“Janita, please, this spread would feed an army. There is no need—”
“Pft!” Janita raspberried cutely, shushing Nimue with a heavy shake of her head, causing the delicate pearls around her breasts to bob and sway, forcing my eyes (as though by magic; fancy that) to gravitate to her pointed, coral-colored nipples. “None of that, now. I promised ye a feast, and a feast I’ll deliver. One moment.”
With a happy grin, she swam off.
This was a side of the goddess I’d never seen. Nurturing mother.
And that’s when it hit me: Nimue was none other than the wife of Calypso’s son, Sircco.
Something decidedly warm spread through my chest. In all my days, I’d never once seen Persephone so doting. Not to me, not to another male, not even to an animal. The self-centered whelp had only cared for herself.
I felt Nimue’s eyes on me. Turning to her, I noticed a shrewd, calculating look.
You do like her, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not.
I shrugged. No sense in denying it. No sense in adding to it, either.
If there is one thing I know about my mother-in-law, Hades, it is this: When she falls, she falls hard, and her love, while exceedingly rare, is a gift to be handled with the greatest reverence. She is a treasure worth savoring. Treat her well, and there is nothing that should be impossible to you.
I pondered her words. I was a god. There was nothing impossible to me. And yet I could not change my fate. I’d had a hand in Persephone’s disappearance. My destiny was sealed and in the hands of a blind justice.
Janita laughed. “I’ve got it!” She held up a tin of Beluga caviar the size of her head. “I knew I’d packed this beast away somewheres. Now,” she swam to our side, dropping to the other side of me and setting the tin down. “Let’s get our chow on.”
Calypso
* * *
“Ladies, I need to use the necessaries.” Hades’ thick voice—like sun-warmed molasses—rolled over me and made me shiver.
I didn’t look at him when he got up, bowed to Nim, and sauntered off into the brush. I’d told him to act human, and taking a piss was about as human as it came, I supposed.
“I like him,” Nimue said without preamble once he was out of hearing range. “What’s his name, Janita? You never have said.”
Thinking on the fly, I latched onto the first name I thought of. “Harvey.”
“Harvey. Odd name.” She delicately nibbled on a cracker that held a heaping dollop of caviar.
“Mmhmm.” I pretended to fluff at a loose sliver of hair, which did not in fact exist, as I was perfectly coifed today.
“Such manners he has. That voice,” she smirked, “and that body.”
A fierce heat rose to my cheeks. “Yes,” I sighed, “he does have a banging one. His stomach is shredded and his thighs like redwoods and his arms…Oh, goddess,” I fluttered my lashes, remembering the way he’d held all that glorious weight up on his arms as he’d tasted and suckled at my breasts. “He is lovely. He is also covered in scars.”
“Scars,” she said, frowning softly.
I smoothed out the line between her brows by reflex.
“Oh, yes,” I continued, “from here,” I pointed to the hollow of my throat, “to here,” I trailed my finger down to my pubis.
“Why?” she asked as she swallowed her last bite of cracker and then reclined with a heavy sigh. “Gods, Janita, I feel like a whale, but it was wonderful.”
Accepting her adulation with a nod, I shrugged. “I do not ken, but I wish I did. I find it exceedingly odd for a man like him to be covered as he is. It smacks of deliberation. Though, I do find the marks to be rather fetching. I oftentimes want to lick my way across each one of ’em.”
“You don’t say.”
“Mmhm. Yes.” I popped a sweet sea grape into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
Hades was giving us time to talk. I could tell because he was gone far longer than a man should piss.
My realm was beautiful, and it wasn’t often I granted my peers permission to access it. I wondered what he thought of it. I’d very much like to explore his Elysian fields someday, perhaps even Tartarus. I was rather fond of fire.
“Ask him.”
“What?” I shook my head, scattering the images of ghostly wails and licking flames from my mind’s eye. “But why?”
She shrugged. “It’s what people generally do when they wish to know one another better.”
“But I don’t want to know him better, do I?” Why had that popped out a question? I shouldn’t want to know him better, and yet it seemed to me that I might actually be lying to myself. I was curious. Far more than I should be.
I also wanted to know what he’d done to Sephone and why. Not that I much cared for that brat, but he couldn’t just go off and kill a goddess willy nilly, whether she deserved it or not.
It was god etiquette 101.
After what the pantheon had done to the Titans, the three Fates had decreed no more killing or enslaving of family; otherwise the offender’s term as a reigning god would come to a screeching and violent end.
Of course, I was immune to such laws, as I was a Primordial and had had nothing to do with that distasteful uprising. Stupid Psycho, however, was not immune. We might share waters, but I was older than the bastard and twice as powerful, and he knew it. Prick.
Just thinking about Fish Butt made me feel ragey.
“Do you?”
It took me a moment to realize what she was asking. I’d gone off on a tangent again. I was prone to doing that sometimes.
“I shouldn’t. He’s leaving in a few days.”
“That’s not an answer, Janita. Even if he leaves, there’s nothing saying he couldn’t come back.”
“Oh no, he’s never coming back.” I shook my head and then realized she had no idea Harvey was Hades, and I didn’t wish to open that can of nematodes at the moment. “What I mean to say is, I very highly doubt he’d be able to return. This is strictly an afternoon-delight type of situation, Consort.”
“Well,” she plucked up a star bell and began plucking at its petals, “I’m not really sure he sees it that way.”
“Really?” I leaned in, heart thumping terribly fast. “Did he tell you something? What did he say?”
She smiled. “Oh, nothing he said with his mouth, but his eyes speak volumes. My mother once told me eyes are the windows to the soul. You see, a man can say anything he wants with his lips, but his eyes always give him away. Look at them next time, and you might just see what I have.”
His eyes were lovely. I could drown in their dark pools. But a window? Hm, I would need time to ponder that notion.
“Nimue, he may have done something bad.” It was as close as I was willing to come to revealing who he was. I chewed on my bottom lip, not really sure what to expect her to say.
Her shrug spoke volumes. “Yes, but how bad is bad, really? You must remember who my own father is. There are those who’d call him rotten to the core, but I never really saw him that way. Still don’t. He is a pirate. It is in his nature to steal, plunder, and loot, but where it matters, his heart is pure.”
“See,” I pointed at my chest, “I feel the same way. What’s a little death now and then, aye?”
Her smile slipped for a millisecond, but then she quickly recovered and laughed. “This is why I like you, Janita. You never fail to shock and amaze.”
“Glad I can be of service to you, my dear.”
Chapter 11
Calypso
Nimue had to return to the palace soon after. I’d whispered instructions into the ears of the dolphins guiding her chariot to return home promptly upon pain of death should aught happen to her. My grandpups were to be born soon, and none were to harass Nim.
Then with a wave, I’d said my goodbyes. Returning to the blanket, I vanished the nearly empty trays of food and blanket with a flick of my wrist.
“That is a very handy bit of magic, Janita.” Hades’ words were a rumble in my ear.
“I’m so horny,” I whispered, clawing at his shirt.
He looked so yummy today with his black on black on black. I really needed to switch up that man’s wardrobe.
And when he grazed my cheek with his knuckles, I saw what Nim had been talking about: the fiery glint in his eyes when he looked at me. The kind of look that stripped away pretense and revealed the raw, unvarnished truths beneath.
“Do you like me, Dead Boy?”
He paused in his touch, and I drowned in his gaze. In my maiden form, we were eye level, but I felt so much smaller. It still scared me, but right now, it was also exhilarating.
“Very much.”
His words were a dart that pricked my heart like Cupid’s arrow.
“Why did you abandon us for so long?” As we talked, I’d slipped his shirt out of his pants and slid my hands up his warm chest, flicking at the suddenly tight nubs of his nipples.
He bit his bottom lip.
“I sensed your need to talk with your daughter.”
I gasped. “You know she’s my daughter?”
His smile was tender. Hades didn’t say another word; instead he leaned over to kiss me.
And the touch of him was a brand that seared. I parted my lips on a sigh and dueled with his tongue.
We kissed for what felt like an eternity. His cock wedged tight against my tail, and I couldn’t help but wiggle on him.
Tails were such incredibly sensitive parts of a maiden’s anatomy, far more so than legs. Every molecule of me tingled and ached.
With a thought, I commanded everyone and everything to keep their distance from us. I aimed to keep him entirely to myself this afternoon.
After minutes of sharing breaths and kisses, he finally came up. “Thank you for taking me out of that prison.”
“Is my home really a prison to you?”
Hades had thick calluses on his palms. I leaned into them as he framed my face. “Only when you’re absent.”
“Do you wish to sex me, Dead Boy?”
“Gods yes,” he growled and I giggled.
Humming, I swayed my hips against him. “Would you like to know what I’m thinking about right now?”
“Knowing you, something dirty and decidedly wicked.”
Fluttering fingers to the tops of my breast, I batted my lashes. “You flatter me, Master.”
He chuckled.
“But the truth is…”
Deliberately letting those thoughts dangle, I bent down so that now my face was mere inches from the line of his zipper.
He sucked in a deep breath. “Holy Calypso,” he grunted.
Patting his thigh, I smiled. “I’m here, Dead Boy. I’m here.” Then, unzipping him, I pulled his engorged flesh from its hiding place and kissed the very tip of it.
I purred at its velvety softness. I’d had a feeling I’d enjoy my first taste of male flesh.
His eyes rolled back, which I took to mean, “take me, baby, I’m ready.”
I took him, humming like I’d once seen a whore do, kissing and licking and feasting and treating it very much like I would a lolli. His taste was divine: raw masculinity with just a dash of death. Perfecto.
He came not too soon after, shouting his release, but I was far from done with him. Moving back up, I popped a hard kiss to his lips so that he could taste his essence on me.
His groan was hungry, his movements nearly delirious.
“Shove that stake into me,” I whispered against him.
“Thalassa.” His voice sounded strained. “I am only a man, and you’ve worn me—”
“You’re a god.” I touched his cock, shoving power through my touch and making him stand ramrod again. “Now saddle up and ride me, stallion.”
“You make no sense, but gods yes.”
Clamping his hands onto my waist, he maneuvered his hips just slightly so that his hard length slipped into my maiden opening hidden beneath a fin.
I gasped at the rigid length of him sliding in and out.
“Oh Seren,” I whispered, “this feels different.”
Maidens were apparently built slightly different than humans on the inside. Who knew. There were far more nerve endings in my hooha, so each touch felt like lightning.
It was my turn for my eyes to roll.
I wilted against him, doing little more than meeting him thrust for thrust.
“Thalassa, oh goddess,” he murmured, nipping at the shell of my ear with his flat but sharp teeth.
He stumbled back, carting me with him, our almost-fall broken by a vertical piece of rock poking out of the ground for him to rest his weight upon.
A terrible keening noise rang through the solitude of the gardens. The noise was mine.
I might have been embarrassed, but I felt too wonderful to care.
Hades rode me like a bucking stallion, making my breasts jiggle wildly from the bumpy ride.
I felt myself about to fragment, and this time, rather than grow scared, I relaxed into the dark pull, floating toward it happily, already knowing I’d shatter—but also knowing he’d catch me.
With a roar, he screamed my name, and I erupted. And just as I knew he would, he caught me.
Hades always caught me.
Themis
* * *
I found her. As the Goddess of Justice, none could deny my entry when I was solving a case. I stared at Spring, who hung suspended in air, her eyes closed, deep in slumber.
Though I was blind, I could see, not with my eyes, but through a sort of second sight. She was as lovely as she always was. A cool breath of new life.
She was well. Not a scratch on her.
But my heart sank.
Hades was guilty of this crime. Not of murder. But he’d brought Spring here. Judgment would need to be handed out.
Aria, keeper of Spring’s body, looked at me.
“You know why he did this, don’t you?”
Never taking my eyes off Spring, I nodded slowly. “I know.”
“You can sentence him, Themis, as is your right to do. But were I you,” the element of Air personified turned to me, “I’d think on this long and hard. Sometimes the punishment does not fit the crime.”
Deep in my heart, I knew that this time, she was right. Zeus would not like this. Closing my eyes, I hung my head. “I will think on what you’ve said. Thank you, Aria.”
Hades
* * *
I closed my eyes after staring at the same pattern on the coral ceiling of my temporary bedroom in Calypso’s temple.
We’d returned several hours ago from our excursion into her gardens, and as always, she’d disappeared soon after.
I’d searched for any sign of her outside my window, but after an hour, I gave it up as a lost cause. Whatever she was about, she wasn’t here. I felt the absence of her in the waters keenly.
Sensing a sudden oppressive surge of power, I opened my eyes just in time to see Aphrodite’s watery form materialize. She floated above me, her hair undulating on the gentle current.
“Hello, Under Lord,” she chirped, “how’s it hanging? And by that I mean, has she totally satisfied you, or do I need to take care of business?”
I glanced at my soft phallus. “What do you think?”
Dite could force me to “get it up,” as Calypso would say (it was within her power to do so, after all), but without the inducement of magic behind it, it seemed my cock cared to rise for only one female.
“Yes, well, I would be insulted, but she is quite the horny little she-devil. Who knew she had it in her?” She giggled, seeming both amused and mildly surprised. “Anyway,” she flicked a wrist, “I came to update you. Themis has hidden herself away in her cave. None of us are exactly sure what Crazy’s got going on, but she doesn’t want anyone around right now.”
Those words had me cockin
g my head. Themis only hid in her cave when she was trying to make sense of a dilemma. My case was cut and dried, or so I’d thought.
“Mind telling me why?” She gave me huge owl eyes. Aphrodite was no one’s fool; I could sense she suspected much more than what she let on. But she also refused to speak first.
I shrugged. “No idea.”
“Hm. Well, if you don’t want to answer that question, how about telling me why Calypso is currently raging on Olympus.”
I sat up. “She’s what?”
Aphrodite laughed. “What? She didn’t tell you where she planned to go today?”
“Not a word.” I thinned my lips, wondering what she was about and why.
“How odd. Apollo’s furious, threatening to scorch the Earth if she doesn’t leave now. But that woman is wild and crazy and just a little bit amazing. Honestly. I would hate to be on her bad side. Anyway, tootles, got people to see and places to be.”
“No, wait!” I reached out to grasp her elbow, but it was already too late. With a pop of displaced power, Aphrodite vanished.
The wench had told me just enough to make me crazed with questions, and now there was no one around to answer them.
“Damn you, Aphrodite!” I snapped, and the waters burbled with laughter.
Chapter 12
Calypso
Coming to Olympus was a little like swimming through a vat of maggots: unpleasant at best.
With a snap of my fingers, I created a ravishing gown of shimmering, crystal-clear water that danced with seahorses and colorful guppies, because their little tails were so feathery and beautiful and honestly, the way they zipped across my body made me look damn good.
My presence was immediately felt. The mountaintop rumbled. Hermes—wearing winged shoes, jeans, and a black muscle shirt—fluttered by.
“Zeus’s little crony.” I glowered at the five-foot-nothing boy of a man, who couldn’t even grow facial hair. I mean, come on, I was supposed to be intimidated by that?
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