Aphrodite

  “Stay against the rail.” Poseidon slid to halt in front of me.

  “Here?” I took a nervous look around. The bit of deck we occupied reminded me of a sidewalk. The narrow strip of white wooden planks and painted metal rails ran parallel to the main lobby, separated by windows and glass doors. The charmed passengers stood in the open doorway, hacking at Poseidon’s shield. Soft Caribbean music and laughter came from the pool farther down the deck. I glanced at the exterior steps, wondering if we should run up one more deck.

  “Here.” Poseidon’s shield broke and I felt the power ricochet back to him. “Can you break the charm?”

  I hesitated. I’d never succeeded in freeing Persephone from Zeus’s charm, no matter how hard I’d tried. And I’d tried hard. “I have some theories.”

  Poseidon nodded. “Try then. I’d rather not have to kill anyone.”

  “Really?” It wasn’t as if I thought Poseidon enjoyed death and violence. Much. But I didn’t expect him to care one way or another whether the people attacking us lived or died.

  Poseidon shrugged. “I don’t want to give Hades any excuse to come to my realm.”

  Right. Gods had to respond to divine causes of death. It figured that’s what Poseidon would worry about right now. The sea god turned to the door. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can. You may want to duck.”

  I dropped to my knees, my hands going over my head as a wall of water rushed above me, whipping around the deck as the charmed passengers poured through the doorway.

  Go inside, nothing to see here. My stomach twisted as I let the command blanket the ship, fueling the order with every bit of power I could manage. Get to your room and stay there until morning.

  The effort of maintaining hold of so many passengers twisted my stomach into painful knots. Oh, gods, this hurts. Water roared around me, disrupting my concentration. Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited until I sensed the passengers under my control begin to retreat across the ship. I imagined doors closing, and gave them a few seconds to get settled, making sure to imprint a strong desire in their minds to stay put until sunup before releasing them from my charm. Even out of my control, they would most likely obey the subconscious command.

  I narrowed my focus to the passengers under foreign control heading toward this deck.

  How many were there in total? I gave up counting at thirty and shifted my attention to the eight fighting Poseidon.

  I could sense the charm holding them, but something about the power signature seemed off. Charm was like a thread of power extending from god to man. A thread. But the charm holding the humans hostage wasn’t a solitary thread but many, woven together like a rope.

  “There’s more than one controller,” I blurted, realization hitting me like a tidal wave.

  “What?” Poseidon shouted.

  My answer got swallowed in the roar of the water. Baldy lunged at Poseidon, but got whipped away by the current. The water animated and whirled around Poseidon, suspended in the air like the arms of an octopus, lashing out every time one of the passengers got too close. But he wouldn’t be able to keep up the fight forever. I gritted my teeth and focused on gathering more power.

  We weren’t dealing with another deity like me or a super-charged Titan. This was something else entirely. What did Zeus say? “You think you saved the world by killing me, but you’ve doomed it. What’s coming is worse. And Hades, they’re armed.”

  They’re armed. Plural. We were dealing with a group. An army, even.

  I kept my eyes closed, tuning out the screams, grunts, and occasional flashes of green lightning to separate each power signature I found connected to one of the charmed passengers. The threads of power were braided together in an intricate chain of charm.

  But the woman in the pink dress did fight the foreign control. Maybe she wasn’t the only one. I opened my eyes for a second. The jerky movements of the passengers confirmed my theory. Gritting my teeth against the gut-wrenching pain that came with using my powers so close to Poseidon, I focused on a single thread of charm, ignoring the rest of the rope for now.

  The individual threads were weak.

  “Aphrodite,” Poseidon snapped. “Any time now!”

  More passengers joined the battle. I hadn’t opened my eyes to check, but I could sense them. How many? Ten? Twelve? “I’m trying!” I focused on channeling my power through the gaps between threads of charm. Sweat bathed my face. Using my powers shouldn’t hurt this much.

  Almost. I pushed at the gaps, pouring more and more power into the effort. The charm snapped and my eyes flew open. “Got it!” I called triumphantly. “I’ve—” I broke off with a gasp. The passengers hung suspended in a wall of water before Poseidon. Their mouths open, faces frozen in contorted expressions of pain as they’d desperately tried to drag air into their lungs but failed, finding only water. Their dead eyes burned with accusation.

  “No.” Poseidon stepped backward and the water crashed to the deck, bringing the bodies to the ground with a sick sounding thunk, Olympian Steele still clutched tight in their dead fingers. “You didn’t.”

  Chapter XVII

  “YOU DROWNED THEM?” I stared at pile of bodies in horror. Between the shock of seeing the narrow deck littered with former passengers and the sudden power vacuum from dropping my charm, my senses went into overdrive. The glaring lights of the ship set the water on the corpses’ skin glistening, creating a jarring illusion of movement against their unnatural stillness. Water dripped onto the gleaming white floor. Cheerful music played over Poseidon’s ragged breathing.

  There was too much noise, too much light, and not enough space on this narrow strip of deck. Good gods, they were all dead. Earlier tonight, they’d been dancing and enjoying their vacation, and now they were dead. I drew my knees to my chest and took in a deep breath.

  “What the hell was I supposed to do? You sure weren’t helping.” Poseidon worked a muscle in his jaw. “We need to find out what just happened. Why were we attacked? Who was controlling them? And why did you just sit there like some useless human?” He strode across the deck, his eyes flashing with irritation. “You let me think they were under your—” He paused. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Confused, I followed his gaze over my shoulder. The lacerations from sliding across broken glass crisscrossed my back. They weren’t healing.

  “Did you get cut with—?”

  “No.” I stared at my scratches, willing them to heal, but nothing happened. “Uh . . . I had to use a lot of charm to try to break the control. Maybe . . .” I trailed off, trying to make my thoughts coherent.

  “You getting enough worship?” Poseidon looked embarrassed to ask such a taboo question. That just wasn’t the sort of thing gods discussed.

  I was though, wasn’t I? “Have you seen me? I get enough worship walking into a crowded room.” I raked my hair back with my fingers and took a deep breath. “My powers are harder to access here, though.” I didn’t even try to keep the accusation out of my voice. “Care to fix that?”

  “Harder to access?” Poseidon grabbed my hand to pull me to my feet. “You have permission to be here, they shouldn’t be—” He swore when my knees buckled, catching me before I could crumple back on to the deck. “Look—” He propped me against the railing and watched me for a moment to make sure I wasn’t going to fall. “I have to get rid of the weapons. I’m going to take them to Hephaestus and gather as many gods as I can. Do you think you can—?”

  “What—?” Persephone’s voice tore Poseidon’s gaze back to the center of the deck where the bodies lay in a dripping heap, “have you done?”

  “Watch out!” Poseidon reached for her, but Hades intercepted him. “You don’t have permission to be in my realm,” Poseidon reminded Hades.

  Hades shrugged as he knelt to study the bodies. “Divine causes of death require a divine response
. What happened here? Watch out for what?”

  While Poseidon filled them in, I waited for the deck to stop spinning. Once I felt steadier on my feet, I picked my way through the bodies, gathering up the Steele. As long as the blades didn’t break my skin, I’d be fine. “What should I do with these?”

  “Give them to me,” Poseidon and Hades demanded simultaneously.

  I turned to Hades.

  “Wait, hang on.” Poseidon unbuttoned his garish, Hawaiian print shirt and passed the abomination to me.

  I held my breath as I wrapped the Steele in his shirt. One slip-up, and I’d be dead. “Okay, here.” I passed the dangerous bundle to Hades.

  Persephone knelt next to each body, touching each passenger and, I assumed, releasing their souls. When she finished, she stood. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “There were charmed passengers who never attacked.” I swept my hair off my shoulders. It was so hot out here. Was I the only one who felt this hot? “We can’t know if they were armed or not, but we should probably assume that they were.”

  Hades shifted, angling himself to see the door. “We need to make sure there aren’t any more weapons on the ship.”

  Poseidon nodded. “And we’ll need to question everyone. If Aphrodite’s right about this being a large group—”

  “I am.” I was either going to throw up, or pass out. Spots filled my vision. I stepped back, blindly groping for the white railing. When my hand closed around the cool metal, I leaned against the bars.

  Persephone frowned down at the bodies. “This is a huge ship. Searching it and talking to everyone is going to take more time than we have.”

  “Not if we have enough help,” Poseidon said. “I’m giving a temporary blanket teleportation authorization for my realm. Gather everyone you can. If there are more weapons, we need to keep them isolated here.”

  “I’ll drop the souls by the Underworld and take these to Hephaestus.” Hades shifted the bundle of deadly weapons in his hands. “Persephone—”

  “I’ll get everyone. Poseidon, let’s make sure no one else can leave, though. Would you maintain a shield around the ship?”

  “They can break shields.” I shook my head, trying to disrupt the buzzing in my ears so I could focus.

  “But Poseidon will know if they do. Aphrodite, keep everyone in their rooms as best you can.” Persephone didn’t take her eyes off the bodies. “It’ll be easier to search, and maybe we can keep more people out of the line of fire if another fight breaks out.” She let out a deep breath. “What do we do with”—she cleared her throat—“the uh, the bodies?”

  “I’ll handle it.” Poseidon reached out, as if he wanted to touch her, but stopped when her green eyes narrowed at his outstretched hand. He dropped his arm to his side. “We’ll meet in Aphrodite’s room.”

  There were more details exchanged, room numbers and such, but I couldn’t focus.

  “Be back soon.” Persephone smiled in my direction, and I did my best to grin back at her before she and Hades vanished.

  “Keep a shield around us so no one sees this,” Poseidon commanded.

  No one should be out and about, thanks to my earlier charm. But I took a deep breath and cast a shield anyway. My stomach twisted, and my already swimming vision went Technicolor. I thought I heard something splash behind me, but couldn’t be sure over the roaring in my ears.

  “Okay, you can drop it.” Poseidon’s voice came from somewhere behind me, but I kept pouring power into the shield. There was a lag between the words I heard and my ability to react to them. “Aphrodite?”

  His hand touched my shoulder, and I jerked in surprise, dropping the shield. My knees gave way. Poseidon swore, sweeping me off my feet before I could crash to the floor. I felt myself being lifted, felt my body burst apart then re-form in a sickening lurch. For a second, or possibly a century, everything went black.

  “—not breathing!” Adonis’s fingers probed my neck for a pulse. Where did he come from? He sounded worried, and oddly, that made me feel better.

  Worship. I realized as my head cleared. Kind of.

  “What did you do to her?” Adonis’s voice brimmed with rage. His hands left my shoulders and I sensed him moving away from me. “What did you do?” The swish of fabric, and the thud that followed, sent me scrambling for consciousness.

  Poseidon sounded ice-cold. “Get your hands off of me before I remove them.”

  No! I tried to open my eyes, to bolt upright, but a wave of pain, so intense I cried out, shoved me back under.

  “Move!” Calloused hands as old as the sea gripped my shoulders, pouring power into me. The energy burned through me like molten glass. Crystallized. Shattered. Pain ripped through me. I dragged air into my lungs in a strangled gasp that became an anguished scream. My back arched and I fought to free myself from Poseidon’s grasp, to make the pain stop. Anything!

  “Stop!” Adonis’s panicked shout echoed my thoughts.

  “She’s breathing again, isn’t she?” The pain stopped, the pressure on my shoulders eased. Poseidon said more words, but I couldn’t understand them.

  “. . . wrong with her?” Adonis asked. His hands cupped my face, tilting my head from side to side. “Come on, Aphrodite. Wake up.” He brushed my hair from my forehead.

  “. . . much power during the fight.”

  “Fight?”

  “But surely she wouldn’t burn through her whole reserve in one battle?”

  Adonis’s voice rose with frustration. “What battle? What happens if she runs out of power?”

  “. . . dies,” Poseidon replied, as if the answer should be obvious. I was almost surprised he didn’t follow up with a “duh.”

  I wished I could giggle. Duh is a silly word.

  “What?” Adonis’s horrified voice pulled my attention back to the conversation at hand. “No. You guys live off worship.”

  “Worship fuels our power. The lack of worship wouldn’t kill us if . . .” Poseidon’s voice faded into indistinct murmurs as I lost the ability to track the conversation. I thought I heard Persephone’s name, then the slamming of a door, but I couldn’t be sure.

  I heard a sigh then the couch dipped with Adonis’s weight. “Aphrodite . . .” He sounded so worried that I tried to respond. “Come on, Aphrodite. Please.” He gripped my hands in his. “Come on. Wake up. Please wake up.” He repeated the words like a mantra, gripping my hands so tightly, they hurt.

  I’m not sure how long we sat like that. But gradually, my ragged breathing evened.

  “Please, please, please,” Adonis breathed.

  Opening my eyes, I squinted against the light. Adonis sat hunched over me, balancing on the edge of the white couch cushion, squeezing my hands in his for all he was worth. A feeling I couldn’t identify flooded my chest. Something safe and warm and soothing. Like I was home. As if someone like me could even have one, could belong somewhere. I hadn’t felt that in a long time. “That hurts,” I croaked.

  Adonis’s eyes flew open. “Gods!” He yanked me to him in a crushing embrace. “You’re okay.” His lips brushed my forehead when he spoke. “I thought—sorry.” He let me go and scooted back a bit. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I gasped, dizzy. “Adonis. . . . Thank you.”

  “Don’t.” He jerked his head. “Don’t thank me. I—Gods, Aphrodite—I—”

  The door opened. “I said to bolt this,” Poseidon grumbled as he entered the room.

  “Where’s Persephone?” Adonis stood. “I thought you were going to get her.”

  Poseidon shook his head. “No need. I figured if you took your focus off me, something like this would happen.”

  “And if you were wrong?” I sat up, reaching for a pillow to prop behind me.

  Poseidon gave me a long look, and I read the answer on his face. He’d prom
ised to protect me. Not run for help. If I died, the vows he’d sworn died with me. Poseidon moved one of the white-upholstered chairs closer to the couch and sat down. “You said something about your powers being harder to access here. You thought I’d done something to you? What did you mean?”

  Adonis sat on the edge of the couch, shifting so I could stay stretched out. He gripped the cushions on either side of him in a way that could be for balance, but also acted as a kind of barrier between me and Poseidon.

  Cleverly done. I watched Adonis from the corner of my eye. “It just . . . hurts when I try to use my powers here.” I stared at him, heart pounding as I realized with absolute certainty he wasn’t behind this. “I know sometimes gods can cap—”

  “Not like that.” Poseidon shook his head. “I granted you full access to my realm. You can do everything but teleport and attack me directly.” He rubbed his chin. “Proximity?”

  I brought my knees up to my chest, giving Adonis a bit more room. “That’s what I figured at first, but then it stopped mattering if you were nearby or not.”

  Poseidon raked his hair back. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “How long has this been going on?” Adonis’s voice sounded strained.

  Poseidon can’t hurt you, I wanted to tell him. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. Right now, Adonis thought he was protecting me. Pointing out that it was actually the other way around in front of Poseidon seemed rude. “Since yesterday.”

  “When yesterday?” Adonis looked like he wanted to ask something else, but he glanced at Poseidon, his eyes giving away how nervous he felt.

  Poseidon wasn’t paying attention to him. He frowned, deep in thought. “Did Zeus ever say anything to you about”—he hesitated—“an expiration date?”

  My breath caught. “He never said anything, but . . .” That didn’t mean I didn’t have one. Zeus hadn’t planned on keeping me around for long. He’d intended to force me to swear fealty and give him all my powers. Then again, he’d also been working with a pretty specific timetable. “Is that even possible?”