Out of Cake Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 6)

by S. E. Babin

  Hermes stepped forward, putting us behind him. "Who are you?"

  The man who was not Hamilton reached down his shirt and plucked a necklace over his head.

  All of us gasped at the power emanating from him.

  He dropped his glamour.

  Immense white wings dipped in gold sprang from his back and trailed down the floor. His hair grew in length until it hit at the top of his shoulders, a perfect golden blond. His eyes were of a brilliant white silver, similar to Hades. Except this man was the light incarnate.

  He took a couple more steps closer to us. "You have something that belongs to me."

  I took a couple steps down, away from him. "We have nothing."

  "Ah," he said, raising his index finger, "true. But you know where it is and I want it."

  I tried to blink out of the room, but my power was frozen.

  "You should have followed my brother's advice when he first told you to get out of here. It's too late now."

  "Who are you?" Hermes asked, still in front of us.

  "My name is Michael. You might have heard of me before."

  Anger skittered across his gaze at our blank looks. "Heathens," he muttered. "I am the first son of God and one of the Archangels. I am here for the Codex."

  I stared at him. "God is incapacitated. Why are you looking for it? You do not have his permission to search for it."

  A tic started at the edge of his jaw. "And how do you know this?"

  I didn't say a word. I tried my power again.

  Nothing.

  "Why do you want it?" I asked.

  "Lucifer is an abomination. Casting him out of Heaven wasn't nearly good enough."

  "I thought angels were supposed to be good," Artie whispered to me.

  "Good and evil are words that do not mean anything to us. We take the steps we need to, to get the results we need. The Codex belongs in Heaven. My Father, in a weak moment, offered it to his son. I am here to retrieve it."

  "He lies," Hades whispered. "My Father is never weak. Stay strong. I will come."

  "No," Michael said. "You won't. The house is warded against you."

  A thought occurred to me. A horrible, terrible thought. "Where is Persephone?"

  Michael grinned widely. "She's out looking at more wedding dresses." He studied his nails and rubbed them against the suit he still wore. "She's a beautiful girl and will make a fine mother to our unborn child."

  Hades’ gasp of horror told me everything I needed to know.

  "Why would you do this?"

  He gave me a mock look of surprise. "I've heard things about you. How innocent you are. Your PollyAnna complex. But I didn't believe them. Until now." He took a couple more steps toward me until he loomed over all of us. 'Why would I not? I have my brother's bride who just so happens to be in possession of something powerful. Why would I not earn her trust? Why would I not convince her to be with me?" He sighed. "The baby was just a fortuitous accident."

  "The baby is an abomination," Hades whispered inside of my head. "Ever more than me." He sighed. "Abby, to get out of this you must listen to me. It’s taking a lot of power, but Michael cannot hear us right now. Act quickly. You need to open yourself to those powers. If Hecate is truly your mother, you will be able to escape. She is the Goddess of the Crossroads and can open doors where even angels fear to tread."

  "No," I said.

  Michael tilted his head. I hadn't been talking to him. "No? Never in history has an angel bred with another divine like yours. This baby will be incredibly powerful. A tool for me once Lucifer is destroyed."

  "Hades," I said. "His name is Hades."

  His laugh was deep and infectious. "You know nothing, Aphrodite. My brother might be soul bound, but his wickedness knows no end."

  "We aren't giving you the book." I crossed my arms and glared at him.

  He waved a hand at me. "You know, normally I'd say something like, you have no idea who you're dealing with, but you actually don't. Which makes this all the more fun." He stared at Hermes and seconds later, my friend collapsed to the ground writhing in pain, ichor oozing from his eyes, nose and mouth, open in a soundless scream.

  He looked at me with those world destroying eyes. "Give me the book."

  I shut my eyes and sent a prayer to a god who wasn't listening. "No."

  Artie collapsed next to me, her shrieks of pain rending my heart.

  "I can do this all day," Michael said in a voice that was too calm.

  "Abby, you must," Hades whispered.

  I choked off a scream, bent down and touched both of my friends. I opened myself to the power that had been lurking beneath the surface for days, years, most of my life.

  Michael's expression of shock told me everything I needed to know.

  The world exploded in shards of silver and dark gray light. Michael's scream of pain delighting me to no end. There seemed to be no end to the well of my power, but I could feel it burning through my skin and soul.

  "Open yourself," a deep female voice whispered through my head. "Welcome home, Daughter."

  Tears fell from my face as I gritted my teeth against the surge of power, the likes of which I'd never experienced before. It flowed through my veins and my soul. I couldn't see a thing, could only hear Michael, but even that faded out as we fell from the sky and landed in a heap together. My eyes slipped shut and darkness claimed me.

  Chapter 16

  A woman wearing robes of black and silver approached me. She walked with a confidence I could never claim, a sexiness that could not be denied. Her robe slit up the thigh, exposing one long, pale limb as she moved fluidly. Her face seemed to...change. Young, middle-aged, elderly...young, middle-aged, elderly, but the knowing smile she wore could not be denied.

  I sat all the way up and gawked, knowing I should be afraid, but unable to feel such an emotion. I mostly just felt awe.

  The woman carried two torches burning with a pure silvery light.

  She stopped in front of me and kneeled. "You have come home," she observed.

  I’d seen her before on the beach, on the day of my birth. I looked around, seeing nothing but gray fog around us. I turned my gaze back to her, trying to focus on her ever-changing faces.

  "Oh," she said and her face took that of the middle-aged woman, knowing and beautiful. Her eyes were a hair darker than Hades. Long, raven colored hair was braided intricately to circle around her head. "You must have many questions."

  I nodded. "Are they okay?" I asked, gesturing to my friends lying beside me still as death.

  Hecate nodded. "They are quite dead until you leave my realm."

  I blinked. "Dead?"

  "Yes. No one is allowed inside of my realm without a welcome from me. I expected only you to enter." A sad smile appeared on her face. "Though from all the years I spent watching you, I suppose I should have known better."

  I pulled away from her gaze. 'They are my friends."

  "And as such, they will be restored back to life upon their return to Earth." She touched my chin and turned my face back to hers. "You should be so fortunate," she said in her deep, throaty voice. "Few who leave my realm ever have their souls restored to them."

  I swallowed hard. "Thank you."

  She nodded once and stood, beckoning me with a long and elegant hand. "Walk with me and learn, Aphrodite."

  I didn't want to, but I sighed and stood. I still wasn't a hundred sure I believed she was my mother. We looked nothing alike. Whatsoever. And why hadn’t she told me before who she was when she tilted the axis of my life by bestowing that prophecy upon me?

  Hecate waited for me to join her.

  She held a hand out, and the fog disappeared from her realm leaving me gasping at what was left behind. Massive towers loomed in the distance. Mountains and valleys filled with trees and greenery lay everywhere. It was -

  "Beautiful," Hecate filled in my words before I could. "Yes. Surprised?"

  I said nothing, fearful I would offend her.

  "I may
be of the crossroads, but beauty is not beyond me. Isn't the moment of death sometimes where the most beauty lies?"

  I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, but she kept walking forward. "When someone knows they have only moments to live, their innermost truths come out, some good, some bad. But beauty can often be found in the moments where we feel the most raw. When the pain is overwhelming and we think we cannot bear it any longer, that is where we often find the beauty." She turned to me. "Because we burn away our shell to reveal our true selves. Much like a phoenix. We tear away the things that no longer serve us. Don't you agree?"

  I pondered her words before I responded. "I suppose I never thought of it like that. I haven't seen much beauty these days."

  She smiled. "Ah, but you have. Because beauty lies in pain. In hope. In times of despair. Beauty is in our actions and our words, daughter."

  I thought back to Christmas when Hades had serenaded me at a table full of people with the words of Shakespeare.

  "So you see," Hecate said with a knowing nod. "Everywhere."

  "Why did you bring me here?"

  She chuckled, the sound like dead leaves rustling against the wind. "I brought you nowhere. You ended up here once you embraced your power."

  "And Michael?"

  Her face went somber. "He lies in wait for you. Michael is a dangerous enemy to have, daughter. He will stop at nothing to get what he feels he is entitled to."

  "The book isn't his," I said and sighed. "His Father gave it to Hades."

  Hecate nodded. "Michael cannot take possession of the book. Neither can Morgana."

  "My death has been foretold," I told the dark woman who might be my mother.

  "Death has a funny way about it sometimes," she said cryptically.

  "I'm not sure I see a lot about death I find funny."

  She held out a hand to stop me. Hecate pointed over to the left, and I gasped.

  "This is where my power lies, Aphrodite. Here," she shifted the landscape to a place I'd never seen before, a place that didn't look like Earth. "And here," another shift, "And here." Another shift to a land where beings I'd never seen before roamed. "Everywhere there is a crossroads or the need for a settling of accounts."

  "I don't understand," I said. "I mean, I understand you and your power, but I don't understand how you could possibly be my mother."

  An amused smile appeared on her face. "Every woman has the potential to be a mother." She paused and her smile widened. "If there's a willing partner involved."

  I blushed. "That wasn't what I meant," I grumbled.

  "Oh, I know what you meant. How can I be dark and you be light? How can I have this power when you also wield the power of love?"

  I nodded.

  "It's simple. You were born of love and that was the power we chose to give you until such time you were able to handle the rest of your birthright."

  It didn't sound simple at all. "And my father?"

  Her expression shuttered. "Perhaps that discussion is for a different time."

  "That's what everyone says when they don't want to talk about it. If it could help me now, then now is the time."

  "Atropos has given you the help you needed." Her expression soured. "Even if it was against my better judgment."

  I studied my mother. "So you didn’t think I was ready to wield the rest of your powers?"

  One of her thin shoulders lifted. "I wasn't sure yet."

  "I'm about to die," I said, incredulous. "Surely that isn’t a good time?"

  "Don't be so dramatic."

  I rolled my eyes heavenward and chuckled in frustration. "How do I get back?"

  "Back where?"

  "To Michael."

  She stared at me like I was crazy. "You'd go back there now? After he almost killed two of your friends?"

  "That's exactly the reason I should go back!"

  "And you think I'm wrong about disagreeing with Atropos? You cannot go back there. You are not strong enough."

  "I just need to slip past him."

  "And you think your plan should be just to go right back in his house and sneak past him? Like you’re kids playing hide and seek?" She stared at me like I was the dumbest thing she'd ever created.

  Who knows? Maybe I was.

  I nodded. "It's best to hide in plain sight," I said.

  She rolled her eyes. "While I do like the way you think sometimes, I think perhaps the Goddess of Luck has smiled upon you one too many times. If you'd like the prophecy to be fulfilled sooner rather than later, then go right ahead and go back." She waved a hand at me. "Shoo, fly."

  I put my hands on my hips and glared at her. "Well, do you have a better plan?"

  "Of course I do," Hecate said and snapped her fingers.

  I blinked at the ease of which she'd transported me and looked around the unfamiliar room. It was lined wall-to-wall with bookshelves overflowing with glass jars full of powdered ingredients and glowing liquids.

  "Hecate?" I asked, looking around and not seeing her.

  She appeared behind me with an old dusty book. Gone were the robes and headdress. Now she wore a pair of soft dark leggings and a long white t-shirt. Her dark hair was undone and flowed down in waves down past her back.

  "When the Goddess of the Crossroads is your mother, perhaps you should take her advice occasionally." She motioned to a chair a few feet away. "Now sit."

  I dutifully sat and watched as she set the book down on the table and started to flip through it. She muttered to herself occasionally and licked her finger when she needed to turn the page.

  "When you need to sneak past an angel, especially an archangel, you have to die to do it."

  I stood up. "Are you crazy?!"

  A white toothy grin spread across her pretty face. "Well, yes, I am. But, relax. I don't mean to kill you. Completely. We just met!"

  My mother was Looney Tunes and not in a good way. "I've already done that once," I reminded her.

  "Yes," she said, spearing me with a glare, "entirely unnecessary, too. God had already opened the door for you, yet, of course, you chose the harder option."

  "It wasn't my idea!" My lips pressed together until they were white. She was helping me, I reminded myself. Shut up and hear the woman out.

  Hecate fussed over the book, flipping pages until she found what she needed, then turned to stare at me which left me feeling a bit unnerved. Seriously, how hard was it to kill someone, especially when you were the Goddess of Death?

  From the look on her face, it was a delicate process. I wasn't sure about this, but I was sure we needed that book and we needed to get it before Michael or Morgana got their hands on it.

  Was it possible those two were working together? My brow furrowed as I thought about the odds of it. Morgana working with an angel? Especially when said angel thought he was doing it for his father?

  Unlikely, but none of us expected Hamilton to morph into an archangel. So there you go. Surprises galore this time. Even worse than when I worked for Zeus. Hades and I may need to rework our contract if any of us survived this.

  Hecate shuffled over to the shelf, grabbed some bottles off it and shuffled back over to the table where the book was and laid everything down gently. She pushed her hair back from her face, took a deep breath and, as I watched, her face morphed from the pretty older woman into an elderly woman. Still beautiful, but with more life experience. More wisdom. Perhaps she needed to be older to work this kind of magic.

  "Can you do that on will?" I asked, waggling a hand in the direction of her face.

  Hecate rolled her eyes and speared me with a glare. "Impertinent child. This is my face. All three of them. Now shut up and let me work."

  I mimed a zipping motion and sat back in my uncomfortable chair.

  Several minutes of whispered incantations, hand motions, and uncomfortable pressure in the room and Hecate's face cleared with relief. She corked a small bottle full of a glowing purple concoction and handed it to me.

  "Drink it."
/>   I gawked as I held it between my thumb and index finger. "It's awful pretty."

  A toothy and evil grin crossed her face. "The better to kill you with, my dear."

  I frowned. "That's not a good way to get me to drink it."

  She shrugged. "Or you can go back in and die within the first five minutes."

  "What about Morgana?"

  Hecate shook her head. "She is powerful, yes, but nothing is more powerful than death.

  I uncorked the bottle, gave it a sniff and promptly gagged, then tilted it up and drained it down.

  Before I'd even finished the bottle, my body went limp and sagged to the floor, Hecate's satisfied face looking down upon me.

  And why had I trusted her again? Because she said she was my mother? I really needed to start asking more questions.

  Moments later, I was incorporeal and back inside of Hamilton's mansion. Or Michael's, really. I suspected Hamilton's corpse was buried somewhere on the property or disposed of where no one would ever be able to find it. Eventually, we would have to break the news to Persephone. Whether or not she'd be upset about the bait and switch was the million dollar question. She was carrying one powerful child inside of her. It was entirely possible she’d be ecstatic about it once she found out the truth.

  I'd never been truly incorporeal before, not even when we were in Hades' lair. This was a different sort and I could feel myself wisping about, and my body struggling to keep the atoms of it together. I stuck my arm in the wall just to try it out and promptly yanked it out because the feeling was too weird. Like cutting myself in half and not feeling any pain. Bizarre.

  I floated up the stairs and into the main bedroom and froze as Morgana and Michael flipped through all of the books on the shelf.

  "So you say she has something important hidden in here?" Michael said, apparently still pretending to be Hamilton.

  Morgana didn't know who was speaking to her.

  I grinned. That was going to come as a surprise because if he could tell who we were with our power dampening necklaces on, he definitely could tell who she was. And Morgana hadn't bothered with a glamour. He also most likely knew what she'd done to his father.