Only Everything (2 page)

My father glanced at me, and I saw his eyes widen. For a moment I thought I glimpsed fear there, confusion, but then it was gone and I knew I had imagined it. Fear was alien to Ares. He instilled fear, but he never entertained it. He wouldn’t know how to feel it if he wanted to.

“I think King Zeus will disagree about that. He doesn’t take kindly to humans who try to mingle with our kind,” he spat, tightening his hold on Orion until his eyes bulged. “Let’s go to him and see, shall we?”

I tried to scream a protest but choked on my own desperation. Throwing Orion on Zeus’s mercy was akin to tossing him to a pack of rabid, starving wolves. If I let my father take him, he was as good as dead. Without thinking, I reached for my weapon, the necklace still clasped inside my fingers. The moment I took aim, I felt a steely calm overcome my heart. With a bow in my hands I never failed. With a bow in my hands I was the purest version of myself. I pulled back and let fly. The hunting arrow zipped through the air, headed directly for its target. Headed for my father’s heart.

At the last second, he lifted his free arm, deflecting the projectile with a dented bronze cuff. My trusted arrow, my last resort, ricocheted to the ground with a pointless
plink
.

My father leveled a glare that assured me I would be punished for that act of insubordination later. Not that I cared. Not that I mattered one iota in that moment. I would have given anything, my powers, my immortality, my life, to save Orion. But before I could even put those thoughts into words, the God of War disappeared in a fantastic swirl of ashen clouds and hail, taking the love of my life with him.

•  •  •

“Mother!” I screamed, swirling into consciousness in the center of her bedroom chamber. It was a huge space, made cozy and romantic by the presence of several goose-down mattresses; hundreds of pillows in hues of red, pink, and violet; and the swaths of luxurious silks and furs strategically draped over walls and windows. “Aphrodite! I need you!”

“Eros? What is it?” My sister, Harmonia, appeared next to me, her red hair, exactly the same butt-grazing length as mine, still floating weightlessly around her face from the breeze kicked up by my entrance.

“It’s Ares. He’s taken Orion to Zeus. They’re going to kill him,” I said, grasping her arm, trying to keep my voice steady.

“What?”

My mother, Aphrodite, the original Goddess of Love, stepped into the room from the balcony. She wore a low-cut white robe, a slit up its flowing skirt to expose her long, tanned leg. Her thick blond hair was piled atop her head in a perfectly haphazard bun, with tendrils falling to surround her gorgeous, heart-shaped face. Her blue eyes had often been described as “startling” because of their unnaturally light hue, but to me, they were simply a reflection of my own and Harmonia’s eyes, about the only trait that linked us as family. My brothers Deimos and Phobos had my father’s eyes—dark as the deepest pitch in the underworld.

“He found us. I don’t know how, but he found us,” I said, rushing to my mother and seizing both her arms. “You have to take me to Zeus’s palace, Mother. Now.”

My mother’s perfect brow furrowed. “But I—”

“They’re going to kill him!” I wailed, desperate. Zeus had never been known for his patience or fairness, and when my father was in a rage, he had a tendency to tear people apart one limb at a time,
making their death as drawn-out and excruciating as possible. Orion could be suffering that fate right now. He could already be gone forever. “Please, Mother. I can’t go there without you. You know this. Please.”

My mother searched my eyes, and then her mouth formed a grim line. “Fine. We shall go. Bearing in mind Hera’s abhorrence of unannounced visits. Especially when yours truly is involved.”

“I’ll find a way to pay you back,” I swore to her.

“Yes,” she said simply. “You will.”

She took my hand, and I felt the ground begin to spin beneath me. At the last moment, I reached out and grabbed Harmonia’s arm, taking her with us. I felt the telltale sucking sensation in my gut, my mind went green, then gray, and a split second later we arrived on the marble floor of Zeus’s receiving hall. His throne at the top of the room was empty, the colorful favors pinned around the windows fluttering in the breeze. All seemed incongruently peaceful, until I heard Orion scream.

We whirled around and there he was, bound to the marble floor by iron chains, his chest exposed as my father thrust a spear toward his heart, the tip glinting in the sun.

“Nooooo!” I wailed.

My father, nimble as ever, stopped with the sharp point pricking Orion’s skin. He and Zeus both looked up. My father’s chest heaved, as if Orion had put up a struggle, but Zeus was calm. His golden beard curled above the collar of his breastplate, and his blond hair was slicked back from his head. The skin of his face was, as always, ruddy and pocked, but his green eyes were clear. He looked amused, not alarmed, to see us there, and snapped his fingers. Guards flooded the room, wearing the traditional garb of the Roman Empire, which Zeus had appropriated after the fall of
the Greeks and favored even after these many years. He held up a hand to stop them from advancing on me, my mother, and my sister. For the moment.

“Aphrodite,” he said, his voice like thunder. “You’re a party to this?”

My mother released my hand and clasped her own. “My purview is love, Your Highness. My daughter is in love with this boy and therefore, it is in my interest to bring her here.”

I gazed into Orion’s eyes. Sweat poured from his brow as he fought for breath. His fists clenched, straining against the iron clamps around his wrists. He was terrified, but trying so hard not to show it. I loved him more in that moment than ever before.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Zeus said with a sneer. He looked at my father. “Do it.”

My father lifted the spear again. Orion turned his head to the side and braced himself. Without thinking, I threw myself over Orion’s chest, landing sideways so that our bodies formed an X, and waited for the spear to gut me.

Nothing happened.

“Eros! You have no idea what you’re doing,” my father roared.

“I know exactly what I’m doing,” I spat back, rolling awkwardly onto my back but not daring to remove myself from Orion’s chest. “I’m saving his life.”

“You know I can remove you from here with a flick of my wrist,” Zeus said, hovering over us.

“I know that, Your Highness,” I said, placating. “But I’ll do anything. Anything you wish. Just please, for the love of Hera, don’t kill him.”

“I apologize for this insubordination, Your Majesty,” my father said under his breath. “I swear to you I will—”

Zeus held up a meaty hand, stopping my father cold. He looked down at me, one eyebrow cocked. “Anything?”

I slid off Orion’s chest, sitting on the floor next to him. I reached for his hand and held it, warm and slick, inside my own, his necklace still clutched in my other hand. Through my back, I could feel his heart pound. Still alive. I had to keep him alive. “Anything.”

Zeus studied Orion and me. “Your father tells me you claim to have rescued Orion yourself, from his place among the stars.”

In the corner of my vision, my mother and sister exchanged a glance.

“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat.

Zeus’s eyes narrowed. It was as if I had spoken in a language he didn’t quite understand, which was, of course, impossible. There wasn’t a language spoken by man that we gods didn’t speak fluently. After a moment, he paced away from us. While his back was turned I slowly, deliberately, moved my gaze around the room. There were two dozen windows, but four dozen guards, and my father. Even if I could somehow release Orion from his chains and get past them, which was not only unlikely, but impossible, Zeus would be able to track us anywhere. He was the king of the gods, more powerful than any being anywhere in the universe. I had been an idiot to think I could fool him.

But no. I
had
fooled him, with some help from my mother. For months now I had kept Orion safe, traveling back and forth from Olympus to Earth at will, while my mother had made sure our position was cloaked from his sight. Had he known what I’d done in February, he would have snatched us back to Mount Olympus the moment I’d done it. But here it was, the end of the summer, and here we were. Now. Why now? Why hadn’t he known before today, and how had he found out?

I glanced over at my mother and Harmonia, the only two goddesses I had entrusted with my secret, as Zeus continued to pace the room and brood. I was certain neither of them had betrayed me. Harmonia was my sister, my best friend, the only being who would never turn her back on me no matter what. My mother had been known to put her own interests before those of her children in the past, but not on this. She wanted Orion’s and my love to succeed. If she didn’t, she would have found a way to split us up at the very beginning, rather than helping me visit him and nurse him back to health. I hadn’t even told my friends Nike and Selene about my secret sojourns to Earth, since Nike sometimes placed her quest for my father’s approval above everything, and Selene had a tendency to speak out of turn. So how? How had Ares and Zeus found out?

“In that case, Eros, I will strike a bargain with you,” Zeus announced finally, causing an interested murmur to undulate around the lofty chamber.

“A bargain?” I asked cautiously, sitting up a bit straighter.

“Yes. I’ve been disappointed by your results of late. The kindling of true love is down, and the endurance numbers are sickening, to say the least. You haven’t been producing, my dear,” he said, stepping toward me and lifting my chin with one finger. Then his eyes flicked dismissively, disgustedly, to Orion. “And now I know why.”

He hauled off and kicked Orion in the ribs so hard I heard the crack. I let out a wail as Orion coughed and sputtered, writhing away from us as best he could with his limbs bound. Harmonia buried her face in my mother’s shoulder as Aphrodite’s expression went stoic. I wanted to spit in Zeus’s face, but I held back.

“This is my offer,” Zeus continued. “You will be banished to Earth without your powers. You will be, essentially, a mortal.”

My mother and sister gasped at this. Even my father shifted his weight.

“You will then prove your worth to me by forming true love between three couples with no godly tricks up your sleeve,” Zeus continued. “Only then will you be allowed to return to Mount Olympus.”

“And Orion?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“If you succeed in this task, I will spare his life,” Zeus said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Until then, he is to be my slave.”

The king glanced at my father, who gripped his spear tightly in both hands. “What say you to this, Ares? Is my proposal fair?”

Everyone present knew it didn’t matter whether my father thought it was fair. Zeus was only testing Ares’s allegiance to him, assuring himself that he meant more to my father than his own daughter did.

“Fair, wise, and benevolent, Your Majesty,” my father said, looking directly at me.

“Good,” Zeus said with a nod. “Oh, and Aphrodite.” He turned to my mother, who raised her chin.

“Yes, Your Grace,” my mother said with a slight curtsy and bowed head.

“Since it’s abundantly clear that you were complicit in all this, you will be banished as well.”

“What?” my mother shrieked. “Zeus, no! Please! You mustn’t send me to that awful place.”

Harmonia and I glanced at each other, alarmed. My mother had a flair for the dramatic, but she was also the strongest goddess we knew. I’d never heard her voice reach such a frantic pitch.

“I can and I will,” Zeus replied, impassive.

“I beg of you!” my mother wailed. “I will do anything you ask of me! Anything!”

“You may go now,” Zeus said.

As he flicked his wrist, I turned and grasped Orion’s hand with both of my own, pressing the arrow pendant into his palm. My mother sobbed, falling to her knees on the floor as Harmonia clung to her. I could already feel my cells vibrating, my mind begin to go weightless. I had only minutes. No, seconds. Desperately, I locked my eyes onto Orion’s.

“I will be back for you,” I told him, holding on to his fingers for dear life. “Depend upon it, Orion. I won’t let you down!”

“I love you,” he said through his teeth, as my fingers began to slip from his. “I believe in you.”

I tried to tell him I loved him, too, but before I could respond, I was ripped away and the only sound my voice could form was a scream.

CHAPTER ONE

True

Pressure. Pain. My head was wedged inside a vise. Squeeze release, squeeze release, squeeze release. I pried my eyes open and winced as the sunlight stabbed at my retinas. My skin felt tight, dry, and cold. My scalp tingled. My toes were numb. As the room around me gradually came into focus, I realized why. I was buck naked and the room was freezing. Shivering from my very core, I grabbed the rough brocade blanket beneath me and wrapped it up and around my shoulders. Something fell to the floor with a clang.

A small, silver arrow glinted in the sun on the hardwood. Orion’s necklace. I had tried to give it back to him. I had thought it would be something for him to hold on to. But I had failed. I had failed him in so many ways, and now he was trapped in Zeus’s palace, alone and terrified, and I was the only one who could save him.

I bent to pick up the arrow, then double-knotted the broken chain around my own neck. The pendant felt warm against my cold skin and I touched it with my fingers, closing my eyes and trying to send a message to Orion.

I will save you. I will return for you.

As I pushed myself up off the floor, a slice of pain through my
temples sent me off balance and I staggered sideways into the ice-cold iron radiator attached to the wall. The pain moved to my forehead, throbbing with each pump of my heart. I closed my eyes and breathed, pressing one hand against my skull, and waited for the ache to subside.

If anything, the throbbing intensified. I pulled my trembling fingers away to stare at them. They weren’t warm. They didn’t glow.