The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1)

by Jovee Winters

  “Oh, Hades,” her shoulders slumped, “the effects of the snail are temporary. She’d come out of the coma soon enough. You need to tell someone the truth.”

  “I do, and she’s returned to me. I cannot bear the sight of her right now.”

  “And yet you would allow yourself to be cast into torment. What an idiot you are, my dear.”

  Her words were sharp, but her kiss was sweet.

  “I have an idea, Death Boy.” She patted my chest. “But tonight, I am tired. So do with me as you will.”

  Tossing her arms over her head, she yawned loudly, and I could see that she really was tired.

  “Thalassa, all I wish of you tonight is to stay with me until the light returns.”

  Grabbing a fistful of my shirt, she dragged me to the head of the bed, shoved the sheet down with her foot, and, with a heavy exhalation, vanished her gown.

  And for just a moment, with all her curves on display to my greedy gaze, I wanted to take it all back and have my way with her. But then somehow I was beneath the blanket and without clothes on, and her sweet scent invaded my senses as she snuggled into my side.

  “I thought you’d never ask, Bubble Butt,” she murmured sleepily.

  I smiled, kissed the crown of her head, and imagined sleep would elude me the rest of the night with the feel of her pressed so tight. But I slept like a baby, and it was glorious.

  ~*~

  Calypso

  I awoke to the feel of a slumbering dragon resting on top of me. I was about to kick the beast off when I realized it was only Hades snoring like a banshee.

  “Aww, you’re so adorable,” I whispered, unable to help from wiggling my bottom.

  A thick, sharp cock pressed into me. “Move like that again, and I’ll toss you on your back.”

  “Oh.” I wiggled harder, and he did just as he threatened to do. Before I knew it, he was wedged in tight between my thighs and staring at me in way that made me feel unbalanced, off kilter, and absolutely freaking amazing.

  Flicking at his nose, I huffed. “Get off me, you beast.”

  “No.” He settled in, rubbing himself between my thighs as he languidly kissed a hot trail down the side of my neck.

  I moaned, rutting his cock even as I shook my head. “No seriously, let me up.”

  Realizing I wasn’t just saying that, he finally stopped and pulled back, staring at me with a quizzical brow. I whimpered. He hadn’t needed to stop that quickly.

  Wrapping my arms around his back, I forced him back down and humped his still-bulging bit of anatomy.

  “Thalassa, what are you doing?” he asked in a slow, syrupy voice that had me seeing stars.

  I continued to rub harder. A little bit more to the left and I’d be there. I wiggled my bum until he was pressed more fully to the spot, and then I proceeded to “rub one out,” as they say. Now that phrase I understood all too well.

  Hades let me do my thing, because that’s what Hades did. But he’d not moved, only continued to gaze at me with a perturbed frown. Sighing with satisfaction, I pulled him down to me for a kiss, which he quickly if not brusquely returned before growling in his chest.

  “Well, what a way to start a morning,” I chirped, and scooted out from under him.

  “Thalassa!” he snapped when I sauntered toward the door with my rear exposed to all the world. “You’re going to just leave me like this?”

  Flinging the door wide, I grasped the edge of it and grinned at him. “They say waiting makes the heart grow fonder—or, in your case, the balls bluer.” I shrugged. “I’ve got places to be and idiots to save you from. So just wait for me. But don’t touch yourself!” I warned with an eyebrow raise. “I’ll know if you do, and you’ll pay.”

  He curled his lips and leaned back on his hands. “Oh yeah, how?”

  The way the blanket draped over his hipbones hid nothing from my view, but it did make him look much more naughty and had me sweating above the brow.

  Damn, he was hawt.

  “Do you like carrots, lover?”

  Frowning, he shoved fingers through his thick dark hair. Swarthy skin, rippling, bulging biceps with veins that poked out...my gods, he was delicious. And absolutely all mine. I’d decided that last night.

  I’d fight to the death for him.

  “Not particularly,” he frowned.

  “Well, I wasn’t intending them to be eaten, silly boy.” I winked and then, with a toodle-loo, vanished to Linx’s stables.

  She lifted her head from where she’d been slumbering, a basket of half-eaten sea fruit beside her.

  Her smile was knowing.

  “What?” I asked, trying to hide my grin, but I was losing that battle.

  Are we keeping him, then?

  “Well, duh.”

  Patting my hair into place, I twirled with my arms spread wide, asking without words how I looked. Hades liked me in my more primal form, and so I would head to Olympus today looking like the beautiful freak I was. I’d even managed to manufacture a dress for myself that I imagined Dite might wear. It had cutouts beneath the breasts, above the stomach, and at the hips. It was crafted of white glowworm silk and was a bit more diaphanous than what Lust typically seemed to want to wear, but I figured in this, I looked like the powerful goddess I was. But just to seal the deal, I crafted a tiara of pure gold with sea urchin spines jutting up from it and placed it just so on my head.

  It was time to remind those a-holes just how much of a bitch I could really be when I was angered.

  Lovely as ever, sister mine.

  “Naturally,” I inclined my head then turned to go but remembered something. “Oh, and Linx, be a dear and lock our gates. I’ve a feeling our waters might float with bodies for a while.”

  What in the world have you got planned in that lovely head of yours?

  “Just a little bit of hell.”

  Then, with a wink and an air kiss, I vanished, making a detour back to Hades’ room first.

  “Oh, sex slave,” I chirped when I entered, delighted to see his jaw drop at my appearance.

  He’d dressed back in his typical attire of black silk and loafers, impeccably groomed as ever, and I wanted nothing more than to tear his buttons off and muss him all up.

  I loved that only I got to see him that way.

  “Calypso?” He scrubbed a hand down his jaw.

  “Close your gates to the Underworld if you would.”

  He could do it with his mind. Obviously he’d been too busy that one day being rustled up like a cow to the slaughter to think about it, for which I’d be eternally grateful, as I’d have never gone to visit him otherwise. What a horrible waste of a sex slave that would have been.

  “Why?” His deep, deep voice shivered.

  I smiled sweetly. “Because we’re about to piss off some serious bumholes today.”

  Nostrils flaring, a grin cut one corner of his face. “Don’t ever change, Thalassa.”

  “Why would I? I’m already perfect.”

  I was just about ready to leave when he said,” If you ever take another lover, I’ll kill him. Fair warning to you now.”

  “Oh, I love it when you get all caveman on me. Okay then, no other lovers. But I do have an issue with a certain Persephone thinking she’s got rights to you.”

  “She doesn’t.”

  “Hm.” I thinned my lips, adjusting the tiara. “We’ll just see about that. A girl can never be too careful with her goodies. And your goodies are my goodies, Death Boy.”

  He chuckled. “One last thing though before you leave. What exactly are you planning to do with carrots?”

  “You really want to know?”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

  “I saw a whore shove one up her john’s ass. He loved it. Came in like ten seconds.”

  He blinked, almost looking shocked. “Hm. Well,” he cleared his throat, “if I were Apollo, I’m sure I would love it.”

  “I knew it,” I snapped my fingers.

  “But if
you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on the carrot, my dear.”

  I shrugged. “If you say so. But it would have been fun.” I wiggled my brows.

  Instantly his eyes hooded, and I could read his thoughts as if I’d heard him speak them. He was now curious. I was an excellent lover. “Ten seconds, huh?” he asked a moment later, but I only laughed and vamoosed.

  Chapter 15

  Calypso

  Moments later, I was headed to a place no one had expected me to go, lest of all myself.

  I’d not visited with my sisters in, oh, hm...years, really. Like a couple hundred thousand, give or take. We weren’t really that tight. Like we were close, I guess, but we weren’t tiiiiiight, there were no Christmas cards exchanged or birthday presents doled out. But we really couldn’t live without each other either. It was a family thing. What can I say?

  Wrinkling my nose, I headed to Fiera’s hearth first, mainly because as my polar opposite, she was unpleasant for me to be around for too long.

  Screwing my eyes shut, I willed myself to the realm of Fire. I knew the moment I’d arrived, because I began to sizzle. I had a limitless amount of water at my disposal to keep me from harm as I walked down the brimstone pathway flickering with hottest flame. Shielding myself tight, I admired my sister’s decorative skills.

  For as far as the eye could see, this land and everything that lived in it burned, a perpetual flame that would never be extinguished. The mountains burned. Fire oaks with their beautiful fiery leaves snapped and crackled. Fireflies with burst of flame emitting from their tiny rears flitted happily here and there.

  Tiny fire imps, nasty little devils with teeth as sharp as Bruce’s, bounded between trees, staring at me with wide-eyed wonder. They were dressed as wee woodcutters, with breeches that came to their knobby knees and shirts stained a permanent black. Their hair was not actually hair at all but blue flame that writhed and danced like charmed cobras around their withered frames.

  I waved merrily to a boy, no older than eight, nine thousand years at the most, who came closest to me.

  “Where is Fiera?” I called out.

  He licked his lips. “Ye look tasty, ye do.”

  Grinning, I knelt and held out my hand. “Would you like a wee nibble, little devil?”

  As he hopped toward me, I could feel the eyes of those hiding still gazing on me with wonder, fear, and even a dollop of hungry jealousy.

  The imp moved strangely, dragging his knuckles across the ground with each hop, reminding me oddly of a guttering candle flame. When he neared, I saw that his face had the youthful appearance of a cherubim, but his brows were nothing but soot and ash. His lips were wormy little lines and his eyes an unusual color of purple.

  How adorable he was.

  Cooing to him, I gave him one of my fingers. “You may nibble, but do not bite, or I shall cut your head off your neck.”

  “Yessum.” He bobbed his head enthusiastically and then, opening his razor-sharp mouth, suckled gently on the tip of my pinky.

  The touch of his tongue was fire through my bones, and I had to admit to liking the burn. Water was a delicacy in these parts and much savored. He drank his fill of me, so that his belly was nicely distended by the time he’d finished.

  Then, chortling happily, he grasped my hand and beamed. I’d made a friend.

  “I’ll take ye to me queen,” he chirped. I was about to ask him to unhand me, because the steam curling between our palms was making me feel wilty, but he was so ridiculously adorable that I that decided just this once I’d deal.

  Pea Brain, as I’d soon learned he was called, blathered on and on relentlessly about how pretty I was and how fine I’d tasted, and would I come back tomorrow and feed him again?

  To which I smiled but shook my head no. “If I feed you again, I would have to feed the rest of you miscreants, and I’d be here an eternity, Pea Brain. I am here but for a moment, and then I should have to leave.”

  I soon spied a thatched hut off in the distance. The entire thing was burning, of course.

  There was a beautiful little garden out in front that looked like vegetables and fruits. I recognized a few of them: fire snap peas and charred tomatoes on the vine.

  My stomach grumbled; I’d forgotten to eat this morning. I wondered if I could beg some food of my sister.

  And then I spied said sister. She was as lovely as ever. Her figure was trim and toned, and she wore a buttery gown that fell past her ankles and that sparked with the light of a thousand flames.

  Like the imp’s, her hair was also made of fire, but this fire was green, a mystical flame that curled down her back becomingly. Her skin gleamed like burnished opal.

  “Thalassa?” Fiera asked with a soft frown marring her polished skin. “To what do I owe this honor?”

  Pea Brain dropped my hand then and then, dropping prostrate before his queen, chanted, “I am not worthy. I am not worthy, my flaming enchantress of beauty.”

  Fiera cast him a benevolent smile. “You may go now, Pea.”

  Scampering to his feet, he bounded off like a tiny kangaroo.

  When I had her full attention again, I said, “I wish you to rain down fire on Olympus, love.”

  “Oh, do you?” She smiled. “And what have those fools done this time?”

  The last time Fiera had done aught against them had been during the great Titan war. For reasons beyond me, she’d sympathized with the stupid brutes. They’d lost, of course, but to the best of my knowledge, she’d not bothered with the Olympians since.

  “They wish to harm my sex slave.”

  It took her a moment to grasp what I’d said, and when she did, her opalescent eyes widened. “Thalassa, are you virgin no more?”

  Giggling, I cried, “Nope!”

  She clutched at her chest. “And how was it? I thought you did not desire a man’s touch.”

  Rolling my eyes as though in ecstasy, I sighed. “Ye gods, it is glorious. His cock is a magnificent thing, and I wish to ride it for an eternity, but now the bastards threaten to torture him for a millennium at least, and I am not ready to release him. He is mine.”

  Perplexed wonder crossed her face. I knew my confession amazed and confused her. If I’d been her, I was sure I’d feel much the same way. There’d never been a man worthy of us.

  Until now. Hades was quite worthy of me.

  “I will do as you say, Thalassa. I will aid you in this, but first I desire a boon from you.”

  I’d come prepared, knowing I’d be asked. Nothing was ever granted without a cost.

  “Yes? What do you wish?”

  Her eyes narrowed into shrewd slits. “I too wish to know the wonders of a man. Help me to find one, and I am at your disposal.”

  I thinned my lips. “You do understand, my darling, that not all men are created equal? What you ask is a tall order. And because I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, I would see you have nothing but the best. And sadly, I have taken the best.”

  Mine. Mine. Mine.

  She shrugged. “Second best is fine by me. I find I am curious about your male and wish to know one of my own. At least to taste one.”

  “Hm.” I eyed her. Lovely as she was, she had one fatal flaw. “It could take some time, love. There are few in this world that could handle your heat.”

  She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “A man for a boon. That is my wish.”

  “Done.” I snapped my fingers. Surely there was someone out there who wouldn’t die under her touch. And if a few lost their lives in the search, well, they clearly weren’t worthy, right?

  I smiled. “Now, about those tomatoes.” I pointed and fanned my lashes. “Pretty please.”

  ~*~

  Thirty minutes later I shoveled the last tomato into my mouth, swallowed, and zipped myself on over to Tiera’s place. For being Earth, it would have been natural to expect to see lush grass and plant life everywhere, but there was nothing but rocks.

  The place was flat, barren, and utterly bland.r />
  There were no cute little imps to nibble on my fingers. There were no rock bunnies or Chihuahuas scampering up to come greet me.

  To be honest, Tiera was as dull as the place she called home.

  Wrinkling my nose, I followed the dusty trail to her house, which was nothing but a circular tower of gray stones that’d been leeched of most of its color by the sun.

  “Tiera,” I called when I neared her steps. An “unwelcome” mat was placed on the doorstep.

  It was literally unwelcoming. The words, to be more precise, said, “Leave now, or I’ll eat you.”

  My sister was such a darling.

  Tiera came out, scowling, a moment later. Her skin was pale gray, the type of color that came from rarely leaving the den she called a house. Skulking in shadow did that to a person.

  She was dressed in drab colors from head to toe, and the only real color to her was her hair, a rich nutty brown she had twisted back into a tight bun that sharply revealed the harsh, straight planes of her angular face.

  Tiera wasn’t hideous. None of us were. But she’d never been one who cared about her appearance, either.

  “What the hell do you want, Thalassa?” she snapped without preamble.

  “I just wanted to say hi.” I waved.

  Of all my sisters, she’d be the toughest to convince. But I had a pearl up my sleeve, a little bauble she’d always wanted but I’d never quite been able to part with before.

  Tiera had one weakness—precious stones. And the rarer they were, the more green with envy she became. There was one stone in particular she’d never be able to reach, as it only grew beneath my waters, and there was only one of them in existence. Oh yes, she’d play ball with me.

  “No you don’t, you selfish beast. You hate me and I hate you, so just tell me what you’re here for and let’s get this over with.”

  I huffed. “Well, fine, if you’re going to be that way about it. I want you to create an earthquake through all of Olympus. Just level it to the very ground.”

  “No.” She thinned her lips and turned to go.

  “Don’t you even want to know why?” I asked, racing around her so she was forced to look at me.

  “Not really. Go away.”

  She waved her hand at me.