The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) by Jovee Winters

them.
    Calypso, having not lived among any of us, was her own being. She did not understand our politics, nor did she care to learn them. She’d offered to take me in because she’d wanted me. Selfish, possibly, but also honest.
    She wanted nothing more from me than what I wasn’t already willing to give. In many ways she was like my dead, the very best parts of them.
    “Thalassa,” I whispered.
    And even though we were separated by thick walls of coral and rock, she stopped walking. Her spine went straight and stiff, and her head turned just slightly to the side, giving me her profile.
    “I know what happened to her,” I said. “They will find me guilty.”
    Her fingers twitched by her side.
    My heart was heavy, my stomach sick with nerves. I wouldn’t die from the tortures, but it would be far from pleasant.
    Did you kill her?
    Her words filled my head, and I shook it. “No. I did not. But I know where she is now.”
    I thought she would ask me where, but she didn’t.
    Tell me no more, Hades.
    I frowned.
    As though sensing my confusion, she shook her head. The waters are not ours alone tonight. I sense Poseidon’s cronies listening in.
    Clenching my jaw, I went to move back to my bed, but she turned and locked eyes with me.
    They glowed just like the rest of her. Goddess, she was breathtaking. I’d not noticed the bright-pink sea rose she’d tucked into her hair, but now that I did, I couldn’t help but smile.
    So ancient, and yet so youthful in so many ways.
    Take your rest now. I will keep you safe.
    Only with her did that statement not feel ridiculous. Unspoken were the words that soon I’d be convicted and would know no peace for a millennia. But I was far from tired. My mind could not stop working.
    Hades?
    “Yes?”
    She didn’t fidget, but I could sense her reticence.
    Would you like to come to work with me tomorrow?
    “You work?” I couldn’t quite hide my shock. Looking her up and down, dressed as the regal goddess she truly was, I suddenly recalled the tantalizing Janita in her servant’s clothes.
    Her laughter bubbled through my dark soul.
    I find I rather have a knack for it.
    More curious than I had a right to be, I nodded. “I would be honored.”
    Her lips pressed down tight, and she looked so innocent. I knew the vixen she was, but now I was getting to see an entirely different side to her.
    “‘A many-faceted temptress,’” I murmured, “‘her depths unknowable, her passions tempestuous, and with one kiss, a man’s ruin...’”
    Many poems had been written about the sea. That had always been one of my favorites, and the words now seemed truer than ever.
    Lifting her chin high, she gave me a regal curtsy, then turned and slowly walked away.
    ~*~
    Calypso
    Why in Tartarus had I offered to take him with me this morning?
    Grumpy, I knotted the sash of my servant’s apron around my trim tail.
    Linx snuffled.
    “What?” I snapped.
    You know what.
    “No, Linx,” I looked at her cross-eyed, “I’m sure that I don’t.”
    I know she knew what I was feeling; we were two halves of the same whole, after all. But I refused to acknowledge that I was a foul, temperamental hagfish this morning. That currently the seas were rocking violently and that pirates and sailors alike were eyeing the horizon with wary, fearful eyes. I was at the point that if I even broke a nail, I’d probably pitch a fit and sink at least ten vessels, just for the hell of it.
    Huffing, feeling her censure like a heavy brand, I flicked my tail, causing the ground beneath to rumble and the fault lines to groan.
    “Fine. You want to know what my problem is, I’ll tell you. My problem is the fact that when I’m not with Hades, my mind is clear, focused. I know what I must do. Have sex. Have fun. And then send him on his merry way once I’m through.”
    But then I thought about his eyes last night, so haunted, so open to me, and my traitorous heart had trembled at the sight of it. I’d wanted to hold him. To