Mayhem: Goddesses Of Delphi Read online

  “I saw Pierus this morning. He was jogging past Thomas’s house with Mayhem trailing along. He saw me there as well.”

  “You’ve already been over to Thomas’s place today? Good on you!”

  “Really? You skipped over me seeing Pierus this morning and made the leap to me getting cozy with the man?”

  “In the end, when we defeat that asswipe, you and Thomas fooling around is going to be more important. Unless I’ve misread the situation.”

  Her sister spoke a truth Nia desperately wanted to believe. She could envision a future with Thomas. If the Fates allowed. “Actually, when I arrived last night Mayhem was already there. Polly, I’m not sure I can inspire him to ask the what if question. He’s so blasted skeptical.”

  “Have you told him what you are yet?”

  “No. And even if I did, I’m not sure he’d believe me. He hosts a TV program called Doubting Thomas. He has a massive broadcast and online following for a reason.” Nia toyed with the thick paper jacket on her cup.

  “So was it magical in the bedroom?” Polly teased. But she couldn’t mask the concern in her voice.

  “Oh, that part was magical. But he’s stubbornly clinging to his scientific certainty that if he can’t see it, or touch it, magic doesn’t exist. To top it off, he’s clairaudient. He ‘hears’ my nudges.”

  “Huh? I’ve never run across that before. But remember what we learned from Clio’s experience. The man we are meant to be with is affected differently by our nudges than other mortals. Maybe Thomas’s gift of being privy to your thoughts is because you actually speak them aloud.”

  “No human ear should be able to hear what I’m saying.”

  “Girl, I don’t know why you can’t just silently release your inspiration. The rest of us handle it that way. Shit, I don’t even have to look at who I’m inspiring now. You’ve always had to voice it.” Her sister shook her head. They’d had this argument before. “You might have to take your chances and confess to being a Muse to him.”

  Nia shrugged and trained her gaze on the people on the square. The visual she couldn’t quite interpret disturbed her on a visceral level. She gestured to the street scene. “Polly, what’s wrong with this picture?”

  “Changing the subject won’t make the matter go away.”

  “I know. But really, something I can’t pinpoint is wrong in the square. I don’t like it.”

  Polly focused her glance out the window. She straightened in her chair and propped her elbows on the table. “Upon initial visual inspection, I see nothing out of the ordinary.” She began inventorying the scene, the way a good investigative reporter catalogs facts. “People milling about. Exchanging currency for product. All very matter of fact. Honestly, Nia, I don’t see anything wrong with the scene.”

  Like the sun slipping behind a cloud, a shroud of impending doom settled around Nia’s shoulders. Tension climbed her spine with slithery determination. “Something is definitely off.”

  Both sisters leaned forward and fell silent as they studied the scene outside the window.

  “No one is smiling.” Polly exclaimed. “Not one single person.”

  “And no one is interacting beyond the basic business transactions…no one is talking. Their faces are devoid of expression.” She jabbed a finger toward a group of women clustered in the florist tent. There were four women, and not a single one uttered a word. Nia moved to the edge of her chair and laid a hand on Polly’s arm. “They should be laughing and talking. But it’s like they don’t even realize they are part of a group.”

  “You’re right. It’s like they are under a spell.” Polly’s eyes went wide and frantic when she pivoted her head back toward Nia. “Like someone has control of them.”

  Nia glanced around at the patrons in the coffee shop. Although six other tables were occupied, she and Polly were the only individuals speaking to each other. Everyone else, even the barista behind the counter, appeared frozen. A frisson of oily, dark energy coursed through her body, alerting her to the fact that all hell was about to break loose.

  The door to the shop burst open, admitting a harried-looking man with dark blond hair, cut in a military high-and-tight style. The man made nightclub bouncers look scrawny. A white, button-down shirt stretched across his barrel chest. His jeans looked painted on to his legs, which were the size of cannons.

  Surveying the room, the newcomer appeared to be looking for someone. When he spied Nia and Polly, he dashed toward them.

  He skidded to a stop at their table. “There you are. Things are about to get ugly.”

  “Who are you?” Nia demanded, cringing away from the guy’s outstretched hand.

  He flipped his wrist, so it appeared he wanted to shake. “I’m Ken Hillerman. Zeus sent me.”

  Leaping out of her chair, Nia grabbed her purse from the floor. Wrapping her fingers around Polly’s wrist, she dragged her from her chair.

  “What the hell, Nia?’ Polly jerked her arm, trying to free herself.

  “Ken is my partisan. If he says go, we have to.” Nia didn’t release her grip. “Don’t you feel it?” How could she not? Nia felt like she was suffocating under the mantle of repulsive pressure.

  “Oh, goddess! It’s like something, or someone, has taken control of the atmosphere. Like gravity is all wrong.” Polly shuddered in revulsion. The negative energy in the room must have registered on the same visceral level Nia experienced.

  The feeling was certainly magnified by the fact the moon was out of place. Even now, while the moon was on the far side of the world and in the middle of the morning. “Dammit. The world is going off kilter faster than I thought. We are barely at the half moon phase.”

  Around them, people began to rise from their seats. Ken swore in ancient Greek, then switched to English. “Damn! We’re going to have to take a stand here.”

  “What do we do?” Polly asked as she turned toward the interior of the shop.

  Every single person in the room stared at the three of them. Malevolence stamped the features of the angry group of patrons.

  Ken positioned himself behind the pair, which Nia found odd, since he was meant to be her protector. Shouldn’t he be in front?

  When he laid a hand on her shoulder, burning energy flared in her ribcage, jolting her energy force, swelling her power. Instinct and the words he projected into her brain told her of his plan. Two men from the table across the room began to advance toward them.

  Nia laced her fingers between Polly’s. She put her mouth close to her sister’s ear and whispered. “There are so many people we’ll have to combine our powers to calm them.”

  Polly nodded and firmed her grip around Nia’s hand. “You lead, I’ll follow.”

  Ken flexed his grip on her shoulder and she felt him widening his stance, as though bracing for the attack. Nia sucked in a deep breath and focused her thoughts.

  Pale, rose-colored light from Polly’s aura filled Nia’s vision, mingling with her own sky-colored aura, becoming a light lavender haze within the shop. Cobalt from Ken’s aura tinted the edges of the mist. Polly’s inspirational force ballooned in Nia’s chest. Nia broadened the scope of their mingled power by imagining a funnel with the narrow end situated in the middle of her forehead.

  Casting her glance around the room, Nia mumbled a nudge toward the occupants. “You should be drinking your coffee and talking.” She released the image of positive force flowing from her forehead and disseminated it over the mortals in the room.

  The noise level immediately returned to what she’d expect in a busy coffee house mid-morning. A few individuals remained focused on the trio by the window, and Nia blasted them with direct thoughts to go about their business. Confusion poured over the last few faces, eyes blinking rapidly, and heads swiveling, as if checking to see where they were.

  Ken dropped his hands to his hips. “Well done.”

  When the last of the patrons returned to their seats and their conversations, Nia tugged Polly toward the exit. “We’ve got
to get out there and settle the market crowd before chaos erupts.”

  They burst through the door into an abnormally still world. The birds sitting atop the statue of Aphrodite didn’t emit a single chirp. Even the tree leaves trembling in the summer breeze were eerily silent.

  “You want to explain what’s going on here?” Ken prodded when he fell into place with the sisters. His dark blond brows were drawn together in a tight line on his forehead. His clever green eyes flashed intensely in the slanting morning sunlight.

  “I’m not sure. There’s definitely something more than just the failing gravity of the moon at play here. It has to be Pierus.” Her words sounded oddly loud, as if she’d uttered them in a vacuum. “I’ll get started. Polly, call the other girls and get them here. There’s too much area and too many people for just you and I. We’ll need reinforcements. Tell them to come in cloaked.”

  Polly nodded and took a step away to send out a telepathic SOS. Ken laid his hand on Nia’s shoulder again, and she felt a surge of energy at the point of contact. Nia waited a second for the sharp, supernatural thump of Polly’s alert to quit banging around her brain. The instant the reverberation eased, Nia focused her thoughts on the farmer’s market.

  Heat flared in her chest as Ken pushed energy through his hand into her. Creating a mental image of a siphon, Nia drew more of Ken’s life force into her body, stopping short of draining his strength to empty. Then she aimed their combined vitality at the uneasy crowd before them.

  She started at the left, and swept her gaze to the right, diffusing a message of calm to the mortals mingling between the stalls and booths. She felt a curious drain on her own energy as she continued to send the message. Her shoulders slumped forward and she locked her knees to keep from falling.

  “Polly! Help me!”

  “They’ll be here soon.” Polly laid her hand at the base of Nia’s neck.

  The instant Polly’s power joined with Nia’s, energy billowed within her. Pressure built within her chest as one by one, her other sisters appeared, cloaked in multicolored mists. As each sister arrived, another hand was laid on Nia’s body, channeling power through her. Under the conjoined strength of the ten of them together, she straightened. Sweeping her gaze from side to side, Nia trumpeted a message of peace and calm.

  The entire effort took less than a minute, but felt like a lifetime to Nia. Once the crowded market returned to normal, Nia crashed to her knees, drained and spent. Her head throbbed again as a message from Zeus arrived. They were all to report to Olympus immediately.

  “Someone is going to have to help me.” Nia’s voice came out shaky and weak. She cleared her throat and dug within for the vigor to journey to the corporate office. “I don’t think I can manage the Hollow by myself.”

  Strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, urging her upright. Ken steadied her on her feet. “I’ve got you.”

  The sunlight behind him created a halo in his dark blond curls. Nia gave him a limp smile. “Don’t know why, but I pictured you with dark hair. And not quite so muscular.”

  “Sorry. Partisans only come in shades of blond. Has something to do with our Norse origins.”

  Summoning words required more energy than she dared expend at the moment. She simply nodded. Around her, the mists of the Muses’ presence dissipated, one, by one, until just Ken and Polly were left.

  “Ready to go?” Ken narrowed his eyes as he examined her face. “Polly, we might need a little illusion here. I don’t think Nia is up to the task of managing a screen and the transport. Can you cloak us?”

  Polly stepped closer to place her hand between Nia’s shoulders, then touched her other hand to Ken’s arm. Warmth and pressure wrapped around Nia as Polly created a mask to keep their sudden disappearance a secret from the pedestrians around them. As Polly projected the illusion of vacant space where they stood, the crowd went about their business, talking, laughing, and bartering.

  A vacuum built around the three of them as they moved into the Hollow. Their bodies lost substance and converted to straight light and energy. Vibrant rose glowed in the center of Polly’s aura, while orange, a color that complemented Nia’s own aura, burned in the center of the bright cobalt glow of Ken’s body. The rush of their life forces pumped like blood through arteries—a steady, thumping rhythm.

  Nia glanced down at her void form and realized the pinpoints of white light that typically dotted her aura were significantly dulled and pulsed weakly. The battle to calm the crowd in the market had depleted her more than she’d realized.

  The Olympus boardroom solidified as they reached their destination in the void. She hovered above the ground for an instant. Her feet crashed to the floor, and her back teeth clacked together painfully as she made a less-than-graceful landing. Except for the heat in her cheeks over the abrupt nature of her arrival, her body frosted, as if she’d spent ten minutes in a meat locker without a coat.

  Teeth chattering, she stumbled forward to brace her hands on the gigantic conference table and lowered her forehead to the surface. Ken positioned a chair behind her and urged her into it while Polly rubbed her hands along Nia’s arms. The friction and gentle heat from Polly’s movement made inroads to the frigidity that had claimed Nia after she’d expended a huge amount of her energy in the market. Pinpricks of power and heat speared her body as each of her sisters infused her with portions of their power.

  Across the table from her, Zeus and Mars whispered together. Zeus pinned her with a concerned glance. Summoning her will, Nia lifted a thumb his direction, hoping to convince him all was good. Atlas was on his cellphone in the corner. As her sisters claimed chairs around the table, Gaia materialized, holding a fluffy, sage green blanket between her hands. She hurried to Nia’s side and draped the warmed fabric over her shoulders. Shooing Polly away, Gaia claimed the chair to her right, while Ken dropped onto the seat on Nia’s left. He scrubbed his hand over his face, wiping away the fatigued expression, then turned his attention to Zeus and Mars.

  As soon as this meeting was over, she was going home to take a long nap. When she woke up, she’d concentrate on what it was going to take to save the world.

  Chapter 14

  It irritated Nia to no end when Zeus pulled rank and insisted Ken stay at Nia’s house, instead of in a cottage at the Athenian. Of course, Nia hadn’t helped matters by refusing to leave the comfort of her home to make a temporary move to the resort. Zeus wanted her protected and nothing would stop him from keeping her safe. At least he hadn’t insisted on moving in himself.

  Only, having a houseguest, even one as handsome as Ken, was going to cramp her style with Thomas. She’d have to find a way to deal.

  The meeting in the Olympus boardroom had been tense. While Nia had regenerated her energy, Polly had recounted the incident in the square with terse precision. During the lengthy session, Gaia had left her hand on Nia’s shoulder and gently pulsed energy into Nia’s depleted stores. The sensation had swayed her body, as if gliding in a rocking chair. Or moving easily with a lover on a downy soft bed.

  Three hours ago, on the return trip to Delphi through the Hollow, Nia was pleased to note her starry aura had revived. Waving off Ken’s apologies for her new living arrangements, Nia retreated to the master bedroom and fell into bed.

  Shortly before dinner, Nia plodded toward the kitchen, drawn by a rich, savory aroma. She paused in the doorway, amazed to see Ken bustling about, wearing an apron over his white shirt and jeans. He looked downright domestic, and not in the least like a badass protector. Zeke, Clio’s partisan, slouched in a chair at the table, his hand wrapped around Nia’s favorite coffee mug.

  “Ah, you’re up.” Ken shot her a grin. “Just in time. The beef stew is ready.”

  “Well, my timing is perfect.” She cocked her head to the side as she inspected the messy countertops. “Not a tidy cook, I see.”

  Dull red flushed into Ken’s cheeks. “I’ll clean it, I promise.”

  Yes, you will.

  Nia’s sto
mach rumbled as she crossed the room. The meal he’d prepared, including the yeasty dinner rolls still steaming on the plate, smelled delicious. “No worries. I’m just surprised I had the ingredients for this. Are those rolls made from scratch?”

  “Yep. And you didn’t have everything. I had to send Zeke to the grocery.”

  “And why aren’t you out protecting my sister?” she asked Zeke as she drew a glass from the cupboard.

  “Jax has the day off, so he’s shadowing her. Zeus requested that I lend Ken a hand and help him get settled here.”

  Requested? More like ordered, Nia was certain. If she’d thought having one hunky houseguest was going to hinder her growing relationship with Thomas, two would be a nightmare. While Ken filled bowls with stew, Nia twisted the tap to fill her glass with water.

  Shaking her head, she edged back to the table and slid onto a seat. “So do I need to make a room ready for you, too?”

  “Nah. Ken’s a pro. He doesn’t need my help.”

  Setting a pottery bowl on the table in front of her, Ken sought to assure Nia. “You know this is temporary, right? When your challenge is over I’ll remain in Delphi, but it won’t be necessary for me to live with you. Zeus’s insistence that I live here is just his way of being protective.” The tight smile Ken sent her did little to assuage her worry. “He said he’d drop by later to check on you.”

  And that helped even less. The last thing she needed was her dad being overprotective.

  Nia stirred her spoon in the chunky stew. “I’m curious. How could you be my protector but live in a different city? How does that work?”

  Ken broke a roll open, then grabbed a knife to slather butter on it. “We don’t have to be in close proximity to do our job. We have a special link to our charges, so we always know what they are doing. We can be at your side in an instant, if needed.”