Into the Quiet
Page 26
“Sorry. Wishful thinking on my part.”
“Can someone please tell me what’s happening?”
Pan half turned to Euphrosyne, but his eyes never left Cupid. “This is his punishment. We hoped he might have a little break, but the gods have decided otherwise. His heart is pulling him somewhere, and he needs to follow his signal to the next Worthy.”
“Worthy, as in Aphrodite’s chosen?”
“Um, excuse me,” Cupid said, “I hate to interrupt, but—”
“Right. We need to get tracking. Lead on, Q.”
“The thing is—”
“Don’t even try to tell me you’re doing this alone.”
“But—”
Pan’s bushy ginger eyebrows slanted toward his nose. If he was angry now, wait till he heard what Cupid had to tell him. “What?”
“I’m here.”
“Yes, I see that. You’re here. We’re all here. Now, move!”
“I mean, I’m where I’m going. I’m done. I have arrived at my destination,” to quote his car.
“What?” Pan’s jaw dropped as his gaze passed back and forth between Cupid and Euphrosyne. Yep, angrier. “Please tell me there’s a person about to come out of this bathroom, some human who didn’t fall from a mountaintop in the sky?”
Cupid shook his head. “There well might be, but—”
“Shut it. I need to think.” Pan started pacing, followed quickly by muttering. “This is absurd. Seriously? This job isn’t challenging enough? How do they expect me to sort this out, huh?”
Euphrosyne clutched Cupid’s sleeve, leaned in close. “Should he be, you know . . .” She pointed toward the sky.
“Definitely not.” Cupid took a deep breath and stepped into the path of the wild, red-faced beast that had swallowed his friend. “Pan.”
Pan pulled up short, folded his arms across his massive chest, and scowled as if bullying Cupid might change the will of the gods. “I know, I know. I shouldn’t lose my cool, but fffuck! I’ve never had two fallens tangled together like this before. How in the—”
“It’s not Euphrosyne.”
Pan’s head tilted so far, his ear touched down on his shoulder. “Say what, now?”
“My heart is vibrating for you.”
Coming Fall 2021
from Isotopia Publishing:
Quite the Pair
Book 3 of the Cupid’s Fall series
Visit
cupidsfallseries.com
for a preview and
ordering info
CAST OF DIVINE CHARACTERS
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The primary name (all uppercase) for each divine is consistent with the narrative of the “Great Syncretism,” an invented departure from Greco-Roman mythology. The character snippets offered here are based on canon; where multiple stories exist within the classical sources, I have chosen my favorite version.
ADONIS: Aphrodite’s young, beautiful lover.
AGLAIA: One of the three Graces (sister-nymphs), Aglaia is the goddess of splendor.
APHRODITE (Venus): Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Married to Hephaestus, bore four children to Ares, including Cupid.
APOLLO: God of light, music, prophecy, and medicine.
ARES (Mars): God of War. Son of Zeus, brother of Hephaestus, father of Cupid.
ARTEMIS (Diana): Goddess of the hunt, protector of new brides. Twin sister of Apollo.
ATHENA (Minerva): Goddess of wisdom and war arts. Sprang from Zeus’s head fully formed.
ATROPOS: One of the three Fates (“allotters”) responsible for spinning men’s fate like thread. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis determines its length, and Atropos cuts the thread with her shears.
CERBERUS: The vicious three-headed hound of Hades who guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.
CLOTHO: One of the three Fates, Clotho spins the thread of life.
CUPID (Eros): God of erotic love. Illegitimate son of Aphrodite and Ares. The winged archer of Mount Olympus.
DAEDALUS: Inventor, architect, and sculptor famous for building the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete to imprison the Minotaur.
DIKE: Goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgment.
DIONYSUS (Bacchus): God of wine and ecstasy. Son of Zeus.
ECHO: Mountain nymph deprived of speech by HERA, except for the ability to repeat the last words of another.
EUPHROSYNE: One of the three Graces, Euphrosyne is the goddess of good cheer, joy, and mirth.
HADES (Pluto): Ruler of the Underworld. Brother of Zeus and Poseidon.
HELIOS: God of the sun.
HEPHAESTUS (Vulcan): God of fire and forge, blacksmith and divine craftsman. Son of Zeus, married to Aphrodite, stepfather to Cupid.
HERA (Juno): Queen of the Gods, sister and wife of Zeus. Famous for her ill temper.
HYPNOS: God of sleep. Father of MORPHEUS.
IRIS: Goddess of the rainbow.
LACHESIS: One of the three Fates, Lachesis determines the length of the thread of life.
MERCURY (Hermes): Messenger of the gods, father of Pan.
MORPHEUS: God responsible for sending human shapes to mortals’ dreams. Son of HYPNOS.
PAN (Faunus): Demigod of the wild, protector of the herd. Satyr (half man, half goat). One of the only gods thought to have died. Son of Mercury.
POSEIDON (Neptune): Ruler of the seas. Brother of Zeus and Hades.
SYRINX: Nymph who begged the river nymphs to turn her into a marsh reed to escape Pan’s unwanted advances.
THALIA: One of the three Graces, Thalia is the goddess of youth and beauty.
THEMIS: Goddess of divine law and order, a prophetic goddess who presides over the most ancient oracles.
ZEUS (Jupiter): Ruler of the gods. Father of many, by many—divines and mortals alike.
To get your free, full-color, downloadable guide to the mythology of the Cupid’s Fall series, visit:
www.bethcgreenberg.com/mythology-guide
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to the readers of First Quiver, who took Cupid into your hearts and demanded to know what the gods put him through next. Without your curiosity, who would read Q2?
To my pre-readers of Into the Quiet—Shelley, Lisa, and Larry—thank you for your wisdom and generosity with your time and advice. To Maria, thank you for helping my characters find just the right Greek expressions for every situation. To Karen and Sally, thank you for your positivity and support and terrific ideas for spreading the Cupid love.
To my editor, Susan Atlas, thank you for spoiling me with limericks in the margins and for being a true partner in my writing process. Welcome to the editorial team, Lisa Hollett. So great to have your eagle eyes on the final draft. Much gratitude to Domini Dragoone for the lovely page layouts.
To the extraordinarily talented cover artist, Betti Gefecht, thank you for reworking Ruthie’s slippers and hair style until they were perfect—and for drawing Cupid just right in the very first draft! Mostly, thank you for teaming up with me and making this design process such sheer joy.
To my family and friends who have supported my publishing journey, thank you . . . and don’t go anywhere! To my daughter Lindsay, thank you for sharing your talent and experience and teaching me all kinds of things I never imagined I’d need to know.
To my one and only husband Larry, my Right Love and life partner through thick and thin, thank you for being unembarrassable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BETH C. GREENBERG is a former CPA who stepped through the portal of flash (1000-word) fiction into the magical world of creative writing and never looked back. She lives outside of Boston, where she and her husband are occasionally visited by their daughter and grand-dog Slim. Into the Quiet is book two of the Cupid’s Fall series.
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