Tracing my bottom lip with my finger, I sensed my stomach twist and dive in on itself, and I thought about the touch of his mouth to mine. The fullness of his soft skin as he’d gently explored my own. Razor-tipped butterfly wings flew madly in my stomach. Was this love? This terrible yearning and desperate ache?
I remembered his callused fingertips tracing the line of my spine through my shift. The way my body had both seemed to melt for him and come exquisitely, almost painfully to life… Was that love?
I thought it must be. My thoughts were entirely focused on him this morning. What he was doing. What he was thinking. Whether he missed me as desperately as I missed him.
A smile wreathed my face as the warmth of early morning sunlight bathed my body through the tiny opening of my bedroom window. Outside, I heard the song of sea birds.
My room that was so familiar seemed somehow… changed today. Brighter, maybe. The dull yellows of my wall now gleamed just a tad, seeming to almost be hiding flecks of gold within that I only now saw.
Giggling and feeling both stupid and stupidly giddy, I took one last deep inhale of the spot where he’d been last night.
I’d kissed him. I’d actually kissed him, and he’d liked it. I might be a virgin, but I’d felt his tremblings and the infinite care with which he held me, and traced me, and once more, I heard the ghost of his whispers… “I am not in the habit of falling for mortals. In fact, you would be my first.”
Stretching my arms above my head, I nearly sang with joy. Instead, I settled for squealing happily. I knew I would have to tell my mother the truth eventually, but for today, this beautiful secret was mine. All mine, and I would treasure it.
Then my door opened, and Mother’s face peeked in. Her eyes were haunted, and a terrible feeling of foreboding crawled over my flesh, making me feel short of breath. She looked at me solemnly, and I knew she knew. I wasn’t sure how or when she’d figured it out. But I knew my mother’s looks well enough to know disapproval when I saw it.
Her mouth tipped downward, and she said five words that made the heavens shrink up—“Medusa, come to the kitchen.”
Then she closed the door, and I placed one hand over my now-heaving stomach and the other over my mouth to keep the scream trapped in my throat.
How had she learned the truth? We’d been so secret. So careful. Had she heard the rumors?
The beating of my heart slowly resumed its normal pace. That must be how she knew. It had to be. She’d heard the rumors in the marketplace yesterday, surely. That was all this was. I wet my lips and nervously got up and quickly got ready for the day.
Mother had already planned to keep me home from the temple. She’d needed my hands to help with the wash. And I was glad of it. Anything to get me away from that goddess awful place. Even chores were a welcome reprieve.
Staring at myself in my warped looking glass, I noted the paleness of my usually olive-toned complexion and the dark circles beneath my eyes that Ares himself had remarked on last night.
Brushing a hand down my cheekbone, I nodded at myself. I would put on a good face, and I would not let her know what I’d done in the night. It wasn’t like anything had honestly happened. He’d kissed me.
Well, I’d kissed him first. But still, that was as far as things had gone. Apart from us realizing how deeply we cared for one another.
Even with my nerves, I couldn’t help smiling at that thought, though it didn’t last long when I heard the footsteps close to my door. Tying an apron around my waist, I made myself ready for the long day of backbreaking work.
This is nothing, I mentally chanted with each step I took. But once I arrived at the kitchen and saw her sitting there, no baskets of draperies or clothing to mend or wash, everything changed.
She swallowed the tea in her mouth before sighing and finally saying, “Medusa, I saw you. You and him. This morning. In your bed. Lying together as lovers do.”
The tremblings started first in my hands, then worked up my feet, to my knees, and my thighs, until finally, I slid down the wall, unable to keep upright any longer.
“I wanted to keep this from you, child, for as long as I possibly could. But the look on your face this morning, and on his…” Her voice hitched, and she averted her eyes but not before I saw the shimmer of tears burn hotly through them. “Oh, my poor, sweet child. You do not know. I never wished to bring you heartache as I’m about to bring you now. But you must end things with him. Medusa, you can never lie with that male. You could have had a sweet gentle mortal, boy, eventually. Maybe. Father and I had hoped. But you can never, ever lie with a god. Not ever. For if you do, a terrible curse will befall you, and it will be the ruin of us all.”
“Moth… er,” I started sobbing uncontrollably, not even certain it was because of this curse that she spoke of but because, for the first time, I believed her. It was not rage or anger that held my mother in its grip now but true and deep fear. Fear so thick it lashed out at me and made me feel as though I’d drowned in misery of the acutest kind.
“The oracle said that you would become the worst monster this world has ever seen or will ever see the day your body knows the intimate touch of a god. That there would be one with lightning burning in his eyes who would utterly consume then destroy you.”
I was feeling as though I walked through a haze, and the first thing that popped into my head was that Ares had fire in his eyes, never lightning. And yet, it was possible the lightning was simply a euphemism for emotion. Anger. Rage. Lust. Her paranoia made more sense now.
“The fact that you are not changed tells me you and he did not make love, but I warn you now, my daughter, you must end this with him. Forever. Not just for your sake but his too. The gods will end you should you become the thing they fear. A woman of stone with hair of serpents.”
I didn’t know when it had happened, but I was no longer on my feet or even sitting, for that matter. Next time awareness hit me, I was curled up on the floor, gasping for air, clutching at my stomach, and feeling as though I needed to retch, but nothing came up. Her hands were on me, and she was whispering how much she loved me and how sorry she was. That she knew I was in love and she would never wish to steal such joy from me but that she did it purely from love for me.
And I cried not because I didn’t believe her but because, for the first time, I finally did, and now I knew what I had to do. It was not concern for myself that told me I needed to end things with Ares for good. It was love for him. I’d never understood my mother more than I did in that moment.
Despair, thick and choking, consumed me. Darkness beckoned, and all I could see was this dark and twisted creature of stone and snakes crawling out of a hole and consuming all it saw and had ever loved.
By the time my crying ceased several hours later, there was nothing left in me. I felt purged but empty. I could not smile any longer. There was no joy in my world, no color even. Everything was dull and gray. I would see Ares one last time, and I would break his heart.
My sisters were here with me now too. Six arms were wrapped tightly around me, all of them whispering to be strong and hang on and saying that someday, this would all be better.
But I knew they lied.
Nothing could ever be better. This was a devastation that I wasn’t sure I had any hope of coming back from. I’d fallen in love so completely with him that he was in me and I was in him. But this was bigger than what I needed or wanted or even what he wanted. This involved the fate and safety of the world and those around me whom I loved as dearly as my own life. Maybe even more so.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I said only a few words. “I will do it, Mother. I will end things with him tonight.”
Then I patted each of their cheeks before I slipped out of their cage of arms and made my way to my room. I sat down on my bed and stared at the wall before me, my soul as bare and empty as the wall itself.
I knew I would never be the same again.
Poseidon
* * *
I’d be
en silently watching her for days, following her every move while keeping invisible and still. Gods enjoyed being seen, being worshipped and honored and praised, but most of us could conceal our identities, and like me, a few could even become naught more than a haunting spirit.
I’d watched her awake in the mornings. Watched her laugh. Sing. Dance when she thought no one looking. I’d watched her grow furious or be as steady as the sea. I’d seen her in his arms night after night.
I knew my nephew well enough to know this wasn’t merely lust that drove him to her bed but more. Ares was not like his father or me. While outwardly he projected an aura of power and strength, inwardly he was more like his deformed brother, Hephaestus—burning with the notion of finding his one true love, desperate to simply belong to one person. Ares was a fascinating study in dichotomy.
But he’d gone and entangled himself with a woman who could well spell the ruin of us all. The Fates’ prophecy spoken over me all those months ago suddenly made sense.
I’d not realized I’d arrived at the pivotal juncture until just now, when I’d heard Ceto’s words. Suddenly this was more than mere curiosity or even a game. A sense that I was in a position to save all of Olympus came over me like a heavy weight.
It was not that I cared one way or another that my actions would wound my nephew as they undoubtedly would when I told him he must sever this bond he’d grown with the mortal. But more than all that, it was the knowledge that in my hands, I held the health of those I actually cared for and the pantheon’s own good.
Rarely was such an honor bestowed upon me. Usually the one saving us all was Zeus, or at least the stories were told in that way. It’d taken us all to bring down the Titans, but my dear brother rarely corrected the story. In fact, I could think of only one instance when he’d given anyone else credit for an exploit he was said to have carried out on his own.
I clenched my hands into fists, tore open a travel tunnel, and raced toward Hera’s temple.
I found her only moments later, her eyes closed and lounging as though she dreamed upon the golden chaise lounge. Her haven was a meadow within her grounds that burst with Zeus’s favored brand of apple trees.
And again, I had that same sense of annoyance that my brother could lay claim to such a beauty and take for granted all that he had. It enraged me. I would kill for her to want me the way she did him. So much of who I was today and the actions I chose to take were because of my desperate love and want of her, shameful as it was to admit, even to myself.
She was nude. Her hair barely covered the tips of her dusk-colored nipples but none of her perfectly formed thighs. Hunger for her body grew within me. It was always thus whenever I came around her.
Usually my feelings were a tangled mess of desperate desire mingled with irritation that she was a craving I could not resist. But today, the feelings were softer and, dared I to think it, almost… tender.
Rubbing my chest, I gently cleared my throat.
She did not appear to scare or startle. Her lashes merely fluttered like a moth’s wings before they opened, and she gazed at me with brilliant amber-colored eyes. They shifted from a deep brown when in shade to a startling, almost translucent shade of rust in the sunlight.
It was a breathtaking sight, especially when she sat up and the waves of her thick chestnut hair were streaked through with waves of russet. My footsteps carried me to her as though they had a mind all their own. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the chaise with her, grabbing her hands in mine and giving them a tender squeeze.
“Why, Poseidon,” she breathed, staring at me quizzically. “Whatever is the matter with you? You’re positively trembling.” Her words had a sweet tenderness as she gently rubbed her thumbs over the meat of my hand.
Beautiful. Gods, she was breathtaking. Every beat of my heart seemed to scream those words within me. I would give her anything and often had. But anything she asked of me this day, it would be hers. If she demanded I kill the mortal, I would do it, without qualm. Without even a thought.
I shook my head. “I have followed your son, as you bade me, Hera. And I have finally unearthed the truth. But I do not think you will like it, my night flower.”
Her thick brows twitched. Her perfectly formed mouth slightly parted, and she placed her palm softly against my cheek. I hated that my breath quivered at her touch. Even after lifetimes of having her, knowing her body, I’d never grown weary of her. I’d taken many other lovers—as she had, I was sure—but Hera was all I’d ever truly wanted. She was the only thing I’d ever really needed. When I was with her, I was myself only. No games. No tricks.
“Tell me what you know, Poseidon. Tell me now. What has my son done?”
“He has fallen in love with a mortal named Medusa. She was prophesied by The Oracle herself to bring great folly to us all here on Mount Olympus should she ever know the touch of a man.”
The words tumbled out of me with no deception or embellishments. Mostly because I was still in shock, I was sure. What I’d started out believing to be merely a game had become quite a serious matter and far more than mere sport.
Hera was silent for so long I wondered whether she’d heard me. I caressed her knuckles. “Hera, did you—”
Her eyes had been down, staring at the chaise, but when I spoke, she looked up at me, and now they burned with flame just like Ares’s own. “How dare he bring such ruin upon us all! I could kill him for what he’s done.”
“I do not think he knew. In fact, it was made quite clear to me today that not even the girl knew until mere hours ago. Ceto kept—”
“Ceto!” Hera hissed. “She would be the progeny of such a filthy bloodline!”
I was taken aback by her sudden vehemence. It wasn’t as though she and I weren’t born of primordial stock. Our mother and father were Rhea and Cronus themselves. “What aren’t you telling me, sister?” I inquired.
The rage hadn’t quelled in the slightest when she spoke in a low hiss. “It would take a lifetime to explain my hate of her. But you must believe me when I say I am no friend of the primordial seas. They threatened me, brother. Threatened to send our own parents after me, to end me, for a crime I’d never committed. Ceto claimed that I’d seduced away one of her children.”
I frowned, not quite sure how I felt. This was the first time I’d ever heard such a story. “Which child?”
“An otter pup. A familiar of hers, through which great magick could be performed. Do you remember Agape Mou?”
Suddenly I did recall the otter who used to follow Hera around when she was but a child of ten. It had adoring big, black eyes and a silky mahogany coat. Wherever she’d gone, that damned fur ball had always been just a few steps behind. A memory struck me then, of Hera and I swimming for hours in the sea as Agape had swum between us, performing tricks. It was one of very few memories in which I’d simply been me. When I’d not needed to pretend to be other than the real man that I was. When Zeus hadn’t been around, goading and vexing me constantly with his superiority. When Hera’s attention hadn’t been on him but solely on me.
It’d been a special day for me, and one that, in the rare few times when I allowed myself to be free of the armor I usually wore so tightly banded about me, would always bring a smile to my face. “Whatever happened to that little beast?”
Hera’s eyes grew downcast, and her nostrils flared a little. “Father ate him as punishment. He never believed me. Agape Mou loved me and chose me. I never stole him away from Ceto.” Her voice quivered with a rush of heat, and she turned her eyes aside, swallowing convulsively several times.
I was shocked to see the woman before me look as broken and miserable as she must have at twelve when the situation occurred.
We gods, we never showed vulnerability. So when we did, it was because we absolutely trusted the other person would not take our pain and twist it to their own personal gain.
After bringing her hand to my lips, I tenderly kissed her knuckles. No one who saw me would imagi
ne that I could possess even an ounce of softness. But Hera had always had a magick of her own. She’d enchanted me as surely as Agape Mou. I was utterly hers in all ways.
“Tell me what to do, love, and it will be yours. Do you wish another pup? I’ve a bitch about to birth another litter, sooo—”
She swiped at her cheeks angrily and held her chin aloft. “Anything, my dear one?”
My skin crawled at the tone of her voice, sensing that whatever was about to be said, I would not like. I cocked my head to the left. “Hera, what—”
Twisting onto her knees so that her breasts pointed perkily in my direction, she tossed her hair back and stared down her perfectly straight nose at me. My pulse sped up at the sight of her on her knees, looking innocent and demure but knowing damned well there was nothing even remotely modest about her.
“Medusa must die, Poseidon. She stands in the way of my having my foretold grandchildren. That is a crime for which blood must be paid.”
I wasn’t bothered by the fact that she wished the mortal dead. The Primordial Gods knew that Hera had often done the same to others for one offense or another. But in this case, with the girl’s prophecy looming over us, I wasn’t one hundred percent certain this was the route that should be taken.
“We must discover all we can about her prophecy. Is it just sleeping with a male that will activate it, or could something else as well? There is so much we don’t yet know. We must proceed with caution, my love.”
I tried reaching for her hands, but she yanked them out of my reach and glared hotly at me. “You said you would give me anything, and already you go back on your word.”
Fire burned through my belly. Hera had always been uniquely skilled at tormenting me, twisting my words and using them as deadly blades against me to ultimately get her way. “All I ask is that we proceed with caution. I never said no.”
She scoffed and instantly flared with white-hot light. A coat of silks was suddenly draped around her slim body, covering her luscious curves. I gnashed my front teeth.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 74