Once, I thought the boy devoted to her in a way only someone suffering from Stockholm syndrome could be. But since the old Aphrodite had been supplanted by the infinitely superior and better alternate version of herself, I had noticed the boy had pulled away completely.
Which had made sense to me, I’d pulled away too. As much to protect myself as to hurt her. I’d not believed in Aphrodite’s changes. It had been something that’d taken me time and a lot of hope and faith to finally accept. At first, I’d thought Eros would follow a similar path to mine, but now I wasn’t so sure.
And that worried me.
What would happen to Dite if she lost hope that her son would see her for who she really was? She was a creature of love, one that gave and took. It was a symbiotic relationship for her, she needed to give it as much as she needed to receive it. I was desperately in love with my wife and all I wanted was to see her not only happy, but healthy. And part of the mental balance was knowing that she had the love of those she treasured most.
Looking down at her sleeping form I felt a warmth stir though my soul. She hadn’t slept well in days. She needed this rest. I would not wake her.
But I could not sleep now.
Gently, I eased out from under her. Holding my breath as I disentangled our forms, hoping against hope she would not wake. She must have been truly exhausted because she only stirred once and that was to mumble a sweet, “luv you, beast.”
I grinned, stroking my chest above the spot of my powerfully beating heart. Gods, I loved this woman. I would do anything for her. I would lie. Steal. Cheat. I would even kill for her. If the other Aphrodite had ever bothered learning that fact about me, she could have literally ruled Olympus with my might by her side, but she’d done the only thing that ensured she’d never have my loyalty, she’d treated me like trash beneath her heels. I’d had enough pride not to want to take anymore from her. I could only imagine the destruction I could have caused if she’d ever bothered to show me even a crumb of kindness.
But I didn’t have to worry about that with my Dite. This female loved me as much as I did her. And that made me feel humbled. Grateful. It also made me want to give her the world.
Sitting up, I grabbed my prosthetic legs and put them on. Leaning forward until I heard the click of the locking pins set.
Then I stood and quickly grabbed a black kilt I had folded over the back of a chair and wrapped it on. Grabbing the first shirt I saw, I hastily tucked it in. With one final look at my sleeping bride, I travelled through a tunnel between dimensions. Homing in on the familiar love signature that was Eros. He and his mother were basically carbon copies of one another, so similar were they.
It was easy enough to find him. He was standing by the waters of a tributary that led directly from the Underworld. The waters of this channel came from Lethe and were as potent to us as they were to mortals who drank of it.
He was kneeling by the river’s edge, staring straight ahead with a mile long glance, seeing nothing and everything all at once.
“Come to stop me, Uncle?” he finally asked into the deep quiet and stillness between us. I should have known he’d sense my presence. He had an uncanny ability to recognize anyone within his circumference.
Crossing my arms, I wondered what could have the boy so low that he’d seriously consider erasing everyone and everything he’d ever known from his head permanently. I’d thought Dite had been fearful because she was his mother, but maybe it was more than that. Maybe her love for him recognized that he was not well at all.
I shook my head, deciding to play this honestly. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You’ve too much of your mother in you.”
He snorted. “Well, she’s a psychotic bitch, so thanks for that ass backwards compliment.”
He was trying to add levity to his tone, but I heard the raw pain beneath it. I was starting to really worry I might be out of my element here. I really wished I could bring Aphrodite here, and yet I wasn’t sure she would be able to calm him as she did me. He had to want that from her and right now, I was having serious doubts that he did or ever even would.
“Talk to me, boy,” I rumbled in a bassy baritone, hoping somehow, someway I’d be able to get through to her boy. If Eros drank from Lethe, he’d forget Aphrodite entirely. That reality might just break her.
He sighed heavily, before finally turning to stare at me with eyes so broken it was like looking in a mirror. I’d had eyes just like that a year ago. It was a hopeless, helpless feeling that nothing would ever get better, that life would always be empty and meaningless and futile. It was the eyes of someone who didn’t care about anything or anyone.
“About what, Uncle?” He asked with a harsh sniff. “What is it that I should say to make any of this make sense to you or me, huh?”
Eros and I had always had a strange bond between us. We’d both understood what it was to love a monster like the other Aphrodite, and how that love slowly eroded at our souls, chipping away at us until all that remained was an exposed nerve that screamed out in agony both day and night. But I wondered if he resented me for no longer feeling that way about her.
“She’s not the same person, you know. She’s—”
He held up a hand. “Spare me your sanctimonious platitudes, I really don’t care. She’s fooled you. She’s fooled all of you, but I know better. You’re just one petty vendetta away from her breaking you all over again. You really think that evil bitch could change, just like that.”
Spittle flew from his lips with the vehemence of his words.
“You’re right, nephew. She couldn’t change. She was incapable of being a better person.”
He blinked, seeming surprised by my words considering he now believed I’d shacked up with the beast.
“So why are you with—”
“Because that’s not the same woman,” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of my home, “and if you would have bothered to come to our trial you would have seen it. Just like everyone else did.”
“Alternate dimension Aphrodite. Right.” He snorted. “I’ve heard it before. It’s just another one of her games.”
“You really think she could have fooled Themis? Your father? Me?” I frowned, studying his eyes, seeing the flash of uncertainty in them I knew he had wondered that same thing many times before. I took a step toward him, holding my hands palms forward to show him I meant him no harm. “Think about it, kid. Me, who had every cause to hate her, I was through with her, Eros. I was putting your mother aside. Even knowing what a move like that would do to my reputation in the pantheon. Because I’d had enough of her games and her hate. But that woman,” I pointed in the direction of my palace, “that woman isn’t the same person. She is everything. She is my heart. My soul. And she desperately wants to fix this rift between you and her. Just give her a chance.”
He laughed, the sound was shrill and high pitched, full of anguish and the agony of despair. “You’re going with that then, huh? You’re really going to tell me she doesn’t know what she did. That this other version of her that existed did that, not her. It’s the same woman! Wake up!” He snapped his fingers, looking at me like I was a love struck fool too stupid to see the truth right in front of his eyes. “I can’t believe you fell for her lies. You and dad, and everyone else. People I admired, looked up to, how could you fall for her games again! And this time when she burns you, I won’t be here for you.” He pointed a long finger at me. “Or for dad. You guys might not have learned from the first disastrous go round, but I have. Fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice…” He shook his head.