Immediately subdued, I chose deep purples, and whites, and blacks, and even somber yellows. I piled my arms full and Alec did as well. Then we went towards a part of the village that I’d seen a stream of people going all dressed in black.
“A statue,” I said as we drew near. “It’s a perfect likeness.”
Arman, great ruler, it read at his feet. Made of polished stone, Arman watched over the docks. He was dressed for battle and even his eyes were exact. It was quite a large statue, and any other immortal would not see it placed near their kingdoms, but Alec was not like any other immortal. He held his friend in high esteem and would not be threatened by the fact that his people had loved their ruler.
The villagers too brought their flowers and gifts to the statue. They laid them at his feet and so I joined them, placing my wreaths. Alec was slower to approach the monument. He did so with great reverie and bowed quite low.
An invisible hand clutched my heart to see Alec mourn. His face was tight with anguish the way a human’s did. They were so transparent. All around me people wept, and I was struck by it. My eyes filled with tears, but not because I missed Arman, though I did, but because I had caused this.
Death. It followed me everywhere.
We stayed as the villagers did plays and danced in Arman’s honor. We sat on a hill in the back while they put on a show and finally lit torches as night fell.
It grew cold with the sea-wind, and Alec put his arms around me when I shivered. The glow of the torches made his green eyes gold. I stared into them, and then at his mouth which curved.
“Hermes was the first one to kiss me,” I said sadly wishing I could take it back.
Alec’s arms tightened around me. “He’s paying for that now. I’ve made sure of it.”
I shivered again.
Alec rose, and I did too. In silence we went back to our horse, and then we rode across the sand slowly now, as if reluctant to return to ourselves.
He must have been feeling the same thing because he dismounted and pulled me down near a quiet spot of water that remained still at the shore. “The rocks further out stop the waves, and this water stays very warm.”
He undressed, but my grandmother’s light was behind the clouds. Alec was a dark form that could be naked or still hold some clothing, I wouldn’t know.
“Come, let us bathe the sweat off as mortals do.”
I had underclothes so I took off the dress. I waded in after him where he was a shadow who was dunking his head and shaking off water.
“I can’t see,” I said, then, “Ow!” I howled after stubbing my toe on a rock.
Alec laughed and grabbed my wrists to show me to a sandy place, where the water was indeed warm, and it lapped gently at my breasts. “This is beautiful,” I said.
The clouds moved, and I could see Alec now right before me, his chest damp, his eyelashes and hair dripping.
I wanted to kiss him, I realized. This body was far more traitorous than my other and I touched him without thinking.
Alec watched me to see what I would do, his body braced as if for battle. I stood on my tiptoes and boldly kissed his mouth. He remained perfectly still, until I pulled away, confused.
“Wash, Freya,” he said, his voice hoarse. “We have done the funeral with the mortals, there will be another soon for us.”
For us…
Because I was not this Freya, and he’d let me kiss him without pulling away almost as a boon.
Embarrassed, I moved away from him and scrubbed the sand on my legs and feet and then I put my hands on my breasts, scrubbing vigorously through the fabric, fighting tears. When I began to wash between my legs, I heard a splash and a strangled sound before Alec moved out of the water so quickly that it caused a small wave to push me back.
He was briskly dressing on the shore, his naked body visible now to me in all its mortal glory.
With sand in my hands dripping into the ocean, I gaped at him. He was roped with muscle, to narrow hips. He was covered in scars and they glittered as silver in the moonlight.
He caught me watching, and finally I turned away, ashamed.
What was wrong with me? When did I become a wanton vixen?
The humans…how could they control their lust?
When I finished and joined him aside the horse, I said, “Alec, I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. How desperate you must think me. I promise you that had I not been human…”
He said nothing and he put his hands on my shoulders while his powers returned, and he transformed into the eternal king once more.
He grew in size, and his body filled with a robust sense of otherness. His long hair was perfect and silky around his face, and his cheekbones were pressed higher. His mouth opened to show the two sharp teeth.
His large hands cupped my much smaller mortal shoulders. I was reluctant to return. I blurted out, “Even as a human you would not kiss me back, why?”
Alec’s eyes shifted warily between mine and finally I let go and became myself once more. Our faces were closer now as I grew in height.
His voice was deep and even. “It is not meant to be this way between us. Some day you will understand.”
I crossed my hands to cover myself. Even though now I wore many robes and was clothed, I felt naked. “Help me understand now. Which are you? The king who locks me away, or the carefree mortal who holds me as we ride?”
“I am both.”
“That is no answer.” I slapped aware tears before they could show. “That is no comfort. I am lost, Alec. You know it well. Perhaps I will be in the underworld and being punished as Hermes is by the end of this gathering. My family will not have me, and you hold me for some dark purpose. Why did you ask me to come today?”
“I thought you’d like to see the monument to Arman,” he said, his face confused.
“I did. Of course. But don’t lie to me and tell me there was nothing more. Even now, you will not relent in your revenge.”
Gone were the laughs and smiles. Alec was a dark mystery to me once more. "Your father is still my enemy—his blood flows through your veins. I will not blame you for that which you cannot control, but it is the state of us, Freya." He sounded sad but also very sure.
"And why do you hate him? At least tell me that truth."
He sighed, reaching for my hand. "Come. Quarreling is for mortals."
I held my hands still beside me. "And peace is for them too it would seem." I paused a beat to absorb the injustices of my heritage. "Tell me plainly, will you ever stop hating that part of me?"
He leveled me with a darkly focused gaze. "I will be as kind to you as possible. Hate would be simpler, but you are who you are both bad and good. Your power will grow, and you will change, and you will be a good wife...for someone else."
Fury simmered within me. He did not say queen. Who was Alec trying to marry me off on?
Chapter 10
The ride back to the palace was colder than the underworld, where Alec hailed from as he’d said. His bitterness for my father bit at the back of my neck, and my shoulders and stomach ached from trying to ride out from the cradling of his arms and lap. I could have wept, but I managed to keep the tears deep inside of me.
It was a poison that we both sipped. Me, unwillingly because my family had created the hatred on purpose, and I was involved by proxy. Alec, well, he drank his willingly, bathed his heart in it, and how had I missed the pureness of his desire there? A desire to strike the head off the snake. My father.
But one doesn’t merely kill a viper and leave its nest untouched.
We arrived back at the stable, and the king was told he had visitors. I saw his relief when they’d told him which ships came in. He moved away from me instantly and a barrier built between us in that moment.
I gazed at him, hoping one last hope, but it was crushed beneath black eyes that dismissed me as the prisoner I’d now become. Would he lock me away? I felt that he might on a whim. It protected that dark heart of his to keep me in my place
. If I broke through his barriers, I now knew, his evil plants would rear up and strike out on his behalf. Perhaps that has always been his way.
It was as if I could see the jungle between us now, hissing and daring me to enter, and my rogue king was slowly melting into vines as his punished humans were, their faces and crowns turned into tree-trunks.
Would I fight through for him? Would I press on and try to show him that I was nothing like my lineage? As I followed him to the main room, the distance between us spread and as he greeted travelers, I knew that I would not. This fight was for someone else. Aphrodite perhaps.
Conversations swarmed around me. Strangers embraced one another, and there I stood, unsure of my place. Growing up, I was forever outside looking in on my bright and careless family. Now, the vain immortals of Olympus had shunned me as well, forcing me to the fringes with outsiders like Charon. So be it, I thought, as they spread the discontentment Hades held for me.
I knew that Alec still held on to his planned acts of revenge against my father, and I was that goat who’d be slain. Perhaps not in actual death, but in name.
Soon the veil would fall, and all would be shown. The king of the seven islands, like everyone else in my life, would fail me, would disappoint me.
And so, I remained outside looking in, hands pressed against the invisible door, waiting for entry to their world.
Unless, perhaps, I chose another path. Alone.
I was about to leave, when a booming, deep voice shouted loud enough to echo. “Where is the titan-blood who brought down my giant!”
The voice alone was enough to set my stomach to twisting. I turned, frowning, to find a man marching in my direction with purpose. He was nearly a giant himself, his black skin glistening, and his beard so long it touched his chest. All within the curling hairs were gold flecks and beads. His braided black hair hung to his waist, and he wore battle armor that once had matched his gold but was now worn and beaten to hug his swooping muscles.
He stood toe-to-toe with me and smirked. “Tell me this creature, this moonish lass of glowing skin is not the one to bring down Tityos. It cannot be.”
The demi-god my father had sent. “Your giant?” I asked, frustrated by his tone, and the man threw his head back to laugh a sound that was the rushing of a waterfall. It vibrated through me and despite my feelings, I smiled at his grin.
His dark eyes carefully probed mine, and I felt an acceptance there. “Oh yes,” he said, his voice dropping to a level beneath the earth. “You are what Zeus fears most, does he not?”
That made me very tired to hear. I had nothing but angst for the Olympians. I sighed and my weariness made the stranger grow serious.
He bowed to his knee. “My lady,” he said quietly and with real reverence. “I, Heracles, have hunted this giant for a century and owed him a great debt in repayment for the sufferings of someone I cared for at his hands. Many someones. Tell me, how did he die? Was it with honor?”
At the way he hissed the words, I knew that he did not want me to confirm the giant had fought a brave battle but that the treacherous beast was brought down with ease.
“No,” I said. “Warrior. Rise.”
I remembered Alec saying the giant had ripped young women in half. I remembered him saying my father would have given me to the giant as the spoils of his war.
Heracles did so rise and when I saw the great emotion upon his face, I straightened and placed my hand up high to reach his shoulder. “Your giant fought poorly and died dishonorably. He was worthless and I crushed him beneath my heels as if he’d never learned how to fight. Let this be the end of the suffering he has caused. Let him rot in the underworld for his evil. Let it be known that a young goddess without any battle experience bested him.”
Heracles covered my hand and squeezed it. He was fighting to stay strong, but this brought him great joy but also sorrow, I could tell. In his black eyes, I saw a girl of curling dark hair and then she was gone. A soul remembered and I had but a glimpse of her. “I thank you,” he said, “What is the name of the goddess who has paid my debts?”
“Freya,” I said, and then for no reason I added, “The Fallen.”
“I should think not.” He looked me over shrewdly. “Freya the Courageous, Freya the Giant-killer and Moon-maiden with stars in her hair.”
I blushed and saw Milos striding forward.
“Little titan!” he called, and I smiled because of course, I was not so little, but Milos was still much larger.
I barely caught my breath as Milos lifted me into the air and swung me around. “I was told I missed your giant story. Tell it again!”
I laughed. “Put me down and I shall.”
“There should be statues in her honor,” Heracles said with his fist to his breast and Milos laughed, mimicking him with a mocking bow.
“Yes, battle brother, there shall.” Milos and his laughing eyes and his red hair was so unlike Alec, yet, so similar. To look at him was to find the same expressions, albeit more pleasant, that I enjoyed about the king when he was human.
I knew it now. It was freedom of the crown that he wore. Though, I’d never seen his crown…not yet.
“Heracles,” Milos said, letting me go and grasping on to the even larger man’s arm. “It’s good to see you.” They embraced.
Heracles moved to Alec’s side, and I saw true brotherly affection there between them as well. Though Heracles made to bow, Alec waved him off and they embraced as friends.
“Who are they?” I asked Milos who was guzzling wine and eating grapes and cheese as if he’d starve, as if he’d sailed straight through a storm to be at our side this night. Perhaps he had, his hair was windblown, and he smelled of salt. “All of them,” he motioned at the men clearly waiting for orders from Heracles, “are giant hunters. Or any monsters created who are terrorizing the humans. Sometimes they even hunt Olympians.” He waggled his brows. “Or rogue titan-bloods, more like.”
“They kill monsters and giants. Immortals? And Zeus allows this?”
Milos grinned. “No.”
“I see.” I cocked my head. “And you? What is it that you do, Milos? Do you have an island to be king over?”
He shook his head, savagely biting a grape in half. “No, little titan. I’m a pirate. And… I’m their ride. The demi-gods, you see, they can’t fly.”
I cocked my head. “Can you?”
He chuckled and put the back of his finger down my arm. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“A pirate? More like a scoundrel,” I said, moving out of his reach.
Having no idea what a pirate might be, I took in each of the warriors who were with Heracles, the next more savagely armed and muscular than the last. There was only one woman amongst them, and my eyes widened as she was as big as the rest, her arms as large as my waist. “Amazon,” Milos said, and then he spun on his heels. “And where they are….ah….she won’t be far behind,” he added darkly.
I turned to see where he looked. When she strode through the entry way, golden cape fanned out behind her like the sun, I knew at once that Apollo’s sister had come. The warrior goddess Artemis looked neither left nor right as she marched into the main room. Golden eyes and broad face so like her brothers, her gaze stayed with hawk-like efficiency on me while she swooped towards us.
“Ascalaphus,” she said like the cracking of a whip. Alec turned and his expression became thunderous. “I have words for you, cursed one.”
Cursed one…?
She stopped before Alec, not waiting for his reply or for him to offer her audience. Her golden hair was pulled tightly into a braid, and she was dressed for battle. Her breastplate was not like Heracles’—it was molten and clean and perfectly outlining her high round breasts and strongly lined waist, down to a pubic bone that was covered in feathers. Her legs were free so she could run with a speed that the human eye could not follow. Her limbs were not encased, and her shins had the only protection down to her sandals. In her hand was a spear, and under her ar
m was a helmet of gold to match.
“I will release you of your burden, Ascalaphus,” Artemis said. “The titans. Give them to me and be free of Zeus’ wrath.”
Alec’s mouth tightened. “Arman was a friend, was he not? I believe he followed and worshiped at your feet time and again for protection.”
“I’m here aren’t I? To pay homage to our warrior. He was yours as much as mine.”
“But he did not sacrifice to me,” Alec said tightly. “He did not ask me for protection. It was your power that emboldened him in battle.”
Her eyes flicked to me and back again.
“So …” Alec said sharply. “Where were you when Titus’ men hobbled his horse? He was a warrior befitting of an honorable death by the sword. But he died not in battle.” His voice rose until he was roaring so loudly at Artemis that I feared the worst. “But he perished underneath an animal that should not have crushed a man so good as that. Tell me, Artemis, where were you!”
Artemis stepped forward, braced, her terrible beauty twisted in anger, her power unfurling behind her along with her cape blown out wide. “You know which side you chose when you brought them here.” She pointed at me but glared at Alec. “You know what you’ve done, and I’m here to make it right.”
Alec also stepped forward and the ground shook as plants broke through the concrete and grew in giant stalks at his side. There was another power emanating from Alec, a black river of pain that rushed up the walls before turning into a cobra, ready to strike her where she stood.
“Did Zeus send you?” he demanded. “So, he will not wait for Hades to make his decision. He does not trust his own brother to do the job.”
“Sister,” Apollo called, striding in as if she’d summoned him just by being present.
Together they were too beautiful. Together they were too fierce. In the room at the same time, the twins nearly made my knees watery soft. Rays shined from them, burning all who looked too closely. When abreast, they were like two blazing stars plummeting to earth. Against the dark warriors, the contrast was enough to blind a mortal, so it was lucky that none were present.
Beware the Fallen: Young Adult Mythology (Banished Divinity Book 1) Page 11
