Heart (29 page)

I rubbed my bruised arm and opened my mouth
to confess my deal with the Fates when small arms suddenly wrapped
around my middle. I inhaled the fresh scent of my little sister and
lost a battle to instant tears.

I struggled to get her to let go of me so I
could spin around and hug her back. “Honor,” I croaked. “For
real?”

Her head moved frantically against my back.
She held me so tight I could barely breathe, but I didn’t want her
to let go.

“I’m so mad at you!” Her voice was muffled
because her face was smashed against my spine.

I laughed, unable to deny myself this joy for
a second longer. “For leaving?” I guessed.

“You could have at least said goodbye! Or
told me the truth! Or like, a part of the truth!”

I pried her hands from my midsection and
turned quickly so I could latch onto her too. “I’m sorry,” I
whispered into her golden-streaked, auburn head of curls.

“I’ll never forgive you,” she hiccupped,
still burying her face against me.

My heart sank and I lost all motivation to
finish this damn fight. “Do you mean that?” I knew I sounded
pathetic, but Honor had one of the last good opinions of me. And
I’d messed that all up. I’d kept secrets from her about her true
identity, I fled the country without even sending a text and I
maintained radio silence for almost a year. I didn’t blame her for
hating me.

“No,” she admitted. “I’ll forgive you. But
I’m going to make you pay for it.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” A new
smile curved my lips and my shattered heart began to glow from the
new happiness inside me.

She finally pulled back and I got to see her
beautiful face. Her green eyes shimmered with tears and a vibrancy
that always lit her from the inside out. Her lightly freckled nose
wrinkled adorably and her pale cheeks were painted with a pretty
blush.

She was everything her DNA said she should
be.

But she was also my sister, so I could
forgive her for who her parents were.

“What do you think of all of this, kid?
Pretty crazy, right?”

“More than crazy,” she whispered. “This is
insane
.”

A throat cleared behind me and I remembered
that I wasn’t alone. Laughing, I spun us in a circle so Honor could
see Hermes and Ryder. Her intelligent eyes scanned them both
quickly and her small body buzzed with curiosity.

“Thought you might want to introduce us,
Red,” Ryder smiled at me.

I grinned at him. I couldn’t stop grinning at
him. We were on trial for the murder of a god, but my sister was
here now, so everything was better. Or at least mostly better.

“Honor this is Hermes,” I told her, waving a
hand at the disgruntled man. I wasn’t sure if he’d figured out who
Honor was yet or if he already knew before Smith arrived with her.
“Hermes this is Smith’s daughter, Honor, my little sister.”

Hermes didn’t immediately respond. He looked
Honor over from head to foot, his eyes narrowing as he figured it
out. “Smith as in Zeus?”

“Didn’t you know?” I couldn’t help but find
that weird. Why didn’t anyone know about Smith, but me? Why had he
gone into hiding for so long, but revealed himself to Ava of all
people.

“This is Zeus’ daughter? A child he had with
your mother?” I nodded slowly, hoping he would stop freaking out.
He stumbled back to a cream settee and plopped down. “We’re all
dead,” he muttered into his hands.

“What does he mean?” Honor whispered
loudly.

Nerves jumped in my blood, but I couldn’t
guess. “I have no idea.”

“Who’s that?” Honor’s attention had already
swung to Ryder.

He smiled at me, encouraging me to tell her.
So I opened my mouth and said, “He’s my… uh…” I couldn’t think of
what to call him. He was so much more than my friend, but we hadn’t
been able to define our relationship in all the craziness that had
been going on. I had almost explained him as my musician, but that
just made me want to jump off a cliff. I was spending way too much
time on this mountain.

“I’m her boyfriend,” Ryder filled in the
blanks for me.

“Are you?” I whispered, happy all over again
for a different reason.

“Unless you’d prefer to stay friends?” Ryder
sounded serious, but I saw the teasing glint in his eyes, the small
twitch of his mouth.

“We were never very good at being friends,” I
countered.

“Then we better do this instead.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“So he’s your boyfriend?” Honor’s loud voice
interrupted our private moment, but I couldn’t be mad. Ryder was my
boyfriend and I was finally reunited with my sister. If it weren’t
for the god of the sea trying to own me and the murder charge on my
head, my life would be so good right now. “Good job, Ivy.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from
laughing and shared an amused look with Ryder. He mouthed good job
and gave me the thumbs up when my sister’s head was turned.

The doors opened and I felt the rush of balmy
air coast over my skin. Smith moved into the room, dissolving all
elements of the happy reunion with my sister. His chiseled face was
a picture of concern, but the tension in his body instantly pulled
goosebumps from my skin.

“Daddy!” Honor smiled.

He spared her a soft smile before turning to
me. “We don’t have much time.”

Hermes stood slowly to his feet and waved an
arm toward a sunken living room space. “Let’s have a seat.”

We followed him into the luxurious space, but
only Honor took a seat. Smith seemed too wired to relax and I
couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to be ready to run at all
times.

Ryder stood next to me with his arms crossed
aggressively over his chest. “Are you expecting me to bow?”

Smith jerked his head back as if surprised by
Ryder’s hostility, although he recovered quickly. With twitching
lips, he asked, “Would you like to bow?”

Ryder ignored him, which I guessed didn’t
happen very often. “I’d like to know what’s going on.”

“They call you the musician,” Smith mused,
“but it’s only coincidence that you are one. Did you know that? You
could have been anything.”

Ryder’s shoulders twitched with impatience,
but I found this new piece of information fascinating. “So he’s not
the second coming of Orpheus?”

Smith shook his head. “It’s convenient for
them to believe that. But the truth is that whenever a Siren
reaches the pinnacle of her power, say she becomes strong enough to
enslave an entire world of humans, another is born immune to her
power.”

“So Ryder was born because of me? But he’s
older than me.”

“We knew you were coming, Ivy,” Smith said
solemnly. “Your father wasn’t human. He was a god. He was Pontus,
the primordial sea god, and he was as ancient as anything.
Unfortunately his mortality killed him… as it does sometimes. When
your mother fell in love with Max, we knew that it would only be a
matter of time before something like you happened. Thankfully,
Calliope had already run from the mountain. She had already found
Ryder’s father. The entire chain of events had been put into motion
before you were ever conceived.”

“Something like me?” The words were ragged
whispers torn from my throat. I had been reduced to an event or a
natural disaster. I was not a person anymore. I was an
apocalypse.

“Maybe I should start from the beginning,”
Smith suggested.

Ryder wrapped an arm around my waist and
growled, “That sounds like a good idea.”

Smith ran a hand over his face and smiled
weakly at Honor before turning his attention back to me. “This has
only happened once before. Usually the well of power is distributed
among the gods. But the Siren’s power is unique in that when
created with just the right amount of parentage, it can surpass
anything those of us on Olympus wield. See, we are at the mercy of
our patrons and you, my dear, are not. The original Sirens were not
bound to morals or compassion. When they discovered how powerful
they were, I was forced to banish them to an island. An island you
recently occupied, Ivy.”

Thoughts were swirled in my head, colliding
together but not making sense. I picked Tortola because I thought
it was ironic to choose one of the Virgin Islands. And yet I had
been told so many times that Nix couldn’t reach me there. But if my
power had been amplified, why had I been able to live in peace?

Though, maybe it hadn’t only been amplified…
maybe it had also been controlled. Energy pinged through my body as
the thoughts took hold and became truth. “Queen of the Nesoi,” I
whispered.

Smith nodded. “That is your realm, Ivy. You
rule completely there. Not even Nix has power over that water.”

“But how?”

“Let me go back to the original three. I
banished them to the island and there they ruled. They created all
kinds of havoc. They crashed ships, they drowned sailors, and they
lived with untamed power. Something had to be done about them, but
they were part of the Pantheon… we couldn’t just kill them.”

“
We
couldn’t kill them,” Hermes
pointed out. “So we hired someone instead.”

Smith nodded, “The Fates told us of Orpheus,
the one man on earth immune to their powers. He had been born out
of desperation and destiny. The world was in upheaval, the balance
needed to be restored. So we sent him to the Sirens. Orpheus
defeated Thelxiepeia, the queen. The other two sisters, Peisinoe
and Aglaope, were allowed to live under the authority of Poseidon.
We thought Poseidon would bridle their power and keep them under
control.”

“You were wrong.” My heart twisted with
empathy. While I could hardly feel sorry for my homicidal
ancestors, I could relate to how Nix later abused and exploited
them. “Why didn’t you do something about Nix?”

“We can’t kill each other,” Smith said
obviously.

“I thought only a god could kill another
god?” Ryder’s voice was low and gravelly. I wondered what he
thought about me now… how the history of my ancestors affected his
opinion of me.

“That is true,” Smith agreed. “But it is our
law not to kill each other. We have rather a… sordid past. If we
allowed our anger and power to rule our lives, there wouldn’t be
any of us left. We’d have killed each other off thousands of years
ago.”

“So what happens to a god that does kill?” I
thought of Persephone. “Or a goddess?”

“They are stripped of their powers, forced to
live a mortal life.”

The worst of all punishments, I thought
wryly. “Is that why you chose mortality?”

Smith shook his head. “I chose mortality in
addition to my immortality. While I lived mortal for a season, I
always had access to my power. The same is true for Poseidon, Ares
and any other god that lives among humanity. When I strip the power
it is to leave them as a true mortal. They may not ever reclaim
their power.”

“So Ryder is not really Greek, he’s
just…”

“The balance to your power. He’s the
universe’s way of keeping you in check. Should you ever choose to
enslave the world as Nix wants you to, he would be the only being
capable of ending you.”

Ryder and I shared a meaningful look. I
realized in that moment that the universe or fate or what have you
had intended for us to be enemies… at most, we were supposed to
keep each other in check.

Not fall in love.

“Why didn’t you strip the Nesoi of their
powers?” A million thoughts ran through my head. There were too
many to catch. I had endless questions.

“I couldn’t…” Smith took a breath and held my
gaze. His powerful chocolate eyes flashed with streaks of light and
I realized that it would cost him something to explain this. He
couldn’t give me this answer without admitting his own weakness. “I
couldn’t get close enough to them without falling under their
spell. The only being able to withstand the Nesoi completely is the
Orpheus. I have a higher tolerance than others, like my brothers,
but if you truly wanted to control me, all you need to do is tap
into your power completely. The older you get, the stronger that
power becomes.”

Raw and strained, Hermes asked, “Ivy, do you
understand the destruction Nix could wield if you ever… if he
ever…?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I did understand. I could
even see it in my mind’s eye. Energy bubbled beneath my skin and
lit up my bones. I felt the thrumming of ancient power react to
Smith’s words like a prophetic epiphany. I saw the world on fire. I
saw men at my feet and death blanketing every land… every home. I
saw Nix on his throne, patrons worshipping his robes and kissing
his fingers. But I sat at his right hand, responsible for it all.
“And Ryder can’t… harness my power?”

Smith shook his head, “He can only stop
it.”

Meaning kill me. He would be the only one
able to fight through the obsession to murder me.

Ryder turned me into his body and wrapped his
arms around me. He squeezed me to his chest and buried his face in
my hair. My heart beat frantically in my chest, but his touch
helped ease the panic and dread I felt welling up inside me.

“Don’t let me go,” I pleaded with him.

“Never,” he swore. “I’ll never let that
happen, Red. Never.”

“Because you’ll kill me first?” My dry words
were meant to be funny, but the truth was too strong to make them
anything but terrifying.

“Because I’ll love you first.” His lips
pressed against my ear. “Because I’ll never stop loving you.”

I looked at Smith over Ryder’s shoulder,
“What does that mean for Honor?”

His gaze went cold again, all warmth left him
and he said, “If Ryder should fail…”

“You had a child to control me?” My mind
stopped spinning with questions and flashed red with anger. “You
had a child with my mother so that there would be someone able to
kill me if need be?”

He jerked his chin once, unapologetically.
“By the time I realized who Max was and what your mother had done,
it was too late. Max was not a bad guy, but he was primordial, for
god’s sake. His power is the most ancient of all! When I caught up
to Ava, Max was dead and Nix owned you. We had no reason to believe
that Orpheus lived. I knew the Fates were working with Nix. I did
what I could to save the world. I won’t feel bad for that.”