Achilles strode away from the door and came to a halt before her. He cupped her chin as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her nose. “There’s no need to fret.”
“Not fretting,” she instantly countered.
“No need to turn green-eyed on us either.”
A huff. “Not green-eyed. Apollo was conned into that love. There was no con here. He loves me because I’m a spunky PITA.”
“You’re a piece of bread covered in spunk?” Castor questioned, popping up in the doorway.
Her nose crinkled. “Ew. You know what I mean.”
“Oh, I do,” he said cheerfully. “Just wanted to hear you admit it.”
“What? That I’m a pain in the ass that will give you a pain in the ass if you’re not careful?”
He cocked a brow at her. “And how would you do that?”
“I have it on good authority that Achilles fucks harrrrd.” She lengthened the syllable for good measure, drawing on a subject that none of us had discussed since she’d awoken.
The past two weeks had been for genuine rehabilitation. She’d been weak, and had burned through two crystal pendants when she’d been tired, but hadn’t wanted to go to bed because Cressy’s men and us were all hanging out, shooting the shit and having fun.
Of course, my balls were going to turn blue before the week was out, but it was something I could handle. For her.
Only for her.
Tor just smirked. “You still have to find that out for yourself.”
She purred. “Oh, I know. And I can’t wait.” She tapped Achilles on the chin. “Tonight?”
There was genuine regret on his face as he shook his head. “You’re still too frail. Not until you speak with Hecate.”
“Apollo’s found her?” I demanded, my interest immediately spiking.
“Yes. Well, Artemis did.”
My eyes flared in surprise. “He asked Hades and his twin sister to find her?”
“Of course. For Ella, what wouldn’t I do?” asked the God himself as he swept out into the hallway and gathered Ella in his arms. “Why are you sweaty?” he demanded over the top of her head.
“Just whooped the shit out of Nash.” I threw a kick jab and a bunch of uppercuts as I danced lightly on my feet. “He’s knocked out.”
“And my guardian’s honor lives on forevermore,” Apollo said dryly. Curving an arm around Ella’s waist, he murmured, “My twin sister and I aren’t the closest, kallísti, but she is great friends with Hecate. They were the original virgin Goddesses together.”
I snorted. “They were probably getting it on while Hera and the others were busy getting dicked down.”
Ella twisted around to scowl at me. “Dude, could that sound more chauvinistic?”
“I don’t know, babe. You telling me that in thousands of years that chick has never seen an orgasm?”
“It would explain why Artemis constantly resembles a prune,” Apollo pointed out, his lips curving with amusement. “Although, Hecate must have seen some action at some point if she created a line that spawned you, Ella.”
Our wife’s nose curled up. “Do you really want to think about your sister being ‘dicked down’ as Prince Charming over there phrased it?” Ella insisted, gaping at him.
He shrugged. “We’re different than ordinary mortals. My twin helped my mother during labor—”
“Wait. What?”
“She was born fully grown,” Achilles remarked, but he was smirking, enjoying how mind blown our wife was.
“You mean all that crazy shit happened? Like the Minotaur, chicks with snakes for hair, and dudes literally being half horse?”
“You’re only just figuring that out?” Castor inquired.
“Y-Yeah,” she stuttered. “I-I thought it was all hype.”
Apollo shook his head. “Nothing was hyped in Ancient Greece. We were the original ravers.”
It surprised us all when Ella burst out laughing, and because it was good to hear, we glanced at one another and joined in.
Chapter Eight
Ella
I squinted at the pool of water, then at the candles, and the shit ton of bay leaves that were littered on the floor in a way that reminded me of a park during Fall. There were many of them. It wasn’t just a faint sprinkle, either—you could make serious leaf-angels out of these bad boys. A dog would have a field day leaping into the mounds.
The candles were weird, and it was even weirder to see the wreath that Apollo had given me as my ‘crown’ sitting atop the altar.
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked warily, unsure why they were even showing me this place.
With each day that passed, I was remembering more and more of my past life, and could even recall my days as a ghost. I could well remember the sugar skulls on Hades’ altar. It wasn’t just a hazy memory, and by contrast, I guessed Apollo’s was staid.
Unless there were dead bodies hidden underneath all the leaves.
“You need to dip your hand in the water.”
I shot Lux a scathing glance. “Cressy never had to do anything like that.” I remembered that distinctly.
“So?”
A huff escaped me. “Is he shitting me?”
Achilles grinned. “Yes.” The second he replied, I elbowed Lux in the side for yanking my chain.
“Dickwad.”
“You know it, babe. All yours.”
I sniffed—wasn’t I just the lucky one? “Then why are you showing me?” I questioned.
“Because I will hide nothing from you,” Apollo stated softly. “The candles represent our life forces. My guardians’ spirits are tied to mine, and they are represented in the burning of the candles.”
“What’s the water for?”
“My life force is grounded in one of the elements.”
“Why? Seems a bit weird to have candles be around the pool. Isn’t that dangerous?” Just seeing how the candles were in the center of the pool of water made me edgy.
“Yes, but the candles aren’t like the ones you humans have. Before, we weren’t tied to an element. Not in truth. Now we are if we are to sustain our guardian’s connection to the Earth.”
“I guess that makes sense as much as any of the crap you tell me makes sense.” I scowled. “Why do I need to know this?”
“Because if one of the candles flickers out, one of us will die.”
“Death isn’t the same for me as it is for you,” I told them carefully, when I sensed they wanted a major reaction from me and I wasn’t about to give them one. “Most humans go into a relationship knowing that at some point, death is at the end of it, you know? We don’t think we’re going to live for a thousand years. We’re really glad if we make it to seventy.”
Lux nudged Achilles. “See, I told you she’d be cool about this.”
He sighed, and I saw then that shadows had been gathering in his eyes. Had he truly been concerned about this?
I stepped over to him even though it involved crunching some of the leaves, which made me feel guilty because, at some point, these had belonged to a woman. I shoved that thought aside and pressed my hands to his pecs, leaned up on tiptoe, then kissed him on the cheek.
“I’m not worried about the candles. They’ve been burning a hell of a long time, haven’t they? Let’s just not put me in their vicinity and they won’t be in any danger.” I grimaced. “I’m kind of clumsy in this body. I wasn’t before.”
Lux snickered. “Did you ever watch Men in Black?”
I frowned at him. “Yeah. Of course.”
“It’s like that guy Earl. The cockroach in the human suit.”
“Ew, you did not just compare me to Edgar.”
“No way, he was called Earl,” Lux argued, and I grabbed my phone and typed the name into Google. When it flashed up as Edgar, I beamed a smug grin his way. “Know-it-all,” he retorted, but I saw laughter flashing in his eyes.
Apollo shook his head. “You two, I swear…”
I shot him a wink. “Now I’ve seen
the altar, can we go? This room is weird.”
“Weird?” Tor laughed. “You mean the most sacred place you’ll probably ever walk in is weird?”
“Yes. Have you visited the Vatican? All sacred places are weird.”
“I’ve been there a time or two, yes,” he replied, but he was grinning at me too. In fact, they were all grinning at me.
I threw up my hands and retreated from the strangely cramped space. It was a large room, and the pool took up most of it, but all the leaves made it feel weird in there.
How had they preserved them?
Did I even want to know?
Back in the bedroom, I asked, “How do you change the water?”
“With great patience, and a lot of Godiva chocolates as thanks to Achilles’ mom. She’s a Nereid, remember? She gives us blessed water.”
“Oh yeah, the bathwater queen.” I clicked my fingers at Tor who’d been the one to explain the sitch to me. “Gotcha. Okay, now that’s done, when are we heading into the city?”
Apollo shot me a look, and I could tell he was perplexed. I just wasn’t sure what about.
I tilted my head to the side and asked, “You okay, babe?”
“Yes. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“That I wasn’t in awe of an indoor pool that is in serious need of raking?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
Though I sighed, I told him, “Apollo, I want you to be honest with me, but some things? I don’t need to know about, okay?”
“Ah, you say that now, but when it boils down to it, women always change their mind. You can’t pick and choose what we tell you,” Lux warned, and because he was right, I had to sigh.
“You’re not wrong.”
“Notice she didn’t tell me I was right,” he pointed out dryly.
I stuck my tongue in my cheek. “That would be too easy.” Throwing up my hands again, I asked, “Do you want to know how heavy my period is when I have one? How about if I get pregnant, do you need to know how severe my morning sickness is or will ‘I puked’ be enough info for you?”
Apollo frowned. “I need to know this information as I can help ease your suffering.”
This guy… seriously. I didn’t have to ask if he was for real, because he was—crazy real.
“Oh, sweetheart, I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant… there’s information and then there’s graphic information, you know?”
Tor patted my shoulder. “I understand.”
“Explain it to them?”
The pat turned into an extended rub. “I will.” He dipped his head and kissed my cheek, before running the kiss down to my mouth. “We can leave when Hades does, if you wish?”
“It’s not that I wish to leave, not when I know I’ll have to meet Dolly at some point while I’m in the city, but I need to know if Hecate can help.”
He nodded. “I understand. You needn’t pack anything if you don’t want to. We can buy whatever you need in the city. Apollo can have his personal shoppers get busy on your behalf.”
Because every word in that sentence bewildered me, I just gaped at him, then Lux snorted, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
He dropped his mouth open and did a goldfish impression. “You need to get used to having money. Fast.”
I pouted. “That will never happen. I was born poor.”
“Well, you’ll live rich from now on,” Tor stated, in evident agreement with his brother.
“It seems wasteful to buy a whole new wardrobe rather than pack—”
“Do you like any of the clothes your mother packed for you?”
Then it hit me. “You jerks,” I growled, and slammed my hands on my hips. “You don’t have to manipulate me, jackasses.”
Lux snorted. “See, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
“You know I hate all the crap Dolly packed for me.”
“Well, hazarded a guess is more apropos,” Apollo stated calmly, as he slipped into one of the armchairs in the sitting area of his suite. “You always look like everything is too small or too large. I’m not sure how that’s possible when the clothes were originally fitted to Cindy’s frame, but…”
I huffed. “That’s because her taste and mine are about as close as Jupiter and Earth.”
“We figured as much.”
“So why not just explain that to me? Instead of being all ‘just get used to having a shit ton of dough.’” I squinted up at Tor. “Not cool.”
He shrugged. “You’re prickly.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
A smile curved his lips. “We’re still learning how to bend you to our will.”
Lux hooted. “That honest enough for you?”
Because I was speechless, I did the whole goldfish impression thing too, and just wandered over to Apollo and plunked myself on his lap. Sure, there were a few other vacant seats around me, but that wasn’t as fun, was it?
His hands slipped around my waist, making everything below said waist wake up and wave. He hauled me tighter against him and asked, “Your every wish is our command, Ella.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Why isn’t it?” he countered.
“Because it isn’t. I don’t want my every wish to be answered. That isn’t how life works. Or, if it is for the Gods, then it’s no wonder you’re all bigheaded, egotistical snobs.” I shot him a look. “Hades was a real prick before Cressy got her hands on him. Trust me, I hung around long enough to see her mellow him out.”
“Having access to unlimited funds does change one,” he agreed.
“Well then, I don’t want that. I’m Ella. That’s it.”
“Wrong,” he teased. “You’re Ella Sonnen.”
“What the hell’s that?”
“My surname,” he told me with a small laugh.
“Far as I know we didn’t get married.”
He grunted. “You and I both know that we’re married.”
“In the eyes of your culture, not mine. And bud, where the law’s concerned, mine is all that matters.”
“That your way of getting a wedding ring?” he asked.
“Not nice being played, is it?” I told him sweetly, and he shook his head at me though I could sense he was amused.
“Indeed, it isn’t.” He shot Tor a look. “Arrange with the mayor for him to wed us when we arrive in the city.”
My instinct was to argue, to try and finagle an expensive wedding out of him, but then again, that was my idea of hell. But…
“Apollo?”
“Yes, ó filtáti?”
“Is it possible to figure out a way to reverse what Cindy’s father did?” I’d googled my name the first night I’d known what Cindy’s father had done.
“You don’t have to fret on that score,” he told me softly. “We’ve been working on doing that anyway. He was my responsibility—”
“Your responsibility? Why?” I asked him, frowning at his sudden lack of ease. He’d tensed up beneath me and not in a good way either.
He ran a hand through his hair. “As a God, it could be said that I am a jack of all trades and a master of none.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
All around me, my men gathered at the seating area, and they slouched back on the sofa and armchairs as they settled in for, what appeared to be, story time.
“It means that I have an affinity with children, as well as medicine and the connection I have with the sun.”
“Okay. What does that have to do with my father?”
“He was an orphan, and he found his way into one of my orphanages.”
“You ran orphanages?” I pulled back.
“Good ones!” he retorted with an eye roll. “Not like in Annie.”
I had to laugh at that. “You’ve watched Annie?”
Another eye roll. “Of course.”
Still amused, I murmured, “Right. Of course. Forgive me for the slur on your honor.”
“I
should think so,” he said with a sniff. “Anyway, Cindy’s father found his way there and there were a select few children that showed promise along the way. I made it so that they were cultivated. James was one of them.”
“The word ‘cultivated’ sound weird to anyone else?” I asked, tension in my voice.
Achilles sighed. “He means they were encouraged to achieve.”
“This sounds even shadier.” I jerked around to stare at him. “What did you do?”
“I just sent them to the best schools, gave them opportunities to achieve their goals.”
“Okay, so what went wrong?”
“Apollo, as a father, expects a lot from his children,” Tor stated, and I got the feeling he’d never said that before because Achilles and Lux gaped at him in astonishment and Apollo stiffened underneath me again.
“He wants overachievers?” I didn’t need an answer, just turned back to cock a brow at him. “I’m taking notes for when we have little Godlings.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Godlings?”
“It’s a work-in-progress title.”
A sigh escaped him. “Tor isn’t wrong, unfortunately. I do expect a lot, especially when I put a lot of effort into helping them grow.
“James seemed to think I wouldn’t care how he earned his money. He was wrong. I made sure he knew that when he was arraigned, but equally, his wife and daughter were innocent victims. Dolly had no idea what her husband was doing to maintain their lifestyle—I made certain of that.
“And that was why I promised to wed you. As an apology to you and Dolly, but also, to James. He was that way because of my influence, and a lot of innocents lost their livelihood as a result.”
I studied him a second, saw the genuine regret on his face, and asked, “How many orphanages do you run now?”
“None.”
Shaking my head at him in bewilderment, I demanded, “But what about all the other kids?”
He swallowed thickly. “I couldn’t have them being influenced by me.”
“That sucks, Apollo!” I growled. “Do you know how shitty that is? From someone who was dumped in the system, being tossed from somewhere you considered a home into the—”
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 26