The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1)

by Jovee Winters

  So ancient, and yet so youthful in so many ways.

  Take your rest now. I will keep you safe.

  Only with her did that statement not feel ridiculous. Unspoken were the words that soon I’d be convicted and would know no peace for a millennia. But I was far from tired. My mind could not stop working.

  Hades?

  “Yes?”

  She didn’t fidget, but I could sense her reticence.

  Would you like to come to work with me tomorrow?

  “You work?” I couldn’t quite hide my shock. Looking her up and down, dressed as the regal goddess she truly was, I suddenly recalled the tantalizing Janita in her servant’s clothes.

  Her laughter bubbled through my dark soul.

  I find I rather have a knack for it.

  More curious than I had a right to be, I nodded. “I would be honored.”

  Her lips pressed down tight, and she looked so innocent. I knew the vixen she was, but now I was getting to see an entirely different side to her.

  “‘A many-faceted temptress,’” I murmured, “‘her depths unknowable, her passions tempestuous, and with one kiss, a man’s ruin...’”

  Many poems had been written about the sea. That had always been one of my favorites, and the words now seemed truer than ever.

  Lifting her chin high, she gave me a regal curtsy, then turned and slowly walked away.

  ~*~

  Calypso

  Why in Tartarus had I offered to take him with me this morning?

  Grumpy, I knotted the sash of my servant’s apron around my trim tail.

  Linx snuffled.

  “What?” I snapped.

  You know what.

  “No, Linx,” I looked at her cross-eyed, “I’m sure that I don’t.”

  I know she knew what I was feeling; we were two halves of the same whole, after all. But I refused to acknowledge that I was a foul, temperamental hagfish this morning. That currently the seas were rocking violently and that pirates and sailors alike were eyeing the horizon with wary, fearful eyes. I was at the point that if I even broke a nail, I’d probably pitch a fit and sink at least ten vessels, just for the hell of it.

  Huffing, feeling her censure like a heavy brand, I flicked my tail, causing the ground beneath to rumble and the fault lines to groan.

  “Fine. You want to know what my problem is, I’ll tell you. My problem is the fact that when I’m not with Hades, my mind is clear, focused. I know what I must do. Have sex. Have fun. And then send him on his merry way once I’m through.”

  But then I thought about his eyes last night, so haunted, so open to me, and my traitorous heart had trembled at the sight of it. I’d wanted to hold him. To rock him to my breast. And not for sex at all. But to hold him.

  Hold him!

  I tapped my breast. “I am a goddess. I am not to be chained down. I am not to feel these trivial, sentimental, mawkish—”

  Calypso, she warned, you’re doing it again.

  “What?” I frowned, and then realized in an instant that the furniture in the room was shaking violently from a swift, rolling current.

  Blowing out a heavy breath, I pinched the bridge of my nose. If I didn’t watch it, I’d kill all my children. The only things precious to me in this world were them, and some (I thought of Nim) more than others.

  “Bloody poop, I’m in a foul mood.”

  Linx wrinkled her nose.

  Why did you offer to take him with you to the castle today, then?

  Plopping my fishy butt down on the clam-shell bed, I planted my chin on my fist and stared broodily at my sister.

  She was so pretty. Why couldn’t I have been born her instead of me? Instead of this volatile, emotive crazy woman who could hardly make sense of her own emotions half the time.

  “I wish I were you,” I murmured. “Do you not suffer from loneliness ever, my Linx?”

  Shaking her equine head, she delicately nibbled on a mound of crab apples.

  I have you. I need nothing else. But you were never like me, Caly, and that is okay. You are you, and I adore you for who you are.

  I curled my lip. “I am a scatterbrained nitwit. I offered to take Hades with me last night because I missed him. Can you imagine? He’d just given me pleasure, and I was satisfied. Why was that not enough? Suddenly I miss him and want to be where he is and wonder what clothes he wears today and whether I can taste his cock as he tasted my pearl and—”

  Linx’s laughter flitted through my head like sea bells. Seems to me you’ve developed quite an attachment to him.

  “Yes, but I didn’t want to!” I knew I was acting petulant, but I neither cared nor desired to act adult at the moment. There were some days when being a grown-up sucked. Today was one of them.

  My heart ached. Literally ached in my chest. And how was that possible? Why had sleeping with him made me feel all these violent, maudlin emotions?

  Hades was a horrible man. He’d schemed to keep Persephone by tricking her with his pomegranates, and he’d basically admitted to me to having done something nefarious to her. He was known to be rude, dismissive, cold, and calculating.

  Of course, the last few qualities I found rather charming, as I, too, had my moments.

  Stupid, perfidious heart. I couldn’t even list his flaws without wanting to defend them, even if only to myself.

  Gnashing my teeth, I glowered at my sister. “I like him.”

  The words were ripped from me.

  Yes, I know, love, it’s quite obvious. She slurped down an apple that’d tried to wiggle away. I frowned. Apples didn’t wiggle, and then I realized a couple of hermit crabs had hidden themselves in with the batch of apples.

  I had to swallow my gag. Linx and I were both vegetarians. I found the thought of eating my own a little on the cannibalistic side. If she knew what she’d done, she would vomit, and I would have a major mess on my hands. Hippocampus vom was far from pleasant; it smelled a little like horse dung and looked like putrid soup. But...as she hadn’t seemed to notice, I wouldn’t tell her.

  Getting up, I pretended to swim toward my vanity but instead accidentally on purpose flicked my tail at her bowl, causing the other hermits to scatter out and disappear.

  Linx blew out an agitated breath. She knew I’d done it on purpose. She didn’t know why.

  Caly.

  “Linxy.” I rolled my eyes and patted my silvery hair back into place. I looked so sexy this morning. There was a flush to my cheeks, and my thick hair was caught up in a plait that danged like a horse’s tail across my bare shoulder.

  I’d worn one of my prettier outfits, really just strategically placed pearls of differing lengths wrapped around me, so that each time I moved it highlighted my sensual curves.

  While I didn’t exactly look ready to go cook and clean, I was beautiful. And that counted for far more.

  My stomach dived. “I fear I have developed an infatuation with the beast, my darling.”

  Infatuations end, Calypso. Linx spoke as she nudged the last apple back into her bowl with the tip of her nose. Ride this out, and I’m sure you’ll be back to your old self in no time. Have sex. Make babies. Have fun. And for the love of Rhea, stop overthinking everything so much.

  “It’s not exactly overthinking. Do you know he killed Persephone?”

  Beautiful, horsy eyes widened. He did? I thought you said it wasn’t—

  I flicked my wrist. “Well, I’m not sure he killed her, but he knows what happened to her. They’ll come for him, no doubt. They’ll take him from me.”

  You sound displeased by that.

  There were no words for me to say to that. But they stayed with me throughout the rest of the day.

  Chapter 10

  Hades

  I’d been to Zeus’s temple, the palace in the clouds, the crown jewel of all of Olympus. A shining, majestic place crafted of the finest white marble, nestled upon a fluffy bank of clouds thicker than a marshmallow topping, where sunlight never faded and wine flowed freely.

>   My own Elysian fields were another wonder, a verdant Eden of blooms and greenery, where the faithful frolicked and reveled throughout all eternity.

  Demeter’s vast fields of wheat.

  Dite’s love temple dripping with the sensuous fragrances of myrrh and nubile, ripe women who lived only to worship their mistress.

  All of them beautiful, but none of them quite as enchanting to me as the sea garden Nimue—King Consort— and Calypso took me too.

  It was an underwater oasis, rolling green hills surrounded by jeweled strands of blue and green kelp that grew up from the ocean floor, where tiny and colorful fish swam through. A waterfall cascaded from the cliff face of a massive mountain range several yards before us.

  Bird fish flew through the azure, tropical waters, singing as they dived for their own meals.

  I rested my weight against an alabaster rock poking up from the ground, simply watching them.

  Nimue was pale with dark hair and eyes. She was ripe with child, her figure lush and enticing. But she paled in comparison to the maiden fussing beside her.

  My enchantress was yet again in Janita form, though today she’d broadened her hips just slightly, making an already delectable rear positively mouthwatering. Her breasts had likewise grown in mass, so that if I palmed them, I could not cup them entirely.

  Calypso had failed to introduce me to Nimue, so the Consort had had to do it on her own. But I could tell many things from studying them now.

  The first was that Nimue was of far greater significance to Calypso than she’d initially let on. The second was that though Calypso disguised herself, Nimue knew who she really was, though the goddess herself seemed completely unaware of that fact.

  “Tut tut, ye sit here, now, out of the burning sun,” Caly murmured tenderly, pointing at a spot on the blanket she’d tucked beneath a large overhang of rock so that, indeed, Nimue would be out of the noonday sun that wasn’t really sun at all.

  “Janita, honestly, I’m fin—”

  “Sit.” Calypso brooked no argument, pushing the Consort down with a firm shove.

  The consort dropped, casting me a grumpy frown that soon turned into an exasperated sort of forbearance.

  “As you wish, Janita. Though I really do wish you’d stop fussing over me. I’m a woman.”

  “Ye’re naught but a child.” Janita fluffed up the consort’s skirts. Then, with a final gentle pat to her knee, she turned and headed toward the basket of foods she’d left packed in the carriage some yards back.

  “Come here,” Nimue commanded to me when Janita had moved off.

  Grinning at being commanded so, I decided to oblige her. The woman was precious to Calypso, so I could do no less.

  Taking a seat on the opposite corner, I nocked a knee and inclined my head. “Consort, how may I serve?”

  Her eyes were wise, intelligent. This was a woman who missed nothing. Tapping her temple, she shot out a brief thought.

  You can hear me, can’t you?

  My lips curled at the edges. Yes.

  Good. Then tell me, who are you really? I know you are her sex partner, but you are no mere legger.

  Lifting a brow, I debated whether to answer. I had no need to answer her. She was no authority to me. But I rather liked the pretty little human. I hardly knew her, but she intrigued me nonetheless, so I decided to be honest with her.

  I am Hades.

  She blinked twice, swallowed, and then patted her chest. As in the—

  Yes.

  Shock flitted through her gaze as she glanced back at the carriage and then darted her eyes back to me. Goddess, Calypso sure knows how to pick ’em.

  My lips twitched, and I dipped my head, taking it as a compliment, whether it was intended to be or not.

  Well, I was going to threaten to cut your balls off if you hurt her, but I rather think that would be impossible with you.

  Chuckling beneath my breath, I could see where Calypso had adopted her strange idioms. There is no need to worry about me, Consort. I leave in a matter of days.

  Where are you going? Her fingers toyed with the petals of a baby sea bell, causing gold dust to scatter through the waters.

  Hell, more likely.

  Bow-shaped lips pursed. Hades, are you to bring war to my mate’s kingdom? Tell me now.

  Touching a fist to my heart, I shook my head. I vow to do no such. I am here only temporarily and only on the queen’s mercy.

  Do you like her?

  It seemed to me there was a wealth of meaning hidden behind the simple words.

  I shrugged. We hardly know one another.

  She shook her head and then cleared her throat.

  The next moment, I spied Calypso, with an armful of goods, bending over, giving me a tantalizing glimpse of her round posterior, and I couldn’t help but snort. The woman was maddening even when she didn’t try to be.

  Humming softly beneath her breath, she set her baskets down, lifted the lid, and began pulling out bottles of wine, roasts of fowl, bowls of creamy cheeses, nuts, olives, loaves of bread, and on and on and on it went, food for as far as the eye could see.

  “Oh damn,” she frowned, “I forgot the caviar, and I know how fond of that ye are, Consort.”

  “Janita, please, this spread would feed an army. There is no need—”

  “Pft!” Janita raspberried cutely, shushing Nimue with a heavy shake of her head, causing the delicate pearls around her breasts to bob and sway, forcing my eyes (as though by magic; fancy that) to gravitate to her pointed, coral-colored nipples. “None of that, now. I promised ye a feast, and a feast I’ll deliver. One moment.”

  With a happy grin, she swam off.

  This was a side of the goddess I’d never seen. Nurturing mother.

  And that’s when it hit me: Nimue was none other than the wife of Calypso’s son, Sircco.

  Something decidedly warm spread through my chest. In all my days, I’d never once seen Persephone so doting. Not to me, not to another male, not even to an animal. The self-centered whelp had only cared for herself.

  I felt Nimue’s eyes on me. Turning to her, I noticed a shrewd, calculating look.

  You do like her, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not.

  I shrugged. No sense in denying it. No sense in adding to it, either.

  If there is one thing I know about my mother-in-law, Hades, it is this: When she falls, she falls hard, and her love, while exceedingly rare, is a gift to be handled with the greatest reverence. She is a treasure worth savoring. Treat her well, and there is nothing that should be impossible to you.

  I pondered her words. I was a god. There was nothing impossible to me. And yet I could not change my fate. I’d had a hand in Persephone’s disappearance. My destiny was sealed and in the hands of a blind justice.

  Janita laughed. “I’ve got it!” She held up a tin of Beluga caviar the size of her head. “I knew I’d packed this beast away somewheres. Now,” she swam to our side, dropping to the other side of me and setting the tin down. “Let’s get our chow on.”

  ~*~

  Calypso

  “Ladies, I need to use the necessaries.” Hades’ thick voice—like sun-warmed molasses—rolled over me and made me shiver.

  I didn’t look at him when he got up, bowed to Nim, and sauntered off into the brush. I’d told him to act human, and taking a piss was about as human as it came, I supposed.

  “I like him,” Nimue said without preamble once he was out of hearing range. “What’s his name, Janita? You never have said.”

  Thinking on the fly, I latched onto the first name I thought of. “Harvey.”

  “Harvey. Odd name.” She delicately nibbled on a cracker that held a heaping dollop of caviar.

  “Mmhmm.” I pretended to fluff at a loose sliver of hair, which did not in fact exist, as I was perfectly coifed today.

  “Such manners he has. That voice,” she smirked, “and that body.”

  A fierce heat rose to my cheeks. “Yes,” I sighed, “he does have a
banging one. His stomach is shredded and his thighs like redwoods and his arms...Oh, goddess,” I fluttered my lashes, remembering the way he’d held all that glorious weight up on his arms as he’d tasted and suckled at my breasts. “He is lovely. He is also covered in scars.”

  “Scars,” she said, frowning softly.

  I smoothed out the line between her brows by reflex.

  “Oh, yes,” I continued, “from here,” I pointed to the hollow of my throat, “to here,” I trailed my finger down to my pubis.

  “Why?” she asked as she swallowed her last bite of cracker and then reclined with a heavy sigh. “Gods, Janita, I feel like a whale, but it was wonderful.”

  Accepting her adulation with a nod, I shrugged. “I do not ken, but I wish I did. I find it exceedingly odd for a man like him to be covered as he is. It smacks of deliberation. Though, I do find the marks to be rather fetching. I oftentimes want to lick my way across each one of ’em.”

  “You don’t say.”

  “Mmhm. Yes.” I popped a sweet sea grape into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

  Hades was giving us time to talk. I could tell because he was gone far longer than a man should piss.

  My realm was beautiful, and it wasn’t often I granted my peers permission to access it. I wondered what he thought of it. I’d very much like to explore his Elysian fields someday, perhaps even Tartarus. I was rather fond of fire.

  “Ask him.”

  “What?” I shook my head, scattering the images of ghostly wails and licking flames from my mind’s eye. “But why?”

  She shrugged. “It’s what people generally do when they wish to know one another better.”

  “But I don’t want to know him better, do I?” Why had that popped out a question? I shouldn’t want to know him better, and yet it seemed to me that I might actually be lying to myself. I was curious. Far more than I should be.

  I also wanted to know what he’d done to Sephone and why. Not that I much cared for that brat, but he couldn’t just go off and kill a goddess willy nilly, whether she deserved it or not.

  It was god etiquette 101.

  After what the pantheon had done to the Titans, the three Fates had decreed no more killing or enslaving of family; otherwise the offender’s term as a reigning god would come to a screeching and violent end.