Out of Cake Aphrodite (The Goddess Chronicles Book 6)
Out of Cake Aphrodite
The Goddess Chronicles
S.E. Babin
Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
A Special Gift for You!
Out of Chills Aphrodite
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
Also by S.E. Babin
Copyright © 2016 by S.E. Babin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Foreword
Thanks so much for hanging out with Abby and gang yet again. If you’d like to keep up with their shenanigans and be alerted to new releases in this world and others I create, please consider signing up for my newsletter at
In the past twelve months, we’ve had two battles with black mold, two cases of appendicitis, three bouts with bronchitis, and just a general sense of total calamity around here.
I dedicate this to my family. You guys are total badasses.
We are still standing.
Double middle fingers to 2016. Can’t wait to see the dawn break over 2017!!
Chapter 1
Maybe if I called her like a kitty cat she’d come to me.
“Persephone. Persephoneeeee,” I sang, spinning around the emerald pendulum I’m sure wasn’t actually working. It swung back and forth, left and right, and told me absolutely nothing.
Clotho snatched it out of my hand. “Idiot,” she said with affection. “You have to ask it yes or no questions. And,” she held it up allowing the stone to spin through the air, “you have to train it. And respect it. You know, all the things your mother failed to do for you.”
I grinned. “I don’t have a mom.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “So ha.”
“Yes. Ha. The joke is on me.” Clotho rolled her eyes and closed her palm to stop the dizzying action of the stone.
I was due to visit Hades in the next few hours, but I wanted to try to narrow down everything I could about his missing wife before I went. We were on shaky footing right now. After his insane announcement over Christmas about making me fall in love with him, I’d tiptoed around him like a nervous cat. We were still friends, but we were wary friends. Or at least I was. He stared at me in amusement and made uncomfortable jokes while I tried to refrain from smacking him.
I was not going to do anything to jeopardize life or limb while I was looking for his wife.
Especially because Clotho predicted my death recently. Awful nice of her to do, by the way.
Of course, that threw a wrench into things because I really, really liked being alive. If I were dead, who would drink the seven bottles of wine currently languishing above my fridge? Or continue making the cookies that were resting nicely in the glass bowl on the counter just waiting to be devoured?
Or who would harass me endlessly while making me miserable? None of the ungrateful immortals living in Olympus that was for sure. And I knew they’d miss it.
“Stop thinking about it,” Clotho admonished.
“I can’t,” I grumbled. “You can’t just slap down a death prophecy and expect me to say ‘Gee, that’s nice. Who wants to watch Supernatural?’”
“No, I suppose I can’t,” she said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You can’t help it when that happens.” I stilled. “Or can you?”
Clotho shook her head. “I wish I could.” She gave me a meaningful stare. “I’d probably have more friends.”
“Har, har, har,” I said and pointed back to the map we had stretched out between us. “Get to penduluming.”
“That isn’t a word,” Artie said as she popped her head into my office.
“Dude. You didn’t bring enough to share?” I gestured to her handful of cookies.
She shrugged. “You’re working. Concentrate, oh powerful one.”
“I would have liked some cookies, too,” Clotho said, glancing at them with longing.
Artie groaned and stepped out of the room. “Fine.”
“And milk too!” I shouted after her.
I couldn’t see it, but I mentally felt the finger she put up in the air. And it wasn’t the index one.
Twenty minutes later, Clotho was gnashing her teeth. She was annoyed with me.
“Abby, for the gods’ sake. Concentrate. I am trying to teach you something here.”
“I’m trying!” I whined. “This pendulum doesn’t like me.”
“A pendulum is a tool,” Clotho instructed. “It is not your friend.”
“If it had teeth, I bet it would bite me.”
She let out an aggrieved sigh. “If I hadn’t just brushed my teeth, I would bite you.”
“Words hurt, Clotho,” I said.
She snorted with laughter. “Stop saying that to me.”
“Stop hurting my feelings with your dagger-like words.”
Artie shoved a cookie in my mouth, smearing chocolate across my face. “Concentrate on the chocolate, and keep your mouth shut for a little while.”
I glared at her. “I hate you sometimes,” I said with my mouth full.
She shrugged. “I tried, Clotho. Nothing can stop the mouth.”
“It’s all part of my charm to win friends and influence people.” I winked at both of them then picked up the pendulum again.
I held it out in front of me and peered at it as if it were a living thing. For all I knew, it was. It did belong to Clotho, after all. The emerald spun in a slow manner, switching directions every now and then.
Clotho picked up my other hand and closed it around the emerald.
“Shut your eyes, clear your mind, and then ask it to show you the direction of yes,” she said.
Clearing my mind was something I wasn’t that great at. There were lots of things to think about these days, and sometimes I had the attention span of a squirrel on crystal meth. But for Clotho’s sake, I tried.
I closed my eyes and thought back to the days of Greece when I could step into the crystal clear waters of the Aegean sea and float for hours without a care in the world. I imagined the warm feeling of the sea and the salt as it stung my skin in a lover’s caress.
“Show me yes,” I said.
Clotho’s inhale made me crack an eye open.
“Hot damn!” I said. The emerald spun in a perfect circle toward the right.
“Do the same thing again,” Clotho urged. “But this time ask it to show you no.”
I frowned. “Why? Wouldn’t it be the opposite direction?”
Clotho speared me with th
e look. The one I knew meant she was about to hurt me.
I bit my lip in chagrin and shut my eyes, again imagining the carefree time in my ancient days. “Show me no,” I asked it.
I cracked open an eye again only to see the pendulum lurch, swing from side to side for a moment then slowly make its way to the opposite direction.
“Cool,” I murmured.
Clotho pushed the map of the United States directly under the pendulum. “Waste no time. Search first around the North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee areas.”
Artie spoke. “Why there?”
“Indian burial grounds,” Clotho said shortly.
I blinked. I knew this area was full of magic and I suspected it was due to the grounds, but I hadn’t realized Tennessee had them, too. I guess I should have. I moved the pendulum over to North Carolina. “Is Persephone here?”
The pendulum swirled in a sideways lurch until it finally settled on no.
I slowly moved the pendulum over the Louisville area of Kentucky. “Is Persephone here?”
Again the pendulum lurched but instead of settling on an answer, it went haywire.
My gaze moved to Clotho’s. She stared at the map in concern but didn’t seem overly freaked out. It was always good when she was calm.
“I don’t know what this means.”
Clotho shook her head. “Lots of freaky things happen in Kentucky.” She pointed to the map. “Giants were found in these burial grounds, some with double rows of teeth.”
My eyes widened.
She grinned. “Magical freaky happenings. I think the pendulum is recognizing the magic in this area, but I don’t think it’s telling us she’s there. Move to Tennessee.”
I moved the pendulum over to the next state still disturbed by Clotho’s words. I was no stranger to the weirder things in life, but the humans had a whole host of weird going on, too. Without our help.
I concentrated again on the pendulum and asked if the goddess was there. It lurched, swung wildly, and then it began to slowly move in the yes direction. Seconds later, it ripped from my hand and landed in a spot on the map.
I gasped in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me that would happen?”
Clotho shrugged. “More fun that way.”
Artie snickered with a mouth full of cookies.
Clotho picked up the pendulum and sighed. “Franklin. Why am I not surprised?”
“More giants?” I asked meekly.
She snorted. “Scaredy cat. No. Worse. The Glass Mounds are here.”
Artie perked up. She was a history nerd. “Glass mounds?”
Clotho nodded. “Yep. Famous burial grounds. The magic is strong in this area and anyone who goes there enjoys the benefits of the extra boost of power.”
“Great,” I muttered. Just what I needed. Persephone when she was at her most powerful.
“You could beat her with only the power in your pinky finger,” Artie said and waved her cookie at me.
Clotho frowned, no doubt thinking about the whole Abby is going to die if she does this scenario. Or maybe I was just vain, and she was thinking she had an upset stomach from eating too many cookies.
It wasn’t always about me, even if I’d like it to be.
“Something,” Clotho murmured and stopped herself.
I stilled. “What?”
Clotho’s gaze met mine. Human brown with flecks of silver running through them. Something was coming to her. I just prayed she didn’t go full on Fate right before I was about to visit Hades.
“Something isn’t right. Persephone is -”
And there it went. Full on silver freakiness Fate show happening. I stepped back as a soft wind began to pick up, and Clotho’s hair blew out behind her head like she was a supermodel strutting a catwalk.
“The power behind Persephone is fierce. Stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. But -” she paused and her gaze narrowed. “It’s not hers.”
Her voice dropped into a monotone. “Peril. Peril. Peril.”
Artie murmured a curse word and sat up straight, peering at Clotho intently.
“Death be to the person who seeks the power. Death surrounds you. Find the goddess upon threat of your own mortality.”
Well, there you go. We hadn’t told anyone but Hades about my impending death, but the Fate managed to screw that all up.
Artie’s gaze turned interested and a little bit scary. She turned to me, one perfect eyebrow risen in question. I shrugged and waited for Clotho to come back to herself.
It didn’t take long before Clotho stared at me with a sheepish expression. “Sorry?” she said it like a question, but I knew she didn’t always remember her prophecies.
“Yep,” I said and sighed.
“Spill it,” Artie demanded, her cookie forgotten in her fingers.
“Abby is going to die.”
“Clotho!” I glared at her.
Artie sat back and crossed her arms. “How long have you known?”
“Christmas,” I answered sheepishly.
“And were you going to tell me?”
Clotho snorted. “Remember, Huntress, this is not uncommon for Abby.”
It was true.
“But there has never been a prophecy predicting her actual death, correct?” By now Artie was standing and pacing up and down the room.
She was right. There were a lot of doom and gloom predictions in my not so distant past, but there had never been one where Clotho saw my death in every single path I chose to take. Hades would let me out of this agreement. I knew he would. But for some reason, I felt like this was something I had to do. No. I needed to do this. Something bigger than myself drew me to this, and I couldn’t explain why.
I laughed out loud. It was Fate. Or specifically The Fates.
Oh, Atropos. I bet she was having a field day with this one.
To be honest, she scared the total crap out of me. With a capital C. Beautiful, yet possessed of teeth reminiscent of deep, underwater terrors, Atropos decided the fate of every single human and immortal in this world. While the lore said she controlled only humans, that wasn’t quite true. The Fates drove all of us to certain goals and destiny. She knew how I would die, where I would go, what I would do.
I wondered how she stayed sane, then remembered she wasn’t exactly the most stable person I’d ever met.
Clotho, one of the Fates and now one of my friends, was the person who spun the threads of life. Lachesis, her sister, was the one who measured those threads, and Atropos, in addition to the whole destiny thing, possessed the scissors to clip the thread.
I found Clotho terrifying, but she was also the least terrifying of her two sisters. That by no means meant she was harmless. I still liked her anyway. All of us could be a little scary if we were pushed to it.
Clotho’s gaze slid over to mine and I nodded. It was time to tell Artie the truth. She’d find out anyway especially now that her nose was on the hunt.
“There has been no prophecy predicting her death,” Clotho said.
“Until now,” Artie corrected.
She nodded.
Artie’s gaze narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I reached over for another cookie. “She sees no way around it,” I said and shoved half the cookie in my mouth so I wouldn’t have to answer anything else for a few moments.
Artie blinked and turned to the Fate. “So...no matter what path she takes, she dies?”
I didn’t let Clotho answer. “Yep,” I said with my mouth full.
Rage slid over my friend’s face. “So why haven’t you told Hades to shove it?” she demanded.
Lots of reasons. “I feel like this is something I need to do.”
“Oh yeah?” Artie yelled. “I feel like I had to have twelve cookies, but I didn’t!”
“They were really good cookies,” I said in a mild tone.
With a snap of her fingers and a gust of wind, Artie left us alone in the room.
“The Huntress appears to be quite cross with
you.”
I snorted. “She’s probably pillaging a village right now.” I turned back to the map. “Franklin, Tennessee. Sounds super.”
Clotho laughed. “Music and wine are plentiful there.”
“And death too.” I sighed, my playful mood gone.
She nodded. “Yes. Death.” Clotho reached over and patted my hand. “Child, if there’s any way out of a certain death I am assured you will find it.”
I wish I felt half as confident. “Hades would let me get out of my agreement.”
Her eyes flashed silver for a brief second. “Even if the agreement were nullified, I still see death around Persephone. Your death.”
I finished the rest of my cookie, stood and brushed off my hands. “Super. I’m going to get dressed and go see Hades.”
The pendulum still lay on its side on top of the town of Franklin. I picked it up and slid it into my pocket. You never knew when a tool like that could come in handy.
“Send the Dark Lord my salutations.”
I burst out laughing. “The Dark Lord?”
A slight grinned tilted Clotho’s mouth. “It sounds so much cooler than Lucifer, doesn’t it?”
I blinked. I knew she knew about Hades and the soul binding, but it was weird to hear her speak so openly of it.
“Right.” My brow wrinkled. “Hades has entrusted very few with this secret. It still weirds me out that I know.”
“Relax,” she said. “If we started throwing the secrets we know around, the world would collapse on itself. Secrets are safe with us.” Her eyes flashed silver again.
A deep sighed wrenched itself from my mouth. Changing the subject, I asked, “What the heck could be so life-altering about getting Persephone back down to the Underworld?”
“I wouldn’t ask such a question. You will find out soon enough.”
And with that prophetic announcement, we headed out of my office and separated - me back to my bedroom and Clotho back to wherever she went when I wasn’t around.
I went inside and dug through my dresser for a pair of warm leggings. It was freezing outside due to the cold late January winds, but it was also cold in the Underworld. I finally snagged a pair of black fleece leggings, threw those on, and slid on a blue cable-knit tunic over my head. A pair of knee high thermal boots completed my look, and I took a quick look in the mirror. Wild, blond hair and big blue eyes stared back at me. Nothing unexpected except for the purple shadows underneath my eyes because of the sleepless nights I’d experienced. With a quick wisp of magic, I wiped those away. I slipped on a beanie cap and with a snap of my fingers, I let myself into Hades’ library.