Pandora's Mistake (Fate of Eros #0) (The Fate of Eros Series) (4 page)

Her foot brushed the side of the jar as she guarded it.

"Pandora!" a deep voice shouted into her ear.

She jumped backwards and almost knocked the jar over. She swung her axe wildly in a circle in an attempt to kill whoever had approached her. It hit nothing and she almost dropped it in her hysteria.

She had heard a voice. It had been right next to her. Zeus had never said her attackers would be invisible. She should be able to see him.

She dropped to her knees and the axe fell from her grasp. She hugged the jar to her chest. The second she touched it, she felt a shock travel from her fingers straight to her heart. It was electric and it stung a little. She shuddered and heard the same voice shout into her ear again. "Pandora!"

She jumped as she realized that the noises were coming from the jar. The melodious whispering had grown louder-they were chanting her name.

"Who are you?" she screamed at it, but the voices grew more desperate.

She covered her ears. "Leave me alone! I know what this is!" Zeus had warned her that the temptation to open the jar would be great. It was why everyone wanted it.

She covered the jar in furs. "But I won't give in to your evil." The voices were more muffled than before. In fact, if she sang to herself loudly, she couldn't hear them at all.

"I will follow Zeus and everything he says! After all, it was the mistake of trusting Epimetheus' word over Zeus' that got me burned. I should have known that Zeus only punishes evil creatures like Prometheus." She went back to the front of the cave and continued scrubbing herself. By the time she finished, the voices were gone.

Pandora waited for Epimetheus to return home later. When he did, they ate the roasted pig leg they had cooked earlier that day on the mountain. The flesh made drool fall out of Pandora's mouth as she ate it. Epimetheus devoured it as if he hadn't eaten in a lifetime.

Instead of hitting Pandora for her messiness, Epimetheus pressed his lips against her body for the first time. He kissed the burns that distorted the silvery flecks in her arm and the feeling was pleasant.

If he acted like this more often and stopped having violent mood swings, then maybe she wouldn't mind being his wife after all.

Prometheus woke and wrinkled his nose. The smells of blood, bird droppings, and burning air mixed in his nostrils. This happened every morning after he died. On good days, he didn't die until dark, his stomach chewed through. He would open his eyes the next morning only to be forced to inhale the crusty leftovers. On bad days, he would experience this multiple times in one day.

This time it was a bit different. He could also smell something lovely-like a woman. As he breathed the scent, a shiver traveled through his body.

Pandora's beautiful face and sparkling, silver skin filled his vision. She pressed a damp cloth against his forehead.

She knelt next to him. He desperately wished he could sit down beside her. It made him feel vulnerable to always lay spread eagle and chained to the ground. But he supposed that was the point. Zeus loved to humiliate him.

Yet again, she had a chunk of meat cooking on a tree branch. He wondered whether he could make the fire above him large enough to cook the meat faster without burning anything else in the process.

As soon as she noticed he was awake, she shrieked a little and dropped the cloth. She stood and raced backwards.

It wasn't far enough away for her to be safe if Prometheus had wanted to harm her.

He closed his eyes, wishing she didn't have that kind of reaction to him, but he couldn't blame her.

"Come back." Prometheus' throat was dry. His hoarse voice made him sound more desperate than he wanted it to. "I won't hurt you. I made a promise to my brother."

He was not going to admit that he probably wouldn't have harmed her anyway. He wanted to study her more than anything.

Although every glance he got of her made him bitter. She was perfect. Her beauty was like Zeus spitting in Prometheus' face. Prometheus' life work had been creating humans and Zeus had created one more beautiful than all the rest combined in a very short period of time.

She walked closer to him slowly, but still looked as if she was ready to bolt at any moment.

Prometheus sighed, his heart filled with guilt. "I'm sorry-I shouldn't have hurt you. I'm not only a man, but also a Titan and my strength should not be used to hurt women. I don't like to bully females like my brother does, not even goddesses who could handle it."

Her body was still tense, but she took several steps closer. "You mean men aren't supposed to beat women? I thought it was because I wasn't showing him that I was obeying him well enough." She knelt beside him.

He shook his head sadly. "I've never approved of the way my brother treats women. He doesn't know any better, though. Back when he was a boy, one of the other goddesses used to beat him. Even though he's much stronger, he believes that women will hit him if he doesn't try to control them by hurting them first. I can see in his eyes that he sometimes regrets it, though."

Her eyes were still wide and her arms shook as she leaned down. "So if you don't want to hurt me, does that mean you trust me now?"

"Hah!" He laughed bitterly. "I will never trust anything that comes from Zeus."

Pandora flinched.

The guilt struck Prometheus again and he quickly added,"But I won't hurt you out of love for my brother."

"Well, isn't that comforting?!" There was sarcasm in her voice.

Prometheus' eyes flashed. "You don't have to be here. You can leave if you don't believe me. I don't need your help. I've been like this for years and survived just fine."

She poured another sip of water down his throat and he moaned. She smiled smugly. "It sounds like you do need me."

Prometheus glared at her.
I need to study you more than I need that water,
he thought,
but I'll never admit that to you!

Pandora continued, "Zeus warned me that men were incapable of handling things without the nurturing hand of a woman. He created me to show them their weakness."

Prometheus' eyes narrowed. It sounded like something Zeus would do-use a creation to punish other people. She gave him another sip of water, but this time he spat it on the ground. He didn't care if he was lying down and thirsty; he wouldn't allow her to force him to swallow that liquid. "I've had my fill of messages from Zeus."

Pandora jumped up and furiously shook her foot where the water had landed. "You're disgusting!"

Whoops! There went his promise, but he hadn't done it on purpose this time. He just wanted to make a point, which was that she wasn't going to get away with manipulating him.

"You know, I don't have to take care of you," Pandora said. "I do it as a favor to Epimetheus. What do I get in return? Your spite. You burned my arm and spat on me. You won't even turn down the fire over our heads so that I'll stop sweating."

That's why her skin was glistening so brightly. Prometheus knew it couldn't have just been the silver in it. Zeus didn't know how to make a woman that beautiful.

He glanced at her profile again and his heart leaped in his throat. Or could he?

His brow furrowed as he concentrated on holding in some of his pain. The fire above them died down. "Do you have any other problems with me?"

Pandora crossed her arms. "Yes. I don't believe that you're actually trapped here. With your powers over fire, you should have been able to escape long ago. You stay here as a way to gain humanity's sympathy."

Prometheus laughed. "Oh! How could I miss it? Obviously, I'm capable of just walking away and am purposefully not doing so for attention. Thank you for enlightening me."

Pandora stuck her nose in the air. "You're welcome."

He glared at her, incensed by her stubbornness. "Don't you think I've tried? Not only are these chains indestructible." He yanked on them so hard that he was forced to cry out as they cut into his wrists. The fire above them burst into such large flames that Pandora was forced to cower to prevent the ashes from lighting her hair on fire. "But I don't have the strength to break free even if I wanted to because I die every day."

He lit the chains on fire to try to melt the metal. It turned red, but the metal didn't melt off. In fact, it cinched against his wrists even more tightly.

"Burning off the metal doesn't seem to work either." she murmured. "What about the raven? Can't you kill it?"

Prometheus sighed. "I've tried that, too. It's immortal." Prometheus stared at the raven intently, imagining its brain. "I can melt all or part of someone's brain using fire. I can make humans and creatures forget whatever I want." Blood dripped out of the raven's ears as its brain was destroyed. Prometheus stared into its glowing eyes and tried not to shiver. "But regardless of how many times I melt its brain or try to make it forget about pecking me, it still continues on, unaffected. I don't think it's even alive-it must be undead."

"Hmm," Pandora said. "What about what you did to me?"

"I can make creatures have a fever." Prometheus imagined the raven's temperature rising. "Until they are sick and collapse. I can blister skin from the heat." The raven pecked harder as a response, breaking through his skin before it should have. Prometheus cried out painfully. This would be one of the days he died more than once. "But the sicker I make it, the harder it pecks me because it knows its strength is waning."

Prometheus was gasping. He wanted to stop, but he needed to show Pandora the truth. "And when I light it on fire." The raven burst into flames like a torch resting on his stomach. "It still keeps moving." He made the flames so hot that the skin on its body melted and soon all that was left was bone on fire, but it continued to peck away violently at his skin. It drooled more green slime than usual.

"I've tried to make it love me," Prometheus said. "I can make anything burn with passion for me. But it pecks me faster and I die sooner because it is overcome with bloodlust for me." At this point the raven was enamored with him. He pecked into him repeatedly and quickly. He was definitely going to lose his liver twice that day.

"Why do you die like this?" she murmured. "When Epimetheus was burned by your fire, he healed almost instantly. Why isn't it the same way for you?"

"It would be." He frowned. "But do you see that green slime dripping from his mouth? It is a tonic that prevents immortal creatures from regenerating as quickly. Each time he pecks me, he applies another drop of it to my skin. This wouldn't be half as painful without it."

Pandora shook her head sadly.

"During moments of desperation," Prometheus whispered, "I've made the fire above our heads so big that it enveloped my body. It didn't even harm me. The one good thing I got from stealing fire from Zeus was an immunity to it hurting me. I can light my entire self on fire and feel nothing, but it also means that I can't kill myself quickly when I can barely take the pain. I have to die one peck at a time, every time."

He looked at Pandora. He knew it wouldn't be long until the pain was too unbearable for him to hold conversations anymore. The fire that had been small above them before was burning so bright that sweat trickled down Pandora's forehead and made her hair stick. She still looked beautiful.

Pity was written across Pandora's face and he hated it. Prometheus had chosen to give humans the power to create fires. He thought everything through, unlike his brother, and knew he'd be punished by Zeus for what he did. She shouldn't feel sorry for him. He had known what the consequences might be, but felt it was worth it.

A part of him couldn't forgive himself, though, because it was his fault Zeus had gained control in the first place.

His thoughts drifted back to a time when Hecate had tried to introduce him to one of the humans. He had been busy at work, modeling a woman, which had proved to be a more delicate and difficult procedure than making a man. He had already destroyed three models without ever breathing life into them.

"This is Ronius," Hecate said, stroking the arm of the human man. Her dogs were nowhere in sight, which was unusual. She stroked this human as if he were one of her pets instead.

"I already know who he is." Prometheus laughed. "I created him, remember?"

Hecate's finger ran up the man's chest. Her voices grew hoarse as she transformed into that luscious form of hers that carried the key. "But you don't understand.
This man is very special to me."
She sucked on her lower lip as she moaned the words "very special."

The man was kissing up Hecate's arm. His body trembled and his lips were fervent. He didn't dare look into her eyes, but his erection made his worshipful thoughts of her beauty apparent.

"I'm glad," Prometheus said. "You've spent too much time hating my creation."

"But not today..." Hecate sighed. "We've spent hours enjoying each other's company. You'd be surprised at the stamina of these mortals. They can go all night if they're needed."

Hecate grabbed the hand of the man and placed it on her right breast. He doubled over and almost finished right there. He looked as though he had ascended through the gates of Mount Olympus and mounted the throne as he humped her leg.

"Poor things, most of them have yet to meet a real woman."

"Well, it's good you're here to oblige them then."

Hecate stamped her foot. Her face twisted in a grimace. She shoved Ronius off her, but he was so enraptured by her, he didn't seem to mind.

"Really?" her voices shouted. "You don't even feel a tiny bit jealous? I could take off my clothes and fuck him right here and you probably wouldn't flinch."

He dropped what he was doing, knowing that he'd probably ruined all his hard work in the process.

He ran a hand through his hair. "I just want you to be happy and if sleeping with humans is what makes you feel good, then I'm all for it."

Her mouth dropped open as she paced, kicking Ronius away with each step. "It's like you don't even care about me. You never get jealous, even when other gods try to seduce me. All you talk about is humans and what miraculous thing you need to do for them next."