Ode to the Queen (19 page)

He dropped his hold on my face, staring down at his feet and I was struck with the sense that when he said “that man” he didn’t necessarily mean Zeus. “You’re not the only one with a fragile heart.”

“I’m the Goddess of monogamy, I’m hardly going to break your heart.” I smiled softly at him; it was my way of telling him I was in – for now.

He laughed, a rare genuine smile painting itself on. “As true as that may be, there are other ways to break a man’s heart. I’ll try to be gentle, if you try to be patient.”

“I’ll try, but I won’t tolerate fooling around Aidan. If we do this, we do it. I want it all or nothing. Do you understand?”

“All or nothing.” He nodded sternly, his eyes never leaving mine.

I was smiling all day, even as I got ready to meet Atlas. After spending most of the morning with Aidan in the library we’d gone back to our apartment and both found notes from the Titan. He was asking us to meet him back at the training room later in order to work on our one-on-one skills.

“Frankly, I think it’s a bit weird Atlas wants to watch. But I could be into voyeurism.” Aidan had said immediately after, eliciting a laugh and a roll of the eyes from me. After a couple more kisses I finally managed to tear myself away long enough to go and change into something more appropriate for training.

In the matter of a single morning, things had changed so quickly. Aidan was more relaxed than I had ever seen him, letting his guard down around me and being more of himself. We had a lot more in common than I had ever really imagined. We were both deeply insecure, though perhaps for vastly different reasons. We both had a mortal past we were ashamed of and both of us were trying to use this opportunity to redefine ourselves without that cloud lingering overhead.

Aidan was very thoughtful too, for someone who had perfected the façade of a vain, powerful asshole he also had a very sensitive side to him that calculated everything he did right down to how it would affect him in the long term. Aidan didn’t do anything without great consideration, which made me a little more comfortable with jumping in both feet first into this relationship thing. Not that we were calling each other “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” – that had been Aidan’s stipulation.

That being said, however, Aidan did have a slight tendency to make irrational decisions the moment he felt threatened. His nature for self-preservation kicked in at the most primitive level and he made the first decision he thought of that might get him out of that situation. It was a little worrisome, especially with Atlas’ talk of prophecies and danger.

“Okay, I’m ready.” He returned to my apartment. I’d been ready for a while, donned in my typical yoga outfit and my hair tied back in a ponytail.

“Yeah, me too.” I started for the door, grabbing my water bottle on the way out just to be sure as Aidan moved up beside me, his hand slipping into my free one. He gave it a reassuring squeeze before reaching the door and holding it open for me. I nodded my thanks before slipping through, keeping a firm grip on his hand as I did before waiting for him in the hallway.

He squeezed my hand again before leading me toward the closest door grabbing it and walking through confidently like you were supposed to.

He walked us right through the door into the training room. But it was not the training room from our previous session. This one was setup as a martial arts dojo. There were punching bags hanging from the ceiling and a matted floor for any scrimmages people wanted to indulge in.

Atlas stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed against his chest as he stared at us slowly. I could feel his eyes make their way from the knotted fingers between us, right up to the bashful flush that made it’s way to my cheeks.

“Glad to see you two are trying to get along better…” He said simply after a long awkward moment, no doubt intended to make us uncomfortable.

Aidan simply shrugged, once more the picture of absolute coolness. He couldn’t be bothered with what Atlas thought or didn’t think about us and I wished secretly that I could have such a cavalier attitude myself.

“So what are we doing?” I piped up, trying to use Aidan’s strength at my side to not let embarrassment get the better of me.

“Well, like my note had said I wanted to work on your one-on-one skills together but it seems like you both have managed to do that on your own.” I could feel Aidan smirking while I grimaced with more embarrassment before letting go of his hand and moving further into the room. I reached out and touched the punching bags.

“What does working out have to do with one-on-one skills?”

“Being Zeus and Hera has a lot of perks, especially if you’re both in a period of getting along. No doubt you’ve already experienced the highs and lows of your royal matrimony.”

We both nodded in agreement as Atlas continued, “well, while you both are incredible when it comes to fighting, being able to do it unlike anyone else in the world, you also are much more powerful when you work together. I’m sure, Aidan, Zeus has told you how he couldn’t have overthrown his father without the help of his sister.”

I turned to look at Aidan who just shrugged, not giving up one way or the other about what Zeus had told him.

“Well, he couldn’t have and that’s because you two can draw from each other a stronger, organic source of power. It’s why you’re the best example of a power couple in all of history. So I wanted to put you through a couple of different types of training so you can see that when I say organic power I don’t just mean magical power. You get physical strength from each other as well. It’s important you both learn how to absorb this energy from each other and how to use it because you never know when you might need it.”

He moved over to me, reaching out and bracing the punching bag, “hit it Savannah.” I looked up at him, arched an eyebrow and then glanced over my shoulder at Aidan who just shrugged at me as if to say ‘humour him.’

So I turned back around and bent down to set my water bottle down before bracing myself and throwing a right hook at the bag. It didn’t even shift against Atlas; he didn’t even need to steady himself.

I frowned, determination riling up inside of me as I tried again knowing that surely I had to have power to punch this thing if I could throw Aidan across the room and pin Charlotte to a wall.

But then again… Aidan had been there for both of those times.

Well, I didn’t need him for something silly like throwing a punch. Pulling my arm back I tried again and once more Atlas didn’t even move.

“Let me try.” Aidan had moved to my side and I stepped away for him. I watched as he did the same thing as me but this time with a one-two but Atlas, again, didn’t even flinch.

“I’m sure if it was just another human holding onto this you both could move it, but the reason you’re having trouble now is because you’re only using your mortal strength to try and move it. As immortals you also gain many other abilities unique to a God. You’re indestructible against human devices – guns, knives, bombs, etcetera; you cannot be injured in the way a human can against other humans, only other Gods and immortal creatures can harm you. Your body is a thousand times stronger than your mortal one for this exact reason. You must learn how to enable that strength within you to the point where its use becomes innate.”

Aidan was too busy being frustrated by the fact that he hadn’t been able to move Atlas that he tried again, this time throwing the off-guard Titan back a few steps. Atlas chuckled as he nodded and returned to his post behind the bag.

“Yes, exactly Aidan.”

“How did you do that?” I said, turning to look at him.

Shaking his head he grappled for words, “I just thought about how much I wanted to prove him wrong and I imagined doing it.”

Atlas nodded, a grin pressing on his features as he moved around the bag to fully face us.

“Yes. Exactly. That’s exactly it. Your power is in your mind, for everything. Mortals talk about a sixth sense that some possess, scientists explain it by saying that humans only use 10% of their brain. Well, the Gods – they use the other 90% of their brain, it’s why they can do magic and other things mortals can’t. The sixth sense is the mind, being able to will and control things as simple as strength and power is all merely derived from your thoughts.”

He moved away from the bag and over to the mat, signalling with a twitch of his neck that we were to follow. Aidan went first as I deliberately lingered around the bag, taking a good long look at it before swinging as hard as I could. The bag blew off the chain from which it hung and was tossed across the room.

“Savannah!” Atlas said in surprise, his eyebrows rising as he stared at me. Aidan just chuckled at first before breaking into a full out laugh, his head shaking at me. I grinned sheepishly and then shrugged at him.

“So now what?” I made my way over to the two boys on the mat and turned to Atlas expectantly.

“Now I want you to practice using your mind strength while drawing from each other. Sit down across from one another,” he nodded at the floor before moving away to grab a medicine ball from off a shelf. I sat down as he’d instructed, crossing my legs like a schoolgirl as Aidan just flopped down in front of me lounging out like he owned the place.

Atlas returned back to us, setting the ball down between us and I read the “75 lb.” label on it, finding it hard to hide my astonishment.

“I want you to try and move this with your mind.” We both turned and simultaneously gave Atlas a look that said we both thought he was crazy. He simply nodded at the ball and we both turned back to look at it. Following what Aidan had said I squinted in concentration, imagining the ball rolling toward me.

Aidan had the same look of sheer concentration on his face when I chanced a glance up at him but still nothing happened. The ball didn’t move at all. I don’t know how long we sat like that but after a while I got bored and looked up at Atlas.

“It’s impossible.”

“No it’s not.” He said looking down at the ball, the same concentration focusing on his face and suddenly the ball rolled toward me. He looked back up at me and then moved forward to straighten the ball out again.

“The trouble is both of you are focusing on looking and moving the ball. Neither of you are concentrating as much on helping one another. As partners you need to be such when you’re going to use magic together, partners help each other and be selfless toward one another. Try again.”

Aidan and I stared at each other for a minute, perhaps to Atlas it seemed like we were having a silent conversation in order to work out who was going to move the ball. Soon enough time had passed and neither of us had made to move it.

Aidan finally said, “aren’t you going to go?”

I looked surprised, “I was waiting for you!”

“No, you’re the woman. You do it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m stronger so I can impose my will on you better than you could on me.”

“What? That makes no sense! If you were stronger, and I’m not saying you are, because just being a man does not make you stronger than me, you should be the one moving it.”

We sat there glowering at each other for a moment in frustration, another argument looming on the horizon. But I wasn’t ready to move out of the honeymoon stage quite yet and neither was Aidan, thankfully.

I felt myself calming down a little more, “I’ll try first then, and when I manage to do it you can do it then – alright?”

He nodded, “sounds good to me.”

I smiled at him in order to sooth any ruffled feathers from our almost-fight and then looked back at the ball. Concentrating once again I tried to imagine moving it. It felt like I had been staring at it forever with no effect when the ball suddenly started to shake violently like it was trying to do something. In surprise I broke my concentration, looking up at Aidan.

“Was that me?” I said, my eyes wide.

He nodded and Atlas spoke first,

“Good, you’re getting there but you’re still not channeling Aidan’s power. He’s trying to send it to you but you’re not picking it up. Imagine it’s like a radio. You’re tuned into your favourite station but it’s not actually the station you normally pick up on. Maybe it’s off by a number or two but you can still hear the music over the static. In your case though, the music is faint and you’re listening more to the static. You need to concentrate on the music and make the static background noise, then you’ll be able to move the ball.”

His mortal analogy helped, I needed to focus more on Aidan than I did on the ball and the ball would move itself in the end. At least, I think that’s what would happen.

“Okay, let’s try again Aidan.” I looked down at the ball, my face screwing up as I focused and I tried to pick up on Aidan’s wavelength.

At first I couldn’t feel anything, I felt normal as though there was nothing there for me to pick up on.

Then all at once I could feel something around me, it was warmer than the air of the room and it wrapped tighter and tighter around me like a blanket. Once it had settled itself on my skin it slowly began to sink into my pores, hijacking my veins and filling my entire core with the lingering heat of smouldering embers.

I felt consumed and complete all at once and I turned my focus to the ball, grasping at the sensation as I did. Thinking about it rolling to Aidan I pushed with all my thoughts, drawing from the fever that burned inside of me.

I remained statuesque as I waited for a reaction and then it moved. Like a train just pulling from the station it went slow to start and then found its momentum, pushing itself faster toward Aidan when it smacked against his leg and stopped.

“I did it.” I jumped up, pointing frantically at the ball as if Atlas could have missed it and grinned proudly. Aidan blinked out of his trance-like state and looked up at me with an equally proud smile and stood up to hug me.

“Good job Queenie.” I hugged him back, pressing myself against him still grinning broadly.

“Alright, Aidan’s turn.” Atlas was quick to interrupt the sentimental moment, moving to correct the balls position back to where it was.

I was ecstatic: turns out I really am a powerful Goddess.