Читать книгу Tane - Sheonna Hill - Страница 10

Chapter 4

Tane

“Who of the goddesses is she?” I ask to anyone that is listening. After seeing her storm through the door, seeing this beautiful goddess looking as if she will rip someone’s head off, and having that someone be Poseidon’s consort, I am in awe. Her turquoise eyes were glowing and swirling to green and back to turquoise, and I watched a red aura glow around her. I am sure I am not the only one who saw that. Her fury was so palpable you could feel it in the air. It was all focused on one woman: Rita. I turn from the door she exited through and look to Rita, and I see Poseidon has a cheesy grin on his face. I see him shake his head at the door that the beauty had left through and turn to Rita.

“I believe my daughter was a little upset,” he says to all of us, looking at Rita with amusement in his eyes.

She looks up at him. “You think? I didn’t know the sweet Leia I knew could ever be that angry at anyone, let alone me. I am quite certain she means to cut me to pieces and feed me to the sea life,” Rita tells Poseidon.

Then it registers what they both just said. Leia! Oh shit! Leia, that beauty with wrath that would make any sane immortal or mortal get out of her way and power I haven’t witnessed before, is Poseidon’s daughter. She will be one of those goddesses you don’t underestimate, yet whatever Poseidon did to calm her immediately made her blush from the root of her hair to the cute little toes sticking out of her sheer gown. Apparently, she never displays that type of wrath normally, or maybe not in front of people she doesn’t know.

Proteus speaks up then, “I would be cautious, Rita, about what you do to upset her in the future. She has a side to her that none of us have witnessed before, and one we would probably not want to be the target for either.”

“Wait, you have seen something in your visions?” Poseidon asks Proteus. Of course, I keep looking back and forth between them trying to keep up with the conversation and thinking of the goddess that just swept my breath away as she glided right out that door.

“I may have gotten a glimpse of the goddess she is destined to become when she hugged me.” He smirks at Poseidon.

Poseidon moves away from Rita and looks at Proteus with a confused look on his face. “I don’t understand, what do you mean what she is destined to become? She is a full-grown goddess. She only has two forms and her powers aren’t anything much different than most sea gods and goddesses. If she had anything else in her, it would have shown by now,” Poseidon argues.

He laughs out loud, the sudden sound in the quiet room is almost startling. “Oh, Poseidon, you know yourself never to underestimate anyone. Besides, in your time raising Leia, have you ever witnessed her eyes changing like they did or her aura glowing like that?”

I watch Poseidon run his hand through his hair and let out a long pent-up breath. He turns to Rita, who is standing behind him.

“No, I have never seen her that way before. Should I be worried about what this change is?”

“No, she will only tap into that side of herself if something she loves is threatened or hurt. Apparently, she was trying to protect you from Rita.”

Poseidon barks out a booming laugh at that. He turns and looks at Rita with a smile on his face and amusement in his eyes. “Guess Rita had better be careful then,” he says, looking right at her.

Rita’s hands fly to her hips as she glares at Poseidon, which apparently just amuses him.

“Leia will come into the other side of her powers and destiny and probably sooner than you can imagine,” Proteus tells us all.

After watching the scene, then putting together the pieces of the story that unfolded, I think I need to hunt down this amazing Leia myself. Living with my mother my whole life and not really being near a lot of other gods, drama was never a part of my life and this is almost a bit much for me.

The idea of a woman looking at another woman like that on my behalf though shoots a thrill down my spine and the fine hairs on the back of my neck rise. The thought that a woman like her would care so deeply for me that she would spill the blood of someone who could possibly hurt me, that is the type of goddess I want in my life and in my future.

Leia

After walking the halls for a bit with Natal, after leaving my father’s study, I feel like I just made a giant ass out of myself.

“Please tell me I did not just make a complete fool of myself right then.”

I look to Natal to tell me anything that won’t make me feel worse.

“Oh, Leia, that was amazing,” she says. I swing my head to her even though I am holding her arm in a vise. She has this amused and awestruck look on her face.

“Amazing? I just made an ass out of myself in front of everyone.”

“No, you showed Rita that she’d better not think of hurting your father or you will rip her in two. Did you know your eyes were glowing and changing colors? It was quite beautiful actually. Your aura was also glowing, with red tints in it.”

“What do you mean my eyes were changing colors?”

“They were glowing turquoise, then green, then back to turquoise. It was beautiful, and the more worked up you got, the brighter your aura was glowing and changing to a red tint.”

“All I could see was red, as mad as I was that she just showed up out of the blue, right before a war, and had my father wrapped around her finger the second that she walked in. It doesn’t make sense that I would glow, or my aura color change, I don’t have that kind of power!”

I feel the anger starting to rise in me again from talking about Rita. “I wanted her to know I would rip her to pieces if she thought about hurting him like she did before. The gall she has, to come back after almost a century, after leaving because my father hadn’t even thought about marrying her. All she wanted was to be queen, to be recognized by all other gods and goddesses as Poseidon’s wife and queen of the sea. She was too stupid to realize she already was in my father’s eyes. The ceremony that she wanted didn’t even register to my father.”

“Calm down, Leia, your eyes are starting to glow again and so is your aura.”

I blink my eyes closed for a second, inhale slowly, and exhale again feeling my racing heart starting to beat regularly.

“Did you at least see that tall, handsome man in the room with them?”

God’s yes, I did. Once I realized there was a stranger witnessing the whole thing, I was completely mortified. Delphine and Proteus are like uncles to me, they have been around me my whole life, so I don’t care if they saw my reaction to Rita. They saw the damage that bitch had done to my father by leaving him. It was the handsome young god that was standing on the other side of the table and his look of confusion and shock, brought on by my behavior towards Rita, that made it all the more embarrassing.

“Natal, I was so embarrassed once I realized there was a stranger in the room witnessing my meltdown. Why do you think I was red from head to toe and bolted for the door?”

“Are you kidding? He was in awe of you.”

“What!? No, he wasn’t, he was astounded and embarrassed that a goddess would make a display like I did in front of everyone, including my father. I saw his mouth gape open like a fish at my audacity against Rita.”

“No, he was in awe! Leia, he is the man that didn’t even look at me, that my charms didn’t work on, yet as soon as you stormed into that room, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of you. He had the look of want and longing in those beautiful blue eyes of his that I am used to seeing all the time, but they were aimed at you, love, and not me.”

“That’s crazy, all men love you. Most don’t even notice I’m in the room or sitting by you when you speak. I swear in your family line there is a siren.”

“Maybe there is, but that god didn’t give me a second glance. You were the only thing he saw. Trust me, reading men is one thing I have learned to do easily and have done for most of my life. This will be a change of pace for once. I get to see Leia being chased and wanted.”

“He isn’t going to be chasing me. I still think you’re delusional about this. You will see he was only shocked at my display, and rightly so. I was so furious that she came back after all this time and now that beautiful new god won’t be interested in me at all. Who would want to know the harpy that I was acting like in there in front of him?”

“We will see, wont we?” Natal says to me with a smile on her lips.

I just shake my head, no use in fighting over it. Natal will see that I am the invisible, sweet, and forgettable one. Men don’t see me like they do her. Now I just have to act like the goddess I am supposed to be and hopefully erase that scene from his mind and not create another appalling spectacle. Let’s just hope that Rita doesn’t anger me even more, so that I won’t have to worry about turning into a raving goddess bitch again.

Tane

We are going over the plans I first mentioned for getting sentries further out so we can have more notice if someone tries to get close to the realm. Poseidon looks up at Proteus and asks, “Have you seen anything, old friend? Anything that will tell us who our enemies are?”

Proteus sighs, “Poseidon, you know I don’t get clear views of what I see. All I get are clips. So far, I get the feeling they are young, bloodthirsty, and wanting for more power.”

“That doesn’t really narrow it down, that is about everyone that has an agenda and is not happy with what they have in life,” Delphine responds.

Poseidon looks at me. “Why have you come to stand with us and help?”

I look at him, realizing he is serious and doesn’t understand why a young god that he has never met has come from nowhere to offer allegiance and show appreciation and honor.

“Poseidon, I have learned in my short immortality that what we have has been granted to us because of you and your siblings. We need to be honored by what is bestowed upon us and honored that you have given us a purpose and life of freedom. My father stood with you in the war against Hades centuries ago. He lost his life in that war. My father used to tell me stories of the great Poseidon and your eleven siblings, and what you have done for all myr, what honor you have bestowed to those who show loyalty to you in return. I always see it as an honor to serve beside you. In the stories my father told, he said it is our duty to stand with you and protect those who cannot protect themselves. You are a fair and just god over the seas. I will do all in my power to honor my father, and you, and fight to the death if I must.”

I see Poseidon’s eyes bore into me. I can feel his gaze penetrating my mind to seek my overall aura, to see if there is any deception in what I just said.

After a moment, he grasps my shoulder in his strong grip. “I am honored you are willing to stand with me and have honor in your heart and soul. There are a lot of young gods that think everything should be given to them, just as some mortals think they should be given everything because the gods or the universe owe them something, even when they have done nothing to deserve it. The young gods starting this war, they want more power than they can control, and seeing one of the young ones in front of me willing to die for what is right causes my old soul to have hope.”

Knowing I just received Poseidon’s approval makes me feel like I am ten feet tall. Hopefully, he still feels that way if I decide to pursue his daughter after the war.

The mortals always say that when you’ve found your soul mate, you know at first sight. I have been alive so long I always thought it was just something they said to get mortal women into their beds. Now I know, with one look at her, that she is the other half to my immortal soul. She has power and courage, strength and love all wrapped up in that lithe body of hers. With her fiery spirit, you’d think she would have red hair like her friend.

I never really thought about having a woman in my life. I surely wasn’t looking for one to be a permanent part of my future. I have always just done my job and looked after Mother. I wonder what she would think about Leia.

I am getting ahead of myself; she could be just like the redhead I met earlier, thinking she can make any myr or god do whatever she wants. With her beauty, and those long brown- and honey-colored tresses that have hints of gold highlights shining through, she could make most myrs fall to their knees in worship.

I suppose throughout this war I will get to see her true nature and see if she is just like her redheaded friend. If she is like her friend, that would be a shame, but I know I wouldn’t be able to have a permanent bond with a goddess who would flirt with other men, not knowing if she was using me or if she was completely faithful.

Clearing my mind of the fiery Leia, I focus back on what we are doing in preparation of what will be our first course of action against this unknown enemy. I do hope that Poseidon has more allies that will come forward and help us piece together what to expect. Otherwise, I have a horrible feeling we will not be ready or prepared for what this enemy can and will do.