The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) Read online

  She looked like one of my beloved sea roses today, dressed all in shades of pink, red, white, and green as she was. With her dark curls piled high upon her head, she appeared so young and yet so wise.

  When it came to matters of sea and home, I felt wise. But with this, this all-consuming obsession with Hades, I felt wildly out of my depths and unsure. I wanted to keep him with me forever and toss him far from my shores for turning my life upside down as he had.

  And then I’d want to kiss him better if he landed too hard.

  I was a wreck.

  Sighing, I planted my chin on my hand. “There was a...erm, lawyer as such, who were supposed to get back to me about Harold’s crime. But she’s not gotten in touch wi’ me yet, and I canna seem to stop the shakes from worrying.”

  “You’re in love. It’s sweet.”

  “Love.” I scoffed. “This is lust, lass, plain and simple it is.”

  “I often find them to be one and the same.” She shrugged a dainty shoulder. “First comes lust, then comes love, and before you know it, there’s a wee babe in the belly and you’ve suddenly become a beached whale with sausage toes and terrible cravings for the oddest food combinations.”

  I laughed. Considering I’d had all the children I cared to have, I needn’t worry about that particular problem.

  “I don’t know, Consort, mayhap it is the beginnings of love. I crave him. And not just his cock.”

  “Well, that’s a start.”

  “His arms feel so nice. I laid in them last night, rested my head upon his chest, and listened to him talk of his past. He’s remarkable, really.”

  “Mm. Yes, that’s always my favorite part, too.” A dreamy look flitted across her face. “Especially when they whisper their undying love to you when they think you’re asleep. That tickles me every time.”

  Oh. Interesting. I stored that idea away in the vault.

  “But what if he doesn’t feel that way back? I mean, I’ve kept our relationship purely carnal.”

  She giggled, covering her mouth with a napkin. “I’m sure it seems that way to you, Janita, but you remember once that I told you how a first time marks your soul?”

  I nodded.

  “I can almost guarantee that you’ve been more unguarded than you imagined. If he feels the same way for you, believe me, you’ll know it soon enough. It is an emotion far too powerful to hide for long.”

  I felt better, but only marginally. I still wondered what Themis was thinking. It was weird that I suddenly felt this stake in what happened to Hades. But now that I’d found my sex slave, I had no wish to release him for the next thousand years to the tender mercies of the vultures.

  It seemed most unfair.

  “Janita,” Nim tapped my fingers, “If you want to know what that lawyer thinks, go ask her.”

  I felt the loss of time with Hades keenly. I had no wish to leave him for that long. In fact, I almost hadn’t come this morning. Were it not for the burgeoning beans in Nimue’s belly, I’d not have come at all, but I came daily to check in on my little buns and make sure they were as well as their mama.

  “I should go to him,” I finally said. “Tell Cook to clean these dishes today, Consort, I’ve got a man to go see.”

  Her laughter followed me down the hall.

  Chapter 14

  Hades

  I felt the water stir at my back. I’d sat in bed for most of the day, reading. Calypso had an amazing library stacked high with books. I’d forgotten the simple pleasures in life, having to be daily in charge of running the Underworld.

  I’d hoped at some point Persephone could have helped lighten the burden a little, but she’d never really taken to my dead as I’d hoped.

  Small, delicate hands settled on my shoulders. Calypso began a slow massage, crushing her breasts to my back as she leaned over and whispered, “Guess who.”

  Smiling, I slipped my fingers through hers and squeezed. “Ah, Linx, good to see you again,” I teased.

  And received a sudden smack upside the head for it.

  “Linx. Linx indeed, you fat arse.”

  But then she kissed the side of my jaw, and I must admit that I melted into her touch. I was growing rather addicted to my time with her. Twisting around, I rested a knee upon the edge of the mattress, and the region of my heart trembled.

  Calypso looked like the goddess she was today. She wore a gown of tight-fitting water, the blue of the deepest ocean trenches. Her hair, normally a pale, wavy green, was a deep black and braided in such a way that it resembled an octopus’s tentacle. A menagerie of golden aquatic animals encircled her neck, and her eyes were a startling pinprick of stardust.

  Even the shape of her face was slightly altered, the eyes more sloping than typical, the lips a little softer, the jawline slightly sharper.

  “You look lovely,” I murmured, trailing my fingers through her thick braid, only to discover it actually was an octopus’s tentacle.

  Our god forms were usually unpalatable to mortals, which was why so many of us had adopted a more human appearance. But to me, she’d never looked more beautiful.

  Wanting her to see me as I truly was, I let my own mask slip. She sucked in a deep breath, sculpting the planes of my face.

  I knew what I looked like—the monstrous visage I hid, the angular features that’d terrified Persephone the one and only time she’d ever seen me.

  But Calypso’s eyes didn’t fill with fright. Instead, her fingers moved upon me tenderly, as though learning me by touch.

  “I’ve often wondered,” she whispered.

  “I do not frighten you?”

  A curl of a smile ghosted upon her lips. “I always knew you were a Dead Boy. Now you’ve only confirmed my suspicions.”

  Chuckling, I pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.

  “Do I disgust you, Hades?” she asked almost reluctantly, and where there’d been no fear before, I caught a glint of it now.

  “You fascinate me, Thalassa, every inch of you.”

  Moving to her knees, she threw her arms around my waist and hugged me tight. And I couldn’t move. This small woman was bringing me to my knees.

  I’d barely survived the disastrous relationship that was Persephone, so the thought of building something with another woman alarmed me. But I wanted it, too. I’d always wanted it.

  Kissing my lips, she breathed her life deep into my lungs. The very essence of her, it was cool and sweet, and I craved more of it. I was ready to cast off my clothes and do with her as I willed, but Calypso laid a steadying palm against my chest and sighed as she broke our kiss.

  I frowned. She’d never stopped me before.

  “Hades, where is Persephone?”

  “I was ready to tell you before and you stopped me.” She’d mentioned there being spies around, but I’d suspected strongly it’d been more than that.

  The downward turn of her lips confirmed my suspicions.

  “I was scared, Hades.”

  “Why?”

  Her eyes grew wide. “Because you terrify me. Being with you. The things you make me feel. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

  “What do I make you feel?”

  Scooting back against the headboard, she crossed her legs at the ankles, and I couldn’t help but trace my finger down the inseam of her bare left foot. She grinned, wiggling her toes.

  “Small.”

  Not what I’d expected to hear. “Small? I take it this is no compliment.”

  She sighed again. Calypso was rarely this serious, and when she was, it always bothered me. Moving to the footboard, I pressed my back against it so I could look squarely at her and she at me. We gazed at one another in silence, our heads full of many thoughts.

  “I’m the waters of life, Hades. I am vast. There is no place on Earth or Kingdom that I do not exist. I am a mighty force, and yet with you, I feel so...” she rolled her wrist, as though seeking the right word.

  “Exposed?” I guessed, pausing in my touch of her. I felt the fir
st bite of that emotion I’d so often felt with Persephone but that’d been entirely absent during my time with Calypso. The blow of it twisted my stomach into knots.

  “What? No.” She huffed, as though I were a fool.

  But I’d been down this road too many times to count. Persephone had always had “talks” with me. Chats about how her needs weren’t being met, when in fact, none of mine were. We’d never slept together. She was as unspoiled today as she’d ever been before my supposed rape of her.

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know. Gods,” she rolled her eyes, “my words so often confound me. You make me feel like a woman, Hades, I suppose is what I’m trying to say.”

  It was my turn to frown. “Calypso, you’ve always been a woman.”

  “Yes, but not really. I am an elemental. One of the four great elementals. That is who I am. Always needed and yet often taken for granted. When you gather together on Olympus, have I ever been invited?”

  “Thalassa, you’ve never wanted to come.” I shook my head, sure that I was missing something here.

  Her eyes crossed, and I had to admit, that even when irritated, she was cute. Smiling now, however, would probably be doing myself no favors.

  “That’s not the point though, because I’ve never been asked. You all sit on your high and mighty thrones while I supply you with practically everything.”

  “That is not so—”

  She held up a finger. “When Hephy has to make Zeus his bolts, does he or does he not need to dip his metals in water?”

  “Well—”

  Not to be deterred, she pressed on. “And when Bacchus makes his wine, where do you think that water comes from? Not Psycho, I can promise you that. And Aphrodite’s countless baths that makes her skin sparkle, Demeter’s crops, your dead, all of it, all, of, it, done by my hand.”

  I was confused. I thought we’d been talking about Persephone, so I couldn’t quite figure how we’d wound up here. I scratched the back of my head.

  “The point is, Hades, I dismissed you all as vain, selfish, and petty, ridiculous creatures, and now you’re making me think that I’ve been wrong. Not about all of you. Most of you really are vain, selfish worms—”

  I cleared my throat.

  She chuckled. “You, Dite, and Themis are the exceptions to the rule.” She shrugged. “I’m learning that I don’t know everything, that there are still things that surprise me, and—”

  Crawling to her knees, she made her way toward me. Then, parting her thighs, she straddled my legs, looking deep into my own eyes. Not for sex. There was nothing at all sexual about this. Calypso wanted honesty from me, true baring of emotions. And I knew that if I gave it to her, my entire life would forever change.

  “You most of all.”

  My lashes fluttered. “Thalassa, I’m—”

  Grabbing my chin, she forced my eyes to hers. “If I’m going to put my neck on the line for you, Hades, then I want to know you’re worth it.”

  What exactly did that mean? I wasn’t asking her to fight my fights. I didn’t need her to do it. Clenching my jaw, I twisted out of her grasp. “I’m not some child that needs coddling, woman.”

  She punched me. Reared back and walloped my bicep hard enough that it throbbed. Twin dots of pink stained her porcelain cheeks. “You don’t get to decide that. I do. You’re coming to mean too much to me.”

  I snorted. “My cock does, I’m sure.” I thrust up, stabbing her rear with it.

  “Mm.” She nodded quickly. “Yes, I enjoy that part of you. Very much. But...”

  Pulse suddenly pounding like a raging river in my ears, I waited with bated breath for her to continue. When she didn’t, I snapped, “But?”

  Palming my chest, she shook her head. “Damn you, Death Boy, but there are other parts to you I want to explore. Like your soul. Your heart. I wish to know you, bastard of a man, more than just riding your cock—which is exquisite. You have consumed me. I think of you day and night, and not just riding your bean pole. I want to know what your favorite color is. I believe it’s black, but—”

  “Amethyst.”

  Her lips turned to a tiny “o.” “I’d never have guessed. Or your favorite flower.”

  “Nightshade.”

  She sighed. “That is a lovely flower. But that’s the thing of it, we have four days left together, and it’s not enough. Not nearly. Do you desire to know me as I desire to know you, Hades? This is what I need to know.”

  I should say no, spare her feelings. I’d tried and failed miserably at romance. She would someday grow to hate me as Persephone had, and with Calypso, I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to bear it.

  She sank claws into my chest, cutting through my flesh near to the bone, and bled me. “Do not lie to me, Death, you reek of it.”

  The mask of her face turned deadly.

  “I said nothing, Thalassa,” I said, slowly disengaging her claws from my body. Instantly the wounds healed. She’d given me naught but a love scratch.

  “Answer me, or I’ll take your head, you devil,” she snarled, and the waters began to turn murky with threads of green.

  Chuckling, I rolled my eyes. “Must you always be so dramatic, woman? You wish to know the truth? Then yes. Yes, okay, I want you. I want all of you. I want nothing more than to rip this godforsaken dress off your body and taste my fill of you. But I want more than that. I want to take you through my home, I want to show you my people, I want you to be a part of my life, in the Underworld. Do you understand the impossibility of our situation? Not to mention the fact that I will be locked up soon. You and I both know this.”

  Grunting, she crossed her arms. “Do you think so little of me, bastard, that you honestly believe I’d let something so minor hold me back? Have I not flooded the very heavens before? I could take Zeus’s golden crown if I wanted it. I am far beyond this weak, silly woman sitting like a peahen on your cock.”

  I laughed. I did adore her ridiculous ways.

  “But you have yet to answer my question. Where is Persephone? She is not dead; Themis told me so. So what did you do to her?”

  “I poisoned her and banished her to the realm of Air.”

  She frowned, and the transformation that overcame her I wished I could paint. The way her brows dipped and then slowly rose, how her eyes had darkened and then began to glitter with humor, how her lips were currently wobbling as though withholding laughter, and how it all suddenly coalesced at once into a giant peal of laughter that bubbled from her lips and rocked the very waters of the seabed.

  It took her a moment to gather herself, and once she did, she was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “I was so wrong about you. I thought you’d had no hand in this. Where did you get the snail?”

  I smirked. “Charon made a deal with a maiden.”

  “And here I blamed Poseidon.”

  “Well,” I shrugged, “maybe I was trying to throw Themis off the scent a little with that deception.”

  “And the blood? Cerberus missing?”

  “The blood was Cerberus’s.” I blinked, remembering the grizzly set of events that’d led me to finally taking a stand against Persephone’s wild ways.

  She shook her head. “But there was so much blood. Dite said the dog had been found.”

  “She lopped off his third head. She wanted to hurt me, and she did.”

  “Oh, poor puppy,” she mourned.

  Only Calypso could call the slobbering killer a poor puppy. Cerberus was a monster through and through. With a taste for trespassers, he was my first line of defense against the constant scheming and trickery of my brothers. Neither of them cared to possess the Underworld, and yet they’d always resented my godhead and would happily see me dispossessed from my kingdom.

  “It will grow back, eventually.”

  She was back to cuddling me now, twining her fingers languidly through the ends of my hair on the nape of my neck. The touch broke my flesh out in goose bumps.

  I’d seen and possesse
d the woman every which way imaginable, and yet this was the type of intimacy I’d secretly always yearned for: an ear to listen and a heart that cared.

  It was those feelings that caused both Zeus and Poseidon to view me as weak, as less than them. But I’d never cared for the debauched lifestyle of my brothers. I’d always been far more private than they. Nor did I care to sire a million bastards, as they’d each done. I wanted any offspring from my bloodline to know their parentage.

  “Why did she do that?”

  “Why does Persephone ever do what she does?” I shrugged. “I told Demeter that she needed to check her, needed to set boundaries, but she never did. Persephone was unhappy, self-centered, and spoiled. I gave her everything I had to try and keep her happy—jewels, clothes, money, even my time—but always she mocked and laughed in my face.”

  “Why did you accept her as your responsibility, Hades? You have allowed everyone to believe you raped her, stole her innocence from her. Why?”

  I sighed. I’d often asked myself that question, and the only answer I could give was, “Because I imagined myself in love. I wanted to protect her from herself.”

  “You could tell Themis what she did to the dog. Surely that would justify your banishment of her.”

  I shrugged. “What would be the point? Everyone believes the lies now. Her reputation is untarnished. While mine...”

  Kissing me, she pressed her warm body tight to mine. The kiss was short, but it held a breath of meaning.

  “What deal did you make with my sister to get her to agree to take on Persephone?”

  Aria hadn’t been pleased when Cerberus had suddenly shown up in her realm carting the sleeping body of Spring. But just like Thalassa, Air was in all things. She’d heard Persephone’s lies and knew the girl for what she was.

  “I imagine she took pity on me.”

  She blinked. “Spring cannot stay there forever. Soon she’ll be required to return to the Earth.”

  Running fingers through my hair as the exhaustion of the past few days suddenly seemed to catch up to me, I shook my head. “I couldn’t stand her in my realm for another hour. I didn’t think. I simply reacted. She’d gone too far this time.”