Her throat thickened. There had been moments on the voyage, in the quiet, dark hours when sleep would not come, that she wondered. Could Alea have been right about Zeus being Arius’s father? But if it that were true, surely the King of Heaven would not have let his son join the Missing?
“When you were a baby...were you ever taken by a shade?”
He frowned. “No, I’m sure that’s something my mother would have told me. Why?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She felt foolish for asking. For allowing herself a spark of hope that Arius might still be out there somewhere.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Heracles turned his face from the waves and looked at her.
“Yes.”
“I’ve always hated my father. All of the gods, in fact.”
Excitement thrummed through her limbs as possibility solidified into certainty.
This was why she’d been drawn to him. He too saw the gods as the tyrants they really were. They would find Prometheus together and, with Heracles at her side, taking on the Twelve wouldn’t be such an insurmountable task. She desperately wanted to tell him everything, all at once, but she had to be delicate.
“So have I.”
Heracles’s gaze grew so intense, she felt as though she’d been stripped bare. “I didn’t think there was anyone else like me in the world.”
They were so close, she could feel the heat rising from his bare torso. Her body tingled, her gut a tangle of emotions.
His lips met hers and he kissed her, softly at first, then her mouth opened and she let him drink her in, her entire body pulsing with every heartbeat.
He drew back. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” she breathed, barely able to form the words. “I’m like you, remember.”
He took her face in his hands. “Are you sure you want this?”
In that moment, it was all she wanted.
“Yes.”
Her skin shivered as he slipped his hands under her dress. She gasped, shocks of pleasure vibrating through her as they edged up her thighs. Then he lifted her and lay her down on his lion hide. She let him pull up her dress and shuddered as he kissed her bare stomach. As his lips moved slowly downward, the ache of longing was so great, she thought she was going to explode.
She didn’t care if someone found them, she didn’t care about Prometheus or the prophecy. All she wanted was to disappear into the ecstasy.
38
Sand and Stars
Moonlight pooled over Danae’s and Heracles’s tangled bodies. They lay on their backs, sandy and sweaty despite the chill air.
She couldn’t stop smiling. She’d lain with Heracles.TheHeracles. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Alea’s face.
The giddiness left her in an instant. For a heartbeat, she’d forgotten.
Heracles drew her close. “Was that your first time?”
Holy Tartarus, was it that obvious?
“No.” She blinked the salt from her eyes, then said quickly, “How did you get this?” She traced a silver scar that sliced the hero’s abdomen like a crescent moon.
Heracles peered down at his stomach. “Tusk of the Erymanthian boar.”
“Let me guess, this one was the many-headed hydra?”
