by Meg Xuemei X
All of a sudden, I had status as the Earth Goddess. I didn’t feel like a phony this time, for I actually was a goddess. However, I wasn’t comfortable sitting at the head of the marble table in the vast conference room, where Lorcan and Alaric sat on either side of me and Pyrder next to Alaric.
All of the Council members from the Academy showed up, plus a dozen generals and high-ranking officers from many different countries. Most of them appeared solemn and self-important. Maybe I should turn up my nose skyward, too, and look the part of my role.
The gentlemen all wore suits, except for my mates, and the high ladies were clad in formal dresses.
My mates would have worn suits, too, on an occasion like this, but now they chose their outfits based on how I dressed. I picked for myself a blouse and washed-out jeans, but at least I didn’t put on flipflops. I wasn’t exactly making a fashion statement, but I didn’t care for this society’s propriety and would always insist on having my own style.
So Alaric and Pyrder wore jeans and jackets. Lorcan, however, wore a dress shirt and a trench coat, as he always did.
I surveyed the room. The only familiar faces I saw were the shifter alphas I’d met in Moonshine.
I grinned at Dustin, Wyatt, and Cadmar, and they bowed to me. I looked at Dustin, an eager question in my eyes. He nodded at me with a confirmation, his brown eyes sparkling with warmth and amusement. The shifters brought cakes and Moonshine brew for me.
Now I couldn’t wait for the meeting to be over.
Thank goodness, it finally started once everyone was seated.
Alaric made an opening statement. Damn, my demigod mate was as eloquent as the High Lord of the Night. Among all of my mates, Alaric was more acceptable to the mortals, as his mother was once a mortal queen. My other mates didn’t have much in common with the mortals, particularly my vampire mate.
Instead of grilling everyone on the state of their armies and their preparations for the war, or discussing war strategies, like where we should post the armies, the generals and officers started throwing politics around and arguing with one another.
Good luck to us all if we went into war like this.
My eyes glazed over as the ineffective meeting droned on, until I lost my patience. I cleared my throat. Just when I was about to ask to have an intermission so I could have some cakes, a cold-faced man with a thick mustache fixed his attention on me. During the introduction, I’d learned that Magnar, the haughty-looking warlock, was the new head of the Mages’ Circle, the replacement for Apollo.
“So you’re the new goddess everyone has been talking about,” Magnar drawled.
Every head turned to me. The world leaders had tried to ignore me when they saw I was but a twenty-something woman with a pretty face. My plain jeans didn’t help me look my part as a goddess, either. Even with me sitting at the head of the conference table, no one had taken me seriously, except for the shifters.
From their dismissive glances, I knew the leaders thought I was but a figurehead and my mates’ plaything. They’d been great at treating me like a piece of decorative furniture until Magnar, for some reason, decided to try and ridicule me.
I arched an eyebrow at the ringleader of the mages. “What about it?”
“Are you really going to fight the gods?” Magnar taunted.
He wasn’t pleased at my lack of reverence toward him. I bet a lot of mages, humans, and other supernaturals cowered before him, since this bully had potent magic, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Apollo, not even when the asshole god cloaked his power to disguise himself as Noah.
And this clown thought I’d bow to him?
“Isn’t that why you all requested my presence?” I said. “So here I am. Let’s get to the point and discuss how we should coordinate efficiently and fight the alien gods.”
“We can’t just take the word of some as to who you are,” Magnar said. “Prove to us that you’re the real deal and can actually fight.”
Many heads around the table nodded in agreement.
My mates growled.
“Lady Cass Saélihn doesn’t need to show you a thing,” Lorcan said coldly.
Pyrder declared, “None of you have the right to demand anything from Goddess Cass.”
Magnar sneered. “Do you want our armies to fight the gods or not?”
“Fighting the Olympians and protecting Earth is every citizen’s duty,” Alaric said. “The planet isn’t just mine, Magnar. Know where you stand and don’t end up like your treacherous predecessor.”
“Are you threatening me, demigod?” Magnar snorted.
“When I threaten you, you’ll know, mage,” Alaric said icily.
“Threaten me all you want, Alaric,” Magnar said, narrowing his hazel eyes. “Not everyone is afraid of you. And besides, who knows where your loyalty lay, seeing as you’re the bastard son of the King of Gods.”
That’s it. This Magnar douchebag needed to be taken out like trash.
“Everyone knows where King Alaric’s loyalty lay,” Pyrder snarled. “Without him protecting Earth an eon ago, your ancestors would have been long gone, and you wouldn’t even sit here pointing fingers at anyone.”
“Of course you spoke for Zeus’s bastard son, Prince Pyrder,” Magnar said. “Everyone knows that you, your twin, and the vampire are the demigod’s bonded brothers, and now you all share the same woman.” His vulgar gaze dipped to me. “She must be quite an item in bed.”
Icy fire burned in Lorcan’s eyes.
All my mates were one second from summoning their blades. I coughed to signal them to hold back. Not yet. We needed to learn who our foes were, and more would pop up.
“Why are we here to argue the stupid, petty thing?” Dustin, one of the shifter alphas, said in disdain. “I can testify for Goddess Cass Saélihn. We all witnessed her great power. She’s the only hope for Earth in our war against the alien gods.”
“Well, speak for yourself,” Magnar said. “You shifters have always kept to yourselves and never stuck out your necks for anyone else. What has changed? And why did she show her power only to your kind?” His expression grew lewd, hinting that I’d whored myself to all the shifters.
Wyatt growled. “Be careful who you offended, mage.”
He remembered well that I’d made him suck a large ice dick when he affronted me.
“Show respect when you look at Goddess Cass!” Cadmar barked. He’d forgotten how he’d leered at me when I first visited Moonshine. “You’ll be lucky if she were to let you lick the ground she walks on.”
“How do we know you aren’t in Apollo’s pocket, Magnar,” Pyrder asked, “considering he was once the head of the Mages’ Circle, not to mention the majority of your spineless mages turned their backs on humanity to serve the alien gods?”
Magnar’s face turned purple. “I’m not in anyone’s pocket, and I’m not that eager to be in the pocket of some girl who claims to be a new goddess, either!”
“The people don’t follow you,” Wyatt sneered, his legs braced apart and his muscled arms folded across his broad chest. “The earthlings don’t follow any of you, but they follow Cass. And we’ll follow Goddess Cass to every battle and stamp out any obstacle in our way!”
Who would have imagined that the hard-ass alpha would turn out to be my most vehement advocate?
A fire mage standing behind Magnar twirled fire balls on his palms, and an ice mage breathed out icy steam. They were ready to demonstrate their powers on me to show the world what a phony I was on their boss’s order. None of them had been in the Academy when I ate up the mages’ collective magic.
The shouting matches went on, forming an unbearable cacophony of sound, which hurt my sensitive eardrums and grated on my nerves.
I understood they were driven by fear. No earthlings had ever stood up to the Olympian gods, and none of them had seen my power when my mates and I went up against the aliens.
They thought they would get a goddess, only to find a ridiculous-looking young woman with tri-c
olored hair and two-toned eyes sitting at the head of the table as what they assumed to be a figurehead.
I didn’t have the superior, majestic air of a goddess.
I didn’t look any more graceful or regal than a mortal queen.
I didn’t appear to have even suffered a day. I looked pampered, like someone who had no idea of blood, gore, and battle.
They didn’t know me, but they felt cheated when my powerful mates presented them with a naïve young girl they believed had no business ascending past their rank of power in the patriarchal society.
I’d thought handling the gods was tough, until I had to deal with the mortals and their politics that preyed on the weak. They regarded me as weak.
“Stop bickering, you whiny bitches, you’re giving me a headache,” I barked, my power rippling in the room and punching the walls.
My mates smiled. They’d been waiting for me to take over the show.
The room quieted for a second, then the leaders fumed even more.
“How dare you?!” an older woman in her late forties scolded me. She’d been introduced as Madam Senator.
I slammed my palms on the marble table. “How dare you talk to a goddess this way, you crone? If there were a minor Olympian god in the room, many of you would beg to wipe his ass instead of testing his patience. Here I am more powerful than a fucking major god, and I’m on your side, yet none of you have paid me the slightest respect since I walked into this room!”
My dragon fire whisked along the edge of the marble table, and the leaders jumped back with surprised yelps. Those who moved a bit slower may have lost a finger or two instantly, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Everyone had to learn a lesson or two in life, and life wasn’t fair.
The next moment, the marble melted into nothingness.
“What kind of witchcraft is this?” a general shouted.
“She’s the Earth Goddess, you morons,” Wyatt seethed. “You’re lucky Goddess Cass melted only the marble table instead of your nuts.”
I rose from the chair, levitating into the air, my eyes glowing as I scanned the leaders.
The shifters dropped to one knee. “Goddess Cass, what are your orders?”
They would snap anyone’s neck at my command. Wyatt had already shifted into his half-form, claws poking out of his hands and brown fur covering his bulky arms.
I pointed at the fire mage, who had been itching to throw his magic at me but had given up the idea when I melted the marble.
“Let me see what you’ve got, mage,” I said.
His face paled, yet he couldn’t disobey me, my words rippling with power.
The mage pushed a tidal wave of orange fire at me, and the world leaders between us leapt further back to stay out of its blazing path. I spread my arms, letting the mage’s Earth element sink into my skin.
My hair flew up, brightening at the energy feed.
“What a nice fire bath,” I said. “More please.”
“It can’t be,” the fire mage murmured, then dropped to his knees, fear flickering in his eyes. “Forgive me, Goddess.”
I turned to the ice mage. “Care to cool me down with your ice hails?”
The ice mage dropped to her knees beside her peer. “I apologize for not recognizing you, Goddess Cass. Your Earth power is the most potent I’ve felt.”
I scanned the men and women in the room with a frosty smile. The room reeked of their fear.
“I had a small breakfast this morning because my mates rushed me here to meet all of you, giving you the benefit of the doubt, assuming you worthy,” I said. “The gods are burning our planet, yet you still fight for power and domination among yourselves. You still focus on petty things. Do you know that you aren’t even worth the Olympian gods’ attention? You’re all just collateral damage to them. Without my mates and me fighting against the Olympians at the frontline, soon you will all be fucking dead.”
“This is staged,” someone protested in the background.
“So you’ll fight at the frontline?” a gray-haired general asked, ignoring the background comments.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s what I came here to tell you face-to-face. All of you are called to defend Earth with me. You can choose not to fight, but you’ll be stripped of your positions, ranks, and powers when the war is over. You can also choose to kneel before the alien gods. Just pray you won’t cross paths with us. I know a lot of you, the richest, most elite class on Earth, only preserved yourselves and your circles when the gods returned and ruled. You haven’t protected the poor, the needy, or your fellow citizens. Now’s your chance to make amends.”
“How dare you lecture us, little girl?” Madam Senator stepped forward two paces, seething.
I rolled my eyes. The entitled never learned.
“I’m not a little girl,” I said. “I’m a goddess, and Earth is mine. I can easily toss all of you the fuck out of my land. Since you mentioned lectures, I’m now going to teach you all a practical lesson, so you’ll learn not to take everything for granted. Earth is not yours but mine. You’re only allowed to live and breathe on it because I allow it.”
I snapped my fingers, and my magic crackled and charged the air like electricity.
The leaders backed away, inching toward the far walls to put distance between themselves and me. Some military types moved their hands toward their guns in their waistbands, as if those bullets could stop me.
“Cass!” Dustin called in alarm.
“I won’t harm my own,” I said.
My death flame lashed out, touching everyone’s souls and sipping their essence—not too much; I wanted them to live. My mates were immune, and I spared the shifters.
All the mundane leaders fell to their knees, their skin turning grayish as I drained their energy.
“All can be my prey and my food,” I said, “if you aren’t my people.”
“She’s a monster among us,” Madam Senator whimpered. “When the Olympian gods are gone, she’ll rule us with cruelty. That’s why she wants to make us battle the gods for her. Without the gods, no one will shield us from the worst thing in existence on Earth. Her own mother once locked her up to protect the world from her. She called her daughter the eater of the universe. Haven’t you all seen how she took a piece from each of us and tried to enslave us?”
That “Madam Senator” definitely worked for the Olympians. The gods wanted to turn the earthlings against me before the final war.
They got only one thing right about me.
I could be the worst thing the world had ever seen, but my mates were my tether to humanity. And I wouldn’t become the nightmare the mortals feared, because I would die with all the gods.
“The senator is an Olympian spy,” Wyatt spat. “A lot of gods’ pawns are among us to do the dirty deeds—spreading rumors, stirring up dissention, dividing us, and finally breaking us from the inside. I know all of their old tricks.”
Then a brawl broke out among the world leaders from different nations and the immortals. Even though I’d weakened them, they still had some fight in them.
When a few more elites threw insults at me again, my mates decided not to put up with any more shit.
Lorcan snarled, his vampire claws, as sharp as a blade, protruding from his hands. Before he could tear anyone’s throat out, a violent wind blew through the vast room, slamming into the brawling leaders.
Pyrder looked at his hands, shocked.
He had adapted my power of air.
Lorcan threw his hands up, blue fire bursting from him and toppling a side wall.
The fae prince’s icy wind tossed a few gods’ pawns out from the former wall, and Pyrder grinned at their screams.
“I have Cass baby’s wild wind,” he said, still looking stunned.
Blue fire traced along the jaw of the High Lord of Night, and his gray eyes glowed silver-blue.
“I’m the only vampire who can walk under the sun,” he said quietly, “and now I’m gifted with Earth fire.”
<
br /> The room became deathly silent as the world leaders stared at my mates, and I shrugged with a grin. They were my mates, and it was time I shared my powers.
“You all got something,” Alaric grunted. “What do I get?”
He flexed his muscles, a bolt of lightning forming on his fingers and a stream of red fire tracing along the edge of his lightning.
“Dragon fire.” The demigod sucked in a breath. “Mate is very sweet.”
The shifter alpha Cadmar gazed at me with longing. He was still thinking that if he’d joined my harem, he’d have a nice gift, too.
My thoughts drifted to Reys. He was in the Underworld. Would he have gotten the black fire?
I needed to reach my him as soon as possible and shatter the shackles on his wrists. I didn’t want to waste any more time on this fruitless meeting with the mortal leaders when all I wanted was to rush to Hell, blast its gate open, and bust out my mate and my best friend.
We left the Swiss Confederation after that, leaving the mortals to sort out their own mess. Of course, I didn’t forget to collect the cakes brought by the shifters.
CHAPTER 6
My mates rehearsed the plans with their elite warriors. Most of the time, Hephaestus was doing all the talking. He laid out the Underworld’s geography, characters, and its countless rules, including what to eat and what not to eat. Basically, we were forbidden to eat or drink anything from the Underworld.
Everyone knew the tale of Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds offered by her kidnapper Hades, and thus being stuck in the subterranean.
The God of Blacksmiths waved his haughty hands as he lectured us as if we were all country bumpkins. He loved to be the center of attention, and we had to put up with him since he was the only one who’d ever travelled to the Underworld.
My mind drifted to my earlier hot, sweaty scene with Lorcan while Hephaestus droned on. I’d fed my vampire lover because he might not get another sip from me after we entered Hell.
The High Lord’s gray eyes had turned darker, a crimson ring forming around his irises, when he gazed upon my nudity. I’d wiggled my ass to strip him of his remaining control. My vampire mate had entered stasis after an eon of bleak loneliness. He’d been apathetic until he met me. With me, he was always alert.