Aphrodite's Curse (Kallos Series)

©Text Copyright 2013 Khelsey Jackson

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Cover by Rue Volley for Vivid Book Designs

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Aphrodite has had many lovers in her life, but she has always come back to Ares and Apollo. They are the only men she has ever been with to reach her heart. She walks through the garden where she knows Apollo will be. Vibrant colors are everywhere, reds, yellows, bright blue and a brilliant green from the grass. The small lake has her favorite fish in it, and she knows that the water from the waterfall is warm.

Aphrodite
’s heart stops, it has been twenty years since she has last seen him. Apollo is sitting by the water, and she notices his hair is longer. He has the same perfect chiseled jaw line, and the same single dimple in his left cheek he had when she had left him and Ares in the middle of the night to go to earth. Earth is where she met him and had to suffer the excruciating loss of him dying in her arms.

Aphrodite shakes
the thought out of her head. “Apollo,” she whispers.

The sun god doesn’t look at her.
He slowly stands up, and keeps his back to her. “Why are you here, Aphrodite?” She flinches at the use of her name and the coldness in his voice. Apollo used to call her Agápe.

She closes her eyes, and pictures him taking her into his arms.
She doesn’t blame him for acting like this, but she missed him every second she was gone. She opens her eyes and takes a deep steadying breath. “Would you believe me if I you I came here to tell you and Ares I am sorry? And how I should have stayed here.”

Aphrodite moves towards Apollo
as he says with a deep hurt in his voice, “Do you know for the first few years I waited for you, and swore that you would come back?” Aphrodite stops moving when Apollo turns around. “I had to watch you with him, watch you fall in love with someone else.”

She takes a step back and stops when her body hits something. Aphrodite can feel her body coming alive; she knows whose body she is against.
“Calm down, Apollo.” Ares warm, sweet, and calming voice says alongside her neck.

Aphrodite shivers. “I know I messed up, and I am sorry you had to watch.”
She moves away from Ares, and drops to her knees in front of Apollo. “I am here now and I won’t be leaving you or Ares ever again.”

Apollo stares down at h
er, and slowly his face softens, “Your dress is getting dirty.”

“I don’t care,
” she says as she tilts her head back to look at him. “I understand if you need time to forgive me, and I will wait until the end of time if I need too.”

“
Agápe, you were always a romantic with your words.” Apollo drops to his knees in front of her, and takes her hands into his. “We will heal, it’s what we do.”

Aphrodite smiles, and squeezes Apollo’s hands.
“We
will
heal,” she vows and turns her head to the side to see Ares sit down. He places a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“I for one am happy you are home.”
Ares winks at her, as he wraps an arm around her shoulder and she laughs.

Aphrodite hasn’t been happy since
he
died, and she forced herself back here knowing a part of her heart died with him. “Take me home,” she says, and the men laugh. They sit and she listens to them talk about the last twenty years; she didn’t miss the pain they both had in their once loving eyes. She will fix that and make them happy again.

Aphrodite is sitting outside watching the northern lights play across the sky.
The amethyst, turquoise and lavenders are swirling together in a wispy feather pattern like they were painted with the softest brushes just for us. She has missed how beautiful it is here. Earth has its own northern lights, but it’s nothing like Mount Olympus.

“Ah Aphrodite, you are back,
” an unfamiliar male’s voice says.

Slowly she turns around, not knowing who
m she will find. A man with long straight black hair, black eyes with bags under them, and a long black robe that scrapes the ground when he walks is standing there with a toothless grin on his ashen face. Aphrodite has seen him before, but doesn’t remember his name.

“I’m sure you don’t remember me, I am the god of darkness.”
She backs up a little; she does remember who the god of darkness is. He was ruthless, and always wanted things he couldn’t have. He is skilled at dark magic, and turning curses.

“Well
, what do I owe this visit from the god of darkness to?” Aphrodite narrows her blue eyes.

“The stories are true ab
out you my dear goddess, no woman can compare in beauty to you.” He steps closer to her, but this time she doesn’t move; she is Aphrodite and doesn’t show weakness to anyone. “I have been impolite; I didn’t tell you my name. I am Erebos.”

Erebos
she repeats in her head, and stares into his black eyes. Then she remembers where she has seen him before. He was hiding in the shadows at a party, and she bumped into him. Aphrodite spilled her drink all over him when she tripped on his foot. She told him she was sorry, but he glared at her and just walked away. When Aphrodite asked about the man in the shadows, no one knew who he was.

“I remember you from the party
, you were hiding in the shadows,” she says, and he narrows his eyes at her.

“I am always with
in the shadows, and the shadows are always within me.” Normally Aphrodite feels safe on Mount Olympus, but right now she is terrified. “Tell me something; what is it like to be loved by many?”

She hopes Ares and Apollo can feel her unease.
“Why are you here?” She arches an eyebrow at the god of darkness.

He puts up
a skinny pale finger and shakes it at her. “Answer my question first.”

“I don’t know what you mean,
” Aphrodite says, and looks away from him.

He grins at her and she can taste bile, what is left of his teeth are black stubs and his breath smells like death.
“You are lying.” Erebos grabs her, and pulls her against his cold body. “I admired you from afar.” He turns Aphrodite around, and she tries to get away but he just holds her tighter against him. “I always wondered what it would like to kiss you, my beautiful goddess.”

Aphrodite doesn’t like to use her powers to harm anyone, but she isn’t going to let him kiss her.
She brings up her hands and lays them on his chest. Aphrodite thinks of the fire that she knows is deep inside her, slowly she can feel the heat rising from her feet. It travels to her legs, past her abdomen through her heart, and finally to her arms. When the blistering heat reaches her hands, Erebos gasps above her lips.

“I
f I wanted to kiss you I would,” Aphrodite says, and moves her hands away from him.

He takes a step back and grins at her.
“Now that wasn’t smart my dear goddess.” Erebos chuckles. “You think you are too good for me?”

“Get away from her!”
Ares yells from behind Aphrodite.

“Ah
, here are your soul mates,” Erebos says to her, and she narrows her eyes. “I wonder what it would be like to watch yourself be reincarnated over and over only to watch your soul die?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”
Apollo says as he takes Aphrodite’s hand.

“You, Ares, and the beautiful Aphrodite souls are connected to be with each other.
Even in the other world, your souls will always find each other.” Erebos lifts his hands and a strange blinding white light is radiating from the palms of his hands. She looks back at him, and he smiles. “But you will never connect as one until she is strong enough. She will be the key to everything.”

Aphrodite screams as he turns his glowing palms to her.
Apollo rips his hand out of her as he drops to the ground, Aphrodite hunches over but stays on her feet. “What are you doing to us?” She chokes out, and Erebos smiles widens.

“I just separated your souls. It will take many centuries for your souls to be reconnected as one.
But that isn’t the best part of this curse, Aphrodite. You will have to watch the young girls die as they go through the change to become you.”

Aphrodite forces herself to stand up straight to face the god of darkness.
“You are crazy. You don’t have that kind of power,” she says as Erebos throws his head back and laughs boisterously at her.

“You are truly beautiful, but not that smart.
Aphrodite you felt your souls being ripped apart. You won’t be truly happy until she makes it through the reincarnation.”

He takes a step closer to her.
“You could have given me a kiss, and this wouldn’t have happened.” Erebos looks past Aphrodite to Apollo and Ares. “I hope you enjoy Aphrodite’s curse.” The god of darkness vanishes in a cloud of the thickest black smoke she has ever seen, and when he does she falls to her knees.

She feels like something was ripped out of her.
“I am so sorry,” she whispers.

“You have nothing to be sorry
about; I would have killed him if he kissed you,” Ares says and moves to her.

“I would have torn his tongue out of his mouth if he kissed you, but we have a gift,” Apollo says, as he offers his hand for to her, she takes it and he helps her to her feet.