Chapter 75

Paige had feelings for Poseidon? Didn’t she know he was a cold-blooded fish? He hid in the depths of the ocean, and I wouldn’t be fucking surprised if he had planned all of this with Zeus to capture Hermes and get Paige to go after him.

Here in the middle of the damn ocean, we were at his mercy. Any power I used here would be useless against water. This was fucking trap and I had sailed straight into it because my heart belonged to Paige. I should’ve sculpted a robotic heart and had that in my chest instead.

Fire burned through me like an explosion. I thought I could handle Paige loving other gods. Dion hadn’t been a problem and I had even forced acceptance of Hermes. But Poseidon?

Fuck no.

The guy was a dick with a trident that was all. It was only because he was one of Zeus’ brothers that he got the oceans of the earth to rule. And evidently was a favorite brother too since he didn’t get stuck with Hades’ lot of all the undead.

Paige was going to get herself killed going up against two gods with only me and Dion backing her up. Even if we had Hermes free, there was no way we could beat Poseidon and Zeus together.

Maybe, just fucking maybe we had a chance if we could get Hermes before either of them showed up. Or at least only had to face one of them. Yet one would suck.

Smoke tickled my nose, and I opened my eyes. “What the hell?”

“Stop,” Paige held onto my arm, her brown hair blowing in the wind, her cheeks flushed. “I can’t absorb any more of your power.”

Her words zapped into me, but I couldn’t calm down my anger.

“You’re burning a hole through my boat.” Dion threw water on me, and my skin steamed.

“Fuck,” I yelled and snapped off my magic like I did whenever quenching a metal. The fire raged against me, heating my skin and everything around me. Again, I thrust the power into myself until it went from a roar to a simmer.

I backed away from Paige, not wanting to hurt her any more than I already had. If she hadn’t learned my element, I could have burned her alive. Inside my heart was pounding in my chest.

Instead of checking on her or even apologizing, I clenched my fists. “What kind of game are you playing? Poseidon? He’s more bloodthirsty than Zeus. His tidal waves alone have killed thousands.”

“And what of you?” Paige asked rubbing her arms, which were bright red as though she had a sunburn.

“I have killed no one,” I answered proudly.

“Oh?” She raised her eyebrows.

Dion muttered as he examined the burnt boat.

“How many weapons have you put into the hands of the gods to fight each other and mankind?” Paige crossed her arms.

“That’s completely different.”

“You are just as guilty as all the rest of them.” Paige shook her head. “Look, we’re not talking about anyone’s pasts. We’re here right here, right now and Poseidon put himself in danger to help me.”

I didn’t answer, but she continued.

“Poseidon went to try and find out what Zeus had planned. When I saw him again, Zeus had brainwashed him or something and he tried to kill me.”

My feet stumbled backward at her words. “And you want to bring him out of Zeus’ army? Are you crazy? Let’s grab Hermes and leave the fuck out of here.”

Paige uncrossed her arms and stepped in front of me. She placed a hand on my chest. “I’m not asking you to love how I need Poseidon to win against Zeus. I’m asking you to help me save him. Please.”

“You might as well give in,” Dion said, standing from the smoking spot in the boat. “She’s more stubborn than a Cyclops.”

“Those are real?” Paige asked, dropping her hand from my chest, but I clutched her fingers, bringing them back.

“Yes, but they have died out now,” I answered for her.

Her gray eyes were full of hope as she asked me, “Will you help me?”

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t refuse her anything. I brought her fingers up to my mouth and kissed them like on all those old human shows my mom used to make me watch. “I will.”

She leaned up on her tiptoes, trading her fingers for her lips. I held her to me. Truth be told, I’d rather have taken her from here and never looked back, but I couldn’t do that to her.

Her breath was cool against my cheek. “Thank you.”

I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice. This woman, this human had turned me inside out. I would do anything for her, and I needed to keep guard as one wrong move could mean the difference between her surviving this or not.

If it came down to protecting her or flashing her out of there to the first spot of land, I would send her away in a heartbeat. She would hate me forever. But at least she would be alive and that meant more to me than my life. One glimpse of how Dion looked at her told me he felt the same.

“How far are we from the nearest land?” I asked him, my gaze moving from him to Paige and back so he would understand my meaning.

I had to know that we had the same plan in case I was unable to teleport Paige to safety. If there was a way for us to teleport her to Hermes and flash her back, we would have. But we had no idea where exactly the god of air was being kept and a god of earth and a god of fire teleporting someone into the middle of the ocean didn’t work. It would have to be land or hell, even a volcano and there were neither within miles of this spot.

Poseidon knew exactly what he was doing when he picked this area, if Hermes was even here, to set a trap. He was the strongest of us and Zeus a close second.

“Closest island I can sense is twenty miles south-east from where we left—on Crete.”

“Do you think this boat will be okay with this hole?” Paige asked, frowning into the burnt spot on the deck.

“Should be.” Dion nodded as he looked at me. “We can make a quick escape to land, after we get Hermes, if necessary.”

Paige lifted her head and placed her hand on her hip. “We are not leaving without Hermes.” And there was another name unspoken on the air that I saw in the spark of her gray eyes...Poseidon.

* * *

With Dion concealing our boat from humans and Paige adding her wind element to push us faster, I felt like an unwelcome guest. All I could do on our journey was not burn a deeper hole in the boat and sink us.

We sailed another ten minutes until the waves crashed over the hull of the boat and Paige dropped her magic.

“Save your energy,” I said, wishing we had brought food or something onboard for her. This was what my mother always warned me about, my hot-headedness she called it. I called it a lack of foresight.

She nodded and I moved to her side, wrapping my arms around her and willing some of my strength into her or at least heat her against the cold, stinging ocean spray.

“I don’t want you taking unnecessary risks,” I said in her ear, then kissed her neck. “Get Hermes and let’s leave.”

At her sharp inhale of breath to argue with me, I continued.

“One god at a time. If you can’t reach Poseidon, we’ll figure that out later. Your safety is more important than some fish god.”

“You’re wrong about him.”

“Am I?” I nuzzled her neck and she softened in my arms.

“Sure. Lots of people probably think you’re nothing more than a god of fire and weapons.”

“But I am.” I paused in kissing her neck.

She pulled back, cupping my face with her hands. “But you are so much more. You are passionate and creative.”

I scoffed.

“No, it’s true.” She searched my face. “How else could you come up with such armor and weapons for the gods? They don’t give you much direction other than that, do they?”

“You forgot impulsive, stubborn, and irritable.”

Her lips pressed onto mine before she answered me. “No, I didn’t forget. But like someone taught me about forest fires, there is good and bad in everything. You have to see the balance. Your impulsiveness is what brought us together. And your stubbornness is what keeps us together despite facing these challenges.”

“You forgot irritable.”

She dropped her hands from my face to my arms with a smile curving her lips. “I’m hoping that will serve us in facing off with two Olympian gods.”

My laughter rang out across the boat and Dion grinned over at us for a moment as he steered the boat.

“You, my love, could have given Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle a hard debate.”

She kissed me, throwing her arms around my neck. If we weren’t on this damn boat rocking back and forth like a giant hand juggled to see how much we could take before breaking into splinters, then I’d have made love to her until she forgot all about Poseidon.

Guess I should add jealousy and selfishness to my fire attributes.

The boat’s motor stopped, and Paige sighed against my lips. Waves whipped around us. Spinning us until I thought we would capsize any second.

“This is it,” Dion yelled. “We are in the eye of the storm.”

“Are we?” Paige shook her head. “Then why isn’t it calm?”

“Poseidon,” I spat out the name like a curse.

Rather than acknowledging my concern, Paige stood, wobbling in the small boat. She held up her hands and closed her eyes. The bite of air magic prickled across my skin.

In answer, the sea’s waves rose higher.

“Hold on to something—” Dion shouted, and a wave plowed into us.

Water shoved me away from Paige to the end of the boat. I gripped the wood railing to stop myself from flying off into the water. Another wave crashed into us, tossing us onto the side and plunging me into the ocean.

My head bobbed up and down in the water. My legs and arms were uncoordinated as I tried to swim toward the boat that pushed further and further away.

The sky darkened as thunder rumbled nearby. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Zeus was here. Why I had thought he would have watched this from Olympus? The chance to claim his superiority and ego was too huge to pass this up.

I swam hard, my muscles felt like lead weights. Wave after wave crashed into me. The feeling like I was drowning had my chest squeezing so painfully, that I sank under the next wave. Water tossed me around until I didn’t know which way was up.

My lungs were on fire, struggling for air. The urge to breathe pulsed through me with every heartbeat. I was powerless.

Paige.

My pain didn’t matter. I kicked hard up. Or what I hoped was the surface. With the blackened sky, I had no idea which direction I was going.

I broke through the water and gulped the air that burned all the way down.

Where was the boat? I turned in circles searching for the boat.

“Heph,” came Paige’s muffled cry, but I couldn’t tell what direction she was.

Everything in me wanted to zap her away from here to the nearest land with a volcano where my power would reach. I couldn’t though. Not while fighting to keep my head above water.

And where was the fucking boat?

I swam as the ocean’s waves played hot potato with me until I caught the glimmer of the boat on a crest. Hope filled me. It wasn’t that far. I could make it. I dove forward and kicked hard. Fighting against the waves that shoved against me. The boat was my goal and getting back to Paige—to safety.

Lightning streaked across the dark sky followed by the clap of the thunder. I had to get to the boat before Zeus struck it with his damn lightning and hurt Paige or worse.

My throat clamped down at the thought and I kicked harder.

When a gust of wind tugged the boat toward me, I latched onto the life preserver tied to a rope. I pulled myself hand over hand closer and closer until I could grip the side of the boat.

I hauled myself up, panting. The ship was eerily quiet, and my skin prickled with more than just being cold and wet. Dion was unconscious with blood coloring the deck under his head. Dread seared into my stomach.

Paige was gone.