Chapter 8
WHERE A BALL IS HELD AND THE MUSE IS brAVE (AND SARCASTIC AND THUS EVEN MORE DEVASTATINGLY ATTRACTIVE)
T here was a ball. Of course, there was a ball. Demeter, to her credit, had warned her about it. Pink Reception or something. As if Erato needed to see Demeter swan around in a skin tight gown that showed off very little, yet left exactly nothing to the imagination.
Not that Erato needed her imagination. She had had her hands, mouth and tongue on every single one of those curves. Yes, they had only spent a few blessed hours together—and she hadn’t even removed all of Demeter’s clothing—but nobody ever said Erato was an underachiever.
She was and had always been quite the opposite, thank you very much, and seeing all those people swoon and drool over such gorgeous breasts and swaying hips and those to die for thighs?—
“You are only making yourself blush, Erato.”
Aphrodite, in her mind reading mood, interrupted Erato’s uncharacteristic train of thought. It wasn’t like she had been spending her days reminiscing about the ample attributes of the Goddess of Harvest. Absolutely not.
“You have. And it’s all over your now crimson face. Hence, I don’t need my powers of mindreading. I just use deductive reasoning.”
“Listen, Sherlock Holmes, maybe you shouldn’t use either, since she is standing not six feet away?”
Erato extended her arm a little, ensuring Demeter could go as far as possible from her and whatever lecture she was about to get from Aphrodite.
Except the universe and whichever god was currently running the show had decided Erato didn’t have enough trouble on her hands. So they sent some more.
“If you think she is paying any attention, you are mistaken. Poseidon has been bending her ear and boring her out of her mind for the past half an hour. Must be the whales again.”
Sabine Goddard in all her cupid resplendence swanned closer to Erato and Aphrodite.
Air kisses were exchanged. Erato had to smile at the almost comical way all three of them turned to observe the scene in front of them.
Demeter all but arching backwards from Poseidon’s hulking over her, him totally ignorant of her reaction.
“He is drooling. Dite, can you send the orcas to cause more justified trouble and distract him?” Erato could feel her mood sinking like those ships those majestic creatures took their anger at.
She could completely understand their actions.
Men were infuriating. Oblivious, entitled men even more so.
“I don’t control the orcas.” Aphrodite’s smile was one of a cat watching the National Geographic Birder show.
“Pity.” Erato bit off the word. Sabine and Aphrodite exchanged a look of pure enjoyment, which only annoyed Erato, thus making her brave. “I am glad, however, that I serve as your entertainment.”
Dite shrugged.
“Not a few months ago, I served as amusement for you.”
Erato bristled.
“You were finding your Perfect Match! I am being punished by a vengeful goddess.”
“Speaking of the vengeful goddess.”
A stunning redhead, tall and muscular, with arms that could probably break Erato in half, was bowing over Demeter’s hand, effectively boxing Poseidon out of her view.
Erato strained to listen, but the chatter of the hundreds of guests around them was making it rather difficult, even at six feet tall.
Sabine bit her lip. Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed.
And then Demeter was embracing the newcomer and slowly shaking her head while nodding towards Erato and her posse.
Well. Erato knew this woman. The one who made Hades tremble. The one nobody ever messed with.
“Nemesis.” Aphrodite extended her hand, her voice so cold she could’ve frozen the surrounding air, and welcomed the Goddess of Vengeance into the middle of their circle.
Demeter stepped up as well and Erato watched as she laid a hand on the muscled forearm, peeking out from under the almost sheer white silk blouse.
Vengeance was wearing knee-high boots over skin-tight trousers, the whole outfit was completed by suspenders.
Honest to Zeus suspenders. Though that old dolt could never pull off wearing them.
But this woman? As if trying to piss off Erato further, Nemesis flicked back her long mane of copper curls and smirked, patting Demeter’s fingers.
“Down, tiger.” Sabine’s whisper fell on deaf ears. Erato saw red as Nemesis ignored Aphrodite’s hand for almost twenty seconds.
Nobody made the Goddess of Love wait. Except apparently this one. The cheek. The rudeness. The disrespect. Full head of steam, Erato was ready to?—
“Aphrodite. Seeing you is always such a pleasure.”
Okay, so now Erato officially hated this woman. Because this voice should be illegal. It was criminal. It was something out of tales and myths. Greek, probably.
Everyone in their immediate and not so immediate vicinity of the voice trembled. Sabine wrapped her arms around herself. Even Demeter visibly shivered. Erato dug her fingers into her palm to hide the sudden dread that ran down her spine. It raced through the crowd like liquid ice.
Aphrodite alone remained unperturbed.
“It’s rare to bestow any pleasure upon you, Goddess of Vengeance. Since you almost never bless us with your company.”
“Some blessing…”
Erato realized too late that she had spoken the words out loud. The attention of all the goddesses and Sabine’s were on her in a second. Nemesis’s ice-chips scored her skin with their penetrative gaze. And then, as suddenly as they hurt her, the eyes softened.
Belatedly, Erato noticed Demeter’s hand wrapped around Nemesis’ wrist, squeezing tightly. Before she could draw any conclusions on whether the Goddess of Harvest had spared her the pain, Nemesis spoke up.
“The Mighty Muse of Smut… I would have thought you’d be somewhere seducing the dryads. I’m glad you’re allowed to mingle with the grownups these days and that Aphrodite has untied you from her bed.”
Now the silence was absolute. Pin, mouse, nothing moved.
The entire ballroom was petrified. A beat, two and then Erato realized that she had exactly zero fucks to give.
What was the worst that could happen? Immortal as she was being a muse, Nemesis was a worthy threat even to her, but her own insignificance in the big landscape of Olympus politics gave Erato an advantage.
“I’m surprised you not only know my name, but are so familiar with my proclivities, Nemesis.”
Aphrodite’s unsuccessful attempt at concealing a peal of laughter resulted in an escaped guffaw, one that Nemesis surprisingly joined.
“Touché, Muse.” She smacked Erato on the shoulder, the slap almost sending Erato sprawling on the floor. “And I really enjoyed your latest book, so my earlier words weren’t mockery. Romance novels deserve all the respect.”
With a nod to Aphrodite, Nemesis was gone in a cloud of sharp citrusy perfume and a long red curtain of hair.
“Well, she’s a trip.” Erato recovered first.
“At least she acknowledged you.” Sabine said almost at the same time.
“I rather wished she’d never acknowledge me.” Aphrodite shook her head, still watching for the retreating figure of the Goddess of Vengeance.
“Book, Erato?” Demeter’s voice managed to sound so shrill, her question ended up being louder than the rest of the conversation.
Everyone froze again. Erato could feel her eyebrows heading towards her hairline. Sabine coughed, hiding either a gasp or a laugh. Aphrodite sighed dramatically and reached for a glass of water from a server’s tray. Demeter kept looking at Erato.
“Did it get hot in here, all of a sudden?” Sabine’s words were immediately interrupted. At any other time, Erato would’ve been angry all over again by the person undertaking said interruption, but she could’ve given Poseidon a kiss for his bumbling butting in.
“Did someone say hot? Because I am the Big Daddy of Hot! Cold too, since I have both the Antarctic Circumpolar current and the Gulf Stream.”
He grinned at Demeter, engaging her again in conversation and taking her out of earshot. Erato immediately reconsidered her earlier intention to kiss this man. Why had that thought even crossed her mind, she had never kissed any man to begin with?
“Because you were so happy to keep hiding your dirty secret?”
Sabine wiggled her eyebrows. Aphrodite pursed her lips. Both were giving Erato decidedly judgy looks.
“We aren’t judging you. And if your secret isn’t dirty, why are you even keeping it?” Aphrodite, as always, had a point.
“I wasn’t… Actually… Keeping it, I mean.” Erato lifted a hand to the back of her neck. “It just never came up.”
Sabine simply stared.
“You’ve been literally chained together and your day job never came up?”
Erato shrugged.
“She believes she has already benefited from my day job. Along with half the Goddesses and Muses and the occasional nymph.”
“You’re forgetting the naiads.”
Aphrodite’s words were said in a deceptively mild tone. Erato immediately shrunk. She didn’t like being interrogated like this. The Goddess of Love, of course, didn’t care one jot about Erato’s likes just then.
“You mean to say that the person you are tied to thinks you are basically a what? A courtesan? A play girl for the Olympians? And not only does she think so, you have not discouraged her from such a way of thinking and have not disabused her of these notions?”
The air around them suddenly felt just as cold as if Nemesis had returned.
Erato turned around just to make sure. Nope, the chill was a decidedly rare phenomenon of the Goddess of Love being enraged.
Usually something impressive was warranted to set it off.
Erato didn’t think a mere misunderstanding between her and Demeter justified such a reaction?—
“You are hiding who you are, allowing all these deities and creatures to belittle and humiliate you, all the while pining like a schoolgirl for someone who doesn’t know you at all. So no, Muse, this isn’t remotely a misunderstanding.”
With those words, it was Aphrodite’s turn to stalk away, in the same direction Nemesis had disappeared, taking the chill and the anger out of the air along with her.
Erato watched her go and exhaled. The bands around her chest had a mind of their own and did not loosen. Talk about romance novel clichés.
“I am not pining. Exactly.”
Sabine gave her a look full of pity. Then shook her head.
“Maybe I have misjudged you after all.”
Leaving Erato even more puzzled than before, Sabine moved between Demeter and Poseidon, cutting him off yet again.
He shrugged good-naturedly and allowed them to talk, looking curiously around himself, until his gaze fell on Erato. And then it narrowed.
Erato knew the man. Occasionally, she even liked the man.
More often than not, she laughed at the man who was a walking cliché of the younger brother completely overshadowed by an egomaniac older one.
Zeus did tend to take over every single room he ever entered.
So Poseidon, for all his oceans and seas and currents, was neither hot nor cold.
He was utterly forgettable. So were his tepid jokes.
Him looking at her with too much curiosity wasn’t something Erato enjoyed.
“What?”
She might’ve feared Nemesis. Or Aphrodite, despite their enthusiastic bedroom activities once upon a time. Hera made her tremble and absolutely not in a good way. Poseidon did none of those things. When he continued to stare at her, she asked again.
“What are you looking at? And if you expect me to call you whatever Daddy it was you mentioned earlier, you are about to wait till Hell freezes over and I somehow doubt Hades would approve.”
If she expected him to get huffy with her, she was wrong. Instead, he leaned closer, too close if you asked her, and whispered.
“Are you and Demeter together, Muse?”
Erato worked very hard to school her features.
The question was not entirely outlandish.
They were tied by a bond bestowed by the Goddess of Matrimony.
Still, together? Well, yes, they were together day and night, every single second and Erato would’ve maybe, possibly, perhaps, if pressed, want this punishment bond of theirs to translate into a real one. Maybe. Perhaps. But together?
“Why do you ask?”
Poseidon’s wide face widened even more in what could’ve been a smile.
“Because a woman like Demeter should not be alone. And I think I’ve let her pass me by for far too long. She’s gorgeous and so smart and takes care of everything and everyone and I could use some of that loving…”
He kept droning on and on about Demeter, who, not six feet away, was deep in conversation with an uncharacteristically subdued Sabine. Erato was once again mesmerized by golden eyes, by their focus, their care, and attention. How expressive they were, how intelligent.
As she was staring, half-listening to the mumbling Poseidon, Demeter raised those very eyes and Erato was caught. More than caught, she was gone.
“We are. Yes, very much so. Together.” Dropping her last word like a stick of dynamite for Poseidon to either pick up or run away from, Erato took the few steps that separated her from Demeter and intertwined their fingers. The golden eyes kept watching her with warmth and curiosity.
“May I have this dance?” Erato barely recognized her own voice.
“Well, if you’re going to lie to only the second most powerful god on the mountain, you’ll need an exit strategy, Muse. I might as well save you, from him and from yourself.” Hands clasped, the golden bond between them sparkling twice as strongly, they stepped on the dance floor.
As she twirled Demeter into position, Erato could see Sabine watching them with a rather pleased smirk on her face.