Page 18 of A Goddess Unraveled (Olympus Rising)

Lexi’s heart galloped as she jumped behind the wheel of her car. She usually avoided driving when she was angry, but she had to get the hell away from the estate, and the garage was closer than the stable.

She fumbled under the car mat for the key as she clicked the garage door opener above her head, ignoring her conscience telling her to consider the consequences. Once she had a clear path, she backed up at full throttle and whipped the car around.

A clean getaway would have been ideal, but as soon as she shifted into Drive someone rounded the east corner of the house. She couldn’t see who it was, and she didn’t care. She was in no mood to talk. Anyone attempting to pacify her might get a knee to the groin.

Slamming her foot on the gas pedal, she sped toward the gate as she pressed the remote, never slowing down as the wrought-iron hinges creaked open. With tears blurring her vision, she squeezed through the gap with inches to spare and barreled toward the main road.

She needed to get to the gorge; the only place she’d ever found privacy. Was that why she was running away instead of demanding an explanation? Because every person she’d ever called family was a liar, and she couldn’t believe anything they told her?

At the main road, she floored it. Fortunately, the sightseers had already gone home. She only needed the road for a mile or so, and while the engine whined, she cursed at the empty passenger seat.

“How could you not tell me I’m a demigod?! What the actual hell?”

Was it true? Was Mnemosyne her birth mother? That would mean her father had had an affair with Nora. And all these years, her mother had been raising the child of that affair. The daughter of a Titan. But why hadn’t Mnemosyne raised Lexi in Olympus? Lexi knew the answer to that.

“You needed me to babysit Casa Nova Scotia, didn’t you, Zeus? You’re a control freak! The humans got that part right.”

Emotions burned Lexi’s throat as she screamed through her anger, and she wiped her eyes just seconds before the hairpin turn. Her car took it in stride, and she whizzed around the corner like a driver in the Grand Prix. The next curve came on fast, and she leaned into it, enjoying the control. Then she skidded to a stop and made a sharp left off the road.

The Maxwells’ property shared the western edge of the gorge, where it butted up to a provincial park. She considered it her personal playground, having unlimited access to the park’s utility road. Usually it was her and Jackie O, but her car managed the short, bumpy ride before she nosed into the trees.

It was fully dark when she arrived, but the gibbous moon offered enough light to see the trail that she and Jackie O used for their excursions. Unfortunately, Lexi’s three-inch heels were not as practical as horseshoes, and they severely hampered her navigation. After aerating the soil with her ruined stilettos, she arrived at the boulder field next to the river and sat down to pull them off.

Lexi grimaced at their sorry condition, but as she picked dirt from the heels, she realized that a two-hundred-dollar pair of shoes damaged by mud was nothing compared to her current crisis. What happened now that the cat was out of the bag? She had a strong suspicion it had been Hades giving chase across the lawn when she tore out of there. Did he suspect she’d heard everything? Would he tell her if she hadn’t?

Leaving her shoes and stockings on the rock, Lexi urged her legs on, navigating the downward slope of boulders leading to the river. Her desire to jump into the freezing water grew stronger with every step. Maybe a little hypothermic shock would take her mind off the crazy. Maybe the shock would never come. She was a god, right? So, what kind of power could she wield?

The auras .

She’d been seeing the yellow glow for a while, but only around animals. Mara treated her like the town fool for it. And there had been times when she thought she’d controlled the water during meets, commanding it out of her way and improving her times. Even the air seemed to stay at her back when she played lacrosse. Had her family been purposefully ignoring the signs?

When Lexi reached the riverbank she almost leaped in without a second thought, but she knew that was a dumb move. The river was nicknamed Bonecrusher for a reason. Even a god would heed that warning.

Behind the river’s roar, Lexi heard sticks crunching under heavy footfalls—or heavy paws—and she held her breath to listen. Wild animals made their homes in the gorge. A bear was a definite possibility. She’d crossed paths with three, and once she’d had to play dead. Goddess or not, she wasn’t prepared to fight a wild beast in hand-to-paw combat.

Glancing around for a weapon, Lexi spied a thick branch jammed between two rocks at the river’s edge. It was big enough to cause damage but small enough to wield without clobbering herself with it. But what if it was a human? Could she clobber a human? Even in self-defense? A loud snort echoed from the tree line, answering her question. Humans didn’t usually snort that way.

With renewed purpose, Lexi maneuvered over the boulders to fetch her weapon. When she arrived at the branch, she realized she would have to get wet to reach it. Running from her future was making less sense by the second, but she didn’t have time to curse her stupidity. Something moved in her peripheral view, and she hurried to step into the river with her bare feet.

The water felt like an ice bath, numbing her toes almost instantly. No amount of godliness protected her from that. Setting her foot between the rocks, she balanced on one leg and stretched for the branch while the current pushed her from behind.

The rough bark dug into her palm as she wrapped her hand around its thickness. It felt dry, which meant it probably wouldn’t fall apart on the first thwack. She just needed to yank it loose. There was another snort, followed by a series of hard cracks, like a metal pole hitting a rock. What the hell was out there?

Panicking slightly, she wiggled and pulled and yanked. Finally, the limb came free, but so did the rocks around it, and the weight from her body forced them into a landslide. Suddenly, she was following them down the embankment into the river, branch in hand.

“Shit!”

Lexi flailed her arms to stay above the surface, her limbs moving like taffy. Really cold, stiff taffy. But she managed to maneuver the branch under her armpits. The fast-moving current was already dragging her downriver, and the bark tore at her cardigan and punctured her skin.

She fought the current as she paddled back to shore, but the rocks beside the riverbank were stacked in precarious piles, looking more like a death trap than salvation. She might have to take her chances finding a better opening farther down.

“Lexi!” A figure appeared, sprinting along the embankment.

So, not a bear. And not a human. It was a god. Dressed in his formal dinner wear, Hades navigated the boulders like an Olympian, shouting loud enough to wake up all the bears in the forest.

“Just hang on to that branch! I’m going to build a dam up ahead!”

As he rushed forward at godlike speed, Lexi managed to cough out a watery reply. “A dam?”

With the river tossing her back and forth, she focused on avoiding the larger rocks jutting up from the riverbed as they came at her like Thor’s hammer. She wasn’t so cocky to think her swimming skills were a match for Mother Nature, and she kept a firm hold on the branch as water flowed into her mouth and out through her nose. How the hell was Hades going to build a dam before she reached him?

Not long after this thought occurred to her, she saw movement in the distance. It looked like a swarm of birds circling above the river. But as she bobbed nearer, the birds became boulders floating magically across the water and dropping onto each other in a rough heap.

The makeshift dam bridged the gap between the shoreline and a larger rock that broke the water’s surface. Loose and uneven, her lifeline was not ideal, but she had to credit Hades for managing it. He did say his power was weaker in the human realm, and as she steered toward the dam, Lexi wondered if the gifts that she’d inherited could also be used to save her ass.

With the wall of boulders approaching fast, she had no time to come up with the perfect plan. She abandoned common sense and thought about what a god would do. They’d probably use whatever nature had given them. She quickly ditched the branch and leaned back, using the whitecaps as support. One thing she could credit to years of swimming was understanding the power of water.

With her feet stretched in front of her, she imagined there was a slalom ski attached to them as she focused all her energy on controlling the raging river of death. If adrenaline was the fuel behind a god’s power, Lexi had a full tank, but she still couldn’t believe it when her body rose with the waves.

Anyone watching would have thought she was speeding toward her doom. But her only audience was a god, and she thought she heard him laughing as the water lifted her up, like a parent might do with a child after they’d fallen. Her feet slammed into the dam with an unforgiving thud, and momentum took over as a cascade of water pushed her forward and surged over her head.

Lexi did her best to tuck and roll toward the shore and not back into the river, and Hades was immediately there, kneeling beside her as soon as her body came to a stop. His hand offered warmth where he rested it on her back.

“Are you hurt, Lexi?”

“Give me a sec.” She took her time sitting up and deciding which sensations were injuries and which were caused by the cold. “It’s hard to tell. Most of my body is numb.”

“That was quite a stunt. I thought I was watching Poseidon. But he would have been waving at me with a smug grin on his face. I want to say I’m surprised that you came up with such a plan, but you’ve been surprising me all weekend.”

“It was a flimsy plan based on an educated guess.”

“Guess or not, it’s a credit to your moxie.”

“Moxie?”

“Yes. It’s the best I can do at the moment. Do you think you can stand?”

He extended an arm, and Lexi used it to slowly push to her feet. As soon as she was upright, Hades pulled her into his chest, surrounding her in the healing effects of his body heat. This was supplemented by the thick scent of musk, powered by his recent workout.

“What the hell happened?”

“I thought you were a bear. I was reaching for a stick and fell in. If you hadn’t helped me . . .”

“I only built the dam. The rest was all you.”

“You seriously had nothing to do with that wave at my back?”

“A meager amount, perhaps. Water is not my forte.”

A snort caused Lexi to lift her head from his chest. “Did you hear that? Maybe there is a bear.”

“It’s not a bear. It’s your horse. I had a feeling she would know where to find you.”

“Oh. So that was you running across the lawn after me. Does anyone else—”

He put his finger to her trembling lips. “I can answer all of your questions later. Right now, I need to dismantle the dam.”

The rocks that had kept Lexi from succumbing to a watery death submitted to Hades’s waving arms, lifting out of the water one by one and dropping into the boulder field. Could she have actually died? How resilient were the immortals?

“Shit,” Lexi whispered as the revelation of living forever hit her like a boulder.

“It’s not as impressive as it looks,” Hades said as he guided the last rock out of the river and let it fall.

Lexi smiled, letting him think that his godly power had impressed her, because it had. She wasn’t ready to talk about everything in her life changing. Another snort erupted from the trees, followed by a sharp crack. Jackie O liked to kick the rocks to let Lexi know she was ready to leave, which gave her the context she needed.

“I think someone is worried about you,” Hades said. “We better let her know you’re okay before she yanks her hitching post out by the roots.”

Jackie O struggled against her ties when she saw Lexi approach. She even whinnied when Lexi threw her arms around her friend’s neck.

“I’m so sorry you were worried, Jackie O. I owe you, big-time.”

Her horse whinnied again, which meant there was more going on than worry, and a few seconds later three figures burst through the trees. Big surprise, Zeus was leading the charge. Behind him, Dion and her mom, the human one, hurried to keep up.

“It looks like the cavalry has arrived,” Hades said, making no attempt to remove his arm where it wrapped protectively around Lexi’s waist.

“Lexi! Are you okay? We were so worried.” Her mom spoke as she stumbled over the rough terrain. Zeus offered his hand, but she refused his help. She seemed angry with him, and a bit tipsy. Did she still think Lexi didn’t know the truth?

“I’m fine, Mom.” Lexi continued to soothe Jackie O as the shadowy figures finally became familiar to her anxious mare.

“Why did you run away? Oh my. You’re soaking wet. You didn’t fall in the river, did you?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But Luke rescued me before I made it to the ocean.”

Her mom turned her bloodshot eyes on Hades. “Thank you for saving her. I don’t know what I would do if anything—” She threw her arms around his neck in a smothering hug, and it all felt so phony that Lexi nearly burst out laughing.

“Your thanks are appreciated but unnecessary,” he said. “To Lexi’s credit, I believe she would have saved herself if I hadn’t found her.”

“Regardless of Lexi’s aptitudes, it was very irresponsible of her to run away,” Zeus said. “You had us worried, young one. It was Dion who guessed you’d come here. Your vehicle was our only clue.”

Lexi glared at Zeus and the air turned sharp with electricity. She couldn’t say if it was him or her causing it, but she was happy to claim some of it. “Are you sure you were worried about me , or was it the possibility of losing a precious servant?”

For a moment the mighty god appeared taken aback, cocking his head and having the audacity to look insulted.

“Please stop throwing that term at me. I will never see you as a servant. Do you think I have no feelings for my own goddaughter?”

Lexi’s laughter crackled like the frigid wind, and Hades tightened his grip on her waist. “Goddaughter, huh? Excuse me if I’m not amused by the irony. I thought the term was demigod? Correct me if I’m wrong.”

“What are you talking about, Lexi?” Dion blinked at her, appearing utterly confused, and she realized that he might have been kept out of that loop.

“Nothing, Dion. It’s a private joke. Let’s just go home. I’m freezing.”

Hades pulled off his jacket. “I’ll give you my shirt to change into. That should help.”

“Why don’t you let Dion drive your car home?” said her mom. “You can ride with me and Zeus. I don’t want to worry about you a second longer.”

“Thanks, Mom, but I’d rather stay with Jackie O and Luke. We’ll ride back together.”

“But you’re wet. And you just said you were cold.”

“I’ll be fine once I change into Luke’s shirt. The car key is under the floor mat, Dion. I’ll meet everyone at the estate in half an hour.”

The trio stared at Lexi like she’d asked them to walk through hot coals, and her mom was the first to relent, offering a sigh that sounded more relieved than reluctant.

“It’s against my better judgment, but you’re entitled to have things your way,” she said.

Lexi escaped behind a bush to change before Zeus could insert himself again. She was ready to give him a fight—she just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Through the shrubbery she watched Zeus and Hades take their conversation out of earshot, leaving Dion with Jackie O. It annoyed her that Zeus held such sway over Hades. Wasn’t Hades the older brother?

By some miracle the three intruders left without so much as a threat. She didn’t care how Hades had done it; she was just glad they were alone again. Jackie O seemed glad too. She nudged Hades affectionately, and he returned the gesture with a scratch on her cheek.

“Jackie O likes you,” Lexi said. “And she has discriminating taste.” She opened the pouch on the saddle and shoved her wadded-up clothes and shoes inside, although everything was ruined.

“We need to get you home and resting in front of a fire. How would you prefer we ride? You might be warmer behind me, and the weight would be better distributed for your horse.”

“Jackie O is an Arabian. She can handle your weight if you sit behind the saddle and hold on to my waist for balance. I do have one request, though. Please don’t take me with you if you fall. I’ve done enough of that for one weekend.”

He offered his warm, enchanting smile. “I think I can manage that.”