Heart (19 page)

I shrugged one shoulder, not sure how she
wanted me to respond. “Like you said, Nix wants to force people to
worship him.”

“And you think you have the ability to
control an entire species?” Her black eyes flashed with lightning.
The clear sky overhead turned sinister and dark. The sun
disappeared, replaced with heavy gray clouds that blotted out all
of the light.

“No,” I answered honestly. “I think it’s
ridiculous to believe I have that much power. I’m just a girl.”

Hera’s face softened, but the sky remained as
black as her mood. “Don’t play with me, Siren. We have no time for
modesty.”

“I’m not being modest,” I snapped. “I’ve
tried to control people before; the most success I’ve gotten was
complete mayhem from maybe thirty men. I would have no idea how to
go about controlling all of the male population around the
world.”

She leaned forward, bringing our faces closer
together. She smelled like exotic spices and something I
instinctively knew was ambrosia. It smelled like the rarest fruit
and heaven. “But that was then, wasn’t it? And now you’re eighteen
and on the brink of your greatness. Only an insignificant number of
years before you come into the fullness of your power. You were a
child. Now you’re a woman. Start acting like it.”

I took a step back. I hated that I let her
know she’d intimidated me, but I couldn’t help it. She was
terrifying. And she said terrifying things. And if I could pinpoint
one of the hundred emotions assaulting my chest, it would be
terror.

“I will never do what you think I can do.
Even if I am capable of it.” My voice trembled, but the conviction
I felt was clear.

Hera pulled back and glanced first at Hermes,
then at Aether. “Time will tell,” she finally said. With a sweep of
her hair and her silky white gown, she turned toward her throne and
took a seat. She didn’t glance at me again; instead she looked at
Ryder and addressed him for the first time. “And Orpheus? What do
you think of all of this?”

Ryder’s jaw ticked with frustration. “I am
not Orpheus.”

Hera smiled patiently at him, giving him all
of the good grace she kept from me. “Of course you are. Only
Orpheus has been able to control a Siren’s power. It’s the gift
your mother gave you.”

“My mother?” Ryder’s already gravelly voice
turned raw with confusion.

“Calliope, of course.” When Ryder and I
stared at her blankly, she added. “The mother of the muses.”

I rocked back on my heels and let that settle
over me. “Oh.”

“
Oh
?” Ryder’s eyes went big and he
looked close to choking on his tongue.

“It makes a lot of sense actually,” I
mumbled. “You’re really good at the guitar. And at singing. And you
are immune to my powers.”

Ryder shook his head incredulously. I
squeezed his hand and hoped he didn’t start hyperventilating.

“She didn’t adjust well to the human form,”
Hera said with the smallest note of sympathy in her voice. Her eyes
slid to me and I didn’t understand the severity behind them when
she said, as if in warning, “Sometimes that happens.”

I thought of Smith immediately. He had said
almost the exact same thing and blamed his brain tumor on that. He
had recovered though. Was it possible that a god or goddess could
die from adjusting to human life?

Why couldn’t that have happened to Nix?

That would have simplified my life by like a
million.

“So, now you are on my mountain. What do you
plan to do?” Hera asked with one lifted eyebrow. Her power had yet
to recede. The storm clouds churned overhead, creating an ominous
vortex directly above us. Lightning flashed hotly between the
clouds, reminding us of her ancient power.

“Stop Nix,” I answered quickly.

A sardonic smile lifted one corner of her
mouth. “You’ve set out to do what none of his other brothers and
sisters have accomplished. The Furies could not contain him.
Skolopendra, Charybdis and Scylla could not destroy him. Yet you, a
girl of only eighteen, a child that does not know the power she is
capable of,
you
attempt to kill a god amongst gods?”

I swallowed and forced my gaze not to wander
to Hermes. He hadn’t been exactly forthcoming with all of this
information. “Yes,” I said.

Hera’s half smile turned into a full,
victorious grin. “Good,” she laughed. “Because he’s here. And if
you do not succeed, he will destroy us all.”

Just as I went to ask her a million
questions, the ground shook beneath my feet. It wasn’t enough to
knock me over, but I felt the impact as someone landed outside the
gates. When a second, third and fourth rumble quaked through the
temple, I went from nervous to petrified in a half-second.

“Messenger, why don’t you show your guests to
their rooms,” Hera suggested.

Hermes nodded quickly, then turned to briskly
walk out what could only be described as the back door. Ryder and I
followed him without giving the temple another thought.

Stairs bordered the entire structure and a
road led away from the temple down the opposite side of the
mountain. Houses, that fell somewhere between the simple structures
we’d passed on the way to the temple and the palaces that dotted
the hillside, lined the road. We did not stop at any of them
though.

Hermes walked for a long time before he found
the place he was looking for. Even though he set a hurried pace, he
did not run. Anxiety burned through my blood and I wanted to scream
at him to
get us out of here.
But I managed to stay quiet
and appear calm.

The only thing that kept me from panicking
was Ryder’s hand over mind. I didn’t think Hermes wanted me to die,
but I also didn’t think he had the same sense of urgency when it
came to Nix that I did.

If Ryder hadn’t come with me, I would have
died of a heart-attack by now.

Eventually we came to one of the many
palaces. It sat at the peak of a grassy hill, magnificent against
the horizon. Vibrant, green ivy climbed the limestone pillars in
front, stretching toward the warm sun that hovered so closely. The
estate seemed to go on forever, taking up acres of space. Fat
cherub statues danced along the roof. Beyond the doorway, I could
see a foyer made with marble tile and a dangling crystal
chandelier. A golden fountain held more dancing angels shooting
water into the air and the pool that circled them.

“My home,” Hermes muttered as we passed the
first set of columns and fountain.

We walked into the main part of the house to
find more white marble and more stately pillars; gold accented
everything.

The house was eerily quiet. I had expected
servants or concubines or… I didn’t know what. But it seemed we
were the only people in the entire residence.

“Why didn’t you beam us here?” Ryder asked
and his voice echoed through the rest of the house.

Hermes didn’t bother to slow his stride or
turn around. “Beam you here?”

“You’re disappearing act,” Ryder growled. “We
walked all this way. I’m just curious why you didn’t use your
powers
.”

“My brothers and sisters can feel my powers
on the mountain. Our comings and goings are not secret here.
Nothing is secret here. I was attempting to be discreet.” His reply
only amped up my nerves. “Here,” Hermes went on. He stopped in
front of an arched door. With a push of his hand, he swung it open
and revealed an expansive room, decorated in pure whites and
glittering golds. “Ivy, this is for you.”

“We’ll share,” Ryder announced before I could
say anything. “We’ll share a room.”

“Wh-what?” My heart jumped to my throat and I
suddenly felt very unsupervised. Not that I needed to be, er,
supervised. It was just the first time in a long time that I truly
felt the absence of an adult in my life.

Even more so than my entire year on the
island.

“I’m not leaving you, Red. Not even to
sleep.”

“Fine,” Hermes cut in before I could freak
out some more. “It’s easier that way for me as well. But if you
need… space, there is a room made up for you right next door.”
Hermes swept his arm to the left and I saw a second arched doorway
not far away.

Ryder nodded his approval, but did not offer
to stay there.

I stepped inside the room and inhaled the
fresh air breezing in from the open balcony. I quickly absorbed the
huge bed in the center of the room, a sunken bath tub in one corner
and a lounging area with white settees in another. There was a door
on one wall that I hoped led to a bathroom.

“There’s a lot of furniture in here.” I ran
my fingers over the silk sheets on the bed.

“Were you expecting… less?” Hermes asked.
Some of the amusement had returned to his voice and I could tell
how much more at ease he was in his own space.

“The temple was completely bare.” I turned
around and raised my eyebrows. “I expected something more like…
this.” I gestured around at the wealth represented here. I knew the
hearts of these gods, minimalism wasn’t their style.

Hermes smiled and his expression turned
devilish. “Zeus once said that there is only enough room for our
egos in the temple. We have tried furniture in the past, but it has
not… lasted long.”

“It deteriorates?” Ryder guessed.

“It is destroyed,” Hermes corrected. “When we
quarrel.”

I laughed bitterly. “What am I doing here?
How am I supposed to stop gods that act like children and hold the
universe in their fingertips?” I plopped down on the edge of the
bed and the silk covers were so smooth, I nearly slid off. I caught
myself just in time and had the worst urge to cry.

“Despite how it feels, you are not alone,”
Hermes promised. “And we may be capable of great destruction, but
you are not a weak flower for us to trample. There is a reason Nix
wants you above everything else. There is a reason he could not
destroy Orpheus. You must have faith in yourself, Siren. Or all
else is lost.”

I lifted my gaze to meet his. “How will you
protect me from him now that he’s here?”

“I won’t have to protect you. You are an
equal on this mountain. He can no sooner possess you than he could
Hera.”

“But before, he said that-”

Hermes interrupted me before I could relive
my lifetime of painful memories. “He told lies to a child that did
not know better. He might have taken you to his home in Greece or
kept you locked away in your pretty condo and that would have been
true. But on this mountain you are goddess of the Nesoi. He must
abide by our laws now.”

“Oh, right.” I could have used that little
gem of knowledge at least a year ago. I might not have run for so
long.

Except I didn’t believe it for a second. Nix
would find a way to own me. That was the whole reason he’d followed
me here. He didn’t believe he was beneath any law, not even the
laws of Olympus.

“We’ll be careful, of course,” Hermes added.
“But there are enough of my brothers and sisters on our side that
we will be able to protect you.”

“Can’t I just hide out here?” I asked
meekly.

Hermes frowned. “There is a feast
tonight.”

“How do you know?” Before the airport fiasco,
I hadn’t planned to call Hermes or ever follow him here. I knew he
had Delphi on his side, but could she see the future that
clearly?

“There’s a feast every night,” Hermes
explained. “We’re gods. We don’t eat supper. We feast. That is our
way.”

So maybe everything wasn’t about me.

Hermes turned for the door. “I’ll summon you
when it’s time to depart.” He left before I could ask any more
questions.

As soon as the door clicked closed, strong
arms wrapped around my waist and hauled me against an equally
strong chest. My hands slid around Ryder’s waist until I clung to
him as if my life depended on how desperately I could hug him.

“We’re going to make it through this,” he
whispered into my hair.

“We’ll be lucky to survive the night.”

He pulled back and cupped my jaw with his
calloused hands. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he swore.
“I’ll die first.”

I looked up in to the swirling depths of his
silver eyes and believed him. The problem was that I refused to let
him die. I refused to let anything else happen to him.

“Just stay with me,” I whispered. “Don’t
leave me.”

“I won’t.” He bent down to sweep a kiss over
my forehead. I immediately went up on my tip toes hoping for more.
I ignored the sinking disappointment when he pulled back. “How do
they expect you to kill Nix?” he asked the question I had been
wondering about for a year.

“I don’t know. I have no idea where the
god-killer is and as far as I know my mother was the last person to
touch it. Maybe Nix has it now?”

Ryder’s hands moved down my neck and landed
on my shoulders. His thumbs trailed back and forth soothingly,
calming some of the tension crackling through my bones. “Where do
the Fates live? On this mountain or somewhere else?”

I ignored the hopeful burst of fire burning
through my stomach. “On Olympus,” I told him. “At least according
to lore. Not near the city of the gods, obviously. But somewhere on
this mountain.”

“We’ll find out tonight,” he decided. “Bring
it up casually, but before we leave the feast, we need to know
where to find Ava.”

I didn’t know how to feel. Over the past few
days I had started to really worry about my mother and then when
Della confirmed that the Fates would use her for something truly
nefarious, I had started to feel a sharp pain in my chest whenever
I thought about her.

“It would be suicide to cross the Fates,” I
whispered, in case they could hear me from whatever demonic pit
they’d crawled into.

“It’s suicide to go up against Nix without a
plan. Either we try to rescue your mom or we wait until tomorrow
morning when Nix has figured out a way to get around the rules.
We’re in a no-win situation. We have to start thinking outside the
box if we want to stand a chance.”