“The honeymoon’s over already?” she snarked.
He smiled, dipped his head so he could kiss her. “The honeymoon has barely even begun, agape mou.”
She shifted on the deck as he slipped his tongue into her mouth, and I watched, my cock just as interested as the rest of me, the show. Of course, Achilles being Achilles—a buzzkill—ceased the demonstration and practically jumped to his feet in one fell swoop.
Even Ella looked dazed with how fast he moved. She peered up at him. “Where are you going?”
“I’m tired of lying in this death circle of rocks.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
Climbing to my feet too, I saw what Chill meant and had to hide a chuckle…
The shapes of our bodies were delineated with shattered crystal. It was like the way they portrayed a corpse’s location at a crime scene in the detective shows.
“What he said,” I concur. “Anyway, if we slept another day, that means Cressy is due tomorrow so we have to get back to the shore.”
“Because that takes forever.” She huffed and groaning, she rolled over. The second she did, I reached down to grab her, wanting to save her from coming into contact with the broken crystals. Except…
“What the hell?”
Tor, Chill, and I jerked back at the sudden glare. From intense darkness that was only truly possible when you were out at sea, away from all the light pollution, came an immediate fiery glow that burned my retinas.
The sear stung and my hands shot up to cover my eyes, but even with that middling protection, the light was still visible, still bright enough to hurt.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tor growled. “Dammit, that stings like shit.”
Apollo hummed under his breath. “Interesting.”
“Interesting that we’re in goddamn pain?” I yelled at him—Jesus, the man was such a dick sometimes.
“The crystal is irradiated.”
“Great, does that mean I’m about to get cancer?” Ella rasped, but she didn’t sound as though she were in pain like my twin, or brother guardian, or I was.
“No,” Apollo spoke softly, but his tone was amused. The jackass. “It means we need to collect this dust.”
“The fuck?” I grumbled. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t see crap to collect.”
“The glow will simmer down. But only we can touch it. Anyone else will be injured,” Apollo warned.
I sighed.
This was not how I’d envisaged the aftermath of claiming my wife would go down.
Chapter Seven
Achilles
The glow died down, as King Dick had promised, after ten minutes, and following Apollo’s cryptic request to collect a godawful number of broken shards, we had huge piles of the stuff to transfer into the boxes we’d used to transport some of the cathedrals.
Though full of the dust, the boxes were surprisingly light, and even though we asked—several times—Apollo was his usual jackass self and kept his mouth closed.
The ride back to shore was edgy. No one knew what was going on except for the God, and I knew we were all tense about the fact that Ella could come into contact with a speck of dust that was agitated because of the speedboat ride and might suddenly set off a supernova.
Which was why the light had stung to all hell.
Yeah, Apollo confirmed that the brightness was akin to a supernova, and the only reason we hadn’t inadvertently destroyed the Earth—again—was because he was there to offset it.
The guy didn’t look as though he’d just offset anything. He was calm but…
I hoped it was the lingering after-effect of inadvertently being blasted with something scientists hoped wouldn’t occur within four billion light-years from Earth, but he was glowing.
So was Ella.
That shit was going to be easy to cover up.
Not.
Scrubbing a hand over my face as we approached the shoreline, I saw Tor head for our deck at a slower pace.
Behind us, Apollo’s yacht was slowly being evacuated. And as was the case the night before last, helicopters were coming in droves to take the crew away from a highly radiated zone.
Poseidon would be sinking the ship once it was clear, and that was a favor we owed him and his guardians.
Though Apollo was the one who usually bore the brunt of a favor being called up, we all felt it when another God stirred his wrath. That wasn’t something any of us looked forward to—Mount Etna had exploded for a reason, dammit, and Apollo had worn the guilt for that on his shoulders ever since.
I didn’t have to like the man to feel for him.
His tempers and moods could affect the entire world, and we were the ones who were supposed to help him harness that but, after claiming Ella, I was only now coming to realize that he hadn’t been allowing us to do that.
Why?
Did he think us too weak?
My throat closed and I decided that such thoughts were futile at a moment such as this.
Apollo was a fool for not relying on us, but his reticence was millennia in the making and we had to help him adapt. I truly hoped that Ella would be the turning point on that score.
As we pulled up beside the jetty that led to Achill, I saw the way Apollo’s arm tightened around Ella’s shoulders. She was cuddled into him, half-asleep, not only from what had occurred during the claiming, but from the supernova-like explosion of light that had drained her to the point where she’d been semi-conscious for the hour-long ride back to the mainland.
There was no need to be concerned. Not really. Apollo didn’t appear to be, and if he was, he’d be healing her and returning her to her good health shortly.
I didn’t like to think about exactly why my throat felt tight when I looked at her, and didn’t like to think I wasn’t the only one with an Achilles’ heel now. One that came in the form of a sprite with bad hair, a bad attitude, and shitty taste in sneakers.
I climbed onto the jetty first, moored our boat, then grabbed the boxes Tor hauled over to me. Lux untangled Ella from Apollo and shifted her into his arms. The God then retreated to the dock as I had and crouched down to carry our resting wife away from the boat.
With a box in each of our arms, Ella in Apollo’s, we headed away from the ocean and retreated to the temple. Acting upon Apollo’s orders, we set the boxes down on the ground and, with Lux now carrying Ella after Apollo handed her over, retreated to the main building with the orders not to turn around.
I wasn’t sure what he was doing at the temple, wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Especially when Ella began to struggle in Lux’s arms even though she was unconscious. Tor began to help his twin with our wife who was about to be dropped on her ass if she didn’t quit with the jerky movements. I frowned at her, then made the mistake of looking back toward the temple. Even though I swiftly averted my gaze, the sting was back.
Apollo had set off another supernova-like light explosion?
What the hell was his game?
I didn’t make the mistake again, though, just waited until Ella had stopped bucking in Lux and Tor’s arms. She looked like she was seizing, but it was almost as though her limbs didn’t belong to her. Like whatever Apollo was doing was making him the puppeteer while she was his puppet.
The comparison didn’t sit well with me, but what else could I think?
I firmed my jaw when Ella eventually quieted, Tor moved away, and as a unit, we headed for Apollo’s rooms even though it was awkward as hell considering our wife was unconscious. I found myself grateful for the fact it was just before dawn and no one was around. The retreat had no strict bedtimes, but most people were asleep after four AM.
When we were back in Apollo’s rooms, Tor ran the bath.
“Is it wise when she’s so out of it?” Lux asked.
“We can watch over her,” was all he said.
“That will reassure her when she wakes up naked in the water with four guys hovering around her,” I retorted, folding my arms across my chest as
the two of them tugged Ella out of Apollo’s shirt.
“There are three of us,” Tor argued, making me roll my eyes.
“Don’t be pedantic—he’ll be back soon. Be realistic, Lux. I know I wouldn’t like it.”
“We’re not just some guys,” Tor reasoned. “She knows that. Her body clings to us, needs to be near us.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Though Ella was propped up on Lux’s lap while Tor unbuttoned her shirt, she wasn’t slouching forward, but back. She was twisted half to the side, as though she wanted as much bodily contact between them as possible.
My jaw clenched at the sight.
Not out of anger, but want.
I wanted her to do that with me, but…
My infamy was prolific, but I’d never been known for being in possession of a wily tongue. I’d never had a way with women. It was much easier to fuck men. They knew what they wanted—to get off. And I never fucked anyone who was looking for more than an orgasm.
Even with Tor and Lux, it was easy. We were stuck together and used each other instead of a Fleshlight.
Simple.
But with Ella?
Apollo’s words from a few days before resonated.
We had to make her happy. We had to make sure she didn’t want to leave us, and hell, I hadn’t been happy in several millennia. It wasn’t like I knew how to make someone else feel that way when it was as impossible for me to feel contentment as it was for a dog to start speaking Spanish.
Tor and Lux had always had it easy with women. They were charmers, and though Lux was a hothead, he had a way about him that all females liked.
Me?
Sure, I looked decent enough, but that wasn’t sufficient to sustain a marriage that would last an eternity, was it?
Humans always seemed to divorce, so marriage wasn’t easy, right?
And it wasn’t like I had many recommendations for me on that score.
I stood a short distance away as Lux lowered a now-naked Ella into the water. She sighed the minute the heat hit her, and I knew I wasn’t the only one seeing shit when the water began to sparkle.
“Please tell me you put some of that crap Apollo likes in the water?” I asked hoarsely.
But Tor shook his head. “No. Not even soap.” His mouth firmed. “What the hell is that?”
“The dust?” Lux asked hesitantly as he slipped his hand through the liquid. The gold shimmer collected in the creases of his palm as though he’d dipped it into paint.
“Has to be. Or is it light?” I questioned, earning myself thoughtful stares from my brother guardians.
“Maybe both?” Lux mused, then he shrugged and said, “Christ, she’s beautiful. I never thought we’d all share a woman.”
“What do you mean? We’ve shared before,” Tor replied.
“You did not just say that out loud?” came his twin’s grumble. “And you know what I mean. That was sex. This is more. I mean… I think I love her, guys.”
I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back against the wall. I was only a few feet away from the bathtub, but I could have felt Lux’s tension from a mile away.
“You think we don’t all have feelings for her?” Tor replied.
“No. Of course. I just…”
“We know. You’re the ultimate playboy. You don’t get burned by love.” I rolled my eyes. “You listen to your own press too much.”
Lux grunted. “Screw you. And you know what I meant.”
I shrugged. “Sure I do, but Tor’s right. She’s messed with all our heads, and she doesn’t even realize it.”
The water carried on shimmering. It was like we’d dumped neon glow sticks beneath the surface, and though it highlighted her lush form to perfection, it was concerning. More concerning? The fact that she lay in the water, not moving, not even slipping under the surface. She was so still except for the faint motion of her chest, and I mean, I didn’t need an excuse to study her tits, nor did my fellow guardians, but I knew we weren’t looking at those ripe swells in a sexual way. Just in a ‘dear God, is she still breathing?’ kind of way.
When Apollo returned over an hour later, we’d replaced the water a few times, topping it up to keep her warm. She’d started seizing a while back, and the glow from the yard backed up the fact that Apollo was doing something in his temple, but the water seemed to have helped keep her contained so we’d rolled with it.
When the God himself finally deigned to make an appearance, we were all wearing out the rug with our pacing, and I was legitimately getting sick of studying her nipples for signs of life. And that’s just something no man should ever have to admit to.
Fuck. The bastard had broken tits for me.
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to let my temper simmer down. Then, I blurted out, “You’re an asshole. Where the fuck have you been?”
“I’ve been by the temple,” he commented as he began to pull off his sweater and pants, and toed off his shoes. When he was naked, he strolled over to the bath, climbed in beside our still unconscious mate, and cuddled up next to her.
She released a heavy sigh and as he arranged her, she ended up draped over him like a living, breathing blanket.
The craziest thing was?
The second his skin touched the water, it glowed twice as hard.
Jesus. “We’re going to need our shades if this goes on for much longer,” Lux growled, shielding his eyes from the bright light emitting from the bathtub.
“What’s going on, Apollo? I think we deserve an explanation,” Tor ground out, his head ducked and his eyes shuttered away from the glowing water.
“I was doing something I haven’t had the power to do for a long time,” he murmured softly as he tilted his head back against the rim of the tub and slipped his fingers through Ella’s so their hands made a gentle bridge.
“And what was that?” Lux prompted. “I swear, you make getting blood out of a stone look easy, Pol. Just talk to us.”
“Back in the day, before Helios was born, I was also the bringer of light.”
“We know. You brought the light, and with it the day, and Artemis, your sister, brought the darkness, and with it the night,” Tor muttered. “Tell us something we didn’t know, Apollo.”
“My powers over the sun changed with Helios’ birth. I could no longer protect the way its rays affected the Earth.”
“In what way?”
“The ozone layer,” Pol stated calmly. “I couldn’t reinforce it. Just as with the solar flares, I couldn’t stop the surges from hitting the planet. Even if I wanted to, I could only try to minimize the damage as we did with Ella.
“When Zeus transferred some of my duties to Helios, it was like a disconnect. Before, I had control over the sun as well as its effect on the Earth. But after, I had only control over the sun but not how it affected the planet.”
“And what’s changed?”
He pursed his lips. “Me. The supernova recharged me. I hadn’t realized I was drained, but I wonder if Helios’ birth was a punishment for something my father deemed worthy of castigation. I didn’t know it at the time, but now? I sensed how weak I was.”
“I thought the Gods were getting stronger with each year that passes?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think,” he explained softly, and I watched him rest his head against Ella’s. Their wet hair mingled, making a delicious counterpoint of two variants of gold silk. His like wheat, hers like honey.
“What way then?”
“Our command over them is greater, but inherently, our natures are weak. That’s where the guardians come into being. There’s a reason we’re so petty. There’s a reason there’s so much infighting. We have power without good character. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
“So, you mean to say that you’re a jackass?” I questioned, wanting to hear him say the words.
He opened his eyes only so that he could glare at me again. “Yes, dick, I’m a jackass. Happy now?”
“Now t
hat you’ve admitted something we’ve known for ages? Yeah. I’m happy now.”
Apollo grunted and began to follow the track of a water droplet as it rolled over the swell of Ella’s hip.
“So, because you were weak, what? How did the blast help you?”
Apollo shrugged. “There are some things even we Gods do not know. Everything is Fated, though, is it not?”
“What’s with the glow?” I asked softly.
“After-effects. We’re both harnessing solar energy at the moment. We’re walking solar panels.”
“It’s not a good look,” Tor reassured him with a sniff.
I shot him a warning glance, but to Apollo, asked, “And what are the repercussions of what you did in the temple?”
“Global warming is irreversible, but the new density of the ozone will protect the planet from becoming even more damaged. It means that I can work on strengthening the Earth’s geomagnetic fields. Make sure that the sun won’t damage the planet too much.”
“All that because of Ella?”
Apollo shrugged. “She transferred some of Helios’ gifts to me during the claiming.”
Lux hissed out a breath. “You’re shitting me?”
The God’s lips twitched. “There are many things I might do to you, Lux, but shitting on you isn’t one of them.” He kissed Ella’s temple and then sunk into the water to rest. “She’s a miracle the Earth didn’t know it needed.”
Inside, everything clamped down.
Our miracle.
In more ways than one.
❖
Castor
I pulled on my shirt collar and tried not to feel like it was choking me.
After a few days of wearing tees and other comfortable clothes, the suit already felt like it didn’t fit me right, which was bullshit. The damn thing was tailored to me like a second skin, but I just didn’t want to wear it.
Achilles and Pollux looked exactly the same—like fidgety little boys who’d been dressed up in suits for a wedding day.
I didn’t want to be here. None of us did. But Cressy was due in, and we had to be here to meet with her husbands, as well as greet another God.
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 22