Chapter 16

Themis

“Father, what do you expect me to do?” I sidestepped a flaming disk of molten magma that punched a hole through his walls, nearly knocking the head from my body.

When Calypso had threatened to destroy us, she’d meant business. Apollo’s home had taken the worst of it; I did not envy that man. Whatever he’d done to her, he’d earned her lifelong wrath for it.

“I expect you to make that bitch stop!” he roared.

Father had been in a horrible mood for the past night. The moment she’d left, the skies had rained fire.

Calypso couldn’t control fire, which made this Fiera’s doing, and I had to hide my grin. I’d never expected her to speak with her sisters. How she’d corralled them into doing her bidding utterly fascinated me.

“I can’t. You know this. She is a Primordial and far beyond our control or punishments.”

I could feel his wrath burning holes through me. There were times I was grateful to be blind.

“Judge that man! Send Hades straight to Tartarus.”

I notched my chin. “The hand of justice is my own. Only I can sentence him and only I can weigh his sins. My decision has not yet been determined.”

“Damn you, girl,” he spat. “If I should discover you to be in cahoots with—”

I crossed my arms. “Father, are we done here? I’ve much left to do before sentencing.”

Actually, I had nothing left to do but wait him out. If my wretched father didn’t suspend this ridiculous hearing, I would be forced to judge Hades. My last play was the hope that Calypso’s threats would change the heart of a rather hardhearted people. I didn’t hold out much hope, but as long as there existed even a shred of it, I’d wait this out as long as it took.

“Get out of my sight,” he snapped.

Turning on my heel, I made to leave when suddenly I felt the shift of magic. No longer did fire light the skies; now the very earth trembled beneath my feet with a violence that made my heart stutter.

Tiera’s turn.

Zeus pounded a heavy fist on his armrest as his beautiful castle began to crumble around his feet.

~*~

Hades

“Thalassa,” I murmured in her ear.

She slept in my arms, hadn’t moved a muscle the entire night. Last night, she’d crawled onto my body, pressed a tender kiss to my chest, whispered a sleepy “mine,” and then lost herself to Hypnos’s touch.

I’d been unable to keep from spying on her yesterday. There’d been a point in time when I’d not been able to see her at all and had lost her to a void of darkness, to a place where none but the most ancient of peoples could dwell and no one could enter without seeking audience first. But after seeing her threaten Zeus and seeing the shower of rain, I knew she’d gone to speak with her sisters.

Stroking her bare back, I gazed down upon her. She looked so very human today.

Her skin was flesh, her hair blond. And she was snoring.

I chuckled.

“How is it that I’ve gone all my life without knowing you, my Thalassa?”

Mumbling, she smacked her lips and wiggled her exquisite bum against my thigh. I hungered for her, but I found that I always did anymore. In a matter of days, the woman had grown vital to me, necessary.

Even if her threats didn’t work and I was exiled, I would return for her. Oftentimes in the Underworld, when a day had been particularly trying, I’d somehow always found myself at the river Lethe, admiring the supple beauty of its movements, always so feminine to me. Talking to it, telling it my deepest secrets, sharing of myself with those waters in a way I did with no other.

And always I was renewed by the time I’d finished, as though I’d spoken not with water but with a lover who knew my heart and treasured it.

Threading her hair through my fingers, I whispered, “I once called myself master over you, but it is I held thrall by you, mistress of the deep. I am wholly lost to you. And deep down in my soul, I think I always was. I just needed time to learn it.”

Her sudden snap of movement blinded me, in an instant she had a leg tossed over my hip and was beaming down at me. “Aw, Death Boy, do you really mean it?”

“Witch!” I chuckled. “You were never asleep.”

“Well.” She squinted and then grinned. “I was until about an hour ago, but you made such a fine pillow that I had no wish to move, and then Nim told me that lovers liked to whisper sweet nothings in your ear when you were asleep, so I decided to test the theory.”

“And how did I do?” I scooted so that I was resting more comfortably against a pile of pillows, which also happened to cause her warm center to slide right over me.

Her eyes sparkled as she ahh’d. “Mmm.” She tossed her head back, swaying on me like a gentle tide, her movements so sensuous that I found myself already clenching my teeth from my need to release.

“Isn’t it my day?” she mewled, clawing at my chest with her nails, but she never stopped.

“I’ve lost count.” I nipped at a finger that came within reach.

Giggling happily, she snatched it back and swatted my chest. “Play nice, you beastly man, or I shall—”

“Oh shut up,” leaning up, I took her lips, snatching the words and breath out of her. Then, with a deft move, I reversed our position on the bed so that I was now the one on top.

We’d not had sex like this before, where so much of me touched so much of her. She’d rubbed herself upon me yesterday morning, but I’d been fully clothed. I looked at her eyes, trying to spy any sign that she did not wish this level of intimacy with me yet.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and grunted, “I’m not getting any younger, beast.”

And I settled in. Moving slowly, languorously. Finding a rhythm she liked, nuzzling the side of her neck as her breathy hum filled my ears. And then I’d stop moving and kiss her instead, licking and nipping my way across her body.

“The hollow of your throat tastes like the sweetest of honey,” I murmured, laving my tongue along the delicate flesh, delighted to witness a rush of goose bumps raise up on her skin.

“Tell me more,” she sighed, running her fingers through my hair.

Hiding my grin against her shoulder, I bit down gently and hefted a breast in my hand.

“What does that feel like to you?” she asked me breathily.

Plucking at her burgeoning nipple, I glanced up at her. Her skin was flushed with dew. Blue eyes gleaming like jewels stared back at me.

“Like a ripe, heavy pomegranate.”

Most days she’d prefer a form with larger breasts, but today she was more nubile, with smaller, perkier breasts. It mattered naught to me either way.

“You and your fruit,” she said and then exhaled when I resumed suckling her nipple.

“Sweet. So very sweet,” I whispered between heated nibbles.

Her leg rubbed up and down my calf.

“I love it when you fill me, Hades. I swear I can see stars when you’re inside me.”

I chuckled. That had probably been the most sensible thing she’d ever uttered, and still it made me smile. Her innocence was refreshing. None of what I did hadn’t already been done to her before, and yet somehow she still behaved as though it were the first time.

Pulling out of her completely so that I could now rest my arms on either side of her thighs, I kissed my way around her navel.

Her fingers moved through my hair, and with a deft twist, she pulled my head up.

“I know where you are headed, lover, so allow me to expedite this process, shall I? You may proceed to my honey hole with the utmost of haste.”

I should tell her no for being such an impatient wench? But I wanted nothing more than to be there myself.

With a groan, I abandoned myself to the pleasures of sampling a woman, my woman. In all my time with Persephone, I’d not been chaste. I’d bedded nymphs, satyrs, maidens, centaurs, and others, but only ever to satisfy a carnal craving.

None of us had ever wanted more, but there was something to be said about getting to experience this form of intimacy with one to whom your heart belonged to so completely.

“Gods,” she moaned, and I could tell she was close, because her little talons were digging into the back of my neck with a fierceness. But I would not let her come, not yet.

Pulling back, I crawled up her body.

Her eyes were twin flames of fury. “You get your sweet ass back there and finish me off, Death Boy, or—”

But I’d learned how to tame the shrew. I took her lips. And her tongue slid along mine passionately, tasting the essence of her on me. She was vast and endless and created a hunger in me never to be assuaged.

Ready for my own release, I slipped deep inside her and rumbled, “Come when you are ready, my Thalassa.”

She fractured in my arms not a second later, dragging me down into the briny depths with her.

~*~

Calypso

I took a bite out of my bowl of fresh watercress salad with pickled seamelon, mentally applauding myself for yet another masterful creation—although it would have tasted even better with just a hit of fresh mint on it. I’d have to remember that next time I made it for Nim.

“So you never did say how things are going with the lawyer.”

I’d tried my damnedest not to think about Olympus or Olympians in particular for the past day and a half. Already I could feel the tremors of Tiera’s powers waning, soon to give way to Aria’s winds.

I was sick to my stomach that Zeus was going to ride this out. I mean, I would destroy him, him and all his cronies, but my poor sex slave would still be judged and condemned. And once Themis passed sentence, it could not be undone, not even if I snatched up Persephone and showed her off to her adoring public. Themis’s verdict was absolute and final. I was glad justice was on my side, but I was extremely unhappy with how obdurate her prick of a father was being.

Stabbing a fork into my lettuce, I growled, “Not well.”

She frowned. “Is there anything Sircco and I can do for him, Janita?”

Releasing my fork so that it clattered back into the bowl, I sighed, hanging my head in my hands. “You’ve done more than enough for me, truly. The lawyer has done all she can to see the matter resolved, but unless the prosecutor drops his case, there is little I can do to change things.”

Nim nodded. “I see.”

“I’ve done my part. And I was surprisingly very calm about it all, level-headed and adult.”

Shrewd eyes narrowed. “Did you threaten to raze their town?”

“Of course I did!” I grumped, chuckling at how well she knew me. “But it’s mostly a bluff. I’m doing all I can to ensure Henry doesn’t see his day in court, but, I feel mostly helpless. This is a feeling I’m struggling with.”

Standing from her spot at the head of the table, Nimue got up and waddled over to me and gave me a hard hug.

“I’m sure Henry,” she stressed his name and chuckled, “will be fine. You always seem to have a knack for figuring out even the hardest of problems. Have a little faith, Janita.” Her fingers brushed my cheeks.

“Faith,” I scoffed. “In what?”

I was sick to my stomach about all this, and even sex with Hades didn’t keep me as happy as it had. I just wanted to know this was over already, no more wondering or worrying.

“In Calypso’s magic”—she whispered and I froze, glancing up at her with wide eyes—“for I feel her favor all over you.”

“You do?” I asked slowly.

“Oh, she loves you, Janita. She’d be a fool not to. You’re quite possibly the most perfect creature, with the exception of Calypso herself—”

“Of course.” I tipped my head graciously.

“How could she resist you? I know I can’t.”

Getting up from my seat, I enveloped my daughter-in-law in a tight squeeze and whispered in her ear, “If I were her, I’d tell you she loves you back.”

Her fingers dug into my back and she nodded. “Well if you do ever happen to stumble across her, let her know that I’d not mind a visit from her now and again.”

I frowned. The one time I’d shown myself to Nim as I truly was, she’d seemed terrified of me. I’d never wanted to frighten her like that again. But if she really wanted to see the real me, I’d drop by. Now and then.

“I’ll let her know.” I sniffed, feeling a strange wetness gathering behind my eyelids. I’d say it was tears, but a goddess never wept. “If I should ever happen to see her, that is.”

With promises to see one another in the morning, I packed up the basket of food and made for home. Once out of sight of their castle, I shifted to legs, wishing to be bipedal today.

Hades loved to tickle my toes. In fact, he always seemed to find one reason or another to touch my feet, but he’d done the same with my tail, massaging oils into the scales and whispering naughty, naughty things into my ear as he’d done so.

Just thinking about him made me hawt. But then the heaviness of spirit gripped me once again. Aria’s assault would be mighty, but so had Fiera’s and Tiera’s, and not a peep from them.

I gnashed my teeth, debating whether I should just go peek up there, see how things were going, get a feel for the land, as they say.

Suddenly the waters around me turned a rich pink with veins of gold, and I face I hadn’t expected to see soon materialized beside me, floating on an ocean current, with no body attached. Aphrodite’s beautiful face was smudged with dirt, debris, and soot. Her blond hair was a wild mass, and though she looked harried and unkempt—so unlike her typical self—her megawatt smile was firmly in place.

“Good gods, have you done it now!” She chortled, filling my seas with effervescence.

I frowned. “Done what exactly?”

I was too afraid to hope this might actually be good news.

“Zeus is in a tizzy.” Her head bobbed happily. “An absolute tizzy. My poor little Hephy cannot keep up with his constant demand for more lightning. The gods are infuriated with you, Calypso. You’ve made mighty enemies.”

I shrugged. I’d made worse. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Okay.” She blinked. “How about the fact that Demeter herself has gone to Zeus and demanded he make this right, no matter the cost.”

I gasped, starting to get excited despite myself. “She didn’t. Even thinking Hades had murdered her only daughter?”

Dite nodded. “Oh, she did. And when Zeus threatened to strike her down with a bolt, she smacked him. Right there before gods and country. His cheek glistens a bright cherry red even now.”

I chortled. I simply couldn’t help myself. The supposed offense had been with Demeter, and yet even so, Zeus was refusing to back down. It let me know that my assumptions had been entirely correct. None of this had anything to do with Persephone at all; it was just another one of Zeus’s mad grabs for power.

“That bastard of a whore.”

“I would laugh, but I probably shouldn’t. He is Daddy Dearest, after all.” She snickered anyway.

The Olympian family tree was a convoluted hodgepodge of incest and rape, rather fascinating and all very highly disturbing. I tried not to rustle those branches often.

“Anywho, I hear Hephy calling to me. My poor little, twisted man. I will leave you now, Calypso, but know this: he will break. And sooner rather than later. Even Uncle Dearest isn’t quite the brownnoser he normally is. There is tell of his waters heaving with the beginnings of birth pains.” She laughed. “Remind me never to get on your bad side, Caly.”

So Psycho was turning on Master. How very interesting. I snorted. “Not to worry, Dite. You entertain me. I promise that if I do drown the Olympians, I’ll spare you, Hephy, and the delightful Themis.”

Bobbing her goodbye, she poofed out of existence, and I suddenly felt ten times lighter, as though I were Atlas and the weight of the world had just been tossed from my shoulders. Beaming brightly, I flashed myself to Hades’ room and his waiting arms.

He was as he usually was, lying on the bed, nibbling on a tray of cheeses and nuts and reading a book. He had a very dark, sexy nerd appeal to him when he did that. It drove me wild.

Yanking the tale of Oliver Twist from his hands, I tossed the first-edition treasure over my shoulder and kissed him.

“It’s happening, Death Boy, the tide is turning. Tomorrow you’ll have your pardon.”

There wasn’t much talk for a while after that, and what was said was mostly, “Mm, right there. Oh yeah, just like that. Or,” my personal favorite, “I’m coming!” By the time we’d finished, I was nothing but a heap of goo in his arms.

Hades lazily toyed with my nipple, popping it in and out of his mouth.

“Does that bring you pleasure, sex slave?” I asked him with a voice grown hoarse from too much yelling.

He shrugged, “Always.”

“Well then, you may continue.” I flicked my fingers, sighing happily as he continued to gently explore my body.

I ran my fingers through the supple ends of his hair, looking up at the ceiling of the room, simply happy to be alive.

I frowned when I noticed he’d not been touching me for the past few minutes. Looking over at him, I shook my head.

His eyes were intense and molten, running across my flesh so that it felt like he was memorizing each and every nuance of me.

“Hades?”

“How can I leave you? Even winning back my freedom, I have enjoyed my enslavement, my goddess.”

I chuckled. “I wasn’t much of a warden, I fear. I went far to easy on you.” I pinched his backside hard.

But he didn’t laugh as he normally would.

“Darling?” I crawled out from under him and sat up, worried by the frown lines on his head. “What is it?”

“You are of the waters, Thalassa, and my home is up there. In the Above. I must return.”

“I grant you permission to stay. You’ll have free rein in my kingdom. You should not want for—”

“But I cannot run the Underworld as I should down here, not permanently.”

He’d done a fine job of it since he’d been here, and I said so.

Shoving blunt-tipped fingers through his hair, mussing it even further, he leaned back on an elbow, cocking up one knee in a relaxed yet thoughtful pose.

He truly was a beautiful man, even with the plethora of scars marring his body. There was a light dusting of hair on his legs that I now scratched against with the toe of my foot. I’d never imagined I’d enjoy the feel of coarse hair, but I did his.

He reached for my foot with an absentminded air. Hades was as addicted to my touch as I was to his. I knew this. But I also sensed that his concerns troubled him tremendously.

“You’ve done a good enough job of it, lover. What need have you to return? Could you not at the least stay for a little while longer?”

“The Styx is flooding, Thalassa. Charon is up to his eyes in dead, and with nowhere to put them, soon the pathways will be bogged down. I have to return. I have souls to weigh and judgment to pass. Come with me?”

He squeezed my foot.

But even as he asked it, I knew I could not be a permanent resident at his home, either. The waters of the world were my own, with the exception of Psycho’s little oasis, which I never ventured into. There was much I had to do here, too. Mind the creatures, see to their well-being, ensure a fertile crop for Nim and Sircco.

Those concerns, while valid, were far from the most important, however. I had grandchildren due any day now. I could hardly leave Nimue yet. Not without ensuring the protection of and blessings for my babies first.

“I can’t.” I shook my head.

His lips twisted, and he released my foot. I felt horribly bereft without his touch. But I wasn’t sure whether I should crawl over to him and demand he put his hand back on me or make a joke to lighten the mood.

So instead I did neither.

He slept fitfully that night, hugging tight to me the entire time. We were a pretzel of limbs, clinging like octopus tentacles one to the other. I felt a heaviness in my chest that felt an awful lot like tears.

Goddesses didn’t cry, but right then, I could have sworn something wet slid down my nose.