Goddess Legacy: Goddess Series Book 1 (36 page)

He watched her eyes carefully. “Yes.”

“That wasn’t a question,” she clarified.

Adin sighed. “My family has known, but I didn’t know at first. When I was on vacation, I told my mom that I asked you out, so she told me a little about you. But she was careful not to say too much. Then I realized the possibility of who you really were when you told me about your conversation with River. When I visited my dad that first time, we talked about it. Remember, I told you that we fought? Well, that’s why. I told him what you told me, and he confirmed what I suspected. Then he wanted me away from you. That’s one of the reasons why he wanted me to go to school in Texas.”

“Why did he want you away from me?”

“Because he knows there’s a good chance we won’t be together,” Adin whispered, looking down.

“He believes the prophecy?” Tears started to form in her eyes.

“Yes.” He glanced back up. “He believes a lot of things,” he muttered sarcastically.

“But why?” She stared at him while he sighed, shaking his head. He was reluctant to continue, and warning bells were going off in her head, signifying they were on the verge of tearing into the heart of River’s warning.

Adin sighed and shook his head. “Because we descended from the Greek gods too.”

Legacy gaped at him, shaking her head in disbelief. Her knees were wobbling and a cold sensation crawled down her back. She felt as if she was about to faint. “River said you were mortal. You’re already eighteen.” No way. No way!

“That’s another reason why I didn’t want him telling you about all this. I’ve already lived with the expectation of changes, and my eighteenth birthday came and went without an ascension. That’s one of the reasons why I never pursued you before. I didn’t know how to explain everything. So after I turned eighteen and nothing happened, I realized I put my life on hold for a bunch of silly family stories that amounted to nothing.”

“I talked to my mom. She said I would be going through changes. I believe her.”

“I believed my parents too. I’m not saying it’ll be different for you. I do know there are powerful gods out there. But it may not happen.”

“You should have told me this!” she yelled, jumping out of her seat. She shook her head frantically while she backed away from the table, heading toward the house. When she reached the back wall, she leaned against it for support because she felt weak in the knees. Her breathing became hitched as reality sunk in. “It’s like you’ve been lying to me.” She started crying, and her head slumped into her hands.

Adin got up, walked to her, and put his hands on her arms. “I haven’t lied to you,” he whispered. He pulled her hands down to look at her eyes, but she kept them closed. “Please, Legacy. You promised you would hear me out. Please let me finish.”

“Fine,” she said angrily, opening her eyes and folding her arms against her chest. “Then, what’s the other reason?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You said
one
of the reasons you didn’t pursue me before was because you expected to change too. What’s the other reason?”

Adin shook his head while he stared at her. Then he shut his eyes before speaking. “I don’t want to tell you that.”

She started to cry again, which made her even madder at him, so she pushed him away from her and walked back to the table. “Too bad,” she said through her teeth.

Adin kept his eyes on her while he walked to the seat next to her. After sitting down, he stroked her arm while he spoke. “I was also hesitant before because the original god that I was created like already had a companion he was strongly linked to.”

What? This was freaking crazy! Just frigging perfect. Not only was she furious with Adin, but now she felt sick for making him put up with River and acknowledging their bonded triangle. She never realized she had competition for Adin! “Which goddess?”

“Legacy, please don’t…”

“Which one?” she said each word distinctly.

Adin pursed his lips. “Aphrodite.”

Her hands flew up to her mouth, and she gaped at him. “The goddess of love? Are you kidding me?” She remembered reading about her, but didn’t really do any research because everyone already knew who she was! How was she supposed to compete with a goddess of beauty, sexuality, love, and all the other beautiful qualities that make men madly in love with women?

“Please don’t worry about this, sweetheart. I love you. I want to be with you.”

“Besides the fact that you are connected to her, how can I compete with a goddess of that stature? With her power over love, she could have any man she wanted. I couldn’t stop her if she wanted you.”

“If you’re worried about repeating the destiny of our original gods, then there
are
some stories that said the original god who I’m like spent part of his time with Persephone.”

“The god that Persephone spent time with was Hades. Are you telling me you were created from him?” She started to cry again. This could not be happening to her. She was in love with Adin. Mom said Hades had a plan. If his plan was for her to fall in love with Adin, then he was already winning. She wanted to be with Adin no matter who he was created from or similar to.

“No! No, I’m not like Hades. He is a real threat to you. I’m not going to take you away from your family, and I’m not going to allow him to do that either.”

“So why didn’t you just tell me everything?” she demanded.

"I wanted you to find out for yourself. I mean, I wanted to help you—like when I brought up Lissa babysitting you on the night of your parents’ accident—but I wanted you to be the one to put the pieces together. I wanted you in control of your destiny.

"We all have our own destinies to fulfill. We don’t have to repeat the ones of our creators or the original gods we are like. And even if we are destined to do that to a certain degree, we still have a good chance of being together all the time since our similar gods were together part of the time." She took a deep breath, trying to rein in her anger. “The only other god I remember reading about that was with Persephone was Adonis.”

Adin smiled at her.

“Adonis?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. I’m not the original Adonis. I was created in his likeness, but I didn’t ascend to a
godly
status when I turned eighteen.”

“And this Aphrodite, have you met her?”

Adin sighed. “No. But she does exist, and that’s one of the things my dad and I argued about. But she’s with Adonis. They’re happy. There’s no reason for her to come looking for an alternative.”

"Speaking of arguments, I take it you and
River
argued because he found out about you and believed you should’ve been honest with me. How long has he known the truth?"

Adin’s eyes narrowed. He clearly didn’t like her bringing up River. “We opened up about what we knew while you were in the hospital. We were alone with you for hours and hours every day, so we had to talk about something. Until then he had no idea that I was a part of his world. I probably wouldn’t have said anything then, but I was too upset to think clearly. Obviously, if I had been in my right mind, I would have thrown him out of your room as soon as I got there. He
cannot
be trusted.”

And she wouldn’t have known to confront Adin. “How can you say that? He hasn’t lied to me!”

"Legacy, I have
not
lied to you! I love you, so I did what I thought was best for you, not what I thought was best for me, and River is a selfish bastard who’s only looking out for himself!”

She stood, stepping away from the table. “I think you should leave.”

Adin’s jaw dropped, and her heart ached to see the pain that formed on his face. "Sweetheart, please," he whispered, standing up.

“I heard what you had to say, and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact you kept this from me and discouraged me from getting information from River when you knew the truth all along.” Her breathing hitched as tears leaked down her face.

He stepped forward. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I thought I was doing the right thing for you.”

She looked down, not able to stare at his watery eyes. "I know. I just need time to think.”

And mend her heart.

Chapter Twenty-Two

She woke up on the last Saturday of summer vacation thinking about everything, and she started with the most recent event—her fight with Adin.

She’d spent two days lost in her thoughts, trying not to cry at feeling betrayed by Adin. At times, she’d understood what he said, but at others, she’d felt let down by him not confiding in her. He’d called her several times, but she wasn’t ready to talk. His messages had professed his sorrow and love, which made her a little too emotional to deal directly with him just yet.

Calli had brought over chocolate ice cream, and Legacy had cried on her shoulder. She couldn’t discuss this mess with her other best friend. Legacy knew River meant well encouraging her to talk to Adin about this, but talking to River would just keep open the wound she’d been trying to close.

She knew she needed to wrap up this unfinished business with Adin since his banquet was coming up. She’d finally accepted the truth, which was Adin had no idea the Gorgos family was in town or that she’d confided in River about anything until long after the fact, so he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been forthcoming with information.

With River and his mom out of town, Legacy could run by the store to get her last check. It didn’t take long for her to get dressed and get to the store. She parked and ran in for probably the last time.

"Hey, Legacy. What are you doing here?" Yale asked.

"Came to get my check."

"Oh. It’s in the break room by your timecard. C’mon."

Legacy followed her while Yale chattered on about the things she’d missed, which hadn’t been much, and about Legacy’s accident and time in the hospital.

"And Ms. Gorgos got the ceiling fixed fast. I think she was worried you’d sue her for your accident. I mean, I don’t think you can do that since it wasn’t her fault. It was an act of God, you know."

Oh, was it an act of a higher power, all right, but this power had been evil.

"That storm was nasty. Good thing you didn’t get stuck hiking in it," Yale went on.

Legacy felt her scalp prickle, the hairs on the back of her neck standing. "I never told you that."

Yale turned around with an innocent expression. "Never told me what?"

"About hiking," Legacy said slowly.

Yale’s innocent expression morphed to a cocky one. "Oops."

It was her only warning. She lunged for Legacy as the ground started to shake. She tried to fight Yale off, but she was strong. Legacy didn’t even have time to contemplate what was really happening. Other than she was fighting for her life.

Yale grabbed her hair and banged her head against the wall. Legacy saw stars and tried to stay conscious, the metallic taste of blood turning her stomach.

“I never think before I speak,” Yale sneered.

Legacy elbowed Yale in the gut, straining to create enough momentum to knock the deranged chick off her feet. She hadn’t been completely successful, but Yale stumbled back enough for Legacy to grab hold of something. She looked to the side to see what she’d grasped.

A chair. Thank the gods!

Yale drew back her fist to punch Legacy when she flung the chair at her attacker.

"What ‘s wrong with you?" Legacy screamed as Yale dodged her attempt at retaliation. Legacy swung it at her again, but Yale eluded her blow.

“Oh, come now…you know if I kill you, I’ll get your powers.”

Legacy charged her with nervous energy. Yale was apparently a part of the myths, but she couldn’t think about that now.

“You can do better than that,” Yale said, laughing as she flipped over Legacy and landed behind her. She grabbed Legacy’s hair, yanked her head back with one hand, and wrapped an arm around her with another. Legacy was trapped. “You opened that box,” Yale whispered, dangerously calm. “Before, your ascension would’ve been difficult. Now, it will be impossible. You set us free, and soon we will take your hope too.”

Legacy elbowed Yale in the gut as hard as she could while she stomped on her foot. Yale screeched and slightly loosened her grip on Legacy’s hair. She steeled herself against the coming pain and whipped her body around, hair ripping from her scalp. But she was free. She ran around the table and grabbed a letter opener that had been left from the day she and River had shredded all those documents. She wielded it like a sword. “Who are you?” Legacy panted.

“Euryale.” But the word hadn’t come from Yale’s lips. Yale jerked her head up, looking for the source of the sound. Then she glared at Legacy.

"This is only the beginning!" she screeched. Then Yale’s body dissolved into a bunch of snakes that slithered away.

What the hell?

Legacy didn’t stand around figuring it out. She ran for her car, using her shirt to wipe the blood from her busted lip as the ground tremors stopped. Was Yale even real? Was she Medusa’s pawn the whole time? She had to get out of here. First, the lightning strike, now the attack. Medusa was really gunning for her. She felt too rattled to explain what happened, but she knew she needed to call Adin. Not talking to her in two days, he answered on the first ring.

"Legacy? Sweetheart, I’m so—"

"Yale just tried to kill me," she screamed into the phone as she tried to contain her sobs.

"Son of a…? Are you okay? Where are you?" She heard him rustling with his keys.

"I—I’m in my car, heading home."

"I’m across town, sweetheart. I’ll be there as soon as I can."

Legacy screeched to a stop in her driveway and flew through the front door, right into Lissa. She grabbed Legacy’s arms to stabilize her, staring at her face while Legacy rattled off the details of her attack, her voice getting louder, and by the end, she was screaming mad.

As she yelled, thunder crashed outside, and she gasped, looking around the room with nervous energy coursing through her. Had Medusa just try to kill her through Yale? Was Medusa trying to kill her now with another storm? Legacy was borderline hysterical.