I trembled and bit onto my bottom lip.
I’d always thought Mother eccentric and strange. Her rules, while nonsensical, came from a good place, a place of caring, of knowing that her daughter was different and wanting to help me fit in with the rest of the world as much as possible. She was an excellent mother, after all, but now with Ares’s arrival and Mother’s obvious fear, I began to worry that I did not know everything as I probably should.
I looked at her, at that softly wrinkled face I loved and had thought I’d known so well, seeing her now through new eyes. She held very still, her dark eyes holding my own, but in them, I read something I’d never seen in her before—guilt. And it was stark and breathtakingly raw. I softly shook my head, denying what my heart already knew was truth.
“You’re lying to me.” My voice shivered with hot threads of bitter disappointment. “You do know something. What is it? What do you know?”
She laughed and took my hand, turned, and began walking us toward home. She was still trembling, and the quivers traveled through her palm to mine. I let her guide me, because even though I felt the sting of betrayal, she was also my mother, the woman who I knew loved me above all else.
“Your father and I never wished to give you concern. There was really no need to ever share this legacy with you before. And it’s silly, truly.” She laughed, and the sound was high-pitched and almost frantic but enough to let me know that she didn’t fully believe the words she peddled, even now. My heart felt as though it were breaking into a thousand fragments, piercing my sides with each breath I was forced to take.
“But with Ares’s arrival, I think that maybe…” She sighed and stopped walking, pulling me to a stop with her.
She looked at me with familiar and loving eyes. Her hand feathered along my cheeks and brow before she tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. And though I ached at all the lies and deception, her touch soothed me as it always had. I’d never been in any doubt of her love for me and still wasn’t.
“We are primordial gods. No longer valued amongst the mortals and allowed to live freely only at the Olympians’ mercy. As such, we are required when we have children to seek out an oracle so that our children’s fates might be known. If a child will bring harm to any Olympian, they are required to be put down immediately, no questions asked.”
My lips parted. That was barbarous. Not that I couldn’t understand it. Obviously, no god would allow anything to exist that could one day pose a threat to them. But how could I possibly ever be a threat to them? All I had were wings. I had no other powers or abilities. I might as well be human for all the good these feathers did me. My flesh prickled at the idea that Mother must have learned something truly horrific for our fates to be what they were now.
I swallowed hard before asking, “I never knew. And… am I—”
“No.” She laughed airily, the sound too forced to be true. “Of course not. You could not have survived the birth if you’d been given a truly bad reading.”
I blinked, hearing what she was not saying. “So I was given a dark reading.”
She laughed that high-pitched and slightly manic laugh again. “Child, you’re such a silly thing. Think about it, daughter. With your head and not your heart. You could not be if I’d been given a truly terrible prophecy. Truly.”
But for the first time in my life, I didn’t entirely believe her. Disentangling my hands from her tight grip, I gently shook her off. “Mother, stop lying. Something was foretold. You and I both know it. Whatever it was, it just wasn’t dark enough to justify my end. Yet. But it was bad enough that you should tremble before the Lord of War. You have to stop lying to me and tell me the truth. For once. ”
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and sighed from the depths of her soul. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she turned and stared at the expansive waters of our homeland. I would often catch her out there, high upon the bluffs, speaking with Father as only they could. The waters were her solace, and as a child, I’d always wondered why she’d looked so heartbroken and sad when she spoke with Father. I’d always thought that Mother had chosen to bring my sisters and me to this tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean channel of her own volition. But now I wasn’t sure that was true. In fact, I wasn’t sure that everything I’d ever thought I’d known hadn’t all been lies.
“Oh, Medusa,” she said softly. A tear squeezed out of the corner of her eye as she deeply sighed. “You were always much brighter than you had any right to be.”
When she opened her eyes again to look at me, they were full of tenderness and sorrow. “You are unlike any other creature in the existence of the world. One of a kind and very, very special. You’ve the wings of a sylph and the temperament of an angel. You’re the very best of your father and me. And we love you so much.”
I cocked my head, my heart hurting because I knew there was so much more to this tale than what she was saying. “But?” I prompted.
She thinned her lips before saying, “But. Had we all remained on Olympus, a terrible savagery was to be your destiny, a crime that would alter the very course and fabric of your existence forever, culminating in a most terrible of fates I would never even wish upon my worst enemy.”
A chill like black ice skated down my spine, and for a moment, I almost forgot how to breathe. I clutched at my neck with fingers grown suddenly numb and croaked, “What? What curse?”
“Oh, please, child.” She reached out for me, but I refused her touch, not because I didn’t want it but because I knew if I let her hold me, I would lose what little control I still held over my fragile emotions.
She gave a stuttering sob before hugging her empty arms once more.
Pain and panic warred within me, coming out as anger. But I couldn’t help it. What was to be my destiny? What had the oracle told her?
“Mother, its time you tell me everything. Everything! Why all your rules? Why have we been forever separated from Father? And why in the gods’ names did Ares seek me out tonight?”
“Of Ares, I do not know,” she quickly responded, holding up her hands in the manner of one who wished to calm a wild beast. “What did he tell you?”
I shook my head, still as lost as I’d been when he’d first introduced himself to me. “That I am to be his great love.”
Mother’s face crumpled, and a sound like a dying animal squeezed out of her throat. She swayed on her feet then suddenly dropped like a heavy sack to the ground. I was so scared by her reaction that I shook my head in disbelief as I ran to her side and picked up her now cold hands and gave them a gentle squeeze.
“Mother, do not fear. I told him that it’s impossible. He spoke of a woman of both venom and stone, and that’s not—”
She almost screamed, then her strange murmurings turned to heavy sobbing wracks of deepest despair. I held her tight, rocking back and forth with her, comforting her as best I could even as, inside, fear began to eat away at me like a slow-leeching poison. The ringing of my pulse in my ears was clear as bells.
Then her wailings turned into wildness. She clawed at my arms. Her eyes were wide, and the whites nearly obliterated the pupils. Her face was a mask of maniacal fanaticism. “You must stay away from the male gods, Medusa. You must! Vow it to the sacred mother of the hunt! Vow it!”
I was so scared in that moment that I did what she bid. “I… I vow it, Mother. You’re scaring me.”
The fanaticism instantly fled, and she wrapped me in her arms, embracing me as though she wished never to release me. I could hardly breathe. “Mother, please,” I whimpered.
But she was lost to her panic and didn’t relent even an inch. “I don’t know who, but one of them is destined to hurt you. So badly, so cruelly that you will never be the same again. And who else could it be but War? You must never see him again. If he comes to you, turn in the other direction. Never look at him, never acknowledge him.”
I gasped sharply. “Mother! He could smite me should I dare.”
She pushed me b
ack so that I looked her eye to eye. Hers were bloodshot and glazed. “Better death than what will happen to you! Do you hear me, child? Never acknowledge a male god. I am only grateful that you have been so faithful in your worship of Athena.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, and the words came tumbling out. “I… I am sorry, Mother, but I’ve never worshipped her. I… I… I—” My stutter grew so thick that I could speak nothing else.
I was shocked by the glacial fury that burned in her eyes. “Where have you been all these years, then?”
“A… a boy.” I shook my head. “A friend. Persiu—”
Smack!
The crack of her palm to my cheek was instant and shocking. My flesh throbbed with scarlet heat, and I stared at her, dumbfounded, even as my eyes filled with tears.
“Run to your room. Lock the door behind you and do not leave tonight. I am most desperately vexed with you and do not wish to do you any more harm than I already have.”
I could hear the roar of the ocean tides crashing against the rocks below, swirling and raging with Mother’s rising anger.
I didn’t think. I simply ran. I ran as fast as I could, using my wings to push me to even greater speeds. I still knew next to nothing, but of one thing I was absolutely certain—my life would never be the same again.
Chapter 53
Ares
I sat in the commons, studying the magnificently golden feather that I’d been gifted. It’d been a fortnight since I’d seen the female last, and I’d not been able to cease thinking on her since.
Not just her looks, which had been pretty enough, I supposed. I’d seen better if I was being honest, though her wings were a marvel of creation. They drew me. For the past several nights, I’d been seeing them in dreams. Feeling their softness upon my bare flesh, hearing the tinkling of female laughter shivering around me hotly, coyly. I’d woken up, in a sweat and panting, more nights than one.
I was disturbed by what was happening to me. She was a mortal, and I was a satisfied male. A niggling thread of doubt ate at me at that thought. I’d not failed to note Dite’s long absences from me, and they bothered me tremendously. That was part of the problem. I was all in so far as I was concerned with my female. I did not care if she carried on liaisons with others. Aphrodite was a free woman and free to do with her body as she willed. So long as I’d always held her heart, the rest hadn’t mattered. But lately, I wasn’t even sure I held that.
I was confused and growing more and more annoyed by what was occurring between Dite and me, and I felt guilty because I, too, was harboring a secret. I did not lust after flesh in the same manner as my Dite or my father did. I enjoyed sex. What hot-blooded god didn’t? But I wasn’t consumed by it.
Yet last night, I’d woken up in stained sheets. Me. Me! The shame and horror I’d felt at doing something I’d outgrown lifetimes ago was consuming me and had been all day. Instinct told me to seek her out, to try to uncover more of the truths concerning her role in my life, but another part of me was cautious. I was aware that sister Ceto hadn’t reacted as she had for no reason.
I was certain of one thing, though. Serpent or no, the oracle had spoken of Medusa. I’d known it almost the moment my gaze had landed upon her. I’d felt the shift in the time threads and knew that she was a woman who would impact my life in a way I’d never known before or since. Her thread and mine were now twined, but why? And most importantly, how?
The mug of ambrosia sat before me untouched. A river nymph of no great significance kept trying to gain my attention by baring her nubile breasts at me. It was obvious that she wished to bed me.
Nymphs preferred near exclusively the beds of the gods. If it wasn’t me, she would be doing the same to someone else. Aphrodite was off again, visiting my brother’s lair. They’d grown close in recent years, so close that deep down, I suspected my relationship with her would suffer for it. And yet I loved her enough not to destroy her out of spite or jealousy.
I felt lost. The world of men was at peace at the moment. I could go and stir their hearts and incite a rage that would culminate in war. It would be a balm to my weary mind, yet I found myself unsure for the first time in my eternal life. I didn’t know what to do.
I was frozen by indecision, and that simply wasn’t me. I sighed, still staring at the shimmering feather.
“Beautiful feather,” said the deeply masculine voice of my uncle, Poseidon.
Frowning, I glanced up. Poseidon, when not in god form, wasn’t overly tall or even all that imposing. He was long and lean with golden hair and brilliant storm gray eyes as dark as the sky goddesses’ realm. He held a mug of ambrosia.
“Uncle,” I said and quickly tucked my feather away and out of sight. Cocking my head, I studied my uncle, who was known to prefer the waters of his home over the land of the Olympians. “To what do I owe this honor?”
He grinned, and that flash of convivial humor reminded me forcefully of Father. They weren’t twins, but they might as well have been considering how similar they looked to one another.
He shrugged. “I grew bored today. Figured I’d come up here and speak with Zeus, but he was absent.”
“No doubt impregnating a swan somewhere,” I muttered beneath my breath. I loved my father, but it was no secret that I didn’t hold with his cheating ways.
I hadn’t meant for my uncle to hear me, but he had and snickered. “I’ll just pretend you didn’t say that, boy.”
I curled my lip. He knew I hated when he called me “boy.” I was stronger than most of the gods up here, apart from Father and one other. But I could best my uncle, and he damned well knew it. His use of “boy” was simply his way of making sure I knew my place.
No longer wanting to remain, I quickly shrugged and cleared my throat. “I’ve someplace to be soon. But… why have you come?”
“Oh, you know.” He smirked, and there was something in his look that I did not care for. It was a gleam in his brilliant eyes that I’d seen before when he was up to one of his schemes. “Came at the behest of the Fates. Stopped by for a pitcher of ambrosia on my way home. Saw you.” He shrugged as though it were the end of the story.
I narrowed my eyes, my gut sensing there was far more to this than what he’d told me. “Really. How interesting,” I said, not trying to hide my disbelief.
He grinned. “Would I lie to you?”
I thinned my lips.
Taking a large drag of his ambrosia, he sighed before saying, “How’s your female, by the way?”
“What?” I snapped, my spine going instantly taut as my fingers began to tingle with war flame. My heart pounded in my chest so furiously it was a wonder he hadn’t heard it.
“Aphrodite, of course,” he said casually as he leaned back, eyeing me cunningly.
My brows gathered in tight. What the hell was my uncle playing at here? Since when did he casually shoot the breeze like this with me? I could count on one hand the times he had, and always, there’d been a reason for his sudden curiosity about my life.
“She’s fine,” I said succinctly.
He snorted. “Good. Give her my regards.”
Swatting off his words, I stood and glowered down at his golden head. “Why were you with the Fates again?”
His chuckle made my skin crawl. “Good try, welp. But you know damned well I never said. And besides, readings are private things. Surely, you know this already.”
He lifted a dark brow, and I didn’t like this. I didn’t like this at all. It was no secret that Uncle and Mother were close. Extremely close, if some accounts were to be believed. I would never claim that my family tree wasn’t without its issues, but I would also not judge my family for it. No one was perfect, though I would be damned if I lived like any of them. Still, if he’d learned something, he would eventually confess it to her. And if she learned it, then I would too. Eventually.
Mother was a terrible gossip, especially with me, her favorite child.
I nodded. “No, indeed. Now I am late to my meeting. G
ood catching up with you, Uncle.”
He grinned, and the tension of seconds ago instantly vanished. That was the thing about the gods—nothing we did was ever truly personal. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment type thing. We would stab someone in the back one day and genuinely hug them the next. Mother could bear a grudge like no other, but she was rare. Most of us understood that the actions of today bore no significance to the actions of tomorrow. Still, I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my gut. Something was definitely not right.
“And where are you going in such a rush, boy?” he asked after taking another pull of his drink.
I clenched my fists. “Earth,” I snapped, and turning on my heels, I angrily swiped open a travel tunnel. I didn’t even bother saying goodbye. Uncle was smart enough to know that I knew he hid something from me.
My reaction was completely justified. I’d had no damned notion of heading to Earth today, but the moment I said it, I knew exactly where I was going, though I knew I shouldn’t. I never should have kept the damned feather.
Medusa
* * *
I hadn’t seen Perseus even once in the days since our explosive fight, and I knew it wasn’t by accident. Mother personally dragged me to temple each morning, forcing me to remain until Apollo’s chariot began its eternal race across the skies. Perseus had purposely not come, and though I’d expected to be saddened by this fact, I was, shamefully, relieved by it.
I’d not realized just how much of a drain on my soul he’d been for years until suddenly I no longer had to deal with his wild mood swings and sometimes hurtful words.
Still, I did not particularly enjoy my time in temple either. While my sisters got to enjoy their lives, I’d had to dedicate my life and virginity to the goddess Athena. Not that I’d ever yet imagined I would give my virginity to someone. But it had been nice knowing that someday, if I should fall in love with someone, I could.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 66