous.
Poseidon shrugged. “Fred’s lonely. Dagda needed to be somewhere he couldn’t escape. He’s not being harmed.” Poseidon looked off to the side. “Not really. If he behaves, he’s just getting a lot of full body hugs and being forced to read Goodnight Moon over and over again.”
She sighed.
“Look, have you thought about what to do with him if I can let him out?”
“What do you mean, if you can?”
“It’s… complicated. Fred has been lonely for a long time. Now that he has a friend, he isn’t going to want to give him up. I could just take Dagda from him, but I don’t want to hurt him. He’s really like a big, goofy dog. It would be like giving Corvinus a companion only to take it away.”
“I get it. But I can’t leave Dagda like that.”
“I’m open to suggestions.” Poseidon shrugged. “Give me an alternative solution.”
“Let’s go see them.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Well, why wouldn’t I?” She put her hands on her hips. He’d just reassured her that Dagda wasn’t being harmed.
“Fred isn’t good with new people.”
“And yet, you put Dagda in there.” She shook her head.
“Correction. Fred isn’t good with new people he can’t have.”
“I see. Well, let’s get on with it.”
“This isn’t how I imagined taking you outside,” he confessed.
“Me either.” No, she’d built it up in her head that it was going to be this grand adventure. It had practically reached montage status in her head. Almost the perfect date. She’d even managed to forget for a while that it was Ares she wanted to be with and not Poseidon.
“I suppose it’s just as well.”
“Is it?”
“You know it is, Morrigan.”
“Providing I get him out, do you think I could make him human? You Greeks had those Golden Apples. What else do you have?”
Poseidon perked. “That’s actually a great idea. Have you met Abstinence?”
“Zeus’s new wife? No.”
“When they first got together, she gave him the gift of abstinence—”
“I bet that went over well.”
“Yes, as well as you’d imagine. But some say it made him mortal. She could do that for Dagda. Then he won’t be a threat to you, and he’ll learn his lesson about empathy.�
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“I hate to do that to him, but maybe it’ll be best for him. It feels like the right thing to do.”
“Do you want me to take you to speak with Abstinence?”
“You know it’s not that I don’t appreciate that you and Corvinus and Ares wanted to look out for me. But leaving him there is wrong.”
“Ares had a feeling you’d say that. He didn’t want me to tell you. If you didn’t know where he was or what had happened to him, then you wouldn’t feel responsible for him.”
She gave him a small laugh and shook her head.
“I convinced him that we should—I—should tell you. It didn’t take much. He knew you’d rather know.”
“Did he?”
“And he’s here.”
“What?” She stood up. “Why is he here?”
“Before you get really angry—” he nodded to the black lightning coalescing around her fingers “—he was going to leave if things…didn’t go as they had.”
“Oh, you mean if you were going to get into my pants?”
Poseidon laughed. “No. I had no expectations of such, but he did. He was sure that you’d—”
Ares emerged from the waves and damn if it wasn’t cinematic.
The water was like a waterfall as it sluiced down over his ink black hair, the tanned skin of his broad shoulders, his chest… and oh gods. The faux sunlight fell on him in the most perfect way, as if it had been designed to highlight his perfect body.
He was dry by the time he reached the shore and he took her hand. “I’m here, Morrigan.”
Part of her wanted to say obviously. That she could see him. But she knew he meant more than that.
“I’m about to undo all of your hard work,” she said.
Morrigan felt like she hadn’t laid eyes on him in a hundred years. She hadn’t realized how starved she’d been for the sight of him, the touch of his hand on hers. Just being close to him.
She was so far beyond fucked.
“I don’t care about that. I should’ve listened to you anyway, but we couldn’t stand the thought of him free and unchecked. I couldn’t allow him to hurt you.”
“He won’t.” She shook her head. “I realized something today. We’re the last of our pantheon. So this isn’t all his fault. I have to at least try to help him.”
Ambrosia Lane 1-3: Saranna DeWylde Page 60
