Page 24 of A Goddess Unraveled (Olympus Rising)

Lexi ran like her life depended on it, taking corners so fast that her knees hit the dirt twice. At least she wasn’t uprooting hedges anymore; she just focused on the heavy footfalls giving chase behind her. Then she heard his voice, except he wasn’t talking to her.

“This is why I asked for your help, Mnemosyne. Do it now. For everyone’s well-being.”

Lexi knew exactly what he wanted Mnemosyne to do. Erase her memories. Make her forget who she was and what she cared about. She couldn’t let that happen, and her feet barely touched the ground as she raced like the wind. Neither god had caught up to her when she finally bolted through the exit like lightning.

From there, it was a familiar hurtle to the stable. Jackie O was her only hope. She wasn’t sure how she was going to outrun her life on a horse, but she felt like she had no other choice. She slid through the stable entrance at a gallop, slipping on the hay as she hurried to the mare’s stall.

“C’mon, girl. We’re going for a ride. No time to saddle up.”

Being the true friend that she was, Jackie O didn’t resist as Lexi fitted her with a harness and reins. As Lexi guided her horse out of the stable, Mnemosyne and Zeus were just leaving the path. Zeus was red faced and annoyed, while Mnemosyne followed at a graceful pace behind him. Serene as always.

“Lexi! Don’t you dare get on that horse!” Zeus shouted his command, but she was already climbing onto Jackie O’s back and spurring her into motion.

“Leave me alone! I need time to think!” she screamed as her horse bolted away from the gods, kicking sand into the air and snorting her excitement. Jackie O always knew what Lexi needed, and right now she needed to get as far away from the estate as her friend was willing to take her.

The wind blew Lexi’s hair into her face, but she didn’t need her vision. She knew the beach would take her three miles before the rocks forced them into the sea. It wasn’t nearly far enough, but it was her only option. She kept Jackie O at a gallop, not bothering to look back. She was never going to look back. Only forward. Her future was just as important as anyone else’s.

Jackie O whinnied, and Lexi looked down to find her horse’s legs kicking wildly as the ground retreated away from them, like a runway when an airplane makes its initial ascent into the air. Jackie O’s hooves were no longer pounding the sand. She was flying!

“It’s okay, girl,” she said, only because it was the first thing that came to mind. It absolutely wasn’t okay, and she was pretty sure Jackie O wasn’t the one causing their sudden departure from terra firma.

Lexi’s objective to escape evaporated like smoke in the wind, and all she cared about now was landing Jackie O back on the ground. They had leveled off at around eight feet above the sand, and she risked a glance behind her, finding a small crowd forming on the beach.

“We’re going to fix this, Jackie O. I’m going to get you down safely.”

Lexi knew how far the sand bar stretched from the shoreline. If she was going to have any hope of saving her horse, they would need to land in the water. Jackie O would hate that, but at least she knew how to swim.

“Let’s turn around, okay? We need to go home, girl.”

Lexi tugged on the reins, nudging Jackie O toward the sea, and the muscles in her horse’s neck tensed as she fought against Lexi’s guidance.

“Please. We’ll only be in the water for a few seconds. We can’t land you on the beach. You might break something. Please, Jackie O.”

Tears brewed beneath Lexi’s line of sight, lasting only seconds before the wind swept them away. Her horse whinnied again, and Lexi focused all her energy on turning Jackie O around before they reached the outcropping. If she didn’t act fast, neither of them would make it. Slowly but surely Jackie O followed Lexi’s lead, making a wide left turn in the air and flying over the ocean like a freaking Pegasus.

Lexi breathed a prayer of thanks when she finally glimpsed the stable ahead of them. Now came the hard part. She would have to land her horse in the water. It had taken Jackie O nearly two years to accept the ocean, and she still hated to go in it. Fortunately, to keep the mare’s phobia in check, Lexi had been forcing Jackie O to get her hooves wet whenever they walked on the beach.

The crowd had started to run toward them, with Lexi’s burly godfather leading the pack. She didn’t even dwell on what the repercussions of this catastrophic situation would be once it was all over. Her number one priority was keeping her horse alive.

“There’s the stable, Jackie O. There’s home. We need to land in the water to do this safely. Then we’ll just swim to shore. The waves are nice and calm, and I’ll be with you the whole way.”

Jackie O snorted, but that was just her way of cursing Lexi. Which was fine. Her horse knew that instructions were coming, and Lexi leaned her weight on Jackie O’s neck as she attempted to bring them closer to the water. Again, her horse resisted, jerking upward and taking them higher. A seagull appeared suddenly, squawking as it blew past their starboard side. Jackie O snorted again, and Lexi was able to use the distraction to urge them lower.

Lexi figured a trained god would know how to bring a flying horse in for a safe landing, but she wasn’t a trained god. And Jackie O was no flying horse.

“After this is all over, I’m blaming Zeus,” she growled, as they drew closer to the estate.

The water was just inches from Jackie O’s hooves now, and they were still flying too fast. How was Lexi supposed to slow them down? Did her spiking adrenaline have something to do with their speed? If that was the case, they were screwed. Her heart was beating faster than they were flying.

Lost in her thoughts, she barely noticed that they’d drifted toward the beach. Then a strong pull to the port side slowed them down, like a train conductor yanking on the brakes, and they were dragged toward a crowd of raised arms. As far as she could tell, the gods were working together to bring Lexi and her horse back to safety.

With the stable just ten yards away, Jackie O touched down at a canter, and they slowly came to a stop on the sand. Lexi collapsed onto her horse’s neck, breathing in the scent of her windblown mane and the sweat that soaked the mare’s skin. She didn’t care about the voices echoing around her. She had stopped running. And she would not leave Jackie O until her friend had recovered.

“Lexi, are you okay?”

The voice belonged the only god she didn’t want to punch, and she pulled her hair back from her eyes to look at Hades.

“Physically? Yes.”

“And Jackie O?”

“She seems okay, but I need to get her into the stable to check for sure.”

“Please, let me escort you both.”

With a firm hand on the reins, Hades guided them through the stable doors. It didn’t escape Lexi’s notice that they weren’t being followed.

“Where is everyone?” she asked. “Why isn’t Zeus here cursing me for eternity and telling Mnemosyne to erase my memories?”

“Who told you she was going to erase your memories?” His brows arched as he hesitated at the door to Jackie O’s stall. “Did Zeus threaten that as punishment?”

“Not exactly. When they were chasing me through the maze, I heard him tell her to do something ‘for everyone’s well-being.’ I figured, since Mnemosyne’s gift is to remove memories, he would use that against me when he reached his limit.”

Hades pursed his lips and blew air through them. “I can see Z pulling that card, but Mnemosyne would never agree to it. Your memories are safe, Lexi. Although if that’s what he was asking of her, it doesn’t bode well for him at the next council meeting, if I’m forced to bring it up.”

His hand came to rest on her arm as he looked up at her. “I’ve been granted thirty minutes with you before Z has his say. Are you up for that? We can talk while we inspect your horse for injuries.”

“Sure.”

He helped her dismount, and she spent the next minute centering herself on solid ground. Jackie O seemed happy to be back home, and headed for her water trough. She even allowed Hades to feed her a carrot from the treat bag.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Lexi said. “I guess my powers are triggered when my emotions are high.”

“That’s when they usually make themselves known. Remind me to tell you about Poseidon and his first race with an Andalusian.”

“I blame Zeus for keeping so many secrets from me. What if none of you had been there to help us? I had no idea if my plan was going to work.”

“You mean landing you both in the ocean? I think it had a good chance.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence. Do you think I’m overreacting?” She rubbed Jackie O’s hips to check for spasms.

“Absolutely not. The stories I could tell you would curl your hair.”

She chuckled. “That’s reassuring. Because I don’t mind telling you that scared the shit out of me. And Jackie O will probably be grinding her teeth for days.”

“Whatever your reasons, they must have been significant for your power to manifest that way. Not every god can control the flight of horses.”

“Well, I didn’t feel in control today. Do you think Zeus will punish me? Will he lock me in that stupid golden palace?”

“Not as long as I have a say in the matter. And I do, whether he likes it or not. He isn’t as omnipotent as he thinks. But he does know how to put up a fight.”

Lexi sagged against the stall. Her inspection of Jackie O hadn’t turned up anything of concern. Her biggest issue would be getting her horse to accept the ocean again.

“I’m just so angry,” she said. “And it’s not just this weekend. I need to find a safe place where I can think without being lectured or watched. I thought that part of my life was past me when I turned eighteen. But here I am still wishing they’d just give me some fucking space. I feel like I’m suffocating.”

Hades rested his shoulder on the stall beside her, his gaze unfocused and pointed at the opposite wall. “There are more things beyond the horizon that you’ve grown up with than you can imagine. I know you’ll find what you’re looking for, and even a few things you didn’t know you were looking for. You have an eternity to do it.”

“But what about now? I need something I can control now or I’m going to lose my mind.”

“Okay. Tell me something right now that you believe will bring you happiness.”

Lexi thought it would be easy to come up with an answer, but all she could do was recount the “friendly” suggestions her parents had made over the years, pushing her in the direction that had the most promise or the best potential for success. She’d never seriously thought about her own happiness, and she didn’t know whether to be angry at her parents or herself for not seeing it sooner.

She turned to Hades, if for nothing else than a reassuring smile. And the one he offered came as easily to him as breathing. This was when the answer arrived, like a secret message transferred from one like-minded soul to another.

“Friendship. Real, true friendship. It would make me happy to know I had someone I could trust. Someone to love and who loves me back, even when they don’t agree with me or they don’t understand why I’m acting like a lunatic. Someone who cares enough to ask what’s wrong and keep me company. I don’t want to feel alone anymore. Or worse, surrounded by people who don’t really care.”

His arm came around her shoulder and she leaned into his embrace, shuddering through a sob and trying not to spill tears on his shirt. How often had she cried with no one else but her pillow to offer comfort?

“You already have that, Lexi, in me. I know our paths have only just crossed, but if I were to guess, our fates are more closely tied than most of the other gods’. I’ve felt the pain you feel. The hurt of not being heard. Not being seen. To have your life determined for you. I feel it more often than I care to admit.”

Lexi stepped back to stare at him as something shifted inside her. The moment didn’t last long, but it felt significant. Like the Fates had slapped her to wake her up.

“I’m sorry that’s been your life. And I’d like nothing more than to give us both what we need to be happy. But how? We don’t even live in the same world. And you need permission to leave your home. Hell, that might be my fate too. How would we keep in touch? How often could we see each other?”

Hades offered a shrug that almost looked like defeat. “We could pass messages through our mutual friends. But as far as seeing each other, I’m afraid even a decade between visits won’t offer enough time to cultivate something as meaningful as what you’re suggesting.”

“Unless—”

Hades shook his head. “I know what you’re thinking, and I would never ask you to abandon everything and everyone to join me in the underworld. I can’t guarantee that Z wouldn’t punish us both for that.”

“What am I giving up? A life according to the gods? I’ll have that anywhere, won’t I? At least with you I’d have one true friend. And if you pissed me off I’d have the whole underworld to throw my tantrums in.”

Hades didn’t have an immediate argument for that, but his silence was still an answer, and she appreciated him for it.

“How firm are your plans for Asia?” she said. “We could hide out somewhere until this all blows over.”

He chuckled. “If we left the estate together, we couldn’t hide for long. Trust me when I say that nymphs know everything.”

She nodded. She’d been there. “Well, one thing’s for sure, I’m not going back into that house of lies. So whatever plans are made, they’ll have to happen in here.”

“Should I relay that message to your godfather?” His smirk was playful, making her feel less like a lunatic.

“Actually, I’d like to talk to Mnemosyne first.”