The Stone Queen (The Dark Queens Book 9)

by Jovee Winters

  I’d not realized I’d arrived at the pivotal juncture until just now, when I’d heard Ceto’s words. Suddenly this was more than mere curiosity or even a game. A sense that I was in a position to save all of Olympus came over me like a heavy weight.

  It was not that I cared one way or another that my actions would wound my nephew as they undoubtedly would when I told him he must sever this bond he’d grown with the mortal. But more than all that, it was the knowledge that in my hands, I held the health of those I actually cared for and the pantheon’s own good.

  Rarely was such an honor bestowed upon me. Usually the one saving us all was Zeus, or at least the stories were told in that way. It’d taken us all to bring down the Titans, but my dear brother rarely corrected the story. In fact, I could think of only one instance when he’d given anyone else credit for an exploit he was said to have carried out on his own.

  I clenched my hands into fists, tore open a travel tunnel, and raced toward Hera’s temple.

  I found her only moments later, her eyes closed and lounging as though she dreamed upon the golden chaise lounge. Her haven was a meadow within her grounds that burst with Zeus’s favored brand of apple trees.

  And again, I had that same sense of annoyance that my brother could lay claim to such a beauty and take for granted all that he had. It enraged me. I would kill for her to want me the way she did him. So much of who I was today and the actions I chose to take were because of my desperate love and want of her, shameful as it was to admit, even to myself.

  She was nude. Her hair barely covered the tips of her dusk-colored nipples but none of her perfectly formed thighs. Hunger for her body grew within me. It was always thus whenever I came around her.

  Usually my feelings were a tangled mess of desperate desire mingled with irritation that she was a craving I could not resist. But today, the feelings were softer and, dared I to think it, almost… tender.

  Rubbing my chest, I gently cleared my throat.

  She did not appear to scare or startle. Her lashes merely fluttered like a moth’s wings before they opened, and she gazed at me with brilliant amber-colored eyes. They shifted from a deep brown when in shade to a startling, almost translucent shade of rust in the sunlight.

  It was a breathtaking sight, especially when she sat up and the waves of her thick chestnut hair were streaked through with waves of russet. My footsteps carried me to her as though they had a mind all their own. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the chaise with her, grabbing her hands in mine and giving them a tender squeeze.

  “Why, Poseidon,” she breathed, staring at me quizzically. “Whatever is the matter with you? You’re positively trembling.” Her words had a sweet tenderness as she gently rubbed her thumbs over the meat of my hand.

  Beautiful. Gods, she was breathtaking. Every beat of my heart seemed to scream those words within me. I would give her anything and often had. But anything she asked of me this day, it would be hers. If she demanded I kill the mortal, I would do it, without qualm. Without even a thought.

  I shook my head. “I have followed your son, as you bade me, Hera. And I have finally unearthed the truth. But I do not think you will like it, my night flower.”

  Her thick brows twitched. Her perfectly formed mouth slightly parted, and she placed her palm softly against my cheek. I hated that my breath quivered at her touch. Even after lifetimes of having her, knowing her body, I’d never grown weary of her. I’d taken many other lovers—as she had, I was sure—but Hera was all I’d ever truly wanted. She was the only thing I’d ever really needed. When I was with her, I was myself only. No games. No tricks.

  “Tell me what you know, Poseidon. Tell me now. What has my son done?”

  “He has fallen in love with a mortal named Medusa. She was prophesied by The Oracle herself to bring great folly to us all here on Mount Olympus should she ever know the touch of a man.”

  The words tumbled out of me with no deception or embellishments. Mostly because I was still in shock, I was sure. What I’d started out believing to be merely a game had become quite a serious matter and far more than mere sport.

  Hera was silent for so long I wondered whether she’d heard me. I caressed her knuckles. “Hera, did you—”

  Her eyes had been down, staring at the chaise, but when I spoke, she looked up at me, and now they burned with flame just like Ares’s own. “How dare he bring such ruin upon us all! I could kill him for what he’s done.”

  “I do not think he knew. In fact, it was made quite clear to me today that not even the girl knew until mere hours ago. Ceto kept—”

  “Ceto!” Hera hissed. “She would be the progeny of such a filthy bloodline!”

  I was taken aback by her sudden vehemence. It wasn’t as though she and I weren’t born of primordial stock. Our mother and father were Rhea and Cronus themselves. “What aren’t you telling me, sister?” I inquired.

  The rage hadn’t quelled in the slightest when she spoke in a low hiss. “It would take a lifetime to explain my hate of her. But you must believe me when I say I am no friend of the primordial seas. They threatened me, brother. Threatened to send our own parents after me, to end me, for a crime I’d never committed. Ceto claimed that I’d seduced away one of her children.”

  I frowned, not quite sure how I felt. This was the first time I’d ever heard such a story. “Which child?”

  “An otter pup. A familiar of hers, through which great magick could be performed. Do you remember Agape Mou?”

  Suddenly I did recall the otter who used to follow Hera around when she was but a child of ten. It had adoring big, black eyes and a silky mahogany coat. Wherever she’d gone, that damned fur ball had always been just a few steps behind. A memory struck me then, of Hera and I swimming for hours in the sea as Agape had swum between us, performing tricks. It was one of very few memories in which I’d simply been me. When I’d not needed to pretend to be other than the real man that I was. When Zeus hadn’t been around, goading and vexing me constantly with his superiority. When Hera’s attention hadn’t been on him but solely on me.

  It’d been a special day for me, and one that, in the rare few times when I allowed myself to be free of the armor I usually wore so tightly banded about me, would always bring a smile to my face. “Whatever happened to that little beast?”

  Hera’s eyes grew downcast, and her nostrils flared a little. “Father ate him as punishment. He never believed me. Agape Mou loved me and chose me. I never stole him away from Ceto.” Her voice quivered with a rush of heat, and she turned her eyes aside, swallowing convulsively several times.

  I was shocked to see the woman before me look as broken and miserable as she must have at twelve when the situation occurred.

  We gods, we never showed vulnerability. So when we did, it was because we absolutely trusted the other person would not take our pain and twist it to their own personal gain.

  After bringing her hand to my lips, I tenderly kissed her knuckles. No one who saw me would imagine that I could possess even an ounce of softness. But Hera had always had a magick of her own. She’d enchanted me as surely as Agape Mou. I was utterly hers in all ways.

  “Tell me what to do, love, and it will be yours. Do you wish another pup? I’ve a bitch about to birth another litter, sooo—”

  She swiped at her cheeks angrily and held her chin aloft. “Anything, my dear one?”

  My skin crawled at the tone of her voice, sensing that whatever was about to be said, I would not like. I cocked my head to the left. “Hera, what—”

  Twisting onto her knees so that her breasts pointed perkily in my direction, she tossed her hair back and stared down her perfectly straight nose at me. My pulse sped up at the sight of her on her knees, looking innocent and demure but knowing damned well there was nothing even remotely modest about her.

  “Medusa must die, Poseidon. She stands in the way of my having my foretold grandchildren. That is a crime for which blood must be paid.”

  I wa
sn’t bothered by the fact that she wished the mortal dead. The Primordial Gods knew that Hera had often done the same to others for one offense or another. But in this case, with the girl’s prophecy looming over us, I wasn’t one hundred percent certain this was the route that should be taken.

  “We must discover all we can about her prophecy. Is it just sleeping with a male that will activate it, or could something else as well? There is so much we don’t yet know. We must proceed with caution, my love.”

  I tried reaching for her hands, but she yanked them out of my reach and glared hotly at me. “You said you would give me anything, and already you go back on your word.”

  Fire burned through my belly. Hera had always been uniquely skilled at tormenting me, twisting my words and using them as deadly blades against me to ultimately get her way. “All I ask is that we proceed with caution. I never said no.”

  She scoffed and instantly flared with white-hot light. A coat of silks was suddenly draped around her slim body, covering her luscious curves. I gnashed my front teeth.

  Fluffing her hair out from beneath her collar, she rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, come, brother. We both know how you get. You might have the rest of the pantheon fooled, but you know that I know you far too well to fall for your games.”

  Curling my hands into fists on my knees, I stared at her. She would accuse me of playing games, and yet that was exactly what she did with me now. This was all one big game for her. My emotions. My love of her. My need to prove myself worthy to her. She’d always manipulated my feelings. And while I was wise to the ruse, I was the biggest fool of all because the knowledge hadn’t ever prevented her from playing me over and over and over again.

  “And Ares. I saw them with my own eyes, Hera. Your son will never forgive such treason. You know how he is. Is it worth losing his devotion and love of you forever, for you and I both know that is what will happen with him. Give her a wasting disease. An illness. Then it will merely be a tragedy, and he need never know your—”

  She shot to her feet and paced like a restless lioness before me. Her firm, tight body was practically bristling with pent-up rage. My hunger for her began its awakening.

  I’d always considered myself one of the best in the pantheon when it came to manipulating others, but there’d always been one better at it than even me.

  Suddenly she stopped before me, dropped to her knees, and forced me to spread my thighs. Her hands landed on my knees, and the opening to her robe parted just slightly, giving me a nice glimpse of her perfectly shaped breasts. My mouth flooded with need at the sight of such a desirable female on her knees.

  “Please, brother. Hear me out. For I am as equal to the task of devising a perfect plan as you are.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, hanging on by a mere thread. Damn her to the lowest pits of the Underworld for doing this to me. If I could just be rid of my need of her, I would rule this damned place.

  If I could just shove her back. Tell her that I would never want her touch, her nearness, her scent in me again. That I was through with her forever. Damn her!

  I wasn’t even sure how, but somehow my hands were gripping her wrists, and I was the one pinning her in place. She wore a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin, and triumph burned through her eyes.

  “What is it that you’ve devised, sister?” I growled angrily, even as desire continued to rage and simmer like a boiling pot of water within me.

  She wet her mauve-colored lips, and it was like getting a kick in the gut. My cock rose to half-mast, and a Cheshire cat smirk stole over her handsome features. She’d wiggled out of my grip, and her hands were on my hips, undoing the buttons and zipper of my trousers. In seconds, my cock that was so damned hard it could cut through steel was in her hands, and she was humming beneath her breath as though in anticipation of what came next.

  I squeezed my eyes shut even as my hips rose up against my will.

  “The sooner that bitch is out of his life, the sooner he can fix this mess that bitch Aphrodite has caused. They will reunite, permanently this time. I shall see to it.” She sweetly kissed the weeping tip of me, and I nearly came undone. A grunt spilled off my lips and I grimaced, but it was not pain that gripped me tight.

  “Then I will kill her, for you, sister.” I placed my hand on the back of her head, trying to guide her hot, perfect mouth down over me. But she gave a slight shake and stared at me from beneath her long lashes.

  “Oh no, Poseidon. Killing her will not do. You must not sully your hands in that way, my love. Ares’s unyielding temperament is legendary, and above all, he must never hate his uncle.”

  She patted my naked thigh, and I had to bite down with my front teeth to keep from ramming my hard cock down her soft throat.

  Dizziness swept through me as I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. “Then what the bloody hell are you ask—”

  “She must be awakened, Poseidon. Isn’t it obvious? He must see her for the monster she truly is.”

  My cock went almost flaccid in her grip as a cold chill swept through me. “She is the one prophesied to destroy us all, and you would see her monstrous form awakened? Hera, have you lost your damned mind!”

  She thinned her lips and narrowed her eyes, but they sparkled and not with rage. “Oh no, darling. Never that. Ares, as you know, has a rigid sense of right and wrong. Once he sees the monster, he will know that she must be put down, and he will willingly walk away. He would never wish to place Olympus in any danger. He is too good.”

  “You stupid bitch,” I snapped. “Do you honestly imagine that your son, Ares, could watch the woman he loves be brutally murdered and simply walk away?” I was ashamed of my love of this woman. I’d always thought Hera far superior in all things, but even I could see the flaw in her half-cocked plan. “There is nothing in this world that I love, Hera. Kill my familiars, hell… kill my family and I will walk away and likely have a good laugh. But if anyone should ever dare take you from me…” I reached out and gripped her chin roughly, causing her to wince, but I did not relent. “I would gladly watch Olympus burn.”

  Her eyes flashed with fire. But then she smirked as she dug her long, now claw-like nails into my thigh. I hissed as the coiling of need and fire began to writhe within me.

  “Then as a fail-safe, I will bring Hypnos. Should Ares’s heart begin to fill with hate, we will twist that hate into something else. The more hate, the less he will feel, and the less he will remember of this mortal. If he truly loves her, he will forget her entirely.”

  I finally began to smile, recognizing the genius in this plan. “So we wait for them to sleep together and then we—”

  “Oh no, my love. No. No.” She shook her head. “Ares will never know her. He will not be responsible for creating the monster.”

  “Then who will?” But no sooner had I asked it than I knew. Cold like I’d never known skated down my spine, and I gasped. “Me. You would have me rape her.”

  She scoffed. “Oh, please. Don’t act so moralistic now. You’ve done worse.”

  My brows lowered. “No, in fact, I haven’t. I’ve never lain with anyone who did not already wish my advances.”

  Laughing like a playful schoolgirl, she leaned forward and stole my lips for her own, whispering between kisses, “She is a monster, my love. You would be doing us all a favor by exposing her to the world. Especially to my son. He is blinded by lust, nothing more. It shall pass, as these things always do. For you know we cannot truly love.”

  Her words were a dagger to my heart, and I wanted to hate her. Wanted to fling her off of me and toss her violently to the ground. I wanted to stomp her, end her, hate her, and hurt her as she’d just hurt me.

  For if what I felt for Hera was not love, then what the fuck was I doing here? But if she could say such, then it meant that she did not love me and never had.

  I should leave her to it. Make her clean up this mess herself. But she was my one desire and always had been. And damn her to the eternal flame for it.

  Furi
ous with her, but even more furious with myself for even now being unable to tell her no, to anything, I took her head and guided her almost forcefully to my now slack cock.

  “Suck me, you filthy bitch. And then yes, I’ll give you her damned head on a platter!”

  With a throaty laugh, she took me in deep, and before long, I’d forgotten all about my rage or even the threads of pain only she’d ever pulled out of me.

  I would not enjoy what I did to that poor mortal, but if it meant that Hera’s mouth would bring me an eternity of pleasure, I would do almost anything. Even, apparently, sell my soul.

  Chapter 15

  Ares

  I was practically crawling out of my skin with excitement to see her, and I’d only just left her less than two hours ago. Last night had been more wonderful than anything I’d ever known. To hold her as I’d had the privilege of doing, to have her sweet trust and loving smiles, was worth more than anything I’d ever known in the entirety of my life.

  But more than all of that was the enjoyment I took from her mind, listening to her speak about the things she enjoyed, learning the big picture of who she was. I sighed as I rubbed my chest. I could only imagine the ridiculous sight I must make. Me, the god of war, sighing like a lovestruck idiot.

  I needed Medusa as I needed breath. She was in me. Burned in me like an eternal flame. When I was not with her, I ached fiercely for her, and even when I was with her, it was never enough. There was always this sense of abject doom on the horizon, and not just from the fact that I left her every morning. But mostly it stemmed from her very fragile mortality.

  I could not imagine a world in which she did not exist, and there were ways to change that, but the cost would be high. She could no longer remain on Earth. She would need to come with me to the land of the gods, which would mean moving away from the only home she’d ever known.

  But it wasn’t as though her family couldn’t follow. They were all immortal, the rest of them. And of god blood. My soul yearned for her to say yes to this, but I knew this was fast, all too sudden, and it might terrify her. Hell, even I was surprised by the depths of my emotions and how much I needed her in my life.