The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2)

by Serena Akeroyd

“He’s not wrong. There are glow stick necklaces, after all. If she kept it under her shirt, no one would notice. Or if they did, they wouldn’t ask.” Cressida cleared her throat. “I mean, before, everyone would wonder what the fuck was going on, but now? I doubt anyone would notice.”

  Ella gulped. “You think?”

  Cressida reached for my woman’s hand. “I know.”

  I crouched beside the bed at her side. “How are you feeling? You slept a long time, ó filtáti.”

  “I felt like crap, but now I feel better.”

  “The glow must have been draining.” Lux moved around the bed and climbed atop it. He touched her arm. “I wonder if the crystal will burn out. We’ve seen how that’s possible.”

  I snorted. “We can afford to keep her in rutilated quartz.”

  “It might be wise to experiment with different crystals,” Icarus stated from the doorway, and I appreciated the others’ respect in staying out of the room now that my wife was awake but still in bed.

  “That would be wise,” I agreed. “Perhaps some will have other properties as well?”

  “I foresee a visit to the crystal shop,” Ella said, her tone close to gleeful.

  Cressy shook her head. “What have you guys done to my best friend?”

  Ella stuck her tongue out. “Shut up, Ms. Bubble Tea fanatic.”

  Nash snorted out a laugh. “She has you there, Cressy.”

  Hades’ wife shot her husband a glower. “Whose side are you on, Nash?”

  He just winked at her.

  “I think it’s time to leave Ella with her husbands,” Hades stated calmly.

  I half-expected Cressy to argue, but she didn’t. Instead, she leaned over and kissed Ella on the forehead. “You were beautiful with the glow, but I’m glad I won’t need sunglasses every time I’m in the room with you. I think you may have damaged my retinas, dude.”

  I frowned at that, and shot Hades a look. “May I?”

  Because Hades was frowning too, I took that to mean Cressy hadn’t informed him of any discomfort. The other God nodded though, and I asked Cressida, “May I take the ache away?”

  “I was only teasing,” Cressida stated, surprised.

  “I’d prefer to ensure there was no lasting damage.”

  She shot her husband a look, who nodded at her and stared her down in a way that brooked no argument. When she didn’t move, I reached up and pressed a hand to her temple. There was some minimal damage to her eyes, but mostly her skin had taken the brunt. It was like she’d been sunburned. I healed that woe and as I flushed through her system, checking for other ailments that might still linger from before her claiming, I tilted my head to the side in surprise.

  Her hand grabbed mine though and she squeezed my fingers. I stared into her eyes, saw her furrowed brow and knew she was aware of the life growing in her belly.

  Dipping my chin in silent agreement to keep her secret, I murmured simply, “All is well now.”

  She shot me a shy smile. “Thank you, Apollo.”

  “It was my pleasure, Cressida.”

  “I owe you, nephew.”

  I cocked a brow at Hades. “Now that I will accept.”

  He grunted and stepped away from the door as his wife approached him. When they all cleared away, Tor and Achilles herded onto the bed as did I.

  “Are you okay?” Tor demanded, as though I hadn’t already asked that question myself. “Truly?”

  “I’m glad I’m not glowing anymore. That’s for damn sure,” Ella grumbled with a sigh. She relinquished her hold on the crystal and the glow started up again. “Fuck!” she bit off.

  “It must need to touch your skin,” I told her calmly, even though my heart had sped up at the sudden resurgence of the glow. “Let it touch your chest.”

  She quickly obeyed, and when the glow began to dissipate, we all took relieved breaths.

  “What’s happening here, Apollo?” she asked shakily.

  I reached over and squeezed her hand. “I have no specific answers for you,” I warned. “But we think you are dealing with the forces of two Gods.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I believe that my initial assumption was correct. Cindy is of Hecate’s line.”

  Her head tilted to the side. “And I’m of Helios’?”

  “Bingo,” Lux replied, and she shot him a frown.

  “Okay, well, that wasn’t something any of us could have anticipated.”

  “No. It’s pretty damn unique too. Only the children of two Gods usually deal with two sets of talents. Like with myself. I deal with my mother’s and father’s. They don’t have to complement one another entirely, but there’s usually some kind of bridge. Your powers are very discordant.”

  “What do you mean?” she whispered.

  I pulled a face. “Hecate was the Goddess of night, ó glykýtaton, and of the moon. Helios is of the sun. There couldn’t be two more contradictory powers.” I blew out a breath. “We will deal with what comes in the future, but for now, we can only find ways to ease this discordancy.”

  She blinked at me, and I felt her fear and hated that I couldn’t give her ease.

  “Time,” Achilles whispered as he moved over to her side and began to rearrange the pillows so she could lie down with more ease, “will ease our concerns, my wife. Now, you must rest.”

  “I’ve been asleep for ages!” she argued, but it didn’t stop her from snuggling into him when he moved to lay beside her.

  Because it felt as natural as breathing, I moved to her other side as well, and laid down. I rarely slept, not because I was a God and we didn’t need rest, but because sometimes, I simply couldn’t.

  The prospect of slumbering with my wife and my guardians, however, sent warmth through my limbs. As well as longing.

  As I cuddled up next to her, Castor and Pollux moved beside Achilles. I did not doubt that when I next woke, they’d be curled up in a fetal ball together as if they were still in their mother’s womb.

  Though I shared that connection with my twin sister, Artemis, I doubted that in the womb we’d been as close as those two.

  When Ella sighed and curled into me, I ceased thinking of Artemis. She wasn’t a thorn in my side, but thinking of my wife was far more pleasant.

  I kissed Ella’s temple, and murmured, “Sleep. We will all feel better after a rest.”

  Though she huffed as though in disagreement, the next thing I felt was her relaxing as sleep took her under like a tidal wave engulfing all in its path.

  I sensed Castor and Pollux as they were encompassed by sleep, felt their heartbeats slow as they relaxed into one another.

  “Is she truly well?” Achilles’ voice was pitched low.

  “Yes. But we will need to run to the crystal store before too long.”

  “Either that or speak with Hecate herself.”

  I hummed. “Not a pleasant prospect.”

  “Why? She isn’t a God of Olympus.”

  He wasn’t wrong. The only Gods who’d been banished to the four corners of Earth were the ruling Gods. Hecate, though powerful, and like Helios, was not a ruler as was I.

  They could roam the world at will, had more freedom than I could imagine.

  “Firstly, we’d have to find her.”

  “Hades would help with that. You know he has spirits everywhere.”

  That wasn’t an untruth.

  “Plus, he just said he owed you.”

  I perked up at that. “This is true. Good thinking, Achilles.”

  He snorted. “If you say so.”

  I turned on my side. “You are calmer.”

  “She’s quite…” He blew out a breath. “Grounding?”

  “Is that a rhetorical question?”

  “Yes.”

  I hummed. “Okay.”

  “Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

  Unsure if he was genuinely angered or just perplexed, I said, “If she makes you content, then I’m also content. You have been a troubled soul for as long as I
’ve known you, Achilles. I would ease that for you.”

  He fell silent, so silent I wondered if he slept, then he said, “Mother did me no favors when she dipped me in the Styx as she did.”

  I sighed. “She was a mother whose child was predicted to die young. She did what she thought was best.”

  “And made me invulnerable to most ills, and gave me a hero complex.” A grunt escaped him. “That is in the past.”

  “Indeed. We must look to the future,” I told him softly. “She needs us to be harmonious with one another, Achilles. You know this as well as I.”

  “Agreed.”

  That hadn’t been as hard as I feared.

  “You do?” I didn’t want to make him change his mind, but Achilles had been at odds with me since the dawn of civilization…

  “Yes. It is time I ceased blaming you for my fate, when fate brought her to me.”

  “You love her as well?”

  “How could I not?”

  “I’m not that lovable.” Ella’s voice had both of us jolting.

  “Aren’t you?” I teased, amused that she’d been eavesdropping. “How can you remember?”

  She harrumphed. “You have a point, but no one is perfect, you guys.”

  “And that is why you’re perfect for us,” Achilles reassured her. “You are a welcome dose of humanity in our lives, Ella.” He pressed a kiss to her brow as I had earlier. “Now, cease listening to private conversations and sleep.”

  “Can I help it that you two woke me up with all your gossiping?” she grumbled, making us both laugh softly.

  “Point taken.”

  I closed my eyes and allowed myself to sleep.

  ❖

  Pollux

  Nash feinted left then right, but it was a move I’d seen him make too many times. With an uppercut jab, I smacked him under the chin. The force was enough to lift him from his feet and to send him soaring through the air.

  With a heavy bang, he landed on the stretched canvas of the ring. Cressy released a sharp shriek. “What the hell did you just do?”

  I beamed at her from behind my mouthguard, then I spat it out. “It’s called a ‘knockout.’”

  She squinted at me as she scrambled under the rope and hustled to his side. Before I could do more than unfasten one of my gloves, I felt arms slip around my waist.

  “I’m sweaty,” I warned her, even though the last thing I wanted my wife to do was pull away.

  “You smell it,” she replied, but it didn’t make her retreat. If anything, she hummed, and I cocked a brow at that.

  Shooting her a quick look over my shoulder, I saw she was peering around my side at Cressy who had placed Nash’s head on her knees and was crooning to him as she stroked his hair.

  “He’s not dead, Cressy,” Ella grumbled. “Just out for the count.”

  She glowered at both of us. “I said this was stupid.”

  “They’re boys. Boys fight. Boys have dick-measuring contests. Ya just gotta let them have at it.”

  Cressida rolled her eyes. “If you say so, oh, wise one.”

  I felt Ella snicker, her chest rising and falling with her amusement. “Told ya, I’m Yoda. Reborn.”

  Cressy huffed, and I twisted in Ella’s grasp and curved an arm around her shoulder. “Come on, let’s leave them to it.”

  “You’re not going to help me move him?” Cressy shrieked.

  I blinked at her. “If you think Nash is going to want my help, you’re way off. Just let him come to here.”

  “Come to? You knocked him out. He’s going to need medical attention.”

  “If he was human, perhaps. But no one here is human anymore.” I shot her a grin. “Perks of immortality. He’ll have a headache but it won’t damage that brain of his.”

  I pushed Ella to move and she fell in line with me, but when we left the gymnasium, she asked, “You’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

  “Do what?”

  “Beat Nash.”

  I sniffed. “Last time we boxed together, he cheated.”

  A laugh escaped her. “When was this?”

  “About 200AD.”

  “Jesus, hold a grudge much?”

  “Perhaps.” I squeezed her side. “I’ll remember every time you yell at me.”

  “Fear not, I will as well,” she teased. “Where are we going?”

  “I need to shower.”

  “Since when was that a two-person job?”

  I waggled my eyebrows at her. “Tell me you don’t want to.”

  “Oh, I do, but if I go back to Cressy’s side looking all orgasmic and post-coitally glowing, she’ll get pissed at me, and pregnant-Cressy is a psycho-Cressy.”

  “She told you?” I asked, surprised, and even if I was annoyed at being cock-blocked by her best friend, I knew what she meant.

  I fully expected Cressida to reap payback on her husband’s behalf by dosing tonight’s farewell BBQ with ghost pepper to torment me.

  “You mean you knew already?”

  I shrugged. “Apollo told us after he healed her.”

  “Why didn’t he tell me?” she demanded with a pout.

  “Because you’re too close to her. If you’d known when she told you, she’d have thought that was weird.”

  “I hate that that’s true,” she grumbled, but she pressed her hand to my belly and slid her hand over my abs. “When they’re gone, it’s game on though.”

  I snickered. “Glad to hear it.”

  “I’m going to miss having her here,” she mused after we walked down the public hallway toward the east wing where our private suites were housed.

  “I know.” I kissed the top of her head to avoid speaking of my relief that the others were going.

  She sighed, and squeezed me. Hades and his coterie had been staying with us for three weeks now. One of which Ella had spent unconscious. The other two, we’d all managed to cohabit without setting fire to the house or starting a trade war—I considered that a win.

  We had, all told, had a good time. But old habits died hard, and I’d never been around another God and his guardians for this long before. It was unnerving, and I was ready for my house to revert to my home once more.

  Still, I understood why Ella wouldn’t feel that way. She and Cressy were ridiculously close, and through her, another facet of Ella’s personality had been revealed to us. Her loyalty. She defended Cressy like a mother would her newborn pup, and yet, she’d rag on her harder than a bitchy comedienne live on stage.

  “You won’t have time to miss her,” Achilles pointed out from the doorway to Apollo’s suite.

  She frowned at him. “What are you doing there?”

  “I heard his stomping.” Achilles rolled his eyes. “I swear, Lux, how many times must we have the lesson on stealth.”

  “I don’t have to be stealthy in my own home,” I retorted with a sniff.

  Ella grunted. “Pissing contest later, boys. I’ve just sat through one, I don’t need to see another. Why won’t I have time to miss Cressy, Achilles?”

  “Apollo is returning to the city tomorrow.”

  “To New York? Why?”

  There was a definite squeak to her voice. “Why not?” I questioned.

  “Duh, because Dolly’s there, and she’s going to see the new me.”

  I shrugged. “It isn’t noticeable.”

  “I think Cindy’s mother is going to notice—”

  “Tell her you got good at contouring.”

  She gaped at Achilles. “You know what contouring is?”

  “Hey, I go on Youtube too, you know?”

  “And you watch makeup tutorials?”

  He laughed. “You caught me. I love to dress up in drag.”

  “You do?” Another squeak from Ella.

  “No. But I saw it on a Facebook video once.”

  She shook her head. “There are too many revelations all at once here. Achilles, you have a Facebook account?”

  “We’re ancient, Ella, not decrepit. We move wi
th the times,” I informed her with a sniff.

  She patted my belly. “Sorry, sorry.”

  Achilles laughed again, and crap, the sight of it was enough to have me jolting in place. I wasn’t sure I’d seen Achilles laugh so much as he had recently, and it was starting to weird me out.

  He was practically emo. Or, at least, he had been before Ella. He’d been a major part of the emo movement before emos had even existed, so yeah, this was a major development.

  A happy Achilles was a bewildered Lux.

  Who knew?

  “Apollo wants to show you something,” Achilles informed her.

  She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to fall for that again.”

  I snickered, and couldn’t stop my laughter from bellowing out of me. “I can’t believe you fell for that the first time,” I wheezed, laughing harder when she smacked me in the side.

  “I thought we were no longer in the age demographic where ‘show and tell’ was even a thing.” She huffed. “You suck, Lux.”

  “Not as well as you do,” I told her, straight-faced.

  Her cheeks pinkened, but she retorted, “I’ll inform Apollo that I’m the greatest cock-sucker of them all.”

  Achilles snorted. “Please, let me be there when you do.”

  I cocked a brow at him. “What’s sun-dude want to show her?”

  “The altar. Before we leave, we have to tend to it.”

  That had her frowning, then she pulled back. “Wait a minute. Altar?”

  At her sudden tension, I shot her a worried glance as I hauled her back into my side. “What is it, Ella?”

  “Hades’ altar. I remember it. Sugar skulls surrounded it.”

  Achilles snorted again. “And you think I’m an emo.”

  My eyes widened. Fuck. “This new telepathic shit sucks.”

  He grinned at me. “I find it quite useful as a reconnaissance measure.”

  “I’ll just bet you do.” I heaved a sigh, then to Ella, stated, “Don’t worry. Apollo doesn’t have a shit ton of cadavers stinking up the place. He has leaves from the laurel tree.”

  Her brow puckered. “Bay leaves? Like from my wreath?”

  I nodded. “Exactly like those. From the very first laurel tree in existence.”

  She pursed her lips. “I finally googled you guys. I know who the first laurel tree was. I mean, I saw the woman turning into it that first time Apollo showed me the truth, but I didn’t get it. It was too nuts.”