The Stone Queen (The Dark Queens Book 9) Page 12

  She blinked. The easiest way to draw out secrets from others was to pretend a complete lack of curiosity in them. Not that I didn’t wish to know. Obviously I did. Long game.

  Flicking her wrist, she shook her head. “No, I’m done. I thank you.”

  “Sure.” I poured myself some more before taking a tiny sip. Athena had some of the best tea groves on her estate and often proudly boasted of the tea’s medicinal and delicious properties. Sipping this tea was almost like taking a bite of the sweetest, juiciest peach at the very peak of ripeness. Giving a satisfied sigh, I stretched out my legs. “Really is such a lovely day. I was thinking of taking my hippocampus for a long swim lat—”

  A tiny mewling growl spilled off her tongue. “It’s Ares. Blast, I can’t believe I’m speaking with you about this. But I need a confidant, and you’re one of the few in all of Olympus that I trust for advice.”

  “Oh.” Inside I trembled with delicious glee, but outwardly I looked no more interested than if she’d told me the sun was green and not yellow. “What has that naughty boy done to you now? I’ll drown his ass if he dares hurt you, Niece. You know you’ve always been my favorite.”

  Laughing lightly, the sound painfully beautiful even to my own jaded ears, she reached across the table and lightly squeezed my hand. “You are most ridiculous, Uncle. I do not deserve your kindness, and yet I am glad to know I have it.”

  For one second, I felt a stirring of guilt stab like needles through my lower belly. But the emotion rarely lasted longer than it took me to take my next breath. My lips stretching into a wide and easy grin, I tipped my head as though in grateful acknowledgment. “Tell me then, female, who I love more than any daughter of my own, what has that boy done to you?”

  Huffing, she shook her head. “Only you would dare call that hothead a boy.” Her words sounded fond, and I knew I could not afford to talk badly of him to her. For all that she was bothered by him, she did care for her brother a great deal.

  “You know I care for Ares too, Athena. But what affects you affects me. I can see this, whatever it is, weighs heavily on your mind.”

  She shifted in her seat, her eyes glittering with obvious shards of worry. Clearly she was battling with her conscience, which only made my anticipation grow.

  I knew Ares was up to something. He’d been acting strange lately. What with his almost passive acceptance of Aphrodite’s betrayal, his mind was clearly engaged elsewhere, and my own spies whispered of his comings and goings to a small, insignificant island with not a whiff of war upon its horizon.

  Not to mention what the Fates had spoken over me several months ago. Seemed to me that soon our paths would cross whether we wished them to or not.

  I grabbed Athena’s hand and squeezed her cold fingertips. “Athena, dear, perhaps seek out the counsel of the Fates. They always bring me much clarity during times of great distress.”

  Her shoulders sagged, and she gave me a grateful smile. “You’re too sweet, Uncle. It’s nothing dire as you seem to be imagining. It’s only that, well…” She plucked at the tea linen upon the table with nervous fingers, glancing down worriedly one final time before squaring her shoulders and holding my gaze directly. “I’ve a quandary. You know who I am, what I can do. I can sense untruths, and Ares… he is, well, there is no other word for it. He lied to me. And it makes me uneasy.”

  I cocked my head, my pulse racing like thundering hooves in my ears. “Truly. About what?”

  She sighed and slipped her hand out of mine, sitting back against her seat and scowling at her practicing warriors, seeing not them but something else entirely. “That’s just it. I’m not really sure.” She looked at me, her lips tight and thinned to near nonexistence. “But he does, he lies to me. He is covering up something that makes me exceedingly uneasy, mostly because I think whatever it is might not bode well for him or me when the dust settles.”

  “Really?” I sounded shocked because this time, I actually was. Of all the scenarios I’d imagined, I’d not thought Ares would ever betray Athena’s confidence. He was a straight arrow, boring as hell and always worried about doing the “right thing.” Blah. I really could not begin to imagine where his sense of right and wrong had come from, considering the only thing Zeus, Hera, or I knew about morals was the definition.

  Rolling her eyes, she began to chew on the tip of her fingernail. I realized two things. One, whatever Ares had done or was about to do was bigger than I’d imagined, and two, it sincerely bothered Athena. I was surprised to feel a niggling of irritation about it—on her behalf.

  Chewing my lips, I took a sniff until the emotion cleared. “Tell me, daughter of my heart, what it is you imagine your hard-headed brother has done.”

  Her jaw muscle clenching and unclenching, she shrugged. “I do not know. But he mentioned a girl, one bound to a goddess by a vow, and for some reason, I sensed immediately this girl must have bound herself to me. It could be the only reason for his caginess in telling me anymore about it. And the mere fact that he should try to keep something like that from me leads me to suspect that whatever this is is very bad. Very bad indeed. What if I am forced into doing something I do not wish to do? Against my own brother? He will despise me, and I fear I might even despise myself for it.”

  I shook my head. “Consequences are a result of actions taken. If Ares does wrong, he knows what will come of this, Athena. It is why, I suspect, he goes to such lengths to conceal his involvement in these matters. But who is this girl?” I couldn’t help that a little of my excitement creeped out. It’d been some time since Ares’s eye had looked at anyone but Aphrodite.

  She gave me a long look, and I picked up my tea, taking a steadying sip. Something about all of this was affecting my normal state of aplomb more than usual. And with her keen eye, I would have to be exceedingly cautious to hide the true reasons for my curiosity. But in truth, something about this situation was triggering to me as well, and not simply because I cared for the twit Athena—which, damn my black soul, I did—but because it felt strangely pertinent to my own life. Though how, I wasn’t quite sure yet.

  “I’ve no idea, but if I search my followers’ hearts, I sense a disturbance on one of my islands.” She shrugged, and her look was one of irritation. “But I could be wrong.”

  “You should investigate. Send one of your spies, perhaps?”

  That was not at all what I wanted her to do, but again, long game.

  She shook her head. “I’ve got too much to do at present, and my spies are needed elsewhere. But I would like it if someone did maybe follow my brother and reported back to me what was found.”

  I grinned slowly. “Are you asking me, dear Athena?”

  Her smirk matched my own. She truly thought herself such a clever little girl. It was enough to make me scoff at times. Neither my progeny nor my family had ever learned to master the game quite as I had.

  “Would you be a dear, Uncle? There would be more honey-and-pistachio cakes in your future if you did.”

  Taking the last bite of said cake, I chewed slowly before swallowing. “How could I resist such a tempting offer? Of course, I’ve nothing on my schedule. I shall be discreet and learn what I can. I will report back as soon as I do learn something. Only, make sure to double the cakes. You know how dearly I love them.”

  Her laughter brightened the sky and made me feel a prickling of joy that I’d brought it out of her.

  “Of course.”

  I stood and gave her a crisp bow.

  “Be well, Uncle. I hope to see you soon.”

  “As soon as may be, my dear.”

  With one final kiss upon her knuckle, I took my leave. All was going exactly as planned. Now I only had to discover what in the devil my dull nephew was up to.

  Chapter 10

  Ares

  Aphrodite and I weren’t in a good place. Hadn’t been for a while now. I didn’t want to have the conversation with her that I was currently planning, but I also knew that it was time.

  She
’d already spoken to me once before of her unhappiness in our arrangement, and I watched as she’d paraded male after male and female after female into her bed night after night, as though she manically sought something she couldn’t possibly understand.

  Deep down, I was fairly certain I understood it. I’d been actively shutting my eyes to the truth, but there came a point in life when denial was no longer an option, because she could no longer feign happiness. And above all else, Aphrodite’s happiness had always been paramount to me.

  Dressing in street fashion of the early 1980s in the Americas, I adjusted my ridiculous-looking collar in the mirror. I’d once taken Aphrodite on a date to this era, and she’d fallen wildly in love with its music, food, and fashions. I knew that a part of me was trying to remind her subconsciously of the good times we’d had together. We’d had more than a few.

  I’d even returned to the era this afternoon and picked up not only the clothing but also a few cassettes, a tape player, and a bag of burgers, fries, and two pops.

  If it looked like a date, maybe a part of me hoped it could turn into that. But mostly I wanted to set her mind at ease about many things.

  I was reaching for some hairspray to set my hair when I glanced down at the countertop and spotted Medusa’s golden feather. My heart quivered.

  I, too, had secrets. Secrets I fought like hell to keep secret. Secrets I fought like hell to pretend away. I’d kept my promise to myself and hadn’t returned to her. But each night, I was haunted by visions of her face and heard the words of the oracle whisper like the dead in my ears.

  No doubt it was Hypnos tormenting me. The god of sleep had never been a fan of mine. Didn’t enjoy the images he saw in my head, as if I cared. I’d told the bastard countless times to stay away, but he never listened. I was halfway convinced that Mother’s hand was in on this somehow. Mostly because it usually was.

  I heard the chime of Aphrodite’s arrival heralded in the winds, and with a final nod in the mirror, I gently hid Medusa’s feather. I didn’t know why I treated the thing as though it were the greatest treasure. It was but a feather. And I couldn’t understand how it was that a female I’d seen all of two times could have me so confused and unsure, but there it was. Every day away from her, my need to know more about the elusive and mysterious woman only grew.

  “Ares, are you here? I think we need to tal—”

  My stomach clenched as Aphrodite’s golden words shivered like a flame through the air. And when I turned, I was gut punched all over again by her sheer perfection and beauty.

  Shorter than me, she was still tall for a woman, with an abundance of golden hair she currently had pinned up in a milkmaid fashion. What should have looked ridiculous didn’t, though, because even if she wore a shapeless potato sack, she was always and would always be the most beautiful woman alive.

  Her features were perfectly symmetrical. She had the most perfect body that anyone could wish for. She had eyes so blue that they looked like she’d stolen parts of the ocean to fashion them. She had rosebud lips that I’d had the privilege and honor of tasting on several occasions.

  My body tightened as my mind filled with unbidden images of her breathy moans and my hard grunts as we’d made love. I’d never stopped loving Aphrodite, even knowing that she was falling out of love with me. She was the first woman I’d ever truly felt this deeply for, and I was now ruined forever for dalliances, because I knew what it was to have a good woman waiting at home who looked at me with nothing but adoration in her pretty blue eyes.

  But more than her outward beauty, Aphrodite also had one other attribute far superior, though few would think it or even believe it. Aphrodite wasn’t merely outwardly beautiful. I rather thought she was far prettier within.

  Wearing a dress fashioned of falling stars and rainbow nebulas, she moved, and an invisible breeze whipped around her ankles, swirling the colors into a beautiful blend of controlled chaos. She literally wore the stars upon her perfect form.

  She was picking at her nails, a nervous habit she had when something powerful ate at her mind. Nibbling on the corner of her lips, she eyed me slowly up and down, and a soft but appreciative smile touched her lips.

  She’d once told me that I had the best body she’d ever seen. In fact, she’d told me so nearly once a day, always sounding shocked or surprised herself by how much she enjoyed my looks.

  Though she’d not told me so in many weeks now. Sadness lingered around the corners of her eyes as she slowly glanced at her feet and took a soft, quivery breath that sounded just on the verge of tears.

  My heart was clenching, because no matter what, I never wished to see her unhappy. I moved in toward her and gently gripped her chin, tipping her face up so that her eyes met mine.

  The rest of the world melted away when I looked into her eyes. Used to be that I thought of nothing else but Aphrodite. No other thoughts would touch me or linger in my mind’s eye. But now I could not escape the vision of a gold-tipped snow-white feather and the mortal it belonged to.

  Swallowing hard, I pulled her trembling body into mine and roughly kissed the top of her head.

  Her little hands buried themselves in my back, and her tiny nails clawed into my shirt. I sensed the end of us tonight. We were at the precipice of all of it going away.

  When she’d come to me, I’d felt her urgency, saw her unshed tears, and knew she’d meant to do our relationship. But we had history, she and I, a truth that couldn’t be altered simply because we were both troubled by our own situations.

  Medusa did intrigue me, but Aphrodite was my first, and to her, I would always remain faithful, and with her in my arms now, it felt right that we belonged together. That we should not do this thing we both battled so fiercely.

  The dissolution of us when we weren’t together seemed all but inevitable, but when I held her and when she held me back, I was reminded all over again why I’d fallen in love with her.

  We’d both meant to speak words when this evening had started, but at some point, she’d begun to play the cassette tape. The scratchy love ballads echoed through my dark halls. The food I’d bought remained untouched, growing cold by the minute until finally it would taste greasy and unpleasant.

  A flare of white light covered her gorgeous body, and she was dressed as she’d once been when we’d gone to Earth as happy lovers. That white dress hugged her curves in all the right places, her hair teased and sky-high. Her makeup was almost garish but still perfect because it rested upon the most perfect face.

  Neither of us asked what the other had been thinking about. Neither of us disturbed the quiet bubble we’d somehow created. We simply danced in time to the music, our hearts breaking but our grip on one another solidly secure.

  I refused to think about the fact that this was goodbye. That we had, without either of us even knowingly deciding to do so, gifted each other one last night of perfect joy.

  We danced until Nyx returned to the sky and filled her canvas of deepest blue with burning glints of silvery stardust.

  Aphrodite leaned up on tiptoe and kissed me. And if I tasted wetness and salt in her touch, I never mentioned it. I simply groaned and kissed her back with all the heart and soul within me.

  And for just one night, I pretended that she and I were as happy as we’d been when we first fell in love fifty years ago.

  We lay together just as the sun rose. We didn’t make love. We’d not done so in near to a year now, and I didn’t have to ask her why to understand she’d fallen in love with my brother. We simply held onto each other for dear life.

  When I awoke later that night, I found my bed empty. Two weeks later, Aphrodite was gone—to him. The fairy tale was no more.

  Mother had raged at me to retrieve her, to make her stop loving the “beast,” as Mother had not so kindly taken to calling Hephaestus.

  She swore to me that she would fix this and forced me to exact a promise that she would do no damned such thing.

  “She is happy now, Mother! That
is all that matters!” I couldn’t keep the pain from my words, but I was sick of pretending like nothing ever bothered me. I’d fought so hard to keep this thing between us working, but a small part of my head whispered I’d not fought hard enough. Not when Aphrodite’s face wasn’t the only one buried in my heart.

  Now I stood pacing the length of my bedroom like a madman, thinking so many damned thoughts, none of them healthy.

  For the past two nights, I’d thought of nothing else but going to see Medusa, and now, I was doing everything in my power not to go there. It’d been a fluke, the emotions Medusa had pulled out of me. A fluke that had had disastrous consequences, a stupid preoccupation that had meant nothing and yet had cost me everything.

  Rage burned through my bones, and I decided that once and for all, I was going to excise the bird girl from my heart. And then, then I would fight for Aphrodite’s hand once more. Then I would win her back, because I would have finally regained all parts of me to devote to her completely.

  Except, when I got to the place where I knew Medusa rested for the night, it was not the satisfaction of realizing I was right that flowed like water through me but rather the horror of recognizing I’d been very, very wrong.

  She lay upon a bed, her dark curls draped sensuously upon the pillow. Shadows turned the strands to something almost snake-like in their coiling motions, and her wings were tucked in tight to her body. Even so, I was reminded of my strange fascination for them, the way the moonlight glinted off the golden threads. I swallowed hard, rocked to my very core by the powerful emotions flooding through me at a punishing and brutal pace.

  Why was I here, inside her bedroom, staring down upon her sleeping form like a sick, perverted freak?

  I’d just experienced a breakup, and that was all this was. It wasn’t Medusa that tempted me, it was the idea of forever being alone. This mortal wasn’t who I wanted. This woman I barely even knew wasn’t who I needed!