Lily followed, with Ariston beside her, and Zeus studied her from head to toe and nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
She glanced down at herself, seeking an indication of what Zeus meant, but only saw her jean shorts and her gray tank top. She narrowly avoided asking, “Huh?” Ever astute, Hermes thrust a towel into her face and distracted her. Ariston inclined his head the way Zeus had to Pan and escorted Lily to the couch where they sat after wrapping themselves in the warmth of terrycloth.
When Kat came inside at the rear, Zeus took her hand in both of his and kissed her knuckles. “Welcome to the family, my dear. I cannot wait to meet my grandson.” Kat narrowed her eyes, and Lily assumed she had the same thought Lily had. But not her.
Eventually they all situated themselves sans Pegasus because Zeus thought animals—demigods or not—did not belong in homes or temples. “Except for dogs,” he’d explained, “which were made for companionship, protection, and guidance.” Ariston and Lily had the couch. Kat took an armchair, with Pan sitting on the arm next to her. Hermes took the chair opposite them.
Zeus didn’t sit. Instead, he faced the rest of them with his hands clasped behind his back. Lily caught him observing her again and fidgeted with the hem of her shorts. Ariston cupped her hand, and she entwined her fingers with his. Zeus arched a brow, but didn’t comment.
“I should thank you both for providing me with hours of entertainment,” he said finally. “Throwing a lightning bolt at the satyr has been the highlight of my week. I don’t know why I’ve never done it before. Might have to do it again someday.”
Lily glanced at Ariston through the corner of her eye. He clenched his jaw tight. When she squeezed his hand, Ariston’s eyes flicked in her direction, and he smiled for her.
“But that is beside the point. What drew my attention wasn’t the fact that one of you horned, eh...” Zeus trailed off as Ariston’s human glamour faded. The sun must have set. Pan’s human form remained, a benefit from being a god. “...creatures were finally doing something to fix yourself.” He’d glared at Pan when he said it, and Pan lifted his hands in a “what do you want me to do about it?” gesture.
Hermes chose that moment to butt in, “Now, now. Don’t start that again. Katerina’s going to have your grandchild. He’s not going to have an affair with a nymph because it would remove the horns.”
Kat’s eyes bulged. Pan coughed and bit out, “Yeah, the horns are staying, Grandfather. Get over it.”
Zeus didn’t appear to be “getting over it.” In fact, he appeared most irritated. And that didn’t seem to be changing the more his family memories undermined his authority.
“Ah, ah,” Hermes interrupted before Zeus could reply. “What is it you wanted to tell Lily?” Zeus’ attention refocused on her. Thanks a lot, Hermes. If anyone else had interrupted or even chastised the god, she’d bet money there’d be a scorch mark on Ariston’s floor.
“Right. The nymph. She drew my notice when the rains kept appearing in this area. As a god who controls the skies and weather, any anomaly seeks my immediate attention.”
A lump formed in her throat, but she had to ask, “And what did you discover about the cause?” She grimaced and added, “Sir.”
When Zeus smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes. It was purely reaction. She wondered if he ever laughed at all. “At first I wondered if one of my past transgressions had come back to haunt me.”
Pan snorted. “Must be a Tuesday.”
“Silence.” Zeus narrowed his eyes at Hermes. “Stop smiling. Show some respect. If you won’t show it to me, at least do so in the presence of others. It’s all I ask from you. Yet, always with the foolish nicknames and the smirking and the laughing.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“Um, thanks.” Kat muttered as she rubbed her stomach absently. Upon realizing she spoke out loud, she quickly apologized.
Zeus waved it away. “I meant Hermes and his spawn whom you’ve copulated with. Not the rest of you. Though the satyr I electrocuted has been on a mission to outdo the both of them since the moment the nymph arrived from what I’ve discerned.” He closed his eyes and smiled, relishing, for all she knew, the fond memory of crispy fried satyr.
“Hey!” Ariston objected. Lily giggled.
“The point being, I realized she wasn’t the fruit of my exploits. The blood of the Titans runs in her veins. She’s a descendant of Atlas.”
Hermes popped to his feet, ambled over, and hugged her. “Welcome to the family, cousin!”
Whoa. Titans. Atlas, as in the dude with the weight of the world literally balanced upon his shoulders? Whoa. Even Ariston and Pan shared expressions of “Oh, shit.”
“But, Atlas...he didn’t have anything to do with the rain, did he?” Lily asked, finally capable of forming words.
“Nah,” Hermes answered her. “Uncle Atlas’ powers were in astronomy. He helped people with navigation, or would purposely get them lost. Depended on his mood.” He chuckled and said something under his breath which distinctly sounded like, “Recalculating...”
Lily usually had a decent sense of direction. If she’d been able to see the stars through the trees and rain, would she have found a way home without ever running into Ariston? Her heart thudded against her ribs. No, she’d ended up where she needed to be.
Her eyes widened. I navigated myself to where my heart belonged. Goosebumps sprouted across her skin. Freaky. “So where does the rain come into the equation? Is it a common nymph trait?” Was she even a nymph at all? Lily glanced at Ariston, hoping to God things didn’t change if her bloodline proved her useless to him.
Zeus shook his head, “Not common, no. Though on occasion there have been some who could. The Nephelae, for instance, are cloud nymphs. They are extremely rare, but they can control the rain. They can also fly, and from what I witnessed this week, you haven’t even hovered. So that’s out of the question.”
“I am a nymph though?” She had to know. Lily held her breath.
Zeus nodded his head once. “Yes. You are a nymph.”
Lily exhaled swiftly. Ariston squeezed her hand as she had his earlier. She could still break the curse for him. She wouldn’t rip away his only hope at the last second. Oddly enough, when she’d first met him, she would have hoped for the exact opposite.
“Atlas had five nymph daughters known collectively as Hyades. They adopted the name when their beloved only brother, Hyas, was killed. Whenever they grieved for him, Greece would encounter an abundance of rain. You are the spitting image of the middle sister, a water nymph named Coronis.”
Kat raised her hand like a kid in a class and glanced around. “Hi, yeah, I’ve been reading up on the myths and all that fun stuff. I thought Coronis was a princess Apollo lusted after and murdered for sleeping with another man. Then he became all dramatic about it and cursed all crows to be black instead of white because one of the white crows present didn’t peck out the lover’s eyes as requested.”
Lily blinked. Apollo seemed to enjoy cursing people.
“Uh, no. Different Coronis,” Hermes said. “I’d know. I had to cut the baby out of her before Apollo killed her.” At the appalled gasps from the women he added, “What? I saved the baby...and then gave it to a centaur to raise.”
“A centaur?” Kat was incredulous, and she laid both her hands protectively over her stomach.
“Says the woman sowing the satyr seed. Don’t judge.”
“I thought Coronis was one of Dionysus’ maenads.” Pan said thoughtfully.
Hermes cringed and shook his head. “Bitch be dead. So dead. Thank the fucking gods she didn’t leave offspring.”
“Enough. Coronis was a very common name in ancient times.” Zeus snarled. Lily had no doubt he thought they were idiots again. “Coronis, the nymph, was immortal, as a demigod sired by a Titan, but she took human lovers. With each generation of offspring through the decades, the immortal gene weakened. Had any of them procreated with other go
ds or demigods, it would have been stronger, but alas, they did not. The immortal gene can only remain dominant against mortal biology for so many generations. Eventually, immortality ceased remaining an inherited trait in the bloodline. The same problem has been seen in all the nymph bloodlines. The gene is remaining recessive.”
Kat appeared more interested in the last bit than anyone else was. Hermes seemed bored. Lily, however, was confused. She wasn’t immortal, but she’d inherited nymph characteristics somehow. “And the rain?” she asked.
“Like immortality, the nymph traits were present in human biology; although, not lost. They fell to lying dormant and unused. Without the proper teachings, most women who have them cannot tap into the power, and they stay that way. So why do you think you were able to tap into yours?” Zeus asked.
Kat struggled to sit up straighter, eyes bright with scientific glee. “Oh! I know this one. Sometimes recessive genes randomly become dominant in offspring. Not quite a mutation, but an anomaly.” Pan kissed the top of her head, running his fingers through the damp red curls.
Zeus nodded. “This is true. Though I’m not certain if they remained inactive in your youth, or if something triggered them to dominancy. What happened the first time you drew the rain?”
Lily cringed. “My boyfriend broke up with me, said some hateful things, and then left me alone in the woods without even a good-bye.”
“Ah, grief. It acted as a catalyst, exactly like the Hyades.”
Kat tapped a finger against her chin, biting her lip as she contemplated something. Finally she said, “She was also in close proximity to a satyr, presumably even before Ariston. Bach Industries duped her into a job like they did with me, so she had to go into the offices where Boeotians are employed. Is it possible a nymph and satyr could respond to each other like negative and positive charges of a battery? They’d need one another to, uh, for the sake of this theory, react.”
Zeus blinked. He turned to Pan. “I think I approve of your choice after all.”
“Um, thanks.” Kat said dryly and patted her belly.
He nodded as though she’d really thanked him for his approval. “It is possible, I’d assume. Satyrs are the male equivalent to the nymph, which is why the curse is so perfectly formed.”
Ariston waved a cloven hoof in the air. “Not feeling so perfectly formed over here.”
Zeus elucidated, “Nymphs are the embodiment of female lust and sexuality. Their forms are perfect, beautiful specimens because, in the mind,”—he tapped on the side of his skull—”we all want sex to be beautiful. It’s an ideal, and thus...the nymphs were formed to showcase it. However, sex is rarely beautiful. It’s more often than not messy and primal, and that is the reason satyrs are, to the eye, a merging of man and beast. Satyrs are, in essence, the same as nymphs, but opposite. Opposites attract. I always admired how that turned out. Wish I had thought of it, even if it was accidental. Funny how fate works out sometimes.”
Pan and Ariston turned to each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes.
“Regardless,” Zeus continued, “I wanted to make the nymph, Lily, an offer.”
Ariston sat up; his hand shook a little in hers. “No.”
The Olympian speared him with a look of contempt. “The offer is for her to decide, not you.”
“I don’t understand.” Lily admitted, glancing between Ariston and Zeus and back again.
Ariston elaborated, “He’s going to offer you ambrosia, to make you immortal. So the Satyr Moon would make me mortal, and you’d out-live me.”
That’s really messed up.
“Why does everyone jump to the worst conclusion they can imagine when I show up bearing gifts?” Zeus asked.
“You’re Greek.” Lily and Kat said in unison.
Zeus closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he acted as though no one had doubted him. “Yes, I am offering ambrosia. You’re my cousin several hundred times removed. You’re family, and my family begins to diminish. Pan’s woman has had ambrosia. She’d be your companion through the years to come. Plus, you could go to bed with the satyr this very evening if you wanted. You wouldn’t have to wait for the eclipse at all. Furthermore, you would both live forever. Together.”
Ariston seethed next to her, and she couldn’t blame him. His grip on her hand actually hurt, but she didn’t dare try to remove it. Kat and Pan both shared the horrified expression she wore herself. The nerve of him to suggest such a thing, knowing what the following day meant to Ariston. It’d be incredibly selfish of her to take the offer and doom Ariston to a lifetime of satyrdom.
But, oh, to never age. To never die. It was the stuff of fairy tales and romances. Who didn’t want to live forever with the man they loved? With family and friends who could never be killed by age?
One thing she’d learned when she’d been nearly adopted at the age of four, only for the nice family to decide they weren’t ready for children at the very last minute, was anything too good to be true definitely was. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, indeed.
“Thank you for the offer, Zeus. I’m flattered, but I don’t want to be immortal. I didn’t even want to be a nymph, really. I want a nice average, mortal life. Um...sir.”
“Very well.” Zeus stretched his arms behind him and looked around the room. “Your place is a dump, satyr. I hope you at least have a functioning kitchen to make a feast befitting to your gods. I demand this as tribute for my gracing you with my presence.”
In other words, the king of Olympus was famished.
Chapter Fifteen
Lily collapsed onto the bed facedown and sagged with relief. Dinner with Zeus had been...stressful. He’d criticized Ariston mercilessly, and with each little remark, the pissier she’d become. Somehow, she’d held her tongue, not wanting to offend him. Hermes had given her don’t-you-dare-comment-if-you-value-your-life glances, and she’d decided it would be wise to remain silent.
Finally, Hermes managed to convince Zeus he should return to Olympus, and Pan and Kat had left shortly after. Once again it was just Ariston and her, not including Pegasus, who moped about outside. She’d heard strains of his thoughts since he’d been called out that morning, but Lily didn’t want to draw attention to him by responding. He’d apologized a few times, but she didn’t blame him for acting on his baser nature. No harm had come from it to Ariston or her due to his visiting the mare.
“Maybe we should discu—” Ariston broke off as he entered the bedroom and snorted. “You look half dead, love. Too much excitement learning about your ancestors?”
Lily groaned into the pillow. At least she finally knew something about her bloodline and how she was connected to the rain. Zeus told her learning to control it would take time. Until then, she’d have to deal with making it rain on herself. It hadn’t been information that couldn’t have waited for another day. It seemed as though Zeus had purposely chosen the perfect moment to sabotage Ariston’s happiness.
Sitting up, Lily smiled at the sight of him. Ariston’s blond hair tangled around the ends of his horns, which only made her want to run her hands through it. She needed a distraction from Zeus, Greek gods, and the events of the day. “Remember when you told me you would make me like you, and I would enjoy it? I know everything since then has been craziness nobody could have foreseen, but I can’t help but wonder what you would have done had I not run off that first night.”
The sound Ariston made was somewhere between a laugh and a groan. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand and leaned against the wall. “I had such plans, Lily. They were downright diabolical.”
Heat suffused her as her body perked up in awareness of him. With so many people around, she’d been able to stamp down her own hormones throughout the evening. All bets were off since they were alone. She had to stay in control though. Couldn’t let desire get the best of her, especially with only one day left to resist him.
Ariston strolled over to the window and nonchalantly went about closing it. He hooked the latc
h while maintaining eye contact with her and then reached for the cord to drop the mini blinds when Pegasus appeared on the other side of the glass. Ariston flicked him off with his free hand as he tugged the cord, sending the blinds crashing down with a clack against the window ledge. Lily snickered.
“You shouldn’t be so mean to him.”
Ariston scoffed. “Me? He repeatedly shoves his way between us and then goes and gets some for himself. Selfish.”
“The difference being he doesn’t have to hold out for a certain night to do it. Leave him alone.”
“You’re right. I’m being a dick, but he bit me. He drew first blood.” Ariston sat beside her on the bed. “Now, where were we?” he asked as he nuzzled the side of her neck, his breath tickling the sensitive skin there.
Lily shivered as she threw verbal gasoline on the fire, “You were revealing your plans to seduce me to the dark side.”
“Oh, right.” Ariston leaned back and tugged his shirt over his head. All that gorgeous man flesh laid out for Lily’s perusal. She gripped the quilt to prevent herself from reaching out and touching him. As if he knew what she was thinking, Ariston added, “Ah, ah, ah. You can look, but you can’t touch.” He unsnapped his jeans and dragged the zipper down with deliberate slowness. He hadn’t been wearing underwear, and his erection was evident. Lily couldn’t look away.
“What are you going to do with that?” She clenched the sheets beside her. She tried to imagine her reaction to him doing this the first night. She’d have been incensed. Granted Ariston made some rash choices at first, but she was glad he’d changed his mind about what would have been too much. Thoughts puttered to nonexistent as Ariston lay back on the bed and lazily began stroking himself in front of her.
Oh. Fuck.
Donovan and her other exes had never masturbated in front of her. They were under the impression that if a woman was present, they had a source to relieve themselves inside of and had little need of foreplay or pleasuring themselves for enjoyment. When Ariston did it, it was the most erotic thing she’d ever witnessed.
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