Aerie shuffled most of her appointments to free up her responsibilities at the office. Being on call meant immediate travel to any sites of supernatural style happenings. The few meetings she couldn’t postpone because the weddings were too close, she turned over to Bernie. Dearly Beloved had to keep running or she’d have some brides and their mommas running amok.

Other than several minor examples of hate crimes around the world, including a hate-driven attack they’d stopped in a small village in India, the challenge seemed to occupy most of her time. The saves she’d accomplished had drained more of her energy each time. One day, there had been three incidents requiring her help. The more she tapped into her supernatural power stores, the more tense and itchy she became.

Finn had invited her to his gym to have a go at his punching bag as a way to relieve her stress. She’d declined because she knew of a much better way to relax.

Finn hadn’t complained at all.

Bernie had glanced speculatively at Aerie and Phillip as they made excuses to be out of the office this afternoon.

“It isn’t like that, Bernie,” Aerie whispered while Phillip and Larry looked at something on Phillip’s camera. “We’re just friends.”

Light glinted off Bernie’s red-framed glasses as she nodded her head. “You’ve been spending an awful lot of time together lately.”

“We work together.” Bernie would have a conniption if she really knew who was occupying her bed most nights. Finn had taken very seriously Zeus’s charge to keep her safe.

Last night, he’d loved her soft and gentle for a change, then held her tight as they talked for hours. He was so curious about life as an immortal. Considering she hadn’t really liked the man when they’d first met, she couldn’t seem to get enough of him now.

“Okay, sure.” Bernie lifted her hands, palm out. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just so you know. You guys seem like a great couple.”

“Bernie, he’s dating Emma Jordan. You met her at the barbecue at the Athenian a couple weeks ago. Ben’s sister.”

“Lia’s Ben? He’s a cutie patootie.” Bernie’s smile was wide and generous.

Larry walked up and wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Who’s cute?”

“You are, you old handsome devil.” Bernie pinched his cheek.

“Ready?” Phillip asked. “We have a meeting with your uncle. Don’t want to be late.”

Mars had called a strategy session. She, Phillip, Finn, Anson, and the captain of the partisan legion were mandatory attendees. Apparently, Mars didn’t like the lull in the action any better than she did.

The days had been pleasantly warm, the nights cooling down. The first hints of color tipped the leaves in the maple trees lining Hyperion Street. Phillip was behind the wheel of his sleek black SUV, and detoured through the drive-up lane at the coffee shop. The sun shone through the window on Aerie’s side of the car, warming her skin, as she sipped the Chai latte he’d bought her.

Finn was already in the SecCom meeting room when she arrived. He came right to her side, slipped his arms around her waist and drew her close for a kiss. His lips were soft and gentle. The sweet touch lifted her heart and her spirits.

Anson cleared his throat. “Inbound,” he said as the door slid open with a musical hiss.

Zeus swept into the room, followed closely by Mars. A much smaller woman slipped around Mars and bolted across the room toward Aerie.

“Eirenne!”

The woman barreled into Aerie and hugged her hard. God, Aerie had missed her best friend. So much had happened and Eirenne hadn’t been around to gab with. “When did you get back?”

“Yesterday.” Eirenne rolled her pretty charcoal-colored eyes. “Themis and Nomos kept coming up with more topics to discuss. Or should I say bicker about. It’s never smart to put a Daemones and a Titan in the same room. Nothing gets done.” Eirenne, one of the peace goddesses, had traveled with the two justice deities at the behest of Dice, to determine the legality of Pierus’s challenge.

“What did the Oracle say?” Aerie was afraid to ask, but had to know.

Eirenne tucked a wayward strand of her jet-black hair behind her ear with a grimace. “Bitch only said she’d get back to us. I don’t understand why it takes her so long to deliberate on the problem.”

“I suppose she wants to consider all of the facts.” Finn had hovered at Aerie’s shoulder. He stretched out his arm. “We haven’t met. I’m Michael Finnegan.”

“Eirenne, Goddess of Peace.” Eirenne clasped his hand. A flicker of recognition crossed her face. She darted her eyes from Finn to Aerie and back again. “You’re partisan? How have we not met before?”

The door slid open again and Gaia scurried through with Themis and Nomos trailing behind. Aerie studied her mother, trying to recall ever seeing her scurry anywhere. Worry began to dam up in Aerie’s chest, making it difficult to draw breath. Gaia hustled straight to Zeus, who’d claimed a seat at the head of the table. She dropped something in his hand, then conjured a glass of water from thin air, and handed that to him as well. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her toe until Zeus swallowed whatever she’d given him. Zeus eased his scowl with a loving glance at his consort.

Dragging her attention back to Finn and Eirenne, Aerie spoke. “We only just found out about his status. He’d never known.”

“How is that possible?” Eirenne’s eyes widened and she clutched the strand of pearls draped around her throat.

“My ya-ya died when I was very young.”

“Your ya-ya?” she asked.

“His Nixae.” Aerie slid her fingers along Finn’s arm. “He had no idea he had special status in the pantheon because she died before she could tell him. Somehow, Human Resources didn’t get word of her death and Finn slipped between the cracks.” She shrugged. The system was good, but HR couldn’t keep track of everything.

And Finn had suffered for the error. But he smiled down at her now, and had smiled much more lately. Even laughed occasionally. The rich, full sound had caught her by surprise the first time she’d heard it three days ago. The rumble in his chest had charmed her. The flash of his white teeth had caused damp heat to gush between her thighs.

“Shall we start?” Mars commanded from a spot behind a computer terminal where the captain of his guard, Xander, worked.

Aerie chose a chair about midway down the conference table. Finn settled next to her, immediately claiming her hand and pulling it to his thigh. Phillip and Anson sat across from them. Gaia pulled a chair close to Zeus.

“Aerie, you may begin,” Mars commanded.

She fidgeted on the hot seat, debating what she knew. “I don’t have much to offer. There have been few instances we can trace back to Pierus’s challenge. In spite of the rampant nature of hate in the world today, everything seems stalled. Not much to report on the hate crime and violence front.” It sucked holding your breath for the other shoe to drop. But without specific occurrences they could track back to Pierus or Hate, she had no choice but to wait. Aerie tapped the end of her pencil on the pad of stationery on the table. “This challenge feels more insidious than the other four. Like Pierus has gotten stealthier than what we’re used to.”

“There have been more sightings of Lykos,” Phillip offered. “I do not like the high profile he’s adopted lately. His stench lingers at most of the locations we’ve been summoned to so Aerie can correct the balance between love and hate.”

Gaia humphed, the sound uncharacteristically ruffled. “There has to be something. Pierus doesn’t drag things out once he gets started. The lousy bastard.”

Laughter spewed out of Aerie before she could stifle it. Gaia swearing! Her sisters were never going to believe it. At Gaia’s scowl, Aerie blanked the smile off her face. “Sorry.”

“Laughing isn’t going to help. We need answers. This must stop.” Gaia laid a protective hand over Zeus’s knee.

Chastened, Aerie sent a non-verbal apology to her mother.

Xander diverted their focus back to what was most important. “There have been only scattered instances of demonstrations out of control. At Aerie’s request we asked Research to look into the divorce rate. They discovered an unnaturally large number of new petitions in the mortal courts. When compared to the rate even as little as two months ago, the number is astounding.”

The clicks of his keyboard were the only noise in the still room for a moment. The monitors recessed in the conference table blinked to life. An instant later, a report populated the view.

Aerie leaned forward and studied the numbers. “Whoa! There’s been a seventy percent increase in people filing for divorce. That’s unheard of.” And terrifying. Was love failing? After all the eons she’d inspired people to the lofty emotion. Now that she might have found it herself—with Finn? Her head and shoulders shook as she pushed the notion away. “With this many marriages failing, the world economy will suffer.”

“Explain, daughter.” Zeus’s shoulders slumped against the high back of his chair and he propped an elbow on the armrest.

“When a couples split up their standard of living almost always changes. In many cases, the change in circumstances is drastic. Supporting two households drains financial resources more rapidly. Once assets are depleted, people must dip into their savings. And when they are gone…” She shrugged. “More people, men and women who have stayed home to raise the children, are forced to go out and find jobs. Mostly what they find are positions in which they are underemployed. Menial tasks, beneath their level of education, which don’t pay a living wage.” Little research had been done, but some estimates put the number at forty percent of women who divorced end up living in impoverished circumstances or homeless.

“When money is tight, frustration and other emotions are often accentuated.” Finn’s scowl reminded Aerie of how she’d thought him an angry man before she’d fallen for him. “The statistics for domestic violence skyrockets among divorced couples.”

Aerie sorted through the data provided in the R and D report. Alarm grew like a mushroom in her chest the further she got into the report. She launched a new search into state and city statistics, focusing specifically on the Bureau of Records from Delphi.

“How is this impacting Aerie’s challenge? I’m not seeing a connection,” Phillip commented.

Aerie gasped. “The Morgans have filed for divorce.”

“That was fast.” Anson’s brows rose, crinkling the skin on his forehead to shar pei level.

She quickly searched for another name, and then another. Her stomach knotted and the area right under her heart burned with sadness. She kept scanning the records. Oh, goddess!

“I know what Pierus is doing.” She flung herself against the back of her chair. Pressing her fingers against her eyes, she battled tears.

Finn put his arm around her shaking shoulders. “Aerie, what’s wrong?” His normally gruff voice was soft, soothing. His hands were gentle as he petted her.

“Nine of the last ten couples who hired Dearly Beloved have petitioned for dissolution. That’s unheard of. My weddings stick. I have a ninety-eight percent success rate.”

Pierus was targeting newly married couples, sowing dissension and doubt. Destroying the matches Aerie had curated in the past year. Once the statistics were made public, and they would be, everyone would adopt the same opinion Finn had espoused the night she’d met him. Mortals would cease believing in the prospect of happily ever after. No more Prince Charming chances. No more glass slippers. The fairy tales Aerie had worked so hard to spin a thousand years ago would have been for naught.

If mortals believed there was no chance for them to find love, they’d grow cold and distant. Bleak.

Dizziness settled on her brain, fogging all rational thought. Aerie shoved her chair back from the table, bent over her knees and drew great heaving breaths in. Finn growled quietly next to her, rubbing between her shoulder blades. Even his touch couldn’t soothe her racing thoughts.

Existing without love was no way to live. When she’d met Finn, she believed him to be a closed off, angry man. Although he remained in control of his temper. What if he hadn’t? What if he’d given in to the anger? Aerie knew he could be violent. Goddess, their first kiss was evidence of that. But he’d pulled back from the ledge before he’d lost all rationality. That could be the immortal in him taking control. But, normal humans wouldn’t possess that filter. How would they react?

“Without love, the world is doomed,” she wailed, her voice muffled against her knees. “Hate will fill every soul, because that’s the nature of mankind. There will be nothing holding people back from acting out their stronger passions. No curb to the desire to lash out.”

Finn grasped her upper arm and jerked her upright. His voice was gruff when he said, “Snap out of it, princess.”

Searching his face, she pulled her arm free. “You don’t understand. Pierus will wipe out all the good love can do. Mortals will be harder to inspire once hate seeps in. Even if I win this challenge, I can’t undo all the negativism he’s been sowing.” Needing to move, she burst from her chair and took up pacing, making a circuit around the table, mumbling to herself.

She jolted as Zeus poked a nudge at her. She ignored his mental instruction to calm down and continued her agitated pacing, listing sideways as he jabbed another thought at her, demanding obedience. Goddess, she hated when he did that. A snarky chuckle rumbled around her chest. The Muse of Love hated. Aerie clenched her fists to help hold back the double-barreled one-finger salute she wanted to send. She continued her frenzied path around the table.

The expression on Zeus’s face told her he knew of her anxiety. Her fear. He gripped the arms of his chair and squinted his eyes at her. Even the powerful stroke of calm he’d sent to her body did nothing to alleviate her stress.

“Aerie, I know you have more faith in yourself than that.” Finn rose and tracked her progress. “Where’s the positive, enthusiastic woman I met two weeks ago?”

She drew to an abrupt halt. She’d been deluded if she thought she could beat Hate. And she’d lied to herself all these years that mortals could be persuaded to love. Not when they were so easy to provoke to animosity. “Lost somewhere in a sea of hate.”

Worse, she still didn’t understand what magic she was supposed to inspire Finn to believe. She didn’t have a clue as to the answer to his what if? Dammit, she didn’t even know what his question was.

Agitated to the nth degree, she spun to pace in the opposite direction. She bounced off Zeus, so lost in her despair she hadn’t seen him move.

He gripped her shoulders and steadied her. Holding her still, he pressed his forehead to hers. ”Erato, what troubles you so?”

“I do not know the timetable on this contest. These marriages should not be failing. And so rapidly. I’m going to lose and change into an ugly squawking bird. Father, I don’t want to eat seeds and berries for the rest of my life.”

His chuckle filled her mind. “A very nice picture you paint, my child.”

“I’m being serious. I see no way to win this. I don’t know Finn’s magical question. At the moment, I’m not sure he is the mortal to help me. Good goddess, he isn’t even really mortal. It can’t be him.” Realization washed over her like a tidal wave. She hadn’t considered Finn’s immortality. The terms Pierus put forth demanded she pair with a mortal. She cast a worried glance at Finn.

Stepping away from Zeus, she fought for each breath. She hadn’t wanted him to be the one. As soon as she grudgingly accepted it could be him, she had resisted telling him. Her instincts had been screaming all along. But she’d ignored her mind because of her heart’s attraction to the gruff cop. Now she and her sisters would pay the price.

She hurried to Finn’s side, hurling herself into his arms. “I don’t think you’re the man to help me. You can’t be. You’re not mortal. I’m supposed to work with a mortal man.”

He rubbed his hands up her back, then back down, the slow progression calming. “Princess, Zeus told me I’m not truly immortal. As I understand it, I have a finite number of years to live, and then I die. That sounds mortal to me.” He eased back and sought her gaze. When she looked at him, he continued. “So you can forget that part. Teaming with me won’t cause you to have to forfeit. What else?”

Between the calming nudges Zeus kept pushing into her brain, and Finn’s capable, warm hands, Aerie’s breathing eased. “We don’t know your what if.”

“Did the other men know theirs at this stage?”

She searched his face as she thought. “I don’t think so.” She spun in his arms, her back to his solid chest. Finn folded his hands over her belly, holding her close. Seeking out Mars, she demanded, “When did the others know their question?” Perhaps if she had more time to figure this out, she could win.

“I do not know.”

“Callie’s keeping a spreadsheet. She might have the answer,” Gaia volunteered.

“I’m meeting her tomorrow. I can ask.” Against her spine, Finn’s heart thumped steadily. The heat of his body lulled her and as anxiety waned, sudden, bone-aching exhaustion leached into her frame. The feeling was similar to what she’d experienced during the riot a few days ago, when she’d depleted her energy blowing calm over the mob.

“Are we done here?” Even her voice was weary.

Mars gave a terse nod. “There does not seem to be much else we can do right now. Aerie is correct when she noted Pierus is being sneakier with this challenge.”

Levitating upward, Zeus skimmed the floor as he glided to Aerie. He cupped her chin, pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You look fatigued, daughter. Take the night off and get some rest.”

“I can’t take the night off. What if something happens?”

“We will assign a backup team to be ready. We will only call in case of dire emergency.”

Goddess knew she could use the rest. She nodded.

Finn tightened his grip and his vibrant cobalt mist surrounded her. Phillip stood and began his departure process.

Holding up one hand, Finn stopped the partisan. “You get the night off, too. I’ll be with Aerie.”

Darting a glance from Aerie to Mars, Phillip’s cheeks twitched. He restrained the smile and dipped his chin. “I’ll take it. But I can be there in a flash if you need. I’ll just be on the other side of Olympus. If you need me, you can contact me or find me with Emma Jordan.” He touched a knuckle to his temple and finished evolving to mist. With a slight bending of air pressure, he vanished.

Anson remained seated as he prepared to move back through the Hollow. “Me, too. I’ll be on standby. As usual. Because my life is as exciting as watching paint dry.” Anson saluted Mars, bowed toward Zeus and Gaia and then disappeared, only his laugh lingering.

“Ready to go?” Finn murmured into her ear, snugging her closer to his hard body. Cobalt fog swirled around them again.

Nodding, she started her transfer. The mingling of her sunny yellow aura with his, the colors complimentary and pleasing to look at, kick started tremors at her core. “Take me home, Finn. I am ready for some downtime. Good night, Father. Mother. Sleep well.”

As they shifted into the Hollow, Aerie felt Finn’s arms, or rather where his arms would be if they were still in corporeal form, tighten around her. He didn’t let go and didn’t speak as they moved through the grayed-out vacuum. But the sensation of his lips moving over her neck was as solid as the feeling of his arms. Desire and pleasure zipped through her body, her mist undulating with each erotic pulse.

Once they arrived back at the kitchen at the carriage house, Finn barely waited until her feet touched the ground before he spun her to face him and crashed a kiss to her lips.