by Lisa Oliver
“What if…” Thor nibbled on his bottom lip. “What if my enemies hear of my having children and try and take them from me. Won’t I have to fight then?”
“Of course, but Thor, your reputation is solid, my friend, and the monsters you’ve fought recently you’ve gone looking for. I’m sure the demon fight while searching for mushrooms was no coincidence.”
Thor’s cheeks reddened.
“The other monsters in your life are long dead and no threat to you anymore. But I know you, and if a threat does arrive, I can imagine you meeting it with a force you’re always known for, and you’ll win, probably with a babe in your arms. But for now, please think about Orin. He’s going to go gray before the babies arrive at this rate. He’s trying so hard not to say anything, and no, before you get upset, he didn’t say anything to me about it either. But I’ve got eyes in my head, and every time you disappear, can you think for a moment what that does to him?”
“I didn’t want him to know I was worried about anything. I was just trying to act like I always have.”
“And that’s what makes you a good mate, but Thor, think about how excited Orin looked when I let it slip you were having twins.”
“It’s pretty amazing news.” Thor smiled. “I didn’t imagine having two of them.”
“That’s the type of excitement you can share with him every day, a different type of excitement to what you’re used to admittedly, but just as fulfilling. Your babies’ first smiles, the first words, the first time they crawl across the room, or when they take their first steps. Those firsts only come once in a lifetime. Don’t miss out on them. Don’t be the type of father your father was. Your little ones will be so precious and will need you from their very first breath. Are you man enough to meet that challenge, or is demon fighting the best you can do?”
“I am man enough, you know I am.” Thor let out a long breath. “And don’t think, I don’t know what you’re doing. I understand what you’re saying and I’m only sorry I was such an egg to Orin that you needed to say any of this at all. I will give these babies the life they deserve, you have my word on that.”
“A few less demons, and a lot more cuddles will work wonders. But your word is enough for me. Now,” Silvanus pushed himself off the wall. “Lie that bulk of yours down on the bed, and lift your shirt. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any midwifery – let’s see if I’m still good at it.”
“I don’t want to be your bloody guinea pig, man.” But Thor laid back, and Silvanus crossed the room, rubbing his hands together so they wouldn’t be chilled. New life. So very precious, he thought as he gently rubbed over the lumps and bumps on Thor’s stomach. And probably coming a lot sooner than you think, my friend. He smiled at the sparks of life that flowed towards his fingers. The force is strong in these two.
Chapter Thirty
“This is so frustrating.” Artemas and Silvanus had gone back to the hotel in London after their visit with Thor and Orin. Australia was mentioned, but Artemas didn’t want trouble bothering them there. Silvanus pointed out, quite reasonably, that Poseidon’s lair was a safe place, but Artemas was trying to deal with one problem at a time. It’d just be his luck the lord of the sea would be in residence with his mate, and Artemas wasn’t in the mood to listen to his father’s prejudice against his mating mark.
So, the decision to go back to the hotel was made, based on the idea that someone needed to check on Crane and his cronies, and besides, Zeus had already paid for it. But when they arrived, there was no sign of Crane and the others, or any indication they’d even been there. Only a waft of magic in the air remained.
“This whole business can’t be because of the tree, surely?” Silvanus of course, was being his same unflappable self. Artemas was ready to hit someone. “No one knows I’ve got it, except those people we trust. If it’s remained hidden since the dawn of time, then how the hell does someone know I’m carrying it around now?”
“Someone’s clearly been watching us.” Silvanus was in the small kitchenette brewing some tea. “Did you notice anything out of place, when I took you to Ra’s library? Any indications a god was present who shouldn’t be?”
Artemas stopped pacing long enough to throw a look of confusion at his mate. “You think Ra’s behind this? That’s ludicrous. For one thing, I didn’t even appear on Ra’s radar until I mated with you. Secondly, he has no interest in the tree. Furthermore, if he did want the damn thing, he’d be down here now, trying to use his magic to take it off my back.”
“Which he can’t, because it’s my mating mark,” Silvanus said calmly. He walked over, handing Artemas a mug of something that smelled delicious, and then took a seat. “I don’t suspect Ra, no, what I asked was did you scent the presence of any god other than Ra when we were at his library.”
Artemas forced himself to think back. It’d been the perfect first date. Silvanus’s wards and Ra’s magic stopped anyone from seeing into their little bubble… human eyes that is. He frowned. “You think someone was watching us that night? We remained fully dressed until after we left. Even if there had been someone out in the desert, they wouldn’t have seen anything except two men enjoying a meal.”
“I don’t think this person is after the tree.” Silvanus sipped from his cup and Artemas did the same. “The more I think about it, the more I think the tree’s energies were simply a way for this god, whoever he is, to focus his minions on something tangible. Crane and the others know nothing of the tree. They were there for a totally different matter.”
“Yes, your book, and don’t think that Crane is going to forget about that either.”
“Maybe, who knows? There’s no telling what this god’s interference in Crane and his friends’ brains might have been.” Silvanus seemed so relaxed, sipping his tea, his legs crossed at the ankles, in contrast to Artemas who couldn’t seem to get his thoughts in order. And we all know why that is, don’t we? Artemas couldn’t get the picture of a contented pregnant Thor out of his mind.
“We need to look at the bigger picture,” Silvanus continued. “Someone was watching you when you bid on my book, and they were bidding against you.”
“The opposing bid was online, and if it was a god doing that, like me, they wouldn’t have stopped at two million pounds. Money means nothing to a god.”
“Maybe the point wasn’t to win the book, simply make you pay more for it than you needed to.”
“Again, that doesn’t make any sense.” Artemas put down his cup before he threw the contents all over the room. “No one knew I was going to buy the book except Poseidon and Zeus.”
“I think someone has been watching you for a long time. I think that someone is jealous of you.” Silvanus raised his eyes and smirked at Artemas. He actually smirked and no, Artemas wasn’t going to be dissuaded by a pair of sensual lips.
“You are totally bonkers, you know that? Bonkers.” Artemas took up his pacing again. It was better for their relationship than throwing something at his smug mate. “You’re supposed to say nice things about me, we’re mates and that’s what mates do. But in case you’d forgotten, I’m the unwanted bastard son who was conceived on a bet. I turned up at the recent council meeting, that everyone was supposed to attend, and most people outside the family didn’t even acknowledge me. I have no domain; most mortals don’t know I exist. How the hell could anyone be jealous of me? Except for being mated to you, of course, because you are a big catch in god circles.”
“Was a big catch. I’m now taken,” Silvanus said firmly, “and in the past one hundred years no one’s bothered about me either. No, this is about you personally and there’s one person you seem to keep forgetting in our list of possible suspects. Thoth.”
“Thoth!” Artemas spat the word from his mouth as if it were cursed. “Thoth has most likely forgotten I even exist. Since I was ten years old, he’s never once spoken to me, got in touch, or to my knowledge even mentioned my name. I was nothing more than physical proof of an episode he’d rather forge
t.”
“And yet, he has all the attributes we’ve been looking for in our suspect.” Silvanus seemed pretty damn keen on making his point. “He is the god of magic in the Egyptian pantheon, so he’d have the skills to influence Crane and the others. He has an intense love of books, just like you do, which means he was probably notified my book was going to be auctioned, and he might have tried to bid on it himself. There was a bird flying over the site of Ra’s library, before you arrived. It was too big to be normal, and I admit, once you arrived, I forgot all about it. But there was no reason that couldn’t have been Thoth or one of his messengers. If he has been keeping an eye on you, he’d know about the tree because it sends out very strong energies a magic user could easily sense if they came within a hundred yards of you. I think we’re dealing with Thoth.”
“No!” Artemas shook his head so violently his eyes spun. “Thoth doesn’t hate me and he’s certainly not jealous of me. He’d have to think about me for that to happen. Don’t you get it? Ten thousand years, and he’s never been in touch with me once. It’s not him. I won’t believe it.”
“Why?” Silvanus asked simply. “Is it really easier for you to convince yourself Thoth has never thought of you in all this time, than to imagine he’s jealous of you?”
“You think anything about Thoth is easy for me?” Artemas felt as though a dam was cracking open in his chest. “To say he was jealous implies he has feelings towards me. You have no idea how many years I spent waiting for him to get in touch, or come and see me. The digs I went on, and the years I spent in Egypt, hoping in some way he’d know I was interested in him and his heritage. Years I spent doing that. Hundreds and thousands of years I kept hoping, but finally I had to accept it. He didn’t want me.” Artemas’s voice rose. “He never fucking wanted me. How can anyone, god or mortal, do that to their son? How could he?”
Artemas was crying. He didn’t realize it until he felt the dampness on Silvanus’s shirt under his cheek. His mate was holding him tightly, as though he was special, as if he was someone worth holding onto and the flood of negatively and lack of worth poured out through Artemas’s tears, purging his soul. Silvanus was like the tree on his back – solid, dependable… his. Artemas didn’t know how long he spent sobbing out his heartbreak onto Silvanus’s broad shoulders, but Silvanus didn’t waver, even when Artemas felt as though his knees were going to collapse.
“Come. Sit down.” Silvanus led him over to the couch he’d vacated. “Your tea went cold. Shall I reheat it for you?”
Suddenly, Artemas started to laugh. He felt freer, lighter, he could breathe easier than he ever had before. And his mate was offering him a hug and some tea. It was adorable, and so quintessentially Silvanus. “I’d love some,” he said, still chuckling. “Thank you.” And he wasn’t just thanking Silvanus for the tea, something his mate’s smile told him, he understood.
/~/~/~/~/
Silvanus knew his mate’s breakdown was long, long, overdue and he didn’t like that he was the one to trigger it. But all through their meeting with Thor and Orin, when Thor explained what he knew about his father, Silvanus kept thinking he was missing something. It was too easy to blame tricks and pranks, and even harmful doings on the likes of Odin and Loki. Yes, they both had a reputation for being annoying at the best of times, but their targeting of Artemas didn’t make sense. So, when Orin said he didn’t think it was Odin, and Thor confirmed it couldn’t be Loki, Silvanus’s mind turned to the one god Artemas refused to discuss.
Thoth.
As soon as he set all the puzzle pieces in his head around Thoth’s name, it made sense. Thoth did have a connection to Artemas, and while Artemas might not realize it, that man was too arrogant, and too full of pride to not keep an eye on what his son was doing. He probably always had.
The Thoth of legend was a kindly wise man, who solved the issues, the other gods in his pantheon couldn’t solve. But Silvanus had seen firsthand how different Thoth was, behind closed doors. The Mother had asked him to watch the god, many eons ago, when he interfered with time and nature. The Mother had been worried Thoth was getting ideas above his station, although he seemed to settle down once Ra’s worshippers fell away.
And that was always Thoth’s problem, Silvanus thought as he set about making fresh tea for his mate rather than reheating the old cup. Always jealous of Ra’s position, always discontented with his own. This was why Silvanus thought Thoth was after his son. Artemas always focused on the negative sides of his conception, never realizing that a domain did not a god make. Artemas was the product of two powerful entities. While other demigods were usually the product of a god and a lesser being, Artemas was one of the very few who came from two strong god lines – The Egyptian Ra and Poseidon from ancient Greece.
Making up a tray, including some of the lovely biscuits the hotel provided, Silvanus went back through into the living room to see Artemas staring out of the window. “Isn’t it strange,” Artemas said as he reached out to take the cup Silvanus offered him, “how we gods can be a part of everything and go anywhere, yet so rarely find our place in the world.”
“Possibly because while we have ties to the world, we were always meant to hover above it. The world is man’s domain, when it’s all said and done.” Sitting down, Silvanus looked out of the same window, wondering how his mate interpreted the view.
“I’ve always loved different countries for their history.” Artemas spoke quietly, and he seemed a lot more mellow since his emotional outburst. “Even though we’ve lived through it, I’ve always been fascinated by what was left behind. Simple things, not the treasures, but the daily life aspects like pots and tools. I used to wonder about the people who owned them, how they lived their daily lives and what they thought about as they went about their days.”
“Have you ever lived as a mortal?” Silvanus had, back when the land was new, and humans were just exploring their potential. It had been fun, living in the forest, for a while, until things got crowded.
Artemas shook his head. “Not in the, putting down roots, buying a house and living in a village concept, no. The closest I got was my house in Australia and even then, I’ve never met my neighbors. Even when I had been interested, when I was in Egypt, life was so hard for the common man and it wasn’t as though I could set myself up in the ruling houses then. I struggle, watching other people struggle, and as someone with godly powers, I would have wanted to fix things….”
“Except the non-interference law would stop you.” Silvanus nodded.
“Later though, more recently, I went to universities, I studied and got qualifications, although I always used to translocate back to Poseidon’s at night. The closest I got to actually living among mortals was when I used to go on digs, all over the world, keen to study the history of the people who came before. I felt a part of things then, for a brief time. I loved sitting around a campfire at night, in some remote region, listening to the humans around me, laughing on the inside about some of their ideas about what they’d found.”
“It’d been hard not to educate them about their mistakes,” Silvanus observed.
“Not really, no. I mean, just because we’re gods and have lived for what might seem like eternity, doesn’t mean we know everything, right?” Tilting his head, Artemas smiled at him. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this about Thoth.”
“That he could be jealous?” Aha, now we’re coming to the point of this conversation.
“That he even thought of me at all.” Putting down his empty cup, Artemas leaned back, and Silvanus quickly got rid of his own cup so he could cuddle his mate. “He never once looked at me, you know.”
Surely, that can’t be right.
“I mean, he might have done when I was a baby,” Artemas continued, “but from my earliest memory, his head was always turned away from me. I guess, because he was an old god, he imagined his wife would look after me. I can’t imagine how he felt when he realized he was pregnant. I know his wife wasn’t at the time, so wh
at does that tell you about him?”
“She wasn’t likely to want to have intimate relations with him while he was pregnant.”
“Maybe that was why he was always in a bad mood.” Artemas sighed. “She was not a nice woman. I hope she was nicer to her daughters than she was to me.”
“You came through it though,” Silvanus ran his fingers along Artemas’s strong jaw. “You came through it, and learned from the mistakes of both your fathers, meaning you were the perfect father figure for your brothers when they came along.”
“They were so unsure of themselves,” Artemas shook his head remembering with a small smile. “I remembered how I felt when I was left on Poseidon’s door step – or rather in his main hall. A palace with no windows, no visible staff, walls rearranging themselves to suit Poseidon’s moods. It was a weird and strange world. The only thing I remember Poseidon doing was taking me out into the sea for my first time. I saw a different side of him then. He loves his water, and every creature in it.”
“Sounds like Poseidon did more than Thoth ever did.”
“Yes, he did.” Inhaling sharply, Artemas got up and turned, sinking back down so he was straddling Silvanus’s lap. Silvanus’s cock immediately noticed. In that moment it seemed like forever since he’d last felt his mate’s body around him. With all their time zone hopping, he was struggling to remember what day it was. “I’m going to face them, both in their homes. I’m going to stand in front of Thoth and demand he look at me, and when I’m done with Thoth, I’m going to Poseidon, and I’m going to let him know it’s about time he was proud of me.”