by Unknown
“No, it's okay,” she smiled a little at me. “You're right. Those are the questions we need answered. I hate to answer them because I'm afraid my answers will make me an orphan.”
“Oh, Sephy,” I sighed. “I'm so sorry. Are you and Zeus close?”
“No one but Athena is close to Zeus,” Artemis' voice had lost its snark, her tone was a little sad.
“I agree, Sister,” Sephy nodded. “Zeus never loved me like a daughter. Why should I waste any time treating him like a father? Let's kill the bastard.”
“Holy hand-grenades,” I held up my hands as the table erupted with shouts of agreement. “Really? We're not even going to talk about resolving this without his death?”
“Vervain,” Morpheus spoke into the sudden silence. “You see what Zeus is doing to those he thinks betrayed him. What do you think he'll do to those who manage to defeat him?”
“Oh,” I leaned back in my seat.
“Exactly,” Morpheus nodded. “If we leave Zeus alive, his pride will force him to pursue us all until either he or we are dead.”
“For someone so out of touch with his own pantheon,” Hades looked over at Morpheus, “you sure do have Zeus pegged.”
“He's the reason I'm out of touch with my pantheon,” Morpheus said grimly.
“A valid point,” Hades grimaced.
“Okay, you know what?” I looked around the table and then settled my gaze on Hades. “I think we need to gather the Greeks again. As soon as possible. Both for their safety and ours. Can you put the call out, Hades?”
“I will,” he nodded and took Persephone's hand. “We'll notify you when they all arrive.”
“Okay,” I glanced at the others. “Why don't we all go home and get some rest until we're needed? Morpheus, you wanna come with us or stay with Hades?”
“I'll go with you, thanks,” Morpheus said as we all stood to leave. “I think I'd rather be out of Greek territory right now.”
“I figured you might,” I nodded.
Chapter Thirty-Five
After we got back to Pride Palace, I took a bath and nap. No elves or Greek gods chased me through my dreams so I woke refreshed and clear headed. Which made it even more shocking when my vision suddenly shifted and the room spun.
I fell to the floor, clawing at the thick carpet, but at the same time, I was flying, my stomach lurching up and down as someone threw me in the air and caught me as I fell. A sense of pure joy filled my body and I started to laugh. All there was, was that happiness, that feeling of weightlessness until someone strong caught me. Until he caught me, the man who took care of me. I felt even happier when I saw his face. There were no words, only a feeling of wonder and safety. Love. Love so innocent and pure, my magic bubbled up inside me and burst free in an explosion of butterflies.
“Zariel,” I whispered and that love focused on me. “What are you doing, little girl?”
She giggled and I felt it. She was so happy, she'd reached down our connection to share it with me. I didn't even know that was possible but then anything was possible with Zariel. She was the first of her kind.
I felt my lioness rise up in joy to meet her, rub faces with Zariel's essence, and pour her approval over the young cub. Our Pride was growing and my lioness magic was so pleased by it. She wanted more babies. More. The strength of the Pride depended on it.
This thought brought my dragon surging up, lifting her head and roaring with frustration. My connection with Zariel severed abruptly, her confused cry echoing through my head. I reeled under the heaviness of my dragon's anger, irritation, and finally, her sorrow. She wanted what the lioness had, a growing pride. She wanted her dread of dragons. Flying through the sky with her mate and children beside her. Possibly her grandchildren even. Fire would rule the air.
“What are you doing down there?” Torrent's voice pulled me out of my dragon's roiling emotions and I blinked, wiped away the tears I hadn't realized I'd been crying, and focused on his face.
“I'm checking out the carpet,” I said gruffly. “Help me up, will ya?”
“Oh, okay,” he reached down and pulled me to my feet.
It always shocked me how strong Torr was. He seemed so skinny compared to the other gods but actually, he was a normal sized man. Maybe even a little larger than normal. And he was rather fit.
“What's wrong?” I looked him over cautiously.
“Why would you ask that?” His eyes went wide.
“Because you're in my bedroom when Artemis is here,” I smirked at him.
“She went to go get her brother,” his cheeks reddened. “I'm going to meet her back at Hades' house later.”
“Oh you are?”
“I'm scared, V.”
“What? Why? What did she say to you?” I growled.
“No, nothing,” he waved his hands anxiously. “It's going really well.”
“But?”
“But I'm feeling...”
“Intimidated?”
“How did you know?”
“All right, honey, come and have a seat in my office,” I walked over to the couch and sat down. He sat beside me. “Is it because she's a goddess or because she's so beautiful?”
“Yes,” he sighed.
“Okay,” I laughed. “Here's a tip about women. We like a man with confidence. If you act like you're the perfect man for her, then she'll think you are.”
“How do I do that?”
“Very simple, Pinocchio,” I tapped his nose. “Believe. You have to believe that you're good enough.”
“What if I can't do that?” His shoulders slumped and his bright green eyes looked so sad.
“I'm going to tell you another secret,” I leaned in close to him and he leaned in to hear me. “You're too good for her. You're too good for anyone, Torrent. You were born without the weaknesses of other men. A man made of god and magic. You are perfect because you were made to be. There's no one else in the entire world like you. Or in any of the realms. You're it. Getting you for a lover would be like winning the lottery for a woman. She will never have another man like you.”
“Do you really believe that, Vervain?” Suddenly the child-like qualities of Torrent were gone. His voice was deeper, sadder, and I knew it was the part of him that he usually hid. The part Iktomi had hurt so badly, Torrent had pushed it down under a blanket of innocence. But Torrent wasn't innocent. Naive maybe but not innocent. He'd seen too much to be that.
“I know it as well as you do,” I lifted a hand to his pale cheek. His skin was beginning to lose its perfect porcelain quality. It was becoming more real. As real as he believed himself to be. “You're unique. One of the few people who can say that and have it really be true.”
“So are you,” he grinned and even more of the man peered through.
At that moment, I realized that Artemis was doing for him what I couldn't. Not just making him real but bringing him to life. I was so thankful for her right then and so worried that she'd hurt him and ruin all her good work. But then, that's a part of life as well and Torrent would have to experience heartache as we all do. I couldn't protect him from it and I didn't want to. Pain is as necessary as happiness.
“I guess so,” I shrugged and relaxed back into the couch. “Tell me more about Artemis. What's got you so nervous? I mean besides her raging good looks and her goddess status?”
“I don't know,” he sighed. “We talk a lot. I feel like I've known her forever. It's just so easy to speak to her, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” I smiled. “I had that with Az from the moment we met. I love that kind of connection. It feels so perfect. Safe.”
“Yes,” his eyes lit up. “It's so incredible. I feel happy around her. Very happy.”
“Good, that's what you want from a girlfriend.”
“Do you think I should ask her to be my girlfriend?” He started looking worried again.
“No,” I patted his leg. “Just ask her on a date and take it from there. Things have a way of progressing on their own.”
“Did any of your men ever ask you to be their girlfriend?”
“No,” I laughed. “Hell, Arach's the only one who proposed and he did it when I didn't know who I really was.”
“Oh, okay. I'll just ask her for a date then.”
“Yes, I think that would be best.”
“She was in love before,” he confessed. “With this guy named Orion.”
“And you're worried they're going to get back together?” It seemed we were finally getting to the real reason for his anxiety.
“Oh, no, not at all,” he frowned. “Don't you know about Orion?”
“There's a constellation named after him,” I tried to remember more but all I kept coming up with was his damn belt.
“Yeah, because he died,” Torr said in a low voice. “He was out with Artemis in the woods and a scorpion stung him. It killed him.”
“He was a god, wasn't he? How could a scorpion kill him?”
“He was mortal,” Torrent shook his head. “Some kind of bad-ass hunter or something. She really loved him. She hasn't loved anyone since.”
“And you're feeling inadequate because you're not a bad-ass hunter?” I smiled as he nodded in embarrassment. “Torrent, you freed me from Iktomi, knowing he'd come after you. You've fought beside me. Hell, you faced the Darkness with me. You are a bad-ass!”
“I am?”
“You are,” I nodded. “Now go take a shower and put on some bad-ass leather pants, so you can show Artemis just what kind of a man you are. And how good your bad ass looks in leather pants.”
“I don't have any leather pants,” his mouth hung open.
“No problem,” I picked a flower from the vase on the coffee table and held it up. “Black or brown?”
“Black,” he grinned and something sexy started seeping into his face.
I changed the flower into a pair of black pants for him, using the technique Luke had taught me. Then I handed the pants over and Torr's sexy look settled in to stay. He took the pants, looked them over, and then slid his eyes up to mine.
“I'm a bad-ass.”
I watched him saunter away and almost groaned. Had I just created a monster? Oh well, I love monsters.
Chapter Thirty-Six
When Hades finally called us back to the Greek Underworld, I was more than ready to go. I'd went to see Samantha and Zariel, just to make sure the baby was okay after the abrupt severing of our connection, and I'd got drawn into a long conversation about babies and baby stuff... most of it gross baby stuff. By the time Trevor came and rescued-I mean came to tell me I should change into my fighting gear-I was reeling under the horrible possibility of motherhood. It was just so much work, a lot of which involved cleaning up things I don't even want to talk about much less handle. I had enough horror in my life, I really wasn't sure if I could take motherhood.
Oh, and Zariel was fine.
When we got to the Underworld, it was to find that the rebel Greek gods had moved into Hades' palace. There were strange gods everywhere doing strange things. I'm assuming they were preparing for war but to tell the truth, I wasn't certain. I mean, one guy was yelling at a wall and there was a woman blowing up a balloon. Like I said, it was strange.
The God Squad and I followed Persephone into Hades' office. I was kind of expecting a repeat of the amphitheater thing but there were only four other gods in the room with Hades when we got there.
“Everyone,” Hades began as soon as we were all inside his large and rather imposing office. “I don't know if you've had a chance to meet Nemesis and the Moirai but I'll go ahead and introduce everyone. Nemesis,” he nodded to the woman.
“Hey Aunty Nem,” Morpheus called out.
“Hey, Sweetie,” she nodded to him.
“Lachesis,” Hades ignored the exchange and gestured to a woman I remembered from the last Greek meeting. She was really thin with massive black eyes that I shied away from. A pair of scissors hung on her belt, looking really intimidating. “Clotho,” Hades indicated a sweet looking woman with deep brown hair and dancing blue eyes. She smiled at us, folding long, graceful hands before her as she gave us a little bow. The very next woman Hades introduced, “Atropos,” had an unyielding face with a look on it similar to expressions I'd seen on police officers.
You know, that tired, bored, burnt out look of men who've had everyone try to talk them out of doing their job. Atropos had red hair with green eyes, and would have been stunning if not for that expression. She was the only one dressed casually, in jeans and a T-shirt, and she had a large utility tape measure clipped to her belt. Like the ones carpenters wear. The tape measure is what put it all together for me.
“Wait a minute,” I pointed from the tape measure to the scissors. “You're the Fates, right? The women who determine how long people live?”
“It's a bit more than that,” the middle one said gently as her two companions glowered at me. “We dispense destiny.”
“Destiny,” I whispered, remembering a conversation I'd had with Arach once. “I'm not totally convinced there is such a thing.”
“Oh,” Clotho, the sweet one in the middle, laughed, “I like her.”
“She sounds like a fool to me,” Lachesis growled. “Are you sure we're meant to help her, Sister?”
“I'm sure,” Clotho smiled serenely, never taking her eyes from mine. “She's the one. Silenus foretold it. The elves foretold it. She will change everything.”
“Um, thank you?” I frowned. “Can someone explain to me what she meant by that?”
“Sit down, Vervain,” Hades sighed.
He introduced the rest of the Squad to the ladies while I took a seat and pondered what Clotho had meant. I kept glancing at her and she kept looking at me, meeting my gaze every time as if she knew exactly when I would turn my head. And she was always smiling. It was a little contagious and I couldn't help smiling back.
“Alright, introductions are out of the way,” Hades sat behind his desk. “Now the Moirai can tell you what they've already told me. Please go ahead, ladies.”
“We are Destiny,” Lachesis started.
“We are Fate,” Atropos added.
“We are Necessity,” Clotho finished gently. “No one controls us.”
“Except Zeus,” Lachesis growled.
“But then I saw your fate, Godhunter,” Clotho's eyes were bright with happiness. “You shall free us all.”
“Um, I'm not really the savior type,” I cleared my throat. “There's no I in team and all that. It's a group effort usually and I really need the group, you know? I mean, I don't know what stories you've heard but I'm sure they've been exaggerated. Everything I've accomplished has been with the help of others.”
“Are you kidding me?” Thor interrupted my denial. “When I met you, you were killing gods all by yourself. You shouldered that weight for your fellow humans because you knew no one would believe you if you asked for help.”
“Yeah, uh, actually I did that so I wouldn't die.”
“Oh, here we go again,” Azrael, who'd actually been able to join us this time, groaned.
“What?” I huffed. “I'm not comfortable with this kind of hero talk. Mainly because a lot of heroes end up dying.”
“Well you will not,” Clotho said with certainty and a certain amount of smugness. “I've seen your thread and it stretches past this trouble. You're meant to live through this and Zeus cannot interfere with that.”
“That's why we're here,” Atropos took over. “Zeus has been the only god who could control us, only because of the ambrosia, but even he can't go against fate. He can't interfere with what has already been determined to be.”
“Are you telling me that we can't lose?” The day was looking up.
“No,” Lachesis smirked. “We're telling you that you can't die. At least not in this battle.”
“And what if I did?” I pressed. “What if Zeus decided to give Fate the finger and tried to take my head?”
“Which finger god are we talking about?”
Lachesis frowned.
“No, the finger,” Clotho whispered to her. “You know, the middle one.”
“Oh.”
“He would lose his immortality immediately,” Nemesis finally answered my question, even though she wasn't one of the Moirai. “His magic is bound together with all of the Greek gods and so he is bound by the rules mortals gave us. The biggest of those rules is that no man, not even a god, can change someone's destiny.”
“So you see why we were so thrilled to see your destiny, Godhunter,” Clotho continued. “As the Goddess of Revenge, Nemesis has been waiting a long time for an opportunity to right the wrongs Zeus has committed against his fellow gods. Your destiny has given her and the rest of us, the chance to go up against Zeus. You will be our greatest weapon.”
“So what?” I lifted a brow. “I rush him and you all come in behind me?”
“I can't tell you exactly what I've seen,” Clotho's smile turned sympathetic. “My magic prohibits it. All I can say is, this battle with Zeus has been preordained and you were chosen to be our champion long before you were even you.”
“You mean back when I was Sabine?”
“Amazing,” Atropos chuckled. “She's figured out your ridiculous way of speaking. Maybe she's not an idiot after all.”
“Thanks?” I frowned.
“Even further than that,” Clotho disregarded her sister. “Back before Sabine was even born. When your mother tied you to the world of gods, she had no idea what she was doing to your destiny. Your path split, your fate floundered, and it had to forge multiple endings. I think you've discovered this for yourself already. There are three races who claim you now. Three destinies intertwined.”
“Yeah, I got the three thing,” I grimaced. “Three magics, three beasts, three races.”
“Oh, it's so much more than that,” Clotho had that grin people get when they know a secret you can't even tickle out of them. “You'll see. Just know that Zeus can't kill you. You will live to fulfill the prophecies.”
“Oh good,” I said sarcastically. “Everyone relax and hang here, I'll just go kick Zeus' ass and take care of this by myself.”