Trinity stumbled a few times in the deep snow, but she made her way straight over to the very spot she stood with Raven yesterday and gazed out at the lighthouse so far below. Huddling against the biting wind with her arms wrapped tightly around her small body she started to shiver. “I’m going to get there one day. They can’t hold me here forever. I don’t want to be their dumb queen.” Looking for shelter from the howling wind, she decided to lean against the boulder and she reached out to touch it without looking back. She touched upon something that was all-at-once sharp, soft, and slimy. Trinity’s head snapped upward; she saw Spirit Walker on top of the rock and realized that wasn’t just the wind howling but the wolf growling behind her. “Hi, it’s just me, huh?” The words stuck in her throat. The wolf crouched, reared back on its haunches and made ready to strike at her with those sharp fangs oozing drool while those cold eyes blatantly sized her up. Just as it finished readying its strong muscles for the leap at its target, Trinity threw her hands up in front of her face to protect it as she tried to scream but all that came out was a rush of air. In her haste to ward off the strike, she turned away from the attacking wolf, lost her footing and spilled over the side of Olympus.
IV
Trinity’s little body struck snow and rocks beneath it. Head over heels she tumbled, her body tossed around like a rag doll as Raven watched her nearly bounce high as a rubber ball. There was no sound, no screaming, only the wind blowing to witness her fall. By his estimation, she must have gone down some three thousand feet before the final blow arrived. Trinity’s head struck a large rock jutting out of the snow and burst open like a ripe grape, leaving bits of blood, brain and bone behind.
“Good boy, good boy,” Raven praised the wolf as he gave it bits of raw meat as a reward. “It was a mercy killing. Just like mom, Trinity couldn’t ever be happy here. They don’t belong.” Raven thought of the day they’d come across the wolf pup on the island and how Ares said that some creatures were meant to die and that it was better to end their suffering than make them live a life that would be unfulfilling. “Come on, let’s go inside and get warm.”
In a few hours, Aphrodite’s Temple would be turned upside down and then so would the whole of Olympus. Even though they already knew she was dead every one of them—even Ares and Apollo—would search for Trinity, but it wouldn’t be until morning that her remains would be found splattered all over the mountainside.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Pyres of Olympus
In Olympian style, a pyre fifty feet high was built in the middle of Olympus with Trinity—her body shrouded from view by a wrapping of pink satin—laid waiting to be burned so she could enter Hades Domain and then the Elysian Fields. Aphrodite wept uncontrollably and leaned on Apollo for strength and support, but he didn’t seem to care and kept trying to discreetly get her off him. Zeus laid a gold coin on the wrapping where Trinity’s eyes would have been if they were left in her head after the fall. Stepping back from the pyre ready to burn Zeus held his arms wide, the staff raised to the sky as he invoked the Gods and Goddesses of the Universe asking them to look after her soul and endow her with happiness when she returned to this world in her next life. The God of Gods praised Trinity as being a loving girl and a credit to the Olympians, whose life was cut far too short by an unforeseeable tragedy.
“How dare you?” Aphrodite hissed as she moved away from Apollo. “How dare you speak so kindly of my Daughter now that she’s gone when you all ever did was criticize her when she was alive?”
“I know you’re deep in grief,” Apollo offered as he tried to bring her back close to him in an effort to give her the comfort she was seeking, “but perhaps now isn’t the time.”
“No? Then when is?” she challenged, looking at the wrapped remains of little Trinity and of the harsh words they’d last said to each other. Now she would never get to hold her again, brush her pretty dark hair, or tell Trinity how very much she was loved. “You did it, Brother, I know you did.”
“I did not,” Zeus protested quickly, “I would never do anything to hurt Trinity. How can you accuse me of such wickedness?”
Pushing Apollo’s cold comfort away, Aphrodite tittered but the light sound soon turned to a dark cackle. The others looked on in silent bewilderment. Their stares of confusion didn’t stop the Goddess of Love from continuing with her accusations, “Yes, how could I ever do such a thing when we all know you’re so pure and honorable.” With a hand shaking in sorrow, she pointed to the small body still awaiting the touch of the flame. “You hated her because she was such a disappointment to you. You wanted to get rid of her because she embarrassed you. This was no accident. It’s got you written all over it.”
To everyone but the three of them this was big news and it was juicy, so none of them sought to stop it and regain the graveness of the occasion. Hidden in plain sight among them was the most curious member of the Olympians; Raven. He was shocked to hear Aphrodite suspected Zeus of killing Trinity, but he showed no sign of it on his young face as he stood there between his mystified parents. His mother put an arm around his shoulders and drew him closer to her as Zeus and Aphrodite argued.
Raven knew he’d gotten lucky when they searched for Trinity and couldn’t find so much as her footprints, never mind Spirit Walker’s paw prints in the snow. No, they began their search in Aphrodite’s Temple and turned it upside down for several hours before broadening the radius. That gave the wind and the ever-falling snow a chance to do its job and cover all of the telltale tracks. Not that Raven was worried; if they followed Trinity’s prints right to where she fell and found her right away, well, that wasn’t any big deal because the only prints they would probably notice would be Trinity’s. Even if they were to see the wolf’s prints, so what? Raven was willing to give up his pet as a sacrifice if it came down to it, but now it seemed it would not.
Zeus stood straight and tall as he looked the grief stricken Aphrodite in the eye. “I had nothing to do with her accident.” While Trinity didn’t live up to Zeus’ standards and, yes, he did say harsh things about the girl, he did have a soft spot for her. Trinity would never sit on the Throne of Olympus as he’d once told Raven she would, but still, she was sweet and kind, she always had a smile and a drawing for him. She was a nice little girl whom any Grandfather would be happy to call his own and he never once wished for any harm to come to her. “I will forgive your accusation my Sister because I know how much this fills your heart with sorrow, but I don’t appreciate it.”
“I don’t appreciate that my Daughter lies there DEAD while you stand there smug.”
“Aphrodite, stop this.” Apollo reached out for her if for nothing more than propriety’s sake, but she shrugged him off.
“Don’t touch me you hypocrite, you never loved her.” Then her icy eyes turned to Ares who stood there silent. “You either, they, them,” she pointed to those gathered as she turned in a half circle and then back to the God of War, “they all know she was your Daughter and you never gave a damn about her, either.”
“That is not true.” Ares figured he had plenty of time to get to know Trinity once the entire farce was over. When one lives nearly forever it is easy to forget how fragile life can be or how much time is fleeting. “It’s time to light the pyre.”
Lost in her grief and needing someone to hold onto, Aphrodite flung her body at Ares, breaking the hold he had on Alena’s hand. She clasped her arms around his thick neck, buried her face deep in his dark wavy hair and began to sob. While he had no true love for her, Ares couldn’t help embracing her in return. Aphrodite was a mother who had just lost their child to a horrible accident and he pitied her for it.
All Alena saw was his strong arms wrap around her quivering body. She stood there still believing that the night before Ares had been enjoying Aphrodite’s intimate company despite his protestations to the contrary and seething at the sight of the bitch enfolded in his arms. Like her Husband, she tried to remember that Aphrodite had just lost something ve
ry precious to her. Looking down at Raven standing there confused and sad, she didn’t know just what she would do if she ever lost him.
“I can’t do it,” Aphrodite whispered as she wept. “Please, I can’t do it.”
“You must, for Trinity, you must light the fire so Hades can take her and will not wander this Earth lost and alone throughout time.” Kissing her cheek, he pulled her hands from around his neck and turned her toward the pyre. Saying good-bye to your child was never an easy thing to do. Even Ares, who had lit so many of these pyres before today, understood that much. “We’ll do it together.” Taking her shaking hand in his, Ares produced a ball fire that encompassed both their hands and then shot it at the dry cedar wood that made up the pyre.
It went up like an old, dried out tinderbox. Flames shot fifty feet into the air and the body of the hapless Trinity turned to ash in seconds. Aphrodite continued clinging to Ares in her grief. He didn’t push her away.
“Mom?” Raven whispered quietly as he could. “Was Trinity my Sister?”
“Yes, Raven, she was.” Alena couldn’t take her eyes from the sight of the two ex-lovers comforting each other.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Your Father likes to keep his dalliances secret.”
Raven leaned forward to peer past his mother to where his Father was embracing the Goddess of Love. “Don’t look like a secret to me.”
No, it didn’t, and the only thing Alena could envision as she took in the scene was Ares sweating and pumping into Aphrodite. If he was telling the truth and he was unable to screw her and create another Olympian, then the next time Zeus directed Ares to Aphrodite’s bed surely the Goddess of Love would use every weapon in her vast arsenal to play on whatever heartstrings Ares had and lure him back to her bed for good.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lovers & Other Strangers
I
Alena and Ares continued sleeping in separate bedrooms and hardly speaking to one another well after Trinity’s funeral. Every day that passed, the baby inside her grew bigger, and she more desperate to leave Olympus than ever. She couldn’t let the Olympians get their hands on another one of her children or let them continue being raised in this insanity. She had to make a move before her mind started failing her as it did before, before her body could betray her, but there was no way off this rock. Repeatedly, Ares refused to back up his word that she was not his slave by showing her how to open the Gates of Olympus. Then again she wasn’t being very cooperative or cunning, but she would be in the future. There was one way off the mountain and back to the mortal world where she would hide with her children and raise them to be good people with good hearts, and not the overgrown and over-privileged children who called Olympus their home.
If there was one thing Alena could count on it was Zeus and the fact that, eventually, the God of Gods would send the God of War back to the bed of the Goddess of Love. Since Alena hadn’t made love with her Husband in nearly three months, she was sure that when that opportunity arose, it would take Ares all night to accomplish the task to his satisfaction.
While he was fucking her Alena was going to make good escape, hers and Raven’s. Alena wasn’t sure where they would call home, maybe Boston, but Ares would look for them there. Night after night, she dreamed of Fey slaves, Bacchanalias, and a huge willow tree. If she could find her necklace maybe, once she got out of this gilded prison, she could find the real tree and some place they would be welcome and safe from the Olympians’ reach.
Day after day Ares lifted weights in the basement and sparred with Raven. Alena being pregnant was deemed unsuited to the task of teaching her son to fight, and Raven was deemed strong enough to try to take on his Father. Some days, as she sat sequestered in the bedroom, she felt the Fortress rock as they let Fire and Ice squared off down there. As they sparred and the women cooked or cleaned, Alena slipped around the Fortress looking for the necklace Ares swore he’d lost. She knew he was lying and it took her three weeks, but Alena finally found what she was looking for in the Throne Room, in his trophy case. Hidden inside Ares’ coveted Crown over which lie the Scepter that had been returned to him sat her necklace. The willow, the huge weeping willow, was the same tree that she’d been seeing in her dreams.
“Home,” Alena whispered to no one as she picked it up, turned it over in her fingers, and then slipped it into the pocket of her sweater. Wherever it was, that tree signified home. Ares knew it and Cernunnos knew it before him. Over the next four weeks, she kept it hidden under the cradle’s mattress, tucked away safe and sound from Ares’ view. She waited for him to notice it missing, but he never did. Ares paid so little to his trophies after all and he hid it so well he probably never thought she’d find it.
II
The magnanimous Zeus gave Aphrodite two months to grieve the loss of Trinity before he called her into his Throne Room and told her it was time she lived up to her end of the bargain. Feeling burned out and empty inside, Aphrodite complied without any protest. She simply drank down the bitter potion and bared her ass for the shot. “I want you to lie down,” Zeus coaxed, “here, lie upon the table.”
Aphrodite’s head felt fuzzy and light after the drink. “Why?” The question was more formality than anything else as she let Zeus help her onto the cold marble table where he opened her toga and exposed her voluptuous body to his view. “What are you doing?”
“There’s one more step this time.” Zeus reached under the table and produced another syringe, this one larger than the last. “Trinity was good for something after all.” Carefully prodding around on her soft abdomen, Zeus lowered the tip of the needle over her ovary. The girl had been young and not mature, but these little beauties would ripen quickly and well inside Aphrodite, and the next child she produced shouldn’t be a reject but a God even more powerful than Raven. Piercing through her skin with a smile he injected the ova he’d been saving, the ones he stole from Trinity’s body before the Grace and Muse could wrap her in that pink funeral shroud. This child would not be Aphrodite’s child, she was only the incubator; this child would be the product of a young Trinity and Ares. It was bound for glory and greatness. As Zeus withdrew the needle and walked around to the other side of the table to repeat the process, passing between her legs he took a glance and a deep breath as his old eyes gazed down on her. “You are still quite beautiful my Sister. Soon, you will have everything you ever wanted.”
“Ares,” Aphrodite cooed, her mind filled with haze and her body with lead.
“Yes, Ares,” Zeus promised as he injected the remaining ova into the other ovary knowing full well that, like all good Greek Tragedies, Raven was destined to kill his Father and Aphrodite wouldn’t have Ares for long.
III
As with last time, Aphrodite was very ill the first night after Zeus had her on his table and it wasn’t until the second night when Zeus believed Trinity’s eggs to have reached maturity that he sent Ares to her bed. Instead of trying to placate his Wife and give her a cup of drugged tea, Ares just walked into the bedroom they once shared, announced he was leaving to spend the night with Aphrodite and live up to his end of the bargain. Then he left, throwing the Fortress into lockdown as he went. Bars came up over every window and slammed into place as every door within six yards of an outer door did the same. No one was getting in here while he was away tonight.
This time it was Alena who quietly dashed up to the third floor. She stood in the window watching Ares. He had Onya with him; once they got beyond the outer doors of the Fortress he pointed off toward Eros’ Tower with a stern hand. It was clear as they parted ways that Ares was sending her to keep Eros busy tonight. With her head hung low, Onya crossed the snow to the Tower door while Ares stormed up the steps to Apollo’s home. Terpsichore came to sound of the pounding that reverberated to all the windows of the Fortress. Ares stood there then he pushed the Muse aside to storm into the house. A few moments later he came out again—he was shaking his head and looking back at the Temple
in confusion.
Then the God of War walked across the cold snow to the night’s destination: Aphrodite’s Temple. Erato let him in. “Fuck her good, you son of a bitch, we’re so out of here.” She didn’t turn away until Ares was inside. Running back down the steps, she grabbed the necklace from its hiding place and threw it around her neck. She didn’t know exactly where they were going or what they would need on their journey other than weapons and money. With Raven in his room, she made her way down to the basement and the armory.
Ares’ two hundred year absence from Olympus was obvious here. Bows and arrows were all well and good for hunting, but the mortal world was a dangerous place and a few guns did a much better job when it came to home defense. There were guns on the island; hand guns, rifles, shot guns, even great big military guns. Perhaps they would have to make a quick pit stop before heading off to parts unknown.
Adjacent to the armory was Ares’ vast treasury. Again she was confronted with his extended absence from this place. She couldn’t walk around the mortal world trying to trade in jewels and gold without any identification, but she crammed handfuls of them into a black velvet sack to be used after their trip got going. To start she’d need cash, good old-fashioned cash, and Ares kept a stash of that, in multiple currencies, in a small room off the treasury. Not having been here for two hundred years prior, his currency was outdated and no good. “Damn it!” Alena griped as she found she was unable to find a single valid dollar bill, never mind a euro anywhere. Gold coins would have to suffice as trade for new legal identities and all that they could buy Alena and Raven in the mortal world. Knowing that a stop on the island was now an utter necessity, as there she would find legal tender along with the weapons she needed, Alena tied the satchel tight as she ran up the stairs to the kitchen. They would need food to start their journey.
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