“No. I am the moon goddess, and have been for thousands of years. A mere child like Artemis will not take the moon from me that easily. If it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’ll get. I’m sure while we’ve been busy here, the others have been gathering an army; we’ll just have to do the same.”
“Who are we gonna get to fight for us?” Tara asks, sounding anxious and scared. “Zeus said that the other gods and goddesses can’t get involved. Are there others that don’t live here on Mount Olympus?”
“No, Tara, there are not. But I’m not thinking about the gods; they’re useless at this point. We do have other allies though. Hecate,” Selene says, looking over her shoulder. “It’s time to begin calling in old favors. Tell your followers that the fight for the moon has officially begun.”
Hecate appears magically from a shadow, nods her head, and vanishes in a burst of silver light.
“Selene,” Kaven says. “What kind of allies can we bring to this fight? If you need our help gathering them, I’m sure we’d all be more than willing to help you.”
She nods. “I’m going to need each of you in the coming days. For now, I think we should return to my Gardens and think of a plan. I doubt negotiations will work at this point, but I would still like to try. If it comes to war, many creatures could be killed in the process, and I’d like to avoid that. Now, I want all of you to take my hands, and we’ll go.”
Tara clamps down on my right hand, and Kaven takes my left. Everyone else joins hands, and Selene and Pandia transport us away from Mount Olympus and back to her Eternal Gardens with a burst of silver light and the feeling of being pulled away from the ground.
Part Two: The Crossing
Chapter Fifteen
Selene’s Eternal Gardens look the exact same as they did the last time I was here just days ago. The scent of jasmine and honeysuckle begins to calm me and my upset stomach down a little, and I inhale it for a few minutes, letting it work its magic. I see the others having trouble with keeping their food down, and Selene waits patiently for us to get better.
When everyone is done throwing up, Selene gathers us in a circle around her. “Hecate is off to hopefully gather us some new allies, but she won’t be able to promise anything. I want to know what you all think we should do right now. It only seems fair, since you’ll be fighting as well. Well?”
Kaven speaks first. “I think we should gather as many allies as we can right now, and just attack. Those goddesses will never know what hit them. You gave Kylie a bow and sword that could hurt the gods, right? Can you give us all weapons like that? If so, we might stand a chance.”
Selene frowns, but Pandia speaks. “That might be our best option right now, Mother. I know you don’t like fighting unless it’s absolutely necessary, but a preemptive attack might be enough to spare many lives that would otherwise be willing to fight and die for our cause. If we can save more lives than we take…”
Selene sighs. “I understand what you’re saying, but fighting should be honorable.”
“Kidnapping me wasn’t honorable!” Pandia snaps. “They abducted me, drained me of my power and strength, and allowed those vile harpies to feed on me. Do you think that’s honorable? Mother, these goddesses don’t care about honor or respect. They want the moon, and they won’t stop until they get it. Unless you’re willing to step aside, we’re going to have to forgo honor for a while.”
Selene looks at her daughter with caution and obvious wariness. “Pandia, you’re much too old to be acting this way. I understand you’re angry, but we need to think rationally or we’re going to get Kylie and her friends killed. We have to weigh all of our options, and make sure that what we decide to do is our best course of action.”
Pandia huffs and storms away, unwilling to stay and listen to her mother any longer. I watch her walk away, feeling almost as concerned about her as Selene looks. She expected Zeus to side with her, and not her half-sister. She’s angry that her father failed her, and she wants to make those goddesses pay for what they did to her. If I were in her place I’d want them to pay too.
“She’s going to do something stupid,” Selene says, startling me. “Pandia very rarely acts rash and stupid like this, but when she does, she usually makes a grave mistake that will cost her either her own life, or the lives of those around her. I hope she calms down enough to see the advantage to waiting and planning.”
“She just found out that the people that kidnapped her and tortured her are getting away with it and her own father let it happen. She’s angry, but I don’t think she’ll do anything too stupid. She knows what’s at stake right now, and I doubt she’ll be willing to jeopardize that.”
Selene nods. “I know. I’m just worried about her, and I hate that I can’t afford to think about her right now. We have more important things to focus on right now, and it’s saving Earth from absolute destruction. What can we do?”
Morgan clears her throat timidly. “Uh, I think I might have a solution that can work for everyone. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve already thought of it, but, um, what if you guys worked out a prayer rotation of some kind? One of you could be worshipped for two months, then another can be worshipped for two months, and so on, until you all get time as the recognized moon goddess.”
Selene smiles. “I have considered something like that, but I’m not sure how the other goddesses would feel about it.”
“Would you be ok with giving up your position for a few months of the year?”
“If it stopped this war from happening, then yes, I wouldn’t mind. As long as I knew that the other goddesses could respect my children on Earth, I think something like this might actually be possible. However, I don’t think the other goddesses will go for something like this. They want the moon; they don’t want to share.”
“Should we go propose this idea to them?” Tara asks. “It might be the best one we can come up with, and it’s worth a shot, right? I mean, if we have one more chance at preventing this war, we should definitely take it.”
Selene nods. “Yes, we’ll go in the morning. I don’t think going now when Pandia is in such a horrid mood is a good idea. So, for now, get some rest, and prepare to help me make our case in the morning. Right now, I’m going to go find my daughter and speak with her.”
Selene stands walks across a bridge that runs over the river and disappears into the darkness on the other side. I hope she finds Pandia, because I don’t want her to do anything stupid right now just because she’s disappointed in her father.
Tara smiles at me. “Well, what do we do until tomorrow morning? Can you give us a tour of this beautiful place?” Everyone nods enthusiastically. “You’re the only one that’s really been here before, at least, long enough to look around.”
I shrug. “What the hell.” I get to my feet, dust off my black slacks, and help Tara to her feet. “Let’s go. I haven’t seen all of this place, but I can show you the parts I have seen.”
Everyone in our group follows me to my favorite spot in Selene’s Eternal Gardens. The waterfall by the river is so easy to find, and it’s the first place that I lean them to. For a minute, everyone just stares at it in complete and total amazement. With the sun about to go down, the stars staring to come out, and the sounds of birds and the breeze, this moment seems incredibly…surreal.
After the waterfall, I show them patches of wild roses, a peaceful pond with cattails, frogs, and ducks, and finally I show them the wide open sky from the top of the waterfall. They thought it was beautiful before, but from up here, everything is simply magical, and I get a strange feeling, almost like I never want to leave.
This place might be perfect, if I could have my friends with me forever. I don’t know how long I would last here by myself.
“Kylie, what was it like, thinking that you were gonna spend eternity here? Were you scared?” Tara asks, moving closer to me.
“Not really. Mostly I was just lonely, knowing that I’d have to wait centuries to see any of you again. But
then I was thinking about the idea of living for centuries, and I think that scares me more. I mean, can you imagine living for hundreds of years? It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
“I know,” Tara says, and everyone else nods. “What are we supposed to do with our lives? We won’t be able to stay in one place for very long, because eventually people will start to notice that we’ll never look older than about twenty-five. We’ll never have children and what about a love life? Can you imagine spending centuries with the same man? How many fights can a relationship take? How many simple misunderstands before trust is destroyed?”
“Look at Jillian and Carlos,” I say. “They do pretty well together.”
“Jillian and Carlos haven’t even been together for a hundred years. For our lives, that’s like the blink of an eye,” Kaven says. “Tara’s right. There are so many things that can end a relationship, and we’ll spend about five hundred years doing those things. The odds of staying with just one person for our entire lives are very low.” He looks at me. “But I think it’ll be worth the chance.”
His hand reaches down and grabs mine, and I give it a tight squeeze.
Everyone silently watches the Gardens while the sun finishes going down, and I take deep, even breaths. Kaven’s little speech about a relationship being worth the chance of ending badly has really gotten to me, and I just hope I have the courage to do and say what I have to.
I lean in closer to Kaven and place a feather-light kiss on the side of his neck. His breath hitches in his chest and his body tenses. Without looking at me, he gets to his feet, helps me up, and we slink away into the grove of willow trees behind us. The long, soft tendrils nearly touch the ground, and Kaven parts them with his hands, creating a path.
We walk for a few minutes, and we don’t stop until we’re sure we’re far enough away from the others that they won’t hear anything we have to say to one another. When Kaven turns to me, I don’t even give him a chance to speak. I just throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck, and I press my mouth against his.
His arms wrap around my waist and he lifts me off my feet, twirling me around in a wide circle, before laying me down on the soft grass. The uncertainty and the fear start to build up, but when Kaven kisses me, they all fall away, leaving a brave, fearless woman in their place.
His hand slides up my flowing shirt, stopping hard and firm on my stomach. I run my fingers through his soft blonde hair, pulling him closer for another kiss. When he undoes the button of my pants, I don’t even hesitate. I just shimmy out of them, and I help Kaven out of his. The entire time he undresses himself, his eyes never leave mine, and the eye contact makes my stomach clench painfully.
It’s a good pain though, and it excites me like never before.
Kaven slides his arms under me, pulling me up until our bodies are pressed together, and he pulls my shirt up over my head, leaving me naked on the floor of the woods. His shirt is gone before I can blink, and he’s positioning himself above me. His eyes are dark and intense with lust, and can feel how badly he wants this.
“Are you sure?” he asks, eyes meeting mine one more time.
I nod my head, too overwhelmed to speak, and it happens. He goes slowly at first, allowing me time to adjust to the pain, and I bury my face in his shoulder as my nails dig into his back. A small whimper escapes my lips, and Kaven thrusts faster and faster, grunting deeply in my ear.
I cling to Kaven as if my life depends on it, and I let him do most of the work. His hand grips my thigh so hard it’s nearly painful, and his free hand is fisted in the dirt and leaves above my head as his long, hard body is stretched out overtop of me. His eyes meet mine again, and I arch my back, dying to get to his lips again.
His lips touch mine, and moments later it’s over, and he relaxes his grip on my thigh. His breathing slows and deepens, and he rolls over, lying naked next to me on the floor of the woods. He pants silently to himself, and I just stare up at the stars above us. I have mixed feelings about what just happened. Mixed feelings that I didn’t have before just now.
I love him. There’s no denying that. And for that being my first time, it was pretty amazing, I think, even as the pain flares up. But is it right to fall in love and do this with everything going on? Should we have waited until we were more certain of our future?
“Hey. I can practically hear you thinking from over here. What’s going on?” Kaven asks, gently turning my face to meet his. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you enjoy it?” He sounds worried, until I shake my head and move over.
He wraps an arm around my waist and I huddle closer to his side. “It was great,” I say, wincing. It was great? Did I really just say that? “I’m just wondering if we should have waited. I mean, we could be at war tomorrow, and people could be dying right now. I just think it might have been better–”
“Right now was the perfect time,” Kaven says, interrupting me. “Kylie, I don’t wanna scare you or anything, but we could be dead tomorrow. I think waiting would have been stupid.” He forces me to look him in the eye. “And waiting another day or even another year wouldn’t have really changed anything. I love you now, Kylie, and I wanted you to know that.”
“You could have just said it,” I say. “You didn’t have to show it like that.” I try to keep cool, but inside, all I can think is, Oh, my god! He just said he loved me! Kaven Hamilton loves me; he doesn’t just want me for sex.
He chuckles. “Showing it was more fun.” He nuzzles my neck, before placing a soft kiss there. “I love you,” he says again. “And I don’t really care who knows it.”
I take a deep breath. “I love you, too. I think I have since our fight in the gym, before I went out to the graveyard. I knew then that what I felt for you wasn’t just a crush, even if I didn’t admit it to myself. I love you, Kaven.”
He smiles, and kisses me again. “I hate to spoil the moment, but we should probably get dressed and head back to the others. They’re probably missing us by now.”
The two of us dress in silence, and we walk back to the others. Kaven holds my hand, and it feels so perfect, so right, that I don’t ever want him to let go. There are going to be plenty of things for the two of us to fight about over the next few centuries, but even if things end badly between us, I’ll never regret this as long as I live…
Chapter Sixteen
In the morning, Selene finds us new clothes to wear for our negotiation attempt, and I feel much better with jeans, a tank top, and boots on. I fell like I can kick some ass if things go badly. The others are dressed in a similar way, and I see Kaven buckling my sword onto his belt. I expected things to be a little weird between us, but they haven’t been.
He looks up. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not,” I say, surprised he’d think I would. “I still don’t know how to use that thing. I’ll stick with my bow for now.”
Selene gathers us all around, and I look at Tara, Morgan, Chloe, and Austin, who are weaponless and pretty much untrained. “I want you four to stay,” I say. They explode into angry protests, but I silence them. “You guys have no weapons, and you can’t take care of yourselves. I’m sorry, but I don’t wanna have to worry about you if things go badly.”
“Kylie is right,” Selene says, and Pandia and Hecate nod. “This is going to be dangerous, and only those that are fully trained should be going.” She looks at Kaven. “You don’t have to come.”
His chest puffs up. “I’m a Protector; I’ll serve my goddess wherever she needs me.”
Selene smiles. “Very well.”
Kaven and I clasp hands, and Pandia takes my other hand. We vanish from the Eternal Gardens, and I get the familiar feeling of my stomach dropping and everything pulling away from me. When we appear at the opening of a cave in the bluffs, my stomach heaves violently, and Kaven and I both tuck our heads between our knees and throw up.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and look over the side of the cliff. Far below us, there are several bonfires st
arted, and there are thousands of creatures surrounding them. Most are eating or still sleeping, but a few are up and about, moving around and training.
From this high up, I can only make out the largest figures: reddish-skinned human-like people with small heads, pointy ears, large eyes, and massive, powerful looking limbs. They wear only a loin-cloth around their waists, and it’s impossible to tell the male from the female. Even knowing what they are probably wouldn’t help.
“Ogres,” Selene says, sounding worried. “They’ve already started building their army, and they’ve gathered quite a few powerful allies. The ogres aren’t very bright, and will often attack fighters from both sides, but their power makes them nearly invincible against a mortal.”
“They’ve got sirens in the water too,” Hecate says, glancing at Kaven. “They’re not singing yet, but if you start to feel weird, tell one of us, or you’ll end up walking right over this cliff and to your death on the rocks below. Got it?”
Kaven nods and we lean away from the ledge. There’s a cave opening in the rock about thirty yards to our left, and Kaven and I follow the goddesses. Inside the cliff, there’s a large bonfire, and Achlys, Achelois, Bendis, and Artemis are gathered around it, laughing about something. Probably about Zeus’ decision, I think angrily.
Artemis spots us first, and she jumps to her feet, pulling a bow from a quiver on her back. I have my bow already loaded at my side, and I bring it up now, aiming it directly for Artemis’ heart. Selene quickly steps forward. “I’ve just come to talk, Achlys. I think we may have a suggestion that will make everyone here happy.”
Achlys is as ugly and terrifying as I remember her, and my mind instantly flashes back to the night in the graveyard. Without telling them to, my hands slowly move to the side, until my arrow is pointed directly at Achlys’ head.
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