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

by Serena Akeroyd

  “I made sure the children were housed first,” he growled back at me. “What kind of monster do you think I am? I didn’t just dump them in the foster system.”

  “Oh.” I bit my lip. “Sorry.”

  He clenched his teeth—I saw his jaw flex—but he murmured, “I accept your apology.”

  “That sucks, though. Just because you had one rotten egg doesn’t mean you should dump the remainder of the dozen out, Apollo.”

  I could see he didn’t want to discuss this, but he’d dug his own grave with the whole ‘wanting to be overly honest’ policy.

  “Perhaps.”

  “No perhaps about it.” I frowned at his guardians—my other husbands. “You didn’t think it was a stupid idea?”

  “Of course. But Apollo doesn’t listen to us,” Achilles stated.

  Tor huffed. “Like you ever got involved before?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” was the grim reply.

  Tor’s armchair swiveled, and he moved from side to side, and swaying in it as he shot the other guardian a pointed look. “If it had anything to do with Apollo and his business dealings, you weren’t interested unless it was your time on the rotation.”

  “That’s not fair—”

  “Isn’t it?” Lux asked quietly. “You’ve always done as little as possible for Apollo, Chill. You and I both know that.”

  “I was out fighting wars!”

  “Yeah, wars you had no need to fight in, brother,” Tor replied, his voice soft. “I say this not to shame you before our wife, merely as a point that what Apollo did or did not do was never influenced by you because you weren’t interested.”

  “And you were?” Achilles scoffed.

  “Yes, I was, not that he listened to me.” Tor pressed his hands to the ends of the armrests. “If he had, he’d have kept at least one of the orphanages open.”

  Apollo sighed. “As a God, I have done my duty. But as a man, I have not.”

  Because I could hear genuine regret, I patted his arm, but Achilles just looked bewildered. I wanted to get involved, but how could I when I didn’t have a clue what the guardians were arguing about? Not really.

  “As a soldier, you did your duty, Achilles,” Lux explained kindly, “but you’ve always used war as a scapegoat to avoid our world. Are you going to do the same now? I know you were thinking of ways to enlist again.”

  “There’s a crisis in the Middle East,” he replied, his words stony.

  “Yes, but there has been for the past sixty years and you’ve been involved in almost every conflict going—”

  You want to leave? The words weren’t shrieked out loud, but inside my head, I was shrieking.

  I’d worked on the front line. Maybe not of a war zone, but sometimes, on an ER rotation on the night shift? It was like being in Syria. I’d been threatened with more broken bottles, had dirty needles being thrust in my face as a warning to back off—

  No, I didn’t want to think about that now.

  I understood the need to help. It was what had fired me in my past life, and though it was commendable, hadn’t Achilles fought enough? Didn’t we have enough to handle without him going off and fighting a war when we had a battle on our own hands here?

  I was connected to the sun in ways we had yet to comprehend.

  This wasn’t me overreacting, for fuck’s sake.

  I glowed.

  GLOWED.

  That wasn’t normal by anyone’s concept of normality, and one of the men who had dragged me into this world, who had pushed me into this situation, wanted to leave?

  Achilles swallowed. “I wanted to leave before you came,” he tried to reassure me.

  “So, what? You don’t want to stay?”

  He sighed. “Of course, I do. Now.”

  Tense, I demanded, “Why?”

  “Because you’re my wife,” he growled. “I didn’t have you as an anchor before. Now I do.”

  ❖

  Achilles

  Ella was being weird.

  And that was saying something because she was a soul inside another’s body… Weird took on a whole other spectrum when you considered that.

  But ever since yesterday’s discussion, and through the subsequent drive back to the city, she’d been quiet. Pensive. It was starting to drive me crazy.

  Literally, crazy.

  Turning away from the wall of windows that was the major focal point of Apollo’s office, I looked around and saw that the others were busy. Even Ella—she was reading something about crystals before her meeting with Hecate tonight.

  I wasn’t exactly at a loss. There was always plenty to handle where Achill was concerned, and most of that could be dealt with remotely. I just wasn’t in the mood.

  Ella’s moods were affecting mine, and I had to wonder if Apollo and the rest noticed that too.

  I pushed my fingers through my hair and turned my back on the city.

  The view was beyond epic, and the windows took full advantage of that, but I’d long since grown bored with the vista.

  What interested me, or who to be precise, was Ella. I wanted to know what the hell was going on with her.

  Ever since I’d called her my anchor, she’d quieted down, and it concerned me.

  Why would that bother her?

  Speak with her if you’re worried.

  Apollo’s voice usually grated on my last nerve, but this recent ability to speak telepathically was a new and even more irritating addition to his menagerie of gifts.

  She has enough to handle tonight without me getting her riled up about something inane.

  Hardly inane if it worries you.

  Tuning him out, I stared around the room and began to wander around its expansive depths.

  Every time I came here, Apollo seemed to have expanded the quarters. What had once been a regular sized office was now as large as his suite at Achill, and it was just as white, so free from color it was borderline anemic, and only the view spared it any. Just not at that moment. With the sky a dull gray, there was little relief from the endless blandness.

  Ella and Lux were seated over by the fireplace that ran the length of the back wall. Apollo was at his desk, and Tor kept moving back and forth between here and his own office as he dove back into his work schedule.

  Of us all, Tor seemed to be the only one who enjoyed this life, which always surprised me because he loved working with horses more than anything else. Or so it had always seemed to me.

  I turned back to the view and carried on staring out at nothing. My place wasn’t and never had been here, and it hit home as I stared out into a city that wasn’t mine. I longed for Achill with a depth that surprised me. I’d been away from there for longer than a night, dammit. I’d done several year-long tours of duty. But there was something about that piece of land that was like a magnet and now that magnet was calling me home.

  “What is it, Achilles?”

  Her voice was weary, and I turned back to shoot her a surprised look.

  When I did, I realized we were alone, and that came as a definite surprise. “When did the others leave?”

  “While you were busy huffing and puffing as you tried to blow the windows down?”

  I cringed. “That bad?”

  Her cocked brow said it was worse than that.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, shoving my hands into my back pockets.

  “Don’t be.”

  I cut her a glance. “No? Should I be sorry for something else?”

  She shrugged. “No.”

  “Why don’t I feel like you’re telling me the truth?” was my retort, and if it was dry, I couldn’t help it.

  “I’m not lying,” she hedged.

  “Then why have you been weird with me ever since yesterday afternoon?”

  She pursed her lips as she got to her feet, and though I expected her to walk away, to leave the office as the others had, she didn’t. She walked toward me, and came to a halt at my side. There was a gap between us, though, and it felt like
a chasm I needed to bridge.

  “I remember being in this office when I was a ghost.”

  Her statement had me jolting in surprise. “Really?”

  She nodded, her attention on something in the distance. “Yep. I remember meeting Apollo and Castor, and I remember being fucking sad.”

  “Sad?”

  Another nod. “Yeah. I thought he was depressed…and now, when I think about the timing, I wonder if that initial meeting coincided with something bad that happened. An anniversary or something.” She pulled a face. “I remember, after Hades came here, I kept popping back up to visit with Apollo, and again, I remember how damn sad he was.”

  Why was she telling me this?

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to know, but I wondered what her point was.

  “Then, I think back to when I first met you which was barely any time ago by contrast, and you were just as damn sad as Apollo was, Achilles.” She finally cut me a look. “I wonder if you realize that.”

  I wasn’t sure what made me speak with such honesty, but whatever the reason, I said, “I’ve been sad a long time, Ella.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve seen a lot, done a lot. Some people…” I blew out a breath. “You know some people are born to die young? That sounds grim, I know, but I lived with an expiration date hanging over my head. My mom thought she’d figured out a way to cheat the Fates, but it’s impossible.

  “All my life, I was ready for death and I threw myself at it, almost. Daring Hades to take me, to drag me to the Underworld. I was a fierce warrior, a hardened soldier for a reason. It was,” I admitted with a soft laugh, “almost a relief to die. There was peace in death, and then I was brought back to this world.”

  “You wish that wasn’t the case?”

  “Now? No. But for the many thousands of years that I’ve been on this realm, yes. I didn’t chase it anymore, not in truth. If I had, merely quenching the flame on a single candle would have done that. But I lived a reckless life, and I was content in a way. While my intent before you was to enlist once more, now that is not what I wish to do.”

  She leaned against the window and turned to face me. “I did something yesterday that I didn’t like.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “I almost, almost because I stopped myself, barely, guilt-tripped you.” She frowned. “I wanted to. The idea of you being dragged overseas to fight a war with no end—” She blew out a harsh breath. “No, I don’t want that, but that isn’t my right. I don’t and can’t tell you what to do with your life, but also, I’ve seen women use their wiles on men and I always promised myself I’d never be that way.”

  I gaped at her. “Wait a minute. That’s why you’ve been mad at me?”

  “I told you I wasn’t mad at you,” she explained.

  “You were just mad in general?” I demanded.

  “Yes.” She tilted her head to the side. “Why would you think I was—”

  “Because you refused to look at me all damn night, and today hasn’t been much better!”

  Ella winced. “Sorry.”

  Sorry?

  I growled under my breath but turned back to face the view.

  “I was angry at myself, and if I was projecting that anywhere, it wasn’t specifically at you. I promise. I was just embarrassed. Cressy and I watched a lot of our foster moms and sisters do crazy shit, and we were always the rational ones. We promised each other that we’d stay virgins, for God’s sake, until college, because we didn’t want to be like them.”

  “Why would staying virgins make you rational in relationships?”

  She snorted. “Because at fourteen, that kind of crap makes sense.”

  I had to laugh. “You’re too honest for your own good.”

  “Sex, to us, seemed to make women crazy, and we didn’t like being out of control. Especially not when we saw how men reacted to sex. We were almost raped so many times you wouldn’t believe it, Achilles. You wouldn’t believe it,” she repeated. “There was a long time when I hated men. When I even tried to be gay, but I’m not wired that way.

  “And then yesterday, you go and say something that freaks me out, and I immediately go on the defensive and want to say anything, do anything, to keep you close by. It was disgusting, pathetic. I was disgusting and pathetic.”

  “You weren’t. You were a woman who is starting to care for a man,” I excused softly, suddenly seeing a naive side to Ella that I hadn’t realized existed until now.

  Did it come as a shock?

  Yes.

  But she was still only young for this realm. She hadn’t lived enough years to be wise. That would come with time.

  I was surprised when she stepped closer, not stopping until she rested her forehead against my pec. I loosely reached out and enveloped her waist in my arms. She settled into me and murmured, “I don’t want to go loopy over you guys, and I feel like I could. Easily.”

  “We’re already loopy over you, Ella,” I assured her, smiling when she chuckled. “We weren’t kidding yesterday. There isn’t much we wouldn’t do for you.”

  “Kill someone for me?”

  I cocked a brow at her. “That comes as standard.”

  She snickered. “You’re so hardcore.”

  “Is that a complaint I hear?”

  Her answer was a wink. “Nope.”

  ❖

  Apollo

  I returned to my office because I needed to work.

  That, and I wanted to be close to Ella.

  Unaccustomed to needing anyone, even the guardians who kept me sane, I was surprised by how my need to be near her wasn’t irritating the life out of me. Maybe in a hundred years it would, but as of yet, no. I enjoyed the craving of closeness.

  When I stepped back into the office, saw my guardian and my wife standing huddled in front of the windows, I frowned, leaned back against the door, and watched as Ella slipped her arm around Achilles’ waist.

  I remained silent as she pressed her head to his arm, and though I could hear their conversation, I wasn’t about to ignore their right to privacy more than I already was. My defense was this was my office and I did have work to do, but as I stared there, and watched over two of the four people who were my very reason for existing, a warmth puddled in my belly.

  It wasn’t lust, it wasn’t sensual. It was something I couldn’t even begin to explain.

  Because watching them wasn’t enough, I headed over to them. I knew Achilles would have heard my footsteps, and I assumed that Ella would too, but she did jump when I pressed my arm to her shoulder and drew her between my guardian and me.

  “All is well?” I asked, aware that my voice was husky.

  She nodded, but Achilles answered, “Yes.”

  Ever verbose… I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at his stoicism, and instead of sighing, I just stared out onto the city that, did the humans but know it, belonged to me.

  There wasn’t a single transaction, be it illegal or legal, that went down on this soil without my touch. Be it a subsidiary, a major corporation, or even a mom-and-pop restaurant that was mortgaged by a bank I owned, my influence was everywhere.

  New York never slept because I never slept.

  I wondered if Ella knew that. Knew what power she harnessed now that she was mine, but I doubted it. Having watched her turn pink as my personal shoppers brought in rails of clothes from her to peruse through, and having read the investigation Hades had ran into her and Cressy’s background, I knew wealth would never come easy to her. She’d worked hard for every inch of success she’d accrued in her previous life, and though I was proud of her for that, now there would be no struggle.

  I would not allow it.

  Dipping my head to press a kiss to her cheek, I slipped my lips along her jaw and up to her temple. “You are truly well?” With the hand I pressed to her shoulder, I reached around to touch the crystal, lifting it from her skin so that she began to glow.

  “Yes, if you stop fiddling with my crystal.”<
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  Achilles snorted at her huffy tone. “Yes, Apollo, cease thy fiddling.”

  I shot him a look, but he just smirked at me. I rubbed the rutilated quartz between my fingers, enjoying the rasp against the tips. “I wonder what Hecate will say.”

  She shrugged, but it was an edgy shuffle of her shoulders. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re nervous.” A statement, not a question.

  “I’m concerned,” she corrected.

  “About?”

  “I don’t know. I just have an edgy feeling.”

  “Why?”

  She harrumphed. “I don’t know, Apollo. I just do. It’s not every day you go and meet Gods and Goddesses, is it?”

  “No, indeed it isn’t,” I replied, amused by her snarky retort.

  This woman wasn’t afraid of me, and I enjoyed that immensely.

  “You have met this God,” I told her, my voice a purr. “Are you frightened of him?” I asked even though I knew the answer.

  She tilted her head back to stare up at me. “Do you want me to be?”

  Heat flashed inside me and I lowered my head once more, loving how she tilted hers in response. Before she could say another word, I reached for her, curved my mouth around her ear lobe, and nipped her. Hard enough for her to yelp.

  She jolted in place but didn’t run away. I slid my arms around her waist and hauled her away from Achilles, into the air, then back into my arms, but higher. She shrieked and clung to me, but didn’t complain as she settled against me, her legs spreading to cling to my hips as I carried her over to another door that led to a sleeping area.

  The futon-style bed was perfect for such times as when I shared a female with one of my guardians, and though Tor had replaced the mattress the instant I’d declared we’d be returning to the city for a meeting with Hecate, I decided then and there that the entirety of my apartment here required redecorating.

  White walls no longer suited my mood.

  She had seen this room last night, so there were no surprises, but in the afternoon light, the room glowed, and I couldn’t wait to add to the gleam.

  The bed itself was twice the size of a regular California King, and was covered with custom sheets that felt like silk, but were an expensive Egyptian cotton that reminded me of the ancient days. It covered most of the ground area in the room, and because I appreciated minimalism, there was no other furniture in here, save for two lamps that were made from Murano glass and that appeared to be like pearls, complete with nacre.