Nia sat across the room from her now, lounging on one of the brocade divans. Lia and Mel sat on another, their lovely red heads together over a People magazine with Sam Worthington on the cover. Mel had been fascinated by the actor since he’d played Perseus in a movie about the Titans. It didn’t bother Mel that the directors had gotten the story all wrong.
Gaia was in conference with Mars, Clio and Polly near the coffee station. Corie stood close by, rising on her toes, then dipping into a plié in syncopation with dipping a tea bag in a mug of steaming water. It was clear she was unabashedly eavesdropping on the whispered conversation. Terri quietly hummed a popular Taylor Swift song. The Muse of Music had claimed credit for the repetitive beat of the tune, but Aerie was convinced it had been the work of the devil. Phillip had taken up a position near the door, and stood, feet braced apart, arms crossed over his chest, looking as bad-ass as she’d ever seen him.
Phillip had informed her Dice had traveled to the underworld to consult with Hades on another matter, but the justice goddess would be in touch soon.
Callie, Muse of the Written Word, and the most standoffish of all of them, stood off by herself. Her russet tresses covered part of her face as she stared intently at her phone. Aerie craned her neck, hoping to see what her oldest sister was looking at. Colors flashed on the screen and it only took a moment to realize she was playing a game. Well, they all had to relax somehow.
The fourteen-foot high, gilded door swung inward. Aerie tensed as she watched Asclepius escort her father into the room. Zeus hadn’t bothered to dress, other than to pull a terrycloth robe over his bright blue pajamas. On his feet, his favorite pair of fleece-lined slippers.
Each time the physician tried to assist Zeus, the god of gods batted his hand away. “I told you I am fine. It was just a little indigestion.” His voice boomed strongly around the room. He searched the room, his gaze lighting on Aerie, and beckoned her over. He gentled his voice. “Come, daughter. I need your special brand of peace.”
She zipped across the room to the stone bench Zeus had chosen to sit on. How like him to not request a cushion to ease the hard surface. Sinking onto the seat next to him, she drew calm and contentment from deep within. She transferred it to her father through the press of her lips to his cheek.
“Ah, Aerie. You are a tonic.” He patted her hand and frowned at the physician, who’d moved to Gaia’s side and was waving his arms like a crazed cheerleader. Zeus snorted. “Much better than the harridan I call doctor.”
“How are you feeling, Zeus?” Every bit of her wanted to call him Father, but she knew he’d balk at the term. In everyday living, he had always been Zeus. However, in highly emotional situations, they’d all referred to him as Father. This wasn’t that time, and she’d just found favor with him for instilling comfort with her kiss.
“It’s been a busy day. Olympus Enterprises is attempting to acquire a new business. The accountants are keeping me up nights A little tired, perhaps.”
His admission startled her. She’d never heard him own a mortal problem. She swallowed hard, trying to clear the sudden blockage in her throat. She immediately started planning a highly painful demise for Pierus. “And the indigestion?”
“Your mother cooked dinner for me.” Zeus hid a grimace behind his fist. Gaia was a legend in the kitchen, but not in a good way.
Aerie ducked her head so no one could see her smile. The matter at hand was deadly, kind of like Gaia’s cooking.
“Gaia, we are all here. Let us get started so my daughters can get their beauty rest.” At least his chuckle sounded hearty.
Mars had commandeered the pool table in one corner and set up a communications center. The partisans present and Mars moved across the room, a well-orchestrated unit. Monitors that had been dark flared to life as the men and women settled around the makeshift conference table.
Gaia’s sleek blond hair fluttered softly as she glided across the room to where Aerie sat. She dropped a pillow on the bench next to Zeus and sank down gracefully. She reached an arm around Zeus, and stroked her fingertips along Aerie’s upper arm. A burst of confidence flared in her chest with her mother’s urging gesture.
Twining her hands together, Aerie began her report. “Pierus approached me while I was working at the Rowan tonight. I’d wondered, as we all did, when the next challenge would begin, and which of us would be the defender this time.” She cast a glance to each of her sisters. “Since he came to me, it’s clear I’m up.”
“But what did he say? Which daughter are you pitted against?” Callie demanded.
Aerie looked at her a long time, trying to determine if the quiver she’d heard in her bossy sister’s tone was real. She waved away the feeling. “He didn’t say, immediately. First he offered me a deal.”
Exclamations arose around the room, each sister shocked. Mars stood at the conference table, a tense monolith of aggression. Zeus held his hands up for quiet.
“That’s new,” Clio said. “But the challenge evolves with each conflict. Nia’s turn was different than mine, Polly’s different than Nia’s and so on.”
Aerie inclined her head. “That what I thought too. But, Clio, you’d speculated that Pierus was mounting a corporate takeover. He confirmed it today. He offered to abolish all remaining challenges if I helped him depose Zeus, so he could assume the throne.” There. She’d done it. The evil god’s unprecedented offer soured in her mouth as she spit out the words.
“Did you take him up on it?” Corie asked the question they all wanted to.
“Hades, no!” Aerie shivered. “If he ever managed to seize control of Olympus, it would doom mortals.”
Nia uncrossed her legs and braced her hands on her thighs. “Tell us who you face.”
“The magpie bitch I least want to battle…Hate.”
“Oh, goddess, Aerie.” Lia gasped. “I’m so sorry.”
Aerie beat back her trepidation and cocked her head. “What, nothing funny to say? Come on, Lia. I was counting on you.”
The Muse of Comedy thought for a second. “Facing down Hate will suck more than a flash flood at a fizzy factory?”
That earned a groan from every Muse present.
Mars scowled. “Be serious here, Muses.”
Aerie didn’t bother to hide her grimace. Now she had to enlighten them as to the second part of his offer. The only reason she’d given the offer any thought at all. She grasped her father’s hand and kept watch on his expression. “Zeus, Pierus said you’re sick. And getting worse with each challenge.”
A shadow flickered in his cobalt-colored eyes. “Bah. What nonsense. I’m fit as a fiddle.” Zeus half-heartedly thumped his chest.
Gaia clicked her tongue against her teeth. “My cooking never sickened you before. I know I’m bad, but I have been improving. You told Aerie you had indigestion. For a man with the constitution of an ox, this is somewhat startling.” She swiveled her gaze to Asclepius. Who studied the ceiling as if the secret to the universe had magically appeared there. Gaia twisted in her seat and cupped Zeus’s face, drawing his head toward her. “Pierus didn’t lie, did he? You are getting worse.”
Zeus laid the back of his hand on Gaia’s face. “Each challenge brings a new ailment.” He kicked off his slipper. His big toe had turned a hideous combination of black and red.
“Dad!” Aerie gasped. “How long has it been this way?”
“It started as a blood blister under the toe nail that never cleared. Three days ago, this happened.”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” Asclepius claimed, bobbing his head until the long gray curls fell forward.
“It doesn’t look like nothing.” Callie stalked across the room to get a better look. She shooed Aerie from her place at Zeus’s side. The instant the spot was vacant, Callie dropped to the bench and bent to look at Zeus’s toe.
Zeus allowed her to look for all of three seconds before he shoved his foot back into the slipper, groaning as he did. “Let’s get back to the challenge. I have conf
idence we will continue to defeat each atrocious bird he throws into your paths. How do you intend to proceed, Aerie?”
And wasn’t that the money question? “I don’t know. But you haven’t heard all of it. Zeus, Pierus claims to have put a curse on you, one he’ll remove if I agree to his terms and help remove you from the board.”
Gaia gasped. “You turned him down, of course.” She crowded closer to Zeus’s side.
“Well, duh. But I’d like to turn Dice loose on this, to see if this action somehow violates the terms of the challenge, thereby negating it.”
“I’ll have her look into it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. You must prepare yourself to undertake the task.”
The resigned tone of Zeus’s words gave her pause. She hadn’t realized how much she’d hoped that Pierus had fucked up. “I have no idea of what to expect, and I’ve only heard Hate once since Pierus appeared. She wasn’t with him, but I heard her in the bushes outside Fi— Uh, the house where I was earlier.”
Mars cleared his throat. “You’d best spill it or I will.”
She gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. Mars tightened his lips, making her certain he’d seen it.
Like someone just offered him a shit ton of money, Mars narked on her. “She has met the mortal meant to help her with this. Sealed the bargain with him as well.”
Goddess, she didn’t need a reminder of the steamy kiss with the angry man. “I am not sure I want his help.”
“Why ever not?” Polly demanded.
“He, uh…he has a little problem with anger. I do not believe he’s capable of helping me sow love and contentment. He’s so mad I can’t even get past it to figure out his what if question.” She had no clue what his magic might be.
She cast her glance around the room, hoping for support and encouragement from her sisters. What she found instead was shock. And Callie’s face all but resembled the painting titled “Scream”, which pissed Aerie off.
“Sound off here, sisters. What if I nudge him to help, but never tell him I’m a muse? Revealing our true nature wasn’t a requirement.”
No one offered an immediate opinion. Aerie let her gaze touch on each of her beloved sisters’ faces, praying for an answer. While she waited, she wondered what the four men would say, the ones who’d been brought into the challenge by her sisters. Thomas’s would be the opinion she’d be most interested in. He was the only man of the four who’d initially refused to help. But true love overcame the memory wipe Mnemosyne had implemented. In the end, he’d helped defeat Mayhem. But it had been touch and go for a while whether Nia could win.
“I don’t see a reason he’d absolutely have to know,” Callie started slowly. “This is the twenty-first century. We shouldn’t need a man to defeat the avian offspring of a deity still living in the Renaissance era.” Callie didn’t have much faith in any man. Which Lia constantly teased her about, given the woman wrote romance novels for a living.
Sitting on the floor, Clio leaned forward and rested her elbows on the coffee table. “I set the precedent because it was all so new. Historically, we have never revealed our presence to mortals.” And Clio would know. Her role was to record history and inspire heroic acts. Clio had been first to navigate the uncharted waters Pierus had steered them into. “Would things be different if I hadn’t told Jax I was a Muse? Don’t know. But I knew I wanted a relationship with him. I was highly attracted to him.”
“I’m not sure I want a romantic relationship with this man.” Saying it didn’t do a darn thing to slow Aerie’s pulse as she replayed the hard, erotic kiss they’d shared.
Hoping to ease her sudden agitation, Aerie paced the width of the room. For a moment, only her footfalls sounded in the unnaturally silent room. Rarely had she found much quiet in a room with her sisters.
“I’d say you should play it by ear,” Terri piped up. She didn’t say much at family gatherings, but when she did, her words almost always had a musical reference. Terri took her gift seriously, and claimed credit for helping the Byzantine Greeks develop bagpipes. She’d still tell anyone who’d listen that the instrument hadn’t been born in Scotland or Ireland.
Aerie shrugged away her meandering thoughts. “Mars, can you run a security check on this guy? If I have to tell him what I am, I want to be prepared for his reaction. When I saw him mad earlier, it was kind of freaky.”
Phillip strode forward and demanded. “Freaky how? I know you were frightened before Mars and I arrived.”
“I’d swear…no I have to be wrong.” She looked from Phillip back to Mars. “I saw an aura around him.” But that couldn’t be. Humans didn’t display their aura, no matter what psychics claimed.
“You took him into the Hollow?” Mars queried, his voice low and deadly.
“No, this was in his entry hall. Just as he was starting to get super mad.”
Zeus burst from the bench and stalked over to Aerie. “If this man harmed you, I will have his head severed from his shoulders and piked for display at the gates to Olympus. Who is he?”
“I’m fine and I’m not saying. I don’t want anyone to try to influence him unduly. Other than the kiss that sealed the deal, he didn’t lay a hand on me.” Resisting the urge to massage her still sore wrist, she touched her forehead to his, letting him see into her consciousness, so he could read the truth for himself.
With a nod and a smile, he ruffled her hair. He limped back to the bench.
Gaia slid her pillow over for him. Sparing her a smile, he reclaimed his seat. “As I see it, until we begin to see manifestations of Hate’s influence, there isn’t much we can do.”
That was what worried Aerie the most. “It will be tough to prepare for what’s to come. At least Nia had forewarning how awful Mayhem would be after Pierus knocked the moon out of orbit. We could respond faster.” A luxury Aerie might not have.
“My staff will dig up what they can on him.” Mars moved to one of the techs sitting at a monitor. “Take notes.”
Aerie jabbed a thought into Mars’s head, thanking him for not outing Finn. Which earned her a scowl. She dismissed it and verbalized her next thought. “You should probably increase scrutiny on hate crimes, riots, looting, civil unrest, et cetera. And not just in big cities. Small towns might be doubly bad.” Something Finn had said the night they’d met, about the number of marriages that didn’t make it, rang through her brain like a claxon. “I’m going to research current trends in the divorce rate. Typically, people who break up hate each other at some point. What if Pierus finds a way to accentuate that? All kinds of havoc could break out. With a bumper crop of divorces happening, the economy could be affected.”
The ormolu clock on the mantel chimed three times. A wave of exhaustion swept over her, draining the last of her energy. She buried a yawn in her elbow.
Zeus rose. “We will call this for tonight. Aerie, we’ll expect a full report tomorrow on what you learn. Stay in contact with Mars. Work the problem with him. Mars, assign extra partisans for Aerie. For all my daughters.” He limped back to her, wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her tight, with his hands braced on her back.
Warmth seeped from the palm of his hands, infused with all the love and confidence he could put in his touch. He’d given her a gift, a little burst of his energy, when he shouldn’t be parting with anything.
“Love you, Daughter. We will most certainly win again.”
“Love you as well, Dad.”
Each of her sisters lined up behind Zeus and sent a tiny portion of their energy into her as well. Gifts freely offered in the interest of helping her defeat Hate, possibly the most insidious of all challengers, due to the uncertainty of where she could strike.
Clio nudged a special thought to her. “Special meeting of the Bad Ass Club tomorrow. You’re invited.”
Hiding a smile, Aerie returned the non-verbal message. “Is that what we’re calling those of us who have already faced one of the fucking magpies?”
“Yeah! Only bombastic Mu
ses welcomed. We’ll give you tips for crushing Hate.”
Clio laughed as she levitated, preparing to enter the Hollow. Her aura swirled up from her center, light blue and glowing as she began to mist into the void. The room became a rainbow of color as one by one, her sisters and parents disappeared. Leaving just Aerie, Mars and Phillip.
She glanced at Phillip. “Guess you’re probably moving in for the duration. Be warned, I don’t cook. Ever.”
“Good thing I do then, right?” Phillip laughed.
“You do?” Knowing Phillip was a health fanatic, he was probably already planning a high protein, low carb breakfast. She could always sneak a chocolate bar when he wasn’t looking. Chocolate equaled love in her mind.
Mars was not amused. His grunt rumbled around the room. “Aerie, you’re not to go anywhere without a partisan in attendance. I already have a few in mind to assign to your security detail.”
“And how am I supposed to explain all these new people around me?”
“Any way you can. This is doubly important. Your sisters had the protection their partners could offer. This is something you won’t have if you refuse to tell Finnegan about the challenge.”
“I’m not likely to change my mind about that.” Aerie brightened. “Can you send me someone who can double as an assistant? Business has been great lately and I’ve been meaning to hire someone to help Bernie.”
“I will speak to personnel first thing.” At least Mars smiled as he said it. He cranked his head to one side, exposing the mark on the side of his neck. The stain, a tattoo of sorts, resembled a shield over which a spear and sword were crossed. Fitting, she thought, for the God of War. Aerie knew most of his immortal descendants had the mark somewhere on their bodies. His daughter, Nike, had been born with the birthmark on her thigh, and Aerie had always been jealous of that. His mortal sons, Remus and Romulus, had tattooed the mark in the exact location, to try to prove their divinity.
Rather than blink out through the Hollow, he stretched his long legs across to the mammoth gilded doors, slipping one open as if it were a mere feather.
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