by Sam Cheever
“I’ll go to Zeus. Perhaps the way they acquired the tear will give us something to work with…if it was not freely given…”
The stairs beyond the door exploded and chunks of wood ripped through the kitchen. Bion threw himself on top of my mother and me and took the brunt of the damage on himself.
My mother shoved him aside and stood, dragging us up with her. “Go now! Bion, take her to the safety of the peaks. I’ll bring your father as soon as I can.”
Bion nodded and grabbed my arm. Suddenly the noise and commotion of my mother’s kitchen was left behind and we found ourselves standing in a different kind of wind, a natural, caressing wind that smelled of lush grass and softly perfumed meadow flowers. We stood looking down on the twinkling lights of a human world far below, so peaceful, so utterly ignorant of the power and destruction brewing above their heads.
Night had fallen and it was completely silent at the top of the mountain. We dropped to the ground and lay on our backs in the fragrant grass, trying to catch our breath before the next circle of Hell descended on us. My mind raced as I struggled to make sense of everything that had happened to us over the previous few hours. Between the onslaught of the Furies chasing us and my mother’s revelations, I didn’t know where to turn first. Above our heads the stars twinkled and flashed, seeming so normal in the midst of the chaos that was our current predicament.
Bion lifted himself onto one elbow and looked down at me. “Are you okay?”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “I’ve never been better…how about you?”
He grinned at me, shrugging. “I’m in my favorite place in all the world and I have my beautiful Cupid lover beside me, what could be better?”
I laughed again. “Oh…let’s see…maybe if the Furies weren’t trying to kill us and we had some idea how to stop them?”
Bion’s grin widened. “I consider all that just added flavoring to a perfect stew.”
“Stew is right,” I snorted.
“None of that takes away from the fact that you look just beautiful in that white dress I picked out for you.”
I arched a brow at him. “You picked out?”
“Of course, I was planning on asking you to marry me tonight. The white dress was symbolic.”
I sucked in a breath, I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. “Marry you?”
He nodded. “Now, of course, it will have to wait until we kick the Fates’ gnarly asses.”
“Of course,” I whispered, nodding stupidly.
He jumped up and grabbed my hand. “But before we kick ass, I want to show you something.” He pulled me to my feet and we started off through the thick, fragrant grass of the meadow. In the near distance I could see the rocky face of Olympus’ tallest peak. In the dim light it looked dark and forbidding.
That, of course, was the direction Bion was heading.
We ran hand in hand toward the dark wall of rock and toward an even darker arch in the side.
Bion pulled me into a cave and, as soon as we entered, flipped a hand to ignite several sconces that lit the narrow tunnel leading into the mountain’s core. We walked for several moments before the faint sound of falling water teased my hearing.
As we moved more deeply into the mountain’s core the sound of water deepened until, when we emerged into an enormous cavern deep in the bowels of Mt. Olympus, I saw the source of the thunderous sound. Several hundred feet above the floor where we stood, a river opened into the cavern and fell in cascading colors of iridescent pinks and blues and pale greens, sliding over age-and water-smoothed golden rock to crash into a deep pool of sparkling water at its base. From there the water funneled out in shallow tributaries, dividing the huge space into several areas that were carpeted in lush green grass and richly painted with a bright mix of flowers, dancing softly in a soft breeze from above.
Thick tree trunks formed the foundation for hundreds of densely flowered and fragrant trees, standing sentinel around the perimeter of the huge cavern and spreading their abundant arms to the sky above.
Above our heads the sky was blue and bright, with fat clouds lumbering across to give the occasional, perfect shade from the sun’s intense heat.
As I stood gawking, a deer walked by, totally unconcerned by our presence, and its beautiful fawn wobbled past with legs bumping clumsily against each other and huge ears tipping to and fro as it walked.
Bird song competed with the majestic drone of the waterfall and somehow rose above it. Their music made my breasts heavy and my core clench with need. My thoughts ran to Bion’s soft lips, his hard body and his talented fingers. And I gasped, my face flushing with sudden, unstoppable need.
I looked at Bion and his face held the same rapture.
Sudden realization hit me. “The Garden of Love.”
He nodded. “The Garden of Life will always thrive amongst Olympus’ gods. But the Garden of Love, ’gainst harsher odds, nurtures love amongst the rocks.”
“I thought it was just a myth.”
Bion shook his head. “Like many magics, it comes to those who need it most.” He turned to me, his impossibly handsome face filled with tenderness. “I came here that first day, after your tears touched me on the steps of the Building of Judgment. I was miserable with the certainty that you could never love me and I was just wandering aimlessly when I found this place. I never dreamed I’d bring you back with me. Or that I’d get to make love to you with Lover’s Fall as a backdrop.”
Tears filled my eyes. “Bion…” I reached for his face and touched his cheek. He leaned into my hand and then turned, kissing my open palm. Then he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me in for the real thing. As our bodies met, the sound of the falls receded and the song of the birds rose, throbbing around us.
My pulse picked up the rhythm of their beautiful song and my senses became more acute, more attuned to Bion’s every touch, his every breath. His kiss made my heart pound and my knees weaken and when he broke the kiss I cried out, frantic for his touch, his heat.
Bion lifted me off my feet and carried me toward the pool at the bottom of the towering, magical fall of water. A balmy mist from the waterfall settled over our skin, making it tingle with magic. When he reached the pool he kept walking until he was standing knee deep in the sparkling liquid.
The breeze that wafted across the cavern touched me in places I shouldn’t have been feeling it. I looked down and saw that our clothes were gone.
Bion kept walking until the warm, magically enhanced water settled over my feet, my knees and my waist. Then he allowed my legs to drop into the welcoming wetness of that shimmering pool. A wave of pure sensual pleasure spread through me as my feet touched the soft, silky sand at the bottom.
Bion’s body pressed against mine, his cock hard and firm on my belly. He lowered his dark head and breathed my name against my lips. I gasped under the resulting wave of pure lust, swamped under the sensation of needing him.
He lifted and turned me so that he could slide his full, hard length into my welcoming heat. I lay my head on his shoulder, reveling in the feelings our joining created. Bion lowered me onto a smooth, flat boulder and pressed more deeply into me. His carefully controlled strokes scraped wonderfully against my exquisitely inflamed flesh, his heated body bumping against my tender bud at the end of each wondrous stroke.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against the rock, allowing myself to become mesmerized by the powerful drone of the waterfall and the magically enhanced touch of mist against my sensitive flesh.
Bion’s body tightened above me as he fought to keep the rhythm slow and his strokes deep. Gradually, as the magic-infused atmosphere started to eat away at his control, Bion’s strokes came a little faster, a little harder, until he growled under the passion of his feelings and gave in, driving hard and deep into my body with an almost frantic need.
My orgasm built with Bion’s intensity. It grew steadily inside me with every powerful stroke, fed by every need-charged moan, until finally it
grew beyond what I could withstand. Bion’s last, powerful strokes threw me screaming over the edge, my tight, throbbing flesh pulling him relentlessly with me. As my flesh still pulsed with aftershocks, Bion jerked into a violent orgasm that left him pale and shaking and whispering my name against my lips.
I lay panting on my back, my legs still wrapped around Bion’s waist, but he wasn’t done with me. He reached down and wrapped his big hands under my arms to lift me off the rock.
I came up limp and saturated with pleasure. He set me on my feet and turned me around and I thought I knew what was coming.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Bion sat down on the rock and pulled me over him, easing me down onto his still-hard cock with a gasp of pleasure.
The sudden invasion of his hard cock in my still throbbing pussy made me fall shuddering into another full-blown orgasm. As the stunning sensations slid through me, I sucked in a breath and leaned back into his hard, supporting chest and let his lips kiss a trail down the side of my neck.
I shivered and thought I would die from pleasure.
Bion lifted my thighs with his hands and pulled them wide, opening me up to the swirl of the magical water around us.
At first all I felt was the tingle.
It was nice.
Very nice in fact.
And I lay back in his arms and enjoyed it, letting my legs float on the surface of the water and taking the healing power it provided. I allowed the magical water to rejuvenate my pleasure-saturated body.
But slowly, steadily, the pressure of the water began to increase until it was more pulsing than soothing. Bion began moving in and out of me, stimulating me internally with his hard cock, even while the water swirled and probed and focused a gentle, tingling pressure on my hard little clit.
The combined sensual assault was nearly overwhelming. Pleasure swamped me, filled me, swept me into a maelstrom of feeling that I almost couldn’t stand. Every surface on my body throbbed and tingled, every sensation was heightened to the point of pain. My legs quivered uncontrollably, my arms trembled.
The internal fire built and grew until I thought my insides would combust, while on the outside the soothing, magical mist kept my body cool, comfortable and on constant sensual alert. It was an incredible, indescribably wonderful feeling and one that I knew would change me…change us…irretrievably.
Behind me Bion moaned and twisted under his building orgasm. His strong arm around my waist trembled and his legs vibrated under the effort of his driving thrusts into my welcoming body. I knew the moment he reached his peak, the water in the pool increased the intensity of its focus on my body at the same moment.
Bion stiffened suddenly, tightened his arm on my waist and stood straight up in the pool, yanking me up with him and driving his cock deep into my body as he threw back his head and climaxed violently into me. I screamed as he surged into me and joined him, shuddering violently into my own, powerful release.
We sagged down into the soothing pool, laughing and holding each other close.
I nestled into him and sighed, wishing we could stay in that soothing pool forever. Bion leaned against the large rock at our backs and held me tight against his chest. I listened to the soothing rhythm of his heart and closed my eyes, lost in the peace of being together.
Unfortunately our idyllic moment was not “fated” to last.
The first sounds of the Furies’ arrival came to us in a building wind within the cavern.
Bion sighed and kissed my forehead. “Let the games begin.”
Chapter Twelve
A Fight for Life
We dressed quickly. The winds in the cavern grew rapidly from a heavy breeze to a thunderous swirl of wind and debris. We stood together in front of the pool, our legs spread against the pounding gales. Our hands clasped tightly.
My hair whipped around my face, stinging my cheeks and eyes. Remembering that the mountain was the seat of my magic, I reached up and gathered my hair with my hand and locked it into place with magic at the back of my neck.
Rocks and dust blew from the tunnel opening and the opening burst apart as three violent funnels of wind spewed into the cavern, one after another.
The funnels swirled in place for a moment, clustered together at the tunnel’s mouth. They looked for all the world as if they were assessing the area. Then suddenly they surged upward, off the wind-battered grass and spread out around the cavern, leaving trails of destruction in their wake. One of the funnels headed directly toward the largest tree in the cavern and engulfed it in a murky, debris-saturated whirlwind. A horrendous ripping sound filled the cavern as the funnel wrenched the huge tree right out of the ground.
I watched in horror as the tree lifted and turned and was flung at Bion and me like a huge spear. We flew apart, leaping away from each other as the enormous hunk of wood crashed into the spot where we’d been standing.
I hit the ground and rolled, coming to my feet and lifting my arms. With a thought I armed myself with a magic-enhanced crossbow. Pulling back on the lever to cock it and releasing my first bolt within a fraction of a second.
The bolt hit the center of the funnel and I heard a cry. I followed up with several more bolts in quick succession, set in a triangle, wide at the top and narrowing toward the bottom of the funnel.
With each bolt the funnel sputtered until, as the last one hit its mark, the wind tunnel died away, leaving a very pissed off Fury in its place.
Clotho.
Her torso, both shoulders and both thighs had crossbow bolts sticking from them, blood seeped from each and every wound. Her Fury persona was beautiful but scary. Her long blonde hair floated around her head on wings of air and her long, pretty face was pale gray and pink, like a stormy sky in April. Her pretty white gown swayed away from her lean body and left her slim ankles and feet, clad in soft gray silk pumps, visible just above the battered ground.
She held her arms out to her sides, palms up, as if she waited to call the wind again and frowned at me, her full mouth twisted into an arrogant pout. “You have bled me, girl!” Her voice boomed around the cavern, bouncing off the rock face and sending the sound of the falls to the background with its power.
The bolts flew from her torn flesh, leaving behind unblemished skin and a flawless gown. I ducked and leaped to the side as they sailed toward me.
Something crashed behind me and I turned to find another tree lying on the ground where Bion had been. I gasped but quickly found him standing in the center of the pool, on the large flat rock that had so recently served as our bed.
He was smiling and I followed his line of sight to find a fat, red-faced baby rolling on the ground, howling angrily amidst a ripped and battered patch of ground that was littered with debris.
As I watched in fascination, the baby stretched and grew and became Lachesis, naked as the day she was born and as mad as hell. Her heart-shaped face was nearly purple with anger. With a thought she was fully dressed in a long gray gown. Pristine white lace formed her sleeves, draped the backs of her hands and molded over her softly rounded cleavage. She lifted her hands like Clotho and floated there, her long auburn hair drifting behind her as if she floated beneath the ocean. Her gown swung gently around her feet.
Atropos, still in her funnel form, ripped through the pond at our backs.
Heading straight for Bion.
I screamed and started to run toward him. But I hit a Fury-manufactured headwind and struggled against it. Bion flew across the room, the funnel wrapped in his long arms, driving him inexorably toward the wall of rock at the perimeter of the canyon.
I screamed as he hit the rock wall hard, his dark head snapping back, and then he slid bonelessly toward the ground.
The wind tugged mercilessly at me, dragging me closer to Clotho who, I now saw, held her hands toward me with the fingers bent inward, toward her palm, as if she were pulling me toward her with her powers.
I fought against the pull of her incredible power, my gaze locked o
n Bion’s lifeless form across the cavern, streaming with tears. Hopelessness swamped me. He was dead. They’d killed him. And it was all my fault.
With a sob I stopped fighting and allowed Clotho to pull me close. When the wind stopped dragging me I stood just a couple of feet away from her, my head hanging low in defeat.
Tears dripped from my eyes and landed on the ground below, dotting the torn and newly bared earth.
In a rush of wind, Lachesis and Atropos joined Clotho, until all three Furies faced me, their hands outstretched, palms facing upward, an invisible breeze continuously tugging at them.
The thunderous sound of the falls behind me was a muted drone beyond the power of their continuous windstorm.
Clotho slowly reached out a hand and I lifted my head. She extended one finger toward me, a single, sparkling tear nestled on its tip. “I have the power to re-form your thread, girl, and I will do it.”
I shook my head, my gaze spinning toward Bion, who was still lying on the ground. Unmoving.
“You have no say in this, Daphne.” Lachesis’ husky voice boomed across the windswept cavern, making me shiver.
“That’s not true,” I whispered into the dense wall of wind.
“What did you say?” Clotho’s face darkened and the wind picked up again, pulling at my hair and clothes but, amazingly, doing nothing to the single tear that was perched on her outstretched finger.
I forced myself to stand upright. I was a goddess. I would act like one. I cleared my throat and glared at them. “I said that is not true. And you know it. You cannot rewrite my thread unless I allow it.”
The three Furies exchanged glances, their dark and angry faces carefully blank. Then Atropos turned toward Bion and I watched in horror as his limp body began to lift from the ground and float toward us.
“He is not dead, Daphne. But he soon will be if you do not allow us to re-form your thread.”