“Hmm. Well, Athena spoke to me a few nights past of her concern for Ares as well.”
Hera palmed my chest and moved so that her face hovered over mine. Fury pinched her mouth tight. “Have you fucked her?”
Jealously was such a turnoff. And yet, I had to admit that getting Hera this way had always made me feel halfway animalistic. “Don’t be crass, sister. Of course not. Everyone knows she’d prefer the beast’s touch to mine.”
She sniffed, then she dived for my mouth, taking my lips into her own and kissing me with such force that her teeth cut through my flesh. I hissed even as I felt the stirrings of desire rocket through me.
Gods, I hated how much I craved her violence. It was the one area in my life where I was just as based as the rest of the glittering throng. Furious that she made me feel the things I did, I rolled us over, and pinning my hands to her shoulder, I shoved into her angrily.
She cried out in exultation, tipping her head back even as she screamed for more and more of my fury.
Once we’d finished, I quickly pulled out of her and got to my feet, wiping off the still-bleeding cut with the back of my wrist before spitting on the floor.
She sat up slowly, her head a tousled mess, and wore nothing but a smirk. “Blood suits you, brother.”
I shook my head. “I’ve told you about your violence, Hera.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t pretend like you don’t love it. You nearly split me in two.”
Scowling, I snapped my fingers and quickly dressed.
Now she did pout. She stood and came over to me and twice patted my chest. “You cannot hate me forever. You and I both know you crave what only I can give you.”
I damned her even as I knew that she was right. Hera was my only true weakness in this fucking place. Always had been.
With a furious growl, I took her lips for my own, barely keeping my anger in check so that I did not give her a matching split on her own lip as she’d gifted onto mine. When I pulled away, her eyes were glazed over.
With a snarl on my face, I flicked my wrist to open a travel tunnel. I hated that I still burned for her. Hera was a witch, the devil woman herself. It wasn’t as though I didn’t know it. If I could free myself of her poison, I could rule Olympus. And yet no matter how often I’d tried, I’d never been able to get her out of me.
“I will discover what your child is about and report back.”
“Poseidon, don’t be angry,” she whispered urgently once I’d turned my back on her.
Staring at the tunnel with furious eyes, I stood there taut as a bow, warring with my own desires versus what I knew I had to do. Never looking back, I stepped into the tunnel. Damn that viperous woman to Tartarus.
Adjusting my cuffs, I waved my hand over my mouth, hiding the split in my lip with illusion. It was time, once and for all, to discover what was on Athena’s island, who this mystery woman was, and just what in the hell my nephew was getting up to now.
The Fates’ words rang in my ears.
“You will be the one to destroy the thing that could destroy us all. The time comes nigh, Poseidon, when the very fate of the Olympians will rest in your hands…”
Chapter 58
Medusa
I was just leaving Athena’s temple for the night. Mother had slowly released her ridiculous grip on me, and I was once more allowed to walk to and from temple alone.
If only she knew that her diligence in protecting my honor hardly mattered. A god had slept in my bed nearly every night for the past month.
I fought the smile working so hard to free itself and lost that battle spectacularly. My cheeks stretched impossibly high, and my stomach felt like a nest of butterflies had just taken flight.
My bed was not large. And Ares was so… so large. But gods, I slept so well in his arms as he stroked my back and wings, whispering words to me in a tongue I could not understand.
Suddenly I was ripped from my daydreams when someone with a strong vise-like grip grabbed hold of my elbow and twirled me around. I gasped and nearly stumbled to the ground. Before I could even look up, I heard the high-pitched squeals of taunting laughter.
I frowned, still so shocked by what had been done to me that all I could do was blink in mute astonishment as Perseus and a group of three boys and one girl stared at me with mocking, laughing eyes.
Zephinia had her arms slung through the elbow of another boy I didn’t know all that well who stood just behind Perseus’s back.
Her nose was curled, and her mouth arched in a high sneer of disdain. I narrowed my eyes at her. Why had she made me her enemy? I’d never done anything to her. All I knew was that if she was here in the company of Perseus, this was not good.
Tamping down on my nerves, I flicked at my arm as though brushing Percy’s touch off me and lifted my chin in the haughtiest manner I could. “Perseus.” I said his name firmly, proud that my voice hadn’t quivered. “Was there something you needed?”
As I spoke to him, I saw a plethora of emotions run past his tight features. Surprise first, possibly because I’d actually spoken to him. This had been our first interaction since that fateful day on the beach. Then anger, as he no doubt began thinking of how everything had gone down that day. And finally, craftiness. Of all his looks, that one made my skin crawl most.
I swallowed nervously but outwardly plastered a tight, smirking grin on my face.
“Is it true, then?” he barked without so much as a hello.
Zephinia tittered, and the boys around her began to chuckle. My confusion was now mingled with faint threads of fear. What was going on? Why did I suddenly feel like I was prey surrounded by a circle of predators ready to tear me limb from limb?
My wings tingled with the need to race away, but I kept my focus and did not allow any fear to show.
“Is what true?” I asked casually, adding a hint of disdain to my tone. The effect on him was immediate. His eyes went wild, the whites looking as though they’d suddenly swelled to twice their size.
“You know what I’m talking about. Stop lying.”
He flung those words at me like a spear, and I hated that I flinched. The moment I did, the small gang behind him grew bolder in their laughter, and the air grew thicker with the charged threat of violence simmering just below the surface.
I tried to take a step back, but I encountered yet another body I’d not realized was there. This one shoved me forward roughly, and again I tripped, but this time, the momentum dragged me to my knees, and I fell, scraping the skin right off and hissing as I felt the wetness of blood as it began to ooze out.
“Just spit it out already, Perseus,” Zephinia scolded like a nagging shrew. “Mother expects me home soon.”
It was ridiculous to expect any mercy from one such as her. But I could not fathom why another woman would do to me as she had. Respect for the feminine was the one thing we were trained not to do at temple. We were to honor the sacred femininine which meant that if at all possible, we were to be friends with one another, never enemies.
As though she knew my thoughts, she let her sinister smile stretch wider, showing off her perfectly straight white teeth in what could only be called a hungry snarl.
Knees stinging, I gingerly made my way to my feet. My legs were quivering, and I knew I had to get away from here. Whoever Percy was today, he was not my friend. Not anymore.
“I have to go,” I muttered. “Don’t ever—”
I started turning, scared to unfold my wings in front of any of them, afraid of what they might do if I did.
“You let one touch you. I know. My sister’s best friend said she saw you with him. And he was holding you!” It wasn’t Perseus who’d said such but Zephinia.
I gasped, almost certain I knew who and when they were talking about. I’d been having a hard day. And as though he’d known, Ares had suddenly appeared before me in the daylight hours. He’d said nothing as he’d grabbed me and hugged me beside a hidden wall of the library grounds.
But w
e’d heard a rustling, and even though we’d pulled away, I suspected that rustling must have been this friend of Zephinia’s sister.
I jerked my eyes away from the furious superiority on her face and turned toward Percy. For a brief moment, I caught a flash of pain, but that was quickly extinguished and turned into a look of terrible wrath.
“Deny it!” Percy screamed at me, looking like some snarling, rabid dog ready to tear me limb from limb. His hands were curved, and if he’d had claws, they would have been out and ready to slice through me.
“Ares! That’s what Adelfa said, with his loathsome flames and dark, soulless eyes,” Zephinia said.
Hearing her speak so ugly about Ares had me clenching my jaw tight. “You know nothing of what you speak,” I hissed between my teeth.
“You whore.”
I gasped and looked at my accuser. Percy didn’t scream the words, didn’t even go above a whisper, but I felt the sharp sting of his censure like a hammer fist to my soul.
No, it was definitely time to leave this place. I was not amongst friends and owed them none of my time.
Tilting my chin up, I stared haughtily down my nose at all of them. They didn’t know it was more of a shield than anything else. I was devastated, but I would be damned if I showed them.
“Try this again, Zephinia, and I will speak to the priestesses about what you’ve done.”
Her nostrils flared.
Then I looked at the boy, now a man, who I’d once thought my truest friend. “How dare you.” I said the words as quietly as he’d spoken his last word to me.
He flinched, and though anger tightened the veins in his neck, I sensed a quivering of unease in him.
“We are through, you and I. Never talk to me again. Never look at me. If I really do speak with gods, do you honestly think it wise to mess with me? Especially if the one whom you believe lingers around me to be the god of war himself?”
He swallowed hard. “Medusa, I—”
I held up my hand, silencing him instantly. “Say my name again and you will live to regret it. I am for home. Follow at your own peril.”
Then sweeping up my skirts, I marched away from them, acting superior and mighty, like I knew something they did not. But they didn’t see how my fingers trembled and how badly my knees knocked. How my heart was threatening to punch a hole through my chest and how I tasted the acrid tang of adrenaline on the back of my tongue.
They especially did not see the lone tear that slipped from the corner of my left eye. I did not swipe at it, at least not until I knew I was safely away from them and no longer sensed their furious eyes upon my back.
Only once I was truly alone did I drop to my knees and stare out at the expanse of sea, then I sobbed out my father’s name, crying out to him over and over, begging him to take me away from this terrible land of mortals. Prophecy be damned, I was sick of this world. Sick of these people, and I was tired. So bloody tired I sometimes felt it would be a relief to close my eyes in sleep and never awaken again.
But Father did not answer me. And worse, I knew if I tarried much longer, Mother’s wrath would rain down on me. She could never know what those brats had done to me, because to know it would be to remind her of my duplicity with Perseus, and rather than receive her empathy, I’d catch her rage too. I was tired of it.
I was tired of everything.
Taking one last gulping breath as the salt air dried the last of my tears, I whispered, “Oh, gods, any of you out there who might hear me, please. Please save me. Please fix me. Please let me know happiness again…”
Perseus
* * *
Shaking off Zephinia’s too-soft and oily hands, I snarled at her to go home. She begged me to chase Medusa down and to give her the thrashing she deserved for daring to lie with a god.
But none of us knew she was doing that. None could say it was true. Rumors were insidious things that often held only a grain of truth. Then I thought about the look upon her face when Zephinia had tossed out the accusation—the hardness in her eyes and the stubborn clench of her jaw—and I knew her well enough to know that this rumor was true. She was sleeping with Ares.
That bitch!
All those years, she’d told me she must remain a virgin for the safety of mankind. All those years, I’d begged her for one kiss. Just one kiss, and she would rudely deny my request, reminding me over and over again that she could not. She dare not. But that if she could, it would be with me. All those damned promises she’d made with her beguiling, bright eyes, and I’d fallen for them all hook, line, and sinker.
She’d lied. And the worst of it was, I’d believed her. I’d never had reason to doubt her. I should have known better. All women were nothing more than lying serpents in the grass.
Mouth flooding with saliva, I spat by my sandaled foot, nearly striking a passing gentleman. He hissed.
“Watch yourself, boy, or I’ll beat you to within an inch of your life! Street trash.”
Clenching my fists into tight balls, I found the desire to smash my knuckles through his face overwhelming. But I knew I would pay dearly for it if I did. The marketplace was bustling with strapping guards, any of whom would give their eyeteeth to finally have a reason to get their hands on me.
“Sorry,” I growled tersely, then turned on my heel and stalked away. I was going wherever my feet took me, not even paying much mind to where, until I noticed I was at the same beach where Medusa and I had had our last fight.
Rubbing at my aching chest, I thought of that day. How beautiful she’d been standing there with water soaking through her garments, highlighting every gentle curve and swell of her breasts. How her perfectly tipped nipples poked out at me, begging for my mouth and tongue to bring her satisfaction.
I would have been the one to show her such pleasures, to show her how wonderful it could be between a man and a woman. And instead, that whore had gone and found it with a god, of all things.
And damn her to the Underworld for it!
As I paced back and forth, each step caused the fire in my belly to churn and rage more and more until finally I stopped, tipped my head back, and roared.
But it was not mere sound that came out of my mouth. No. I was done being ignored. Done being called trash.
“Zeus, hear me! My name is Perseus. You are my father, and I demand justice. You’ve given me nothing. I’ve asked you for nothing. But now, I ask for this! Give me that woman. Let me break her for daring to lie with your son. Let me avenge your honor! Father!”
My words were whipped away by the winds. The air was charged with electrical volts of power, and my skin hummed. Something had just happened. Even the tides had changed. Where before, they’d been gently rolling waves, now they were chaotic and angry, pounding the surf like a Cyclops’s angry fist.
I held my breath, imagining that my father could have no choice but to hear my cries this time. But with each ticking of time’s hand, I grew more and more unsure of myself. What if he’d heard me but still refused to help? Was I really to be all alone in this world, with no father ever to look upon me with pride?
A snarl slowly took over my features. That damned bastard wasn’t coming. The sinking in my chest and the surety that I was right made me sick and uneasy. The one thing I’d always hoped in, the one thing I’d always thought that in my darkest hour would come to me and not betray me, was Zeus. It was why I’d never cried out to him before, because somewhere deep down, I’d understood that it was my last hand to play.
“So you are the bastard my brother is so very fond of.”
The voice was articulate and practically purring. With a start, I twirled toward the sound then simply stood there dumbfounded, gazing at an unfamiliar man.
He was dressed in a fashion quite unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Rather than wearing the customary tunic of the day, or even a chiton, he wore a dimmer shade of silver cloth that seemed to cover every square inch of him save for his face and hands. He was leaning against a large red rock,
his handsome face staring back at me with a calculating smirk. His hair was the golden blond of the sun and his eyes a shade of gray I’d only ever seen right before a terrible storm. And sometimes, I swore but a wave seemed to roll within it. Even the air around him seemed to quiver with the knowledge that whoever this was, he wasn’t human.
My heart trembled, and a fissure of both surprise and fear pounded me. I suspected I knew who this was. He’d called Zeus “brother” and looked at me almost like a fond uncle might.
“You’re… you’re—”
He grinned. “Poseidon, my boy. King of all the waters of the deep.”
“I thought Thalassa was—“
The change in him was instant. Where he’d been loose and easy, now he stood ramrod straight, and even his hair had begun to roll like the very waves he controlled.
“Never speak that bitch’s name to me again!” Poseidon snapped as he pointed at me with one long, manicured finger, and the waves behind us gained in volume and strength. The winds howled, and I nearly pissed myself, imagining that one moment of folly might well be my undoing.
Who did I think I was, talking to a god in that way? Of course Thalassa wasn’t more powerful. She was just a primordial goddess. They’d all lost their powers when the Olympians had taken over. The only true and mighty water god was Poseidon.
“Forgive me, father of all waters. I… I spoke out of turn. It is only that a… a woman has abused my trust so that I could say such a ridiculous and untrue thing as I did. I… I—” Shaking my head, I continued to stammer my way through an apology before I finally felt he’d relaxed enough for me to ask more. “Why… why have you come, great god Poseidon?”
His nostrils remained flared, and I could still hear the roar and hum of the waves but not as strongly as before. I swallowed hard then cleared my throat, not looking him directly in the eyes.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 72
