Chapter 82

“I did it,” I said, my voice muffled against Poseidon’s chest.

His arms stayed locked around me as water poured over us. Why wasn’t he excited and celebrating with me?

“Poseidon?” I pushed against his chest.

“Don’t move,” his voice snapped, and an uneasy feeling slithered down my spine.

“What’s going on?” I couldn’t see anything but his smooth, muscled chest. Damn. He smelled so good. Like a day on the beach with a margarita on ice.

“You crafted a water cyclone.”

That didn’t sound so bad. “So? Use your magic and calm it down.”

“I can’t.”

I glanced up at him as well as I could with his arms locked around me. The muscles along his jaw twitched.

“The fragments of the shell are sharp like a sea urchin’s spines and whipping around the kitchen.”

Oh no, I broke his beautiful bowl? “I-I’m so sorry.”

His arms tightened around me. “You think you can return the water to the ocean outside?”

“Why me?” I’d already screwed this up and his giant shell bowl. How much more damage would I do if I tried to undo everything?

“I told you, I can’t. You used air and water. If I remove my element, we'll be trapped in here with a tornado that shows no signs of blowing itself out. It’ll rip this place apart and possibly bring the ocean crashing down on us.”

Shit. As if my life couldn’t get any more disastrous. “Okay. Any ideas on how I can turn this all back to how it was before?” Like maybe even repair his shell.

He shook his head. “I’ve already tried everything.” His voice sounded strained.

Was there more he wasn’t telling me? I had a feeling even if I asked, he wouldn’t give me a reason until we were out of this mess. Which made me terrified at what he wasn’t saying. Like it had to be much worse out there than I thought. My stomach clenched like I’d dove off a cliff into unknown water below.

I let out a forced, slow breath even though my heart raced. At least I’d been able to do something with water right away. That was encouraging.

I pushed aside the doubt and gnawing fear and concentrated on pushing the water back to the ocean pounding against the shore around us. I didn’t want to think about how secure this underwater cave was or the fragile balance of air that surrounded us.

Something sliced into my calf, and I cried out as pain shot up my leg.

“The air too, Paige, fizzle out the power there.”

Right. Two elements at once. God, why the hell was I thinking I could do this? Holding onto one was bad enough. It was probably easier to wrestle with a giant squid.

Poseidon trembled. He had to be getting struck with whatever had gotten my leg. Tears burned my eyes because he trusted me to do something I wasn’t sure how I had done it in the first place and had no idea how to fix it. I had to try. Had to keep him from getting hurt anymore. He’d gone through too much already because of me.

“Maybe if you use your magic to help ease the water back?” I suggested. “Then I can concentrate on the air element?”

He grunted in agreement. “Worth a try. But I have to warn you, there will be backlash.”

That didn’t sound good. But what choice do we have? If I stayed here in Poseidon’s arms and did nothing, it wouldn’t stop the raging storm around us. I had a bad feeling doing so would only make everything worse. What would I do if the magic I created destroyed Poseidon’s home, sank ships around us, and ravaged islands? I couldn’t have that on my conscience.

“Is there a way that I can add my power to yours to stop this?” However, I wasn’t even sure how I started this blunder in the first place. I had only thought well a trickle of water when Poseidon grabbed me and the kitchen around us turned into a tsunami.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he grunted.

Why did I think he would trust me when a simple exercise had turned into a shitstorm? “What about the element of air that’s tangled up in all this?”

“All right,” he said in a strained voice. “You concentrate on dissolving out the air and I’ll deal with the water.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, willing the wind to fade. It yanked on my restraints, and I felt as if I was holding onto a freaking flying dragon. What was going on? Air had been the second element I learned so why was it acting like a spoiled child now?

A roaring filled my ears like I was in a wind tunnel. I pushed and pulled to shove the wind down, except it kept getting louder. Sweat made my shirt stick to my back as I strained against an uncontrollable force.

“Any time, Paige,” Poseidon shouted to be heard over the noise.

But nothing was working. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with a solution. Anything. My grasp on the wind was failing. “It’s not working. We need Hermes.”

Maybe he could figure this out. Tell me what I had done wrong to start and why I couldn’t wrap this up in a nice dirt devil that would blow itself out in a few seconds.

“No.”

I gritted my teeth, focusing all my will to end this terror. Nothing. “Stop being stubborn or whatever it is you’re being and god-up. We need him.” I needed him and the others too.

Poseidon’s arms kept me to his chest and his body shivered. “I’ve only spent a fragment of time with you. Now you want me to share you with others?”

“I’m sorry.” Not because I felt guilty about loving all four of them. Or that I had made love to three of them. No, I was sorry for not making the time before. For not insisting that he stay with me way back when I had first met him. When he went to Zeus on my behalf to try and help get Dion out of Hades for me. And it had cost Poseidon and me a lot. It was a wound that we both shared.

I lifted my head and kissed his neck because I couldn’t reach his mouth. “But if we don’t figure this out if I don’t learn to control all four elements, then none of us will have any time.”

“We can figure this out, just the two of us,” he said stubbornly.

“Please,” I kissed his collarbone, “We can’t waste our energy on this storm. I have to learn how to control your power before it’s too late. Hermes...and even Dion can help.” From Poseidon’s comments earlier, I knew it wasn’t a good idea to remind him of Hephaestus. He seemed to have a boiling hatred toward the fire god.

Last thing I needed was my men to be at each other’s throats. We had to stick together to beat Zeus.

I waited, dying to poke Poseidon and tell him to hurry it up. But I had to be patient and let him decide for himself. I didn’t want him to resent me or Hermes...or any of the others if I could help it.

“Someone having a party and you both forgot to invite me?” Hermes’ voice rang out over the storm. He whistled. “Nasty storm you got here. Mind if I move it along to a rainstorm?”

“Stop messing around and fix this,” Poseidon snapped.

“Since you’re a party pooper, I will.” Instantly the wind stopped and a howl sounded as the air shot up suddenly.

I pushed out of Poseidon’s arms and we both stood. Blood and gashes covered his body.

“Oh my god, you’re hurt.” I blinked back tears. Poseidon hadn’t yelled or screamed at me all the while, the magic I had unleashed was hurting him and he had protected me the whole time.

“You put a hole in my roof.” Poseidon pointed up at the ceiling.

Sure enough, there was a gaping opening in his ceiling and the cave above us.

“Looks better this way.” Hermes shrugged. “You could put up a skylight and watch the clouds.”

“I don’t want a damn window in the ceiling.” Poseidon glared. “If I wanted to look at fluffy clouds, I’d go outside.”

“Hey, stop fighting you two.” I stepped in between them, which wasn’t easy as they both were at least seven inches taller than me and loaded with muscles.

“Paige is right,” Hermes smirked and took my hand, leading me away from Poseidon. “Let’s give you time to cool off and heal those nasty-looking wounds.”

Before I could argue or say anything, Hermes swept me to his chest, and we sailed up through the roof into the bright, blue sky with white clouds sprinkled all over.

“What are you doing?” Panic flooded me and I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Was Hermes being controlled by Zeus like Poseidon was? I mean he was Poseidon’s prisoner, and it could’ve all been a ploy to have me lower my guard until the time was right, like now, for him to take me to Olympus or just kill me now.

“We need to talk.”

Damn. Whenever anyone said that it never came to anything good. My stomach knotted up. I didn’t trust my voice to work, so I nodded.

We flew over the water from several hundred feet at least. The sea below us churned, and high waves slapped up into the air as though to knock us down. I had no doubt that was Poseidon’s doing and was rightly pissed.

I needed to know what Hermes wanted and something told me he wouldn’t be up for a group chat.

After several miles of flying over the ocean, Hermes took me to a crop of mountains that glittered in the sun. The waves crashed against the beach below but unless Poseidon decided to unleash a tidal wave or worse, he wasn’t going to be able to reach us up here. And though I knew the god of the sea could teleport here with no problem, it worried me that his wounds might be keeping him from doing so. Or he was giving Hermes the benefit of the doubt about taking me away and merely showing he didn’t like it with the ocean’s antics.

I stared out across the terrain. Clusters of trees and rolling grass covered the area we stood on. Other mountains dotted the horizon, but we were surrounded by water. “Where are we?”

“Lefka Ori,” Hermes said.

“Pardon? This isn’t near Olympus is it?” Oh shit, had I been right, and he’d brought me here to Zeus?

He laughed. “Nope. These are also called the White Mountains. We’re on the island of Crete.”

“That’s good.” I rubbed my arms while Hermes started pacing back and forth like he was trying to work out what to say.

“Paige, I have to admit something to you that I’m not proud of.” He paused in his pacing, and I felt like my heart stopped beating in my chest. “This isn’t easy for me to say.”

My mouth dried and I felt like the world was going to fall out from underneath me. He was going to break up with me. Was that why I couldn’t control the air element any longer? It had known before I even suspected. How was I going to defeat Zeus without being able to control air? I had to have all four elements. Not three. And I didn’t want any other god to work with me on this...I wanted Hermes.

“I-I know you and Dion have had sex.” There was a pained look in his eyes. “And that you slept with Hephaestus and Poseidon. I don’t blame you. They are all gods and well—” He pressed a hand to the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m the reason why you were lured to the bottom of the sea and nearly died. Because of my stupidity and being jealous and turning to our enemy when I should have known better.”

“It’s okay, we’ve all made mistakes.” I moved closer to him, but he held out his hand, stopping me.

“Let me finish.” He blew out a breath and opened his eyes, looking at me with such intensity that I froze. “I have to let you know one more thing. I can’t keep it bottled up anymore. You’re free to do whatever you want with the information. Don’t feel obligated in any way.”

“Hermes,” I wrapped my arms around myself, “You can tell me anything.” Even though his words and tone were scaring the shit out of me. I couldn’t handle it if he said he hated me because I’d had sex with three other gods. That I was a sleaze or had loose morals. I didn’t. I didn’t lust after anyone else. Just these four. Only ever them. And for Hermes not to be with me made a deep ache hollow out my insides. We belonged together. All five of us.

The corners of his eyes pinched as he stared at me. Like he was trying to memorize this moment—me—before he would say the words that would rip us apart.

I held myself together, pressing my arms against my stomach to keep from falling apart.

“I love you, Paige.” He shook his head. “No matter how I tried to tell myself otherwise, I love you.”

A cry burst from my lips as I rushed into his arms, kissing his face, his mouth, wherever I could.

He chuckled. “Does this mean you love me too?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” I laughed. “I love you, Hermes.” Then my mood sobered, and I stepped back to watch his expression. “But I love Dion, and Hephaestus, and Poseidon too. Can-Can you accept that?”

“I don’t like it.”

When I turned to walk away because I couldn’t deal with Hermes’ rejection, he snagged my hand bringing me back.

“But I can learn to accept it.” He pulled me to him. “Just know that I may whisk you away to some remote spot like this to have my way with you.”

“Please do,” I said in a breathless voice.

Hermes grinned a second before he kissed me feather-light across my lips. I wrapped my hands around his neck, pulling him closer to me and he deepened the kiss. Our mouths savored one another, exploring and tasting.

When Hermes pulled back, I clung to his arms, waiting for my feet to touch the ground cause I felt like I was walking on clouds.