His sanctuary had helped him so much that Pollux had told me Achilles was intending on helping with the farce in the Middle East again… He’d only just returned to us, battered and anything but whole, two years ago. Ella’s appearance in our lives couldn’t have come at a much better time if we were to keep him here.
The last thing we needed was for him to come home mentally destroyed by another war—humans were infinitely good at killing and maiming each other—but Achilles wore the scars far longer than any soldier could begin to comprehend.
“What happened?” Achilles inquired, settling on the edge of the coffee table and looking over our sleeping tín eaftoú gynaíka from afar.
As expected, he didn’t look at Apollo. Didn’t even seem to accept the other man’s presence. We were all too accustomed to the sight, even the God himself, to query it.
“She sensed the link between us. Her knees gave out, and she hit her chin on the table as she went down,” I said on a sigh.
Apollo grunted. “Then, as she fell, she rapped the back of her head on the ground. I think she bit her tongue.”
Though Achilles winced, Pollux snorted. “Well, I’m never going to let her live that down.”
“Don’t be a jerk,” I ground out, glaring at him. “This is a precious moment.”
Another snort escaped him, and I wondered if Ella would be the answer to bringing my brother back to me. He was careless and carefree—at least, to the eye. Deep inside he was fathomless, impossible to read. Though I loved him, flaws and all, he was a jerk. Had been since the twenties.
That was a long time to be a douche canoe.
“Cinderella doesn’t live up to her namesake,” was all he said.
“He’s right. She’s all spunk and sass,” Achilles confirmed.
“It’s Ella.” The low grumble came from the slowly rousing woman on the bed. She shifted, moaned in pain, then appeared to sleep again. Well, there was no appearing about it…
“Snores worse than you after a five-day Scotch binge, Apollo,” Pollux pointed out dryly.
“I don’t snore,” the God retorted.
“Since when?” came my twin’s cheerful reply.
I had to laugh. “He’s right, Apollo. You snore like a bear. It seems our wife does too.”
“Our wife?” Achilles and Pollux glared at one another as they both spoke at the same time.
“Yes. Zeus has declared it so,” Apollo affirmed.
Pollux stared at me. “The fuck is he on about?”
“Can’t you feel the connection?”
“Of course, I can,” he retorted. “Did last night.” He nudged Achilles in the side. “So did the dick, even if he tries to deny it.”
Achilles didn’t exactly demur, but a storm clouded his features as he stared at the sleeping woman on the sofa.
Without a word, Apollo crouched down and took a seat beside her. Twisting, with one leg on the cushions, he reached over and pressed his palm to Ella’s forehead.
The three of us stayed silent as he worked. Watching Apollo heal was always like witnessing a miracle. Which, essentially, it was. We never grew accustomed to it because he rarely used the skill anymore.
It wasn’t his place to heal humans. He left that to his son, Asclepius, who was Ares’ guardian. But on the rare occasions he felt his talents were required—and with our wife, when wouldn’t they be?—he worked his magic without hesitation.
His hand began to glow as he gathered the energies required to heal Ella’s wounds. It was a mixture of heat and light that he knitted together, and I was sure there were other factors involved, but he rarely spoke of this talent.
Rarely spoke at all anymore, truth be told.
Ella, I had to admit, couldn’t have come at a better time. Apollo was depressed. It seemed impossible to align that with a deity, but depression hit everyone — even the Gods.
This state of mind had been growing in power over the last few decades, and it was one of the reasons I’d been dreading his marrying the ‘unknown’ Cinderella. But now that I knew Zeus and the Fates had forged her to be ours?
Truly ours.
In the way that nothing had been for many centuries?
I allowed relief to surge and swell inside me, hope with it, and we’d learned long ago that hope was futile, but with Zeus’ words feeding it, there was no need to fear.
Ella moaned beneath Apollo’s healing touch. She began to wriggle and writhe on the sofa, shifting here and there as he healed her. She didn’t awaken though, and it made me wonder if Apollo had ensured that as he turned back to look at us, his brow furrowed.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shrugged, but he didn’t fool us. The gesture, though easy, was in direct contrast to his scowl. “She had more wounds than just the bash to the head.”
“She was in a bad car accident,” I countered, prompting him to remember the car crash his fiancée had been involved in. “You know how recent it was.”
He dipped his chin. “She’ll have no more need for PT.”
“That will please the nursing staff. I’d heard how your guest was making the therapists miserable,” Achilles stated as he folded his arms across his chest.
“It’s unlike you to take a personal interest in the guests,” I remarked, shooting the other man a surprised look.
“I didn’t,” he said dryly. “They came to me about her. I just didn’t know who she was until recently.”
Apollo’s lips curved. “Yes. She is no pushover.” He rubbed his chin for a second, obviously musing over something he’d discerned when he’d healed her.
“What is it?” I demanded, unable to bear it when he fell silent and withheld important information. “You can’t keep anything from us where she’s concerned. You heard Zeus. She is ours as much as she is yours.”
That jolted Achilles. “You spoke with Zeus?”
We all knew how rare it was when that occurred. The two didn’t exactly get along—Zeus was friendly with no one. Not even his brothers Hades and Poseidon who at least understood the strain of ruling one of the three kingdoms: Earth, the Ocean, and the Underworld.
“I wished to know what this connection meant,” Apollo replied, his tone semi-defensive.
I pressed my hand to his shoulder and squeezed. To the others, my tone was half-mocking as I said, “Zeus has decided it’s time the Gods make baby Gods and to do so, he crafted us wives. Because our spirits are tied to Apollo’s, we’re tied to her.”
“So she belongs to all four of us?” Pollux half-breathed as he too took a seat on the coffee table. His hand hovered over her calf, and I watched as he hesitated before finally connecting with her.
When she immediately stirred at his touch, he jerked in surprise but didn’t move away.
“How did you meet her?” I asked softly, curious because Pollux and Achilles were the same where the guests were concerned—i.e., they ignored them.
The plan to rehabilitate Achilles through rehabilitating others hadn’t exactly gone to plan. But he seemed to enjoy the order and routine of running the administration on this place as well as that of the stud farm.
“We were busy in the stables yesterday evening. She was there too.”
Apollo snorted and shot Pollux a look. “From the way she greeted Castor, I’d hazard a guess and say you were more than just ‘busy.’”
My lips curved as Achilles stared stonily ahead while my brother huffed. “Look, you told us we couldn’t fuck the staff or the guests. We’re only obeying your orders.”
Apollo smirked at him. “I think you’ll find Castor told you that. Not I.”
My twin shot me a suspicious glare. “You said it came from the top.”
“It did. My brain, because you weren’t using yours. By that point, I’d had three sexual harassment cases on my desk because you wouldn’t marry the nurses you fucked.”
He rolled his eyes. “Can I help it they want to marry me?”
At his side, Apollo snickered then, after a few secon
ds, he sobered as he murmured, “Well, your marrying days are done because it looks like you’re married.”
“Where are our rings?”
I shoved him. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Hey! I was only teasing.” He hunched his shoulders as he pressed his elbows to his knees and rounded his back. “This is weird.”
“The way we’re all watching her? Or the fact we have a wife and none of us knew it?” Achilles asked dryly.
“All of it,” Pollux grumbled.
“Most things are when Zeus is involved.” Apollo hummed a little. “A tín eaftoú gynaíka. We truly are blessed.”
Achilles shuffled in place. “She is well now?”
“Yes.”
“Why’s she still asleep?” he continued.
“I wanted her to rest.” Apollo scowled at me. “Have a word with the medical team who tended her. Many parts of her weren’t healed.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know they can’t heal individual bits of her like you can. Time does that. Not a doctor.”
He huffed. “By now, their little trinkets should be able to do more.”
“I’m sure they would if you’d inspire some more medical treatments.”
He hadn’t done that in a while.
One of the many chores that were on his to-do list, and one he hadn’t worked on for a while.
Though Apollo’s business was wide and varied to the human eye, it was pretty specific.
Each sector his corporation dominated was tied to his talents. Some he involved himself in more than others. That meant he had anything from farming corporations to chains of restaurants. He possessed chains of private hospitals and owned several of the world’s largest art museums.
“Remind me to inspire someone next week, Castor, it is time the humans’ healing techniques evolved,” he muttered sheepishly, and if I were capable of heart attacks, the trifecta of tone, words, and admission would have been enough to trigger a cardiac arrest.
Though I gaped at him, I stayed silent, even when Achilles and Pollux turned to look at me over their shoulders so they could gape in turn.
Apollo never admitted to being wrong.
Seriously, the dude made my douche canoe of a brother look like a friendly teddy bear.
Before we could comment, before we could do more than gawk in astonishment at his admission, Ella’s eyes lazily drifted open. It took a second for them to focus, but when they did, she blurted out, “You!”
❖
Achilles
“You!”
Though we all cast each other a glance, I was the one who asked, “Which ‘you’ do you mean?”
She blinked sleepily and her yawn was so dainty, I could have watched her do it a thousand times. “If I could remember your names, I’d be more specific,” she half-slurred.
Castor finally ceased looming over us and moved to the opposite side of the sofa to take a seat on the closest armchair.
If what he and Apollo said was true, then this woman was ours by the Fates and Zeus’ decree.
While that was more than ample to floor the lot of us, the punch Ella packed did the rest.
Not only was she beautiful, she was… different.
Yes, I was well aware that wasn’t an adequate adjective. However, adequate or not, it fit her the best.
Here she was, blinking sleepily up at us from her position on the sofa in her bedroom, and she wasn’t panicking, nor was she cursing us, she was studying us like a cat who was deciding which human to bestow her gift of a dead bird upon.
It was a decidedly unsettling look, and I’d faced more bloodthirsty warriors than many would ever comprehend.
Castor, after clearing his throat, murmured, “I’m Castor.”
“Apollo.”
“Pollux.”
“I’m Achilles.”
Why we weren’t gifting her our human names, I wasn’t entirely certain, but I supposed it would be unwise to start our relationship with our tín eaftoú gynaíka with several lies.
“You changed your names. I ‘member that much,” she groused, then after squinting at Castor and Pollux beamed. “Knew you had to be twins.” She pointed at Pollux. “You need to smile more.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
“Because if I smile, ladies fall for me. I have to make myself as unattractive as possible.”
She snorted at him. “I can see that’s working out for you.” Reaching up to rub her forehead, Ella blew out a breath as she squinted at Apollo. “Why do I feel like you spiked my drink? Except, I haven’t had anything to drink this morning, so there was nothing to spike, which means I don’t have to worry you’re about to rape me or something.”
I stiffened as she went through the monologue. Was she serious? She thought we were going to rape her?
“That escalated quickly,” Apollo stated dryly.
“This is the twenty-first century. A girl has to look after herself.” After bestowing those words of wisdom on us, Ella yawned again and stretched, lifting her arms overhead and wiggling to get all the kinks out.
I was sure that in all my years, I’d never seen anything so sexy, and I’d met Cleopatra. She was, until now, the sexiest woman who’d ever graced this realm.
“Are you a witch?” Apollo’s question wasn’t blurted out, even if it seemed to come out of the blue.
Castor cleared his throat. “Forgive him, he’s not—”
“No. I speak in complete seriousness. You have the blood of Hecate running in your veins. I wished only to know if you are a true practitioner.”
Ella’s eyes widened and, suddenly, she was wide awake. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Apollo pursed his lips, and though I sensed Castor and Pollux were growing antsy with his questions, I remained silent. Apollo, though I didn’t like the man, wasn’t an idiot.
He reached behind him for the two crystals she had set on the nightstand. There was one that looked like amethyst and another that was a smooth, round ball of rose quartz.
They weren’t small, and they had to heft some weight—especially if they were thrown at someone. But that was just me. I tended to seek out weapons in every situation. The crystals would make ample projectiles in a pinch.
Ella watched Apollo’s thumb as it traced over the round swell of the quartz.
“How connected are you to the crystals?”
She licked her lips, flickered her gaze to me, then over the twins. I wanted to keep her gaze on me, just as I had last night, but I didn’t force the issue. There was something about her that set me on edge. I wanted to know more, and yet the natural caution in me wanted to step back.
Though this dictate was from Zeus himself, I had to wonder why now. Why this exact moment for the King of the Gods to decide that right here, right now, was the best time to propagate the species.
I never trusted the Gods. Couldn’t. They were all selfish, all worked to their own ends. They could be devious and untrustworthy. Being tied to one for too many years hadn’t exactly changed any of the beliefs I’d had when I’d just been a regular human.
Something was going on here, and though Ella was as innocent in this as we were, I knew that until I understood what was happening, my cautious nature wouldn’t settle down.
“I just think they’re pretty.”
I tilted my head to the side at that. “Now, isn’t that interesting?”
“What?” she said in a huff.
Apollo was the God of Truth, so I left the lie detecting down to him, but… “You don’t usually lie. You evade. And yet that was a distinct untruth.”
“How can that be a lie?” she instantly countered. “Are you saying I don’t think they’re pretty?”
“I’m certain you do, but there’s no ‘just’ about it.”
“Are you kidding me? You fixate on the one word?” Her hands flew up in exasperation. “Fine. They’re very pretty.”
“But that wouldn’t explain why you have so many o
f them.” I didn’t need to look at Apollo to know his gaze would be darting around the room to the myriad stones, some smooth and some rough, that she had dotted here and there.
“What do you want me to say?” she retorted, finally morphing from grouchy to pissed. “Anyway, what the fuck are you doing in my room?”
Apollo tsked. “Cursing is so unladylike.”
“Well, that’s handy because I’m no lady.”
“Your mother would disagree. As would the eighteen thousand dollars’ a term finishing school you graduated from two years ago.”
Her eyes flared wide. “Oh. Uh. Yes. I forgot about that.”
Forgot?
I frowned. “Did she suffer memory loss in the crash?”
“No,” Apollo replied.
“Yes,” Ella clung to the admission, then glowered at Apollo and demanded, “And how the hell would you know?”
I’d known he’d be aware of the truth after healing her. But Ella wouldn’t understand that, would she?
Apollo didn’t reply to her, just murmured, “Another lie. My, my, they’re just stacking up.”
“I’d like you to leave now.”
Castor reached over and gently palmed her hand in his—of us all, he was the gentlest. The kindest. Pollux was next. The pair of them could soothe the most skittish of horses, it was why they were considered to be the local horse whisperers. Every stable in a five-hundred-mile area had their numbers, and if money were an issue, they were worth a fortune just on how often important stables would call on them for their advice.
“There’s no need to fret,” he informed our wife.
“Isn’t there? I wake up feeling drowsy when I only just went down to breakfast. There are four guys looming over me, and one of them starts talking about crystals and memory loss! I think that’s more than sufficient reason to question what the hell’s going on.”
Castor’s lips curved. “Perhaps you’re right. But… and surely you sense this, we mean you no harm.”
“I’m sure that’s what Ted Bundy said to his victims when he charmed them into a date.”
“You’re very fixated on murderers, aren’t you?” Pollux mused.
She sniffed. “I read.”
“Too much of the bad stuff I reckon,” he mumbled.
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 6