by S. E. Babin
“The day you stop growing and maturing is the day you die. You are still an infant compared to me, Aphrodite. You will grow more than you want to over the next few months. Allow it to be a natural progression instead of fighting it.” With that, Gaia left my bedroom in a shower of earth green light.
I fell back onto the bed and groaned. So many cryptic words, so little time to grab a handy prophecy decoder and figure out what the hell everyone was talking about.
A light knock sounded on my door. Artie poked her head in. “Thought I heard Gaia,” she said. “Was she here?”
I nodded and sat back up. “Ariadne is somewhere on Mount Olympus.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Of all the places,” she murmured.
“Yeah, it’s like they’re thumbing their noses in our faces.” I got up and puttered over to the closet. A pair of jeans and a peasant blouse later, I was dressed for the day. Makeup and a better hairstyle would have to wait. I didn’t want to expend any magic, even though I probably had plenty of it to give away, in case anything unexpected happened today.
We walked down the stairs, grabbed breakfast, and discussed our plans for the day with the others already up and chowing down. “So,” I said over a mouthful of biscuit. “The Sword of God. If Typhon doesn’t have it, who does?”
Noncommittal grunts all around. The way Hermes and Keto shoved breakfast into their mouths was reminiscent of a garbage disposal. Artie stared at them in horror. I was a little taken aback, too.
“Gods, do you two have a tapeworm?”
Keto shoved half a biscuit in his mouth and shrugged one shoulder.
Hermes flat out ignored me.
“Wow.” I stopped chewing so I could concentrate on the train wreck happening in front of me.
Keto swallowed and glanced at us. “What?”
I shook my head. “It’s like immortal feeding time at the zoo. Carry on.”
Keto put down his biscuit. “It’s an age old pact. If you’re going to die, you might as well go out with a good last meal.”
I blinked. Artie sat there openmouthed. I tried to formulate a response, but I felt on the edge of a bout of hysterical laughter.
“Keto, dude. What the hell?” Artie was outraged, especially when he shrugged and took another enormous bite of biscuit.
“So that’s it then? You two losers have given up?” I shoved my breakfast away from me.
“You aren’t gonna eat that?” Hermes asked. I glared, but he still pulled my plate toward him.
“Abs,” Keto said with his mouth full. “It’s nothing personal. We’re with you until the end. But you should never step between a man and his food, especially in dire times like these.”
I got up from the table and poured myself a cup of coffee. My hands shook in anger. “I didn’t ask to be here. I never asked to be placed in danger. All. The. Time.” My jaw clenched as the sounds of forks and knives clinking slowed and stopped. “If you don’t want to be here, you can leave. Right now. I won’t even ask you to stay.” I turned back to them. “But if you stay, you damned well better throw yourself in front of a train for me if I need you to. Because that’s what I would do for you ungrateful idiots.”
Hermes’ mouth was full of biscuit and his eyes were wide in surprise. Keto set his fork and his biscuit down. “We didn’t mean it like that –” he started.
I waved my hand at him, too pissed to care. “Gaia stopped by this morning. Ariadne is somewhere on Olympus.”
Hermes nodded. “I’m not surprised.” It came out like “mmnotsupised” because his mouth was at full capacity.
“Neither am I. The only ones powerful enough to pull something like this off are the Twelve Olympians. Any of them could have done this. Operating under the assumption that none of us are guilty and Hestia is out of commission, we need to look deeper into the rest.”
Keto nodded. “I think it’s safe to rule out Poseidon and Hephaestus.”
“Why’s that?” Artemis scraped up some of her gravy with her biscuit.
“Well,” Keto said with dry humor, “Poseidon doesn’t give a shit about any of us, and Hephaestus isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”
“I guess that’s true, but let’s put Poseidon in the maybe category. Maybe he and Zeus have some skeletons in their closet we don’t know about yet.”
“I’m sure they do. Okay, Heff and Hestia are out. We have seven left to go. Athena is smart enough, but I tend to think she wouldn’t go to these extremes and then flaunt it in our faces. If she pulled something, we’d probably never see it coming.”
Artie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t trust my sister an iota. She may have offered her help, but it doesn’t mean she means it.”
“Maybe category it is.” I stood up and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen from the junk drawer. “Let’s talk Demeter and Apollo.”
Hermes spoke up. “Neither, I think. Apollo is too much of a goody two shoes to upset the status quo, and Hades keeps Demeter busy with all of his Persephone games. We should look closer at Hera.”
“She has the means, the motive, and the opportunity. She stays on the list. What about Ares?”
“What about him?” The smooth, masculine voice came from behind me. I stiffened.
“Mass murder, rape, building an army? Sounds like Ares to a tee.” Hermes stood and took my hand.
Ares quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t question Hermes’ sudden possessiveness. Instead he looked over my shoulder. “A list?” His lips quirked. “How quaint. And 1972ish.”
“Shut up, Ares,” I said grumpily. ‘I’m sure your way would be more violent with less intelligent conversation, but writing it all out helps me think.”
“Mmm, yes, darling. You need all the help you can get with the thinking part of it.” Ares winked at me.
“What do you want? It’s way too early to show up and be an asshole, so I’m assuming you have news.” I set my pen down and took my other hand back from Hermes.
“I do have news. I overheard Hera talking to someone about pregnancies.”
I perked up. Even though it was possible for Hera to go through another pregnancy, I and every other immortal knew she wouldn’t. If she were discussing pregnancy, it could be the human pregnancies we were concerned about in Asheville. So far, it was too early to tell if there would be a baby boom, but demigod pregnancies progressed faster than normal ones. In a few weeks, some unsuspecting humans would be getting the surprise of their lives if we were right.
“Who was she talking to?” Keto asked.
“I can’t rightly say, but if I had to guess I’d say it was Circe.”
I stared at him, his casual posture belying the importance of his words. “Assuming it’s female, you didn’t see her or recognize her voice?”
“No, but the voice was definitely female. I’ve never heard Circe speak before, but keep in mind she’s a powerful witch. She can sound or look however she wishes.”
I crossed my arms and tried not to pout. “True. Where did you overhear this?”
Ares shrugged and smiled. “You don’t need to know all of my secrets, Little Rabbit.”
I rolled my eyes but made some notations on my paper.
“What do you think about Athena?” I asked him.
“Oh, about 34C, twenty-eight-inch waist. A spectacular set of –”
“Ares!” I screeched, ignoring the laughter from Keto and Hermes. “Can you be serious for one minute?”
He laughed, a rich sound echoing through the room. “Perhaps you should phrase your question better then.”
I gritted my teeth. “Fine. Do you think Athena is capable of this? Posing as Typhon, building an army? Could she undermine Zeus like this?”
Ares thought for a moment. “Abby, all of us in this room could do that. Do I think Athena is capable of being a sneaky underhanded rat? Of course I do. Do I think she’d try to usurp Zeus and take his throne? Maybe.” He spread his hands out. “Your suspect list is a good idea, but you need to dig deeper. Look at motivation
s. Old battles. Old wounds and grudges.”
Artie groaned. “We’d be here forever if we made a chart of everyone Zeus managed to piss off over the years.”
“Listen, I have somewhere to be,” Ares said. “Hera made it clear that no one was to know about the pregnancies. Whatever that means. And she mentioned something about keeping them all in the same place.”
I stared at Ares, a thought slithering just outside my consciousness and just as quickly sliding away. “We need to look at missing person reports.” A pang touched my heart. Marshall would be the person we needed to call for it.
Artie’s understanding stare brought tears to my eyes. “I can talk to him.”
I shook my head. “I’ll do it.”
Ares tsked. “So sweet. Love ripped apart from the person who needed it the most. How is it that you can put people together, but you can’t fix your own love life?”
I felt Hermes tense beside me. “Well,” I said sweetly, “I had this one boyfriend who sort of ruined me for other men.”
Ares preened. “I try,” he said.
“Mmm, I wasn’t talking about you.” I leaned into Hermes’ chest and tucked my face into his neck.
Ares’s face turned red. “Keep playing with me, Aphrodite. Your comeuppance is near.”
I smiled at him from underneath my lashes. “I’d say yours is overdue.”
Ares disappeared from the room in a crack of thunder. I stepped away from Hermes’ warmth even though I wanted to stay there forever.
“He doesn’t try very hard to be liked, does he?” Keto asked.
28
Chapter Twenty Eight
The next morning we were dressed for war. After Ares left us all in a bad mood, we decided to split up and look for Ariadne and the pregnant women. I was with Artemis, and Keto paired with Hermes. Probably a good thing considering I was close to jumping on him and begging him to take me. Close quarters and danger always got me revved up.
The day before had ended in a tear-filled meeting with Marshall, but at least he had given me the information we needed. Begrudgingly, but when he understood what was happening his offer to help became more sincere. It was awkward and terrible. And all of those things after a tough breakup, but he remembered me. Not for the first time I was glad he hadn’t taken the potion Clotho had prepared for him. I might change my mind in the future especially if things got really hairy in this town, but for now we were existing in an uneasy truce.
It probably helped I hadn’t taken Hermes with me.
When I arrived back at the house after Marshall’s office, we all sat down and pored over the reports. Dozens of women were missing. The fact that Asheville wasn’t in a widespread panic already gave testament to Marshall’s skills as a law enforcement officer. All of the women were young, attractive, and wouldn’t be easily missed for at least a day or two because they were out of state college students.
Whoever had done this had chosen their victims well. There were several locations dotted around the city that could be holding them. We’d narrowed the choices down to the most likely places and had sent Hermes and Keto to look for them. Artie and I were on the way to Mount Olympus to see if we could find Ariadne. Instead of the traditional chiton, we were dressed like fashionable cat burglars – Artie’s idea, not mine. We dressed head to toe in black, Artie looking lean and limber like a cat burglar should, and me like a short Victoria’s Secret model who had gotten the last pickings in the clothing closet. Artie forced me to darken both my hair and eyes, which I had to agree was probably for the best. In turn, I helped Artie shift her bright violet eyes to a subtle brown, and I darkened her skin a few more shades. I had no idea why. If we walked in like normal no one would suspect anything. The way were dressed now was bound to set off a few alarm bells.
“We have to sneak in,” said Artie.
“I assumed so, unless we’re trying to start a new immortal fashion trend.” I looked down at the black boots and skinny pants tucked inside of them. “If anyone sees us, we’re done for.”
“No one will see us, thus the clothing,” she said and frowned.
“Why can’t we just use invisibility?” I whined.
“You already know why, Abs. Not everyone is affected by invisibility. If you think the way we’re dressed now is bad, imagine the kind of suspicion we’d bring if someone saw us trying to slip into the castle under an invisibility cloak.”
She was right, but I still didn’t get a warm fuzzy about the plan. Instead of being invisible, we were going to skulk into the castle under the cloak of darkness and apparently fashionable black clothes, and try our best not to get busted. Sounded safe. I sighed. “Fine. Help me tuck my hair under this ridiculous hat.”
Artie twisted my hair up and tucked it under my black toboggan. “Hmmm,” she said, “maybe we should have gone with ski masks.”
I raised my hand. “No. Just no. This is bad enough.” I walked over to my chest and pulled out my vials again. I hadn’t used them during the paintball game, but they’d come in handy if we got ourselves into a bind. When we got ourselves into a bind, I amended.
A sharp crack in the room startled us both. I spun around into the disapproving gaze of Clotho. “Hi!” I chirped and waved at her.
She rolled her eyes and snorted. “You two look like idiots. What harebrained scheme are you cooking up now?”
Artie tucked wisps of hair into her hat. “We’re breaking into Olympus.”
Clotho raised a single eyebrow. “Oh really? You make it sound like you’re having bacon for breakfast. Have you forgotten about Olympus’ security?”
“But I managed to sneak in there a couple of days ago,” I said.
Clotho sighed like I was the biggest idiot in the world. “Not to diminish any of your skulking abilities, but Zeus knew you were coming. If he hadn’t, you would have been halted at the gate. Or worse.”
I thought about it. It had been awfully easy to get into Zeus’ bedchambers. “Fine,” I said. “Are you here to help us or discourage us?”
Clotho’s eyes flashed silver. “Mind your tongue, Aphrodite. I am still one of the Fates. I might be living here under the guise of being human, but it doesn’t mean that you have the right to disrespect my powers or me.”
I sobered. “My apologies, Clotho.”
She sniffed. “Now tell me exactly why you think it’s necessary to sneak into the palace.”
Artie and I filled her in on the newest information we had about Ariadne. A thoughtful look stole over her face. “Gaia could not find her exact location?”
I shook my head. “Something or someone powerful is blocking her magic.”
“Why do you think she is in the castle?”
I shrugged. “The problem is we don’t know where she is on Olympus. If we search the castle first, we could rule out the place with the most hiding spots.”
Clotho inclined her head. “Maybe so. It’s not a bad thought, but Olympus is huge.” She paused. “Unless you think one of the Twelve is responsible for Ariadne’s disappearance.” She gave me a hard look. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
I nodded. She exhaled deeply. “Wow. That’s crazy,” she said, which made me snort with laughter. Clotho’s television habits were starting to affect her speech patterns.
Artie called her bow and strapped it across her back. “Someone extraordinarily powerful is responsible for this. If it’s not one of the Twelve, we need to look outside of Olympus and to other forces. But,” she said and wrinkled her brow, “my intuition tells me one of our own is responsible for this.”
Clotho nodded and rummaged in the pocket of her peasant skirt. “Take this,” she said and handed me a small purple stone. “Hold this in your hand while you explore the castle. It will reveal hidden passages and doors no matter how strong the concealment may be.”
“Awesome,” I breathed. The stone wasn’t much to look at, just a roughly tumbled amethyst, but the magic pouring off of it was immense. I held the stone in my palm, and watched as it twi
nkled in the artificial light of my room.
“It’s all I can give you. I cannot interfere any more,” Clotho said. “The rest is on you. Remember the visions I’ve given you. They might be vague, but be assured they will come to pass. Take care inside of the castle. The dampening spell inside of it will drain your powers quickly if you are forced to fight.” Clotho gathered her skirts and vanished from the room.
I tucked the stone into my front pocket and nodded at Artie. “Are we ready?”
She smiled at me fiercely. “Born ready.”
I tucked my vials into my small leather pouch and slung the strap over my shoulder. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
I took Artie’s hand and we disappeared from the house in a shower of violet light.
We stood at the back of Zeus’ castle. Night was in full force now, and I couldn’t see a thing. I adjusted my vision with a small burst of magic. Artie stood beside me looking proud and regal.
“Use the stone,” she whispered. “It’s our best bet of finding an entrance without alerting the guards we’re here.”
I pulled it out of my pocket, cursing myself for not asking Clotho how to work it. I held it in my fingers and touched it to the cool stone of the castle walls.
Nothing happened.
Cursing softly, I tried again. The stone still felt dead in my hand.
Artie pulled me forward. “Try it in different areas. We skulked around to a different area of the castle, every sound coming from the wood making me startle in fright. I could never be a thief. Every time I heard a cricket I thought I was going to pee my pants. I touched the stone to a different part of the castle surrounded by a deep thicket of trees. The stone began to glow a soft indigo and a small area to our left became highlighted.
“Score,” I whispered and nudged Artie. Her eyes traveled to the area and she smiled softly.
“Bingo. Keep the stone touching the wall until we can make it over there and figure out how to get in.”
I obliged and crept after her slowly, the stone scraping lightly against the stone. We stopped at the entrance and looked at each other confused. It was highlighted, but there wasn’t anything other than gray rock.