“Why are you sorry?” Apollo asked.
Nyx answered for her. “She won’t help Ephialtes be born.”
“You will,” Apollo said in a dangerous tone.
“I won’t, brother. I can’t.” Artemis shook her head. “She could destroy us all. Imagine living in an eternal nightmare because you didn’t feed her on time or her diaper is wet. Think of all the horrors she could make real on only her whim. I just can’t.”
“This is my daughter. Your niece.”
Tears slipped down Artemis’ cheeks. “I know. And it breaks my heart.” She made a gesture before she disappeared and Nyx’s labor pains stopped and so did the shaking of the temple.
“What has she done?” Apollo demanded when he saw Nyx’s body go slack with defeat.
“She stopped my labor.”
“Will she die?” Apollo asked in a strained voice, the fear written on his face.
“Yes.” Nyx felt despair tighten around her heart.
“Her name, I didn’t know you’d chosen,” Apollo whispered.
“I didn’t either until then. She knows who she is. She must have whispered it to me.” Nyx rubbed her belly again and then she looked at Apollo with renewed purpose. “I’m not letting my baby die. I’ve managed Death, I can do Nightmares too.”
“We can.” Apollo took her hand. “Tell me how.”
“Your son is the God of Medicine. Call him.” Nyx sent soothing thoughts to the new life inside of her. She promised her many things, if only she’d hold on. Her little Ephie. Nyx was flooded by the warmth of love and implicit trust that came from her. No child who could feel those pure feelings would willfully or wantonly unleash all of that darkness. Ephie was going to be a gatekeeper, like Hades. Exposed to the dark, able to command it, but not evil.
“And Thanatos.”
“How about we see if he shows up on his own?” she said softly. If things went poorly, he would be there, called by his duty. She loved her son dearly, but prayed she wouldn’t see him during the ordeal.
“I want our family, Nyx.” His golden skin had gone ashen and pale.
“I do too.”
Then Nyx screamed and darkness descended like a plague over Olympus. All of the light was gone, not even the spark of a candle could be seen. Nothing, but the soft glow that haloed Apollo—the manifestation of his power.
“Nyx?” he questioned.
But she barely heard him. All she was aware of was the pain. Nyx felt as if she’d been slammed into an iron maiden, sharp spikes pierced her everywhere. She could feel Ephie’s will to live and Nyx fed it with her own power. After all, where did Nightmares rest, but in the arms of the Night?
She rallied her strength, called her power. When even the dark, unnamable things cast their own shadow in the pitch she’d wrought like a shroud—Nyx willed her child to come forth. Artemis had cursed her to prevent natural labor, but she could do nothing about unnatural things.
Nyx knew if she had to demand this infant tear her apart to get out, she’d do it. She would have laughed at herself had she not felt like that was exactly what Ephie was doing. Only weeks ago, she’d been sure she didn’t even want a child and now, she’d give up her life to make sure this one took her first breath.
If she lived through this, she and Apollo were going to have to discuss birth control. If he was serious about commitment, he could damn well get a vasectomy. Suddenly, that didn’t matter. The knowledge came to her there would be no more after Ephie, thanks to Artemis’ curse.
Damn her. Nyx didn’t want more children, but she disliked having the choice taken from her. She understood why Artemis had done what she did, but Nyx was pretty sure as soon as Ephie was born, she was going to smite the bitch. Where did she, a goddess, get off making that kind of choice for a titan? How dare she, this godling’s godling, think to use her power against Nyx.
Her rage boiled and erupted from her in thick tendrils of black tar that smothered everything in its wake. It poured from her mouth, her eyes and her fingertips as Night was brought to down to bear on the world of immortals.
The pain she’d felt was a distant memory as he power coursed through her and she became one with the darkness. Existence fell away like a dream when crushed beneath the weight of shadow.
There were twin beams of light that seemed to be immune to her strength and she smote them with the eternal dark where Death was born. The lights flickered like fireflies and the bleak abyss choked them into silence, but then blazed to brilliant light.
One became the pure silvery benediction of the moon smiling down upon her brow, her pale fingers easing the bloodlust and madness. The other became the pure fire of the sun whose warm light didn’t burn, but kissed her tenderly—held her gently.
The omniscient dark dwindled back to the source inside of Nyx and she realized it wasn’t the sun and moon at all, but Apollo and Artemis.
The Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt was smiling down at her lovingly, her hands cool and soothing like the water of a pure spring over her forehead.
“Are you back with us, Nyx?” Artemis asked kindly, her hands still working their magic.
“What happened? Why did you come back” Nyx demanded.
“I never left. Your child dying was what you feared most. A close second was that no one would be here to help you. Perfectly natural fears for a mother, but your fear for her was so strong that Ephie’s power manifested,” Artemis answered.
“What have I done?” Feeling came back to Nyx’s fingers and she realized Apollo was still holding her hand.
“Nothing we couldn’t withstand. We’re fine, love. One more push and our daughter will be here. One more,” Apollo urged gently.
Nyx didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. She was afraid and the darkness came again, wrapped itself around her like armor. Apollo didn’t even flinch. Perhaps whatever she’d done hadn’t been so bad.
Lightning and thunder struck just as Nyx pushed Ephie into the world. The child was strangely silent and Nyx feared the worst.
“Let me see her!” she demanded.
“What in the name of Tartarus have you done!” Zeus thundered from the doorway.
Nyx looked up to see the King of Gods standing alone with his fury, charred handprints burned into place around his neck where someone or something had tried to strangle him. But she couldn’t care about that. All that mattered was Ephie.
Artemis was still smiling. She handed the strangely silent baby to Nyx who took her eagerly and put her to her breast. The child latched on and drank, looking up into her mother’s eyes as she did.
Nyx felt a surge of love and she counted Ephie’s fingers and toes to make sure she only had ten of each—no tentacles, no hooves. The baby’s hair was dark and downy, already down to her shoulders. Her bright eyes were the gray of a sky before a storm. Her skin was pale and almost silver, just like Hypnos and Thanatos had been. Only where their fingernails were a dark shade of blue, Ephie’s were gold. She was beautiful.
“I’m still waiting for an answer,” Zeus thundered.
“She had a baby, Dad. Duh, what’s it look like?” Artemis snorted, but then grinned. “I’m an Auntie!” She looked thoughtful before adding, “Again.”
“You slept with my son?” Zeus thundered.
“Don’t tell me you…” Apollo started, but trailed off. He couldn’t find the words to finish.
Nyx raised a brow. “Listen here, buddy. I just pushed out a bowling ball through something the size of a lemon and you want to make an issue about who I’ve slept with?” she growled.
“No. NO! I’d never do that.” Apollo shook his head adamantly. Because he knew what was good for him. Even though the look on his face said he was displeased by this development.
“She’s Hera’s best friend. Of course she didn’t sleep with Dad. Another duh.” She looked at Nyx. “Did they both have a bowl of stupid for breakfast today instead of ambrosia?”
“I don’t know, but it’s making me angry,” Nyx warn
ed.
“And obviously, we won’t like you when you’re angry.” Artemis grinned.
“So you weren’t trying to kill me?” Zeus asked, unsure of what had just happened.
“If I were trying to kill you, you’d be dead,” Nyx answered honestly. And right then, the idea had merit. He’d made it a point to kill titans and Ephie was a titan. She bared her teeth involuntarily.
“Then explain this!” He pointed to the marks around his neck.
“You’re still breathing aren’t you?” she growled.
Zeus raised a thunderbolt, but Apollo and Artemis both stepped in front of her.
“Would you really smite my mate and my daughter?” Apollo asked in a measured tone, all the more dangerous for the calm veneer it cast over violent waters.
“I won’t tolerate this kind of disrespect. Not from my own children.” He raised the thunderbolt higher.
Ephie wailed and the darkness returned with more force than anything Nyx had conjured. She crooned to the baby and soothed her.
“Your fears call her power, Dad. You fear we’ve rebelled against you and we have. It’s what children do. Get over it.” Artemis shrugged. She took Ephie from Nyx and shoved her at Zeus. He almost tripped trying to get away from her. “She’s a baby, not a cootie. Come here and hold your granddaughter.”
Zeus wouldn’t have, but Abstinence poked her head in the door behind him. “What are you doing over—is that a baby? Oh my goodness!”
“You might as well come in too,” Nyx said as she had Apollo fluff the pillows behind her on the couch. Fuck. Her couch was ruined.
“Do you mean to tell me that’s your granddaughter and you’re not going to hold her? You ass.” Abstinence shoved him unmercifully toward the squalling bundle.
“She doesn’t like me,” Zeus said.
“No one likes you. Hold her!” Abstinence demanded.
This was the first Nyx had seen of the new goddess and she had to say, she liked what she saw.
“You like me,” Zeus said with his trademarked smirk.
“Not right now I don’t.” She held up her hand. “Don’t even start. I don’t care if Nyx did try to choke you. She was in labor. She gets a free pass.”
“Fine.” Zeus was sullen, but the look on his face changed when he realized the titan had been shoved into his arms. He held her carefully, as if she were some specimen of bug he hadn’t seen before.
Nyx was hit with another vision, and she didn’t know if it was real or not, but it was of Ephie bouncing on Zeus’ knee in a room with black and purple tulle. She cooed happily while cramming the tip of a thunderbolt in her mouth while he bounced her.
So it came as no surprise to Nyx when he cradled her close and smiled. Ephie stopped crying.
“You’d think you’d never held a baby before,” Apollo said sharply.
“I haven’t. Most of my children weren’t born like this. They weren’t babies,” Zeus whispered. “I think I like these things.”
“Don’t get too used to them. You’re not having any off of this goddess,” Abstinence was quick to add while she handed the baby back to Nyx.
Zeus gave her a look that said they would certainly see about that.
“Come on now, let’s leave them alone.” She dragged the King of the Gods out of the temple behind her.
“She’s really something,” Artemis stated.
“She is, indeed. I’m still not telling him she’s a titan. Not until she’s old enough to defend herself,” Nyx said.
“Good. I don’t want him to know,” Apollo said. “Can I see my daughter now?” He gathered Ephie to him.
“I’m going to go too.” Artemis turned to leave and that was when Nyx saw the same burned lines around her neck that Zeus had.
“Artemis!” Nyx cried. “Did I do that?”
“Oh.” She blushed and put her hand to her neck. “It’s nothing. It will heal. Battle scars from bringing my niece into the world. I’m proud of them.”
“I’m sorry,” Nyx said. Those words felt inadequate to express everything she was feeling, but dizzy Artemis wasn’t so dizzy after all. She seemed to know. Artemis bent to embrace her.
“I meant it when I said it’s okay. I’d be angry too if I thought someone was trying to keep my child from being born. Let me be Goddessmother with Hera, and we’ll call it good.” She grinned.
Nyx was humbled. “I’d be honored for you to be Goddessmother. Ephie couldn’t ask for better.” She felt herself get teary. “Damn.”
“I know. I love you too, Nyx.” Artemis winked and disappeared.
“Did I hurt you as well?” she asked when Apollo slipped in behind her on the couch and put Ephie into her arms.
“All that matters is that Ephie was born. That must have been some nightmare.”
“I thought Artemis said she wouldn’t help and she cursed my labor to stop so Ephie would die.”
“She’d never do that.”
“She cried about it, but she did it.” Nyx wasn’t going to cry, she refused. “It wasn’t all bad, though.”
“No?” he asked quietly and waited for her to continue.
“You said you wanted our family.”
“That part was real. When you passed out, Artemis told me to talk to you. I do want our family, Nyx. If you’ll have me.”
“Was that something like a proposal?”
“As close as I could come without you kicking me,” he replied.
“I wouldn’t kick you.” She laughed.
“Don’t lie. You didn’t even want to call our first and only date a date.”
“Why did it have to be a date?” Nyx still didn’t understand why he was so obsessed with labeling things.
“Why not?”
She snorted and snuggled against him. “Look where we are now.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” He kissed the top of her head.
In that moment, she knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else either. One date hadn’t killed her, but she was never going on another one. She got it perfect the first time.
“Me either,” she answered so quietly she didn’t know if he’d heard her.
“Thank you for our daughter, Nyx. She’s beautiful.”
“You helped.” She didn’t know what else to say. You’re welcome sounded incredibly pompous, like she miracled her there all by herself.
“I didn’t do anything important. I didn’t do anything a million other males couldn’t do. But you, you brought life and love out of darkness. You’re amazing.”
“Quit that, I already said I’d have you. You don’t have to sweet talk me.”
“I mean every damn word,” Apollo swore.
“I kind of love you,” Nyx said on a sigh. As soon as it was out of her mouth, she wondered if she could shove it back inside, but it was like a Jack-in-the-Box. The bitch was out; there was no shoving it back anywhere.
“I kind of love you, too.” He kissed her cheek tenderly.
Nyx’s exhaustion overtook her and she dropped off to a sweet slumber not in Avoidance Nyx fashion, but sharing this quiet peace with the new additions to her family.
29
THE WEDDING AND HAPPILY EVER AFTER
The bride wore black.
Yet it was a joyous occasion. She was radiant from where she stood at the altar, her hand linked with that of her dark prince. The diamond on her finger sparkled and burned with the life of a star the Lord of the Underworld had persuaded to reside in the diamond for Hera’s pleasure—an eternal burn that signified the love that burned eternal in his heart.
The groom wore purple velvet at the bride’s request. Black riding pants and his knee-high Hessians like a proper fantasy hero. His raven hair still fell over his brow in the way of surly young men, but the hard lines etched in his face were gone and if the young goddesses of Olympus had found him handsome through his suffering, his appeal doubled with the wry smile that curved his sensual mouth. But that special smile, it was only for Hera. His eyes sought no
thing but her, his hands nothing but her skin, and his kisses only for her lips.
The wedding wasn’t the biggest surprise to the guests. It was the god who gave the bride away. Hera’s father had passed into oblivion many eons past and she had no brothers or other family to take the ceremonial role in giving her keeping to another. Yet, it was fitting for Zeus to give her hand in marriage to his brother.
He stood tall and proud as he walked his ex-wife down the aisle. Zeus had nothing but warmth in his eyes for the goddess who had once belonged to him and he had nothing but goodwill in his heart when he placed Hera’s hand in Hades’ and stated for all present company to hear, that he did in fact, give this goddess to be married.
After the ceremony, Persephone found Hades. No words were spoken between them, but so much had been said. She hugged him tight the way a little girl would her father and the smile he had for her was the same. It had been with that little girl’s heart she’d loved him, and while he dwelled in his own place in her woman’s heart, her woman’s love was only for Thanatos. Her smile said all the things she’d never be able to articulate the same way her splayed fingers over her rounded belly expressed the joy and peace she’d found with Death. Although, Hades already knew how happy she was, he’d given her away at her wedding.
Demeter and Eros weren’t in attendance, although Aphrodite had performed the ceremony and given the couple her blessing. They were on their own honeymoon.
Nyx and Apollo were there, Hypnos had come for nanny duty. He cheated, whenever Ephie became upset, he’d put her to sleep until he could hand her off to Zeus. She liked chewing on the thunderbolts. They tickled. Apollo kept pushing her to set a date, but Nyx was still determined no one could quantify their relationship but them. Until Apollo told her that was how he wanted to quantify it and Nyx didn’t have any other argument. Hera had done it again after her first marriage had been a failure, so maybe there was hope for Nyx. With a god like Apollo, she was sure there would be. She loved him more than breath, after all.
As for Abstinence and Zeus, well, neither of them had quite decided who was wearing the toga in that partnership. Everyone expected another wedding, she was now Queen of the Gods and her place was beside her King. Or so Zeus was fond of telling her.
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