Out of Cake Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 6)

by S. E. Babin

  My heart ground to a stop and lurched into a slow deep drum of a beat. Blood rushed to my ears. "He really is that powerful," I whispered to myself.

  Clotho chuckled halfheartedly. "You do not know the half of it. When he was cast into Hades, something unexpected happened. The divine power melded to their respective souls and somehow...combined it. It was an incredible, awe-inspiring thing. We've never seen the likes of it before."

  "We?"

  "My sisters. The effort shook the world, Abby. You are not dealing with a regular immortal. You are dealing with one of the most powerful divine beings ever created."

  Something occurred to me then. Speaking of divine beings. "Why is God working with Morgana? He has to know she isn't in it for the right reasons."

  Her smile saddened. "He isn't. What you saw was a cleverly disguised, sentient avatar. One of her making."

  My shocked gaze flew to hers. "Spell out exactly what you're saying, Clotho."

  Her mouth thinned. "Morgana has placed God in a spell of stasis. It is slowly sucking the divinity from him and powering up Morgana's staff."

  "Whoa," I whispered.

  "Yeah," Clotho said. "Whoa."

  "How long do we have?"

  She shook her head. "Days. Mere days."

  The thought of what would happen if Divinity was destroyed was mind boggling. 'The Earth," I whispered.

  "The entire universe. We must find it first. If we can’t get control of her staff, we will have to use the book to find a spell powerful enough to restore God to health."

  "Have you asked Hades?"

  "I overstepped my duties in rescuing you," she said. "I will most likely be called to trial soon."

  Outrage made me quiver. "By who?"

  "My sisters. I am not to involve myself in human or immortal affairs because I have a stake in their fates."

  "Clotho, you may have just saved everyone's fate."

  "I fear they may not see it like that."

  I slid off the bed. "I will make them."

  Clotho held up a hand. "Do not worry about me. I am primordial. We must first worry about restoring God and saving Hades. For without the light and the dark, there will be no world."

  "That's a heavy thing to put on a girl's shoulders," I told her.

  Clotho gave me a sad, sad smile. "But you are the only one who cares enough to stop it." With a farewell wave, she disappeared from my room in a shower of light.

  A heavy burden lay across my shoulders and grief for my friend filled my heart. But she was right. And if we weren't all so selfish, we would realize it. It was time I started playing hardball with Persephone, even if she was only a pawn.

  Seconds later I was back in my hotel room. A bundle of chestnut hair and leather launched itself at me from across the room and tackled me in a hug. I responded with a grunt.

  "Clotho came in and snatched me from the dinner and told me under no circumstances to leave this room." Wide worried violet eyes stared me down. "What in the gods happened?"

  "Do you have any ambrosia?" I asked.

  Chapter 9

  Turned out Artie always carried ambrosia in a little flask she tucked into her leather vest. Which was awesome to know, just in case I ever needed to steal it. She poured us out a little bit in tiny glasses and sent one my way. I tipped it back, took a glorious sip, and felt it burn all the way down to my stomach. I squared my shoulders. "Are you sure you want to know this? Because by knowing this you can never go back."

  She blinked. "That sounds awfully heavy," she responded.

  "Light and dark. God and Lucifer. World ending heavy stuff."

  I saw the indecision flicker across her face and empathy flooded me. My friend was trying her best to step out of my world, and I knew it. She'd been around a little bit, but more of her focus was going to her pet detective agency and less to me. I was happy for her but I couldn't help but think I was losing her. I saw the moment she reached her decision.

  She tipped back her ambrosia and swallowed it at once. "One more ride, Abs. Tell me."

  Artie reached her fist out toward me and I smiled, sadness deep in my heart. "One more ride," I echoed and fist bumped her. She was done with our shenanigans. Well...my shenanigans and I had to respect that.

  "Sit back and let me tell you a tale of Heaven and Hell," I said.

  "Oh boy."

  Thirty minutes later Artie stared at me slack-jawed and wide-eyed. "Man. How badass was Clotho to go in there and rip the fabric of reality to save you?"

  "Totally bad ass," I agreed but sobered right away. "She's injured," I admitted. "I've never seen her hurt before."

  "She will be okay," Artie tried to comfort me. "She's a Fate. Aren't they primordial?"

  I chuckled. "She said the exact same thing, but it didn’t make me feel any better."

  "It will be okay. Things tend to work out when you're involved."

  I gave her the side eye. "Did you really just say that? No, they don't."

  Artie snorted. "Everyone is still alive, right?"

  "I don't think that's a great scale to be judging by."

  "When you're immortal, and you've lived this long the way you piss everyone off, I think you're doing just fine."

  I harrumphed. "This was supposed to be a normal retrieval kind of thing. Not a battle for our souls."

  "Do we have souls?" Artie wondered aloud.

  "Hell, I don't know. Something else you just made me worry about. Thanks for that."

  She snickered. "Hades wouldn't give you something you couldn't handle."

  I laughed out loud. "Is that like that cheesy human saying where they all get together, hold hands in support and say, God wouldn't give you anything He knows you can't handle?"

  "I guess so. I'm pretty bad at moral support, I guess."

  "Terrible at it."

  She punched me in the arm. "Look. We are all still alive, right?"

  A large gust of wind blew us back. Both of us gathered magic, practically glowing with it, when Hermes appeared in the room, his face stricken.

  Relief spread over his expression when he saw us standing there. He stepped toward us and gathered us both in his arms. "Thank the gods," he breathed.

  "Hermes?" I pushed back from him, nonplussed. "Are you okay?"

  He let us go. "Forgive my bluntness, but what in the hell just happened?" His normally unruffled appearance was gone. Bloody scratches lined his arms and his face. His crown lay askew on his head and his royal blue chiton was torn.

  I blinked. "Clotho saved us."

  "Clotho?" he echoed. "Isn't that against the rules?"

  "I think the rules are fully out the window now."

  He blinked. "One minute we were sitting there, the next minute you were gone. We thought, okay God wanted a chat. No problem. But seconds later, an enraged Morgana Le Fay shows back up and starts throwing magic around. Poseidon is seriously injured, but he was able to escape. I barely got out of there." He turned to me shell-shocked. "What is going on, Abby?"

  I sat him down and gestured for Artie to pour him some ambrosia.

  It looked like some of the team was back in action. This was no longer about Persephone.

  This was about our lives. Everyone’s lives.

  I called for Hades but received no answer. It was unlike him to ignore me, and I wondered about Morgana and whether she had managed to get into the Underworld. It was possible he had his hands full right now.

  I spilled everything to my friends, including the information I had about the book and the necklace Hades had given me. I was beginning to suspect this was less of a protective charm and more of a locator device but I couldn't be sure.

  "Persephone doesn't know what she has?" Hermes shook his head. "That seems too good to be true. If she discovers it, this could go sideways." He paused. “Even more than it already has.”

  "Right now it's cloaked under Hades’ magic. It just appears as a normal book. Fortunately, Morgana doesn't know what it is. She just knows it exists.” And hopefully
, she didn't know of Hades' Shakespeare leanings.

  While we sat there we hatched a plan. Not an amazing one, but one that might be able to get us through the next few days. I would still go in and act as a maid, but I would have to charm the staff into switching up my area of responsibility which would allow me access into Persephone's private quarters. I would stay a maid until I was either found out or I found what I was looking for.

  Hermes, on the other hand, had a slightly more challenging role. We were going to take Hamilton out of action for now and have Hermes go in under a powerful glamour. One we probably needed Clotho to help us with because we needed to disguise his power signature. Persephone and Morgana would both know right away if one of us was masquerading as a human. Artemis would do close to the same. We planned on replacing one of Persephone's close friends with Artemis.

  All of us should be able to garner information, but Hermes had the most important part. And he needed to play it well.

  We ordered a pizza for delivery and after it was delivered, we all sat quietly, somber in our new roles.

  "Are you ready for this?" I asked Hermes.

  He chewed on a slice of pepperoni as he pondered my question. "I don't know that I can't be," he said after a moment. "If the Codex is this important, I have to be flawless."

  Artie chuckled. "What if you have to sleep with her?"

  Hermes rubbed his face and groaned. "I guess I have to do whatever I need to do." Persephone was not unattractive.

  A flash of jealousy came and went. I still cared about him, but he had drawn the lines between us and I respected them. If he needed to pursue Persephone in that way to make her believe he was really Hamilton, then there was nothing any of us could do about it.

  "What about Morgana?" Artemis asked.

  Hermes interrupted. "Many years ago Demeter assigned Morgana as a guardian to her daughter. Sort of a godmother type of relationship if I understand it correctly. They are close. Extremely close, so I think we will run into Morgana. Soon."

  "All the more reason for us to be a hundred percent sure our signatures are cloaked and we are playing our parts to the best of our ability." I frowned. I was going to have to be cloaked too. Morgana had given me a free pass the first time I’d moseyed in here and acted as a maid right under her nose. I don't think my luck would hold out for too much longer.

  "So how do we get hold of Clotho?" Artie asked.

  I leaned back against my pillow and wiped my hands off on a napkin. "She disappeared right in front of me. I can only assume she's back with her sisters."

  Artie's face tightened. "We have to go visit the Fates."

  Hermes nodded. "We need to make sure they understand exactly what's at stake here."

  "Atropos will be a problem," I said.

  "She's the puppetmaster," Artie remarked.

  "Pulling our strings," I agreed.

  "She has to be aware," Hermes said.

  "Yes. So how do we get her on our side?" I wondered aloud.

  "We might have to force her." Artie frowned at her own words.

  We all burst out laughing.

  "That'll happen," I said, my voice dry as dust.

  Hermes was the one to sober first. "We may have to trick her."

  "Or we get Clotho to the side and let her know our plan." I wondered how in the heck we were going to do that, but between the three of us, I'm sure we'd figure it out.

  "I cannot enter the Fates’ lair. I will do what I can from here, but the majority of this is up to you."

  "No pressure," Artie and I said at the same time.

  What to wear when you were possibly walking into your own death? Body armor would be my first choice, but since that would probably offend the Fates, I had to settle with a nice long, bright red toga. Atropos liked this color because she said you could bleed on it and no one would notice. Her words did just great things for my self-esteem and sense of self-preservation, but I knew I needed to do everything I could to appease them.

  Hopefully dying wasn't on that list. Clotho's words kept coming back to me, over and over again. I was going to die. Soon.

  And Hades still wasn't answering me.

  Artie stepped in front of me wearing an emerald green toga. Her leathers lay carefully slung over the chair next to the desk. Her one concession to her status as huntress was the soft leather lace up boots she wore with her dress. I tried to get her to wear sandals, but she wasn't having any of it. She claimed if she died today at least her feet wouldn't hurt.

  I kind of had to give her that one.

  We flashed ourselves into the entrance of the cave where the sisters lived. As we stood outside, I took Artie's hand. "Whatever happens here, know that we did our best."

  She punched me in the arm with her free hand. "Shut up, Abby. It's not our day to die."

  I wasn't so sure of that. Still holding her hand, we walked inside together.

  The first thing was the drop in temperature. It was naturally colder inside a cave, but there was something frigid about this. If I was a betting woman, I'd say the sisters knew we were here, and they weren't too happy to see us. We kept pressing forward until we made it to the area where I'd been greeted last time by Lachesis. She wasn't too bad, but they were all pretty scary.

  There was no one to greet us this time. Artie and I moved forward, but eventually we realized we were getting nowhere. Every fifteen minutes of walking we'd get dumped right back into the same area.

  The Fates didn't want to see us.

  I muttered a curse under my breath. "What do we do now?" I asked Artie.

  Anger flickered across her expression as she stared up at the ceiling. Her mouth thinned. "We do what needs to be done. We get their attention." Seconds later, Artie's toga was gone and she was dressed in full battle regalia, complete with her bow.

  "Uh," I said. "I don't think our intent should be to piss them off."

  "Pissing someone off can sometimes be the only way to get their attention." She raised her bow and aimed it toward one of the sparkling gems at the top of the cavern. I wasn't sure what those gems were for, but they looked important.

  I held a hand out to stop her. "Artie -" I warned.

  She loosed the arrow.

  "Crap," I whispered.

  The gem shattered and the already dim lights in the cave flickered once, twice, then plunged us into complete darkness.

  "Artie?" I whispered.

  No answer. I reached out to touch her but found only empty air beside me.

  "YOUR PRESENCE IS UNWELCOME HERE, GODDESS. LEAVE US NOW WHILE YOUR IMMORTALITY IS STILL INTACT."

  I froze like a rabbit being stalked like a wolf. The darkness was so absolute I couldn't see a single thing in front of me. So...as much as I wanted to, I couldn't leave. Using magic in the Fates' lair was strictly forbidden so right now I was stuck. At least until she turned the lights on. I slowed my breathing in order to help slow my panic.

  "I'm here in order to ask a boon."

  "BOONS HAVE BEEN GRANTED TO YOU ALREADY. YOU ARE STILL IN OUR DEBT."

  My lips twisted in annoyance. "I'm aware of that. Can we do a two for one deal?

  "YOU TRY MY PATIENCE."

  "Look, Atropos, I'm not trying to be a pain here. I'm trying to save our lives. Can't you at least speak with me? Just for a moment."

  Silence loomed. "I am not here trying to save my own skin. I've changed."

  The dim lights flickered back on. I blinked, adjusting my eyes to it. Atropos stood directly in front of me dressed for battle. Not good. Her long dark hair flowed around her head. Intelligent eyes stared at me curiously. Fortunately, she hadn't opened her mouth because I probably would have run out screaming. Those serrated teeth freaked me the heck out. And she knew it too so she was probably saving that. Nice of her to do me that favor.

  "Thank you." I bowed low, my hair sweeping the ground. A moment later I straightened. "I come to you to ask for your assistance with Morgana Le Fay, a powerful witch."

  She stared at me.


  "She has grievously injured God and has plans to steal the Codex Gigas."

  More silence. I sighed. "I know you already know all of this."

  One eyebrow rose.

  Crap.

  "Atropos, if we do not do something soon, Morgana will uncover this book. It will lead to the destruction of Hades and eventually to the destruction of everything we know."

  "Mortal, it is not our job to prevent such things from coming to pass."

  I held up a hand. "I know. But I do know Fate can be a fickle thing and I know it cannot prevent free will or the results of choices made in the heat of the moment." I scratched my nose, thinking of what I could say to her to sway her to my side. "My death is on the table here. I know that sometime soon I will perish, whether as a result of Morgana or something else, I know not. But while I am here, I will do anything to prevent Morgana's hold on the Underworld."

  She studied me. "And where is Lucifer now?"

  I swallowed hard. Apparently the jig was up. Hades’ identity was well known among them. As long as the Fates kept this secret, he should be okay. "I do not know," I admitted.

  A slow smile crept across her face, exposing those jagged teeth. "He sends you, a little girl, into battle for him. Do you not question why he does this?"

  "Every single day," I muttered.

  "It is because he sees you as expendable."

  "Atropos -"

  She waved a hand and I dropped into the spell.

  Hades sat in his library, speaking to a woman I'd never seen before. Long heavy wings dropped from the stranger's shoulders and trailed onto the ground. A pure, startling white. I gasped.

  He was speaking with an angel.

  "You must protect this book with everything in your power, Hades," the woman said. "This cannot fall into the wrong hands."

  "Why has my Father given this to you, Melana?" he asked as he reached for the enormous tome.

  Melana's gaze shuttered. "I know not. My recommendation was that he keep this safe in Heaven."

  A small smile appeared on his face. "I know you do not trust the relationship we have. And that you do not trust me, but I am not the man I once was."