Page 50 of Guided by the Stars
Which is crazy!
I don’t know what to make of everything. I even went as far as to ask if we would turn into dolphins, that is the last thing I needed, to find out I grow fins and a tail. I shudder, the thoughts of my bones moving to allow such a change makes me cringe. I shake my head, good news is that we wouldn’t.
My mind drifts off to Nora. I remember that I promised I’d be there for her no matter what. I always tried to protect her, just like that one time when I punched this one asshat right in his rat-face because he tried to force himself on her. Thinking back to our first encounter, I thought it was just seeing her so upset that it got to me. Now I wonder if it was something in our genetics that pulled us towards each other and made her that much more special to me. It meant she was something like family, something I thought I didn’t have, nor would I ever have.
Now she is on Mount Olympus with Zeus and the two gods who took her and, from what I remember about Zeus, he sounds like the worst of the three brothers. But seeing as I only knew what they taught me in English class, who knows what is real or not? All I know is that she’s trapped with two gods and I don’t know what they are doing to her.
The words that keep playing over and over in my head is ‘to breed or kill us’. This power hadn’t been felt till the day we touched the water together, it awakened the gene in our body. I know that had to have been the day the sea was glowing and trying to kill us, the shooting stars, it makes sense that that was us awakening. The temples we visited let them knowwho they were looking for, so here I am, laying in bed with the Prince of the Underworld.
My eyes travel to Kai’s smooth face, not one worry line in between his eyebrows. No scowl on his face, though if I’m being honest I haven’t seen it much since the day I helped him in the shower. He gave me two nicknames that sounded so wonderful coming from his lips. The first is Skoteino which meansdark one, the second is Skoteinos Angelos,dark angel. When I heard him speak those words, my toes curled with delight.
I trail my finger down his neck, noticing he has a tattoo there. It’s a crescent moon with a cross under it, but the end is pointy like a spear and there’s a black dot in the middle of the crescent moon. Funny, I’d noticed the same tattoo on Jax’s hand. I trail my finger down his arm, taking in the various tattoos. Skulls, fire, skeletons, angels with scythes, and clocks with no hands. He even has a tattoo of the River Styx with the ferry.
The one on his back caught my eye the day he took his shirt off. It is an hourglass in the middle of two wings, in the middle of his shoulder blades. The black wings go down his back. He really believes he is the Prince of Darkness, which is what he calls himself,Prinkipas tou Skotous.I guess in a sense he is, but the more time I spend with him I see that there is more to him. I close my eyes, deciding to go back to sleep. Not like I know what time it actually is. This place reminds me of a casino where they have no windows so people lose track of time.
There is a big orb here, I’m guessing it’s their sun, except the light it gives off is an emerald green glow that causes the shadows to seem more frightening. It’s constantly there, it doesn’t go down, just hangs there in the sky, so there really is no way to know if it’s daytime or nighttime. Gods don’t careabout the time or what day they are in, because their lives are endless. Kai says it’s pointless to know in the Underworld, the souls don’t care about that, and Hades doesn’t either since no one leaves.
I scoot myself further into him and close my eyes. His arms squeeze me and I nuzzle closer to him, breathing him in. Feeling safe in his arms, I melt into him and allow my eyes to flutter closed.
“Kai,” a high-pitched voice says before the door bursts open and Kai sits up, pulling me towards him. I swear I get whiplash. There is a girl standing in front of the bed. She is magnificent. She is close to his height, much taller than I am. Her hair is a deep green color, decorated with flowers and vines , her clothes are made of leaves that barely cover her, her eyes are brown, and right now if looks could kill, I’d be dead.
When I say this girl is magnificent, I mean she looks perfect. I have an abundance of confidence, but this girl gives me some self doubt.
“Who is she?” the woman says in a shrill voice that grates my nerves. She points a finger at me and Kai immediately gets out of bed and walks towards her. I jump out of bed, forgetting that all I have on is Kai’s shirt and that’s it. No bra and no panties. Kai’s shirt is long on me and hangs down to my knees.
“Rose, you need to leave,” Kai says, trying to grab her arm. “You know you don’t come to my room uninvited.” His voice is cold and the shadows in the room pulsate.
She looks over at me and glares, then turns back to him with a smile on her lips and trails her fingers up his arm. At that moment, I want to rip her arm off. He is mine, and no one touches him but me.
Wait! What? I never was the jealous type, and I was no type actually, except to get what I want and leave.
“Come on, you never had a problem before,” she says and turns her enormous eyes to me. “If I remember correctly, you were all for it right before you went to visit Earth.” She bites her lip. “Or when you had fun with Kelsey and me, or when Jax joined.”
“Enough, Rose!” Kai says with enough power in his voice that the room grows colder. I look between them and after everything she has said I think this girl is one of his girlfriends, and apparently Jax and Kai are closer than I thought. I grab the boxers from the floor.
“That’s right, little human, go back to wherever you crawled out from,” Rose sneers. Her voice is so irritating, like nails on a chalkboard.
That’s it, I’ve had enough. If that’s his girlfriend, be mad at him, but I had no clue.How dare she talk to me like that. I get closer to her and her eyes narrow. I stand on my tiptoes, getting right in her face. “Look, Flower Power or Poison Ivy or whatever you are,” I say. Looking at her, I’m not sure what goddess she is or what other mythical creature she could be. “If he cheated on you, that’s your problem, but insult me again and I swear that lovely face of yours,” I say and smirk in her face, raising my eyebrow, “won’t be so pleasant when I’m done with you.” I give her my coldest glare. She reaches out to grab my arm.
Kai grabs my arm tenderly and tries to pull me towards him, but I shake him off and go stand beside him. “Rose isn’t my girlfriend,” he says, turning back to her. His eyes are full of darkness again. “You need to leave now, don’t forget who’s realm you’re in, Rose, and do not insult Adriane again.”
I look at her, and her eyes have big, fat crocodile tears. “But, we have so much fun! Is that it, you found someone elseand now you don’t need me?” She sounds so pathetic, I mean, come on, leave with some dignity.
“Rose I told you from the get-go, we are just having a good time and I neverneededyou,” Kai says so cruelly. I almost speak up for Rose, but who am I to judge? I have had my fair share of conquests, and some I have had to treat just as awful, if not worse, to get them to leave me alone.
I stand beside Kai and decide that since she sees me as the bad guy, well I might as well act like it. I take note of this, remembering exactly who Kai is. He is Hades’ son, and these gods, all they ever did was play with mortal women and their own species. “Looks like you should go, doll,” I say, smirking and waving my fingers at her. “I’m sure you know where the door is since you’ve been in heresomany times.” I put my arm around Kai and smile. My jealousy is at an all-time high knowing that this lovely creature had been in his bed and he had been between her legs.
Rose gives Kai one last pleading look, and he puts his arm around me and pulls me to his chest. “You heard her, go before I toss your ass out of here. Do. Not. Test. Me.” She turns from us, running out of the room and I drop my arm from around Kai and turn to the bathroom.
“I have a surprise for you today,” he says smoothly, as if nothing just happened. I stop, not turning around because I feel so stupid for allowing those moments of closeness to bring down my walls. “I want to show you my favorite place here in the Underworld.”
“What makes you think I won’t run?” I ask without facing him, I hear a sigh leave him.
“We have been over this, you can’t leave, but I’ll help you, just give me a little time okay. I’m hoping you trust me atthis point, on some level.” He steps closer to me. His breath caresses my shoulder and I take a step forward, moving away from him. “Plus, where would you even go if you ran, Red?” I whirl around, crossing my arms over my chest and glare daggers at him. He lifts his eyebrow at me and smirks.
I laugh without humor, shaking my head and glare at him. “Yes, trust the man-whore who has women in and out of his bed. Plus, you took me Kai, did you forget that detail? As for helping me, why? If you took me, why help me? But I guess if I’m stuck here I might as well enjoy the sights, right?” I say sarcastically. Before he has a chance to say anything, I promptly run into the bathroom and shut the door. I raise my voice by the door so he can hear me, “Seems there’s a place to run away from you after all.”
“Throwing the past in my face, as if you’re so innocent!” I hear through the door and then a loud crash comes from the room.
