Aphrodite's Flame

26. Scorching

This morning I'm meeting with Artemis as we're supposed to go down Olympus together again. She'll be visiting Callisto and I'll be spending another four months with Adonis before he has to go back Down to Persephone. I'm sitting on a marble bench in one of the court's many gardens and let Helios' lush rays fall down on my chest.

It's only when I feel a pair of eyes on me that I sit up and look around, only to find Zeus, God of Rape and Murder, looking at me with crazy lustation. I know I am a target to him as long as I am not bound to another - and even then do I wonder if he would be able to control himself. So, maybe his punishment was a way of saving me from the judge, jury and executioner himself as well.

I tore my eyes away the second I noticed him. Now I get up and start walking away from the garden like nothing is the matter. It's only when I hear the pitter patter of paws on tiles that I look around, to find a drooling wolf following me from a little distance. I don't want to play around, there is no room for rules or games. The second I see Zeus in his horrific wolf form I turn around and start running.

This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I'm having a nightmare.

I keep repeating the words in my head, but I know they're untrue. I am awake and I am being chased down by Zeus. I run like the wind, zigzagging between columns to slow him down, only once feeling the snap of his jaws close to me. The heat of his breath urges me to go faster and I jump over the stone wall separating the palace from the wild mountain. The tall grass doesn't slow me down, neither do the rocks scattered in the fields. The wolf behind me growls and the adrenaline that is pumping through my veins makes me go even faster. My feet barely touch the ground anymore.

It won't be long before he catches me. I am already starting to pant and gasping for oxygen when I run into the pine woods that circle the mountain like a necklace. Although I am already losing energy, Zeus is slowing down as well. The distance between us is growing, but only a little. I run into a rock covered field and just as my mind starts to race and I'm trying to assure myself that I've done everything I could before he could catch me and I can't blame myself for my fate, I find a small opening in the rocks. Quickly I slip in, only to move and stumble in the dark.

Before long I recognise the rumbling sound echoing through the mountain and although my heart is beating profusely against my chest and I can hear almost nothing other than the blood pumping through my body, I keep moving. Although my eyes have adjusted to the darkest of corners, they could never see in the dark - so they aren't of much use down here.

Before I get to decide what I'm going to do here, disoriented, alone and in the dark, I bump into something hard and fall back. Two hands find mine and pull me up. Without a word, one hand holds mine and starts tugging me forward. I don't question the hand, knowing absolutely certain it does not belong to Zeus.

After a couple of bends and descends, we enter Hephaestus' forge. My eyes need a moment to adjust to the sudden light. Hephaestus lets go of my hand and walks in front of me toward the table. He turns around and, leaning against the piece of furniture, he looks at me, waiting for any kind of explanation.

I take a deep breath and smile nervously at the man before me.

'I didn't know you could see in the dark.' He raises an eyebrow.

'I can't. But, I do know my way down here, unlike some of my unannounced visitors.'

'I'm sorry, Heath, I-'

'I'm sorry?' he says, like he didn't hear me correctly. He looks at me for almost a full ten seconds before he adds, 'only my friends get to call me Heath.'

'Well - can't we be friends?' I ask desperately while nervously fiddling with the hem of my torn peplos. I really want to stay down here. I don't want to be sent away, because Zeus will be waiting for me and he will rip me to pieces.

'Friends? Any time you come down here it is because someone else sends you down here. Any time we talk it's because you're bored out of your mind, not because you want to.' I blush lightly, not knowing what to say except that he is right.

'You are my curse,' he says through gritted teeth. 'You're not a gift, you're not a divine wife. You are a curse. I know it, because I can see your flame, Dee. I can see your little soul.' This stops me right in my tracks and I snap my head back up. I didn't know he could and I don't know what it means. Calmly, he walks up to me. With every of his steps, I walk backward until I'm standing against the wall.

'What do you mean, you can see my flame?' I squeak. He smirks. Oh, how I hate that dumb smirk with a passion!

'I am the god of fire, Aphrodite. What did you expect? I am the master of volcanoes. I forge and wield swords of fire.' Finally he closes the last distance between us, almost standing flush against me. I swallow.

'Do you want to know what your flame looks like? Feels like?' he murmurs. He is standing so close to me, I can almost hear his heartbeat, I can feel the heat radiating from his body, I can feel his breath fanning my forehead. And suddenly I know what the rumbling sounds in the cavities are. They are the echoes of his life force. He bound himself to the mountain.

The tension between us is palpable. I'm looking up into his dark eyes. I'm so certain he is going to kiss me now, but instead, his lips ever so slightly brush my hairline and he turns around to walk away.

'I guess you wouldn't want to know anyway.' I wonder whether he ever saw his own flame. 'You don't need to be afraid of me, Dee. The fates told me my wife would never bare my children. We'll get married to get my father off your back - no pun intended - but we'll probably never do anything R-rated.' I am glad that damn tongue of mine doesn't work at the moment, because in my head I can hear my thoughts clearly:

Why not?