by Zoe Forward
“Shot me with something in the back. Burns.”
Merck stared silently at Anaïs.
Anaïs said, “Something you’re familiar with. I’m impressed you survived when those Pleiades goddesses went down so easily. Seems I’ll have to come up with something special for you next time. Nothing of this world can counteract the poison, though. But I can. Give me the Trident and I’ll give you the antidote.”
Merck knelt and rolled Shannon over to view her back.
“I’m sorry. I ran toward the creek. I swear.” Shannon found the confidence in his gaze calming.
“This isn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have sent you away when I knew they were here. The mistake is on me.” Merck addressed Anaïs. “What assurance do I have you’ll give me the antidote should I give you what you want?”
Anaïs gestured to Owen, who removed a syringe from an abandoned backpack Shannon hadn’t noticed in the backyard. Anaïs pointed at the first piling still far enough away from Merck to keep Owen out of danger. Owen set the syringe on the piling. His aura swirled with the colors of deceit.
Merck gazed at the syringe filled with clear fluid.
Shannon whispered, “I don’t think whatever’s in that will work.”
***
The syringe had to be bogus. Highly unlikely she could’ve stolen both Deus Mortem and its antidote from Circe. He saw only one way out of this.
Merck’s addressed Owen. “How do I know the syringe isn’t filled with more poison or just ordinary saline?”
Owen didn’t answer. His gaze remained fixated on Anaïs in an oddly robotic way.
Anaïs shrugged. “You’ve got to believe in something.”
“Why are you with her, Owen?” Merck asked. “You might hang out with some magical assholes from time to time, but you’re not like her.”
Owen acted as if he hadn’t heard him as he stared moon-eyed at Anaïs.
Anaïs reached out with her talonlike, blue-painted nails and touched Owen’s square jaw. “We’re in love.”
“Uh-huh,” Merck grumbled sarcastically. “More like spellbound or bewitched. Why did you kill the Pleiades goddesses?”
Anaïs smiled broadly. “Their souls have made me invincible. I can wield the power of the Trident now.”
“Why those particular goddesses?”
“Rick wanted them dead. I needed their power. Win win for all of us, even if Rick got killed. Win win for me, I guess.” She grinned. “Get it out of her.”
Shannon released an almost silent moan. The small noise tore through him, killed him. “All right. I do believe in something.”
Shannon whispered, “Don’t. They can’t have it.”
“Sometimes, you’ve got to believe. I’m going to see if I can get the Trident from you. Totally not sure on how to do this. You think you can lie on your back, or does it hurt too much?”
“Will side work?” She rolled to her side, facing him.
He yanked his knife off his belt and cut a hole in her dress over the scarred area.
“Are you going to cut it out of me?” Horror passed over her face.
“No.”
“Okay. I trust you. I do.” Her eyes settled into a faith he hoped he’d deserve. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but he was going to try. He cut a small window in her dress and held his hand over the scarred area. Closing his eyes helped him sense the power lodged within her. He detected the ocean and all that was marine in its most organic and primal sense churning beneath her skin.
Come to me, he silently commanded. A strength he’d never before experienced fueled him with energy. His hands closed around something solid. He gasped as his body charged, not with discomfort, but with a vigor that was tempting and intoxicating. When he opened his eyes, he held the Trident. He almost dropped it out of shock. The golden symbol for rule of the ocean was in his hand. It didn’t burn him as he’d expected it would with anyone not Poseidon. It accepted him. It tempted him with a boundless power of rule.
It also wasn’t impressive for something considered to be so powerful. Three barbed tines on the end of a metal pole. The metal didn’t even look like real gold. The thing just looked like a boring fishing tool.
“You can’t give it to her,” Shannon said, breaking through his fixation on the weapon. “Please, give it back to him.”
“You’ll die,” he said softly.
“This isn’t about me. It’s about people who shouldn’t die for something they had nothing to do with. Worthy people. People I love.”
How he loved this woman.
“Give it to me!” Anaïs screamed. She charged toward the dock, but waves picked up as the ocean churned, casting over the dock both in front of and behind Merck and Shannon, hindering Anaïs’s trajectory.
“This is about a lot more than either of us or the necromancer.” He kissed the inside of Shannon’s hand. For years, he’d been fighting for free will. He’d fought for a choice in his future. Now he realized he’d never had a choice.
Fuck free will. He’d believe in destiny. His destiny was about this brave woman who’d die for those she loved. It was about protecting her bloodline and that of the other Pleiades descendants. No matter how much this might hurt in the short-term, fully expecting to lose her to death or be cast out of this life when judged, love had to endure. Maybe in another lifetime he’d find her. Maybe in his next life as the Enforcer he’d remember her. Love was infinite. It could sustain. He would remember. “There’s only one way for you to live.”
He stood and held the Trident as if he meant to toss it to Anaïs. Shannon gasped. He gazed down and winked at her. With a pivot, he cast the Trident toward the water. His eldest dolphin friend jumped from the water and caught it.
“Return it,” he ordered the dolphin. Merck knelt beside Shannon and reached one hand toward the water, praying it could heal her. The water ran up his arm and onto her, around her lesions. Nothing. The darkness was still on her skin. He tried again.
“I can’t do it, baby. I can’t heal this poison. It’s powerful enough to kill a god. She used it to kill all seven of the Pleiades goddesses.” Even he heard the panic in his tone.
“Thank you. As you said, this isn’t about us.”
He smoothed hair away from her face and kissed her briefly.
With a frown, her eyes moved away from his to stare at the churning sea. “What’s happening?”
The sky darkened and the water pounded the dock, angry or perhaps excited. He couldn’t read the ocean’s mood, which was rare. Overhead, dark clouds gathered. Slivers of light peeked around the clouds, glittering furiously. Water sloshed against the dock, growing in height with each new wave. From the water rose a gigantic man with long white hair, grasping the Trident. Vicious blue eyes skimmed over Merck and Shannon.
Poseidon.
All Merck remembered from years of research into his mysterious father were accounts of him being unpredictable and easily pissed.
Merck dropped to his knees, kneeling with head bowed, but made sure to remain protectively in front of Shannon. Heavy footsteps approached. His heart thundered against his ribs as visions of various ways he could die passed through his brain. Doubt hit him. Maybe he shouldn’t have given the Trident back.
“Who attempted to steal my Trident?” a thunderous voice demanded.
Merck glanced up.
Poseidon pointed to Anaïs, who stood frozen at the dock’s entrance. Far behind her Owen shook his head feeling as if he was coming out of a daze or dream. He glanced around, shocked, and slowly backed away.
“You deem yourself more worthy than I to rule my seas? You see yourself as jury and executioner to destroy several of the sea nymphs?” Poseidon twirled the Trident and scrutinized her.
The necromancer chanted and cast a blast of energy toward Poseidon.
The energy hit him, causing him to back up one step. “You attack me? For the Trident’s power?”
“I have absorbed the souls of the seven goddesses. I am strong enough to wield it�
��s power.”
He pointed the Trident at her. “Then feel it. Feel the power you so long to have.”
Anaïs screamed as her body lit with light. At first, she laughed with glee, but then she screamed in pain.
“May it consume your tainted soul and return those souls you stole to their owners.” Poseidon’s expression didn’t alter even when Anaïs’s body fractured with light and combusted into nothing. He pointed at Owen. “You are free of her enthrallment descendant of Orion, but you should run or I will destroy you as well.”
Owen fled.
In the silence that followed, Merck lowered his gaze again. “I’m prepared to die, but please let Shannon live. Clear this poison from her. She deserved none of this.”
A large hand landed on his shoulder. Solid. Heavy. Then a painful squeeze. A good squeeze or a you’re-going-to-die squeeze? Shit, he didn’t know.
He peeked up, but tried to remain deferential. Not easy when the eerie blue of Poseidon’s eyes penetrated straight to his soul.
“You do not need me for this request, my son.” Poseidon’s voice thundered inside his skull, as powerful as Athena’s, but a lower resonance.
“I tried. Nothing happened when I asked the ocean to help.”
“You have been judged.”
“Take me, then. Please. Not her. Heal her.”
Danny strolled onto the dock. He knelt before Poseidon. “My time as watcher has ended. Anything more you need from me?”
“Danny?” A loud what the hell pinged around in Merck’s brain. Danny here didn’t make sense. What did he mean by being a watcher? Merck shot to a stand. “Why are you here?”
“I’m sorry, Merck. My job was to watch and provide unbiased information needed for your judgment.”
“I trusted you. And you spied against me? To him?”
“You still can trust me, man. Sorry about the spying. But when a god asks you to do something, it’s not like you can say no.” He shrugged.
“You can if it involves throwing a friend under the bus.”
Poseidon swept his arm to silence them. “Judgment is done.”
Merck swallowed hard against panic. Sweat slid between his shoulders. He glanced down at Shannon, who’d curled her body into a C and clutched her middle. He didn’t want her to die. Not like this.
Shannon struggled to unbend her body. She reached out and grabbed Merck’s hand. He clasped her smaller hand in his.
“What does that mean?” Merck demanded.
Poseidon’s angular face looked pinched. He waved a hand. “I’ve already explained.”
“You’ve explained nothing.” He bit back more demands when Poseidon cast him a deadly glower. Athena wants me to call you a dickhead. But he didn’t say it out loud.
“I heard that,” Poseidon thundered. For a split second, his lips tilted into a smile. His eyes creased out and softened. “Impertinent, just like she said you were. I like that.”
Now he’d get struck down.
“Bythos can deal with you and your questions.” Poseidon pivoted and disappeared into the ocean, which calmed almost immediately upon his departure. The old dolphin jumped out of the water into a back flip, followed by three other members of his pod, including the juvenile Merck had helped.
“What the fuck did he mean?” Merck yelled. “Danny, what’d you tell him or them or whoever the hell you reported to?”
Danny backed up a few steps with his hands in the air. “Whoa there. Had your back, man. Only good stuff to report. You worked hard, played hard, believed in good shit.”
“Then why is this happening?”
“I swear I only reported good things.” He made a cross sign over his chest. “Always said I’d be there for you and I meant it.”
Shannon’s eyes locked on the sky and darkened. Death was coming, but not for him…for Shannon.
He shook her. “You stay with me…stay. You’re not going to die.”
“Oh, God. I’m not going to make it.”
“You hang on. Damn it.”
She whispered, “I love…”
“No!”
Chapter Twenty-two
“Are you going to continue acting like a baby or are you actually going to do something?”
Merck’s head snapped around to stare at the end of his dock. Bythos calmly strolled his way wearing a flamboyant Hawaiian shirt and linen pants. His bare feet made no noise as he approached.
“You here to kill me this time?”
Bythos held his hands away from his body to demonstrate no weapons. “I’m here to clean up the mess, as usual.”
“I tried to heal her. Nothing happened. Can’t you do something for her?”
“Not my thing. You were judged.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means stop being a dumbass and try again.” Bythos crossed his arms and stared.
“But I’m still here.”
“Yes. You are. You were judged.”
“They’re not going to send me to Hades?”
“Guess not.”
Try again? Maybe he needed to be in the water with Shannon for it to work. He scooped her into his arms and paced to the end of the dock. He met Bythos’s gaze for a moment, finding no confirmation this was the right move. Bythos looked simultaneously entertained and bored.
As he passed Bythos, Merck muttered, “I really don’t like you right now.”
“I know, but you’ll like me even less if you keep flapping your lips and she dies.” Bythos leaned casually against a piling and picked at his nails.
“Shannon, you with me?” Merck jostled her.
Her eyes blinked open, but then drifted shut.
“I need you to hold on. Take a deep breath. We’re going under.”
***
Her body lit on fire, jolting her to consciousness. A scream crested, but Shannon quickly closed her mouth when water flooded inside. Something held her underwater. Drowning her.
Her head broke free of the ocean’s surface. She thrashed, coughed up water, and gulped in air. Her toes couldn’t touch ground. Whatever tried to drown her still restrained her.
“I’ve got you. Stop struggling. Here…” The cuffs around her wrists magically disappeared.
She grabbed at Merck, panicked in the water.
“You’re fine. I swear.” His hands cradled her head above the water, allowing her to breathe.
“Why are we in the water again?” His dock sat a hundred yards or more away.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered. “But I didn’t.”
“Your healing worked? I thought you couldn’t…”
“Yeah, me too, but second time’s the charm.” In a blink, they were on the dock.
“How’d you do that?” She shifted in his arms since he still hadn’t let her go.
“Not sure.” He dropped the cuffs on the dock. His gaze met that of the water god who he’d spoken with after the Athena encounter.
The god smiled at her, his eerie, pale eyes swirling. “I’m Bythos.” He took her hand and kissed it. “You’re more beautiful than the ocean at sunset in the spring.”
Merck knocked his hand away. “Stop hitting on her. You’re not her type. Besides, that was pathetic.”
“I thought it was nice imagery.” She caught Merck’s glower. “Maybe a bit cheesy.”
Bythos shot Merck a smug smirk. “I told you I could be her type.”
“Push it and I’ll castrate you,” Merck warned.
Bythos shrugged. “You passed their test. Means they granted you your full status.”
“A full god?” Merck asked.
“Yes and Poseidon unlocked all your powers. You still have responsibilities, though.”
“What am I the god of? I know there has to be balance between all the gods.”
Bythos shot him a you’re an idiot glare. “What are you best at when it comes to the ocean?”
“Fixing its issues.”
“There you go. God of water healing. Able to heal it and
use it to heal others, but your primary duty is as protector to the Pleiades.”
“And be Enforcer? Triple duty?”
“Never said it’d be easy, although being a god might make the Enforcer business easier now that you’re resistant to black magic. I hear the Pleiades descendants are a handful.” He smiled again at Shannon. “Their bloodline must persist. If they all die, their ability to bridge dimensions will crack and fracture reality as we know it.” Bythos clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m proud of you, kid. Now I’m out of here. I’ll be back, but fair warning, it’s far more interesting to attack you at random than deal with this type of minutia.” He granted Shannon a slow, sexy smile. “If he cannot satisfy you, I’m available.” He leaned in and touched her cheek. “I love all sea nymph descendants.”
Merck pulled her away from him. “Watch it, asshole. I’ve got a pretty kick-ass sword now. I know how to use it.”
“I don’t see it on you.” Bythos winked at her as he dove into the ocean, shifting to merman form seconds before hitting the water.
“I think he likes you,” Shannon said.
“He’s a total pain in the ass.”
“He’s sweet. You’re a full-blood god? As in Mom’s a goddess and Father’s a god? Is that why your face is fixed? No more scars.” She brushed her hand over his now-smooth cheek.
He touched his face. “Seems I’m not a bastard. I just had to pass some asinine test, no thanks to Danny.” He tossed his chin at Danny, who stood at the entrance to the dock, silent and shocked.
“Now that it doesn’t look like either of us are going to die...” Wickedly, Shannon pressed her body against his, her hand sliding provocatively over the ridge in his pants. “Maybe you can use your new godly powers to grant us a little privacy from Danny?”
“I heard that,” Danny yelled from the entrance edge of the dock. “Yeah, yeah. I’m outta here. Later, Merck.” He waved and stalked out of the yard.
Merck made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh. He slammed his mouth against hers. She moaned at the contact of his tongue, kissing deeper and deeper until she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. He ducked his head and rested his forehead against hers. “I can’t do that again.”
“Merck?”