Venus Rising: Book 3 Aphrodite Trilogy (The Daughters of Zeus 6)

by Kaitlin Bevis

  Resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at the goddess of wisdom took way more effort than it should have. The last thing I needed was to give her any more proof of my immaturity. On the other hand, if a pantheon full of ancient and powerful beings couldn’t handle a little immaturity, then maybe they shouldn’t be looking to a nineteen-year-old girl for leadership.

  Maybe it was stupid to hold out hope for Medea to contact us, but as long as there was a chance for a peaceful resolution, I wasn’t going to sign off on torture. Gods.

  You know if the tables were turned—

  The tables were turned.

  I winced, realizing I’d clamped down on the inside of my cheek in an effort to keep my inner struggle off my face. Within seconds, the faint metallic taste of my healing powers coated the inside of my mouth.

  The demigods had Aphrodite, they had Hades, and they had Adonis. I had to believe they wouldn’t hurt them as long as there was a shot for a truce.

  They poisoned Aphrodite and tried to kill Poseidon. Do you think there’s even a chance they aren’t—

  “Turn him over to me,” Athena pleaded, her knuckles whitening. “You don’t have to dirty your hands. Just give me the demigod, and I’ll—”

  “I said no!” My voice flew to the vaulted ceilings with a gust of wind that smelled green and raw. I knew torture, I’d been tortured. I wasn’t going to subject someone else to it, and I refused to believe that every minute that ticked by while Poseidon searched for the island was a minute longer that the people I cared about were being treated like that. I couldn’t think that way. Not if I wanted to stay sane.

  And I needed to stay sane. Power thrummed beneath my skin, building up to a slow crescendo. I sucked in a deep breath, willing it back under control.

  I was so sick of the Pantheon. The gods were quick to criticize and faster to suggest their own ways of doing things, which would be awesome if they had even an ounce of follow-through.

  That’s not fair. Everyone was pulling their weight. Poseidon was searching for the island. Ares and Artemis had volunteered to be Hephaestus’s guinea pigs while he worked on countermeasures for the poison. The minor deities were helping Orpheus get in touch with the demigod grapevine. Not all demigods had joined DAMNED, but there was a chance one of them had heard something. Meanwhile, all Athena and I were doing was poking holes in each other’s plans; while checking the dreamscape now and then, on the off chance that Aphrodite, Hades, or Adonis managed to meet us there.

  “He could know something useful that could save time, possibly even save lives,” Athena argued. “Despite your low opinion of me, I take no joy in my creation’s sufferings. But it must be done. The demigods made their stance clear when they relocated the island. That wasn’t an exchange you witnessed, it was a coup. We have a window of instability when we can strike, but it is rapidly closing. The time for deliberation is at an end.”

  Spending this much time with the Pantheon was skewing my perspective. I couldn’t afford to start thinking like them. “Hades would wait. My mother—” my voice caught, but I cleared my throat with a harsh cough and soldiered on “—would have waited.” Not forever. I wasn’t that naïve, but they’d give it some time. Just in case.

  “Yes, they would wait.” Athena crossed her legs and plucked an imaginary piece of lint off her tan slacks. “Because they’re cowards. I had better hopes for you, but I see I was mistaken.”

  “You want to talk cowardice?” I snorted. “What do you call forcing a teenage girl to fight your battles for you? Sorry, no. You lost the right to complain about me being inexperienced or naïve or whatever the hell else you think you’re insulting me with the second you voted to use me instead of stepping up. You will damn well take me as I am.”

  Athena opened her mouth to argue, but I railroaded right over her.

  “Oh, and you don’t get to claim sympathy for ‘your creations,’ either.” I put her phrase in air quotes. “Not when you enabled the monster tormenting them for centuries because it benefitted you. That is why we’re in this mess right now. You know that, don’t you? Because you didn’t care about what Zeus was doing until it threatened you. You joined in. I know all the stories, all the facts. The things you did to people just because you could. It is no wonder they want us all dead. My mother wasn’t perfect, but at least she didn’t participate. Hades either.”

  “We didn’t all have the luxury of disappearing into our own realms! Some of us had to live with him.” Athena snapped to her feet, almost tripping over the floral rug in front of the couch. Her voice cracked with more emotion than I’d ever heard from her, but no power accompanied the outburst. The air didn’t charge or shift or smell of a stuffy old library or whatever her power signature would taste like.

  For a moment, I admired her self-control, then I realized that self-control had nothing to do with it. Athena didn’t have to struggle to hold her powers back, because she barely had enough to get by. I kept letting myself forget how much stronger I was.

  “We had to live with him,” Athena continued, her voice thick. “Day in and day out, whispering in our ears, telling us how the world owed us. Telling us how much the humans hated us, despised us, didn’t respect us enough. Driving us to action. People worshipped us, sacrificed to us, prayed to us, deferred to us. And we drank it in like wine. Zeus was a psychopath, but everyone who disagreed with him sat upon their high horses, judging us for living in the only world we’d ever known.

  “You think you’d be any different? You think there’s nothing you’d look back upon and regret? Wait a few generations, infant. Wait until time and values have shifted. Wait until some child looks at you with judgment in their eyes and asks how you could have done that, thought that, allowed that.”

  I lifted my chin, glaring at her. She knew nothing about me. Nothing about what I regretted. What I would or wouldn’t do.

  Athena gave a bitter laugh at my expression. “Time marches on, even for us immortals. The world is ever-changing. One day, you’ll grow old enough to look back and wonder how you could ever have been such a monster for something you wouldn’t think twice about now. And you’ll have two choices. Cling to your outdated beliefs or change. But what you cannot do is go back and reverse the damage you’ve done. No matter how much you wish to.” Her gray eyes met mine. “Move on. I know you hate me and everything I stand for. I don’t blame you. But we are all in this mess together, and we are never going to get out of it unless you listen to someone other than yourself.”

  “Just because I’m not blindly agreeing to your every suggestion doesn’t mean I’m not listening.” A heady floral scent whipped around me as the wind picked up, and I shoved off the yellow matte wall, breathing hard as I struggled to keep my powers under control. “I used your words in the truce meeting, agreed to your terms! And look what happened. You are not infallible. I just don’t agree with you. We. Wait.”

  The front door slammed open, bouncing off the wall as Orpheus rushed into the room. “Narcissus called.” The tall, older demigod pushed his phone into my hands. “He wants to talk terms.”

  See, I resisted the urge to say to Athena, though I was sure my face said it loud and clear.

  Chapter XIII

  Persephone

  IT WAS A TRAP.

  Narcissus had requested I, along with the rest of the Pantheon, meet in an empty high school gym near the coast. The room felt familiar, even though I’d never stepped foot in it before. Gyms are all the same. High ceilings, a scoreboard on either wall surrounded by plastic posters, strange textured floors that squished a little beneath my feet, and rows upon rows of bleachers. They even smelled the same. Like a strange mix of floor cleaner, plastic, and sweat. Our hushed voices and footsteps carried too far as we settled in to wait for the demigods’ arrival.

  Gods are solitary creatures, so they spread out. Artemis, Hephaestus, and Athe
na each claimed a separate section of bleachers, and Poseidon leaned on the wall beneath a basketball hoop, arms crossed. Only Ares lingered by my side as I stood awkwardly, unsure where to sit.

  Just like old times, I thought gnawing on my bottom lip. Oh, I’d always had my best friend, Melissa, by my side, but high school had been a minefield, thanks to my out-of-control charm. Gods, when was the last time I’d even been in a gym? Some pep rally, if I remembered right.

  You are not getting nostalgic over a smelly, old gym, I scolded myself as I glanced around the wide, open space. I’d missed the latter half of my senior year, thanks to Zeus. I knew a part of me would miss school, but I’d never expected that nostalgia to extend to the gym.

  “Persephone, you okay?” Ares spoke in a voice too low to carry, even in this cavernous space, but the insistence in his tone told me it wasn’t the first time he’d asked.

  I nodded, tearing my gaze away from the small squares of windows lining the ceiling to focus on Ares. His broad shoulders were tense, his face lined with worry. He tugged on the sleeves of his leather jacket as his wary gaze slid around the room. Teleporting into the gym hurt him—I could tell by the way his hand had crushed mine. But he gave no other sign of pain. “Are you okay?”

  Ares scowled, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes in a gesture that reminded me so much of Hades, it hurt. “I just . . . it feels like we’re being watched.”

  Shivers crawled up my spine.

  “I looked around before you two ‘ported in.’” Artemis lounged on the bleachers with her feet propped up. The petite goddess wore blue jeans and a dark, black fitted T-shirt. Her hair was pulled into a simple braid, and though her posture looked relaxed, her dark eyes scanned the room with the same worry as Ares. “I didn’t see anyone else here yet, and we are super early.” She sat up straighter, mischief glimmering in her dark eyes. “Wanna kill some time?”

  Athena sniffed delicately from where she perched on the very edge of a row of bleachers, her body rigid, legs crossed, and hands folded on her lap. For once, I didn’t blame her for looking so on edge. Now that Ares had said something, I could feel hair prickling on the base of my neck. Someone was watching me.

  The goddess of wisdom looked over my shoulder at Poseidon, and I turned to see the tall, blond sea god stalking off to circle the room once more.

  “Anyone got a basketball?” Hephaestus asked, climbing to his feet and moving toward me. The shriveled skin of his face was twitching more than usual, a sure sign of tension.

  Poseidon scooped a ball off the floor and bounced it toward Hephaestus. It slammed into nothing in mid-air, then rebounded toward the sea god.

  Shield. One we hadn’t sensed. That meant—

  Suddenly the room was filled with demigods, and they were all coming at me. Ares shoved me to the side as he and Hephaestus leapt forward in perfect tandem, tackling the two nearest me. Poseidon’s trident appeared in a whirl of gold before the basketball even touched the ground. Artemis slid effortlessly into a fighting stance, her dark eyes wide as she took in the group attacking us. Athena, suddenly beside me, latched onto my wrist with cold fingers, yanking me to the center of the circle the gods had created around me.

  They were protecting me.

  Even Athena.

  Lightning cracked from Poseidon’s trident, sweeping all five demigods back in a single flare of power. But they regrouped quickly, coming at us again with a grim determination. There was no negotiating with these people. Their goal wasn’t to survive, nor were they expecting to. They just wanted to bring as many of my people down with them as possible.

  Over my dead body. I held out a hand and yanked the very air from the attacking demigods’ lungs.

  They hit the ground gasping for breath as I stepped out of the protective shield my Pantheon had cast around me. Black lightning cracked along my fingertips. Plants burst through the rubber floor and wrapped around the hands and feet of the struggling demigods. They cried out as my lightning shot forward, knocking Steele from their hands that Artemis hastened to collect.

  “Anyone hurt?” I demanded, refusing to tear my gaze from the people crumpled on the floor. I’d never seen this many demigods in one place before. They all shared the standard golden coloring, sure, but for the first time I saw the different shades of gold. The variety in their features. They had different heights, different frames, different bone structures. They were entirely different people, but the hatred on their faces? That was completely identical. And the mindless sameness of it disturbed me.

  “No,” Athena murmured, staring at me with wide eyes. She looked down at the demigods still gasping for air that would not enter their lungs. “Leave at least one of them alive for questioning.”

  “Take your time.” My voice sounded thick with nausea that threatened to rise within me. “They just lost the ability to die.”

  Chapter XIV

  Medea

  “OKAY, LET ME get this straight,” Otrera said the next morning as we were getting ready.

  Aphrodite and I rolled our eyes at each other and moved to either side to give her some counter space in the bathroom. If the three of us had to share a cabin with only one bathroom, at least it was a big bathroom. A mirror ran the length of the entire wall, reflecting the crowded strip of marble-patterned countertop and two sinks. A space about as wide as a hallway separated the countertop and the wide Jacuzzi tub, and the walls of the bathroom and shower stall came together to form a semi-private room that tucked the toilet out of view.

  Otrera had taken the news that Aphrodite was a goddess in stride, but when it came to the plan Aphrodite and I had come up with, Otrera had been “getting this straight” all night and most of the morning.

  If Otrera noticed our eye-rolling, she didn’t comment on it. “You want to do something stupid in hopes that if you get Narcissus angry enough, you’ll get thrown into the hidden hospital wing. Then you’re going to search the top-secret, guarded lab and find the Lord of the Underworld while you’re in there. Once that’s done, you want to have Medea teleport all the weapons and poisons away before summoning a pissed-off goddess to our island?”

  “I’m open to other ideas.” Aphrodite’s lips pulled back in a way that somehow looked more like an animal baring its teeth than a smile.

  My hand paused midway between my powder compact and my face as I studied Aphrodite in the mirror. She still looked like Elise, but she’d changed somehow. Maybe it was just because I knew who she was now, or maybe it was just that she was covered in scabbing scrapes and fading bruises. But she didn’t look like the demigoddesses I’d seen. There was a quiet power to her. A determination. The shock had faded and left something, someone, dangerous in its place. Someone other.

  I’d never seen her at full strength. The poison had already leached away most of her powers before we met. But now, I found myself wondering. Was she like them? Poseidon and Persephone? Was she so filled with power that she almost seemed to glow with it? Was my attempt to join the Pantheon, my proclamation that I was what came next, laughable to her? Swallowing hard, I resumed applying my makeup, suddenly self-conscious.

  Rein it in a bit, Medea. Right. I could feel myself over-attaching to Aphrodite. Latching on to her like I had Jason, far too much, far too fast. Normal people didn’t do that. But I couldn’t seem to stop myself. If you build her up too much, you’re setting her up to let you down. But it was like a train hurtling toward a broken bridge just beyond the bend. I saw the disaster looming, but I couldn’t seem to make myself jump the track or change direction.

  Otrera remained unimpressed. “You do realize they’re just as likely to kill you as lock you up if you do anything too drastic, right?”

  “If Narcissus lets me die, he loses his scapegoat,” Aphrodite reasoned, scowling when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. “And he definitely can’t let any harm
come to Medea. She’s his escape route.”

  What did she look like when she wasn’t disguised as Elise? I tried, and failed, to imagine her without her tousled hair that somehow made the just-out-of-bed look unobtainably sexy. Her gold skin was darkened with bruises, cuts, and scrapes, her hawkish eyes perpetually narrowed with frustration or anger. Every feature was so uniquely her that I couldn’t imagine her looking like anyone else. How had I ever mistaken her for the model in all those pictures? Her every mannerism was different from the Elise behind the makeup tutorials I’d watched before her arrival on the island.

  “If they cross any major lines,” Aphrodite continued. “If they do anything they might actually look back and regret, then Narcissus risks losing the crowd.”

  “Let’s assume you’re right.” Otrera reached under the cabinet for her lotion. “What happens once you get thrown in there? You’ll be under guard, and you’ll be locked up. How does that help us get off the island?”

  “That’s why she has to get locked up with me.” Aphrodite jerked a thumb toward my reflection in the mirror. “She’s linked to the Steele and the poisons. I can talk her through ‘porting them away once we’re behind the shield.”

  I nodded, like my input held any weight with either of them.

  It should. It had during the chaos of yesterday, but now that they’d both latched onto their own idea of the best way to handle things, no one else’s input mattered. Not each other’s, and definitely not mine.

  Hush now, sweetie, the grown-ups are talking, their tight faces seemed to say when I interrupted with questions or suggestions. It wasn’t right. My input should be the be-all and end-all. Not only was I the linchpin in Aphrodite’s plan, but I was the method of escape in Otrera’s. Part of me resented the way they dismissed me. Like just because I was younger than them—well, physically in Aphrodite’s case since she was only what, three?—my ideas were somehow invalid.