Aphrodite shrugged. "It worked for Heracles, I suppose. What'd you have in mind?"

Chapter 46 - Eros.

Eros started looking for Alexa with a simple scan of her parents' home and land. After all, they'd agreed to keep her under lock and key in exchange for him not going to the Olympian Council. In retrospect, he realized he might've been a little harsh.

But he didn't spot her.

Running a hand through his soft curls, he exhaled. "Where are you, little nymph?"

He plopped onto his couch and settled in for a more detailed scan. Eros started with some of Alexa's favorite siblings. Perhaps she'd gone off to visit them. But her metal-working brother and flower-guarding sisters were alone. One by one, Eros checked all fifty of her brothers and sisters, but Alexa wasn't with any of them.

Where on earth?

Eros broke from his scan to close his eyes and think. He knew she wasn't working (he'd fired her himself) and she wasn't with family, so where did that leave? He thought through vacations in Crete or lazy baths in salt spas. None of those things felt like Alexa. He'd never known her to even want a vacation. Could she still be holding on to her job even though work was forbidden?

Yes. Of course. Alexa would cling to her friendship with Psyche no matter the cost. Eros realized he had to find Psyche if he wanted to track down Alexa.

The last place he'd seen Psyche was outside Megara, where he'd saved her from the soldiers. That was less than two days ago. She couldn't have gotten that much further.

"On horseback," he muttered, "she would've pa.s.sed Eleusis, and might be past Athens, but she couldn't have made it to Thebes yet." That narrowed his search radius. All he had to do was scan the roads between Eleusis and Thebes, and he would find her. As a last resort, he could check the cities too, but Eros was sure he was close.

He was so confident that he started flying to Thebes, scanning as he flew. He planned to work his way backward, certain Psyche was moving as quickly as she could toward Olympus. As his wings beat furiously against the afternoon sky, he scanned the dusty roads.

By the time he reached Thebes, he'd scanned the entire length of road with no sign of her.

"What am I missing?" He dropped down onto an empty stretch of road. Eros thought back through his mental calculations of how far Psyche could've traveled. Even galloping non-stop, he didn't see how she could be past Thebes already.

As he rested, he scanned inside Eleusis, Athens and Thebes. Still nothing. Eros kicked a stone laying on the edge of the road, sending it careening into a strand of trees in the distance. How could she just be gone?

"This isn't possible!"

A quiet echo played back to his ears. Possible, possible, possible.

Aching gripped Eros as realization washed over him. His knees weakened and he took a staggering step backward. "Mother."

Eros unfurled his wings and shot into the air. "Mother, where is Psyche?" he screamed as he hurtled back to Olympus.

Chapter 47 - Psyche.

Aphrodite led me down to a river on the west side of her estate. My feet skidded on rocks and pebbles as I struggled to keep up with her stride. When we reached the river's edge, my toes squished into the mud, making my sandals so slippery that I fell back onto my b.u.t.t.

"I still like my idea of sorting grain," Ceres added. "She's not a weaver, but nothing says *domestic' like success in the kitchen."

Aphrodite looked down at me as I scrambled back to my feet. "No, this will do." Then she set about explaining that all I had to do was cross the river and sheer a clump of golden wool from each of her sheep before noon.

I blinked and nodded as she explained, trying to show how intently I was listening, but focusing more on what she wasn't saying. Something about the test seemed surreally easy - easier than sorting grain - and that worried me. Were the sheep impossibly fast? Maybe they secretly had wings like Pegasus and would fly away? I had to be missing something.

"Understand?" Aphrodite asked.

When I nodded, she smiled grimly. "Good. Then I hope to see you back here before noon."

Aphrodite pranced back up to her palace, gossamer white gown and blonde curls flowing like enchanted waves in her wake. Ceres gave my shoulders a quick squeeze before following her.

Nope - definitely not a good sign.

Once they were gone, I turned back to my task. Now that I looked at the sheep closely, maybe this wouldn't be so easy after all. The animals weren't so much fluffy, timid sheep, as ma.s.sive, snorting rams. Their golden fleece sparkled only half as bright as the solid gold, spiraling horns that rose dangerously from their foreheads. Beady black eyes seemed alive with the heat of simmering coals and all of them were locked on me.

Gulping, I slipped the knife out from my belt. I moved slowly, cautiously, wading step by careful step toward the bank on the meadow-side of the river. Even though it was still early, my palms were already starting to sweat. The knife pa.s.sed to my left hand as I tried to dry off my right, but my dress was muddy from my little tumble. I leaned forward ever so slightly, touching the soft green gra.s.s of the meadow, drying my damp hand.

Never did I take my eyes off of the biggest ram. As luck would have it, he was the closest to the river. And as I approached, he lowered his head, bobbing his horns in warning. When I touched his meadow, he stomped his ma.s.sive hoof, sending a divot of gra.s.s flying behind him with no more effort than if he'd been pawing sand.

"Easy, boy," I said. "It's all right. I'm not going to hurt you."

Even if he could understand me, my knife probably spoke louder than my words.

Sliding my right foot onto the bank, I slowly rose out of the water. I hadn't even straightened my knee when I was. .h.i.t and launched back into the river. Water rushed into my mouth and nose as I gasped. For a moment, I thought I might drown in a measly meter of water. When I forced my head above water, choking and sputtering, I expected to see the ram standing on the bank, preparing to wade in and strike again. But he hadn't moved. He was still stomping his little patch of earth into oblivion.

I pushed a soggy clump of hair from my mouth. "What the..."

And then familiar arms wrapped around my shoulders, hugging me in a tight embrace. "Don't hug me back," Alexa said. "She may be watching."

"If she's watching, how would she explain me flying into the river just now?" I asked. But I really didn't care. I was just relieved to have my friend back, whether it caused me trouble with Aphrodite later or not.

"Did you see yourself sliding around on the bank earlier?" Alexa giggled. "It's not much of a stretch for her to think you did that all on your own."

"Maybe so." I pursed my lips together. "Mind telling me why I needed to crash in the first place?"

"Um, because the sheep would've killed you, silly. You can't just go walking up there and whacking off pieces of their wool now." I felt Alexa sit down in the water beside me as I looked at the shimmering beasts.

"But I have to collect their fleece before noon. I can't -" A sob caught in the back of my throat. "I can't not do this."

I pushed myself up to stand but Alexa tugged my arm out from under me. Without support, I toppled back over with a splash.

"Uh oh, looks like you've sprained your ankle," Alexa told me. "You better scoot back to the sh.o.r.e and rest for awhile."

I didn't understand, but I didn't argue either. Like an injured crab, I pulled myself backward through the water with my hands and pushed with my left foot, making a show of not using my right foot at all.

"Okay, now what?" I asked Alexa as I scooted my dripping self out of the water.

"Now, you sit," she answered. "Look at your foot, roll it around, but don't stand on it. You might as well dry out in the sun while you wait."

"Wait for what?" I pounded my fists on the sh.o.r.e as I glared at the big ram, who'd gone back to chewing gra.s.s. "I don't have time to sit around here. It'll take me forever to get wool from all of those sheep."

"Do you have time to die?"

"No." My lower lip jut out in a very immature pout.

"Then just trust me, will you? The rams nap late in the morning. They'll all go lay in the shade under that oak on the far side of the meadow. Zeus could drop a thunderbolt on top of them and they wouldn't wake up. You'll be able to collect all the wool then with no problem and be on your way... long before noon."

Instinctively, I reached to hug her. She batted me away with an invisible hand.

"Stop! You'll give us away."

"Oh, right." My hands fell back to my sides. "You're still the best, even if I can't hug you."

"Yeah, I know." Alexa pulled herself up beside me on the bank and stretched out on the warm gra.s.s. I plucked blade after blade of gra.s.s, tearing them into little pieces and pitching them into the river.

"How do they do it? The rams, I mean. They look strong, but strong enough to kill?" It wasn't the question I really wanted to ask, but it broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Well, if the flames they shoot from their nostrils don't burn you up, they'd run you through with their horns. Maybe both. I guess they have to be vicious or everyone would be running around with golden clothes."

"She tried to kill me, then." I peeled another blade of gra.s.s into strips. "I mean, Aphrodite sent me out to this field to be burned and staked."

Alexa rubbed my hand.

"I'm sure that wasn't what she hoped would happen. It's just, the tests given to demi-G.o.ds are never easy." Her voice seemed to blend with the flow of the river and my vision got watery as my eyes teared up. I still had so much to think about when it came to my family and every spark of a thought burned.

"Maybe I should just let him go," I mumbled. "After everything that's happened, everything I am, I don't deserve him."

"Don't be ridiculous. Knowing who your real dad is doesn't change a thing about who you are." Alexa smoothed a strand of hair back from my face. "I told you the first time we met that you deserved everything in that palace - and that includes him."

Rubbing at the bridge of my nose, I pushed away any tears that had managed to escape. "I just don't know if I can do this right now."

"You're tired, is all." Alexa squeezed my shoulder. "See, the sheep are starting to lie down. They'll be napping in no time. You can do this."

We sat in silence as the dozen golden sheep meandered to the oak and lumbered down to rest. One by one, their horns tore into the ground as their heavy heads fell over in sleep. As they dreamed, their hooves stuck at the dirt and sparks jumped from their nostrils.

As I watched, Alexa squeezed my hand. "You should go now," she said. "They sleep soundest when they've first dozed off."

My knife was still stuck in the bank from when Alexa had knocked me off my feet and it'd gone flying. I plodded over to it and pulled it loose from the mud. After washing it in the river and drying it on my dress, I inspected the blade to make sure it was perfectly clean. "Wouldn't want to get mud on Aphrodite's golden wool," I muttered under my breath.

Alexa laughed. "Don't forget to limp. You sprained your ankle, remember?"

"Whatever. Aphrodite can think whatever she wants about me falling into the river. I'm not going to fake a limp around flesh-eating sheep."

Sloshing out of the river, I climbed onto the far bank. At first I took careful steps, trying not to let the gra.s.s crunch under my feet. But the closer I got to the rams, the more I just wanted to be done with the task and get out of the meadow. When I was within a few meters of the animals, I started running until I got to the farthest one away. My plan was to start far and work my way closer to safety.

I knelt by the back of the first ram to stay out of the way of his feet and flames. Of course, that put me within easy striking distance of his ma.s.sive horns he if threw his head back for some reason.

For a moment, the horns paralyzed me. With fear or with awe, I don't know. They were much more intricate and deadly than I'd seen from across the river. Instead of being perfect spirals, the horns came to a razor-sharp point along the top ridge. And the tips looked sharper than any needle I'd ever seen. Yet the horns were still beautiful, laced with delicate carvings that corkscrewed around in intricate patterns.

What are you doing?If you don't hurry up, you might get to feel the horns and not just look at them.

I grabbed a fistful of fleece from the back of the ram and started slicing. Trying not to tug on his skin, I sawed the knife as fast as I could until the clump fell loose in my hand. The soft, glittery fleece squished between my fingers.

One down, eleven to go. I duck-walked to the neighboring sheep and started sheering away a clump of his fleece. With each patch I removed, I got more confident. Sawing faster, tugging harder, just trying to get the task over and done with.

But as Alexa had warned me, demi-G.o.ds don't get easy tasks; things only went that smoothly until the eleventh sheep. My left hand was about overflowing with puffs of golden wool by then, and I lost my grip on the tuft of fleece from the ram I was working on. I was crouched down on my toes and leaning over the sheep, so that when I lost my grip, I fell face-first across his belly.

Now Alexa may have thought that nothing could wake the sheep while they napped, but she was wrong.

The ram leapt to his hooves, leaving my face to fall into the dirt as my feet were tossed up in the air. The knife slipped from my hands and the clumps of wool scattered. I rolled over and found the ram's face nearly pressed into mine. His black eyes glinted with rage and he snorted sparks that singed the ends of my hair.

"Easy now," I whispered. "I don't want to hurt you." I wiggled my right hand carefully through the gra.s.s until I felt the knife handle on my fingertips.

"Ngeeeeeeeee." The ram bellowed and raised up on his hind legs. I grabbed the knife and rolled as the ram came down and struck the ground with a thundering blow. While he shook his head and refocused on me, I managed to get up onto one knee and plant my other foot on the ground.

The ram charged, snorting blasts of fire as he lowered his head and aimed for mine. Just before he reached me, I fell to the side to dodge his blow. As he pa.s.sed, I plunged the knife as deep as I could into his side. He wrenched it from my hand as he barreled past, leaving me defenseless.

I scrambled to my feet as the ram skidded to a stop and turned to face me. Blood like crimson dye spilled across his golden wool where the knife jutted out from his side. He pawed the ground impatiently while looking first at his injured side and then at me.

Again, he raised onto his hind legs and bellowed. I was worried he'd figured out my duck and roll trick, but I knew I couldn't outrun him either. With no time to think, I ran at the sheep and jumped as high into the air as I could when he charged, hoping I'd at least clear the razor-like horns. Because his head was down in his charge, I did manage to make it over the horns, but my feet and legs came down awkwardly.

My left leg slid down the ram's side and my right leg was caught up underneath me, pinned between his back and my body. I toppled forward and grabbed whatever I could get hold of to keep from crashing into the ground. With one hand, I caught his tail. With the other, a chunk of wool. As I fell, the wool popped off in my hand and I spun backward off the sheep, holding on by only his tail. The sudden shift in my weight knocked the ram off balance and he crashed sideways into the ground, driving the knife deeper into his side.

I hurried back to my feet, ignoring the trails of blood oozing down my own legs after that fall. My heart thundered as I tried to think of a new way to dodge his next charge. Jumping hadn't been my best idea. As I slowly backed away from the ram, I realized he wasn't getting up.

His side heaved with each labored breath. The ram expelled a final, fiery breath and then was dead.

Two thoughts crossed my mind at the same time. I did it! I'm going to finish this task. and c.r.a.p! I just killed one of Aphrodite' s golden rams. No matter how much sparkly wool I hauled in, she would not be happy about this.

The clump of wool from the dead sheep was still clutched in my grasp. Well, that makes eleven. I scurried back to the place where I'd spilled the other ten b.a.l.l.s and quickly gathered them back up. Praise the G.o.ds, none of the other rams had woken up during my fight. Just one more sheep to sheer and I'd be done.

When I turned to go to the last sheep, I realized I didn't have my knife anymore. How was I supposed to cut off a lump of wool with no knife?

Running back over to the dead ram, I tried to roll him over, but he was too heavy. I even tried sliding my free hand under his carca.s.s to get my knife back, but it was no use. I couldn't wiggle my fingers enough under his ma.s.sive weight to even find the handle. For all I knew, it was lodged so deeply in his side, I wouldn't be able to get it out anyway.

Frantic, I looked around for some tool. I hadn't come this far, shorn eleven sheep and battled to the death with a fire-breathing golden ram to fail now. I toed some rocks by my feet, but none of them had a sharp enough edge to cut through fleece.

As I stared at the twelfth sheep, another ram rolled over and b.u.t.ted his head right into its flank. The horns! I could use the horns as a knife. Tip-toeing around the two animals, I reached down and gently grabbed a tuft of wool right under the horns.

Please just don't let them wake up. I sawed one ram's wool off using the other's horns. If the other ram so much as raised his head, I'd lose my hand. But the horn was so amazingly sharp, it severed the wool like a hot knife cuts through b.u.t.ter.

With twelve tufts of golden wool in my hands, and the sun starting to sink almost directly overhead, I sprinted toward the river. "I did it!" I yelled to Alexa as I crashed into the water, splashing and tripping with every frenzied step. I scrambled up the bank, panting and dripping wet. "Did you hear me? I did it!"

But it wasn't Alexa who answered me.