Out of Cake Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 6)

by S. E. Babin

  I nodded and lightly touched the pool of silver magic inside of me.

  Chapter 12

  I'll never know exactly what happened that night, but I know the experience of it would forever live inside of me. As soon as I touched the complete magic I'd so long lived without, I gasped and fell to my knees. My eyes were shut but they were oh so open. Behind my lids, a vision appeared. Hades was on his knees, practicing arcane magic. He stiffened as soon as my gaze touched him. He stood, spinning around. As soon as he saw me, his eyes widened and his mouth went slack with shock.

  "Aphrodite?" he breathed. "What sorcery is this?" He moved closer and reached up to touch my avatar, but his fingers went right through me as if I were made of vapor. And maybe I was because I knew I was still kneeling in a wet field in Tennessee.

  "Atropos," I whispered, unable to explain what had happened. I’d been careful to keep my magic hidden from him at the warning of the Fates, but I’d just exposed it to him. And I couldn’t find it within me to be concerned. "We need you." I met his silvery gaze with my own and watched his eyes narrow as he realized the significance of it. "You have betrayed me."

  His brows flew together. "Never," he whispered.

  "Deceiver," I whispered again, unable to control the words coming from my lips.

  His expression fell devastated. "No. No! Abby do not believe this of me!"

  "We need you," I said again, feeling the magic begin to pull away from me and spin out of control.

  "Hold on to it!" he yelled. "Abby! Don't let it spin out of control!" He flung something at me.

  I snapped back into my body with a gasp and fell promptly over.

  "The hell?" Hermes screamed. "Stop doing that!"

  I stared at him wide-eyed. What in the gods had just happened?

  Hermes stiffened as his gaze went upward. Artie let out a gasp of surprise.

  I groaned and shut my eyes just as a splitting headache rose out of nowhere to tell me hello. "Hades is here, isn't he?" I asked.

  "Yup," said Artie.

  His dry voice whispered over my skin and it felt like home. "With lots of questions," he added.

  I sat next to the fire with a blanket draped over my shoulders nursing a cup of hot chocolate Hermes had sloppily made me.

  Hades sat in front of me, his legs criss crossed, shoeless and rumpled. He looked adorable.

  I blushed. Had I really called him Deceiver? That wasn't a word I was prone to using.

  A concerned smile ghosted his mouth. "When you warm up, I think you need to start at the beginning." He grinned at my grumpy expression.

  "Where were you?" I asked him.

  Confusion crossed his face. "What do you mean?"

  "I was calling for you."

  "Abby, I never heard your call." He looked at Artie and Hermes for clarification.

  They both nodded.

  He rocked back. "Perhaps we shouldn't wait for you to warm up. Maybe you should start talking now. I would never knowingly ignore you."

  That made me feel a little bit better. I started from the beginning and had to wait while he stopped laughing over the mopping incident. When I made it to the dinner his Father was supposedly present at, his cheek ticked with rage and his jaw went tight.

  Hades was either an extraordinary actor, which was entirely possibly given his Divine bloodline, or he had no idea what had been transpiring over the last couple of days.

  "Morgana Le Fay," he breathed. He set his mug down and rubbed his face with both hands. "Shit," he said and put a whole lot of feeling into it.

  "You know her?" I asked, unable to control the sudden burst of jealousy. Morgana was freaking gorgeous.

  "Of course I do," he answered. "She is Persephone's almost constant companion. I never was able to get used to her but my complaints to Demeter fell upon deaf ears."

  "What about her bothered you?" Hermes asked.

  "There is something evil about her. She has a thirst and hunger for power the likes of which I've never known. She uses her beauty and magic to get ahead, and she will decimate anything or anyone that gets in her way." He shook his head. "So far Persephone has been excluded from her tricks which makes me thinks Morgana may actually care for her." Hades scratched the side of his face. "But their relationship may be tested if she knows Persephone has the Codex."

  "Good news is," I said, trying to cheer everyone up, "we have a plan."

  Hades' lips twitched. "Can't wait to hear it," he said.

  "Why does everyone laugh when I tell them I have a plan?"

  All three of them clamped their lips shut and refused to say a word.

  "I hate you all," I muttered, but they laughed because they knew I didn't mean it.

  An hour later I was exhausted and ready for bed. We'd filled him in on everything we could tell him, including our plans for kidnapping and general mayhem. He rose an eyebrow at that but wasn't able to come up with anything that wouldn't result in complete destruction so we decided to stay with our plan.

  When it was time for bed, things got awkward. We had a two-bedroom cabin, but we figured Hermes could have the couch and Artie and I could each get a bedroom. Hermes might have been King, but he knew the pecking order when it came to doling out sleeping quarters. But now that Hades was here, we had to figure something else out. There was still a marked tension between them that had to do with me, but there was nothing I could do about it right now.

  So I told them I would take the couch and they could share the bedroom and fight over who got the bed. Neither was okay with that, so we eventually landed on me sharing a room with Artie, Hermes taking the couch and Hades getting the room.

  I thought Hades was being overly graceful considering his spot in the Underworld, and for that, I was thankful to him. We made plans to get up at first light and scope out Hamilton's schedule. I would check in at my job and try to get into his office. Every rich person usually kept a written planner somewhere, or so television told me. If we could find out where he would be, the better we could plan his snatching. I had no doubts I could successfully perform a strong glamour, and we all had the necklaces Atropos had given us. As long as Hamilton cooperated, we should be golden.

  That was a big if, but we were hopeful at least one thing would go our way.

  I slid the Fates' charm over my neck once I'd reestablished my glamour from before and shuddered as their magic slid over my shoulders. While I could still feel my magic, at first it felt numb and sluggish. I breathed out slowly and tried to get used to the sensation.

  When I walked out of my bedroom, Hades looked at me and immediately formed a silver ball of fire in his hand, fully prepared to fling it at me.

  Shit!

  "Whoah!" I yelled waving my hands around like a crazy person. "It's me, Abby!"

  His brow knit together in confusion, but he didn't lower the ball. “Abby?”

  "Yes!" I yelled and quickly slid the necklace off my neck.

  He breathed out a breath as my power signature slid through the air. "Gods. I almost killed you."

  "Yes, yes you did," I gasped. "Holy crap." I peered at the necklace. "At least we know it works."

  My heart was pounding in fear, but also in relief. There was no way Persephone would know it was me now, and if Hades wasn't able to sense me, that meant Morgana couldn't either.

  I smiled at him as he extinguished the Underworld fire, but he didn't smile back.

  He blew out a shaky breath. "That was entirely too close."

  I nodded. "But it was a good test of the charm, wasn't it?"

  He growled. "Your positivity even in the face of certain death can be annoying sometimes."

  I headed over to the coffee machine. "Yes, but it makes me happy and keeps me waking up in the morning."

  "Oh," he said, dry as dust, "as long as it makes you happy."

  "Right?" I said with a grin and put the K-cup into the pot and waited for it to sing me the song of its people. Less than a minute later I was slurping down my joe. I had twenty minutes t
o get to work and get this party started.

  I snagged one of the muffins I'd brought in and shoved part of it in my mouth. "See you later," I said with my mouth full and headed out the door.

  "Take care of yourself, Abby," Hades said, his silver gaze concerned.

  "Awww, you really care." I waggled my muffin at him and was about to shut the door when his words stopped me where I stood.

  "More than the Heavens and the Earth."

  Hades was making it difficult to keep my head on straight and my ego manageable. I still had lots of questions for the guy, but I still erred on the side that I could trust him, and I wasn’t quite sure why I felt that way.

  Chapter 13

  I let myself into the back of the house and ran into Percy. I greeted him with a shy smile and as he stared at me in confusion due to the new glamour, I hit him with magic. He stiffened, turned back to me and said, "We've decided to change the schedule today. I'll need you to follow me."

  I slapped the appropriate look of surprise on my face and followed him back into Ms. Schwartz’s office again. She did not look happy to see us, so I stepped behind Percy for a sec and sent a jolt of magic at her, too.

  Less than five minutes later, I was assigned to clean the private quarters and offices of Hamilton and Persephone. That was almost too easy. I also made sure I had no direct supervision today, so I'd have to be careful not to run into anyone. Zapping the entire household had the potential to come back and bite me, especially if Persephone came back early.

  I pushed open the bedroom door and the first thing I did was gawk. I rarely hurt for money, but it was obvious these two had egregious amounts of it. The largest bed I'd ever seen loomed in the middle of the room. A royal blue bedcover lay rumpled and tossed on the top of it. Massive white furniture sprawled across the room and oriental rugs covered almost every inch of the dark wood floor.

  I stepped in and walked over to what appeared to be the closet. I pushed that door open and gasped. It was almost as large as the bedroom. I leaned against the wall, staring at the huge shelves of shoes in front of me.

  It was going to take me forever to search in here. But, it was supposed to be a book, and there was a bookshelf set up close to the bed. Since Persephone didn't know what she had, maybe it would be that easy. I could sense something powerful in the room but it was just like Morgana had said. The magic wasn't coming in any particular direction. It just...was. But she didn't know what Persephone had. And I did.

  I took a few steps over to the shelf, my duster out just in case someone else came in.

  "Can I help you?"

  I froze two steps away from the shelf, recognizing that voice and wondering what the hell I was going to do about it. I wiped my face clean of shock and turned around, affecting the mannerisms of a meek and mild maid.

  "Ma'am?" I asked. “I’m the new maid.” I did an awkward curtsy shuffle and slapped a hopeful look on my face.

  Morgana stood there dressed in a pair of black slacks, high heels, and a cream colored blouse. Her raven hair was perfectly brushed into wavy locks. She looked every inch the socialite. Her brow wrinkled as she studied me. "I specifically asked that no one come in here for the next week. Is there an issue?"

  I slapped a blank look on my face. "There was a scheduling conflict this morning, ma'am. I was told to come in here and clean."

  Suspicion flickered in her eyes as her gaze wandered over to the shelf I had been so close to searching. She took a few steps closer. "I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?"

  I took a step back, closer to the shelf and farther away from her and right that second because my luck is horrendous even in the best of circumstances, the charm Hades gave me decided to glow. The book was on the shelf, and the damn charm had just given me away to Morgana.

  Her gaze snapped down to my chest as the necklace pulsed with an unearthly glow. Rage built in her expression and her lips curled into a snarl.

  She knew. She suspected it anyway, but the charm gave me away.

  I looked down in surprise, trying to play it off, but she was having none of it. I held up a hand. "It's my heart monitor, Miss. Honest!"

  "Liar." Magic pulsed in her palms as she raised them.

  I cursed under my breath, blinked out of the room and back onto the cabin property.

  Hades was waiting for me, wringing his hands. "The charm went off. Do you have the book?"

  I frowned at him. "I'm still alive and in one piece. Thank you very much."

  "I don't understand."

  I shook my head. "I should have sensed her coming, but I didn't. Morgana popped into the room, suspicious of me right away. She told everyone to keep the maids out of Persephone's rooms for a while. Undoubtedly so she could search them."

  "Okay. So that isn't terrible, right?"

  I snorted. "It kind of is. She didn't know it was me, but now she knows someone else is looking for the book, and you would probably be first on her list of suspects." I rubbed my face. "And then, your wonderful little charm started glowing as soon as I got too close to the book."

  He sat down on the couch in shock. "So she has it?"

  I shook my head. "The shelf is pretty large, but I think she now knows the general location of it. If she hasn't figured it out, she will. Soon."

  "Very soon. Morgana hasn't lived this long by being dumb."

  I looked around the cabin. "Have you heard from Hermes?"

  Hades shook his head. "Not since he left." He turned stricken eyes to me. "What are we going to do?"

  "We hope that Morgana doesn't show her hand too quickly, and she pumps Persephone for more information. I can't go back to the mansion as a maid."

  Something sparked in his gaze. "Do we know where Persephone is?

  Not following him, I waited a second before answering. "No," I said slowly. "Why?"

  "What is stopping us from taking her and sending you in?"

  I blinked. "You want me to assume the form of Persephone?" It was a good plan but... "I cannot duplicate her power signature without asking Clotho for assistance again. They’ve helped all they can. Morgana will know right away it isn't me."

  A slow grin spread across his face. "Bring me my wife, and we won't have to worry about that."

  "You're deviating from the plan, Hades."

  He spread his hands out. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

  "Should we call Hermes off of Hamilton then?"

  He shook his head. "If we have Hamilton, it will be easier. You and Hermes can go in together. A two for one deal just in case something goes wrong."

  I thought about it. Lots could go wrong, but if we nabbed both of them, it could help prevent us from screwing something up later down the road.

  "Okay then. Let's do it."

  I tried to call Artie, but she wasn't answering. Normally I wouldn't be too concerned, but we were dealing with an enemy the likes of which we'd never seen before. I calmed my thoughts and sent out a feeler to her. She was somewhere in Franklin and...I paused recognizing the person with her. She was with Persephone. Okay, that wasn't a bad thing. I concealed myself in a new glamour, a tall, leggy brunette with fake boobs and brand named clothes and blinked in a couple of blocks away from where they were.

  I slid my sunglasses onto my new face and walked toward them until I was only a few feet away only to blink in shock. Artie and Persephone were at a bridal shop.

  And Hamilton was with them.

  Oh. Crap.

  In the time we'd spent waiting on the Fates and dealing with Morgana, those two had managed to get engaged. This was a wrench we hadn’t been expecting.

  I steeled my shoulders and walked up to both of them. Artie's power signature was gone due to the necklace, but she was still wearing the glamour I'd created for her this morning, which is how I was able to track her down while she wore the amulet. Persephone, apparently desperate for friends, appeared to be delighted with Artie's company. I slapped a wide, toothy smile on my face and stepped right up to Artie.


  "LeAnn!" I crowed with delight and reached in to give her air kisses. She looked surprised for a second until I leaned into her ear and hissed, "It's me."

  "Oh my gosh!" she said in an artificially high voice. "Long time no see!" She embraced me for a second, then turned to Persephone who stared at us with interest.

  "You must meet my friend," Artie said. "Mariah is from a few towns over."

  Persephone extended her hand. “Lacey,” she said, keeping up the pretense.

  I took it and gave it a brief limp shake. "Charmed."

  I looked up at the store we were standing under. "Elegant Affairs?" I questioned.

  Persephone grinned and shoved her left hand out to show me an enormous diamond. "I'm getting married! In a week!"

  Hamilton, quiet until now, beamed at his bride-to-be. "Isn't she gorgeous?" But there was something...off about his too-bright smile and his glittering eyes. He felt false.

  I stared a second too long before I nodded and squealed appropriately. "Are you going in for a fitting?" I asked her.

  She nodded, and Artie gave me a pained expression. She wasn't much of a shopper so this was probably exquisite torture.

  Persephone pulled the door open. I stood outside, waiting and hoping she'd invite me in.

  She gave me a stare and asked, "Well, you coming?"

  I grinned. "Of course!"

  Hamilton left Persephone with a peck on her cheek. "And that's my cue to leave now. Good luck, darling."

  I watched him walk away and wondered if I needed to get a hold of Hermes and stop him from taking Hamilton now that they were getting married. I don't think Hermes would be too delighted to have to go into a fake marriage with me if we took over their identities.

  To heck with what Hades said. Hermes would be furious with me if I didn't tell him.

  I pulled out my cell phone and waved at Artie and Persephone. "I have to take a quick phone call. I'll be right back!"

  Artie looked at me curiously, but Persephone waved me away. "We'll be here for awhile," she said.