I swallowed the heavy ball of tears in my throat, refusing to let them out. Refusing because if I gave into my misery, I would never be strong enough to leave. And I had to leave. No matter how desperately I wished I didn’t.
“I know you don’t believe me now, but you will someday, Hephy.”
He growled, taking a menacing step forward as he balled his massive hands into tight fists. “Never call me that. I refuse to be your—”
“You are thick and stubborn and so damned beautiful it makes my heart weep,” I whispered. My voice had grown scratchy, and I had to clear it.
His jaw clenched, and the muscle twitched. I could read his disbelief and his hate.
I shook my head. “I know you don’t believe me, and that’s okay. But I am not the woman you think I am. Whoever that monster is”—I tapped my breast—“it isn’t me. I tell you again—I am not of this time. I am from another. And in that world, you and I were allies. Partners.” I took a step toward him, expecting him to roar or yell or even try to shove me back.
But he didn’t. He stood there, looking at me, and I finally saw something other than hatred. I saw the pain. Terrible, terrible pain. And it almost broke me, but I had to go soon, so I had to find my strength and press on.
“You knew me as no other knew me. The real me Not the silly female who lusted after tight flesh and wanted only the vain and superficial things of this world, but the one who laughed and cried and trusted you so completely that I handed over to you not just my hand, but my heart. You were the only one to whom I’ve ever given myself so completely, and deep down inside of you, you must know this is true. You may not want to believe me, but you know I do not lie.”
Fury tightened the mask of his features, but when I took another step toward him, he did not move, though he trembled with barely suppressed rage.
Being reckless, I did something I might never have done if I hadn’t been about to leave. I reached for his jaw, moving as though in slow motion, watching him as one might a venomous snake about to strike, wondering if he would pull away or even shove me back. But he did neither. He simply stood there, and when I touched the corner of his jaw, I felt the heat and warmth of him move through me like fire. I groaned from deep inside myself.
“Why do you toy with me, you bitch?” he asked, voice cracking as his eyes shone with wetness. I cringed.
He didn’t pull away. He looked broken, devastated. And when he raised his hand as though to shove me off him, he instead wrapped his thick, impossibly strong fingers around my slender wrist, holding me just as he once had, like I was fine porcelain and so easily breakable.
I tried to prevent it, but a single tear slid out of the corner of my left eye and rolled slowly down my cheek. His breathing grew harder, heavier, and I felt his eyes watching the movement of my tear.
“I will leave you now as you wish me to, my dearest love.”
He shook so hard, and I felt his internal battle. Hephaestus was so powerful, so brutally powerful, and it was that barely leashed beast within him that had always called to me.
I loved his dark side, craved it even.
“Why do you do this?” he asked, voice rocking through me with heat and pain, so much pain that I wanted to wilt from it.
I shook my head and searched his gaze, trying to find the one thing I knew was no longer there—his love for me. Just a glimpse of it would have given me hope to keep fighting, to keep hanging on. But all I saw was lightning and rage.
“I can’t live in a world where you don’t want me. Where you don’t love me.” I shook my head, and feeling that tear about to drip off my chin, I gently took it upon the tip of my finger. It had crystallized, and without overthinking what I was doing, I pressed that tear into the seam of his lips.
It was my love, my power. It was my heart. I would show him I hadn’t lied to him. I’d never lied to him.
I saw him breathe, saw the pink smoke of my majesty encapsulate his head like a glittering fog bank. But I had not tricked him. I had not forced him to love me. I’d not abused my power. I’d simply shown him my heart.
I stepped back, releasing my grip on him and forcing him to release his on me. When he opened his eyes, they raged with lightning, but his face had gone slack, and he looked at me questioningly.
“Who… who are you?”
I smiled sadly. “I’ve always told you who I was. Goodbye, Hephy. Goodbye.” Then I turned, and though I hoped that he might have called me back to him, he did not stop me.
With a heavy heart, I opened a tunnel that would lead me to Time herself. It was time to save the world.
Hephaestus
* * *
I stood there, numb, staring at the space where she’d once been and wondering if she’d been telling me the truth all along.
The Aphrodite I knew was a monster. A heartless, ruthless, and cold bitch who’d ruined me and razed my trust in others forever.
And yet the woman who’d just been with me had spoken truth. I’d felt it in her kiss.
With a roar, I turned on my mechanical legs and took up my hammer, forging Zeus’s lightning with the fury and intensity of a man possessed.
Who was she?
Who was she?
Who was that woman?
I gained no answers from my smithy, but I did not stop until I’d collapsed from complete and utter exhaustion.
Chapter 21
Aphrodite
She stood in a cave with her back to me, wearing the form of a nubile maiden. I called her Time, but in truth, Lachesis was one of the three Fates, goddess of destiny, measurer of the soul string and reader of the present. She went by many names, but I’d always just thought of her as one-third of the twisted sisters.
Dressed in robes of transparent baby blue, with her golden skin gleaming like liquid metal, she was working on a project at a bench, stirring something into a hammered bronze bowl as an invisible wind swished at the hem of her skirt.
“It is about time you showed up,” she said in a youthful, nubile tone. “I quite feared I’d grow old waiting for you.”
I smirked just as she turned. Of course she’d known I was coming, probably even before I had.
Her breasts weren’t quite as perky as mine, nor her face as perfectly shaped. Her hair didn’t have the same lustrous sheen that mine did. But honestly, there was no comparison when it came to me. I knew who I was. I was the most beautiful woman in all of the worlds and realms. I rarely held it against others. There could only be one Aphrodite, after all.
“Lachesis, goddess of destiny and wisdom. So we finally meet, you and I.” I spread my arms even as I raised my chin, adopting my goddess demeanor.
The Fates could be fickle bitches when they had a mind to be. They knew past, present, and future, and they loved lording it over those of us who could not see in all directions as they could.
Her white eyes scanned my body, taking her time as she studied me. I could be a lot to take in for those who saw me for the first time. The Fates did not live on Olympus per se, and seeing as how I’d never needed their wisdom before, I’d never had any reason to make the trek all the way out to Gnósi—their hidden island home situated quite snugly in the center of the Never waters. Only gods and goddesses or those with business for the Fates could ever find their way to this forgotten and hidden realm. The twisted sisters were known to be a secretive bunch.
Finally, she looked up at me. “Well, I see that you are all I’d always imagined you might be, Aphrodite, goddess of love and lust, matron of whores and sex priestesses.”
I tipped my head in acknowledgement of my very old and very ancient title. I’d always been a particularly favored goddess to the temple prostitutes. I had no qualms about it either. Everyone needed someone to look up to, even those deemed unworthy by others.
My gown of flame roiled beautifully around my ankles. A strong breeze curled through the tips of my long golden hair. I looked every inch the haughty goddess.
“You know why I’ve come,”
I said without preamble.
“Of course.” She grinned and tipped a glass vial of a glowing pink potion toward me. Just a second ago, she’d not been holding on to anything, so whatever she must have been crafting in the bowl was what she now held. “As I said, I was waiting for you.”
I lifted a brow, wondering what the potion was for.
“Then you will help me?”
She laughed. “Sure.”
I snorted because in that one word, I’d heard the dozen others she’d not spoken. The Fates’ help never came without cost to the seeker. But I was a goddess, not some mere mortal who’d not fully understood the tricks the gods played.
“So that we’re clear, Lachesis,” I said, taking a half-step forward, “what is it that you want from me?”
A grin split her not unattractive features, making her appear quite pretty in her own right.
“I do love how you get right to the crux of the matter. Quite a refreshing change of pace from what I’m used to dealing with.”
“Deal with many mortals, do you?”
She rolled her wrists. “Indeed. Quite tiresome they are. You, on the other hand, are not tiresome at all. I always wondered how the goddess of lust made so many men and women fall simple and dumb around her. What could possibly be so attractive about someone so vain and petty and selfish?”
I clenched my jaw, loathing my perceived nature by others in this new life. I’d heard this same bloody refrain from Hephy far too many times to count.
“But I see now.”
She gestured with her hand in my direction, as though to encompass the whole of me, and shook her head. Her milky-white eyes glowed with a white flame. I’d always heard the Fates were blind, just as my one-time friend Themis had been. Themis and I were no longer friends in this world. Justice, as she was more commonly known to others, no longer knew me or remembered the bond we’d once shared. Just like everyone else, she hated me in this time.
But being hated by others wasn’t necessarily new for me either. I’d always been envied, and that envy had often turned to spite or even hateful jealousy until someone actually took the time to get to know me, not merely listen to the rumors about me. Though it did seem that in this timeline, I really was the wrathful bitch everyone thought me to be.
My stomach quivered, and that terrible sensation of hopelessness flickered through me all over again whenever I thought of all I’d lost.
I was an island, utterly alone. But not for long. Not if I had my way.
“What do you think you see, Lachesis?” I sniffed. “That I whore? Sleep around? Despise my mate?”
“Mate no more. I saw the decree.” She wrinkled her nose, looking at me with a smug lilt to her lips. “Had to sting, no? Love being dropped like a hot potato. Mmm. I must say, I do not envy you. Words I never thought I’d utter to one such as you.”
My nostrils flared as I dug my fingers into the palms of my hand so hard that I felt the nails break through the soft, tender skin. I told myself not to be goaded, that she was trying to draw me into her web for reasons I couldn’t fathom. But I was tired of everyone thinking they had my measure when they didn’t know me at all. I stomped my foot and leaned forward.
“You all think Love so weak,” I spat. “But it is the strongest power in the worlds. A power that can move even the coldest and evilest hearts to action. Do not mock me, Lachesis, for you would not wish me as your enemy. That I can promise you.”
She laughed, tipped her head back, and chuckled deeply. Confused by the sudden burst of humor, I glared at her. But inside, I was a giant ball of bewilderment too. What was wrong with the woman?
Wiping her eyes with her knuckles, she shook her head. “As I said, you are just as I’d imagined you would be.”
Scoffing and feeling dangerously close to tears—though I had no bloody idea why—I turned my face to the side so that she would not witness the shame in my eyes. I’d come here determined to act every inch the haughty and hateful bitch everyone claimed I was, but I wasn’t, and I didn’t think I could pretend to be anymore.
I hated this new version of Aphrodite. Hated and loathed her. She was evil and cruel and not me… not me at all. I dropped my chin to my chest, feeling cold all over and bone tired. So, so tired.
A cold hand dropped onto my shoulder, and I flinched, startled that I’d not heard Lachesis draw closer. I stumbled on my heel, nearly losing my balance in the process.
“Damn you, Fate!” I wheezed, clutching at my chest. “Damn you all. I’m so sick and tired of all of this. I… I hate this place.” And horrors of all horrors, I felt the traitorous tears begin their shameful slide down my cheeks.
All the pain and heartache and feelings of abandonment came to head then, and a bloody, crazy Fate got to witness the spectacle that was Lust completely losing her sense of self.
I expected her to jeer, to ridicule me, to be as cruel as the rest of the pantheon had been to me. But she wasn't. Instead, she reached into a tiny pocket on her skirt and pulled out a lacy ecru-colored handkerchief.
“Here,” she said softly, thrusting the crisp square of cloth at me. “Take this. Clean yourself up. I had to make certain, you see. I apologize, goddess. Clotho was not with me today when I felt your presence quicken upon the ley lines, and I could not ask her which version of you I’d receive. I am glad to learn it is truly you. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.”
I frowned, still rubbing miserably at my nose. “Excuse me?”
She sighed and pointed to a chair that had suddenly appeared from thin air. It was a jeweled throne with lush red fabric and ornate gold framing. She pushed me into the chair, then took a seat opposite me on another throne that had suddenly appeared before me. This one was shaped like a timepiece with grains of sand sliding through its narrowing opening.
“My sisters and I foresaw this, you see. All of this. But we were helpless to stop it and could no more speak of these matters than the others of your time who also knew.”
I frowned, leaning so far forward that I was barely sitting on the edge of my seat. “Excuse me. You foresaw this? And what do you mean by that exactly?”
She inhaled deeply. “I mean that we knew what was to come.”
I jumped to my feet, trembling with barely checked rage. “So why didn’t you stop this? Why didn’t you warn us? Any of us? How could you just let this nightmare occur?”
She looked unmoved by my fury, and once the words were out, I felt a lethargy creep over me, taking the last bits of strength from my knees and causing me to fall back with a heavy plop. All pretense of a haughty goddess were entirely gone now.
Lachesis pursed her lips. “I know this is hard for you, Aphrodite. In truth, this was one of the few times in my own life when I wished I’d not been able to read the threads of time. But as I said, I was not the only one who foresaw this. You may not believe me, but Hades and Calypso did as well.”
I blinked. And then I blinked again and heard a strange whirring sound in my ears. I was fairly certain I was in shock, but I seemed incapable of doing anything other than taking a breath and blinking. I felt my jaw go slack. If I could have spoken, I would have cursed her for lying. I would have told her that neither Caly nor Hades would be so cruel as to not let me know what was to come.
But as I blinked like a doll with broken eyes, I thought not as a hurt mortal or even as their friend, but as a goddess. I thought of what I would do if I’d learned of something so terrible, something that I clearly would be unable to stop. Deep in my heart, I knew that if Caly and Hades had known of this, they would have done all in their power to stop it. So the fact that I was here today, sitting across from a fate, speaking of a time few remembered, meant they’d not been successful. And if they’d not been able to stop this, then truly, no one could have. Maybe by not telling me, they’d shown me a kindness, an act of mercy in a sense, because I’d not carried the weight of the destiny on my shoulders as they clearly had.
I finally looked at Lachesis, and she l
ooked right back at me.
“Your mind is a very convoluted and twisted thing, but essentially, Love, you are correct. They did wish to spare you the pain.”
I breathed deeply. “I would ask you how you know all this, but it’s pointless because obviously you knew.”
“And you’re not angry with them?” She seemed genuinely curious by my lack of the emotion.
I shrugged, and a heavy sigh spilled off my tongue. “I’m hurt more than anything. Hurt that they felt the need to hide this from me, that they didn’t think they could trust me with it. I am their best friend. Together the three of us—”
“Could have done nothing,” she said softly. “You know this. They could no more tell you than I could have, goddess. You have a keen mind and a kind heart. Surely, you know this already.”
I thinned my lips, but acknowledged that she was right. I wasn’t anywhere near as bright as Calypso or even Hades, for that matter. If they’d not stopped this, I could have done nothing. I was beautiful, but beauty was a silly, foolish thing to boast about. It was a superficial, stupid power at best, and we all knew it.
I closed my eyes, fighting to bury that lump trying so desperately to work its way out of my throat.
“How could the other gods and goddesses not realize who you really are, my dear?” she asked softly.
I opened my eyes, looking at her curiously and losing my battle to hold back my tears. Mortified by my weakness, I tried to scrub them off my cheeks, but no sooner did I rid myself of those tears than even more took their place.
Though she did not cry, she mimed dabbing at her cheeks, reminding me that I still held her handkerchief in my hand. She said nothing, giving me time to collect myself again.
Once I did, she gave me a small smile. “Sometimes I think those of us who remember truly have it worse, do we not? To know all we lost is a pain beyond endurance. I am truly sorry for what’s happened to you and Hephaestus. I know that your love for your mate was very true and real.”
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 21