Out of Cake Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 6)

by S. E. Babin

  "You're thinking about allowing Zeus back in?" Zeus was a mystery, but the more I'd seen of him lately, the more I'd seen that he changed. Somewhat. I didn't think he'd ever completely change his spots, but he seemed more concerned about humanity, and I thought maybe his compassion was growing. Somewhat.

  Hermes looked away from me. "I haven't decided yet. I always wanted to get out from under my father's rule and I have. It's just...not what I expected."

  "Well," I said lightly. "If you buy the place you can use it as a refuge when you need to get away."

  His whiskey colored gaze met mine. "You will tell no soul of this place?"

  A small, sad smile flickered over my face before I could stop it. "Of course I won't. Artemis would not either. In fact, you may have to drag her kicking and screaming from the place if Les hangs around for too much longer."

  He laughed. "Weird dynamic those two have."

  "Yeah. Very weird."

  Chapter 10

  A few hours later Artie popped back in, patting her tummy.

  I was packed and on the bed reading when she came in. I set my book down and gave her an appraising stare. "Well, how was dinner with Les?"

  "That man can cook like Gordon Ramsey," she admitted. "Best supper I've had in awhile."

  "Artie -" I said, but paused. I wasn't sure how to broach this.

  But she was smart. "Abby, stop. Les is a good old-fashioned handsome man. He's a byproduct of days far passed. If I want to strike up a friendship with him I am allowed to do so. And if I wanted to strike up something more, I should be allowed to do so without your meddling or interference."

  I held my hands up. "Sorry. Sorry. It just seemed odd."

  She held my gaze with her vivid purple one. "Odd that I choose to spend my time with someone I have nothing in common with? Les is well-read, handsome and romantic." She paused and sat down on the edge of the chair beside the bed. "He is also vividly lonely and pining over his dead wife, Loretta. I sensed it within him and chose to stay with him awhile."

  Hermes, silent in the other corner caught his breath. "Artemis -"

  "Stop," she said and held up a hand. "Do not ruin this for me."

  Hermes frowned. "I wasn't. I was merely going to say you have done this man a kindness far surpassing what was required."

  Artie shook her head. "It wasn't only for him. It was for me as well."

  I swallowed hard. "You are a good woman, Artemis."

  "Well, Les is a good man. Those are few and far between these days."

  Her statement was cryptic, but I let it go. There would be another time for her to explain herself with that one.

  "Are we ready to go?" I asked. I was all packed up and ready to head over there. We could probably jump in without a car as it was dark and there was no one there to see us.

  She nodded. "I had to charm Les a bit so he wouldn't question how in the world I'd possibly been able to organize and pack his things so quickly, but it's done. The house is empty and clean. We can go as soon as you're ready."

  The soft whisper of wind was our only warning to a new visitor. I took a step back ready to fire magic until I realized it was Atropos.

  She stood there dressed in the same clothing I'd left her in. Her face was somber and serious.

  "Step forward, child," she said to me.

  I took a steadying breath, clamped my lips together to keep myself from saying something smart and stepped forward.

  "Kneel," Atropos commanded.

  Oh gods. Was she going to chop my head off? I wondered.

  Atropos snorted with amusement. Apparently, I hadn't said that in my head. "It's a wonder your mouth hasn't gotten you killed several times," she said, not unkindly.

  I apologized but she waved it away. "My sister has told me many things about you lately, including the kindness you've shown to her over the last few months."

  I couldn't see her face, but her tone sounded...strange.

  "Because of our nature we are not often the recipients of kindness and for that, we offer you three things."

  My heart sped up. They were going to help!

  Atropos placed her palm on the top of my head. "First, we offer you the gift of sight so you may see the inner workings of conversations and know when you're being misled."

  I swallowed. I wasn't sure I wanted that power. I started to shake my head, but she clamped it still.

  "Relax. It's temporary and will manifest only when you are in peril. Eventually, it will fade away."

  I sighed with relief.

  "Second, we gift you with the powers of the Fates to help you defeat Morgana. This is a terrible gift to bear, but with it you may see the trials and tribulations that have led Morgana to these decisions. With such knowledge, we hope you choose to battle her wisely. There is rarely good and evil in this world, child. True evil is a terrible thing to witness and as keeper of Fate, I know you have yet to experience it. By knowing Morgana's story and knowing the sacrifices she's made to get where she is today, we think you'll be able to make a better decision in your dealings with her. Morgana has terrible power that far surpasses yours. This boon is ours. Given freely. May you wield this power wisely and may it not tear you apart."

  "That sounds...ominous," I murmured.

  "You asked for our help," she reminded me. "You have the power to turn it down. But if you don't then you must sacrifice to use it. Do you understand?"

  I nodded. Her hand remained on top of my head.

  "And our last gift to you is to unseal the rest of your powers." She paused and inhaled deeply. "May the gods help us all."

  I reached up and gripped her wrist in shock. "Wait. What?" I asked and tried to tilt my head up to meet her eyes. “I thought you’d already done that back when the prophecy was revealed?”

  Turned out I’d been lied to most of my life, and the truth was only uncovered when the Fates were forced to show their hand. And after I’d bugged them incessantly about it because people were calling me Queen. On the day of my birth, Hecate approached me and passed her power into me. She told me I would be the savior of her people. As if that weren’t enough to scare the crap out of me, after the vision Clotho undid the seal on Hecate’s magic. From Atropos’ words, though, Clotho hadn’t quite told me the truth. Nor had she given me all of my powers at that time.

  Wind began to blow throughout the room. "If you refuse our boons, Aphrodite, say it now!"

  My mouth worked but no words came out. Blood rushed through my veins and my heart began to beat thickly against the walls of my chest.

  "What powers?" Hermes shouted, puzzled.

  "I accept!" I screamed, feeling the words of power tearing from my diaphragm and out of my body.

  Atropos' sad sigh reverberated through the room as Hecate’s power tore me from limb to limb. Seconds later, I keeled to the side and went limp, my eyes wide and unseeing, power beating through my veins.

  Chapter 11

  Someone was slapping me in the face. And not gently, either.

  "Abby!" Slap. "Abby!" Slap. "Abby!" Slap slap slap.

  "Quit!" I tried to yell and grasped ineffectually for the offending arm.

  "Thank the gods," Artie murmured as she reached down and gathered me in her arms. My eyes blinked open. We were no longer in our hotel room. Someone had transported us to the cabin.

  Hermes warm hand rested on my knee as he kneeled beside me. "You were...not there," he said with a sigh. "It looked like you were dead, but you were breathing. Your eyes -" he shuddered. "I never want to see that again."

  I tried to sit up. "What did she do to me?" I wondered aloud.

  "Ah," Hermes said. "Well, we aren't exactly sure, but you owe the motel several thousand dollars worth of damages."

  I shut my eyes. "Crap," I muttered.

  "Atropos is a total freaky bad ass," Artie said. She rummaged in her pocket and came out with three small silver chains, each with a tiny glass globe at the end of them. "For us. They were lying in the bed-"

  "What was
left of the bed," Hermes interrupted.

  "With a note," she continued. "These are tuned to our respective magic. They will hide our power signature once we slip them over our head and say an incantation she left for us."

  I finally managed to work my muscles enough to get into a sitting position. I flexed my fingers. I felt...weird.

  "You look...strange," Hermes said as he settled himself down on the ground to study me.

  I rubbed the top of my head where Atropos' hand rested. "I feel strange."

  Artie sat down beside Hermes. She looked me over for a second then waved her hand around my face. "Your eyes look weird. That's what it is. They look...icier."

  Her brows knit together. "Lighter. More silvery."

  Our gazes met. We knew only one person who had silver eyes all the time.

  Hades.

  I bit my lip and my gaze skittered away from Arties. What in the heck had just happened?

  Hermes chose this moment to point something out. "Didn't she do something similar to you when all of this first started?"

  I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. Yes, the Fates had jacked with my magic quite a bit. Always for my own good, or so they would tell me.

  I lifted one shoulder and let it drop. I’d answer him as vaguely as possible. "It was a little different. Eris stifled my powers in the beginning. They sort of..." I waggled my hand around. "Unstuck them. For lack of a better word."

  "I've never seen one person prone to so many weird things happening to them," Artie remarked.

  "Yeah," I said in a dry voice, "lucky me." I lifted my hand and waved it in front of my face. Magic sparked from my fingertips and I began to remember something from a few months ago when Hades and I were on the hunt for Artie. I'd seen him use his powers. His angelic ones. He seemed surprised at the time, but I'd let it drop because I'd gotten pretty used to weird things happening around me.

  Could this mean? I sighed and dropped my hand. No. Abby. You are not an angel, I told myself sternly. I was from the sea. I remembered being born. I had no mother. No father. No siblings. No one. This was just a strange coincidence. So my eyes were a little lighter. That wasn't anything to be worried about.

  But I knew once I'd gathered some of my strength back I would be outside testing my powers out to see what she'd done to me. Because I felt weird. Like I was drunk. And there was no ambrosia in sight.

  We'd quickly set up the cabin to our tastes. The kitchen was my domain, of course. I let Hermes and Artie argue over the living area, both of them relieved we had something normal happening. Tomorrow it would all go to hell because we were about to do something.

  Something illegal.

  Thoughts of my ex Marshall filtered through my head. I smiled in fond memory because I knew he was okay and dating a cute little thing who worked at one of the diners down the road from Clotho's shop. The last time I'd blatantly broken the law (and gotten caught), he'd tossed me in the back of his police cruiser.

  Hopefully, that didn't happen again. We'd have to be careful and we'd have to catch Hamilton when he wasn't surrounded by people.

  Considering he was one of the richest men in the state, that was going to be easier said than done. We'd also have to catch him without Persephone.

  But we had a ringer.

  Artemis. And she was going in as herself. I hoped she wouldn't nerd it up too bad and say something ridiculous, but she could be good at pretending. Being sexy was just natural for her even though she didn't realize it. She had a bit of a dangerous vibe to her. Hermes and I both had seen the damage she could wreak when someone made her angry, but humans just saw her as a bad girl.

  Even though I'd seen her in her jammies gorging on ice cream, she could be a bad ass. You just had to bring that side of her out.

  We were hoping Hamilton had a thing for tall brunettes. If he didn't, I'd have to go in. I prayed it wouldn't come to that because I wasn't sure what would happen if I tried to cast a glamour after Atropos' experimentation on me.

  I knew exactly what I was going to dress her like, and she was going to be super pissed at me, but it had to be done. Artie was tall with legs a mile long and hair down to her butt. Add those purple eyes in and she was a total knockout.

  I'd deal with her freak out tomorrow.

  Tonight I needed to figure out if I was still me.

  We ate a somber dinner, none of us up for too much conversation. When it was finished, I tossed my napkin down and excused myself, but Hermes wasn't about to let me go out without knowing why.

  "We have to be careful, Abby. Especially now. Why are you going out?"

  I held up my hand where magic still sparked intermittently. It was like a dysfunctional sparkler.

  "Yeah, I noticed that at dinner."

  I frowned at him. "Thanks for saying something."

  He chuckled. "Well, it was hard to miss, and I'm not the kind of guy who points out someone's flaws."

  I punched him in the chest. "It's not a flaw," I muttered.

  "It kind of is," Artie jumped in.

  I grabbed my shawl. "Follow on if you want to come, losers. I'm going to try this dysfunctional hand out."

  Hermes clapped and rubbed his hands together. "Cool. I hope I get three wishes."

  "Shut up." I pushed my way out of the back door and allowed the screen to slam back in his face.

  "Hey!"

  I headed back down the stairs laughing.

  Twenty minutes later we were far from the house and secluded in an open, grassy area surrounded by trees.

  Artie stepped into the clearing first. "Strange how open this is," she remarked. "It almost looks like people were using it before."

  "For what?" Hermes asked.

  She looked up and around and walked the perimeter of the surprisingly round circular area. "Almost looks pagan in nature. Weird." She inhaled deeply and when she opened her eyes, a violet haze crossed over them. "The wildlife is plentiful here. And content. Les has done a great job in the maintenance of this land."

  I pushed my way into the middle of the circle. "So it seems perfect for what I'm about to do, right?"

  Hermes stepped in and with a whispered word produced his caduceus. He slammed it into the ground and golden light ran into the ground highlighting certain areas brighter than the others.

  "Cool," Artie and I murmured.

  "Magic has been used here before," he said as he bent down to peer at one particular spot. "And not too long ago. It's human in nature."

  Artie grinned. "Witches. Good ones from the sense of this circle."

  "I thought human witches didn't have much power?"

  Hermes shrugged. "Not usually, but there are some who have hereditary magic. Strong magic."

  Artemis laughed at my look of concern. "There is nothing to worry about here. They are keeping the land strong -" she inhaled sharply as she spotted something lying at the northernmost corner. She stopped talking and walked to the area, crouching and touching something she found. She picked up a bundle of twigs wrapped with holly. A beautiful smile graced her face, and a single tear spilled from her eye.

  "Artie?" I asked.

  Hermes followed and bent down beside her. "I'll be," he murmured.

  Artie held the packet up. "Artemis worshippers." She held it against her heart. "My power is stronger here, Abby. I can feel it."

  It had been so many years since one of us had found evidence of worship. I was happy for her, yet sad for myself. My smile wobbled. "That's awesome. Should you put their bundle back?"

  She shook her head adamantly. "No. It's an offering." Artie stood and wiped her pants off. Magic glowed within her hand and she bent down. Beside the offering area, she pressed the hoofprint of a deer deep into the ground and left a single rack of horns.

  Hermes ruffled her hair. "Perhaps we are coming back into favor with humans."

  She shrugged. "It's enough for me to see just this one," she said. Artie cleared her throat and turned back to me.

  I felt awkward now like I sho
uldn't be practicing magic in a circle that seemed to be dedicated to the Huntress.

  "Please, Abby. Go ahead."

  I hesitated so she walked over and pulled me by the elbow. "We need to know. It's okay."

  I nodded once and tried to clear my mind. I stood straight, flexed my hands and shook myself all over to try to relax. I hadn't properly relaxed in months but if I could somewhat do it today it would help me reach into the pool where my magic was located. Once I felt myself calm down, I reached first for my innate magic. The magic of love.

  I searched Hermes' eyes for permission and when he nodded, I extended a tendril of pink magic toward him. He stood there silent and calm, allowing me to search his heart.

  I gasped at what I found and quickly retreated. He stared at me, his eyes calm and tranquil. My gaze skittered away from him.

  I didn't deserve what he wanted to offer me. His love was surrounded by doubt and conflict, but it was still there.

  My love magic was still intact and working as well as it ever had.

  "Okay,” I breathed. "All intact. Are we ready for what happens next?"

  Artie shook her head, and Hermes nodded.

  I rolled my eyes. "Maybe I should ask one more time?"

  "Abby, just roll with it," he growled. "There is nothing any of us can do if things go wrong. Atropos did this for a reason."

  "Yeah," Artie remarked, "but for what reason?"

  The massive pool of silvery magic rested beneath my surface and close to my love magic. It was terrifying because I could feel it rolling through my veins, untested and unfamiliar. In the past, I'd had the same feeling, especially when Gaia had gifted me with hers, but it was different because it didn't belong to me. This felt more like Atropos had ripped off a healing scab only to uncover a new wound. Except...it wasn't a wound. Not really. Just a foreign object. But I knew it belonged to me because I finally felt complete. Whole. Like I was supposed to feel like this my entire life and had only just uncovered it. It left a gaping feeling that I'd been missing something my entire life.

  "Do it," Hermes said again, his calm gaze reassuring.