Goddess Academy: The Complete Reverse Harem Collection

by Clara Hartley

  “Open your mouth,” Devon said.

  “Nmmphhh mpphhh.”

  Was this what love was supposed to be? Forcing others in strange positions under the guise of care?

  I’m fine! I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t enunciate clearly in this demeaning position.

  I thrashed, intending to kick Devon out of my way. My wings fanned out from my back. They jutted out with exuberant force, knocking Liam back. He smacked against the rotting walls of the treehouse.

  The treehouse shifted to the left. A creaking noise interrupted the sounds of my struggle, and a dropping sensation pulled me to my side. Devon lost his balance and the flower flew out of his hand.

  “No!” he shouted. He leapt for the flower, which caused the treehouse to shift even more.

  He was more concerned about the flower than his safety. Because of the strange angle of the treehouse, he almost fell out of the door and onto the ground. I grabbed a post for support, then grasped Devon’s waistband to keep him steady.

  His pants slipped, revealing his butt crack.

  He had a nice ass. Grab-able. Taut and tan, like the rest of his body.

  “What are you doing?” a woman asked. Her voice had come from the bottom of the treehouse. I looked over Devon’s glorious ass and realized I was looking at Clotho.

  She was just as goddess-like as the last time I’d seen her, which wasn’t very long ago. Before I met Deimos and entered the Otherside, Clotho had warned me not to trust my parents. I should have listened, but stubborn, bright-eyed me had given in to my deepest desires.

  Clotho’s robes continued to dance around her in their magical, mystical way. Her white eyelashes fluttered over her porcelain skin. The annoyance on her face, however, looked very ungodly. “So there you are, Cara.” In the drabness of the swamp, the million colors of her dress were nearly blinding.

  “Shouldn’t I be saying that about you?” I asked, still holding Devon up by his waistband. “You told me you’d show up when I summoned you with the necklace, but that was pretty much useless.”

  Clotho clicked her tongue against her teeth. “I thought I sensed a tingle down the back of my spine.”

  “Just a tingle?”

  She nodded. “Just that. A few hours ago, however, that sensation grew and became far too incessant to ignore. It drew me toward you, and so I had to come, otherwise I’d have to keep suffering that annoyance.”

  I screwed my nose up. “We just arrived in Haven a few hours ago.”

  “Ah, that makes sense, then. I’m assuming that there’s a blockage of the necklace’s signal from the Otherside. The necklace is supposed to summon me, but with that interference, all I sensed was that light tingle.”

  Where was she when I needed her to transform the vassals back into humans? “So, what now?”

  “Hm?”

  “Aphrodite and Ares are here.”

  Devon pushed himself up. He steadied his weight on the slanted wood of the treehouse then tugged his pants up, hiding his butt crack.

  I waited for Clotho’s reaction. I expected her to show more surprise upon hearing the new information. After all, the goddesses had been searching for my parents for centuries. Instead, she tipped her head to one side and said, “I know they are. You’d have to be a fool to miss their presence.”

  “Huh?” I asked. They’d only just arrived. They couldn’t have caused that much damage already. “Aphrodite did tell me that she wanted to have a peaceful life in Haven, far away from the boredom of the Others—”

  Clotho folded her arms across her chest and gave me an incredulous look. “And you believe her?”

  “No,” I said. Aphrodite had lied to me about what she felt. What was stopping her from lying again?

  “A few minutes in Haven, and a war has already broken out.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  Clotho brushed her hand over her nose. “Definitely not in this swamp. They showed up at the Ashmeda mountains. You know, where they last ended the Vassal War. We need you with us. To fight them.”

  I placed my hand on my chest. “Me?” I asked. “What am I supposed to do?”

  Clotho sighed. “You see, us goddesses are losing this war, and we don’t have a way to stop Aphrodite and Ares. There’s only one hope—and that’s you.”

  We waited for Hansel and Theo to return to the treehouse. Right after, Clotho transported us to a site of destruction. There, a battle had played out.

  Bones broken.

  Blood spilled.

  Lives lost.

  That had all happened while we were mucking around in a swamp, completely oblivious to the horrors that Aphrodite and Ares had wrought. We were back at the Ashmeda mountains. The wraiths were no longer there, perhaps cast away from the fighting. Instead, the remnants of bloodshed remained, equally as haunting as those damned creatures.

  Looking at this chaos almost made me want to go back to high school. I hated that place with every inch of my being, but it was far better than this battlefield. Then again, that might not be a fair comparison.

  “I made this happen,” I said, staring at the dead bodies littered over the fiery grounds. Lava continued to pour over the rocks. A dead man was swept away by the slow-moving liquid, his blue eyes wide and staring accusatorially at me. I swallowed thickly as I met the sight, my frail teenage mind finding this too difficult to cope with. My stupid need for motherly attention had caused so much death.

  And because I had a conscience, remorse swelled in my chest.

  Fatigue, perhaps delayed from what had happened with Aphrodite’s opening of the portal, weighed me down just as terribly as the destruction before me did.

  I sensed a strong, dependable arm wrapping around my waist. Hansel drew me into his arms. He pulled my red hair away from my face and gently placed a kiss on the back of my neck. “This isn’t your fault.” His soft caress did little to soothe the horror that threw a wrench in my gut. Damn me and my low tolerance for bloodshed. Shouldn’t a goddess be more open to stuff like that? How was I supposed to become one if I couldn’t even control my gag reflex?

  I swore I wouldn’t let something like this to happen again. I needed to control myself. Be more responsible. Deaths had been caused just because I couldn’t get a grip on my emotions.

  I wondered how he managed to sense the internal struggle that I battled with. Perhaps our unspoken bond allowed him to understand me. When had we gotten so close? I knew I could trust my vassals, unlike my own blood family. I should have listened to them instead.

  I looked at Clotho, who was bending over a dead body. She clasped the female corpse’s hand and brought it to her lips. With a sorrowful look, she kissed the back of the woman’s hand. “You died a good death, my sister,” Clotho said.

  “Who is she?” I asked.

  “No one important, but dear to my heart. I saw her grow up and rise into goddess-hood. It’s always terrible when growth stops and has to come to an end.”

  I could almost taste the bitterness of Clotho’s sorrow. I didn’t think that goddesses like her, immortals who must have seen so much death, could feel so much. Perhaps death never got less painful. Easier, yes, but the dreadfulness of it stayed as a constant torment to all living things.

  I thumbed the fabric of my jeans. “What happened here?”

  Clotho stood. She looked even more ethereal when standing against the dark colors of the Ashmeda. “As soon as Aphrodite and Ares appeared in this realm, and the stolen parts of the chiasma came back, my sister Lachesis sensed them. She quickly sent our armies to capture them, but a greater army awaited us. You see, they have the creatures on their side. Vassals, too. Our half-bloods were few, and too many of our vassals turned against us. We were outnumbered, and the small battalion was overwhelmed. They were easily destroyed. Killed. Massacred. Your parents took off with the stolen chiasma, and now they are plotting something grand. Something dangerous.”

  I looked at the destruction. There were corpses with swords poking out of ribcages.
Limbs torn from joints. Some bodies had guts spilling out. It looked like Hel, the goddess of death, had had a field day with this place. But even then, she was on the losing side, and having to collect the souls in the aftermath must have pained her so. I sucked in a deep breath, smelling the rough scent of rusty blood. “What is that something?”

  “They want to—”

  Before Clotho could finish, an arrow shot out of nowhere and pierced her through her chest. I jolted at the sight, almost losing my footing. I gaped, my mind taking too long to process the sight. Clotho was thrust backward. In a creepy manner, however, she bounced right back. Unlike normal bodies, hers bled a purplish, sparkly blue. The strange blood dripped over her translucent frame. She tore the arrow out from her chest, and her mythical, special life fluids sprayed everywhere.

  Holy fucking hell.

  My hands shook as I took a step toward her. “Clotho! Are you—”

  “Watch out!”

  Liam pushed me aside. An arrow flew overhead, zipping straight past him. It narrowly missed his neck. My heart leapt to my throat as the insanity of what was happening raced through my mind. Together, my vassals drew their daggers.

  A moment later, we were surrounded by enemies.

  Not by an army, thankfully, but still a formidable force of at least thirty men.

  “Shit,” Liam said. “I recognize some of them from the classes back at the Sanctuary.”

  “They’re fighting against us,” I said.

  Liam nodded.

  “But weren’t they your classmates?”

  Clotho took another hit to her torso. She pulled the arrow out without showing any signs of pain at all. I looked at her like she was a monster, my expression likely a mixture of both awe and shock. “It’s nothing,” she said. “Focus on staying alive.”

  I swallowed nervously. I’d fought a dragon with my vassals before. A huge team of hot hunks wasn’t that much scarier… right? Clotho leapt forward, and a rush of wind took her upward. She pulled out a sword from a sheath I hadn’t seen on her earlier. Wings spread from behind her back, whiter and larger than mine. I blinked at how resplendent she looked. I didn’t know that she had wings, too. With a decisive swing of a sword, a force pushed out from her. It knocked a group of vassals backward, sending them sprawling.

  My vassals took to battle. They used their powers, all elemental, and begin pushing away our opponents. Fenrir held nothing back. The wolf-dog grew, expanding into its true form and growing many times its size. It howled, releasing a chilling battle cry, before leaping into action. With two quick chomps, it tore off the heads of the vassals who dared challenge him. Their heads snapped off from their shoulders before they went rolling. Fenrir had taken them out so fast that they probably didn’t even have time to feel fear.

  I didn’t want to stand idle. I had no wand, but my love powers could still prove useful, and so I made as many vassals fall in love with each other as I could, letting them get blinded by deadly infatuation. One of the vassals fell in love with Fenrir. He ran toward the mythical beast, hands spread open.

  Watching him die incited my gag reflex. In his love stupor, he’d forgotten to watch his surroundings, and his foot caught in the cruel grasp of flowing lava. He cried out in pain as the heat seared his flesh and cut toward his bone.

  “Fenrir…” he said weakly, begging for the wolf’s affection.

  Fenrir only had love for Liam, however. The beast ignored the vassal’s pleas. Fenrir bit off his head, just like he did the vassals’ fallen comrades.

  The battle, even though we were outnumbered, was over as soon as it began. Clotho carried us through most of it. Her blade was covered with blood when she was finished. She was merciless in her killing, and her handiwork littered the battlefield, adding to the massacre that had already played out there. She breathed out a controlled sigh. With a poised, elegant stance, she lifted her sword. A loose piece of fabric darted out from her dress. It cleaned her weapon for her before she sheathed it.

  She made putting her sword away look like a dance. I almost felt envious, so I reassured myself that, in my clumsy way, there was much to love about me. I made clumsiness look like an art form. Nobody could do it as well as me. But Medusa’s bracelet got in the way, of course.

  I laughed sheepishly to myself. My stupid internal dialogue was to abate the uneasiness that gripped me. I still couldn’t ignore the death around me. Knowing I’d caused it still chipped away at my conscience too much.

  Devon raised a questioning brow at me, as if to ask me what exactly I was laughing about. I couldn’t answer for sure. Maybe I was laughing at myself. My entire life felt like a joke, after all. Abandonment issues were one thing. Being betrayed by war-hungry, murderous parents? That couldn’t be good for the psyche.

  I turned my attention back to the goddess of fate.

  “Scouts, most likely,” Clotho said. “My guess is that they were looking for survivors. Maybe to finish the survivors off to keep numbers down, or to capture them for interrogation.”

  Coldly, she swept her hand over her body. With a simple wave, she’d gotten rid of all the blood that marred her skin. She turned toward the vassals, but didn’t offer to clean them up.

  How selfish, I mused to myself.

  Fenrir began to shrink. It turned back into a small wolf-dog, then scampered up to Liam. With a tongue sticking out from its mouth and its tail wagging exuberantly, it looked at Liam, begging for praise. Liam patted its head, and a pleased rumble sounded from Fenrir’s chest.

  “How am I supposed to stop this?” I asked Clotho. I realized that I was standing too close to a stream of lava. Not trusting myself to be safe, I took a step farther away. Before Medusa’s bracelet, tripping over myself was a common occurrence.

  I allowed myself to dwell on that fact.

  Yep, if I stayed in this war, I wasn’t going to survive it.

  Clotho raised her hands, magicking us to a new location. My body was thrust from the heated atmosphere of the mountains to somewhere cooler. Clotho could teleport? I thought the goddess was too powerful for her own good. Maybe if she’d joined the fight, the goddesses wouldn’t have lost the first battle.

  In the blink of an eye, I found myself in a palace. The ash-filled scent of molten bodies was replaced by that of fresh flowers and perfume. My eyelids fluttered at the sight before me. Tall white marble pillars lined the sides of a massive, intimidating door.

  Clotho gestured to it. “The goddesses are waiting inside. You can hear about what’s going on with your parents yourself.”

  “She’ll be safe, yes?” Theo asked. I felt him squeezing my hand.

  “We need her now,” Clotho said. “She’ll be safe as long as she proves useful.”

  “And what if I don’t?” I asked.

  “Then many will want to see you gone. Your parents have taken away far too many loved ones.”

  Without hearing my response, Clotho swung the door open. Immediately, I was met with the sight of rows of goddesses, all of them dressed in colorful robes and headdresses.

  “Welcome to the goddess council,” Clotho said, gesturing widely.

  Eight

  The goddesses before me looked at me like I was the solution, but all I wanted from them were answers. What was happening? What did my parents want?

  Why had I been used like that, and what did the goddesses want with me now?

  The interior of the goddess council room was nothing short of magnificent. Stained-glass windows lined the walls, reflecting vibrant colors that were almost too overwhelming. The goddess council was the very example of having too much of a good thing. With so much beauty everywhere, the council verged on ugly. There was too much to take in all at once. Yet the architecture looked like it could only be built through great feats, and so one couldn’t help but be impressed by it.

  I stood inside an oxymoron, and the attention of at least a couple hundred goddesses was focused on me. It felt like their eyes were digging into my frame, peeling away the layers
of my skin. I was just one girl, and yet the most powerful beings of both realms paid me all their attention.

  I rubbed my eyes at the sight, as if that action might wash away the excess that bombarded me.

  My vassals stood around me in a protective circle. The goddesses’ vassals, however, had all been siphoned to one side, lining themselves at rows of gated stairs. Each of the goddesses had a bottle of wine in front of them. Even in war, they enjoyed their delicacies.

  “I want answers,” I said. I was surprised by how assertive I was being. Mentally, I gave myself a few extra Brownie points for being badass. I was certain many people would shrink at facing the council.

  Maybe I just needed a sense of shame.

  It’d gone missing after all those times I’d embarrassed myself.

  I summoned my wings, letting them spread behind my back. I thought that might make me look cooler before the goddesses. More intimidating, perhaps. None of their placid expressions changed. I sniffed. All right, then. I supposed that my attempt of bravado didn’t make a difference.

  “Daughter of Aphrodite,” the scary woman sitting at tallest chair of the council said. A tunnel of light shone upon her, highlighting her importance. Her headdress—a golden leaf circlet—was the most decorative in the room. She wore a golden robe that draped around her svelte frame. Luscious chestnut hair draped from her shoulders. Just like the rest of the goddesses, she was gorgeous.

  Then again, what was new? An ugly goddess would likely stand out when surrounded by so much beauty.

  “That’s Hera,” Hansel whispered, leaning in to my ear.

  “What say you to the crimes of your mother?” Hera continued. She spoke like a military officer. Yet it was a gentle, feminine tone. I wondered if my voice would sound this pretty if I turned into a goddess, or maybe it’d be as scratchy as it’d always been.

  I felt like livestock at an auction, ready to be judged. Gingerly, I bit the inside of my mouth. Should I really be speaking here? Knowing myself, I’d incriminate me and the rest of my vassals by blurting out nonsense.