The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (89 page)

Giving me one last look, she follows Apollo and little Hermes,
who isn't so little anymore. They join Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, and
the five of them enter a corridor we rarely use. No one heads down the hallway
that leads to our chambers. That must be the part of Olympus that Ares and
Hephaestus destroyed.

“Who?” says Eros, pointing toward their group.

“That's Persephone and Hermes,” I say. “Maybe you can all be
friends.” If the council lets me stay. His little face scrunches up like he's
considering it, and he leans back in my arms. Having friends will be good for
him, as long as I can find a way to shield him from the worst of the hatred in
this place. Keeping him away from Hera is a start.

As soon as the three of us are alone, Daddy reaches for my
hand. “I missed you,” he says. “Never leave me again, my darling.”

I press my lips together. I don't know what to say to that.
“I'm sorry. For leaving the way I did, I mean. I didn't think I had any other
choice.”

“I understand. When I was your age, I would've done the same
thing.” He smiles. “Speaking of youth, I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of
being introduced to this handsome young man.”

“This is Eros,” I say, snaking a protective arm around him.
“Eros, this is Zeus, my daddy.”

Eros's eyes go wide, and he sticks his thumb in his mouth. I
ruffle his hair. Nothing to be afraid of, or at least I hope there isn't.

For a moment we sit in companionable silence, both of us
watching Eros. He pretends to be shy, but I can feel him glowing as he laps up
the attention. Such a ham. The moment can't last forever though, and eventually
Daddy sighs.

“What are you going to do, my daughter?”

I stare at Eros's golden curls. I thought coming back to
Olympus would give me some answers, but I'm as confused as ever. “I don't know.
I love them both.”

“But you've only been with Hephaestus for a short while.”

I shrug. “Doesn't matter. I can feel the way he loves me.
It's—warm. Gentle. Steady. And I want that, Daddy. I really do.”

“Then what is the problem?”

The words catch in my throat. “I love Ares, too.”

“And what is the difference between them?”

Everything. “Ares—I know who he is. I know
what
he is. I know he blows hot and cold, and I know he's sometimes
unreliable, but when we're together, it's like—it's like the entire world's on
fire.”

“And Hephaestus?”

My cheeks turn pink. My father is the last person I want to
talk to about this, but he's the only one who can possibly understand. “With
him, it's just the two of us. Everything else goes dark, and no matter what
we're talking about, even if it's something silly, it's warm. Always warm.”
Never cold like it is sometimes with Ares.

“Then it seems you have a choice to make,” he says. My eyes
water all over again.

“How?” I whisper. “Everyone thinks I'm—I'm a whore for loving
both of them, but I can't help it, Daddy.”

“Oh, Aphrodite.” He moves into the space between our thrones
and captures me in a hug. “You have nothing to be ashamed of no matter what your
mother or sisters try to claim. You're so full of love in a way they'll never
be, and it's natural you love both of my sons. Some people are built for
monogamy. They see love in one person, and they devote themselves entirely to
that love. But people like you and me, we see love everywhere, and we know what
a waste it would be to pass it by. That doesn't mean we love our partner any
less. It just means we share our love with others, as well.”

I sniff, and Daddy produces a piece of cloth. I take it and dab
my eyes. “But what happens when it hurts our partners so badly that they don't
want to love us anymore?”

For a moment, Daddy's silent. I shouldn't have asked. I know
exactly what happens then—I've seen it in Daddy's marriage to Hera. We all have.
“Then maybe they simply aren't the ones we're supposed to be with.”

“How am I supposed to choose?” I mumble. “Hephaestus says he's
all right with it, but I think he's secretly hoping he'll be enough. And Ares—he
doesn't want me to be with anyone else at all.”

“I don't know, my darling,” says Daddy, running his fingers
through my hair. I've missed that. I've missed him. “What I do know is that it
is a choice you'll have to make. I made the mistake of trying to force you into
something you didn't want once, and I won't do it again. You have my permission
to decide. But be careful, and think it through—whatever choice you make will
define this part of your existence. Maybe all of it. Make sure it's someone you
want to be tied to forever. My sons love you in very different ways, and love
can either be a gift or a curse. Try to choose the first, if you can.”

“Which one's that, Ares or Hephaestus?”

“That's for you to decide.” He kisses my forehead. “I'm glad
you're home.”

When our conversation is over, I carry Eros into the corridor
where Persephone and Hermes disappeared. He's never had the chance to make
friends before, and I want that for him. I don't want him to be alone.

“Heh!” cries Eros, suddenly struggling in my arms. I blink,
making my teary eyes focus, and I spot a bulky figure looming far down the
hallway. Hephaestus.

I hug Eros tighter. I'm wrong. He does have a friend. And if
Hephaestus meant it when he said he'd be there for us always, no matter
what—

“Aphrodite?”

I turn. Ares stands in the middle of a guest room, looking
weary and more miserable than I've ever seen him. The spark's still there when
his eyes meet mine, but it's lessened somehow. And that hurts me. Badly.

Hephaestus forgotten, I slip into the chamber and set a
squirming Eros down. He takes off on his little legs, and I start to follow.
When he turns left, however, I know where he's going, and I force myself to
stop. Hephaestus will watch over him. I need this moment with Ares.

“He's big,” says Ares roughly, and he sits on the bed. I
hesitate. I don't want this to be purely about sex. I want him to love me the
way Hephaestus does, too. And maybe he does—maybe the heat's overshadowed the
rest of it for so long that I can't recognize the warmth anymore. But the way
the spark between us has lessened…

“Yeah, well. That's what happens. Babies grow up.” I lean
against the wall instead. “I wish you hadn't gone away.”

He furrows his brow. “I wish I hadn't had to.”

“You'll always have to leave at some point, won't you?”

“But I'll always come back to you.”

I believe him. He squints at me as if it hurts him, as if I'm
still his sun and I'm shining too bright for him to face me head-on, and the ice
around my heart melts. I've been so busy thinking about what I want that I
haven't stopped to think about how this must be hurting him.

“I'm never going to be like your mother,” I say softly. “I'm
never going to be able to devote myself to one person no matter how much I love
them. You have to leave to do your duties, and this—this is my way of doing
mine.”

He swallows. “I know. I don't like it, but I know.”

“It doesn't mean I love you any less,” I say. “I don't. I love
you so much it hurts. But—I can love other people without my love for you
fading. If anything, it only makes me love you more.”

His mouth forms a thin line, and he stares at his hands. I've
never seen him so undone before. I'm used to his rage, his fire, but this
quietness is unnatural. And I'm the one who did it to him.

“Do you…do you still love me?” I say in a small voice, and his
head snaps up. He rises without a word. Crossing the space between us, he
embraces me.

“Always,” he murmurs. “I still want to marry you, Aphrodite.
You're perfect. You're beautiful. My favorite moments are when I'm with you. I
don't want that to end.”

“It never has to,” I promise. Something twists inside me,
though. Beautiful, perfect—the things I am to everyone else, as well. It
shouldn't bother me, but it does, and I hate myself for it.

He hesitates. “But I can't marry you when you're still seeing
him. I need you to understand that. Anyone else—I don't care who, you're free to
do whatever you want as long as you love me most of all. But Hephaestus…”

I grow still. I expected this, of course. Ares sees the world
in black-and-white, and no matter how happy Hephaestus makes me, Ares doesn't
want to compete with his brother. After all, he might lose. I understand that.
It hurts, but I understand. And at least he isn't lying to himself.

“I love you,” he says. “I love every part of you, except the
part of you that—cares for him. I want to marry you. I
will
marry you, and we'll spend our lives together. But in order for
us to be happy, you can't see him anymore. That's all I ask.”

My heart flutters. It may be the only thing he wants, but it's
not exactly a small request, and the thought of never seeing Hephaestus again—of
never feeling that warmth, of never getting to be with him—makes me ache in a
way I've never ached before.

Ares or Hephaestus. The love I want or the love I need.

It isn't fair. But Daddy's right—whatever I choose is going to
define the rest of my life. There will always be battles, and there will always
be war. No matter how often Ares promises he'll be there for me, he
will
leave. Probably more than I realize. So that's my
choice—a life of intermittent fire, of waiting for Ares to return home from
whatever battle he's disappeared to, or a life of steady warmth. Of
companionship.

And maybe Hephaestus isn't lying to himself. Maybe he is
willing to share me in a way Ares isn't.

I hesitate. “I love you and Eros. I love our family. If I could
only know one truth in my life, that would be it. But—if I didn't marry you…if I
did what Daddy wants…”

Ares stiffens, and his warmth turns to ice. I expect nothing
less, but it still hurts.

“I could still be with you,” I say. “We wouldn't lose
anything.”

He hisses and pulls away. “Do you really think that? If you
belonged to him—”

“Belong? I don't
belong
to anyone,
Ares.”

“Of course you do,” he scoffs. “You belong to me.”

I slap him. Hard. The sound of skin against skin echoes through
the chamber and undoubtedly down the hallway, but I don't care who hears it.
“The only person I belong to is myself.”

He touches his cheek. I didn't hurt him, of course, but that
spark in his eyes is back, and he steps toward me. “You know that isn't true.
Mother belongs to Father, Persephone will belong to Hades once they're married,
and you'll belong to me. If you choose Hephaestus—” he spits out his name like
it's poison “—then you'll belong to him, as well. That's how marriage
works.”

I draw myself to my full height. “Then I won't marry
anyone.”

He grabs my shoulders, his fingers digging into my skin. Before
I can protest, he kisses me, nipping my lower lip and pressing his body to mine.
“Fine,” he growls. “Then you'll still be mine.”

Using every ounce of strength I have, I shove him off me.
“
No
. And if this is how you're going to treat
me, then it's over.”

He laughs his humorless laugh. “Yeah, right. You'll be begging
to come back to me soon enough. It's who you are, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus will
never understand.”

I spin on my heel and head toward the archway. “That's what you
think.”

But even as I storm out of the chamber, I can feel that fire
between us. It'll always be there, whether we're married or not, and nothing I
do will ever quench it. The faster we both accept it, the better.

Hephaestus and Eros sit in the middle of the hallway several
rooms down, close enough that they must have heard everything. Eros is oblivious
as he plays with a stack of wooden blocks, but Hephaestus meets my eye, and I
see understanding. Something Ares has never shown me.

“Ask me,” I say, kneeling beside them. Hephaestus says nothing.
“Ask me, or I'll ask you.”

He shakes his head. “I won't ask you to marry me when you're
out for revenge against my brother.”

My mouth drops open. “But that's not—”

“It is,” he says quietly. “I know how you feel for him. Ares is
a brute at times, but you still love him, and I respect that. I won't make
things worse for both of you by marrying you just to make him angry.”

I brush my fingers through Eros's curls. “I just— I want
someone to love me. Not as a trophy, but as myself.”

“Someone does,” he says, and silence lingers between us. “One
day, once you've had time to sort out your feelings, I will ask you. But in the
meantime, I don't need that commitment in order to love you, and I don't think
you need it to love me, either.”

My chin trembles, and he brushes his fingers against my cheek.
He's returned to his immortal form now, twisted legs and all, but I don't see
those anymore. Well, I do, but not as much as before. I see him now, the way he
sees me. I see what's underneath his ugliness, just as he sees what's underneath
my beauty.

“I choose you,” I whisper, wiping my eyes. “Not because I'm
fighting with Ares, not because he left or—or any of that. I choose you because
of the way you look at me. The way you touch me, the way you talk to me, the way
you respect me and see
me
. I love how you are with
Eros. I love that you care about him even though he isn't yours. I love that you
say no when anyone else would say yes, just because you know that somewhere down
the line, I might get hurt.”