Otrera spoke around a mouthful of strawberry. “Jason is pretty clear about them being respectful.”
“All the same—” I snagged a crepe from the picnic basket. “It’s best not to take chances. So we’ve set down a few ground rules to keep us all safe.”
“Nothing major,” Otrera said. “Like Glauce said, nothing’s actually happened. But we keep an eye out for each other. Especially at the larger gatherings where there’s any chance of drinking. If one of us decides to leave with someone, it’s after the rest of us have made damn sure it’s because we want to.”
“As for the rest of the time, be careful. Be aware of your surroundings. Don’t—”
“Flirt,” Glauce interrupted with a flutter of her lashes. “Tease, look too pretty, dress too scantily, drink too much, or you know, exist. Have I about summed it up?”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop exaggerating.”
Elise stared at us all in disbelief. “You guys know none of that—I mean, if one of them decided to—nothing you did or didn’t do would—”
“Of course not,” Otrera said quickly. “And again, nothing has happened, and hopefully nothing ever will. You can flirt, tease, dress however you like. Drink whatever you want. Just be mindful of your surroundings. And if you start to feel uncomfortable, don’t hesitate to find one of us.”
Elise drained her mimosa and held out her glass for a refill with an expectant tilt of her head. “Who should I be worried about?”
“Nothing has happened.” Otrera held her hands up. “So, I wouldn’t say—”
Elise dismissed that with a snort. “Someone on this island has got you all so worried that you brought me all the way up here to warn me. Who is it?”
“That’s not—” I argued.
Elise held out her free hand in a gesture of surrender. “I get it. You don’t want to spread rumors when nothing has actually happened. On an island this small, that’s probably wise. On the other hand, you shouldn’t ignore your instincts. Meet me in the middle?” She grinned when Glauce topped off her mimosa. “Tell me about the guys on the island. You don’t have to tell me which ones make you feel uncomfortable if you don’t want to. Just tell me about all of them. What are they like? What can they do?” She smiled. “The more you know, right?”
“Well . . .” I exchanged a look with Glauce and Otrera. “I guess we should start with the charmers.”
Chapter XV
Aphrodite
TWO WEEKS LATER, I lay face down on a comfortable, squishy lounge chair, and for the first time I could remember, I couldn’t feel a single tense muscle in my back. Dreamscapes were nice like that. Even the taste of moist salt on my lips felt like a welcome sensation. My fingers trailed in the soft, powdery sand, and the constant brine-scented breeze kept my sun-soaked skin from overheating. So when a cold shadow fell over me, I was not pleased.
Poseidon cleared his throat. “As much as I’m sure you’d love to just lay here and ignore me the entire night, we need to talk.”
“Fine.” I craned my neck, squinting against the sunlight that blazed around the Poseidon-shaped silhouette. Motioning to the lounge chair beside me, I tried to pretend I felt safe. That I didn’t still remember the way he’d crushed me to him, his tongue snaking down my throat. After all, I had the upper hand now. Time to act like it. “Did you guys find Narcissus?”
The sea god nodded. “We’re watching him from a distance for now, hoping he’ll lead us to Jason. I maintain it would be better to question him, but . . .”
“You were overruled,” I guessed.
“Athena agrees with Persephone.” When Poseidon crossed his arms, sunlight spilled over his shoulders. “There’s more to gain through observation than interrogation. Plus, if he were to escape, it would lend more credibility to Tantalus’s story, and that could hurt your cover.”
“Have you guys figured out how Tantalus escaped from the Underworld in the first place?” The last I’d seen of the demigod, he was locked in one of his own cages with Ares’s spear in his chest, waiting for Persephone or one of the others to come lift his immortality curse. I’d been assured the demigod was now firmly dead and wasn’t going anywhere outside of his own special hell.
“He is not yet forthcoming with information.” Poseidon splayed his hands as if to say “what can you do.”
Hades would have cracked him by now, but a skilled torturer Persephone was not.
“Maybe he had inside help?” I swept my hair off my shoulders, smoothing out the damage the wind had done. Zeus had had a contact in the Underworld; it was entirely possible DAMNED did as well.
“Possibly, but that still doesn’t get him back on the boat.”
How did Tantalus get back on the cruise ship? “Teleportation?” I bit my lip and tasted salt.
“The number of beings authorized to teleport between realms numbers three at the moment. One is missing and the other two firmly deny their involvement.”
“Hades would have never put him back on that ship.” I shifted out of Poseidon’s shadow so the sunlight could warm my skin.
“I know.” Poseidon raked his hair back, a picture of frustration. “Hades is a lot of things, but careless isn’t one of them.”
I shielded my eyes so I could look at Poseidon through the bright sunlight. “Can Tantalus teleport?”
“He shouldn’t be able to.”
“We’ve been saying that about the demigods a lot,” I grumbled, dropping my hand to the green lounge chair.
“Tantalus predates the selective breeding. But even if teleportation was within his skill set, he shouldn’t be able to bring Hades with him.”
“Maybe Hades followed him and then—”
“We’re working on it, but that isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.” He sat on the chair next to mine. “You’ve done good work providing information about the demigods on the island. Now there’s something else I’d like you to look into. There’s a shield around the island.”
“No duh.”
“Tell me about it.”
I sat up, squishing the chair’s soft pillow so I could fold my legs beneath me. “It extends out into the water a good ways. There’s a dock, and—”
“Does water pass through it?”
I narrowed my eyes at the interruption. “I’d know that how?”
Poseidon gritted his teeth. “There’d be movement. Waves.”
I glanced at the pristine water of Poseidon’s dreamscape, mentally comparing it to the view outside my window. “Yeah, there are waves. We can see the other side of the shield too, because the water keeps going past the flags.”
“Flags?” Poseidon raised his eyebrows at that.
“I guess they don’t want to risk ramming their boat into it.”
“Good.” He laid back on the chair, his hand trailing in the powdery sand. “That’ll make this easy for you.”
I tore my gaze away from the water to give Poseidon a suspicious glare. “Make what easy for me?”
“If water can pass through the shield, so can blood. Summon me, and I’ll find the island.”
Oh hell, no. It was bad enough I was a playing the part of the Trojan horse. I wasn’t going to summon Poseidon here without the rest of the Pantheon to temper him. “So we can experience Atlantis 2.0? No thanks.”
“The island is partially Persephone’s realm,” he reminded me. “I’m not going to act on it without her collaboration.”
And Persephone would never agree to drown an island full of people. “Fine. I’ll try to summon you through the shield. Now shut up and let me enjoy this ridiculous waste of power you call a dreamscape.” I laid back down, stretching out beneath the warmth of the sun.
He glared at me, his ocean eyes swirling with rage. “Do not presume to—”
“Do I need to call in a f
avor?” I threatened. I’d tricked Poseidon into promising me three unconditional favors. Since gods couldn’t lie, our promises were binding. “Because I’m very tempted to mute you for all time.”
When Poseidon closed his mouth with a click and glanced down, I shivered. Breaking eye contact wasn’t a sign of deference. He’d promised not to so much as look my way with ill intent again. No doubt he was thinking of all kinds of creative ways to break his vows. If I died, he’d be free. I turned my face toward the illusion of sunshine and tried to relax, despite being stuck in a dreamscape with a scumbag like Poseidon.
Poseidon fell silent for all of five minutes. “I’m bored,” he proclaimed. “Why can’t Ares just shut you up if you wake up screaming? He’s with you, isn’t he?”
I didn’t open my eyes. “He’s off at all hours running errands for Jason. We’re lucky the island is small enough for him to swing by and drop me into a dreamstate before I fall asleep.”
“A ridiculous necessity,” Poseidon scoffed.
I shrugged against the warm fabric of my beach chair. “It protects him too. At this point, if my neighbors heard me screaming, they’d barge in with proverbial pitchforks ready to hang ‘Adonis’ for trying to murder me.”
“How is he supposed to find out anything if they’re already suspicious of him?”
I’d had the same concern. “He claims it could be a benefit. If they’re watching him . . .”
“They aren’t paying as much attention to you.” Poseidon sighed. “It’s a risky strategy, but I suppose none of this has been ideal.”
Cool wind licked at my toes, so I pulled my knees up, twisting to my side. Ares had been right so far. Between their disdain for him and their guilt for what had happened to me, the demigods were much more willing to talk to me than ‘Adonis.’ I was their fears come true. The innocent blood spilled because they’d chosen to fight.
They blamed the gods for what had happened to me, not the insane demigod who’d actually beaten the hell out of me. I clarified events every chance I got. But people had an amazing ability to filter out information that didn’t fit their narrative.
Over the past two weeks, I’d wandered the island, eliminating buildings where the demigods could be hiding Hades and planting as many “maybe the gods aren’t totally evil” seeds as I could. Driven by guilt, everyone seemed to have made it their personal mission to show me how amazing the island was. How much better life here could be. They opened their arms wide to show me how nice they were; how welcome I was. As if I didn’t feel guilty enough. More and more, I found myself worried about what would happen to them. Particularly if Poseidon had any say in the outcome.
He sighed again, and I lost my patience.
“Why don’t you just remove yourself from the rotation?” I twisted around and raised the back of my lounge chair so I could sit up. “It’s not like I want to be stuck with you all night, either.”
“I tried that. Persephone wasn’t having it. Our resources are spread too thin and—”
“After you pitched such a fit about her not being a responsible realm ruler, it’s hard to justify ducking out just because you’re bored?” I didn’t bother to disguise the smugness in my voice. “That’s what you get for being such a dick.”
I felt a wave of anger wash over him, its heat searing the dreamscape for one blinding moment.
Smiling, I leaned back in the chair, basking in the glow. Maybe I should feel bad for goading him so much, when he was here doing me a favor. But something about him assaulting me on the cruise, then threatening to kill Adonis if I didn’t sleep with him, annihilated any sense of gratitude or compassion I’d typically feel toward the sea god.
“Maybe we should just . . . not talk,” Poseidon managed to say through gritted teeth.
“Sounds great to me.”
AS SOON AS I woke the next morning, I filled Ares in on Poseidon’s plan.
“It can’t be you,” he protested, tugging on a pair of boots.
“They are watching your every move,” I argued, scowling at Elise’s bikini in my reflection. It’s wasn’t that it looked bad, but I’d never liked flounce bikinis. The loose fabric tickled the top of my ribs. Plus, the hot pink color was something I’d never been able to get away with as a redhead, so the fact that the color looked amazing on her only served as a reminder of how different I looked. My gaze lingered on the jagged scar on my side. At least all the bruising and swelling had faded away. Pulling a sheer swimsuit cover on over my head, I added, “I’m our only option.”
Ares gave me an incredulous look. “You’re still recovering from an abdominal stab wound and broken ribs. Both of those make swimming pretty damned difficult.”
“It’s been over a month. I should be healed, right?” Walking around didn’t hurt as much anymore, though the steep hills left me out of breath. “They took x-rays before letting me out of the hospital and said I was fine.” Maybe I didn’t have any powers left, but physically, I’d been in perfect shape when I was injured. Healing-wise, that gave me at least some boost.
Ares shook his head. “What was he thinking, asking this of you? If you overdo it before you’re fully healed—” He broke off with a growl as he yanked on his shoelaces. “Look, you’ve got a follow-up appointment next week, right? Discuss it with the doctors then. If they say—”
“I’m not waiting another week. Every minute we spend here is risky.” We needed an exit strategy, and we couldn’t get that until the rest of the gods found us.
Ares worked a muscle in his jaw. “Let me take a look, at least.”
“Umm . . .”
Technically, Ares knew everything there was to know about medicine. And of all the gods, he probably had the most hands-on experience. Ares didn’t have enough power to heal all the injured he encountered on the battlefields without burning through his reserve, but that didn’t stop him from helping where he could. When power failed, he turned to field medicine.
“Okay.” Swallowing hard, I tugged the swim cover off and sat on the edge of the bed. His eyes flickered over me, but didn’t linger, and I tried to stop myself from wondering if that was out of respect or just that he didn’t find me worth staring at in this glamour. This isn’t your body anyway, why do you care?
Ares’s fingers burned against my side as he pressed against the jagged scar a handspan above my hipbone. The scar should go away once my powers returned and healed me fully. Hopefully.
“Still tender?” he asked when he saw me wince.
I nodded, digging my hand into the fluffy comforter.
He moved his probing fingers to my ribs just beneath the rim of the bikini, feeling along my ribcage and sternum. When I drew in a sharp breath, he glanced up, alarm flashing across his features. “That hurts?”
“Ah, not that I’ve noticed.” Heat flooded my face. I stared down at the plush carpet beneath his boots so he wouldn’t see the longing in my expression.
“Sorry,” Ares murmured, his hands moving to my other side. “CPR can be pretty brutal.”
Ares and Artemis had kept me alive for hours after Tantalus charmed me into dropping dead. Hours. It had taken that long for my poison-weakened powers to get strong enough to keep me breathing on my own. I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I had people who cared enough to do that for me.
Ares dropped his hands and sat beside me on the bed. “Everything feels fine, but I’d rather you wait a week so we can get another set of—” He broke off when he saw my face. “What’s wrong?”
I pressed my lips together in a tight line, my eyes burning as I tried to keep it together, but a sob escaped anyway. The memory of Tantalus hitting me, the worry in Ares’s eyes when he brought me back, the fear, the pain, all of it hit me all at once, turning me into a shaking, blubbering mess.
Ares pulled me to him without hesitation, his a
rms warm against my bare back. Unable to tell me that it was okay or that we were safe or any other meaningless platitude, he simply said, “I know.”
“Gods,” I gasped, wiping my eyes. “Every time I think I’m over it . . .” Shaking my head, I moved away from Ares. I pushed myself off the bed.
Ares stayed seated. “I still see you.” His voice sounded hoarse. “Lying there, not breathing, lifeless.” He held out his shaking hands. “The way your body jerked and cracked beneath my hands. You’re not the first person I’ve brought back that way, but it never felt as violent as—” Breaking off, he clenched his fists. “Rationally, I knew the most important thing was to keep your heart beating, but I just kept visualizing your ribs slicing into your lungs or organs or—I was so sure I was killing you. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Not if there was any chance I could bring you back.”
I turned around and planted myself in front of him, my voice firm. “And you did. You saved me.”
His fingers traced the scar on my side. “And then I almost killed you.”
Drawing in a deep shuddering breath, I forced a lightness into my voice that I didn’t feel. “Way to make it all about you.” I pushed his shoulder lightly, then spread my arms. “So what’s the verdict. Can I swim?”
He hesitated, his gaze flickering over me as he pushed off the bed. “I think you’re overestimating yourself. It’s a pretty good distance between the beach and the shield. And you’re still recovering your strength.”
I was weak, was what he meant. Before the cruise, I’d been a slightly more perfect version of a human girl my size and stature. Then I got on that stupid boat, drank poison, and ended up half dead. It turned out, without the ability to heal, lying in a hospital bed for weeks had taken a toll on my perfectly toned and effortlessly conditioned muscles.
“It won’t take long to build up your strength,” Ares assured me when he saw my dismay. “But I doubt you’ll be making it all the way to the shield today.”
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