Intrigue (36 page)

My outburst drew both men from their pissing contest to focus directly on me.

“Sorry, firebrand, I think I got a little ahead of myself,” Ares said with an amused expression. “Do you know much about Greek mythology?”

I dazedly replied, “I know the origin of my name, so I know what Greek Muses were. Basically, they were like television for the Greek gods. What do Muses have to do with soul mates?”

Ares laughed at my analogy and explained while Apollo avoided my eye contact, “The Twelve Olympian gods and goddesses in the Greek Pantheon are immortal. Although we call Mt. Olympus home, Zeus thought it best to scatter his brethren, to make us less noticeable to humans, and to increase our hunting grounds. In addition, we must live separated from our souls except when Zeus creates a Muse for us. Our souls are intertwined in the Muses body, hence my use of the term soul mate.”

“I am
not
your soul mate!” I choked out indignantly.

Apollo finally looked at me with annoyance in his eyes as he smoldered, “Not yet, Calliope. But once you mature into womanhood, one of our souls will awaken in you.”

“You are just assuming that I am because of my name and the fact that I showed up here. How do you know?”

Ares pondered this for a moment, and then looked at Apollo with a calculating smile before he said, “Both of those factors are telling, but the only true way we can know for sure is a very simple test. Aglaea already paid the price for that test, and you gained two very deadly enemies in her sisters tonight. But you are correct, I did not get to see for myself if that was the correct interpretation of those events.” As he made his proclamation, he headed for the door opened it and commanded Deimos to go retrieve someone named Alectryon.

I grew wary at this ominous turn of events. Apollo stepped in front of me and said “Brother, is this really necessary when one of your favorites already has departed tonight because of the Muse? Time will tell us soon enough if she is a true Muse. Why must we do something so final?” Apollo reasoned.

Now I was really freaking out! Although it was clear I was important to both of them, it did not seem like this was going to gain me any reprieves, at least from Ares. My free will and me were going to have to book it out of Detroit if Ares was my soul mate. The tension in the room started to ramp up as Apollo and Ares had another stare down.

Much too soon, the door opened again and Phobos escorted in another teenager in chains. This time it was a boy—dirty, unkempt, and in leg and arm manacles. What was with this gothic chain crap? Ares approached me again with Phobos at his side dragging the teenage immortal with him.

“Move aside, brother. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I could always use one of your friends as my test,” Ares stated casually. Apollo still hesitated then slowly stepped to my side.

“I am more sorry than you know, Calliope, that you have to witness this,” Apollo demurred.

I was trying not to shake, but when I saw Ares pull a large ornate knife out of his scabbard, I pleaded, “Please don’t Ares, this won’t be forgiven or forgotten.”

This seemed to make Ares pause with the knife in mid-air, “Don’t worry, firebrand, it will only hurt for a second, and you need to learn that my will is law in Detroit.”

With that he made a one-inch superficial cut on the inside of my upper arm as I thrashed in my chain. A small amount of blood slowly started to ooze out of the cut, which drew the rapt attention of all four immortals.

Ares slowly drew the teenage immortal that he called Alectryon to my open wound and said, “Alectryon, I offer you this treat as the ending to your imprisonment. Take your gift and let us be done with these chains. But, you are only allowed to lick her wound.”

Alectryon looked delighted and not at all concerned at the consequences as his mouth slowly licked and savored the line of blood on my arm. I shuddered as I felt his tongue and teeth scrape my arm. His joyous expression lasted all of five seconds before he realized something was gravely wrong.

He clutched his throat, looked directly at Ares and pleaded “Why?” before falling over dead.

I tried not to watch any of the proceeding, but it was like not to watch the really bad performers on first round of American Idol. It just cannot be done. I was horrified at the chain of events that I started. Ares on the other hand looked pleased while he said, “Well, I guess we answered your question, firebrand. You are definitely a Muse. Of course, the mystery remains as to whose Muse. There is no simple test for that question. So my brothers and I will have to learn patience—a virtue that we haven’t developed over the years.”

“How did this prove
anything
!” I yelled at Ares before I could stop myself.

“Sorry, I forgot that you have quite an education ahead of you. Only the Olympian that is your soul mate can drink from you or possess you. Your blood is poison to all other immortals,” Ares stated matter of factly.

“Now time to discuss what to do with you, my firebrand. Do you have any thoughts on the matter Apollo before I make my decision?” Ares asked in a pompous manner.

I didn’t think things could get worse than the whole dead immortal laying at my feet and me in chains, but the ominous statement of Ares had me in my fight or flight mode again.

“Well, I think removing the chains would be a good start. Then, as you mentioned, some sort of tutoring needs to take place for our Muse to fulfill her true purpose,” Apollo calmly stated.

“And I’m sure you want to be her tutor, I imagine?” Ares sneered.

“No, since we cannot truly know whose soul she carries or when it will awaken, then I think we should alternate tutoring sessions, brother. We can place Hermes at her school to protect her. I will teach her the history and protocol since that bores you, and you can teach her how to properly defend herself,” Apollo reasoned.

“As usual, brother, you don’t disappoint me. You are the perfect politician and mediator all in one. I would certainly enjoy battling my little firebrand here while leaving you and Hermes with the more mundane tasks,” Ares smarmed as he once again surveyed my body in an all too familiar way.

Apollo also sensed the direction of Ares thoughts as he insisted, “All three of us need to make an Olympians Pledge that none of us will take Calliope’s virtue before we find out whose Muse she is. Only her soul mate has the right to that honor, and if one of us were to compromise her, the conflict that it would create would be of epic proportions, much like Troy.”

I just kept repeating to myself…..I have free will, I have free will, I have free will…….so I wouldn’t start mindlessly screaming at these arrogant and conceited tools!

“Why would we have to make an Olympians Pledge? At the very core of our society is the basic tenet that you do not steal another’s soul mate. I am sure you remember. This is still true today as it was at the beginning of the Trojan War. We need no pledge to bind us to that reality,” Ares stated as he gave a knowing look to Apollo.

“Yes, but as we learned from Troy and elsewhere, rules are easily broken. And it will also allow the other two Olympians the right to destroy the offender without Zeus’ interference,” Apollo explained.

“Fine, if we must. Arrange the ceremony with Hermes for tomorrow. Give me the keys to the chains Phobos, then drag Alec away,” Ares commanded.

“Certainly, my lord,” Phobos handed Ares the ornate key ring, then grabbed poor Alec by the ankles and dragged him out of the room.

Meanwhile, Ares seemed to think the only way to unlock me was to press his whole body against mine while he undid the chains above my head, then slowly run his hands all the way down to my ankles to unlock my feet. A sort of growl erupted from Apollo as Ares released me. As soon as my feet were free, I used one of them to kick Ares away from me. He flew back at least two feet, but immediately sprang back up to face me.

I automatically got into my fighting stance, but Ares seemed more amused than offended. He stated, “I think you have had some training.” I told him I had a black belt in karate and he immediately laughed, “This is going to be much more entertaining than I thought. But of course, you are Calliope, so I should have expected no less. I look forward to seeing you soon, my firebrand. Dream of me tonight.”

“As you wish, Calliope, but we
will
talk on the way.”

“Fine, just get me the flock out of here, Apollo!”

Apollo sensing my complete emotional and physical exhaustion guided me out of the labyrinth without saying a word. In mere minutes, we were at Apollo’s Charger. After insisting that I buckle up, we roared out of the parking lot into the night of the full moon.

“What in the world were you and Admetus thinking tonight? You put us all in grave danger while alerting Ares to your existence!” Apollo growled at me.

I felt the need to defend myself, “I was thinking that the carnage at The Corner, Ares's own personal Coliseum, needs to stop. Your plan would not have stopped Aglaea from using Thrace again, and neither you nor Rafe were willing to trust me with the truth. So I did what had to be done to try to help end the human slaughter.”

Apollo seemed to soften and consider this for a moment before he quietly said, “One Night Muse, no matter how powerful, does not have the ability to take down that atrocity. I have been trying to do it for years and have had no success.”

“Let me guess. You tried reason and logic with Ares. I think that the only thing that Ares truly understands is force. But just brute force will not prevail in this war. We need surprise and good reconnaissance data. I just want to do my part to end those brutal death matches where teenagers are sacrificed like livestock. You have your own power Apollo, yet you don’t use it to change things. So I believe the better question is, what are
you
thinking?” My little tirade actually managed to exhaust me further, and I took comfort in the fact that I was almost home.

Apollo looked both angry and sad at my tirade, but asked, “Do you actually think you accomplished anything with your palace intrigue tonight—other than revealing yourself to Ares and placing yourself in mortal danger before your soul even awakens?!”

“You mean
your soul
—which is
all
you care about—but it’s not a done deal Apollo.”

We arrived at my house. Apollo parked the car on the other side of the street and cut the engine. I didn’t bother reminding him that I was staying at Jazz’s tonight because I needed my own bed more than anything right now. He turned to face me, and his heavy lidded gaze burned into me as he placed his hand on my cheek, and huskily whispered, “I was the one that found you at a rave this summer and realized you were a Muse. And I already feel the pull towards you, Calliope. I can’t stop thinking about you, dreaming about you, needing you. It has only gotten stronger with each passing day.”

His confession muddled my already exhausted brain, so I could not stop him when gently brushed back my hair and placed a soft kiss on my forehead “You are my soul mate, Calliope. I feel my soul mingling with yours. You were made to complete me, my Muse.”

I hated my reaction to him. I hated that he made me doubt my future with Rafe. And I hated that I could feel a slight pull to him as well. It was involuntary, and it went against my free will, which really pissed me off.

His eyes held mine captive before he announced, “I know your exhausted, my Muse, but you have to promise me something. Swear to me that there will be no more dangerous missions or palace intrigues,” commanded Apollo.

I just shook my head. As usual, I could not lie to him on this matter. “As long as the human death matches continue, I will do everything in my power to stop them and protect the humans I care about.”

Apollo let out a frustrated sigh and said, “If it weren’t so late, we would be having a much longer conversation, and I would get your pledge. But we will address this again. I promise.” With that utterance, he yanked open his door stalked around his car, opened my door, and pulled me out and into his arms again in just one motion. He quickly deposited me at my front door and explained, “As much as I would like to tuck you in, I believe it’s in both of our best interests if I just say goodnight to you here, my Muse.” And with a soft kiss on my forehead he was gone.

I know I wasn’t suppose to be home, but I would just make an excuse about not feeling well to my parents tomorrow. As I silently made my way up to my room, I realized I was about to enter a whole new chapter of my life. A much more complicated chapter with much more intrigue. As soon as I got to my room, I flipped my laptop open and started to write.

Epilogue

Excerpt from Journal of Calliope Edonides: October 2007

I just made it back from the Detroit Underworld. My mission both succeeded and failed, Thrace is safe, but Ares now knows I exist. And icing on the cake, he talks like we are soul mates that have finally found each other again. I’m caught between three Greek gods that think I might be their soul mate. Cue music for EPIC pissing contest. Just today, I betrayed my boyfriend, found out I truly am a Muse, and became responsible for the death of two immortals. Frankly, I don’t know which is more disturbing. I am so exhausted. I don’t know if I can trust Apollo, but I will admit I do feel a slight pull towards him. FLOCK!!!!!! My heart belongs to Rafe and with all my free will, I choose him. But, after this week, I’m scared that he is going to be taken from me. I don’t know if I can fight this battle and fight for him at the same time. I think I am going to have to borrow some courage and words from one of my favorite heroines “As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this……… After all... tomorrow is another day.”