Chapter 17

Orion, the twins and I enjoyed one night together. One night that would be forever seared into my memory.

Awakening as a goddess couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I couldn't help but wonder if fate did know what it was doing, after all.

My angels draped over me, acting as my blanket as Azra tangled himself between my legs and Sam had fallen asleep against my back.

Orion was awake, like me, and watched me as his large fingers painted the glowing dots across my breast.

Don't apologize again, I said in his mind.

His eyes crinkled in response. Who says I was going to? he asked.

That look on your face.

I didn't want to wake up the twins, so I'd been talking telepathically with Orion since he'd woken up.

I hadn't slept at all. A goddess didn't need to sleep, but it was a habit all the same. I could if I wanted to.

But I'd been trying to put all the pieces together after my Virtues had finally dozed.

Are you worried about Hades? Orion asked after our conversation had grown quiet.

Glancing at the wall, I flicked my finger and created a window. Of course there was another room on the other side, so it was more like a portal. It peered through concrete and rock until it tunneled the view from the outside.

The sun was rising and cast a red glow on the horizon. Lucifer's compound was in a city, so the bustle of daily life twinkled on the streets.

It would have looked like a regular day if not for the buildings on fire in the distance with no sign of anyone coming to put them out. Chaos had found a home here and that didn't settle well with me.

I toyed with the ring on my finger, one that felt like ice on my finger, but I didn't dare take it off.

Calamity wanted to be corporeal? Well, it had gotten its wish.

Now I would wear it when I finished off the rest of it.

"Why is the ground shaking?" Azra asked against my thigh.

"I think she's thinking about Calamity again," Sam said against my shoulder before kissing it. "Our fiery little goddess is angry. Do you need me to make you come again? Would that help?"

"On it," Azra already said, his words muffled as he turned into my flesh.

I stopped him with a hand on his pretty head. "As much as I'd love that, Hades will be here any minute," I said.

Azra gave me a pouty look that almost had me giving in, but Hades couldn't find us like this.

Not if my plan was going to work.

The bed tilted as Orion got up. I blinked at him, temporarily mesmerized by how beautiful he was. His entire body sparkled once again, lit up from the inside as he glowed with the sunlight I had returned to him.

Maybe I'd put a little of myself in there, too, by accident.

Or maybe it was on purpose.

Because Orion glowed a little bit brighter than I remembered. He seemed larger, too, if that was even possible.

I yipped when pleasure spiked through my core, Azra wiggling between my legs for a taste despite being told no.

Giggling, I pushed him off, only to fall into Sam's arms as his wings closed around me, protecting me from his unruly brother.

"All mine," he growled into my ear, slipping my legs over his hips to feel his renewed erection.

My Virtues were drunk on me and wanted to play. I had to get a handle on this goddess thing if they were going to be any use at all.

And it didn't help that I was naked.

Solving the latter problem, I kissed Azra, distracting him while magic tingled over our bodies. He pulled away, dazed, then looked down at his new suit. "Did you just… cock block me with fabric?"

Light spilled in as he unfurled his wings. I smiled at him as I managed to wiggle off the bed.

"Yes," I said, directing my magic at myself this time. "There will be plenty of time for that later."

Hopefully.

Trying not to think about the alternative, I focused on summoning an outfit for myself. A fitted halter top stretched over my chest while a silky pair of pants hugged my hips. I popped up onto a pair of heels, then changed my mind and transformed them into boots.

There, better.

Glancing at my other two naked Virtues, I practically drooled before summoning them something to wear, too.

While it was a shame to cover up perfection, we had work to do.

Azra tugged at the suit I had made him, one that was a little edgier than his brother's. Just because they were identical twins didn't mean they had to dress alike.

Sam peeled up the sleeve of his shirt, exposing his forearm. I stumbled as he flexed and rolled up the sleeve on the other side to match.

Why is that so hot?

For Orion, I couldn't help but leave a little of his skin on display. I just loved his glowing freckles, so I gave him an open suit with no undershirt and gold cufflinks to match his eyes.

He adjusted them as he winked at me, making my stomach flip. "What's the plan, little star?"

# # #

The plan was batshit crazy, but that's why it was going to work.

I just had to get the male muses to agree to it.

Hades arrived without procession, appearing at Orion's bedroom door and rapping on it with a subtle knock.

"Does he always just appear unannounced?" I asked Orion as I put the finishing touches on breakfast, summoning strawberries with powdered sugar and tiny cinnamon rolls with jam. Who needed a kitchen when one could just summon anything they could think of?

A girl could get used to creation magic.

Not that I usually cared about a fancy breakfast, but I didn't want to think too long about who I was about to talk with. I was absolutely avoiding the fact that Hades was the very same male who had ordered my mates to fight to the death.

Who was the reason I had almost lost Dante and Hendrik.

"No," Orion answered my question about Hades's unusually sudden arrival with a frown. "He knows something is wrong."

The knock sounded again, this one more insistent.

Sighing, I smoothed my pants and gave the twins a look. "You two make yourself scarce until I give the signal." My plan might have been crazy, but I didn't need to sabotage it.

And the feral look on Azra's face was the definition of sabotage. But he was going to be good, apparently, because he blew me a kiss and left the room.

Behave, I thought at him.

Always, beloved. By the way, don't forget cherries for breakfast. You know that's my favorite.

A blush washed over me as I marched to the door, attempting to ignore Azra's efforts to crawl under my skin. He was already impossible around me, but my goddess magic had a tendency to remove inhibitions. I was starting to figure that out, based on the unrestrained versions of my Virtues.

I hadn't even realized how much they'd been holding back until last night.

It explained a lot about how my interactions with my Virtues had gone over the years. I'd blamed it all on my succubus side, but that hadn't been the full truth.

I was a goddess of love.

And a goddess of wrath, when wronged.

So I opened the door and made sure all of that shone through when I greeted Hades.

He wasn't alone, startling me when I realized I was standing in front of not one, but two male muses.

Hades, as well as Ares.

Hades stared at me, clearly unimpressed, as he peered over my shoulder until he found Orion. "Where is it?" he demanded.

Okay. Not how I expected this to go.

"Where's what?" I asked, pushing onto my toes to block his view and regretting not going with the heels. Ares seemed amused by the exchange and leaned against the doorframe while he watched us.

Hades was even taller than me, boasting glowing red eyes and lengthy fangs that betrayed his decision to become a vampire at some point in his long life. He was still a muse, but it was proof that especially muses had creation magic, too. I wondered if that made them little versions of gods bound to limiting rules.

He flicked his gleaming red gaze down at me like I was an insect he was about to swat. He frowned when his nostrils flared. "The fragment," he said as he narrowed his eyes.

The fragment? I wondered.

Orion answered me in my head, even though I hadn't been intentionally asking him. I think he means the Calamity fragment.

Using my pinky, I twirled the ring on my finger. Hades seemed to notice it and his posture stiffened. Ares also had gone very still.

"Would you like to come in, both of you?" I asked, glancing at the quiet Ares who looked more like Asher than I would have realized. "I have a proposal for you both, one I believe you will find interesting."

"Hmm," Hades said, accepting my invitation like a chilled wind entering a cozy room. He seemed to drift to a chair by the table and then thrummed his fingertips over the edge. He ignored the breakfast and I stupidly realized that, as a vampire, he wouldn't be interested in anything I had summoned.

Feeling stubborn, I sat across from him and stabbed one of the mini rolls with a fork and stuffed it into my mouth. Being a goddess made me ravenous. Orion joined me at my side and I could practically hear angel wings vibrating with anxiety to swoop in and save me from the ancient muse with very sharp looking teeth.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to awaken," Hades said, making me pause mid-bite as Ares joined us.

I swallowed, then licked the sugar off the prongs before I answered. "So you know who I am?"

Ares finally spoke. "Of course we do. Why do you think we've been so divided on how to handle you?"

I frowned. "Explain."

Hades didn't look like he was going to offer any explanation, especially since I had demanded one, but Ares gave him a raised brow. "You're the one who was trying to kill her and her mates. Now that she's awake, it's best that we try to cooperate."

Hades glowered at the fellow muse. "Is that an ‘I told you so,' brother?"

Ares grinned, the gesture definitely reminding me of Asher. "You said it, not me."

"You're afraid of her," Orion said as a smirk rested on his pretty face.

"I'm afraid of the damage an unchecked creation goddess can do," Hades corrected. "Especially one who fate has deemed to be the Champion of a major Echo of Calamity."

"Does that mean you already knew who I was?" I asked.

Ares nodded. "Of course we do, Lilith. You're one of many goddesses, but one of the few with your brand of creation power. It's similar to ours, limitless, so we've always known of each other."

I blinked at him, realizing that he was very old.

They knew me in my past life, I thought at my mates.

Orion rested his forearms on the table, leaning in as sunlight flared to life underneath his skin.

I rested a hand on his and shook my head.

"It's my brother who put his faith in you, little goddess," Hades said.

"But not you?" Orion asked. He didn't even try to hide the rage in his voice.

Hades glowered down his nose at the demigod as if he was inconsequential to this conversation. "I believe in results. Everything I do is with calculated care." He leaned in as well, mimicking Orion's quiet aggression with his own. "Why do you think I converted to vampirism? I saw my brothers slowly losing their way after wrapping themselves up in the trivialities of the world. I decided to sleep to keep myself distanced, but I wanted to be in control of when I woke up. Only vampires can do that, so I sacrificed a portion of my power in exchange for control." His red eyes flashed at me. "What have you sacrificed, little goddess?"

My hands shook, so I shoved them under the table. I didn't want Hades to see he was getting to me. "I've sacrificed everything. I died."

He nodded. "Precisely, you died. You had your chance and you lost; now fate needs the opportunity to pick a new Champion. One who won't fail like your mother did."

My jaw flexed as I ground my teeth together.

Say the word and I stab out his eyes, Azra helpfully offered.

Stay, I ordered in return.

I washed down my anger with a glass of juice before I responded. "It doesn't work that way. If I die again, Calamity wins."

Ares tilted his head in interest. He hadn't come to my defense, but Hades had said that he was on my side. "How do you know?"

"Because, like we've already covered, I died," I answered with finality, "and a new Champion didn't rise to take my place. Did it? No. Darkness and chaos ensued, so you can either sit here and try to tell me how to do my job, or you can listen to my proposal."

Hades glowered, but remained silent.

Ares smiled. "We're listening, little goddess. Now, I suggest you invite in the angels who are supposed to be in the dungeon before the wild one has an aneurysm."

I rolled my eyes and invited the twins to join us.

It was a sign of good will, on Ares's part. He wanted to hear my proof, my proposal, and he wanted me to win.

Hades… he had just told me his motives and I was going to use that against him.

Unlike Lucifer, he didn't want to be the Conduit because he wanted power. Quite the opposite.

He wanted to be in control.

Control was exactly what I was going to give him.