The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) (16 page)

It took her a moment to gather herself, and once she did, she was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “I was so wrong about you. I thought you’d had no hand in this. Where did you get the snail?”

I smirked. “Charon made a deal with a maiden.”

“And here I blamed Poseidon.”

“Well,” I shrugged, “maybe I was trying to throw Themis off the scent a little with that deception.”

“And the blood? Cerberus missing?”

“The blood was Cerberus’s.” I blinked, remembering the grizzly set of events that’d led me to finally taking a stand against Persephone’s wild ways.

She shook her head. “But there was so much blood. Dite said the dog had been found.”

“She lopped off his third head. She wanted to hurt me, and she did.”

“Oh, poor puppy,” she mourned.

Only Calypso could call the slobbering killer a poor puppy. Cerberus was a monster through and through. With a taste for trespassers, he was my first line of defense against the constant scheming and trickery of my brothers. Neither of them cared to possess the Underworld, and yet they’d always resented my godhead and would happily see me dispossessed from my kingdom.

“It will grow back, eventually.”

She was back to cuddling me now, twining her fingers languidly through the ends of my hair on the nape of my neck. The touch broke my flesh out in goose bumps.

I’d seen and possessed the woman every which way imaginable, and yet this was the type of intimacy I’d secretly always yearned for: an ear to listen and a heart that cared.

It was those feelings that caused both Zeus and Poseidon to view me as weak, as less than them. But I’d never cared for the debauched lifestyle of my brothers. I’d always been far more private than they. Nor did I care to sire a million bastards, as they’d each done. I wanted any offspring from my bloodline to know their parentage.

“Why did she do that?”

“Why does Persephone ever do what she does?” I shrugged. “I told Demeter that she needed to check her, needed to set boundaries, but she never did. Persephone was unhappy, self-centered, and spoiled. I gave her everything I had to try and keep her happy—jewels, clothes, money, even my time—but always she mocked and laughed in my face.”

“Why did you accept her as your responsibility, Hades? You have allowed everyone to believe you raped her, stole her innocence from her. Why?”

I sighed. I’d often asked myself that question, and the only answer I could give was, “Because I imagined myself in love. I wanted to protect her from herself.”

“You could tell Themis what she did to the dog. Surely that would justify your banishment of her.”

I shrugged. “What would be the point? Everyone believes the lies now. Her reputation is untarnished. While mine...”

Kissing me, she pressed her warm body tight to mine. The kiss was short, but it held a breath of meaning.

“What deal did you make with my sister to get her to agree to take on Persephone?”

Aria hadn’t been pleased when Cerberus had suddenly shown up in her realm carting the sleeping body of Spring. But just like Thalassa, Air was in all things. She’d heard Persephone’s lies and knew the girl for what she was.

“I imagine she took pity on me.”

She blinked. “Spring cannot stay there forever. Soon she’ll be required to return to the Earth.”

Running fingers through my hair as the exhaustion of the past few days suddenly seemed to catch up to me, I shook my head. “I couldn’t stand her in my realm for another hour. I didn’t think. I simply reacted. She’d gone too far this time.”

“Oh, Hades,” her shoulders slumped, “the effects of the snail are temporary. She’d come out of the coma soon enough. You need to tell someone the truth.”

“I do, and she’s returned to me. I cannot bear the sight of her right now.”

“And yet you would allow yourself to be cast into torment. What an idiot you are, my dear.”

Her words were sharp, but her kiss was sweet.

“I have an idea, Death Boy.” She patted my chest. “But tonight, I am tired. So do with me as you will.”

Tossing her arms over her head, she yawned loudly, and I could see that she really was tired.

“Thalassa, all I wish of you tonight is to stay with me until the light returns.”

Grabbing a fistful of my shirt, she dragged me to the head of the bed, shoved the sheet down with her foot, and, with a heavy exhalation, vanished her gown.

And for just a moment, with all her curves on display to my greedy gaze, I wanted to take it all back and have my way with her. But then somehow I was beneath the blanket and without clothes on, and her sweet scent invaded my senses as she snuggled into my side.

“I thought you’d never ask, Bubble Butt,” she murmured sleepily.

I smiled, kissed the crown of her head, and imagined sleep would elude me the rest of the night with the feel of her pressed so tight. But I slept like a baby, and it was glorious.

~*~

Calypso

I awoke to the feel of a slumbering dragon resting on top of me. I was about to kick the beast off when I realized it was only Hades snoring like a banshee.

“Aww, you’re so adorable,” I whispered, unable to help from wiggling my bottom.

A thick, sharp cock pressed into me. “Move like that again, and I’ll toss you on your back.”

“Oh.” I wiggled harder, and he did just as he threatened to do. Before I knew it, he was wedged in tight between my thighs and staring at me in way that made me feel unbalanced, off kilter, and absolutely freaking amazing.

Flicking at his nose, I huffed. “Get off me, you beast.”

“No.” He settled in, rubbing himself between my thighs as he languidly kissed a hot trail down the side of my neck.

I moaned, rutting his cock even as I shook my head. “No seriously, let me up.”

Realizing I wasn’t just saying that, he finally stopped and pulled back, staring at me with a quizzical brow. I whimpered. He hadn’t needed to stop that quickly.

Wrapping my arms around his back, I forced him back down and humped his still-bulging bit of anatomy.

“Thalassa, what are you doing?” he asked in a slow, syrupy voice that had me seeing stars.

I continued to rub harder. A little bit more to the left and I’d be there. I wiggled my bum until he was pressed more fully to the spot, and then I proceeded to “rub one out,” as they say. Now that phrase I understood all too well.

Hades let me do my thing, because that’s what Hades did. But he’d not moved, only continued to gaze at me with a perturbed frown. Sighing with satisfaction, I pulled him down to me for a kiss, which he quickly if not brusquely returned before growling in his chest.

“Well, what a way to start a morning,” I chirped, and scooted out from under him.

“Thalassa!” he snapped when I sauntered toward the door with my rear exposed to all the world. “You’re going to just leave me like this?”

Flinging the door wide, I grasped the edge of it and grinned at him. “They say waiting makes the heart grow fonder—or, in your case, the balls bluer.” I shrugged. “I’ve got places to be and idiots to save you from. So just wait for me. But don’t touch yourself!” I warned with an eyebrow raise. “I’ll know if you do, and you’ll pay.”

He curled his lips and leaned back on his hands. “Oh yeah, how?”

The way the blanket draped over his hipbones hid nothing from my view, but it did make him look much more naughty and had me sweating above the brow.

Damn, he was hawt.

“Do you like carrots, lover?”

Frowning, he shoved fingers through his thick dark hair. Swarthy skin, rippling, bulging biceps with veins that poked out...my gods, he was delicious. And absolutely all mine. I’d decided that last night.

I’d fight to the death for him.

“Not particularly,” he frowned.

“Well, I wasn’t intending them to be eaten, silly boy.” I winked and then, with a toodle-loo, vanished to Linx’s stables.

She lifted her head from where she’d been slumbering, a basket of half-eaten sea fruit beside her.

Her smile was knowing.

“What?” I asked, trying to hide my grin, but I was losing that battle.

Are we keeping him, then?

“Well, duh.”

Patting my hair into place, I twirled with my arms spread wide, asking without words how I looked. Hades liked me in my more primal form, and so I would head to Olympus today looking like the beautiful freak I was. I’d even managed to manufacture a dress for myself that I imagined Dite might wear. It had cutouts beneath the breasts, above the stomach, and at the hips. It was crafted of white glowworm silk and was a bit more diaphanous than what Lust typically seemed to want to wear, but I figured in this, I looked like the powerful goddess I was. But just to seal the deal, I crafted a tiara of pure gold with sea urchin spines jutting up from it and placed it just so on my head.

It was time to remind those a-holes just how much of a bitch I could really be when I was angered.

Lovely as ever, sister mine.

“Naturally,” I inclined my head then turned to go but remembered something. “Oh, and Linx, be a dear and lock our gates. I’ve a feeling our waters might float with bodies for a while.”

What in the world have you got planned in that lovely head of yours?

“Just a little bit of hell.”

Then, with a wink and an air kiss, I vanished, making a detour back to Hades’ room first.

“Oh, sex slave,” I chirped when I entered, delighted to see his jaw drop at my appearance.

He’d dressed back in his typical attire of black silk and loafers, impeccably groomed as ever, and I wanted nothing more than to tear his buttons off and muss him all up.

I loved that only I got to see him that way.

“Calypso?” He scrubbed a hand down his jaw.

“Close your gates to the Underworld if you would.”

He could do it with his mind. Obviously he’d been too busy that one day being rustled up like a cow to the slaughter to think about it, for which I’d be eternally grateful, as I’d have never gone to visit him otherwise. What a horrible waste of a sex slave that would have been.

“Why?” His deep, deep voice shivered.

I smiled sweetly. “Because we’re about to piss off some serious bumholes today.”

Nostrils flaring, a grin cut one corner of his face. “Don’t ever change, Thalassa.”

“Why would I? I’m already perfect.”

I was just about ready to leave when he said,” If you ever take another lover, I’ll kill him. Fair warning to you now.”

“Oh, I love it when you get all caveman on me. Okay then, no other lovers. But I do have an issue with a certain Persephone thinking she’s got rights to you.”

“She doesn’t.”

“Hm.” I thinned my lips, adjusting the tiara. “We’ll just see about that. A girl can never be too careful with her goodies. And your goodies are my goodies, Death Boy.”

He chuckled. “One last thing though before you leave. What exactly are you planning to do with carrots?”

“You really want to know?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

“I saw a whore shove one up her john’s ass. He loved it. Came in like ten seconds.”

He blinked, almost looking shocked. “Hm. Well,” he cleared his throat, “if I were Apollo, I’m sure I would love it.”

“I knew it,” I snapped my fingers.

“But if you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on the carrot, my dear.”

I shrugged. “If you say so. But it would have been fun.” I wiggled my brows.

Instantly his eyes hooded, and I could read his thoughts as if I’d heard him speak them. He was now curious. I was an excellent lover. “Ten seconds, huh?” he asked a moment later, but I only laughed and vamoosed.

Chapter 15

Calypso

Moments later, I was headed to a place no one had expected me to go, lest of all myself.

I’d not visited with my sisters in, oh, hm...years, really. Like a couple hundred thousand, give or take. We weren’t really that tight. Like we were close, I guess, but we weren’t
tiiiiiight,
there were no Christmas cards exchanged or birthday presents doled out. But we really couldn’t live without each other either. It was a family thing. What can I say?

Wrinkling my nose, I headed to Fiera’s hearth first, mainly because as my polar opposite, she was unpleasant for me to be around for too long.

Screwing my eyes shut, I willed myself to the realm of Fire. I knew the moment I’d arrived, because I began to sizzle. I had a limitless amount of water at my disposal to keep me from harm as I walked down the brimstone pathway flickering with hottest flame. Shielding myself tight, I admired my sister’s decorative skills.

For as far as the eye could see, this land and everything that lived in it burned, a perpetual flame that would never be extinguished. The mountains burned. Fire oaks with their beautiful fiery leaves snapped and crackled. Fireflies with burst of flame emitting from their tiny rears flitted happily here and there.

Tiny fire imps, nasty little devils with teeth as sharp as Bruce’s, bounded between trees, staring at me with wide-eyed wonder. They were dressed as wee woodcutters, with breeches that came to their knobby knees and shirts stained a permanent black. Their hair was not actually hair at all but blue flame that writhed and danced like charmed cobras around their withered frames.

I waved merrily to a boy, no older than eight, nine thousand years at the most, who came closest to me.

“Where is Fiera?” I called out.

He licked his lips. “Ye look tasty, ye do.”

Grinning, I knelt and held out my hand. “Would you like a wee nibble, little devil?”

As he hopped toward me, I could feel the eyes of those hiding still gazing on me with wonder, fear, and even a dollop of hungry jealousy.

The imp moved strangely, dragging his knuckles across the ground with each hop, reminding me oddly of a guttering candle flame. When he neared, I saw that his face had the youthful appearance of a cherubim, but his brows were nothing but soot and ash. His lips were wormy little lines and his eyes an unusual color of purple.

How adorable he was.

Cooing to him, I gave him one of my fingers. “You may nibble, but do not bite, or I shall cut your head off your neck.”