by Lazu, Sotia
Pherusa tried to swallow down the fresh bout of tears, but her throat was clogged with emotion.
Halie grabbed both Pherusa’s hands and bounced on the balls of her feet. “This is your chance. You could be with the man you love. Don’t you see?”
How did Halie know she still loved him? Halie wasn’t born yet when Zeus took him away, and Pherusa’d only mentioned him once, in passing.
“Pherusa, I’m telling you your man may be back. This is good news, no matter what Father says.”
Pherusa leaned against the wall, letting the cool seep through the thin robe and into her skin, to soothe her nerves. “What does Father say?”
Halie flicked her wrist in a dismissive gesture and tucked her red hair behind one ear. “Oh, you know. That any Titan who returned from Tartarus will probably be mad after all this time, and that we should be ready for an attack or something.”
The cool was no longer soothing. It felt clammy. Pherusa wanted to shed her robe and her skin and everything Prometheus ever touched. He hadn’t made love to her; he’d conquered her. And he planned to do the same to Vythos.
“Father is right,” she whispered and forced herself to tell Halie how Prometheus came to her and made her his before spitting out a threat and disappearing.
Halie’s expression fell, and her eyes darkened with rage. “That asshole,” she spat.
Pherusa winced. She didn’t recognize the word, but she got its meaning. “For years, I blamed Father for Prometheus’ imprisonment. Maybe Prometheus does too.” But why take it out on her? Didn’t he know she loved him?
“That doesn’t excuse his behavior.” Halie’s scowl deepened. “Though I guess it would explain it. You have to tell Father.”
Pherusa felt the blood drain from her head. “I can’t—”
“Not about the sex, obviously. About Prometheus’ coming after Vythos. We have to be prepared.”
How? What could they do against a Titan set on destruction? Maybe the witch knew a spell to hold him in place long enough for Pherusa to talk to him. Pherusa nodded. “Will you come with me?”
Halie pulled her into a hug. “Wild seahorses couldn’t stop me.”
The contact was more than Pherusa had allowed any of her sisters in a long while. She and Halie were never close, and accepting her support was odd, but she couldn’t help feeling grateful as her sister led her to the council room.
Halie knocked, and a servant answered the door.
“We are here to see our father,” Halie said.
The man seemed uncomfortable. “King Nereus is meeting with his generals. I will tell him you asked—”
“Father.” Halie pushed the door open and strode inside, pulling Pherusa along. “You need to hear this.”
The room erupted in objections, but Delphinos was at their side in the blink of an eye. “Silence,” he yelled, and the other generals quieted down. As the king’s son in law, he commanded more respect than when he was only their peer.
Father stood. “I will need a moment alone with my daughters. We will reconvene afterward.” Even before he knew what this was about, he prioritized family. How could Pherusa ever suspect this man would jeopardize her happiness by handing her beloved over to Zeus?
“No. They should stay.” Pherusa’s voice came out a croak. She looked at the seven sea daimons in the room. They needed to hear this. She only wished the witch weren’t here. The woman’s haggard visage always unnerved her, and her blind eyes seemed focused on her. But Father trusted her, and the witch never steered him wrong.
Pherusa squeezed Halie’s hand in a gesture meant to reassure, and then stepped to the middle of the gilded room. “Prometheus is back.”
Nereus’ smile made her cringe. “He was the one awakened? That is such good news, daughter.”
Pherusa shook her head. “He’s not who he used to be. He said he’s coming for your kingdom, Father,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear, though her gaze was locked with her father’s.
Shocked gasps filled the air, as Father fell back in his coral throne with a huff. “You must be mistaken. Please, tell me exactly what happened.”
Parts of the night were to be hers alone, but she’d share what she could. “Tonight was the anniversary of... his capture. I went to the beach where I was supposed to meet him that night. I don’t know where he came from. One moment I was alone, and the next he stood above me—”
He lay on top of her. Thrust into her. Made her come until she couldn’t contain more pleasure.
“—and said to tell you he was coming for your kingdom.”
Next. He was coming for Vythos next, because first he’d taken her.
Whispers rose around her but were silenced. All gazes were trained to somewhere behind her. She spun to see Prometheus, huge and naked, with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
“Why don’t you tell your father the whole truth, little Siren?” he boomed, staring her down.
Chapter Four
Pherusa blanched and stumbled backward, but Prometheus squelched the voice that told him to run to her and never hurt her again. Only her pride was wounded, for now everyone knew the Titan she’d deceived had found his way between those shapely, pale legs. Nothing like the pain she caused him when he realized the female he planned a life with had sold him out to the Olympians.
But she was so beautiful to look at.
The puffiness around her eyes brought out the green in her irises, and her golden tresses—tangled from their time on the sand—called for him to run his fingers through them. Was she a witch, to still have such a hold over him?
Nereus’ seven generals stepped forward, swords and lances at the ready. Prometheus had broken bread with more than a couple of them and would hate to end them, but he would if he had to.
“Stand down,” King Nereus called out to them. They lowered their weapons but didn’t sheathe them, and their tense posture, shoulders hunched and legs slightly bent, said they were ready to pounce.
Prometheus smirked at Pherusa. “Why don’t you tell your father you begged me to—”
“Say no more.” Nereus’ voice reverberated off the walls. “Though we all know of the fondness between you and my daughter, private matters should be kept private.”
Prometheus spared Pherusa a glance he hoped spoke of his disdain, and not of worry that she seemed to use the woman next to her as a support to remain upright. “Funny you and your daughter didn’t give privacy a second thought when you told Zeus exactly where to find me.”
A squeak came from Pherusa, and when he looked, shock and pain were etched on the widening of her eyes and the roundness of her mouth. Such a good actress, staying true to her role even after all these centuries.
“Save your theatrics, little Siren. You and Nereus were the only ones who knew where I’d be.”
“I swear to you, it wasn’t us. I loved you with all my heart. How could you not know that?”
Pherusa’s cry tore at his heart as much as her use of the past tense did, but he wouldn’t allow himself the weakness. He turned back to Nereus, unable to watch the tears rolling down her cheeks. “And you—”
“How dare you?” Nereus closed the distance between them and glowered at Prometheus, impossibly imposing for a man half a meter shorter than him. “I grieved for you like I would for my own blood. My daughter mourned for you every day you were away. She became a recluse. No one has heard her laugh in three thousand years, and you think she’d betray you?”
Something skittered in Prometheus’ chest, but he paid it little heed. His rage was too potent, too consuming, for it to allow room for other feelings. “Was it you then, old friend?”
Nereus backhanded him.
Prometheus thought he was done being surprised, but this minor deity’s laying a hand on a Titan stunned him long enough for Nereus to say, “I understand you need a target for your wrath, but you won’t blink into my castle, inside my kingdom, to hurl unfounded accusations and make my daughter weep.”
P
rometheus should smite the man, but that might not hurt enough. “Oh, you should see how I made her weep on that beach, when I—”
“Stop,” Pherusa pulled him back from her father. “Look at me. I swear to you, on everything I hold dear, that neither Father nor I had anything to do with your capture.”
It took everything he had to withdraw from her warm touch that made his skin tingle. “My capture? I was in stasis, buried alive beneath the bottom of the sea, for ages.”
“Three thousand years, yesterday. I counted them,” she whispered.
Had she? Could he be wrong? Could his imprisonment have cost her as much as it did him? No. He’d been the one trapped in darkness. Alone. “You also swore you loved me and would help me hide from Zeus, and I believed you. You think your oaths hold any weight now?”
“It wasn’t me. Father was worried that night, and he implored with me to stay here and let Aphros bring you to me. I shouldn’t have listened, but I would never knowingly hurt you. You have to believe me.” She took a step back, her gaze pleading with him, but it wouldn’t work. She’d once convinced him he was her everything. Now, he knew better.
“Every time you open your mouth, more lies come out. No matter. I’m not here for you; I’m here for your father. ” To Nereus, he said, “You have a day to hand me your kingdom, before I destroy it.”
A sea daimon with green hair, whom Prometheus didn’t recognize, stepped up. His hands were bare, but sea daimons could change form at will, so being weaponless made him no less dangerous. “King Nereus, let us detain him. He may be more reasonable after a few hours locked away.”
Prometheus laughed. “I was locked away longer than you’ve been alive, little man. See what it did to my reason? Make a move, and I’ll show you my true form before I bring this palace down on all of us. I have nothing to lose.”
“No blood will be spilled because of me,” Nereus said. “But I cannot hand you—”
The old crone behind Nereus put a skeletal arm on the king’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
He shook his head, never looking away from Prometheus. “Titan, know you are making a mistake. You had nothing but allies in this room until you chose to lose us. I will not yield to your threats, and neither will my kingdom. Make such a demand again, and prepare for war.”
Prometheus glanced at Pherusa. Her arms were wrapped around her midriff, and her eyes looked haunted. Her heaving bosom had one perfect breast pushing through the opening of her robes. He’d seen this breast before. Held it in his hand. Nibbled on it. It obviously hadn’t been enough, since he couldn’t look away from the pale flesh now.
With a lewd smile, he said, “War, huh? Then I guess I’ll have to take my spoils and leave.”
“Let’s not make any rash decisions here. Titan, why don’t you put some clothes on, and we’ll talk like civilized men?” the daimon said.
Prometheus chuckled. He wouldn’t get caught dead in the seaweed robes they all had on. “Like humans, you mean. But we’re not human, are we?”
Nereus said something, but Prometheus wasn’t listening. He wrapped his fingers around Pherusa’s wrist and blinked with her to his cave.
Chapter Five
Why take her, if he hated her?
Pherusa tried to get her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness.
Prometheus’ grasp on her wrist was the only thing holding her upright. She wanted to collapse and sleep, and wake up to a world where her love was back but didn’t hate her. Didn’t consider her a consolation prize.
A dank scent mingled with that of sea air, and she knew where they were even before Prometheus muttered something and a glow illuminated the inside of his cave. This place belonged to Poseidon’s realm since before her time, back when the area was submerged under water, and had been Prometheus’ secret home before he asked Father for help.
Prometheus and Pherusa stole moments here together when the scrutiny of the palace was too much, and he’d spent the last couple nights before his capture here. It had been Father’s idea, so Poseidon wouldn’t realize Prometheus was already living in the palace when Nereus pleaded his case.
Pherusa had tried to locate the cave after he was gone, but he’d always blinked her inside, and she could never find the entrance.
Anger and pain tore her insides to shreds. Father. Both times he tried to protect her, he’d failed her and her love. If he hadn’t insisted on propriety—if she hadn’t listened—Prometheus would have spent the last few millennia by her side. He could have been happy. She would have been complete.
She squeezed the thought into no more than a tiny niggling at the back of her head. The past couldn’t change.
She took in Prometheus’ chiseled profile. His brow was furrowed, his lips a grim line. But somewhere inside this hurt, angry Titan was the soul of the immortal who braved the gods’ wrath, to give humans fire, so they’d protect themselves. Who was creative and smart and funny. Who loved her.
And she should forget he ever existed. Fate had cruelly returned him to her, only to keep him out of her reach.
Pherusa leaned on the cold stone wall and pressed the side of her face to it, not caring about the dirt. Being in here again, this close to him, and feeling his touch set her on fire, and she needed to cool down. To think.
Why did he take her, if he hated her?
“Sit,” Prometheus barked, pointing to the raised plateau in the corner.
They’d lain together on the double bed before, while he taught her ways to pleasure both him and herself. He’d held her there, while she slept, on the few nights she managed to stay out of the palace till dawn without one of her sisters coming to look for her at Father’s orders.
Now, it was to be her prison.
“Why take me from Vythos? What will you do to me?” She hated how her voice trembled. He’d once loved her. Surely he’d never hurt her.
The memory of his cold gaze when he left her debauched and crying on the sand made no such promise.
Prometheus snorted. “Feed you, for starters. We wouldn’t want you to starve. Then... we’ll see.”
“Feed me?” That didn’t sound threatening, unless he meant to feed her to a larger beast. Had she heard him wrong?
He grunted something that sounded like a yes and disappeared, taking the light with him.
Pherusa made her way to the makeshift bed, using the wall for guidance. She sat on the edge and dropped her head in her palms. Did he mean to keep her here for as long as he’d been in stasis? Gods. At least he’d bring her food. As a Nereid, she wouldn’t waste away without nourishment, but she’d weaken. She was only a minor deity; she needed some sustenance. And she needed the sea. After a month out of the water, she’d forget who she was and all about Vythos. Would he release her then, with no memory and no way of getting back home?
Light made it to her lids through her fingers, and she looked up to see him frowning. “I don’t know where to get you food. There are buildings where there once were orchards. Eros showed me the humans now have”—he moved his lips, like he tasted the word before forming it—“restaurants, but I need to make payment for goods and services, and I do not have... moneys.”
He looked adorable, fumbling through modern speech, and for a moment, she allowed herself to forget that he hated her. “I can come with you. There should be shops around here. If you cast an illusion to hide”—her gaze fell to his member, half erect as always, and so very big—“your nakedness from the mortals, we can get food, and you can convince them that you paid.”
His chuckle was bitter. “You’ll have me influence the minds of innocents so easily? I supposed I should expect that, after...?” He trailed off, and Pherusa felt righteous anger shoving aside her guilt and pain, to claw up her throat.
“I. Did not. Betray you. Father thought it unsafe for me to come to the surface when Zeus was closing in. He asked Aphros to find you and escort you below. Aphros never returned to Vythos, and we’re sure he was the one who told Zeus where you’d
be, but it had nothing to do with us.” Whether of the land or the sea, centaurs were devious creatures.
“If you knew nothing about that betrayal, then Nereus must have.”
“Father swore on his eternity that he played no part in it, and I believe him.” Though she still blamed him for trusting Aphros with her secret.
Prometheus closed the distance between them and glowered down at her. “Why else would he keep you in Vythos and send the Ichthyocentaur in your stead?”
“Ugh. I just now told you.” Pherusa tried to return his glare, but his penis bobbing in front of her face made it hard to focus on her fury that he wouldn’t believe her. She hopped to her feet and climbed on the bed on tiptoe, to get as close to eye-level with him as she could, though he still towered over her one meter sixty.
Prometheus huffed, and the intensity of his gaze burned her to the core. “Why should I believe you?” he growled.
She ignored the hardness pushing into her stomach and narrowed her eyes. “Because I have no reason to lie. I’m not asking for mercy; I’m telling you the truth. But you don’t care, do you? You’ve made up your mind, and I’m your prisoner. So what’s my punishment?”
He raised his fists, clenched so tight his knuckles were white, and Pherusa flinched. Her Prometheus wouldn’t hurt her in a million years, but this Titan who wore his face oozed fury, and there was no telling how he’d treat her.
Let him. His touch made her feel alive for the first time in forever. If she were to die, she might as well go by his hand.
Prometheus cupped the back of her head and attacked her mouth with a ferocity that left her breathless. His free hand tore at her robe, until his palm closed over one bare buttock.
Pherusa melted into his touch and let him lead her, until she was pressed between him and the cave’s wall. She wrapped her leg around his, trying to climb his body. To feel more of his rough skin on hers. The hairs of his legs scratched her inner thigh, and she tingled at the contact.