The Immortal Game (book 1) (11 page)

A group of students pushed in after he left, slapping each other on the back and laughing. Music followed them in from a car driving by on the street. Ash took Ruby’s hand and led her to the chess table. The board was set up, ready for him.

“Let’s play,” he said.

“What vision?” Ruby asked as she stood next to the seat across from him. “What did he mean about risking Olympus?”

“Sit.” Ash’s voice was commanding. It startled her. “Please,” he said more softly. “I want to teach you how to play. Not just moves to memorize.”

Her eyes shifted to the group that had come in. They were ordering at the counter, oblivious that they had walked in on two gods arguing. Ruby sat across from Ash and absently moved a white pawn out on the far left.

“No,” he said and put the pawn back. “You want to control the middle.”

She sighed, frustrated that he wanted to play chess when she had a million questions running through her mind. “Ash—”

“Please,” he said. “It helps me to think.”

She looked at the board again. This time she tried to really
see
it. She moved out the pawn in front of her queen. It was the first move of The Immortal Game, but this time she used the opening because it seemed like the right move to make.

“Good. Trust your instincts. Now your queen and this bishop,” he pointed at the white marble pieces, “can move out too.”

Ruby’s thoughts couldn’t help but wander. She thought of Prometheus and the eagle. Kronos was familiar too. He was a Titan, she thought, maybe Zeus’s father. There had been a war between the generations, but she couldn’t remember the details. Had there been anything about visions or prophecies? She remembered something about oracles, gods or priests who knew about the future. She thought that maybe Apollo was an oracle, or that his priests were.
Ugh
! She cursed her lack of attention to the reading. Who could have known
that
would be the important class?

“Ash.” She waited until his eyes lifted from the chess board. “You’ve told me this much. You have to tell me the rest. What did Langston mean?”

“They don’t always come true,” he said, as if it were an excuse not to say more.

“Ash, I need to know everything.”

He hesitated. “Apollo’s an oracle. He sees glimpses of the future, but he hasn’t had a vision in a long time. The last one was before you and I met.”

She licked her lips. “What vision?”

He looked at her from the side. The corners of his mouth turned down slightly. “A human. A woman who would cause a split between the gods.” His voice was quiet. “Some gods would fight against her, others would fight in her favor.”

A deep shiver ran through Ruby’s chest.

He didn’t say more but looked beyond her, out to the street. She could hear distant shouts of celebration through the glass.

“And?” she said.

“And what?” Ash looked back to her.

“What happens? Who wins?”

“Oracles only get impressions and fleeting images. They don’t see everything and they don’t always come true,” he reminded her.

“Langston didn’t see how it ends?”

“No,” was his only answer, followed quickly by, “Ruby, I won’t give you up because Apollo has a
feeling
. I
will
fight for you.”

She felt an unexpected excitement at the thought of Ash risking himself for her. She hadn’t thought she would ever want that—the guy who would defend a woman’s honor, by force if necessary—but something deep within her stirred.

“Apollo’s been far too willing to settle.” He looked her in the eye. “I won’t.” Veins came to the surface along the muscles in his arms. She could feel his increased energy from across the table.

“Kissiae?” she asked. “That’s Langston’s nymph?”

“Yes. The ivy nymph. And there have been other gods who have loved mortal beings. It’s almost impossible that there wouldn’t be. There are only so many gods on Olympus.”

“No one has ever questioned the rule?” she asked.

He held her gaze. The chessboard sat between them but even Ash had given up on playing. “The danger is real, Ruby. I don’t defy Zeus lightly, but we have all been a slave to his lack of self-control for far too long.”

He took her hand, lying on the side of the chess board. “I have been in love before,” he said. “Only once. She was my beginning.” He paused. “But she belonged to someone else. Losing her was more painful than any wound of the flesh, and ultimately I thought she was my end.

“That was over two thousand years ago, Ruby. I have known many women but I haven’t loved another until I met you. Now that I’ve found you, there is no turning back for me. No matter how much it scares Apollo.”

She looked to the crowd that had come in. They had put several tables together and talked noisily over one another.

“Why don’t you stay here?” she said in a sudden gust of brilliance. “Why bother with Zeus at all?”

“I can’t not go back,” he said.

“Why is it so important that
I
go?” She glanced out the window and saw that the streets were filling up with even more people. “Tell him you’ve met someone. Isn’t that the same thing? You get to confront him, but I don’t have to be there to start some kind of a civil war?” Her mouth went dry at the thought.

“I don’t want to live in two worlds. I can make him accept you.”

“How …” she said, louder than she meant to. Her eyes shot around the room, but no one looked at her. She lowered her voice, unable to believe what she was about to say. “What would a life on Olympus even mean?”

“What would it mean?” He squinted and deep furrows formed on his brow.

“How would I get there?” she asked. “What would I do there? Would we ever come back?” All of the logistics came rushing out of her, the sheer enormity of it. She thought of her father and medical school. His legacy. Her dreams. “What would I
be
there? Your
girlfriend
?”

Ash blinked and cocked his head at her. “It’s
Olympus
. Everything is perfect. We’d be together. I’ll
find
a way to get you there.”

“But I have plans, and dreams, and a future.
Here
.”

“To do what? To be a
doctor
?” There was a snide edge to his voice; disbelief that she could have such a lowly dream when what he seemed to be offering her was a life of luxury and idleness. She was Cinderella and he was the prince. But she didn’t want a prince. She wanted a partner.

“Yes,” she said. “To be a doctor like my father. To help people. To join Medics for Mercy and work on the front. I want you to be there with me.” The thought caused a deep pang in her chest and tears threatened. She hadn’t even realized how alone she felt. Now that she had Ash, she didn’t want to be without him. “We can still be together.”

“Ruby, there won’t be any front. Do you understand what’s happening?” he asked. “What
has happened
?”

Maybe she didn’t.

“We stopped the war, Ruby. You and me.
We
did that.”

She searched his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“
Us
. The moment you decided to love me—the moment I felt it—the war … It slipped away. I’d never felt it before. I didn’t know what it meant. But now I do.”

“Ash …”

“Ares,” he said. “
Please
. When we’re alone, you can call me Ares.”

She looked into his eyes, so serious.

“Ares,” she said, with a moment of hesitation. “What we have. What we
feel
.” She squeezed his hand. “It’s strong.” She laughed. “But world peace?”

He didn’t laugh with her. “Not world peace. Not yet. But this war. This one is ending. Because of
us
.”

NINE

Ash had no reaction to the number thirty-seven, a whole fish staring up from its chili sauce, when she pulled it out of her refrigerator. Ruby ate her Thai noodles and speculated about what foods he had eaten over the centuries. She realized that in some ways their lives were too different for her to wrap her mind around.

When they finished eating he leaned against the counter in her kitchen with his thumbs hooked in the front pockets of his jeans. Ruby put the forks in the dishwasher. She could feel her pulse in her head and she wondered if he could see how nervous she was. She wanted to kiss him but she wasn’t sure how. They were in love, right? Could she just lean over and kiss him? Was he
hers
in that way?

She didn’t have long to wonder before he moved toward her. Her heart pumped wildly as he took the box of dishwasher soap from her hands and set it somewhere, though as far as she was concerned it ceased to exist.

He closed his eyes and softly rubbed his cheek against hers. “I love you,” he whispered.

She could feel herself breathing, high in her chest, as his lips finally brushed against hers. The sweet taste of the Ambrosia Bars they had eaten for dessert was still on his lips.

At first his kisses were soft but they soon turned hungry and eager. He lifted her by the waist, as if she were as light as a feather, and sat her on the counter. She opened her legs and he leaned in between them.

Her hands tangled into his curls and grabbed at their roots. Their lips never left one another’s as he trailed his fingers along her jawline and down her neck. A shudder traveled through her.

She worked at the buttons of his shirt but she quickly gave up and began to pull the fabric up his torso.

He carried her to the TV room and laid her flat on the cool leather couch. He stopped kissing her long enough to pull the shirt off over his head. Long languid muscles contracted as he moved. His chest was smooth, with a few dark hairs between his subtly defined chest muscles. When he pressed his hard body down on hers, he kissed her like she was air or water to him, like she was his sustenance.

Soon her shirt was on the floor next to his. His hands ran along her ribs and over her bra in an electric rush. His skin moved across hers like heated silk. His kisses traveled from her mouth to her throat.

Ruby may have always been the one who held back, those few times in the past. She may have always been stronger than the guy, more willing to wait. But with him she seemed to have no control. “Ash,” she breathed.

“Call me Ares,” he whispered, raising goose bumps on her skin with his hot breath.

“Ares, I …”

He continued to kiss her, inching ever lower. But when she didn’t say more he pulled away and looked at her. His blue eyes were bright. His face was flushed. “It’s been a long time,” he said. “I want it to be perfect.”

“There’s something …” She licked her fevered lips and glanced away. “I’m a …” She couldn’t say the word. It would seem ridiculous to him.

His face changed. Worry replaced desire.

“I’ve never …” She trailed off, still unable to look at him. “I mean. I’ve come close. It’s just that I wanted to wait. I’m not sure what for.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying to catch his reaction.

He swallowed and looked at the leather couch cushions beneath her. His eyes darted around as though he were thinking. He lifted himself off of her and she immediately missed the weight of him. She felt cold and untethered.

“But I don’t want to wait anymore,” she said as she sat up. Her hand reached out to catch him. She wanted to pull him back down with her. “I want this. I was waiting for
you
.”

He stared at the floor, not making eye contact with her. Would this be what chased him away? Her lack of
experience
? Her heart, racing a moment ago with desire, now fluttered with anxiety.

“Ash, really …”

He looked at her then, almost as if he had forgotten she was there, like he had been thinking about something else. After a moment he said, “This is good.” He reached for his shirt and pulled it on over his disheveled curls.

“What’s good?” she asked. She felt like they were having two different conversations.

He looked her in the eye, unembarrassed. “You’re a virgin.”

She felt her hot face get hotter. Her eyes darted away. “So?”

He reached for her shirt and handed it to her. She pulled it on, feeling naked for the first time.

“Are you leaving?” she asked, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. Had she misjudged him?

He turned, his head cocked. “Do you want me to leave?”

“No,” she said quickly and then wondered if she should have lied.

“Then I’ll stay,” he said, like it was obvious. “I can sleep on the couch.”

“I have plenty of beds,” she said. “That’s not really the point.”

“Good.” He smiled and leaned down to her. “I do prefer a bed.” His lips met hers with all the passion he had shown moments before, when separate beds was the farthest thing from his mind.

“Trust me,” he said when their lips parted. “Hera would want it this way.”

…

Ruby jerked her foot at the snake that was caught in her sheets as it wound around her ankles. The snake tightened its grip. She sat up in one swift pull and tried to beat the snake away in the semi-darkness. A scream was halfway up her throat when she woke with a start. Instead of screaming she breathed out a single word. “Langston …”

She blinked and looked around her bedroom, but there was nothing unusual. She glanced at the alarm clock. It was already six-thirty. She went over her Monday class schedule in her head. She hadn’t done her homework for genetics, or the reading for western civ. She hadn’t even recopied her chemistry notes. She pushed the covers off, but instead of going to the kitchen, where her books were, she walked to her father’s old room.

From the doorway she saw Ash lying under the grey comforter. He took up most of the queen-sized bed with his sprawled out limbs. She smiled to herself. Maybe she should be thankful they weren’t sleeping together. It didn’t look like there was any room for her.

She tiptoed across the floorboards, over the braided cotton rug, and climbed in on the far side. She nuzzled into the small space next to him. She breathed in his sleepy scent and savored his warmth. He wore only boxer shorts. The skin of his chest and arms was smooth as they wound round her.

“Morning,” he said. His hands ran along the curve of her legs and he pulled her closer to him. She felt his excitement rising against her, but she knew from a weekend of long make out sessions that he would only let them take it so far. His commitment to her virginity was maddening.