A Promised Fate (29 page)

“The two goddesses, Aphrodite and Persephone,
began to argue over him. Their fight became so vicious that Zeus
was forced to intercede. He commanded that Adonis spend one third
of his year with Aphrodite, one third of his year with Persephone
and the last of his year with whomever he desired. During his time
on earth with Aphrodite, Persephone, crazy with jealously, tricked
Adonis. On his hunting trip, she teamed with others who sought
revenge on Aphrodite and sent a giant boar to attack Adonis. He
died of blood loss and in death returned to the Underworld, where
he would be reunited with Persephone. Aphrodite found Adonis as he
lay dying and she rushed to the Underworld to retrieve him.
Persephone was ready for her and once again, the two women fought.
Zeus intervened the second time and finally split Adonis’ time
equally between the women. He would forever be promised to the two
goddesses.”

I looked up at Ava and she stared coldly back
at me.

“As time went on, the ruling from Zeus
evolved, until, rather than sharing his time with the goddesses
year by year, the descendants of Adonis would share lifetimes with
Persephone and Aphrodite.

The corners of Ava’s eyes scrunched as she
tried to understand what I meant.

“Uh…” I thought of a way to make things
easier for her. “It used to be that Adonis would spend his lifetime
with Aphrodite and then the next descendant of Adonis would be
indebted to spend his lifetime with Persephone and so on, back and
forth…”

“Your father is spending his life with your
mother, who is descended from Aphrodite…” Ava finally said
something. “So …
you
are promised to another woman. Ari, you
are promised to Persephone.”

“Yes.”

A puff of air brushed passed Ava’s lips, her
shoulders slouched, her eyes turned glassy and wet. “How could
you?”

“I mean, no!” I nearly shouted. “
No
.
Well, I mean yes, but … there
is
no Persephone. At least not
anymore. The bloodline is gone. She can’t come to claim me if she
doesn’t exist.”

“What if you're wrong?”

“I’m not. There hasn’t been a descendant of
Persephone in a hundred years … maybe longer. I am free.”

“What if you're wrong?”

“I’m not.”

“Ari, what if you are? What if, tomorrow, our
doorbell rings and she is here for you, your Persephone? What will
you do?”

“I will do nothing. I will tell her that I am
sorry that I do not love her and that I never will. I will tell her
I love my wife and nothing anyone does can change the way I
feel.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Ari! You've told
me yourself that I cannot ignore my duties as a Fate and just run
away from who I am! You can’t say you don’t feel like being a
descendant. You don’t get to decide that!”

“Sure I can.”

“Really!” Ava’s fists clenched into angry
balls. “Do you think I want to be like this?” She yelled at me. “Do
you think that when I fall asleep at night, I can just tell those
people in my dreams, the ones who scream at me, the ones in pain
and dying, that I am sorry but I don’t want to be a Fate? Do you
think that when the Kakos came for me, time and time and time
again, that I could just stop them by telling them that I had
decided to just be a regular person? Huh?” She yelled. “It doesn’t
work that way, Ari!” Ava shoved her scarred and tattooed wrist into
my face. “I didn’t get a choice. Max doesn’t have a choice. This
baby does not get a choice and neither do you! You are not above
this, you are indebted to your role just as the rest of us are. You
don’t get to hide. You don’t get to decide. Now, what if she comes
for you? You started a life with me, with our son, with the baby we
are having and now you tell me that you are promised to another
woman. How could you?”

“It’s not like that. There is no Persephone.
Who I am does not matter anymore.”

“How can you know for sure?”

“She’s just gone. She has disappeared, as so
many of the others have. Our kind? Fewer and fewer of us have
enough of the bloodline in us to make us true descendants. If, by
some strange happenstance there is someone out there who has enough
of Persephone’s bloodline in her to
be
the goddess, chances
are slim to none that that person would even know
who
they
are … it is essentially impossible. Look at you. You are above us
all, yet you had no clue you were a Fate until you met me. If
Persephone is out there, someone would have to find her, tell her
who she is and then she would have to want me … she would have to
claim me. It just … is not going to happen, Ava. It cannot. There
is no Persephone.”

“And then what happens when she claims you?”
She pressed, refusing to take no for an answer.

“Ava, I love you. No one is going to show up
looking for me, but if Persephone does, she cannot have me. I am
taken. You have claimed me. No one can make me leave you and our
family.”

“I doesn’t work that way, Ari.” Ava’s face
fell with sadness and frustration. She started to cry and I rushed
to her side, my hand cupped her face.

“Yes, it does. I promise, Ava. I promise. I
promise you that I love you. Only you. Always. There is nothing in
the world that can change my mind. There is nothing in the universe
that can make me stop loving you. I promise.”

“But…”

“Ava, I promise.” I held her face to keep her
from looking away from me. I stared in to her eyes. “I promise. I
love you. It will always be you. Only you.”

My mouth pushed into hers and she kissed me
back. She ran her fingers through my knotted, dirty hair, raking
the fallen strands out of my eyes. The feeling of having Ava in my
arms was electric. I had been craving her touch, her taste and her
smell.

“I should have told you, but I didn’t want
you to worry. You know how that feels and I was wrong to question
your loyalty. I don’t want you to dwell on something that will
never happen,” I said in her ear and then pulled back to look at
her. “I promise, who I am does not matter.”

Ava chewed at her bottom lip and gave a small
nod. “You are mine.”

“I’m all yours.”

I was ravenous. My stomach growled and Ava
flashed a cocky smile. She reached across me and pushed the start
button on the microwave. It hummed and the internal light showed a
plate spinning around inside topped with blueberry pancakes, a pile
of bacon and cheesy omelets stuffed with fresh mushrooms and
peppers.

“Holy hell, you rock.” My stomach growled
again and Ava popped the plate out, setting it on the breakfast bar
in front of a stool. I dug into the omelet and bacon while she
heated some syrup.

“So.” Ava set a warm bottle of syrup down on
the counter. I snatched it up and poured half the contents onto my
plate. “Your mother … ” her fingertips tapped the hard counter.

After shoving a forkful of pancakes into my
already full mouth, I smiled at her. I knew that at some point we
would get to all of Ava’s questions, even the ridiculous ones.

“... is just my mom. We have no connection
other than that. My father, the other Adonis, is satisfying his
role with Aphrodite.”

“I thought they met by accident. Your mom
said they were crazy in love with each other.”

“They did meet by accident, and they were and
they still are very much in love.”

“But he is bound to her.”

“He is bound to her, yes. But it is not a bad
thing. Their roles worked very well in their situation. They were
meant to be together but they also wanted to be together.”

“What if they didn’t want to be
together?”

“The universe would keep bringing them back
to each other. No matter how far away from one another they could
get, the universe would just bring them right back together again.
Eventually, they wouldn’t be able to escape their fate. But like I
said, they love each other so it doesn't matter.”

“How do you know there is no Persephone? I
mean really?”

“There have been … oh, I don’t know, five
Adonis descendants before me who haven’t had a Persephone. The fact
that there is still an Adonis and an Aphrodite is a miracle. My own
mother just sort of happened by pure accident. There hadn’t been a
true Aphrodite for decades. Our people are not as strong as we once
were. Our numbers dwindle with each generation. Persephone, she is
just… she’s gone.”

“How did Aphrodite just come back? If there
hadn’t been a true descendant for decades then how did Aggie just
happen to be Aphrodite?”

“A spark,” I said and shrugged – and I saw
the worry in Ava’s eyes. I could feel her doubt. “Her mother,
Eleni, and her mother’s mother, they all carried the blood but none
were strong enough to fulfill the role until Eleni paired with
Aristotle. Together, they were powerful enough to bring back
Aphrodite. Their blood was so powerful that when Eleni and Aristole
created life, the effects killed Eleni. She wasn’t strong enough to
carry my mother to full term and died when she went into labor
early.”

“Ari, I just … a spark? If it happened to
your mom, it can happen again. It can happen with Persephone,
too.”

“Come here.” I tugged on Ava’s hand and she
came willingly to my side. “Baby, I promise. Okay?”

“K,” she said and gave a tiny nod.

“Do you forgive me?”

“Yes, but, why were you so worried to tell
me, if you don’t think Persephone matters? Why not just tell me
before? You could have saved us all this heartache … this
fight.”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of you doubting
my love.”

“I don’t. I know your love for me is greater
than anything.”

“It is. I would do anything for you,
Ava.”

She kissed away the smudge of syrup on the
corner of my mouth.

My eyes narrowed and I placed the pad of my
fingertip on the delicate skin just under her eye. “What’s this?” A
few black speckles collected on my finger.

“Ugh!” She sighed. “I was so mad last night
and so exhausted that I didn’t wash my face. That’s left over
mascara and eyeliner. Hot, huh? I feel so scuzzy.”

“Mmm.” I murmured, “I know how you feel, I am
nursing a wicked hangover, mixed with a heavy heart and greasy
hair.” My eyes sparkled as a thought came to mind, “Take a bath
with me?”

Ava’s nose scrunched like a bunny, “a bath?”
She said the word as if it were from a strange, dead language.

“Yeah, you know hot, soapy water in a big
tub. That thing you put Max in every night. Haven’t you ever taken
a bath?”

“I dunno … I’m sure I did as a small child
maybe … I’m a shower kind of girl.”

“You have seriously been missing out on
something great. There is something to be said about a long, hot
bath. It will make you feel like you again. Maybe a long soak can
help wash away everything that happened last night.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it, Ari …
that interview…”

“I saw it.” I cringed. “Ava, I am so sorry. I
can’t believe I made you go through with that.”

“That woman is awful.”

“Let’s wash it all away.”

She looked up at me from under her lashes and
I gave her a hopeful, pleading glance.

“K.”

We walked hand in hand to the guest bath. I
plugged the porcelain tub and ran the hot water. In the cabinet,
tucked behind a bucket of Max’s bath toys, was a gift basket that
had remained unopened since our wedding. A package of scented
candles and luxurious bath accessories was wrapped in clear
cellophane. I pulled the bow that kept the package cinched and then
added relaxing salts and foamy bubbles to the water. The room
filled with the scent of eucalyptus and spearmint. Dimming the
overhead lights, I lit the candles and set them to the side of the
tub just out of reach from the rising water.

On my knees, on the hard tile floor in front
of Ava, I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of her sweats and
panties and my fingers grazed her skin as I shimmied her clothes
down her legs to her bare ankles.

“Step.” I looked up at her and she lifted her
feet, one at a time, allowing me to undress her. I pushed up from
my knees, gripped the hem of her tank top, and pulled her shirt
over her head, revealing smooth, creamy skin and a perfectly curvy
body.

“You really are beautiful.”

She smiled.

“So … are you just going to stand there or
are you going to undress me?”

“Oh! Um, okay.” Ava unbuttoned my jeans and
tugged at them and my boxers, yanking them down to my feet. “Step.”
She ordered and I obeyed her command. She then grabbed the hem of
my shirt and pulled it up to my chest. “Lift your arms.” I held up
my arms and she pulled the shirt to my elbows. “Uh, bend down and
walk backwards.”

“Like this?” I followed her directions and
she held on to the edge of my shirt pulling it over my head as I
moved away.

Stepping into the hot bath, I held my hand
out for Ava to join me. She came in with a bit of hesitance and
then we sank together and soaked in the clean, fresh water. With a
cloth, I patted Ava’s face to dampen her skin and then rubbed small
circles of face wash into her cheeks and rinsed her clean. I kissed
her eyelids, her nose, and mouth and a smile played on her face.
The little freckle above her lip is irresistible to me, my tongue
ran over the newly clean space and I kissed and sucked at her skin.
Her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink.

With the wet cloth, I moved down to her neck
and then to her full chest, leaving a trail of bubbles in my wake.
Every newly cleaned part of her body and was covered with my
kisses. Propping her feet on the side of the tub, sodden bubbles
dropped and splashed onto the white marble tiles. I moved the soapy
washcloth to the bottoms of her feet and then licked the clean
freckle at the top of one of her small toes. Sliding the toe into
my mouth, I sucked and kissed her. Her body squirmed with the
intense pleasure and more water splashed from the tub. Ava’s cheeks
flashed a darker shade of pink.