Aphrodite (11 page)

Of course Zeus shaped who I was. Even if he hadn’t hand-sculpted my personality, his actions, the threat of him lingering over me, had shaped my entire life. But Zeus couldn’t hurt me now.

You stood up to Zeus. You can handle anything.
Ares’s voice echoed in my mind.

I opened my eyes. The similarities between Poseidon and Zeus put me on edge. He outranked me, he ruled the realm I was stuck in for the moment, and he was intimidating. But at the end of the day, he was nothing compared to his younger brother. Poseidon was powerful, sure, but Zeus had been powerful too, and in the end, I’d done the impossible.

I’d fought back.

Even in my darkest hour, I’d found the strength to resist Zeus. I’d given Adonis the credit for that, built him up as a symbol, but
my
strength bought the second the demigod needed to knock me out.

Standing, I walked to the kitchen, and grabbed a water from the fridge to alleviate my Sahara-dry throat. I drained the bottle, then grabbed another, and forced myself to take slow sips while I pondered my predicament.

After a moment’s deliberation, I grabbed the key card off the countertop and strode out the door, shielding the room behind me as the door closed
.

I refused to be afraid of Poseidon. And I was going to make sure he knew it before the night was up.

Chapter XIV

I DIDN’T EXPECT Poseidon to hang around on board, but I’d be stupid to try summoning him without checking to see if he was still at the bar first. Unfortunately, searching for his power signature required a level of calm I didn’t possess in my current state. I forced myself to take a deep breath, trying to feel at ease within the safety of the writhing crowd. Music thudded through the room, reverberating through the floor. The cramped, close quarters of the club and the press of people against me made my chest tighten. Closing my eyes, I took another deep breath and inhaled the scent of alcohol, fruit juice, sweat, and the ever-present briny smell of the ocean that seeped into the fabrics on the ship and latched onto human skin. Bright, multicolored lights danced across my closed eyelids.

“Okay,” I murmured as the tightness in my chest eased. My eyes fluttered open, and I looked around the club with a renewed sense of purpose. He wasn’t in the cluster of tables by the door. Nor did I find him on the dance floor. My eyes traveled the polished wood of the bar curving around the club, searching for inexplicable gaps.

There
.

I zeroed in on an unoccupied length of the bar, the sheer amount of people-free space tipping me off more to Poseidon’s location than his power signature. When I approached him, the shield flickered, allowing me to step across the barrier.

“I’m sorry.” He didn’t look up as the shield re-formed behind me, bringing the music of the club to a quiet murmur.

If singing kittens had erupted from his cranium, I wouldn’t feel more surprised. “You’re . . . sorry?” The words were so simple, considering what he’d done, that I somehow felt more insulted than if he’d said nothing at all. “For what, Poseidon? Assaulting me last night? Threatening to kill my friend if I didn’t sleep with you? The horrible things you said?
This?
” I held out my arm, showing off the purple welt his handprint had left. “I’m a goddess, Poseidon. I heal pretty quickly. Do you know how much pressure you have to apply to even leave a mark on me? Much less one that takes
this
much time to heal?” If I’d been human, my arm would have shattered.

He closed his eyes, deflating into a defeated figure nursing a glass of ambrosia. “Yeah, I do. I don’t know what got into me. I’m—”

“You don’t
know
what got into you?” My voice rose to a shout. “Let me give you a hint.” Snatching his glass off the bar, I threw the ambrosia down. The blinking shot glass hit the ground with a satisfying smack. “You are too powerful for this crap.”

“—the hell?” Poseidon sprang to his feet, his features twisting into a distorted mask of rage. I grabbed the bottle next, but he reached out and caught my arm, shifting his grip above the bruise when I winced. “Have you completely lost your mind?”

“You don’t get to not know what you’re doing. You run a realm, for crying out loud!” Wrenching my arm free, I stepped backward, shaking droplets of ambrosia off my shoes. “I meant what I said before. This is a new pantheon. Persephone—”

“Has no authority here.” Poseidon’s eyes glittered with challenge.

“We’re
all
playing by new rules. That means you don’t get to threaten or coerce or
assault
me when things don’t go your way.”

“Or you’ll what?” The happy, multicolored, flickering lights dancing over Poseidon morphed into menacing flashes. “What exactly do you think you can do to stop me?”

“Not me.” I shook my head for emphasis. “Her. You gave Persephone a natural right to your realm when you refused to take back Triton’s powers.” A thought gave me pause. “That was intentional, wasn’t it? You’re using her as a safety net. You know that if you screw up badly enough, she’ll step in and make sure your realm is still safe. You can’t
do
that, Poseidon. You don’t get to be depressed.”

“I can do whatever the hell I want,” Poseidon growled, towering over me. “The only people whose opinions I valued are dead. They’re all dead. Amphitrite, Demeter, Tri—” He cleared his throat. “Triton.” His voice softened so much I almost didn’t catch his last words. “How
am I
one of the last ones standing?”

“We are gods. We have responsibilities, obligations.” I tried to inject some sympathy into my tone but failed. Forty-eight hours ago, I could have conjured some, but I’d learned a lot about Poseidon in the past two days. He didn’t deserve my pity. “You have a realm to run and enough power to do some serious damage if you get more than a little tipsy.” I slammed the bottle of ambrosia down to the ground. Instead of breaking, it hit the floor with a hollow thunk before rolling under the bar. I glared at the bottle, disappointed the ambrosia didn’t live up to its dramatic potential, before I turned my attention back to Poseidon. “Crippling grief is a mortal luxury. You don’t get to wallow.”

Pot, meet kettle.

Shut up!
I argued with the snarky side of my brain.
The last twenty-four hours were hardly typical and
I
don’t rule a realm.

Realm-rulers didn’t get to place their friends and family above the fate of everyone else, no matter how much more they mattered. Hades had been willing to break the world to find Persephone. That’s why gods didn’t do the whole family thing. Because balance is hard and we didn’t trust ourselves not to fail.

Maybe Poseidon’s generation was defective. I considered all the drama, jealousy, and angst permeating mythology since they had come along. Maybe the Titans had a point when they tried to put a stop to his generation.

Poseidon glared at me with so much vehemence that, for a second, I wondered if he could hear my thoughts. “I’ve seen you with that demigod. Don’t pretend not to care. I warned you he might be a threat—”

I rolled my eyes. “If you had proof he was actually a threat, I’d act on it.”

“How vague.”

“At least I’m not so wasted, I don’t know what I’m saying. Gods! That is so dangerous.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not going to listen to Zeus’s latest blow-up doll lecture me on what it means to be a god. I have given up more than you’ll ever—”

I tilted my chin up. “I never met Triton, but I know for a fact Demeter would hate you for using her as an excuse for your stupidity.”

He shook his head and returned to his seat. “They already hated me. My son died. And it took me weeks to realize he was even missing.” Poseidon cleared his throat and ran his fingers along the wooden bar. “And Demeter . . . I always thought we would—That I would find a way to fix things, to make things right.”

“You can’t. And you won’t ever be able to.” The words came out blunter than I’d intended, but no less true. Persephone’s mother and Poseidon had been an item for centuries until she broke things off. He didn’t take it well. I didn’t know all the details—the interpersonal drama amongst the gods hadn’t been included in my knowledge base—but I knew it was bad. Demeter had left the Olympian council and disappeared into her own realm, refusing to even speak to Poseidon again, until her daughter went missing and she needed his help. And now Persephone, the nicest god in the pantheon, would barely look at the sea god unless he demanded her attention. And even then, it was with a blatant distrust Poseidon seemed to take as a challenge. Watching him try to prove himself to her was disconcerting, at the least. “But you can do everything in your power not to sink lower. A small consolation, maybe, but better than you deserve.”

Poseidon blinked. “You have a way with words.”

They work better than a sledgehammer.
Words were my weapon of choice when charm wouldn’t work. “Then maybe you should listen.” I sat next to him, holding his gaze. “And see that I am serious. Pull. It. Together. And if you ever so much as touch me, or gods help me, Poseidon, even look at me with ill intent again, I will
invent
new and exciting ways to hurt you.”

The look on my face must have convinced him I was serious, because I saw something, not fear precisely, but something like caution, flicker in his gaze.

I flashed my teeth in a cold smile.

Poseidon’s eyes widened in alarm.

I . . . wasn’t that good. When I turned to see what could possibly alarm the sea god, my heart stuttered in my chest.
Impossible.
Four passengers separated from the writhing mass of the crowd, their eyes wide, pupils fully dilated. Charmed.

Like,
really
charmed. The sheer power pouring through them made my hair stand on end.

My eyes dropped to the long, glittering silver stakes in their hands. Olympian Steele: the only weapon in existence capable of killing gods.

Chapter XV

ALL IT TAKES IS a scratch.
I couldn’t breathe. Four humans against two gods should be a nothing-battle. Poseidon could probably handle them alone. With his eyes closed. In seconds. But if Olympian Steele, named for the shape of the blade, not the metal, broke our skin at all, we were dead. No.
I
was dead. As soon as they broke the shield, Poseidon would teleport.

But why come after us like this? They could have nicked me any time I’d been off my guard in a crowd. Poseidon too.

To send a message maybe? That they’re armed, dangerous, and can come at us from anywhere.

Maybe. But to what end?

Does it matter? You. Are. Dead.
Surely one of them would at
least
get a scratch in.
Move!
I told myself. Instead, I sat as though glued to my stool a smile frozen on my face. To an outside observer, I might even look calm, but only because of the paralyzing fear pumping through my veins. I was dead. Even if I somehow got away right now, I was dead. I was stuck on a ship full of passengers that could be charmed. Who knew how many of those weapons were out there?

They could all have one.
My gaze swept the crowded bar.
Every single one of them could have one.

“Okay.” Poseidon stood in a slow, controlled movement and raised his hands in surrender. “Message received, loud and clear. You’re off limits.”

What?
Poseidon thought they were under
my
control? My fear eased as I saw an opportunity. A very, very slim opportunity, but anything was better than certain death. Right now, I had information he didn’t have. These humans weren’t mine. Right now, the threat—
my
threat, in his mind—stood in front of him. Next time, he might not see them coming and that would worry him. But would it worry him enough? I had to try.

“Promise me neither you nor your agents will ever act with the intention of harming me, Adonis, or anyone else I declare off limits.”

The passengers raised their arms in unison and slashed at the shield with an eerie accuracy, the strobe lights turning the fluid motion jerky. How were they seeing us if we were shielded?
The same way you figured out where he was, probably. Big empty stretch of space in an otherwise crowded room. Either that or they noticed you wandering over here and vanishing from sight.

Yeah, that hadn’t been terribly subtle.

The shield shuddered, but held. One of the humans, a boy with shaggy brown hair, didn’t look old enough to get in the club. He wore jeans, a blue cotton T-shirt, and sneakers. Next to him stood a man with a comb-over, glasses, and a tacky brown suit. My gaze slid to the next passenger, a brunette in a striking hot pink dress, then to the man with black hair, thick, black-rimmed glasses, khakis, and blue-collared shirt.

Poseidon edged closer to me and away from the passengers. Sweat beaded along his forehead from the exertion of holding the shield. “I promise neither I nor my agents will ever act with the intention of harming you, Adonis, or any other individuals you declare off limits unless you or they try to harm me.”

“Physically.” I didn’t want Poseidon to be able to come after us for hurting his feelings.

“Unless you or they physically try to harm me,” he agreed with a nod.

The shield flickered, and I struggled to keep my face composed. “Swear protection too, and that you’ll stop with the self-destructive behavior and start behaving responsibly.”

The passengers bore down on the shield, unrelenting. I glanced around the bar. No one seemed alarmed by the four people slashing at thin air with silver stakes. Were the rest of the passengers behind another shield, or were they all charmed? What the hell were we dealing with? And how drunk did Poseidon have to be to attribute this to
me?

He always thought it was me.
The realization hit me like ice water. Of all the known gods, only I had enough charm to pull this off.
I bet
that’s why he didn’t want me investigating in the first place.
Persephone would never believe his suspicions, so rather than voice them, he’d come up with a way for her to figure it out for herself. No wonder I couldn’t access all my powers here. He’d probably capped them on purpose.

In a twisted way, his theory almost made sense. The first of the demigods went missing shortly after my creation. I’d been working with Zeus at the time, against my will, yeah, but Poseidon couldn’t know what Zeus had ordered me to do before he died. Plus, Zeus had obviously found a way to get in and out of Poseidon’s realm unnoticed. How else could he have gotten Triton?

Oh, gods. He thought I had something to do with killing his son.

“I swear. Now call them off!”

Every second the shield held bought me an opportunity to become a little less helpless. “And any unconditional favors I request in the future. Anything I want that you have the power to provide.”

Poseidon gave a strained laugh. “You want fealty too? You can forget that.”

“Not fealty.” Shared power was way too personal. Even if I was the one in charge, the thought of being bound to Poseidon at all gave me the creeps. “Favors.”

Music surged around us at full force and the pulsing crowd sharpened into focus.
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.
My resolve wavered, but I took a deep breath and forced myself to wait for Poseidon’s response.
Say something,
I mentally begged him. Even if I never actually used the favors, having them to hold over him would give me a measure of security so strong, the benefit outweighed the risk of death. I’d be safe. Between being sworn to Persephone, and
owning
Poseidon, no one, god or otherwise, would ever be able to threaten me again.

Well, except the four little humans with their magic daggers.
They
would still be a problem.

Poseidon hesitated, probably wondering if he should give me what I wanted or just teleport away. Right now, the threat stood in front of him. Next time, he might not see them coming. “Three favors. Anything within my power, so long as your request doesn’t harm me, my realm, or any other god, granted without condition.”

Three favors were two more than I’d hoped for. “Deal. And it doesn’t count as a favor unless I say the phrase ‘Poseidon, I’m calling in a favor.’”

He repeated the whole vow, caveats and all, after me. Then the shield broke. “Call them off!”

“First tell me what you did to me.”

“What?”

“You did something to me. What?” I demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It hurts when I use my powers and something’s off, I—”

“Chaos’s Balls, you probably just have realm sickness or something. I’ve got nothing to do with it. Call them off, Aphrodite!”

Moment of truth. It was time to test if his vows held. “They aren’t mine.”

Poseidon turned to me, his jaw gaping in disbelief. For a precious second, he stood there, staring in shock. “Are you
kidding
me?”

“You promised to protect me,” I reminded him. Inclining my head toward the charmed passengers, I added, “Now would be a good time to start.”