Goddess Bared: Goddess Series Book 5 (Young Adult / New Adult) (11 page)

As for Adin, she didn’t know what to think about him because she still had that same dream every night. Hades was playing her, so she didn’t know if he was playing her in her dream too, letting her believe there was a chance Adin was alive.

She continued to go through the motions of everyday life. She hung out with her group of friends at lunch. Ellen was still annoying, but at least Seth and Kate were happy again. They were practically inseparable. Alex and Laos were always near, bickering at each other. And Seth and River were stoked because the team had been winning all their games of late. After winning the last regular home game of the season tonight, everybody had gone out to celebrate since winning had confirmed their spot in the playoffs—everyone was looking forward to March Madness.

After the big celebration, she went home and put on some PJs. It was late, so she curled up in bed and pulled out Adin’s journal. It was her nightly read. Sometimes she’d cry. Sometimes she’d laugh, but she read it every night, regardless.

As she was reading, though, she thought she heard something downstairs.

She sat up in the bed, listening intently. Then she heard what sounded like the front door closing. Startled, she jumped up and froze in place. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, so she braced herself. For what, she had no idea. It could have been Calli or River or Rose coming to check on her. But she wasn’t expecting any of them.

Knowing she wasn’t expecting anybody didn’t negate the fact that someone was, in fact, in her house.

She grabbed her robe and put it on, backing away from her bedroom door, wishing she’d locked it before she retreated to the corner. The doorknob twisted slowly, and the door creaked open. She saw the hand that was clutching the knob, then the arm as the door pushed open.

Then she saw the person who was sneaking into her bedroom.

She saw…
him
.

Chapter Twelve

She gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth in total shock. She couldn’t believe her eyes. His eyes met hers, and his smile was radiant.

“Adin?” she whispered through her hands, feeling the blood fall out of her face, the air rushing from her lungs.

“Yes, sweetheart. It’s me,” he said, walking toward her.

She’d considered Adin was alive—hoped he was alive—but she didn’t expect him to just show up. If he was alive, she figured Hades had him trapped. If he were trapped, Hades wouldn’t just let him go.

Unless…Hades was playing her now.

Her hands flew up, palms out, and he halted.

“Sweetheart?” His voice was full of concern. “It’s all right.” He took another step closer to her.

“Stop!” She yelled.

He froze and put his own hands up in a placating gesture. He stared at her for several seconds. Then he glanced at the bed and back at Legacy. “Do you mind if I have a seat?” he asked softly.

It was clearly rhetorical because she just stared at him as he stepped over to the bed. But once he was seated, he noticed the journal and smiled as he reached for it.

“Don’t touch that!” she yelled.

He put his hands on his lap and eyed her warily. “I know this is really confusing for you, sweetheart, but I—”

“S-stop talking,” she mumbled, and shut her eyes. He looked exactly like Adin. He sounded exactly like Adin. His movements, his words, everything was exactly like Adin. She noticed tears forming in her eyes as her body trembled. She felt the phantom hole in her body she’d felt after Adin had died reassert itself. This man was too much like her Adin, her love.

“Legacy—”

“Shut up!” Her hands covered her ears. “Shut up, shut up, shut up,” she mumbled, turning away from him.

She needed to think. Medusa wanted to capture her for Hades. Maybe this man was another attempt from Hades to get her to the underworld. She stopped Medusa by killing her. She was evil, and Legacy knew she needed to get away from her. She couldn’t think of River being a friend when Legacy thought she had to kill him to protect herself and Calli. But this man in her room, this man that looked exactly like her dead boyfriend—if he was here to finish Medusa’s job, how could she kill him? Hades would count on her not being able to do that. She took a deep breath and turned to face this imposter.

His beautiful blue eyes watched her cautiously.

“Why are you here?” she asked coldly.

He started to rise.

“Don’t! Just stay where you are and answer me,” she ordered slowly.

He eased back down onto the bed. “Legacy, I came back to be with you.”

She shook head, trying to keep her jagged breathing from turning into a sob. This was the cruelest thing Hades could’ve done to her. She took a deep breath. “You can go back to where you came from.”

“No, sweetheart,” he whispered.

“Don’t call me that!” she yelled, taking an unsteady step toward him. “I know this is a trick! Does Hades think I’m so stupid I’d actually fall for this?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Sw…er, Legacy, I’m not…this isn’t a trick. Hades didn’t send me.”

She glared at him. “Of course he did. He knows I killed Medusa because she tried to abduct me for him. He thinks I won’t be able to kill someone who looks and talks and acts like my dead boyfriend.”

“Y-you killed Medusa?” His eyes were wide.

“As if you didn’t know.” She smirked.

“I didn’t, but I’m glad she didn’t succeed in abducting you if that was her intent. Did she hurt you at all?” he asked, concerned.

As she stared at him, hope swelled at the possibility of him telling her the truth. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head furiously, trying to keep that hope from taking root.

She opened her eyes and glared at him. “Of course she didn’t hurt me. I killed her, and I’ll kill you if you try anything.”

“I’m not going to try anything,” he said calmly. “I’d just like a chance to explain, if that’s all right.”

She stared at him, knowing that whatever he was going to tell her would be a lie, but her morbid side was curious as to how he’d explain his presence here. “Explain.”

He took a deep breath. “When I visited my dad over Christmas, he had some theories about my ascension.” She remembered reading this in Adin’s journal, but he hadn’t elaborated in it. “He told me Adonis is a life-death-rebirth deity, and since I was created in the likeness of him, then maybe I was that type of god too.”

“What does that mean?” she asked evenly.

“It’s a mortal who becomes a god upon his death. Dad knew about the warning you’d received about you killing me if we stayed together.” He grimaced. “Of course he didn’t want to test the life-death-rebirth deity theory, but he knew there was a chance that I’d die soon because I wasn’t going to give you up. He hoped that upon my death, I’d be reborn.”

She stared at him. This was very good as excuses went, but she really didn’t know much about Greek mythology outside what concerned her. She couldn’t allow herself to just believe him. When she didn’t speak, he continued.

“He told me about this on the winter solstice because it’s a celebration of rebirth. He kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner, but since Adonis has been around for thousands of years, it’s been a long time since anyone considered him mortal.”

She continued to stare at him and pursed her lips, nodding slowly. River had told her about the significance of the winter solstice on their date that night, but she needed to stay focused. “And you just became a god. Just like that?”

“No, not just like that. When a mortal dies, there has to be a divine intervention into that death for the mortal to become a god. When Adonis died, Aphrodite was there with him. She mixed his blood with nectar and anemone, giving him his godly life through the use of natural elements. That’s how he was reborn.” He paused, looking at her with gentle eyes. “When I died, you cried over me, showering me with your love, your tears mixing with my blood, washing away my mortality. You are Mother Nature. You gave me a godly life through
your
natural elements.”

She didn’t know what to think. She’d love to believe him, but she couldn’t just take his word for it. She knew that Hades would stop at nothing to capture her. “Where’ve you been then?”

“Ascending. My ascension wasn’t like River’s was, or how yours will be. It wasn’t instantaneous. I had to die first. Then transform, then heal. But to answer your question specifically, I’ve been in Texas with my father.”

“Why should I believe you?” she asked, crossing her arms, looking away from him.

“Because it’s the truth,” he whispered.

The truth? She had no way of knowing if he was telling her the truth. But if she could get some answers out of him, maybe she could figure this out.

“Did you send me the flowers on Valentine’s Day?” she asked, looking at him again.

He half-smiled and nodded. “I didn’t want you to feel alone. Plus, I knew I’d be able to see you again soon. I’d hoped you’d look into Adonis’s life and make the connection to me being a life-death-rebirth deity. Then when I saw you in person, you wouldn’t go into shock, thinking you were seeing a ghost.” He chuckled.

“Why didn’t you just call and let me know what was going on? Or email me? Send me a text? Hell, message me on Facebook? If you really were Adin, you wouldn’t have put me through that misery,” she said, her voice trembling. She took a jagged breath. She didn’t want to cry in front of this man. She couldn’t let him have the upper hand.

But he could see she was upset. He gave her a sad smile while he shook his head slowly. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it,” he whispered. “I was,” he paused, looking down. “I was in really bad shape. I knew my dad was on the right track since I was able to be revived after dying, but I wasn’t sure how long it’d last. Sure, you have natural abilities, but you’re not a full goddess yet.” Tears formed in his eyes. “I knew you were devastated already. I didn’t want to give you hope that I’d lived, and then it not work out that way.”

That was definitely how Adin would’ve reacted. He would’ve wanted to protect her from the additional pain. “Is that why you didn’t tell me about your dad’s theory when you got back?”

“Yes,” he murmured.

She nodded, looking away from him. She just referred to him as her dead boyfriend. She needed to be careful not to do that again. “Here’s the problem. I’ve been having a dream, warning me about some man being evil—”

“You told me,” he interrupted, and her eyes flashed to his. He was still watching her protectively.

“But I woke up on Valentine’s Day with a new warning in that dream. My mom said, ‘Be careful. He’s not dead.’ Then I get the flowers you just confessed to sending. I figured the dream was warning me about Hades. Mom said he had a plan. He could’ve safely assumed I was involved with Adonis’s likeness since Persephone wanted to be with him. If Adin died or was retrievable from the underworld in some way, either way, Hades could use Adin to his advantage. If I thought Adin was trapped, I’d do whatever I could to get him out. Your—” She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. “I mean, Adin’s grandmother commented that Hades could use Adin to get to me. And…” She trailed off, raising her eyebrows, waving her hands toward him as if to show that Hades was doing it now.

“He didn’t send me here, Legacy. I haven’t even seen Hades since the day of my death.”

“How can I believe you when the evidence tells me otherwise?” she whispered.

He gave a short, frustrated laugh. “Ask me something, anything only you and I’d know.”

She stared at him speculatively, fighting a smile. She had to remind herself that this could be part of the plan to lure her in. She needed to stay focused. “Okay. In the summer, Adin picked me up in his car—”

“A blue Chevrolet Camaro,” he rattled off quickly. She stared at him, and he pursed his lips, waiting.

“To have lunch with his mother. I remember I was wearing—”

“A coral skirt and white top. We put our hands on each other’s knees, and I wanted to make out with you in my driveway before we—” He saw her eyeing him, so he stopped. “Sorry,” he mumbled. But he was still waiting eagerly for the question.

“His mother made homemade—”

“Lasagna,” he said with her and smiled.

She stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Right. She said something to me about Adin moving—”

“I wasn’t moving. She told you about my dad moving to Texas.” He smiled.

“Whatever. Will you let me ask the damn question?”

“I won’t interrupt again, I promise.” He smiled crookedly at her.

“Anyway, she said something about his
dad
moving, and I got upset. He took me upstairs to his bedroom, and we sat his on the bed. It was the first time he’d ever said something to me. What was it?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Er, I said a lot of things,” he mumbled. He tapped his chin, looking up at the ceiling. “Let’s see. You were crying. I apologized for my mom bringing it up and told you I’d planned on telling you about his move. I told you he wanted me to go to school out there, but that I wasn’t going to, so I needed to visit him and explain in person. Then you asked me to the Fourth of July Parade.”

“You haven’t said the answer I’m looking for,” she said evenly.

His smile faded. “That’s everything we talked about in my room. After you asked about the parade, we went back downstairs.”

“I remember. But you said something when we were in your room. It was the first time I’d heard you say it.”

“Um, I think I said something about hating to see you upset.” He shrugged. “I’ve already hit the highlights of our conversation that day. I didn’t tell you I love you.” He looked at her gently. “Though, I was already in love with you. So I’m not sure what you’re looking for here. I may be in love with you, Legacy, but I don’t remember every word of every conversation we’ve ever had. And neither do you.”

“It was significant to me,” she whispered.

He looked at her, dumbfounded, shaking his head. He was quiet for several seconds, probably scanning back over the conversation on that day, seeking out the right answer. “Sweetheart, I honestly—” He stopped and smiled widely. “It was the first time I called you sweetheart.”

“Took you long enough,” she mumbled.

He chuckled. “So now you believe me?” he asked, standing up and taking a step toward her.

She put her hand up to halt him, and he sighed, stopping where he was.

“If Hades is behind this, he’d have covered all his bases.” She hesitated, looking at him. He was gorgeous; not one characteristic differed from her Adin, but she couldn’t get distracted. “Er, where was our, I mean Adin and me, er, mine and Adin’s first kiss?” she stammered quickly.

He chuckled, taking a step toward her. “Technically, it was when we were at the zoo. When we were babies.”

“Um …” She glanced around her room. “What did I wear, ummm, to school on my seventeenth birthday?”

“A green dress.” He took another step, locking his gaze onto hers.

She swallowed loudly. “What color was my homecoming—”