Fate of the Gods 01 - Forged by Fate (24 page)

“Not a boast, exactly. But you would be surprised what the Celts hear, and certainly Rome does not miss any opportunity to curry our favor by passing along the choicest news. And my cousin often chooses not to sort the truth from the lies, no matter how bold. Is it true, then? You married a mortal woman?”

He froze. If the story had spread to Olympus, how widely was it known in his own lands? Heimdall, of course, and Odin. But had the others any proof beyond Loki’s accusations? At least if Sif believed it—if she thought Tora had been mortal, Eve would be that much safer.

Athena gripped his arm, her nails biting his skin, and something more—a nudge against his thoughts. He growled, tearing his arm from her grasp. “If you thirst so desperately for wisdom, you search the wrong mind to find it.”

She flushed, dropping her eyes. “Forgive me, please. It is only that I am unused to confusion, and in truth, I have never been so baffled by a god as I am by you.”

He forced himself to calm. A goddess of wisdom would not admit to confusion lightly, and all the more difficult for a goddess of both wisdom and war. Athena should never have admitted weakness, and yet…

“I will tell you what you wish to know, Athena, if you will grant me your counsel on the matter.”

“You need not speak as though I would not share my wisdom gladly, Thor. We are friends, you and I.”

“Yes,” he said, meeting her clear gray eyes. “And as a friend, I must ask your help, though I fear you will think poorly of me, once you know the truth.”

“Whatever you have done, it cannot be worse than the behavior of my own family.” Athena sat upon the altar, a flick of her slim fingers indicating he might do the same.

Instead, he sat upon the ground, dusted with olive leaves and dry grasses. The touch of the soil on his hands brought him some comfort. It had been too long since he had walked the earth, but he had not realized until now how much he had missed it. He gathered a handful of the rocky soil and let it fall again through his fingers.

“I did not marry a mortal,” he told her, slowly. “I married a goddess. Elohim’s daughter.”

Athena did not gasp, but he felt some shift in her emotions which he could not name. As if his admission had stung her. “All those years you walked the earth, invited into the bed of every goddess between Brittania and the Far East, and none could tempt you from your wife.”

“I was angry, after I found Sif in bed with Loki.”

She made a sound of derision in the back of her throat. “And in anger, you turned to the one female who did not know you at all? Elohim’s daughter of all women, Thor! Better if it had been a mortal, a human who might die and be forgotten, than her!”

She rose, her sandaled feet pacing toward the spring, white ankles gleaming with each stir of her hem. Athena had a way of holding the light, drawing it in and glowing like moonlight. Even more so now, in her anger. It reminded him of his brother Baldur, the shining god of Asgard, but Baldur was more silver and starlight than milk and cream. Athena was all fair skin and soft curves.

“And I suppose that it is true, also, that you gave her a godchild,” Athena said, her back to him.

“No,” he said, tearing his gaze away from her body. Perhaps the next time he came, he would bring Baldur. “The son I gave Eve was just a man, for my part. What she gave him of her own divinity, I do not know. Odin had stripped me of my godhead.”

Her hands were fists at her sides, the snakes curling tight around her arms, hissing in response to her agitation. “Did you love her?”

“If she had been truly mortal, I am not certain I would have returned to Asgard,” he said softly, digging his fingers into the dirt. “But what purpose would it serve to sacrifice my life while she lived on?”

Athena shook her head. “Sif could not forgive this, if she knew. Her dalliance with Loki was nothing more than a cry for your attention, but to love another—I could not have believed it, had you not told me yourself. Not after seeing how you cherished her, your steadfastness in refusing all others.”

“Can you forgive me?”

She spun, her gray eyes dark with something—pain. He rose at once, conscious of the weight of her grief. He had thought it only his own guilt until he saw her face.

“Athena, I did not realize.”

“How could you?” She laughed, but it was bitter. “I am a virgin goddess, after all. And you are married. Twice-over, now. No, Thor. Blaming you would be unreasonable.”

He reached for her, then stopped himself, letting his arm fall back to his side. How much crueler would it be, if after confessing so much, he offered her comfort and false hope? He closed his hand into a fist.

“Reason does not often hold sway over the heart.” He could not ask her, now. He dared not ask her for help in guarding Eve.

“So I am learning, to my dismay.” But she smiled. “You need not worry. I have known from the start I had no claim to you, no right to expect you might treat me as anything more than a friend.”

“If I had known—if I had been free—of all the goddesses who invited me to their beds, Athena, you would have been the hardest to refuse.”

She touched his cheek, stroked his face. “You are kind to say so, Thor. Truly. But I will not hold you to your word this time.” Her hand fell away, and he made no move to stop her when she turned back to the water. “Let us forget this unpleasantness. You came for some purpose, and I would not distract you from it further. How might Olympus serve you?”

He hesitated. Even for a goddess of reason and wisdom, it could not be so simple to put aside the affairs of the heart, and he had no wish to pain her further. But Loki would come, he was certain. And he could not turn his back upon Eve. Not after they had shared so much, and he had promised himself, when she spoke of faith and gods…

He had promised himself, she would not be alone.

“I come to beg a favor of Aphrodite, if she would indulge me.”

Athena lifted her eyebrows, a mocking smile curving her lips. “Aphrodite drives a hard bargain for her favor.”

He was not fooled. “I mean only to ask her if she will offer her distractions to our Trickster, when he passes through. To keep him from continuing further for a time, that is all.”

Her eyes narrowed, but if she suspected his reasons, she kept it to herself. “One day, you must come to a feast simply for the pleasure of it. Zeus is likely to take exception before long if you continue on this way.”

“I am, of course, at your father’s service.”

Athena snorted, linking her arm through his. “You make a very fine ambassador for your people, Thor. But do not think, even for a moment, those pretty phrases of yours will fool me. We are friends, you and I.”

He smiled. “We are that.”

Chapter Twenty-two: Present

Mia climbed out of the car, pulling Adam with her. The man had the gall to smirk as their eyes met and Eve resisted the urge to throttle him.

Garrit stood stiff beside her before the main entrance, at the top of the broad stone stairs. She didn’t have to look at his face to know he was glaring. For centuries, the DeLeons had been guarding their lands against Adam, and Garrit was less than thrilled to offer him hospitality. But this wasn’t the first time Eve had met with Adam this way, negotiating with him for the safety of those he had drawn under his influence. She just hoped it would be the last.

Firmly now, she repressed all memory of Troy and her life as Helen. When, for the briefest lifetime, Adam had nearly held her sympathy. If he hadn’t remembered himself now, if he had not remembered her, she would not have been nearly so worried about Mia. Paris had been capable of kindness, even affection, misguided though it was. But Adam wasn’t Paris anymore.

Something glinted off Mia’s hand and Eve felt her throat tighten. They couldn’t have. She wouldn’t. Not even Mia could be so foolish as to run off and marry the first fool she found! But to have that man be Adam was so horrifying Eve found herself trying to will the ring from her sister’s finger.

It was unfortunate that God had not seen fit to grant her that kind of power.

Garrit’s hand tightened around hers as Adam put his arm around Mia’s shoulders and murmured something in her ear. Mia laughed and the two climbed the stairs, coming to a stop less than a meter away.

“Mum and Dad are going to be furious, Mia.”

Her sister pouted prettily. “I don’t see why you can’t be happy for me, Abby.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “I’m supposed to be happy that you ran off and eloped behind everyone’s back? To someone you don’t even know?”

“I know him perfectly well.” Mia looked up at Adam and smiled. “Ethan, this is my sister, Abby, and her husband Garrit DeLeon.”

Adam smirked. Again. “A pleasure to meet you both.” He extended a hand to Garrit, who ignored it completely. Adam dropped his arm back to his side, and Eve felt his amusement. “Mia’s told me so much about you and your family, Abby. I feel as though I’ve known you for years.”

Garrit ground his teeth next to her, and she felt his hand spasm in her own. She imagined the other was balled into a fist by now.

She tried to keep herself calm. The entire charade was a bit much, even for her. But she didn’t want to think what Garrit would do if she left the two of them alone to drag Mia off. Or what Adam might try to do to him.

“Aren’t you a little bit old for my sister?”

“Mia told me that you and your husband are two years apart, as well. Let me reassure you that I have every intention of making your sister as blissfully happy as possible.”

She glared at him, but he only smiled and pulled Mia closer against his side. Eve turned away, closing her eyes against the memories that surged through her, when she had stood at his side as Helen in Pharaoh’s court, where they had stopped before continuing to Troy, hoping to confound her husband. For all of that, avoiding Paris’s importunities had been a relief after Menelaus. That’s all it had been, she told herself. Paris had just been kind in comparison.

“We’re so looking forward to getting to know you better.” Her voice sounded flat and dead even to her own ears, but it was the best she could do. “Won’t you stay for dinner?”

Mia latched onto her arm and led her into the house, leaving Adam and Garrit a few steps behind. “Really, Abby. Won’t you just give him a chance? Please. For me?”

Eve looked into her sister’s eyes, using the physical contact to search her mind as she did so. There was no aura there, no cloud of Adam’s influence over her thoughts and feelings for him. Either he had been very subtle, or Mia was just so ridiculous that she had fallen in love with the most indecent man who had ever lived.

“I’ll try, Mia.” She glanced back at the men. Garrit was staring at Adam with black fury, and the foyer felt much too narrow to hold the two of them. “This is all just a little bit insane. And you know Mum is going to blame me for letting it happen. It wasn’t fair of you to do this to any of us. Me, or Garrit, or his family! And poor Jean!”

Mia waved a hand dismissively. “Jean and I were never serious. He knew that. You were the one who told me not to fall in love with him. So I didn’t.” She smiled over her shoulder at her new husband. “I fell in love with Ethan instead. Isn’t he gorgeous? And look at his eyes! Have you ever seen anything like them?”

“No.” She didn’t look. She didn’t need to. Those eyes had haunted her for millennia. There was no other man on earth with eyes exactly that shade of gray. “They’re unique, to be sure.”

Eve searched her sister’s face again, hoping for any sign that she had been coerced. If only Adam had forced her, then she could act! Break his hold on her and send him away again where he couldn’t bother her and she wouldn’t have to see him, or wonder what he was doing to her sister and her family.

“Mia, please promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t want. You can’t know him as well as you think you do after only a few weeks. Are you sure this is what you want?”

Mia was still looking at Adam, her eyes alight. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. And did I tell you, he’s filthy rich! Maybe not as wealthy as your DeLeon family, but certainly well off. We’ll never have to work a day in our lives if we don’t want to. Mum and Dad are going to love him once they’ve met him and gotten to know him. And you will too. Just wait!” She squeezed Eve’s arm and then skipped back to Adam, taking his hand and pulling him away from Garrit and off down one of the hallways.

Eve didn’t miss the wink that Adam threw in her direction before he disappeared around a corner. “Mia! Dinner is in an hour. Please don’t disappear!”

There was a noise that sounded like something between an assurance and a laugh, and then Garrit was at her side. “Well?”

She looked up at his face; it was still dark with anger. “Nothing.” She sighed and shook her head. “She’s honestly in love with him. Completely of her own free will.”

He raised both eyebrows, some of the anger replaced by surprise. “And your brother?”

She glanced back down the hall where he had disappeared and frowned. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”