by Lucas, Naomi
“Cerberus...what’s happening?” she asked.
He stepped away at her words. No! Her chest broke open. She reached for him, but he moved farther away, to the other side of Melinoe.
Confusion forced her to drop her hand. Boredom filled what she could see of his face, and he turned towards the dais, hiding his expression from her completely.
She didn’t have a choice but to follow his gaze. The sudden raucous of the guests vanished, everyone was watching the dais, too.
Several of Cerberus’s hounds howled as a woman with dark hair and a spiked crown strode towards the dais, holding a flaming torch aloft. Hades stood at her arrival. Cyane had seen the woman before, during the day of gifts, but didn’t know who she was.
A goddess. She had to be. The woman’s aura was powerful. More so than most, enough to nearly eclipsed Hades. Cyane could feel her presence consume everything.
She glanced at Cerberus. Her breath shortened with fear. Please look at me.
His focus was entirely on the woman who now regarded them studiously. Even Hermes had turned her way.
Cyane wasn’t afraid of the goddess staring out at them. She feared what was about to happen. Consequences for what happened between her and Hermes and the possibilities of more massacre were looming.
Why didn’t he stand next to me?
Then the goddess spoke, and Cyane realized who she was.
Hecate.
“Herein lies the day before last, the final celebration before our Queen Persephone descends to the farthest realm. Our great queen and dearly beloved mother of spring prepares for her departure. Today, this Day of Deviance, we honor her with the act of creating new life, even in this darkest of places.”
Hecate raised her torch and waved it once before her.
The ballroom changed before Cyane’s eyes. The candlelit obsidian walls faded, and in their place were giant, tangled trees. The pillars throughout became trunks, sprouting all kinds of flowers from their bark. An earthy, heady musk filled her nose, and the floor softened beneath her feet. Rich dirt, thick pale grass, and tiny white flowers rose up everywhere.
Streams of moonlight streaked down from an impenetrable ceiling of branches and flowers. The basins remained, but the drink inside them turned a deep red. She watched the liquid bubble and swirl as more trees grew out from the ground.
When it was done, she thought she’d been transported to a forest glade at midnight. Little ponds emerged throughout filled with lily pads and darting silver fish. She half expected to see little fairies flying about, but none appeared.
Tartarus itself fled. Everything disappeared, even the uncertainty and doubt that she’d harbored vanished. Déjà vu hit her so hard that tears threatened to emerge. For the first time in her entire life, and with a sensation she could barely understand, Cyane thought she was home.
Truly home.
In all her travels across Europe, she’d never seen anything so beautiful, so magical, a forest perfectly undisturbed by civilization.
This is what I’ve been searching for. She reached down and slipped off her sandals. This was more than her parents or the gods themselves, this was her. All her. Cyane eyed the ponds, her mouth watering.
“I depart now to meet Persephone above and lead her home,” Hecate declared.
The sound of her voice summoned her back, like she had never been alone. While the feeling of home dissipated, Cyane struggled to believe this was all an illusion.
The goddess stepped off the dais, now made of moss and stone, and walked calmly through the glade. The undying bowed and lowered their eyes at her passing. Her burning torch was a beacon in the shadows. She passed through the doors and was gone.
Cyane finally glanced back at Cerberus; he was holding Melinoe’s hand, and the goddess was gazing up at him with adoration.
Cyane’s heart twisted.
Terrible thoughts seized her.
He never offered me more than protection.
Maybe being kept in his room had been a way to manipulate her? No one had harmed her since she’d arrived. Had he tricked me? Something didn’t feel right. Her chest squeezed tight, but her spine straightened.
I’m not crazy. I’m not.
Cyane stepped forward, forcing Cerberus to look at her.
The Day of Deviance
“We need to talk, please,” Cyane said.
“There’s nothing to discuss.”
“Please,” she begged, her voice softening. She refused to look at Melinoe even though the goddess stood next to him. It hurt too much. “Don’t make me beg. Not here.”
“Melinoe, leave us,” he ordered, and Cyane’s heart thudded with relief. The goddess bowed her head and moved away.
Cyane inhaled and waited until Melinoe was out of hearing distance before she spoke. “Something’s changed.”
Cerberus canted his head.
“Tell me what’s changed,” she demanded.
“I am, and always will be, Hades’s servant. Nothing has changed.”
“You held her hand. Her hand. You detest her, I know you do. I can’t stand it.” The words poured from her. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, why I’m even here,” she cried, “but I can’t stand this, any of this, not anymore!”
Cerberus grabbed her hand and roughly pulled her to a shady alcove of trees, deeper into the glade. She tripped after him. He released her just as suddenly and flung her around. His eyes sparkled with red fire.
“You make my life hard,” he growled. “Harder than it should be. You’re just a mortal.”
Just a mortal? Cyane gaped. “You think your life is hard? Fuck you. Fuck you! You don’t know the meaning of hard.”
He went rigid. Power bloomed from him, and she stiffened.
Cerberus stalked closer, and Cyane stepped backward, her back hitting against the tree. “Little human, you and I are nothing more than pawns to beings much more powerful, much greater than us. The sooner you come to terms with that, you’ll understand the meaning of hard.”
“Something has changed! I know it.”
Cerberus closed the distance, leaned close, and trapped her. Cyane eased back as much as she could, feeling the bark digging into her.
“Oh yes, something has changed,” Cerberus said. “Many things have changed, more than I can keep up with. I’m trying to protect you, but you make that so very difficult. I wonder why I even try.”
“I wasn’t going to accept Hermes’s deal.”
Cerberus’s hand came up to push into the tree near her cheek; the bark broke under his fingers. “What did he offer you? What did he offer you that I haven’t? That I can’t? Escape from this place? The affection of one of the beloved golden gods of Olympus? Flight?”
Information. Cyane lowered her eyes. But maybe the relief of having a single question answered would have been more terrible than its cost.
“What was it? Speak!”
“My parents,” she whispered. “He offered to find out who my parents are.”
The crunching of bark breaking ceased. “Your parents?”
“I’ve been searching for them my entire life. I was on the way to… I was following the only lead I ever had when I ended up here.” She paused. “It doesn’t matter.”
He growled. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Cyane shook her head. “Would it have mattered?”
His hand moved to cup her cheek, and his thumb rubbed the delicate spot beneath her eye. The gentle touch was unexpected. She wanted to nuzzle into his palm as badly as she longed to bite it, hating that his same hand held Melinoe’s minutes before.
“No,” he said at last. “But I could help you find them if they are here.”
“Dead?”
“If they are dead.”
She closed her eyes tight, then nodded once before opening them. “Thank you…”
“For that kiss.”
Cerberus stood back, and she heard it. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of giggles and lutes had grown, and the
smell of wine filled the air, overwhelmingly strong. The background seemed to blur out of focus as she gazed at his striking form. She could feel the blood rushing through her as her heart seemed to beat in time with the whispering music.
Cerberus pulled off his helmet. Her body responded to the sight of his dark beauty cast in moonlight. The darkness shrouded him like his black armor, his pale skin an indication that he’d never felt the sun. His chest heaved once as if it drew in the scent and the sounds as well, and she remembered what that chest looked like under his armor. Toned, rippling, glorious.
My god. The only god.
Her sex knotted, and a light breeze fluttered the flowers and leaves around them. Behind him, she saw dozens of his hounds prowling.
“Yes,” she agreed breathlessly. Yes, she would do deviant things, deviant acts, for a kiss from him.
He lowered his face, but she pressed her hands to his chest.
“Your hand,” she demanded.
Eager, the lust growing between them, he ripped the glove from his fingers and showed her the band of hair around his thumb. The next instant, his lips were devouring her, his body pressing her back up against the tree.
Cyane gasped, breathing in the heady air and his raw scent.
The giggles in the background turned to moans and grunts, even screams. Cyane’s belly flipped. She wanted to join them. She grasped at Cerberus, her hands running all over his armor, his arms, from his large shoulders to the tangle of hair at his nape.
“I need you,” she pleaded. A kiss wasn’t enough.
He grasped the dress at her hips and tore it up her legs, hefting her up as she climbed him. She hooked her legs around his waist, uncaring of how his hard armor dug against her skin, hurting her. The hurt felt so good.
They reached down together and tore at his belt, shoving his pants down to release his already hard cock.
Cerberus rested his brow against hers and panted heavily over her face. Cyane took the warm air into herself.
“I belong to you,” she moaned. “My dark god.”
He responded back, mixing her name with an animalistic grunt.
A light, chilled breeze blew over her sex, and she clenched, hard and desperate. His hands grabbed her hips, tilted them forward, and he thrust brutally into her.
Cyane screamed and dug her nails into his scalp, throwing her head back. Stars flooded her vision. She wrenched her eyes shut as he pressed her back against the tree with every forceful thrust, uncaring of her comfort. She held on, hugging his neck.
Each time Cerberus grunted her name, she clamped down on his enormous cock. It was a battering ram that speared through her desire and fucked her soul. It sent her straight from her body, taking it for his own.
She gasped to discover tears in her eyes. Blissful ones. She brushed them away to see Melinoe, staring at her from behind a tree. Their gazes met and Cyane shuddered, another shove into insanity taking her. She snapped her eyes shut, but the goddess was still behind her lids.
Cerberus grabbed a fistful of Cyane’s hair and pulled her head back to reclaim her lips. He drove his tongue into her. His thrusts grew more brutal and quick, his tongue lashing inside her mouth.
He roared, pushing himself even deeper into her, grinding her onto him. Burning liquid burst inside her, filling her up where his cock couldn’t go. His pumps slowed, his lips grazed her dewy cheeks.
He laid her on the soft grass and rose over her, adjusting his pants downward.
Cyane glanced to the side as he poised her to enter her again. Melinoe was gone.
“You didn’t scream like you always do,” he growled through ragged breaths.
Her sex still ached for relief even as she experienced more relief than she had in ages.
“I wanted to feel you,” she said.
He petted her thighs. His deft fingertips caressed her slick folds. “I wanted to feel you, too.”
New laughter filled her ears, dark and frightening, far to close. Cyane shot up, but Cerberus pressed her back down with his hand. A figure knelt next to them, appearing from shadows.
Hades.
“My lord,” Cerberus muttered.
Cyane shoved down the skirt of her dress and curled her arms around her chest. Cerberus pulled her up against him, wrapping an arm around her.
Hades smiled with glee, roving his dark eyes over them. She pressed into Cerberus but couldn’t look away from the God of the Underworld
Had he watched them too? Her lust fled as something sick took its place.
They’re so much alike. Replicas, twins… Now that she could see both men up close, side by side, she realized their eyes were slightly different, as was their smells. Cerberus smelled wild and musky and untamed. Hades smelled like cold death. Not even the scent of wine in the air reached her nose, it was powerless compared to death.
Hades was nothing like Cerberus.
He was abysmal perfection. A vampire in the night. A whisper in the darkness that promised all physical delights for a terrible, horrible favor.
Hades’s smile deepened as if he knew her thoughts. Cyane tensed and pressed her thighs together and a blush heated her cheeks as Cerberus’s seed emptied from her to spread between them.
Hades’s gaze flicked to Cerberus, and the suffocating pressure left Cyane. She sucked in a shaky breath.
“You ignore my demands once again, Cerberus,” Hades said. “Perhaps you’re no longer afraid of me?”
“Never,” Cerberus’s voice lowered menacingly.
Cyane peered up at him, her brow furrowing. Hades reached out with frozen fingers, caught her chin, and forced her to face him. He held her gaze.
“Your honesty delights me,” he whispered, turning her head from side to side, studying her. “Cyane, did you know your paramour knows why you are here?”
Cerberus’s body went tense.
Her fingers curled. “N-no.”
“Cerberus was quite adamant about finding out, spewing his need to protect you, but I can see… you’ve already figured it out on your own. You don’t need protection while you’re here. If I deem you safe, you are safe, although pain might still find its way to you.” Hades tittered then addressed Cerberus. “So my friend, were you protecting her from me?”
Cerberus didn’t answer.
Hades drew her face towards him as if seeking her lips.
“I kept her away from all who would use her naivety against us,” Cerberus growled.
Hades paused, his fingers still grasping her chin.
Cerberus continued. “I kept her to protect you, this realm, and the laws of nature against greater disruption. If you had but told me all of your plans, my choices would’ve been different. The world nearly died when Persephone was taken. The past will not repeat under my watch.”
“But then she made an oath to Styx,” Hades mused.
“Yes.”
Turning his face to Cyane, Hades’s smiled grew wicked. “Would you like to know why you’re here, Cyane?”
She pushed her way out from under Cerberus’s protective arm, distancing herself from Hades, from Cerberus too. She ached terribly from the rough sex, and her core trembled for release and mercy. Her throat tightened uncomfortably, knowing Hades might use this against her.
She glimpsed Cerberus; his face was hard, furious. He knew, he knew but kept it from me. She could see it now. The image of him grabbing Melinoe’s hand returned like a demon, but it no longer made her upset.
It made her sad.
She’d avoided Hades all this time, thinking he was the largest threat; perhaps that was a mistake. Maybe a deal with the devil, the God of the Underworld, would’ve saved her sanity.
Cerberus’s arm fell away from her, his hand rounded her wrist to hold her still.
I chose him willingly, despite everything. I’ll always choose him.
She’d found home twice already today, once within the forest and flowers and again in his arms. He was her home.
Her heart cracked. I love him.
Cerberus may be the monstrous hundred-headed hound, the endless heads of serpents, the terrorizer of souls, but he’d become everything to her. Fangs, saliva, snouts, and slithering tongues. All of him.
Cyane shivered and faced Hades. “Tell me why I’m here.”
The Note
Cyane followed Hades. Cerberus detested every step she took away from him. Hating it even more that he couldn’t stop her.
They went to the dais, and Hades created a seat for her beside him, offering her a goblet of wine. She picked up her skirt, gingerly sat upon the seat, without taking the drink. Her eyes found Cerberus where he stood. They roved over his helmet, almost fondly. He’d put it back on before anyone could see him.
His jaw ticked, and his feverish hunger returned. It was always at its worst when he was denied her.
Cyane tore her eyes away from him and looked out over the forest glade with a shiver even Cerberus could discern from where he stood. He could smell her arousal, could smell his musk on her. His cock remained hard and confined beneath his armor, frustrated.
He’d planned to finish her off before Hades interrupted him. He’d planned to take her again in the grass, and worship her how Cyane worshipped him. While sex wasn’t something he was familiar with, he was an eager student, and he wanted to forget everything he had ever lived for to use Cyane at his will.
An orgy was taking place around him, naked bodies writhing and fucking everywhere, everything. Nothing, not even the basins of wine, the trees, or flowers themselves were spared. Not even the dirt.
Dionysus danced around with crazed delight, pulling his maenads to him and then shoving them away. Whoever he touched, whoever his followers touched, were caught up in the erotic euphoria.
It put him on edge, it addled his mind. One trio of men stuffed their cocks into a single female. She gagged and giggled as she swallowed one of the cocks in her mouth. Another pair of females poured wine over their cunts, taking turns slurping it from the other.
A female vigorously rode a male from above, screaming and buckling. Awe filled him at the sight. He’d only ever taken Cyane, trapping her and her lust, had never even considered the idea of letting her take him.