But then I thought of Psyche. Of her sad, beautiful eyes. She’d never seen me as I really was, and yet her touch had been true. Her intentions pure. I’d read it in her heart. She’d recognized something in me that resonated within herself too.
I felt a connection to her that made no sense. It defied reason. Comprehension. Or even sanity.
I took his hand and shook it with conviction.
He gave me a lopsided smirk. “She must have gotten beneath your skin to make you betray your mother. I doubt anything else could have.”
I waited for the flair of guilt to worm through my gut, but it never came. All I felt was a desire to save her. To make sure she didn’t become just another one of my mother’s cruel casualties.
Eros
I spent the whole of the next day planning mother’s ceremony. I’d not caught a single glimpse of Psyche. But every time I stepped foot into the expansive royal gardens, I could swear I felt her hot gaze upon me.
The back of my neck had felt tight and tingly. Yet every time I turned around to look, no one was there. Mother had told me not to shame her with the ceremony and I had to say I’d outdone myself in every way.
There was a frozen lake with glass swans resting upon it that glistened like a diamond in the sun. Elementals skated upon the lake, looking like mortal women, but moving in a manner that proved they could not be of this world. They moved like the winds, enchanting all who watched them.
I had a glass aviary erected with exotic birds from the farthest lands lazily flying inside. Their plumes of scarlet and jeweled blue a beautiful contrast against the emerald green topiaries of prancing elephants and mares.
There were empty stadiums erected on either side of the gardens. Banners had been released in all the major cities and ports, ensuring that anyone who was anyone would come.
Food prepared by master artisans was well under way. Wine would flow for days thanks to Uncle’s kind generosity.
But none of this had been done for mother. Though she would believe so. I do believe I’d had Psyche’s beautiful face in my mind the entire time I’d designed the grounds. Imagining what I could do that would bring a smile to her gorgeous lips, even in the midst of the public humiliation she would no doubt be forced to endure.
Though I’d made everything as beautiful as I could, I understood what all of this really was. Mother’s way of flexing her power over all of them. She would stand in the center of the raised dais and condemn Psyche for an imagined crime to the jeers and laughter of all the nobility in this part of the world.
I clenched my jaw. What if Dionysus didn’t come through? What if, even now, he was celebrating his own victory over my foolish trust of him? Or, worse… what if he was actually in cahoots with my mother all along?
My heart clenched and a fire raged through my bones. I rubbed at the aching spot, softly shaking my head as the horrors of just how this could all go horribly wrong played out.
What if by betraying mother to Dionysus, I’d actually condemned myself in the process too? If mother knew I’d betrayed her, she might take me back home. She might lock me up. She might make it so that I could not help Psyche any longer even if I wanted to.
Beginning to feel myself sinking into the clutches of a full on panic attack, I leaned against the stone wall behind me. My breathing growing wild and more erratic by the second.
The sun was already set. Faint pinpricks of starlight winked in the navy blue canvas. I should never have trusted any of them. I should have done this work on my own. I should have—
“Psst. Boy.” The sibilant hiss broke through my tormented thoughts.
Frowning, I turned toward the voice and spotted Dionysus. But not really. He was merely his ghost. A spectrum of ephemeral blue floated just beside a topiary of a bumblebee in flight.
Glancing around me, I gathered what meager curls of shadow to me as I still could. I would not be shielded from mother’s prying eye if she should be looking at me, but at least none of the mortals would spot the ghost of my very much living Uncle.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, heart racing like thundering hooves in my chest. “Mother could be watching even now.”
The specter of my Uncle smirked. “Not likely. I gave her my very best wines and most beautiful wenches to play with this night. I assure you; she is quite out of her mind with giddiness at the moment.”
I curled my nose. “You forced your servants to bed my mother, that is cruel. And unjust.”
He snorted. “Those females were as willing to jump into your mother’s bed as she was to have them, believe me. Nymphs have an appetite for the carnal that could even rival your mother’s. No one was harmed, I can assure you, my boy.”
Dionysus did have a very strong bond with the usually skittish nymphs and satyrs of Olympus, it was true. And he was also right about their carnal appetites. Nymphs didn’t have much in their heads, but when it came to bed sport, it was said they were nearly as good at it as my mother was. Not that I ever really wanted to know that, but gossip was rife on Olympus.
I was relieved at least that Dionysus hadn’t forced them into it. I didn’t keep with rape of any sort. No one should have their will and autonomy stripped of them.
I nodded, lowering my eyes and letting him know without words that I believed him. “Please tell me you’ve learned something, Uncle? I’ve been going half out of my mind with worry tonight. I need to know what she’s got planned. I need to help Psyche.”
Dionysus lifted his brows, gone was the usual smug arrogance, replaced by a studious expression that I couldn’t quite read.
“You look just like her, but you are nothing like her, are you, whelp?”
I knew whom he meant.
But I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing at all.
He shrugged one shoulder. “Well, no matter. I promised you my aid, and I delivered. Your mother does indeed have a plan to humiliate your princess. It is said that there is another minotaur trapped somewhere upon this isle. She intends to enlist him. He will become your princesses’ intended.”
I clenched my molars, understanding that this was a lot more than mere humiliation she wished to heap upon Psyche’s head. This was more. It was torture. A minotaur might have the upper body of a hairy male, but his lower half was all bull. For him to mate with Psyche, even nonviolently, would literally tear her apart inside.
“She can’t do that.” I looked at my Uncle.
He had his lips pressed tight. “She can and she will, boy. She’s already sent her scouts out to locate this beast. As you know minotaur’s are cursed half breeds, who have never known the lustful touch of another. To be given such a rare chance, I have no doubt that the minotaur—even a kind hearted one—would utterly destroy her in his haste to finally mate. I believe your mother’s ultimate goal is to kill the princess without sullying her own lily white hands in the process.”
Tremors took hold of the muscles in my thighs. I had to lean my full weight against the column behind me. “She’s gone completely mad with power. This can’t happen, Dionysus.”
He shrugged. “Then I suppose the ball is in your court now, my boy. I’ve done all I can do. And now I must return to the revelry before I am missed and she discovers the traitor in her midst.”