Flame's Embrace

by Pillar, Amanda

  If I didn’t know I was just a human, I would have believed that the Grecian beauty staring back at me in the floor-length mirror really was a born goddess.

  “What do they want me there for?” I asked yet again to the gods in the room.

  “They want to get to know you,” Apollo said. He leaned against the wall behind me, his arms folded across his huge chest, long golden hair falling past his shoulders, and his blue eyes trailing up and down my body as if he were imagining untying all the rope Heracles had just gotten around me. I would have loved for him to do that, just to take my mind off things. Anything to avoid going to Mount Olympus.

  I wasn’t going to ask “why” another time. They had all told me it was because of my newfound status and apparently it was also overdue. I wasn’t sure I agreed.

  Finally, it was time to go. And I wasn’t nearly ready for it. I trembled, and my stomach hurt.

  “Come on. It’ll be fine.” Apollo stepped up behind me, and I watched him, adoring the way he stared at me so sexily. Poseidon stood proudly, oozing sex appeal, and appeared at my right and took a hand.

  “We’ll be right here with you,” he said, kissing my knuckles.

  Ares did the same on my other side. And suddenly, we weren’t at my home anymore.

  I recognized Mount Olympus because of the dream I’d had where Apollo had once taken me to his place. He’d whisked me away to fuck me at his place.

  But I’d been distracted then.

  Now, instead of moving down a winding path to one of the palaces that were dotted in the distance as if this were some fairytale land, we moved down the wide cobbled road that led slowly toward the top of a hill. As we approached, a large roof held up by thick pillars came into view. It wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t light, either. It created a hell of a lot of mood, but I could still see everything.

  I realized the pillars and the entire roof were made of marble. White with gray veins.

  A table stood in the middle with chairs all around it and it was piled with food—from meats prepared in all different ways to vegetables and grains as well as fresh fruit.

  And wine. A shit ton of wine.

  Around the table, the gods and goddesses appeared. As we approached, more and more of them popped in, but they were talking and laughing and eating as if they had been there all along. The moment I stepped onto the floor of the structure—marble, too—they all stopped talking and turned to look at me.

  The silence was deafening and I felt them scrutinize me. Were they sizing me up? Did I make the cut?

  Hades entered the room from my right, looking grumpy, but damn he looked delicious polished and dressed like the rest of the gods.

  “The Goddess of Sanctuary,” Heracles announced and they all nodded at me, smiling.

  “Come on,” Apollo whispered in my ear.

  Poseidon and Hades walked away from us toward the other end of the table and Zeus stood. His white hair fluttered as if an invisible breeze blew past. He was broad and carried himself like a leader.

  “Brothers,” they all said to my men, clapping hands as if they were one big, happy family, which was partially true at least. But I could feel the undercurrents all the way from where I stood.

  A goddess rose from her seat next to Zeus and walked to me.

  “Please sit down.” She gestured to an empty chair.

  “This is Hera,” Heracles explained.

  The bitch who had cursed Hades. Plus, his sister and sister-in-law. Though making sense of who was related to who in amid the gods only left me spinning.

  “We are very pleased to have you, my darling.” Hera’s voice sounded syrupy sweet. It made me want to like her. She had hair like spun gold that draped over a voluptuous figure that would make any man forget his own name, and she moved like she knew it.

  “Thank you for inviting me,” I said in a voice that sounded pathetically small.

  Hera smiled at me. “This is your home now, child.”

  I wasn’t sure I agreed with that, but I wasn’t going to challenge the goddess of… I wasn’t sure what she was the goddess of. I’d hit a blank.

  She shimmied back to her seat like she was walking on pinpoints and sat down next to Zeus. Heracles ushered us to our chairs and poured me wine, which I gladly took. I gulped half of it down before I came up for air.

  Hermes sat close to me, but he ignored me as if I didn’t exist. Maybe Hades’ warm welcome the other day had tainted him.

  “So I hear you’ve been very kind to Persephone,” a goddess said to me from a few seats down. “I am so very grateful.”

  “It’s Demeter,” Ares whispered to me.

  She had long, dark hair and now that I knew that she was Persephone’s mother, I could see the resemblance.

  “She can get very lonely, you know, being down in the Underworld for so long.” Demeter glanced at Hades, who shuffled in his chair. I realized he was more uncomfortable here than I was. I couldn’t imagine what it had to be like.

  “It’s really the opposite,” I said. “Persephone has been a great help. I’m glad to have her as a friend.”

  “Friend,” Demeter said with a smile. “What a beautiful thought.”

  Right? She was weird.

  “She’ll miss you when you come to live here,” Demeter added.

  Say what now? Had I heard right? So, she was under some illusion that I’d relocate to Mount Olympus… Except this wasn’t my home.

  “I don’t know how you held out so long down there,” a goddess who couldn’t be anyone other than Athena said. There was something about her that just screamed it at me and I had seen a lot of paintings of her. They were scarily accurate, because physically, she was perfection. “I wouldn’t have lasted a day. And you’re still staying there, helping the rats preserve their short lives before they die anyway. Noble, to be sure.”

  Was that sarcasm?

  “It’s what I was called to do.” I was defending myself to Athena. I tried not to think what that could mean.

  “Yes, that’s very sweet, my dear.” She waved it off. “But you’ll thank us, you just wait and see.”

  “What’s going on here?” I asked, turning to Hades. I had the feeling everyone was in on some joke I didn’t understand.

  “I’ve learned to nod and smile and when I’m done, I go back to the home I understand. Even if it is a dump, it’s better than this place,” Hades murmured.

  “Don’t be an ass,” Poseidon said.

  “Fuck you,” Hades bit.

  “Boys, no fighting at the table.” It was Hera, calling from the other side of the table as if she were their mother instead of their sister.

  “I’ll fight wherever I fucking want,” Hades muttered, tossing a grape into his mouth.

  I put food in my mouth, too, forcing myself to eat. The gods were different than I’d expected them to be. They weren’t all nice. Or even living up to what they were supposed to be. Somehow, I had expected them to be so above anything I could ever want to be, that I would pale next to them. But they were just like some humans I knew—loud, overbearing, downright rude. Add a dash of entitlement and that described more than half of them here.

  And superficial… God. They were so bad. I understood why Heracles and Persephone had insisted on dressing me up the way they had. If I had come in my training clothes or my jeans—the two outfits I wore all the time—the gods might have kicked me out again. It was like a formal dinner, except you had to believe you were the shit to even attend at all.

  How had I ended up with the good ones?

  “Wow, you’re not eating much are you?” Hermes said, suddenly paying attention to me.

  I’d been trying the different foods, from fruit to tiny shortbread pies filled with custard, and an array of cheeses on offer. Having my mouth full seemed like the best way not to get in trouble for not saying anything, but what was Hermes expecting? To gorge.

  “She’s not a glut,” Apollo snapped. So, H
ades wasn’t the only one who disliked Hermes. “Back the fuck off.”

  Hermes shrugged as if he were used to being treated this way. Maybe he really was an asshole and no one let him show his true colors before they snapped.

  “Well, when you come to stay here,” said Hermes, “you’ll have to ramp it up. Not eating what we give you is rude.”

  “Why is everyone saying I’m going to live here?” I asked, loud enough for the closest gods to hear me. “And I’m eating plenty.”

  Demeter laughed as if I’d said something funny. “Oh, darling, we’re going to have so much fun once you’ve moved in permanently.”

  Really? We were?

  Chapter Three

  “Are you ready?” Apollo came to stand by me, where I waited a few feet away from the pavilion where we’d been served dinner. Overhead, the ceiling was a tapestry of the night sky speckled with stars. Gold candelabras hung on the walls, their candles throwing light across the elaborate room made entirely of marble. A grand, long table swallowed most of the space in the room. Crystal glasses along with gold cutlery and plates adorned the spread, glass bowls overflowing with a rainbow of fruit bringing color to the room. Light harp music played nearby, and the sweetest floral smell wafted through the air.

  I stood with Hades, who looked just as uncomfortable as I was, clenching and unclenching his fists.

  Ready to leave?

  Yes, please. I nodded at Apollo, smiling, grateful he offered an escape.

  “Incoming,” Ares said, appearing at my side in a puff of magic.

  “Fuck,” Hades breathed.

  When I looked up, Hera stood in front of me in all her divine glory. And boy, was there a lot of it. I remembered now, she was the goddess of women, marriage, and family. But she might as well have been the goddess of seduction. Everything about her screamed sex appeal. She was voluptuous, practically spilling out of her dress in all the right places and her golden hair looked like it was spun from silk.

  But it was her sultry smile that really sealed the deal. If it weren’t for the way her eyes narrowed on me, I would have said this woman was a stunner. But something about the way she looked at me, the way her eyes shifted around, taking it all in, gave me the feeling we were dealing with a calculating bitch, not to mention everything she’d put Heracles through.

  “You survived the evening,” she said with a smile as if she were on our side. Right, we were all friends here.

  “Thank you very much for inviting me,” I said. One polite foot forward and then we could get the fuck out of here.

  “A word of advice,” she warned, and Hades groaned, not bothering to hide it. “The sooner you accept that you’ll be living here permanently, the faster you’ll adjust to our ways.”

  “What?” I frowned.

  Poseidon joined us, walking up from behind Hera, and I glanced at him. He stared at me blankly, having just missed the sentence that had ruffled all our feathers.

  “You’re one of us now, darling.” She reached out to my hair and ran it through her fingers. It was an oddly intimate gesture and I wanted her to get the hell away from me.

  “I’m the Goddess of Sanctuary. I look after the people. I can’t do that when I’m not with them.”

  Hera laughed as if I had just said the funniest thing, her voice light and crisp. “Of course you can,” she added. “We all do our jobs from here just fine. It’s what’s done, Elyse. It’s only right.”

  “I’ll have to think about it.” I offered her a tight smile, ready to get out of here already.

  Poseidon sucked in his breath as if I’d said something wrong. When I glanced at Apollo, he stood stiff next to Poseidon. Ares clenched his jaw. I didn’t dare look at Hades. I could already feel the anger radiating from him.

  “They’ve already started construction on your palace. We expect you in a week. We’re not joking about you living here.” Hera smiled at me, her lips perfect, her whole body exuding sexuality. She ran her hand down my arm before she walked away. It was just a brush of the fingertips, a light touch, but after she turned to leave, I rubbed my arm where she’d touched me.

  “What the fuck was that?” Hades asked the moment Hera had disappeared.

  “They don’t think it’s right that you live with the humans,” Poseidon explained.

  “You knew about this?” I snarled quietly.

  Poseidon nodded, his lips thinning, clearly not pleased about the whole situation. “I was coming to talk to you. I spoke to Zeus just now.”

  I shook my head, fury surging through me. Since losing my dad, no one had dictated my life, and no one sure as hell was going to start now. “This is bullshit. How can they expect me to give up who I am?”

  “They’re not expecting that,” Poseidon responded. “They just don’t want you removed from Olympus.”

  “Never bothered them with me,” Hades piped in, his voice strangled and full of sarcasm.

  Poseidon rolled his eyes. “Don’t make this about you, brother,” he shot back before looking at me again. “Maybe it’s not a bad idea.”

  I blinked at him. “You can’t be serious?”

  “What the fuck, bro?” That came from Apollo.

  Poseidon huffed loudly. “I just think it wouldn’t be bad for you to be here with us. After everything you’ve done, Zeus knows you deserve a break, to realize who you are now, to enjoy this heavenly location. And it’s not safe for you on Earth. We still don’t know if you’re immortal and if you die again, we’re all fucked.”

  I shook my head, trying to process everything he’d so succinctly laid out, but this was huge and not a decision to be rushed. “So what about the people?”

  “Yeah,” Apollo said. “How is she going to do what she does best if she’s removed from the humans she’s saving?”

  “You dislike them,” Hades barked in response, staring at me.

  I glared at him. Whose side was he on?

  “What?” he asked. “You keep complaining how you need a break. Right?”

  He wasn’t wrong. I did complain about that a lot. It was one of the reasons we fucked so often lately. I needed the distraction and I felt like of all the gods, Hades understood that side of me the best.

  At least, so I had thought. It didn’t look like it now.

  “I love the humans,” I said. “I am one of them. I’ve always been a part of that world. Just because I get tired sometimes… You know what that’s like, right? I’m sure you do.”

  Hades clenched his jaw.

  “I think it’s better if you stay on Earth,” Apollo declared, his voice strong and direct.

  “You just want her there with you.” Poseidon’s eyebrows pulled together into a frown.

  “Yeah?” said Apollo. “And you’re going to stay on Earth if she comes here? Or are you going to follow? Don’t make it sound like you’re so fucking selfless.”

  “Guys, please,” I said, shaking my head. I glanced at Ares, who’d been quiet all this time. He watched us with an expression I couldn’t read, his feet wide apart, gripping his wrist like he was a sentry waiting to be called upon. “What about you,” I asked him. “What do you think?”

  He shrugged, his breaths slow and calculated. “I don’t actually give a shit, truth be told.”

  I didn’t know why, but that pissed me off so much more. I should have been happy that at least one of them wasn’t trying to tell me what to do. Or picking a fight about it. But that Ares didn’t actually care only made me feel like he wasn’t invested. I knew it was bullshit. Ares worried as much for me as the rest of them did. And our relationship had always been a very strange balance of give and take.

  But it annoyed me he just didn’t seem to be bothered where I would be.

  “So you don’t care where I end up?” I asked with a bit too much sass in my voice.

  “I’m not going to tell you what to do,” he said, staring at me with sincerity in his eyes. That was what I loved about him. He was real
and spoke his mind.

  I bit my tongue. He’d often been called a coward by other gods and even in historical records because his life views were so different. I wasn’t going to follow suit. But it was looking a hell of a lot like he wasn’t interested in getting involved in conflict. It was fine if it wasn’t something serious, but this was my future we were talking about, and if I relocated, I wanted to ensure all four of the men in my life were okay with it.

  I looked at Hades again. When he noticed, he reached for my hand and squeezed it. He was stirring shit with the other gods by saying things that riled them up, but at least he stood on my side with this. He was being a dick by telling me I didn’t like the humans, but he had my back. At the end of the day, he didn’t tell me where he wanted me, but that he longed to be with me.

  That was something, and I accepted it.

  “I think we need to get out of here.” Hades broke the silence, proving that he was my hero after all.

  “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all night,” I replied.

  Poseidon looked like he wanted to say something, the corners of his mouth twitching, but Hades pulled me against him.

  I glanced back to the table with gods and goddesses. All eyes were on me, and as if sensing our intention, they all popped out of there. My gaze swept to Zeus who remained last, fire burning in his eyes. In a flash, an inferno of fire flared up all around the area, thunder growling in the sky.

  Heat licked at my skin. He was so pissed off.

  The next moment Hades held me tighter and we were back in my apartment, the others vanishing to somewhere from the burning room.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, smiling too widely. Never would I have thought I’d hate being in a heavenly location. “Zeus is not happy, is he?”

  He nodded. “He rarely is. And I hate that place, anyway.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s filled with self-righteous assholes,” he hissed from clenched teeth.

  After I had seen them tonight, I started to understand why Hades loathed the place and other gods. I’d always thought his dislike was rooted in jealousy or bitterness over what had happened to him. But I’d never seen so many people in love with themselves in one room together.