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| Wicked Harmony Powerless and alone with nothing but a soaked toga on her back, Eury has to break the one rule she's held onto for the last hundred years—she has to ask her ex for help. Loving him almost broke her immortal heart once before, but this time more than her heart is on the line. An unseen enemy lurks, waiting to strike when Eury is at her most vulnerable. Relying on Aeolus until her powers are restored may keep her safe, but giving in to temptation and the desire his touch still ignites, could prove to be the biggest danger of all. Chapter One Something had to be broken. Euterpe, the one and only Muse of music, stared up at the canopy of tree branches crisscrossing the gray sky above her and took a mental inventory of everything wrong about this situation. One, she was no longer on Mount Olympus. Two, she was lying on the ground and discomfort that could only be associated with pain—pain she shouldn’t even be feeling—made her whole body ache. Three, when she thought about her mother and sisters, instead of flashing home, nothing happened. Not a damn thing. Eury closed her eyes and tried again, but no matter how much she willed herself to return to her mother’s birthday celebration, she didn’t budge an inch. No warm sunshine, no familiar voices, no music. Is she wasn’t convinced she was very much alive, she might think this was Tartarus and some sick joke of Hades. She wouldn’t put it past the god. He’d been looking for a way to get back at her ever since she introduced his queen to Katrina and the Waves. Though she couldn’t imagine why it was her fault Persephone blared, Walking on Sunshine every time she returned to the underworld. No, this wasn’t Hades doing at all. This…this was all Hera. The goddess’s name whipped through Eury’s mind as she pushed herself to a sitting position and took stock of her surroundings. Trees, grass—wet grass—and a paved road. That was a plus. At least that meant somewhere at one end of the road or the other, there would be some sign of civilization. She glanced down at the chiton clipped at her shoulders and belted at the waist. The soft, white material that once drifted and swayed was now plastered to her skin from chest to ankles. Without looking, she guessed her cloak hadn’t fared any better. She wasn’t going to think about how long she’d been unconscious. Better to be grateful she hadn’t been tossed out on her ass naked. She glanced thoughtfully at the stretch of pavement. Although, being naked might have made it easier to catch a ride if it came to that. Wincing at the foreign stab of discomfort that radiated up her spine, Eury climbed to her feet. “Corey? Clio? Mom? Anyone?” The last part was more of a frustrated shout and didn’t even earn her an annoyed crack of lightning that could be interpreted as a sign from her father. Okay, no need to panic. She’d been in worse situations than this. The release of Ice Ice Baby came to mind. Her sisters hadn’t forgiven her for inspiring that one, and the curse of being immortal was having that sort of thing held over your head for centuries. Ignoring the soggy grass sucking at her sandaled feet as she moved closer to the road, Eury considered her options. In less than three point five seconds, she came to the depressing conclusion she didn’t have any. Clearly, she should have stayed in bed when her iPod died this morning. The malfunction was tantamount to an apocalypse for a goddess who lived and breathed music. If she could remember which of her eight sisters dragged her out of bed for their mother’s party, she’d have someone else to blame for her present situation. Someone aside from Hera. Few Olympians possessed the ability to strip a goddess of her powers, and she had no way of knowing how long the affects would last. Without a doubt, Hera’s presence at their mother’s celebration had ruffled a few feathers, and maybe if Eury hadn’t been preoccupied with her lyre, she might know which of her siblings had mouthed-off to Hera for crashing the party. She wasn’t reckless enough to go toe-to-toe with her father’s wife. She’d rather have her liver pecked at day after day than deal with the kind of torture Hera could dream up if another god foolishly tangled with her. The question was, what exactly had Hera done? And were her sisters as powerless and alone as she was? The sound of an approaching car hummed on the air, and she scrambled over the uneven bank to reach the edge of road. The shiny black sedan didn’t even slow down. One look at the ivory material clinging to her and the driver probably assumed she’d escaped from the nearest psych ward. A feeling she recognized as panic slithered through her stomach. She was alone, she didn’t know what happened to her sisters and she had no way to fix this. Staring down the road accomplished nothing, so she started walking. It could have been minutes or hours–who could tell with only the repetition of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive to mark the passage of time–before a sign loomed up ahead promising gas and accommodations. Despite the ache in her feet, she quickened her pace for about five steps, then stopped. Was there even a reason to rush at this point? She didn’t know where she was and she had no money. Both of which she would need here and neither would do her any good in getting home anyway. Not without the help of another god. A transport truck whooshed past, the trailing wind slapping her shoulder-length blonde hair across her face. Eury frowned as another possibility crept into her mind. She closed her eyes, banishing it the moment it occurred to her. No way. She’d rather spend the night in the woods surrounded by Grizzly bears, rabid Grizzly bears, than call him. A crash of thunder sounded in the distance and the first drops of rain splattered across her skin. When it rains, it pours, she thought sourly. By the time a small stonewashed building and gas station finally came into view, she spotted another sign and realized she was in Maine, U.S.A. Obviously, it would have been too much to ask to have at least landed in Europe somewhere. More than a few cars passed her, one even slowing enough to get a good look at Eury in all her drowned-cat glory. She felt marginally better when the distraction almost caused the mortal to drive himself into the ditch. At the corner of the gas station parking lot, Eury noticed a phone booth. Even as the light shower turned into a downpour, she didn’t make a move for it. She couldn’t call Aeolus. She’d spent the last hundred years avoiding him whenever possible. Avoiding his trademark smile—slow, cocky and sexy as hell—avoiding the sound of his voice, the memory of it rumbling against her throat when he kissed her there, and avoiding the way he still went out of his way to touch her every chance he got. Not even the threat of frying him with one of Zeus’ lightning bolts stopped him from encroaching on her personal space when she was foolish enough to let him get that close. “Ma’am?” She glanced at the man who’d just emerged from the gas station. He tucked his wallet into his back pocket, his brows scrunching together. “Is everything okay?” She was presently powerless, drenched, wearing nothing but a nearly transparent chiton and she was minutes away from having to ask her ex for help. Oh, everything was freakin’ peachy. “I’m fine, thank you.” Nowhere close actually, but the mortal kind enough to ask didn’t need to know the details. She looked crazy enough without making a scene and cursing Hera to Tartarus and back. The man nodded hesitantly and headed for his truck. Eury eyed the phone booth, then surveyed the parking lot, hoping another option would miraculously present itself. Nothing. Mentally dragging her heels, Eury crossed the paved lot and forced herself to reach for the phone. She could do this. She just needed a little help getting home. That’s it. No. She couldn’t do this. Even thinking about it made her heart feel bruised, a feeling she’d become intimately familiar with when things ended badly between them. Bruised, but not broken, she reminded herself. She had her sisters to thank for that. They’d known from the beginning things wouldn’t work out, warned her not to assume that loving Aeolus would keep the god from straying. Few immortals were capable of fidelity, they’d said. Ending the relationship before it came to that still didn’t stop her traitorous heart from beating just a little faster whenever she caught Aeolus watching her. Eury snatched up the phone before she could talk herself out of it. It took a few minutes to get the operator to look up the number and place the collect call. Minutes that bordered on eternity as she fought her increasing anxiety. Every built-in warning system was screaming inside her. Bad idea. Bad, bad idea. She held her breath as the phone started to ring, and rang and rang. Finally, someone picked up. She smiled at the sound of Amelia’s voice accepting the charges. “Eury?” It took a another second of gratefulness that Aeolus hadn’t answered before she could respond. “Hey, stranger.” “What’s wrong?” Okay, she clearly sounded more desperate than she thought. “How are things at the diner?” She had just enough pride left to stop herself for begging for help right off the bat. “We can do small talk after you tell me why you’re calling on the phone, collect no less.” So much for her pride. “Well, I’ve got a small problem,” she admitted. One that she suspected was about to get a whole lot worse. Read the rest of Chapter One by subscribing to my monthly newsletter Here! |
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