Moon Borne (Halcyon Romance Series Book 1) (35 page)

“I must consult my goddess.” Angling her head aside, she cursed the cowardice of her heart. Her feet, however, eagerly jumped at the chance to be spared this humiliation.

Arsenius cleared his throat. “I do not think that is wise, Kyme.”

“I’ll return soon,” she promised him, hoping it was the truth. With gods, one never knew.

“At least allow me to stand guard.”

She shook her head. After a few moments alone, she’d gather enough courage to coax her tongue again. She glided in front of him and bent to place her hands on his shoulders. “I must go alone.”

“Very well, but you’ll probably be needing this.” He plucked an object from the pocket of his breeches.

My ring.

He scowled at her as he slipped the ring onto her finger, but her will was firm. Arsenius was the foundation of this issue. She refused to risk the goddess’s wrath further.

Kyme strode through the trees, into an open meadow. Kneeling in the Moonlight, instead of uttering her usual incantation, she sent up a different plea.

“Great Artemis, please show yourself to your humble servant. I am in need of your infinite wisdom.” Gods loved flattery, after all.

She waited in the forest for more than a quarter of an hour, before a burst of verdant light lit the trees around her. The illumination dimmed and shimmered into the form of a goddess.

Artemis.
With lush dark curls brushing her waist and iridescent jade eyes, she was tall, lean, and muscular. Feminine yet capable. Just like the Amazons who served her.

A faint green glow the color of new foliage framed her as she spoke. “Kyme, my child. Might I presume this is about your gift?”

Ah, wise goddess.

“Yes.” She bowed her head.

“Your answer is clear, my child. You may keep your powers so long as you retain his love.”

She drew her brows together in confusion. “Why?” She clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her question. The gods took great offense at bold demands.

The smile on her goddess’s face flickered. “Many things are above the conception of mortal minds.”

A tremor shook Kyme’s body. Cold sweat beaded her forehead. Her mouth grew dry, unable even to ask for forgiveness.

“A time of great peril approaches,” the goddess continued, her tone indulgent. “I cannot afford my Amazon numbers to dwindle further.”

Air rushed into Kyme’s lungs, stilling her trembling. Artemis overlooked her offense.

“I am pleased you have chosen a Son of Ares as your mate. Your children will be great warriors for our cause.”

Our cause?

Kyme lifted her head, but pressed her lips firm before she asked yet another impertinent question.

The goddess’s warm smile turned fierce. “Mistake me not, my child. This male, and this male alone, I permit you.”

“Yes, my goddess,” she squeaked, her constricted throat threatening to block her speech.

“You have served me well these past years, Kyme.” The goddess met her gaze. “When the time comes, you must embrace your true path.”

Before she was able to distinguish the emotion clouding Artemis’s jade eyes, she vanished. Kyme twisted her hands in her lap. She’d anticipated her mistress would be angry, not pleased. That prophecy had left her with more questions than answers, but she didn’t dare summon Artemis back. The warrior goddess’s wrath was not a fury she sought to experience.

Ares was sacred to the Amazons as well, so perhaps the gods had come to an arrangement. After all, Kyme and Arsenius were providing a great deal of entertainment for them.

So long as you retain his love.

The words caused her to smile brightly. Arsenius did love her. He simply guarded his heart. He’d exposed his affection once, and she was sure it would slip again. All she need do was wait for that moment and declare her love after he did. Cowardly, but Arsenius likely wouldn’t mind.

What of the goddess’s last words? Kyme frowned as she mulled over this riddle.

What, precisely, is my true path?

***

Many times on the trip back to Halcyon, Arsenius perceived Kyme was on the verge of speaking, only she’d bite her bottom lip and shift away, the words never spoken.

Last night, he’d prodded her again and again, but she refused to tell him what had passed between her and her goddess. It mattered not. He would release her. In a few short hours, they’d arrive at his buyer’s location. He’d receive the information he sought and it would be done.

No more Kyme. At least, not until next spring. He rubbed his bonding mark.

Their time together could not be over. Like a petulant child, his inner self repeated,
Nay, not yet. Not yet.

He wished for an excuse, any reason to delay, but already weeks had passed. It was time to finish this.

If only she reciprocated his love, he’d possess the fuel to never let her go. She would be his and the world be damned.

They’d fight together. They’d overcome his curse, the fury of her Queen, any obstacle.

Because they’d be together.

Arsenius shook off those volatile thoughts. He’d experienced too much of the tangible world to ever become a dreamer. Dreams were for those not cursed by the gods.

Contentment and peace were not in the future of Arsenius, born Aden, son of Ares and Elektra, former slave, now slaver.

Around noon, they approached the western entrance of Halcyon and passed through the boundary wards. The first part of his plan necessitated seeking out Nazrin. The winged male brothers owed him a favor and it was time to collect the debt.

It was obvious those two were full-blooded sons—with both parents as gods. They’d most likely been raised in the company of divinity, and therefore comprehended a great deal more about those celestial beings than Arsenius did. He required someone capable of negotiating with a god.

In this case, a goddess.

For his client was Persephone.

While not considered one of the twelve Olympians, Persephone was nonetheless powerful. And she was married to the fearsome Hades, Lord of the Underworld.

Of the three ruling gods, Hades was the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When they overthrew their father, Cronus, the three divided the realms. Poseidon won the oceans and Zeus the earth, as well as becoming the Supreme Ruler of the gods and humans. Hades drew the short lot and ended up with the Underworld, where he reigned over the souls of the dead.

Which led back to why Persephone had contacted him. What did she know about his sister that Lena’s own mother and father, Aphrodite and Ares, had failed to discover?

Most importantly, what did the goddess seek with Kyme? More reason for reinforcements. Arsenius wouldn’t set foot inside her palace until he was sure how to command the situation.

As far as the myths claimed, Persephone was one of the more pleasant goddesses. At least in so much as she didn’t find entertainment in the torment of mortals.

The one possibility he refused to acknowledge concerned Persephone’s connection to Hades. His stomach churned at the fear he was too late—that his sister’s soul was somewhere he could never reach. That she was in the Underworld.

A winged male greeted them as they dismounted at the stables. With sky blue eyes and golden hair, framed by fluffy white wings, he resembled an angel. “A pleasure to meet you. I don’t think my older brother thanked you enough.” Ah, so this was Gaven. The male shifted his gaze between them. “Kyme, my mate has told me of your kindness. I owe you much.” He gave a slight bow.

“It was my pleasure.” She inclined her head in return.

“I sense you are not here to discuss the weather. How can I be of service?”

Arsenius clasped the male’s outstretched hand. “I’d like to speak with you and your brother, if he’s available. I must request that favor, after all.”

Gaven nodded. “He’ll be here in a moment.” Even as the winged male spoke, a figure ambled toward them.
Nazrin.
Poor fellow’s brows furrowed as wretchedly as they had a few days ago.

“Welcome back, Arsenius.”

This time, he was grateful the male could read his mind, so he wouldn’t have to reveal anything in front of Kyme. He communicated with the Wind Borne his urgency to converse. Nazrin sent him a subtle nod.

“Kyme.” Arsenius clasped her hand. “Why don’t you visit Aedre, while I discuss a few details with Nazrin and Gaven?”

Her scowl burned through him. “I’m not one of those domesticated women who stay at home while the men plot war, Arsenius.” Her hands perched on her hips, Kyme’s fierce will was twice the size of her slight body.

“Aye, I know,
Amazone
.” He grinned at her mettle. “I’m sworn not to reveal any of this to you, and besides, it’s safer for you this way.”

She opened her mouth, but his possessive kiss cut off the thousand protests on her tongue. Her body yielded; if only her mind could be tamed with such ease.

“You’re supposed to be my slave, remember?” he murmured against her lips. “Will you trust me in this?”

Without waiting for her answer, he snared her arm and led her to Gaven’s cabin. She followed Gaven inside, but Arsenius paused in the doorway.

The winged male strode to Aedre’s bedside and gripped her hand. Bending, Gaven whispered lover’s words in his mate’s ear and kissed her forehead, before leaving her side. The color rose in her cheeks. Arsenius stepped aside to let Gaven pass, but blocked Kyme’s attempt to follow them.

***

“Very well,” Kyme mumbled against a wall of steel muscle. Arsenius bent once more to kiss her, deserting her at the threshold as she glared after the males who held her fate.

Her hands hung without purpose at her sides, empty and unused to this exclusion from strategizing. It cut her to be dismissed, but Arsenius had asked for her trust.

Warmth spread through her and she smiled. For the first time in her life, she’d placed complete faith in someone who wasn’t one of her sisters. Yes, she trusted him, even with her very breath.

The vermin of uncertainty and self-doubt crept back into her mind.

Embrace your true path
, her goddess had instructed.

She was an Amazon warrior. Her path had to lie with her sisters.

Arsenius would never fail her.

But what if I fail him?

Chapter 33

Kyme approached Aedre and clasped the mermayde’s hand. Though she’d love for nothing better than to sit and talk, she wasn’t sure the mermayde would remain conscious for very long. Her body seemed even frailer than before.

As Aedre’s weak hand clasped hers, Kyme thanked the goddess that she hadn’t been born a mermayde. To endure this every one and a half years? She snorted.

Yet the love Gaven possessed for Aedre had been a tangible force in the air. They’d smiled at each other as though no matter what hardship was presented to them, they would endure it. Together.

Was what she felt for Arsenius so different?

Aedre studied her, turquoise eyes penetrating. “You must tell him how you feel. He needs to hear it.”

“He will never believe me. Amazons do not love.” Having voiced her deepest fear, she hugged her arms across her chest.

“I am not acquainted with your kind, but everyone is capable of love. It is the most powerful force. Believe me, I am well acquainted with every enchantment.” Aedre placed a gentle hand on Kyme’s arm. “He has no reason to doubt you, unless you doubt yourself.”

She squeezed Aedre’s hand. Perhaps the mermayde wasn’t so delusional, after all. Departing her new friend’s side, she closed the cabin door behind her and strolled down the dirt path.

If only she could lock away her fears, shut them out with as much ease as she’d closed the cabin door.

***

The consultation with Gaven and Nazrin was going well. Neither betrayed their surprise upon learning the bargain Arsenius had struck with Persephone.

Nazrin claimed he knew the goddess and offered to aid Arsenius in negotiating Kyme’s freedom.

Gods were rather particular about their human and descendant “pets,” and Arsenius suspected Kyme continued to carry Artemis’s favor. Unless Persephone wished to cause a war, she would not harm the Amazon.

They slipped out of the cabin—Gaven to care for Aedre, Thereus to prepare the ship, and Nazrin to ready the supplies. As for him, Arsenius hungered for nothing more than to steal away to a secluded place with Kyme, but it was out of the question. He didn’t dare trust his tongue not to reveal his secrets, so he tarried by the lake’s shore and waited, without patience, for the hours to pass.

At last, they were ready, and he collected Kyme. They boarded the ship together. Thereus conveyed the coordinates to Castor, and the crew set sail. Once everything was smoothly underway, Arsenius led Kyme to his cabin.

He would hate for her to feel betrayed at the end of this—he’d had no choice.

Inside his cabin, he loosened a plank from the floorboard and withdrew a clothed bundle, tucking it into his waistband. After he replaced the plank, he seized a pair of iron shackles from the cabinet and adjusted them around Kyme’s ankles and wrists. Though she was his willing slave, he had to make it appear otherwise.