“You want to save something that’s no longer there, woman! Don’t you see that? The past is just that—the past. It exists only to a very few, but for most, it’s been obliterated from their minds and hearts completely.”
Jumping to her feet, she balled her tiny fists tight to her thighs. Her gown of fire whipped and curled menacingly around her curvy frame. “How can you say that to me? Have you not seen others already restore their happily ever afters? I know you have. As I said, I’ve been watching you. You took an active role in the Hatter’s and Alice’s romance, even going so far as to release Alice from the Elysian Fields. You say you don’t care, but you lie. I know you do.”
I shrugged. “So I helped out a few of them. So what? That changes nothing for me, and probably not for you. Accept it, Dite. The sooner you do, the sooner you can start learning to breathe again.”
Moving so fast I’d not even tracked her, she walked over to me and slapped my left cheek so hard I saw stars. Tears ran thick and heavy down her cheeks, and her face was screwed into a tight mask of anguish and agony.
My brows knitted together in surprise as I rubbed at my still-throbbing cheek. But if I expected Aphrodite to apologize for slapping me, I’d have been sorely mistaken. She looked just as angry as ever.
“I could just kill you right now,” she said, voice a low, raw, shivering sound.
It was funny that Love would threaten to kill me, Death. And yet, it actually wasn’t funny at all. The empty space in my chest where my heart should be echoed hollowly, making it hard for me to take a proper breath.
Her finger was in my face, and her body bristled as she breathed heavily. I could see her throat working, but she couldn’t seem to force out any words.
Shame filled my soul.
“I… I am sorry, Aphrodite. I should never have said that to you. You of all people understand what it is to lose as we have. I had no right.”
The tightly controlled mask she wore evaporated, and in an instant, she wilted onto my chest, wrapping her arms tightly around my body, clinging to me as if I were the only thing holding her to the earth as she sobbed from deep within herself.
Cursing myself ten types of fool, I rubbed at her back and gently whispered in her ear that she was safe with me, that I was sorry, and that I was still her friend.
She seemed to cry for an eternity, and wherever her tears landed, beautiful and exotic birds suddenly breathed to life, flying off in mated pairs, their jeweled plumage adding a dizzying spark of color to my otherwise dark chambers.
Finally, she sniffed and pulled back, staring at me with eyes gone red and puffy.
“Am I forgiven, little one?” I asked gravely, as she rubbed at her cheeks.
Pursing her lips, she collapsed on the steps beside me, staring down miserably at her lap. “I suppose so.”
Knowing how badly I’d messed things up again, I slid off my throne and sat beside her. I held her hand and squeezed it gently, neither of us saying anything for several long moments. When she finally turned to look at me, I could see she was lighter in spirit.
“You need to remember love, Hades. That’s what I came to tell you. To remind you.”
“I know love. I knew it well. It has pierced me completely, and I can never be the same again. I am a rotten bastard now, Dite, but I still care deeply for you. Please do not ever think otherwise. I’ve just never been any good at dealing with rejection.”
She snickered and rubbed at her swollen nose tip. “Oh, that I remember well. We used to call you the hermit. Did you know that? Long before you mated with Caly. You always kept yourself apart from the rest of us, and for so long, we all thought you arrogant and cynical. But then I got to know you, Hades, really know you, and I realized just how wrong we all were. You and I deserve better than this new reality. This isn't the life we were meant to lead. You must know that.”
I nodded and smiled as I recalled all the many names the goddess of love had dubbed me with. They all thought that, because I’d not associated much with them in Olympus, I hadn’t a clue what transpired in their world. But I’d always known.
“I wish I had your faith, Dite. But I’ve lived far longer than you, and in truth, I’ve never been good at optimism.”
“You don’t need to be.” She turned to me, facing me head on and squeezing my fingers gently in her hands to make sure I was paying attention, “I can have enough faith for the three of us. Only give me a chance to prove that I am not some ridiculous and silly goddess like all the rest of them think me to be. What you need is to be reminded of that love. I know you felt it, but you’ve forgotten the depths of it. There is no greater power in all the worlds. Love can truly move mountains. It can turn the darkest hearts and make even the most cynical and jaded believe in something greater than themselves. You remember what you’ve lost, but you’ve forgotten what it truly means to love. I haven’t been watching only you and Calypso, Hades. I’ve been watching all of our friends, those I knew well and those I knew only a little. And I sense that soon, Rayale will follow an instinct that will lead her here to you.”
I frowned, but she rubbed at the brow wrinkle with the tip of her finger and shook her head. “I know you do not give up your dead, but the person for who she comes is not dead. They are, however, trapped in a pocket of time in your realm.”
“What? I haven’t—”
“It’s because you’ve been too absorbed in your own pain to look around you, Hades. No offense, but you have been a bastard lately, and I really, really need you not to be.”
I didn’t know whether to grouse or laugh because, by damn, she was absolutely right. Hermanias was running my affairs since I’d hardly dared to stir from my looking glass. I’d become obsessed with my study of this new Calypso, trying to make heads or tails of whether I had any chance at all of finding common ground with her again.
I opened my mouth, and Aphrodite tensed, no doubt expecting me to deny what she’d said. But I didn’t. Instead, I sighed, from deep inside me, no longer trying to hide my weariness, and patted her hand.
“Then tell me what to do, Aphrodite. Tell me what I should do.”
She beamed. “Watch. Watch and remember. Grant Rayale access to your realm, no strings attached, and then watch her. The female is fierce and fiery, and her odds are no greater than our own of reclaiming her happily ever after. But there is a core of steel in her. She simply doesn’t know when to quit. An admirable trait in a human.”
Though I still doubted I’d figure out how to reclaim Calypso, I decided then and there that I would trust Aphrodite. She’d never lead me wrong before.
I dipped my chin. “Then so shall it be.”
Chapter 24
Hades
I woke up from strange dreams, still trapped in that hazy state between wakefulness and sleep. My memories scattered like chaff on the breeze, but I was able to recall bits and pieces.
A journey. I’d been on a journey, a long trek, but I hadn’t been alone. I’d been with another. A female. My female.
I rubbed at my chest, wincing as I sat up. But I wasn’t in bed. I’d not slept in my bed since this nightmare had begun. I’d simply passed out on my throne as I’d been watching the one called Rayale racing against the clock through the ley lines that had trapped her future in-laws inside of it.
I never slept. I didn’t need to. Calypso and I would sometimes lie in a bed after strenuous bouts of sex, cuddling and talking to one another for days at a time. But sleep had never been something we’d done. And yet, since I’d used that damned key on myself, I found myself simply collapsing right where I stood. I suspected it had something to do with the curse, or rather, remembering all that the curse had taken away from us. New memories were crowding my thoughts daily, reminding me of moments that’d once meant so much to me.
I scrubbed at my face, glancing around my eerily quiet throne room, which was so pitch black that the only light around was what little glow came off my looking glass, currently tipped precariously between my
knees where it must have fallen when my body had forcibly shut down my mind.
Frowning, I gazed at the rushing movement of colors in the glass. I’d been watching Rayale do the seemingly impossible for days now.
When she’d arrived, I’d only given her three days, tops, to pull her in-laws out of the time loop trap the curse had flung them into, knowing full well she’d never succeed. Being stuck in Time for so long could alter a person’s consciousness. Rayale, who’d also been trapped in a Time loop during the games, had appeared to be unscathed by her years in the spatial dimension. But not so her in-laws. They’d both reverted to their baser and simpler forms.
Violet, also known as Little Red Riding Hood, who’d once been a killer thirsting for the blood of wolves, had become that fearless predator again. And her mate, the Big Bad Wolf himself, could barely reason higher than the beast he was forced to shift into night after night.
The task Rayale had been given had been completely impossible. But I’d watched that female do the miraculous. Somehow, her years trapped in Time had altered her, too, and now she was able to control time itself, along with her other powers of flute enchantment. She was a force to be reckoned with, and I was almost ninety-nine percent certain that if anyone could pull off the impossible, it would be her.
It’d been many days since Rayale had entered the ley lines to bring back her in-laws, and I found myself growing increasingly fascinated by why she was doing what she was doing. She had no guarantee of reclaiming her own happily ever after, and yet it didn’t stop her from attempting all that she could to ensure that at least her in-laws would.
Additionally, for the first time since the curse was flung, Calypso had not only returned to my realm, but had given Rayale a message to give to me.
Where is my heart?
She’d said those exact words, verified by Charon himself, and I found myself questioning everything I thought I’d known.
She’d come for me, an expectation I’d stopped hoping for after months of very little contact between us. In the beginning, I’d hoped she’d come for it far sooner. And then I’d stopped hoping, believing she either didn’t know, or worse yet, simply didn’t care enough to bother with it.
Calypso had been so certain she would not return as she’d once been, but maybe the curse hadn’t harmed her as badly as she’d expected. Then again, Fable—the one we used to call our granddaughter in the other life and who I still kept my eye on—was trapped in a perpetual loop of water. Fable was frozen and could never again be unfrozen except by the hand of the one who’d cursed her—her own grandmother, Calypso, who seemed to have zero knowledge of her. If we unfroze Fable, those enchanted waters would rise and drown her.
Calypso had never again returned to our granddaughter’s castle, and so far as I knew, didn’t even recognize who Fable even was.
The more I watched Calypso, the more confused I became. On the one hand, she was taking on human characteristics far quicker than she said she had the first time. I could only hope that meant that, deep inside of her, there was still a part of her that remembered us all.
But she’d also killed her nymph. I’d seen her flood her realms, killing much of the sea life in her rages, which seemed to have no rhyme or reason to them. She’d simply start to scream, and then her waters would run out of control. Though, she’d never brought her waters upon land, as if some part of her held back.
Or maybe that was just my hope talking.
I sighed and slumped on my throne as I rubbed at my aching brow, I wondered yet again why was she suddenly ready to find her heart. Was she remembering me? Remembering us? Or was this nothing more than wanting back that which was missing? Those were questions I had no answers for. Glowering, I slouched down on my throne, frustration mounting with each minute that passed.
Then movement in the glass caught my eye, and I shot forward, watching avidly as Rayale and her family lost. The ley lines had fractured from the stress, and from one second to the next, they were simply gone.
“No!” I barked. “No!” I shook the looking glass, knowing it did nothing, but so shocked that I didn’t know what else to do. I was shaking my head furiously, denying to myself that I’d just seen what I’d just seen. “It cannot be.”
They’d been winning. Rayale was going to save them, I’d just known it. I was going to call their souls to me, and fix this somehow. I was going to…
My thoughts trailed off as I suddenly saw a light, weak and very faint, but glowing softly, like a ghostly soul remnant. Throat dry and mouth hanging slightly open, I waited on tenterhooks, silently willing Rayale to do the incredible. But she was no goddess, that kind of power was not in her.
“Oh my gods,” I murmured as I saw her do the miraculous with my own eyes. Rather than quit, Rayale had harnessed a supernatural power I’d never known was in her and rolled time back. But not just for herself. For her family too. They raced through a barrel of starlight like rocks being thrown out of a slingshot.
After that, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the looking glass as I saw a woman, a human woman, not all that different from most mortals who crossed over into my realm, perform an impossible feat.
I sat on my throne for days, watching them win, actually win, against incredible odds. And as they did, a fire began to burn right through me.
When it was over, I called Rayale and her family to my throne room. I stared at them all intently, unable to believe that I’d actually experienced a miracle. Rayale had paid for her act of sacrifice, but she had made peace with it, and for the first time, I realized I could no longer sit upon this throne and do nothing.
If a human could beat the curse, then didn’t it stand to a reason that a god could too? Looking around my cavernous chambers with new eyes, I knew what I had to do.
Calypso’s waters were the very ones that fed my own rivers of woe. In fact, Calypso had already begun to traipse through my waters. Something was calling her here. It could be the need to reclaim her heart, or maybe, just maybe, it was so much more than a mere heart that brought her back to my shores.
I swallowed hard, feeling an angry buzz build through my blood, making it throb and pulse. I’d become so paralyzed by the fear of going after her, only to discover she was nothing at all like the woman I’d once loved, that the very idea of losing her was actually becoming its own self-fulfilling prophecy.
If I called her, might she actually come?
Placing a hand on top of my stomach, I told myself that I feared nothing. I was the lord of death, god of my dominion, ruler of life. Nothing scared me. Ever.
Save her.
The loss of her.
Knowing that she and I existed in a world where we weren’t together was my worst kind of hell. But it was time to be brave, be able to be the god that I was, the god that she deserved.
Staring at the shimmering black waters that sparked and winked from the flicker of torchlight set within the walls, I knew there was only one way for me to find out. I rubbed at my chest, the place where I’d always felt the steady cadence of a strong, beating heart. But now there was nothing but silence. My chest was empty. Void.
But I didn’t need that heart beating in its cage to know that what Calypso and I had was worth fighting for.
I could save Caly.
I could save us.
Closing my eyes, I called my god armor to me, black as shadow and as strong as steel, with wickedly spiked vambraces and pauldrons. I opted out of wearing the helmet. I would meet Calypso as her equal, or at the very least, as the god that I truly was. I wanted her to see me as a powerful entity in my own right so that maybe, just maybe, she’d be more willing to listen to me.
Wetting my very dry lips, I flexed my hands, hearing the comforting sound of ringing metal, then nodded. I stood and walked down the dais. Then I stopped and glanced over my shoulder, remembering something I’d almost completely blocked from my mind because I’d never wanted it in the first place.
Caly’s blade.
Aft
er the curse, I’d found the stiletto in my jacket pocket and had forgotten all about what it was or even why I had it. So I’d carelessly tossed into my armory, imagining that it was just one of many blades I owned. But once I’d used the skeleton key and remembered what it was, I’d still avoided it like the plague.
I bit my lip. If I was reaching out to her now, it seemed nonsensical not to use it. Calypso had given it to me for a reason, and she’d never been a stupid or foolish woman. She’d made me take it for a reason.
My skin crawled with gooseflesh. With a low muttered oath, I called the weapon to me. The rush of it flying through the air sounded like a shrieking whistle in my ears and when it landed on my palm, golden runes glowing with the power trapped inside the bright steel, I shuddered.
“May the Fates have mercy on me,” I whispered and tucked the damnable thing into a slit of my armor, not wanting to hold onto it any longer than was necessary.
With a determined set of my jaw, I took the last few steps toward the water’s edge, watching as the murky waves rolled gently upon my land and tickled at the tips of my booted feet.
If I called her, then the fight was well and truly on. I could no longer pretend to ignore our situation or hope that all would be miraculously set to rights on its own. I was scared, and I was man enough to admit it. I was gearing up for the biggest fight of my life, and I dared not think what would happen to me or to her if I lost this battle. Simply put, I couldn’t afford to.
Girding myself, I took a second to reflect on what I was fighting for. Her smiles. Her whispers. Her heated caresses, her words of forever, and the image of her beautiful face shining up at me with such love and devotion that it brought a sheen of heat to my eyes. My hands flexed by my sides as I whispered in a heated rush, “Calypso, primordial goddess of the waters deep, I am Hades. Come to me.”
The waters parted. The sea roared.
And there she was. My goddess. My female. My truest and only love.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 25