This Immortal Heart: A Novel of Aphrodite(25)

She keeps hold of the bull as its legs buckle beneath it, sinking to the ground. Then she slides off, blood running down her sword and onto her arm.

I can’t look away from its limp body. I think of the flowers growing in Paphos, the scent of perfume and incense, the shady orchards and the garlands my worshippers leave at my altar. Here, the jagged shapes of the mountains loom above us, and shadows swallow the blood-tinged light of the distant stars.

The crowd starts to sing again, their voices low and insistent. Others step up to prepare the bull for the flames: the meat for them; the bones wrapped in fat to burn for Ares. He raises his arms to them, and they roar back at him in elation.

I shake myself out of my trance. I must leave before he sees me, but already it is too late. Our eyes lock.

The worshippers part before him like a river around a boulder.

The pounding drumbeat of spears against shields gathers pace, mirroring my heartbeat.

“Eris isn’t here,” he says. There’s a warning in his tone that I’d be a fool to ignore.

Nonetheless, I set my jaw. “I didn’t come for her. Not this time.”

“Then why?” He doesn’t believe me. “The gods don’t come here.” He’s close enough for me to breathe the scent of smoke from his skin.

“I was called,” I say.

“No one here would summon you.”

“You’re wrong. There was a prayer.”

He tilts his head. “You answer every prayer in person?”

“Not that it’s anything to do with you,” I say. “But, no, this one was unusual.”

“Unusual?” His gaze is piercing, like he’s trying to catch me out in a lie.

I have nothing to hide. I won’t be cowed. “Yes,” I say. “No prayer has reached me from here before.” I glance back at the revelers and see the woman standing apart from the rest of them, staring at us. When she realizes that I’ve noticed her, she lifts her chin, defiant.

“Did you come to watch us?” His stance is steady, but the slight flaring of his nostrils and shifting muscles in his jaw tell me that he isn’t as in control as when we last spoke. I caught him here unguarded, as he never wants to be seen on Olympus.

“No.” I sweep my eyes across his body, disdainful. He’s so strong, and I’m acutely aware of the breadth of space between us. Every inch of my skin feels alive, tingling at his proximity. I’m poised for another confrontation. I won’t shrink from it just because we’re on his territory. “I’m here because of her.” I nod in the mortal woman’s direction.

Her chest is heaving with her breath underneath her armor, the shape of her body luscious and curved, her hair spilling wild around her shoulders. She surveys us with naked curiosity. There’s no way that she doesn’t know who I am, but still she stares, her eyes arrogant when they rest on me, covetous when she turns to him.

“You’re not her goddess,” he says. “Why should I believe you?”

I laugh. He’s so superior. “I doubt she even expected me to hear her,” I say. “But she tried anyway.”

“Why?”

“War isn’t enough for everyone, Ares.” I sound like him, cold and haughty. “Maybe she’s realized she’s not satisfied with blood alone.”

His lip curls. “And what is it that you can offer her?”

I smile sweetly. “You.”

“Me?” I’ve startled him out of his bristling hostility. He’s genuinely taken aback.

A holler goes up from the crowd, a cry of victory I can imagine ricocheting across the battlefield. Their urgency and hunger might be for war and violence, but, in this moment, I wonder if their desire for the heat of the fight and the feel of warm flesh in their hands is so distinguishable from what I always crave.

I sneak a curious glance at him. Does he take his lovers from revels like this? Selecting one eager mortal or another, discarding them after?

It’s nothing to me either way. “She wants me to enchant you on her behalf.”

His eyes widen. It could be surprise, but do I detect a hint of apprehension?

Is he afraid that I’ll do it? It’s delicious to entertain it for a flash of imagination, how I might wield my magic here in his kingdom of war. How I could make him weak with longing, desperate with desire. How I could give him to this mortal woman…or anyone else I choose.

The fumes of roasting meat, the sparks leaping from the flames, the clash of bronze and the howls of joy rush back into focus, merging together in a crescendo, and I feel dizzy. I put my hand on his chest, on the hard metal of his breastplate, steadying myself. I feel the catch of his breath as though it’s mine.

I have to get out of this place.

“I won’t grant her wish,” I say. “Do what you want.”

I walk away.





8


I wake my sleeping doves, hidden with my chariot in a nearby grove, touching my finger to each pure-white cheek so that they lift their heads and coo with pleasure. “Time to go,” I whisper.

The midnight sky glitters with stars as we ascend into the still and silent air; the fires and revelry of Ares’ rites dying away in the darkness.

Land and sea bleed together in the shadows. The breeze cools my flushed cheeks, lifting my hair behind me as we fly on. A calm settles over me, my pulse slowing to a regular rhythm.