Heart (16 page)

Hermes was the perfect picture of how I’d
imagined gods in the past. One of his arms draped languidly behind
him, propping up his head, while his other fell over the edge to
trace the lines of the tiles. He was a perfect dichotomy of
aristocratic snobbery and lazy boredom.

Della lay on her side with her head propped
up by a hazy hand. She seemed to fade in and out of focus the
longer we stayed here with her. Sometimes her features were so
sharply in focus I wanted to jump back from their clarity, and
other times she was hidden behind a veil of obscurity.

I wondered if I would ever see her clearly. I
wondered if I would ever see this entire thing clearly.

“You’re going to have to go to Olympus,”
Della started. “We need you there. It will be impossible to squash
the uprising if you’re hiding.”

“Nix, you mean?” I felt a trembling of fear
rumble through me. It started in my toes and worked its way up my
body with scarring impact.

“Nix and Ares, Hades and the rest of my
brothers that think they deserve unlimited power,” Hermes growled.
“While Zeus is away, the Underworld has come out to play.”

“Wait,” I held up my hand. “What do you mean
Zeus is away? If he’s not on Olympus, then where is he?”

Hermes turned his amber colored eyes on me
and said, “Your guess is as good as ours.”

“You don’t know where he is?” Ryder asked
dryly.

Hermes let out an impatient sigh, but Della
covered for him. “He’s been gone for almost two decades now. Which
is nothing new. Nobody thought anything of it, well, until you came
along. Suddenly Poseidon sees that he can grab power and Zeus’
absence is more meaningful.”

I stared at Hermes. “Why can’t you just zap
yourself to him? Isn’t that why you exist?”

“To fetch my older brother?” Hermes snorted a
derisive laugh. “Hardly.”

“We’re not going anywhere until we have more
details,” Ryder cut in. “It’s time to stop holding back and tell us
what the hell is going on.”

Della smiled. Or, I got the feeling that she
smiled. I heard it clearly in her voice when she looked at Ryder
and said, “He’s going to save your life, Siren.”

“But why am I going to save her life,” Ryder
pressed. “What is the point of all of this?”

“Zeus left the mountain nineteen years ago
and nobody has been able to get ahold of him since. Hera hasn’t
heard from him. He has not checked in. He has not made himself
known in humanity. Nineteen years is not so long for those of us
from the mountain and under normal circumstances we would not have
cause for any alarm. But then…”

“Then me,” I finished for him. “So I really
am different than other Sirens?”

Hermes’s eyebrows lifted and he didn’t bother
to answer my question. “Poseidon has taken the opportunity to
gather the more depraved of my brothers and sisters and incite a
coup. Poseidon has always envied the seat of power. He’s been
plotting to overthrow Zeus for as long as I can remember. And he’s
not the only one. Hades and especially Ares have wanted the throne
for just as long, if not longer. Now that they have their weapon,
they will stop at nothing until Olympus belongs to one of
them.”

“What about Hera?” Ryder asked with a
surprising amount of insight. He must have noticed my surprise
because he shrugged one shoulder and explained, “I told you, I’ve
been reading up on this thing. I don’t know how much of what I’ve
read is accurate, but it’s highlighted the major players.”

Hermes smiled at him, “I like that… the major
players. It’s true, your human account of our history is skeletal
at best, but if you pay close attention you’ll be able to get the
gist of what and who we are.”

Selfish, greedy, petty, incestuous
bastards?
I pressed my lips together to keep that thought from
slipping out.

“Hera resides over the mountain whilst Zeus
is gone,” Della answered Ryder’s question. “But Zeus has been
missing for too long and he’s thought to have hidden himself in the
human realm. Possibly surrounded himself by females. She is,
understandably, incensed. If a play for power was made, we are not
sure whom she would side with.”

“How does one take a mountain?” I asked.

Della and Hermes shared a meaningful look. I
scooted closer to Ryder, suddenly afraid of their answer.

“With power,” Hermes finally answered. “Our
hierarchy has always tiered from most powerful to least. Zeus has
historically been the most powerful among us, although occasionally
Hera has superseded him. When Olympus lost control of the human
race, Zeus happened to be the one at the top of the food chain.
He’s remained there ever since and because not one of us has been
able to collect more power, he’s never been challenged.”

This was definitely a fascinating
conversation, but I still had no idea what I had to do with any of
it. “How do you collect power?”

“Patronage,” Della answered. “Whichever god
has the strongest patronage holds the most power. It might seem
strange to you, but their strength is pulled from humans. In
ancient days the gods derived power from the temples made in their
honor. They had entire cities that would worship them. Priests and
priestesses to offer sacrifices in their honor. Their power was
nearly unlimited. These days… worship of the gods is nearly
obsolete, but the world is bigger than ever. If a god could tap
into that type of power, imagine what kind of omnipotence would be
at his fingertips.”

“You mean that Nix wants humans to worship
him again?” I nearly laughed. That was the most ridiculous thing I
had ever heard. Greek mythology was just that these days…
mythology
. Humans were way too cynical to jump on board with
the idea of a Pantheon of gods and goddesses to worship. I tried to
picture all of the people I knew building a temple to the god of
the sea and bowing down in worship to someone as awful as Nix.
“There’s no way! Maybe he could convince a few crazies to pay him
homage, but the majority of people these days would laugh in his
face.”

“But he has a weapon, Ivy,” Della explained
carefully. “He won’t be the one that convinces them to do
anything.”

I let out a slow breath. The humor died on my
lips and I felt my blood slowly turn to sludge in my veins. “What
is it, Della? What is the weapon?”

One whispered word brought everything into
sharp focus for me. It all made sense. Everything. I finally
understood the big deal with me and why Nix wanted my power so very
desperately.

“You,” she breathed.

Chapter Thirteen

“Me?” The word fell from my mouth like a
stone.

“You’re right when you say that no one will
pick up the Pantheon like a religion again,” Hermes offered. “This
humanity would never answer to one god, let alone an entire
mountain of them. Not if they were thinking for themselves anyway.
With you, he can bypass original thought and simply have you tell
them what to do, what to believe, who to worship.”

“Oh, my god.” I felt sick to my stomach. He
wanted to use my Siren call to manipulate humanity into worshipping
him? So he could have unlimited power? Not a chance in hell. “I
don’t even have that kind of power! I mean, the most damage I’ve
ever done was like a one block radius and I seriously gave it my
all.”

“You gave it your all on dry land,” Della
corrected.

My blood tingled ominously. The water
whispered its Siren Song and I had to fight the urge to go to it,
to sink my feet in the wet sand and let the water lap at my ankles.
There was power there. There was more power than I knew what to do
with.

“I only have an effect on men,” I argued.
“Women would see through me in a second.”

“Ivy, you’ve never used your power in water
before. You have no idea what you’re capable of.” Della’s
glittering blue eyes muted with sorrow.

I stood up and stumbled away from them.
“Neither do you. You have no idea what I’m capable of. This is all…
all theory. I don’t know why Nix feels that I’m any more valuable
than other Sirens, but I’m not. I’m the same. And it doesn’t matter
anyway, because there’s no way that he can make me do that. He
can’t make me turn on humanity or manipulate them into worshiping
him. I would die first.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that, Ivy,” Della
said patiently. “But we’re hoping to avoid that. If we plan this
properly, we can stop him before you have to make that
decision.”

“But it’s not just Nix we have to stop, is
it?” Ryder growled. “There are plenty of other gods willing to step
in when he fails. Ivy will never be safe.”

“Not all of my brothers and sisters want the
throne,” Hermes grimaced. “Plenty of us are happy to let Zeus, when
he’s around, keep his precious seat. But yes, there will always be
someone who thinks they can restore our old power.” He shot us a
cheeky smile. “What can I say? We’re an opportunistic bunch.”

I rolled my eyes, but relaxed some. “So how
do we do this? How do we take him out?”

“We have to be on the mountain,” Hermes
explained. “We have relatively no power anywhere else. If we are
going to fight him, we need to be where we’re strongest.”

I chewed on my bottom lip until I tasted
blood. “I’ll be strongest there too?”

Della cocked her head and regarded me
carefully, “No, you will always be strongest in water.”

I raised my eyebrows. “There’s no water on
the mountain?”

“Not enough to destroy a god,” Hermes
muttered.

Point taken.

“What about my mother?” I turned back to
Della. “What do the Fates want with her?”

Della let out a bitter laugh. “Those old
crones are more interested in the future than the present. They’re
playing the odds that Poseidon loses.”

“What does that mean?” Ryder demanded. “What
does Ava have to do with any of that?”

“Ava has managed to procreate two of the
strongest powers of this time. They want her blood.” Hermes’
explanation was accented with a flick of his hand.

“Her blood?” I asked on a croak.

“Her next child.” Hermes sprung up to
sitting. “They want whatever she can spawn.”

No
. Not another one of us. “Who is the
father going to be?”

“There are rumors that Phorcys has offered
his seed.”

“Oh, gross. Let’s phrase that
any
other way,” I suggested.

Hermes tried to hide his smile. “Alright, he
has offered to
father
the monster. And we would know it
would be nothing but a monster. He has a bit of a reputation for
his hideous children.”

“Do you think it’s possible? Do you really
think Ava can have another child?” I hated the idea of another
person going through what I had. And this sounded a thousand times
worse. This little girl would be property of the Fates. They would
destroy her. They would rip her to shreds and sacrifice her for
their own power grab.

“Yes,” Della said immediately. “They can and
will create something for their pleasure. Ava is their vessel to do
with what they want.”

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” My voice shook as
hard as my insides.

“We can only fight one battle at a time,”
Hermes scolded. “Besides intervening with their plan takes more
thought. We’ll need more resourcefulness when that time comes. But
rest assured if Ava manages to birth such a creature, we will
destroy it. There are several years before the Fates can do any
real harm. We must focus on the worst and most immediate of the
threats.”

The shaking inside of me turned to tremors.
Hermes would kill a baby? He would destroy a child if he had
to?

I closed my eyes. But what kind of creature
would come from my mom and Phorcys. If I remembered my history
right, his other children had been sea monsters. He was one of the
primordial gods. He came from the deepest places of the ocean, the
dark, hidden recesses that not even Nix would venture to.

“Is Honor in danger?” I asked in a small
voice.

Della’s gaze hit mine and I blinked from the
brightness of it. “She will always be in danger,” she said
honestly. “But right now she’s safe.”

“And by safe you mean…”

“I can’t find her. And if I can’t find her,
nobody else can either.”

I nodded and sucked in a slow breath. I knew
Smith would keep her safe. I had never doubted him.

Smith… I had a very strong suspicion about
him, but I didn’t want to voice it just yet. Instinct whispered
that this was not the right time. And I could be wrong.

I turned away from Della and Hermes and tried
to gather my thoughts. Could I do this with them? Could I go to the
mountain and destroy a god?

What if he destroyed me instead?

Ryder stepped beside me and his presence
calmed the frantic panic inside of my chest. “We need to talk about
this,” he told our audience. “Alone.”

“Of course,” Della said softly.

I heard Hermes grumble something impatiently,
but I ignored him as I let Ryder lead me away from the pavilion. We
stepped back onto the sand and carefully picked our way toward the
beach.

We were quiet as we walked. The sun warmed my
skin that had cooled under the shade of the golden awnings. The
smell of sea and salt filled my nostrils and reinforced my
courage.

I looked out at the endless blue water that
sparkled like jewels beneath the blinding sun and infinite horizon
and breathed deeply.

“It really does call to you?” Ryder sounded
pensive beside me. I wondered if he was as afraid of my power as
Hermes was.

“With every beat of my heart,” I
whispered.

“Then let’s go to it. Let’s see if it gives
us any answers.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.
“You’re not afraid?”

“Of you?” he laughed. “You don’t want to hurt
me, Ivy. At least not intentionally.”

I looked back out at the water and let his
words hit hard. He was right. I didn’t want to hurt him
intentionally, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t.