The Deep End of the Sea (35 page)

Persephone begins crying again. Hades shakes in his rage. And Demeter ... she is a cool cucumber when she says, “It is complicated, but I found a way to temporarily bind her divinity when I passed her off to a mortal family. Had she gotten sick before the age of thirty, there was an excellent chance she would have died with them. Unfortunately, Athena’s curse triggered the girl’s immortality to reappear.” Her glacial eyes sweep over me again. “Now that Athena’s bungling has been lifted, her divinity is slowly returning.”

I don’t even know what to think of this. I look up at Hermes again and ask, “Did you know?”

He turns to face me fully, his hands gently holding onto my upper arms. “I uncovered the truth of your heritage just this week.”

I am a goddess? Me? Ex-monster Medusa a
goddess?

Demeter’s icy voice hits me like a brick. “I will never forgive you for your meddling, Hermes. It was not your place to dredge up this painful past.”

“If you think I care one tiny iota about your opinion,” he says in return, eyes flashing with anger, “then you are sorely mistaken.”

Arguing begins in the room anew. Hades and Persephone are yelling at both Demeter and Poseidon. Poseidon, now standing up, is yelling about how he believes this all to be a lie, that he would have known I was divine. Demeter yells about how Hermes has ruined everything. But I am looking up at the face of the person I love most in the entire world.

“I swore to you I would find a way,” he says, a hand coming up to touch my cheek. “I did not leave a single rock unturned.”

I lean into his hand. “Where did you learn this?”

“Believe it or not, the Underworld.” He angles a sly grin over at Jocko, who in return winks
.
“Thanks to several hints our mutual friend let slip to me about how it might be helpful to visit your original Athenian family, I spent the last few months tracking your adoptive mother down in the Asphodel Meadows. She was reluctant, but she told me her tale, of how she received you from a witch after praying to the gods for a baby. Finding the witch took forever, as she was in Tartarus; when I finally did locate her, I had to sort through various curses that Demeter had placed on her so long ago to discover the truth.” He looks over at Jocko again. “I owe you much for what you’ve done.”

I leave Hermes’ arms just long enough to hug Jocko. “You did this for me?”

My hug pleases him, though. “I have told you before that you have nothing to fear from me, Maddy. I am Death. I know the difference between an immortal and a mortal girl altered by the gods. But as parts of your true heritage have been hidden behind Demeter’s now fading curses, I was not sure beyond immortal what you truly were. Furthermore, I have grown ... fond of you. I didn’t want you to suffer any longer than you have. I merely nudged the Greek Messenger toward the right direction; all the rest of the work is his.”

Somebody sniffling nearby grabs my attention. Granny—no, Bernadette—no Pemphredo, is crying. Today is truly a day of miracles. “Are you hurt?” I rush to her side. “Granny! Are you hurt?”

“Stupid child.” She swats me away. “I am just happy, that’s all.”

Something in my own chest swells when Hermes joins us. I am surrounded by so many people I love. “Is it the truth? Are Hades and Persephone ... are they truly my parents? My real ones?”

His eyes, so icy blue moments before as he confronted Demeter, melt into green. “Sworn before the Assembly just last night.”

The arguing around us falls silent when the door swings open once more. The mighty Zeus has come to join the fray.

“Brothers,” he says, glancing around at the damaged room, “it appears we have a serious problem.”

Realizing it would be entirely inappropriate to laugh shrilly at how this is the understatement of the year, I wisely keep silent.

“I can’t have the Seas and the Underworld at open war with one another,” the King of the Gods continues. He’s furious. “Not now, when there is already so much strife in the world.”

“Our fucking brother raped my daughter!” Hades roars. “And your bitch-spawn tortured her for millennia!” He slams his pitchfork into the floor, rattling the walls once more. “
I demand justice.
And if you stand in my way, I will be more than happy to go to war with you, too. I no longer give a flying fuck that you wear the crown.” He shoves the pitchfork toward Zeus. “You allowed Demeter to take my daughter. To lie to me about her death!”

Zeus actually flinches at the vehemence of Hades’ fury. “I vow to you that I believed the child to have died, too. Demeter informed me—”

“And this acquits you? Acquits her?” Hades swings his rage toward Demeter before refocusing on Zeus. “Acquits your vicious bitch of a daughter? How would you like it if I tortured your girl?”

Zeus holds up a hand. I’m shocked to my core to see him so shaken over Hades’ wrath. “Brother, we have already begun the process of addressing Athena’s punishment—”

“If you tell me one more time that she chose to castigate my daughter because love makes fools of us all, I will lose my mind,” Hades seethes. “That is not a good enough reason for me. Do you understand that, Zeus?”

I’ve got to admit, I feel stupid for never seeing that one coming. All these years, I wracked my mind for reasons why Athena hated me, yet never once considered love was her reason.

Long story short,” Hermes whispers in my ear as Zeus assures Hades that he will do everything in his power to rectify the issue, “my insane sister has been in love with my psychotic uncle for years. They’ve been having an on-going affair, but he has refused to carry it further because he ...” He tenses in my arms. “Because he was obsessed with you.”

I turn the tale over in my head before facing Poseidon. Rather than watching his brothers argue, his attention is fully, desperately on me.

Puzzle pieces finally slide together. “You ... she ...?”

“No,” he tells me in that soft, rational sounding voice of his. “Pretty girl, I’ve never loved her. Not like I love you. She’s been ... what we are ... it’s nothing. Just physical, and it ended after I met you. I swear—”

Hades stops arguing with Zeus long enough to punch the Lord of the Seas, sending him sprawling once more. Even Zeus looks disgusted at their brother.

I say in wonder, “She hates me because she loves him.” I turn to Hermes. “For two thousand years, I’ve tortured myself with that question. And now ... now the answer is so simple.”

A rueful smile precedes, “I told you the gods do not sway easily in our emotions.”

Which is something that now applies to me, too.

Poseidon grunts, pulling my attention back to where he’s struggling to stand back up. His bright blue eyes are filled with panic.

He’s scared? What is he scared of? But ... no. I don’t care anymore. “There is no part of me that loves you, let alone
likes
you, Poseidon. There never has been. Any chance for that died the day you decided to selfishly take my choices away from me.” My voice rings through the house. June would be proud that I’m finally getting my feelings out in the open. “You have made my life hell; because of your twisted love, I became a monster. I ... I killed people.”

Persephone’s weeping intensifies. Demeter reaches for her, but she shoves her mother’s hand away.

“I tried to protect you,” Poseidon says quietly. “I protected your shores. I watched over you. Caught more people from reaching you than ever got through. Ensured to the best of my ability that you stayed safe. Had I known Athena would have ...” He swallows. “I wouldn’t have allowed her to do that to you. I didn’t know how to get the curse reversed without leaving you vulnerable to her attentions. You must believe me.”

I’m shaking. “You. Raped. Me. Is that one Athena’s fault, too?”

“No—no, that was ... what we did, that was love. I wanted ... it was to make you mine—”

“I am not yours.” My fists clench into balls. “Do you understand that?
I am not yours
. I belong to no one but myself. And I’m done with you having any control over me.”

He takes a step toward me, the fear intensifying in the tempestuous blue of his eyes. Both Hermes and Hades go to block him, even as Poseidon says to me, “We—”

I let loose a roundhouse kick that would make Aphrodite proud. And that bastard drops straight to the ground.

In the end, Zeus forcibly orders Poseidon to call off the storms; he does so with no further comment. If I had a more sympathetic heart, I’d almost say he leaves my house, under Zeus’ watch and with several Automaton escorts, a broken man. But I am not sympathetic toward him in the least.

In a small, weird way, though, I am toward Athena, despite never wishing to see her again. She acted out of love and desperation—horribly misguided, but nonetheless real.

Before they leave, though, Zeus says to me, “You and I have a lot to catch up on, granddaughter.”

And it freaks me out a bit. Because if Zeus is Persephone’s dad, and therefore my grandfather, and Hades’ brother, making him my uncle, too ... And now—he’s Hermes’ dad, which makes the god I’m in love with my ... cousin? No. Wait. Uncle? Is he Persephone’s half-brother?

It’s all too confusing.

“Are you okay?” Hermes says to me as we watch two of the Three leave.

I press my face against his warm chest. “I was just thinking, I’m a goddess and you’re ... my uncle?”

There’s that delightful exhale of a laugh of his. “That’s what you’re thinking about? After everything that just happened? That you’ve learned?”

I can’t hide my smile. “Are you?”

“If I am, it doesn’t matter. The gods alter their genetic make-ups for their children; it’s the only way the Assembly can function and thrive, what with a small population to choose from as spouses. Since we are gods, our ... DNA, if you will, alters constantly. We have no single strand. So, yes. My father is Zeus. Yes, Persephone’s father is Zeus, too. And yet, we share no blood, no genes that tie us together.”

“You call her your aunt.”

“I do.” I fall in love all over again with his smile. “But that is something I
chose
to call her. It’s the same with Aphrodite. She and I share no similar markers in our makeup, but we have chosen to embrace the relationship between us.”

“And ... Athena?”

He sighs. “She is no longer my family. You do not need to fear her any longer; Zeus has promised me that she is forbidden from even saying your name, let alone from being in the same room with you. The same with Poseidon. I no longer claim them at all in any capacity. They are nothing to me.”

“And ... me?”

His hands cup my face. “You are, as you have been since the moment I met you, the most important person in my existence.”

And as I did with our first kiss so many months ago, I make the first move. My mouth is on his, and I’m finally, finally home.

Persephone makes it vehemently clear the moment that we get back to their home on Olympus that whatever agreement she and Hades made so very long ago with Demeter is now negated. “I am not going back with her,” she rages as she alternates between pacing in front of me and Hades sitting together on the couch and coming over to hug and kiss me. “ Ever! This is my place. Here, with my real family. None of us are to have anything to do with her again, do you hear me?
Nothing
.”

“How are you doing with all this?” Hades asks me gently, his large hand stroking my hair. It feels really good; his hands are warm. And they look like a father’s ought to: bigger than mine, worn with age.

“It’s a lot to take in,” I admit. And it is. Despite everything that’s gone on today, all the truths I’ve learned, it still feels like I’m in the midst of a dream while lying in my bed in Jackson.

Yet, this is real. These people here—these powerful gods that I fell in love with so very long ago—are truly my parents.
I have a family
.

Persephone comes back to the couch, wrapping her arm around my shoulders so it can join Hades’. I’ve got my cat on my lap, purring contentedly. Stars, I’m glad to have this little guy back. All that’s missing is Hermes, who was strongly encouraged by Persephone to give her and Hades at least a few hours with me alone. He agreed to go back to Wyoming and deal with loose ends with Bernie and Jocko.