The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) (8 page)

His sea maiden, well aware that the waters had been sent by moi, did not interfere. I should drown his miserable rat ass for being such a fool. But I was turning over a new leaf now.

So I only let him suffer for a little while. Just until his face turned blue and his eyes began to bulge from a lack of breathable water.

He collapsed to his hut floor a mere second later, hacking and spluttering and drooling all over himself.

“Pathetic legger.” I curled my lip.

But then I smiled when I turned my gaze toward Apollo’s shimmering temple that now dripped with brine, salt, and yards and yards of slimy kelp, not to mention several gallons’ worth of litter.

“Calypso!” Apollo roared, obviously well aware it’d been me and not Psycho who’d done it. I shrugged. Apollo held no dominion over me. The lights that lit Seren were of my own making, an enchantment similar to the sun, but not actually sun at all.

There was nothing the golden-haired narcissist could do to me down here. In fact, there was nothing any of the miserable pantheon could do to me. I was far greater in power than they were, and they all knew it.

Dusting my hands off, I twirled, feeling strangely...lonely.

Curling my nose in disgust, because the Goddess of the Sea was
never
in want of company, I vanished this ridiculous outfit with a thought.

Well, not entirely ridiculous. I might need to use it again; Hades had practically wet himself for want of me. But that heat had soon turned to something else when he’d orgasmed. There’d been a softness to him, one I’d not expected.

One that intrigued me far more than most anything else we’d done tonight.

Laughing, I shook my head. I was becoming a maudlin fool in my old age.

Wishing to be rid of this body, I returned to my natural state. Instantly my thoughts eased as I felt the hum of life, of my children move through me. Bruce was several hundred feet away and gorging on the bloated carcass of a bucktoothed whale.

Nim and Sircco were...oh, I shut off the channel. Best to give them their privacy.

Most of my maidens were with their chosen bedmates for the evening. Psycho was banging a bevy of porpoises at the same time.

He really was a pervert. Why bang twenty when you could bang one for life?

Hm. Where had that thought come from?

Life was such a long time for ones such as us.

All around me, I felt the yawn and breath of life and death. Death was a part of my world, and I accepted it as such. Very few things lived forever. There was a natural cycle to life and a beauty to death few souls could ever truly appreciate.

To live a life well, to have no regrets, be you fish, maiden, or even a damnable legger. To close your eyes and know that there was peace in the beyond and to smile because now the pain would soon be over and there’d be nothing more beyond that but joy.

Yes, there was beauty in death.

Thinking of death obviously turned my thoughts to the man himself, the collector of legger souls.

He’d told me I fascinated him.

Truth was, he fascinated me too.

I felt him as he paced the length of the room beside my own, his lips pulled down, his thoughts pensive and weighty. He stared at nothing, but his thoughts were clearly heavy and distracting.

Why was he not sated? Had I not pleasured him well? Was there more I should have done? Maybe the carrot?

But I quickly banished the thoughts and stopped spying on him. Whatever his thoughts were, they were his own.

There’d been guilt etched onto his face. Around the corners of his eyes. Hades knew Persephone’s fate. The scales of justice would move as they must.

Needing the comfort of a friend, I flashed to where Linx was stabled.

The hippocampus lifted her glittering head, sensing my presence immediately.

Sister? Why are your thoughts so heavy?

I honestly was not sure. I was a virgin no more, and that should have been cause for celebration. Instead, I wrapped my form around Linx’s body and hugged her tight.

She let me do it, not moving an inch the rest of the night as I fitfully slept.

~*~

Hades

“Please Hades, if you ever cared for me at all, don’t do this,” Persephone pleaded, clenching her fingers tight.

Hades stared in fury. How dare she? How dare she demand of him further?

He’d given her everything. Spoiled her even. For so long, all he’d wanted was her love, but he’d soon learned that Persephone loved nothing so well as herself.

He’d have settled for respect at the very least, but even that she’d withheld.

Lifting a hand, he glared at her. He was powerful. A god. She could not do to him what he did not allow. But he’d always been weak to her wiles. Until the day he wasn’t. Until the burden of her yearly visits made him want to weep and gnash his teeth with disgust and vexation.

Hades had tried to end their arrangement, but the terms had been sealed by the Fates, and unless one were willing to take her place, he’d never be able to undo what’d been wrought by a zealous fit of passion nearly an eternity ago.

Her eyes flashed. “You won’t do this. You won’t because you still love me.”

He scoffed. “I do not love you, you little fool. My love for you has turned to hate. After what you’ve done to Cerberus, do you think I could ever forgive this!”

She laughed. Literally laughed in his face. Any pretense at kindness faded quickly. “That mangy mutt will grow it back. No real harm done. But if you do this, I swear to the gods, they will see you burn for this.”

He moved as though to strike her but held back at the last moment. He hated her, but at his core, Hades was now and would always be a gentleman.

“I despise your black soul,” she scoffed, lifting her chin. “Hit me, you beast. Hit me hard!”

Shaking her by the shoulders, he roared, “Stop this at once!”

“You deserve nothing less! Now let me go—”

He moved. A tangle of limbs. Cerberus snapping one of his massive jaws, and then there was nothing more but pools of blood...

Gasping, I sat up, clutching at my chest. The dream left me shaken—and utterly destroyed, because it’d been no dream.

It’d all happened.

“Damn her to Tartarus!” I roared, kicking off the sheets and staring at the golden walls of the room with hate, fury, and the injustice of it all.

If I talked, I was damned. If I didn’t talk, I was damned.

There would be no out for me from this. None.

Calypso had given me a short reprieve for her own selfish ends. As with most others, she was no different. She’d taken what she’d wanted—my body; she cared naught about the rest.

Turning on my heel, I stopped, staring broodily at the diamond-dipped clam-shell bed I’d slept on, the sea kelp that climbed like vines up the walls and glimmered like green and blue neon. The room was both gaudy and tasteful.

A strange mix of excess and beauty.

Like the woman herself.

Sighing, I dropped down onto the edge of the bed. I did not hate her. In fact, Calypso had been a breath of fresh air for me. When I was with her, I didn’t think about Persephone or what she’d done to me.

What I’d done to her.

She’d grown out of hand. And no matter how many times I’d talked of that with Demeter, she’d refused to hear me out. Refused to believe it.

So I’d done what I’d done, and though I had no regrets, I felt the injustice of their judgment keenly.

Clenching my jaw, I hung my head.

There was a soft glow coming in from the window. Apollo did not actually track across the waters here, so whatever this light was, the enchantment came from Calypso herself.

I’d visited Poseidon’s grotto once. It’d been a bachelor’s paradise, with a bevy of nude sirens and sea creatures to warm his bed. Poseidon’s waters catered to nothing but the carnal.

Calypso’s, on the other hand, teemed with actual life. With citizens that lived and breathed and worked and loved. She’d built a true utopia in this Below, and had I been brought here under different circumstances, I might have enjoyed it more.

I snorted as a sudden flash of memory ripped through my thoughts: her in that bizarre costume, riding me like I was a stallion, with her head tossed back and a look of wonder in her eyes.

A wild, witchy, enchantress.

In so many ways, Calypso was a mystery to not just me but all the Pantheon. Water was the essence of life. All peoples of all nations and tongues worshipped her, even without ever uttering a prayer. Without water, life would cease to exist.

Because of that, she was a great power and, should she ever wish it, a threat to Zeus’s reign.

Poseidon was also a water deity, but he’d been born long after her. No, the true power had always lain with Calypso—Thalassa, as I was coming to think of her—but she’d always been a shy, absent creature, content to live out her days as a hermit and so often overlooked by those of us on Olympus.

I grinned, wondering at a world in which she reigned and we no longer did, and I found it not to be such a terrible thing.

My position would always be secure. She was life. I was death. One could not exist without the other. But many of the Pantheon were antiquated beings with ideals no longer suitable to this day and age.

Just then, the door was thrown open, and a maiden I’d never seen before swam inside.

Her hair was a silvery gray, and though her face was more mature, she was not in the least bit old. She was rather attractive, sturdy and solidly built with sharp features that, separately, weren’t entirely pleasing but together created a symmetrical harmony. A tail the same shade as her hair swished as she swam inside.

“’Ello, Master Hades, and ’ow are you this fine mornin’?”

Blue eyes the shade of a clear spring sky smiled back at me.

There was something about her movements, the expert precision to them, and the lithe sway of her body that caught my attention instantly.

In her hands she carried a wooden tray brimming with food. Biscuits. Fruit. Cheeses. Nuts. I sniffed, instantly scenting the honeyed mead in the smoking stoneware pot.

“I’m fine, Miss—” I paused, awaiting her name.

Bobbing cutely, she said, “Janita. The name’s Janita. I’m about to hie meself off to the king’s palace for the day, but the goddess wished to see you fed well.”

Leaning back on my hands, I watched as she set the tray down on the nightstand.

“Did she? Give your mistress my thanks.”

She nodded, nibbling on her luscious bottom lip and looking far more nervous now that she no longer carried a tray. Her eyes darted toward the door and then back to me at least three times.

Clearly she knew she should leave but wasn’t quite ready to do it yet.

“Something you wish, Janita?”

She cleared her throat. “Well, it’s only that the mistress weren’t sure what types of food ye liked, ye see. And um...tomorrow she’d like to pleasure you.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not the right word. Please you, please you. Aye.”

I thinned my lips, entertained mightily.

“Does she? How kind.”

She picked her thumbnail. “Well?”

Snapping my fingers, I called the tray over to my side and began to nibble on the cheeses first. The golden squares had a nutty, sweet taste.

“The cheese is very pleasing,” I murmured. “Though I’m not fond of nuts.” I pushed that plate aside.

“Yes, yes.” She bobbed her head. “And the fruit?”

I shrugged, picking at the bowl of figs. “I’m partial to pomegranates.”

“Oh, right, of course.” She smacked her forehead. “I knew that. Erm, I mean, because of the stories and such.”

“Bread is okay,” I pressed on, as though I’d not heard her. “And of course,” I lifted the steaming pot full of mead, “I like mead, but I’m most partial to ambrosia.”

After I finished complaining about nearly every item on the tray, her eyes turned a frosty blue. “Is that all?”

Smirking, I stood, towering over her invading her space. I was impressed that she didn’t back up. A lesser woman would have.

“Tell your mistress that what I most prefer is naught but a simple repast of toast and coffee. That’ll do.”

Turning on my heel, I dismissed her and busied myself with the food. It all looked good, actually. I wondered if Calypso had made it with her own hands.

Suddenly I was bowled over by a wave and pinned to the bed with my cheek pressed to the mattress. The pressure relented after only a moment. Clearing my throat, I stood and dusted myself off.

“You’ve quite the temper, maiden,” I spoke coolly.

Lovely Janita seethed. “I’ll have you know, dil-do, the
mistress
worked all morning creating those for you. The least you could do was show a little courtesy.”

I was quite certain she’d not meant to call me a dildo; however, with her, nothing was quite impossible, either.

Pouring on the charm, an act I so rarely attempted, as I had grown bored with my kind, I once more invaded her sphere, this time making certain to brush a very hard part of my anatomy against her tail.

She trembled and then shivered when my hands trailed languidly up her bare forearms.

“Well then, my lovely little maiden, do me the honor of telling your
mistress
,” I lowered my head, so that our noses practically touched, “thank you.”

She clutched at her lip with her sharp little teeth. And when her tongue poked out, it was all I could do not to lean in and snatch it up for my own.

“O...okay,” she murmured docilely. But I wasn’t fooled. This angel had horns.

Standing back, I released her. And fought a grin when she stumbled forward a minute inch. Her hands were aflutter around her head as she tucked strands of hair behind her ears.

Curtseying, she made as though to go.

“Oh, and Janita, one last thing,” I said as she was halfway out the door.

Clutching at the frame with one clawed hand, she whispered, “Aye?”

“Tell, Calypso, tonight is my night and this time it will be she and not I that screams.”