I’m so excited that others have come to help that I am making my strides to the door to head to my father’s study when she says, “Oh, and also, Rita is back and has your father wrapped around her finger already.”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn to look at Natal. Is she serious? My father hasn’t been close to her in almost a century now. He was a mess when she left, and I know he searched everywhere he could think of to find her and bring her back with no luck. Now, with war imminent, she shows up out of the blue.
Natal is nodding her head, answering my unspoken question. Yes, she really is back and here in my father’s study with him.
All thoughts of finding out more information disappear, and I feel my temper rise through my blood remembering the way my father was after she left him. He was a shell of a man for so long, heartbroken and empty. Wanting to rip every piece of blond hair out of Rita’s head for what she put my father through for the last century, I storm out of my room. The door slams behind me as I head straight for my father’s study. There is a lot that needs to be said to that woman and the gods know my father would never say it. He is putty in her hands, acting like an untried myr-youth. She can’t just show up now and hurt and manipulate him after all this time. I can feel my blood boiling more the closer I get to his study, and I can hear Natal’s feet padding behind me trying to keep up. My vision starts turning red at the thought of what it would be like once again for my father when either the war is done or she is, and she leaves him again. I can’t watch him go through that again. I can’t see the look of his heart being crushed and the humiliation of what others said about him behind his back.
I push the door open with a shove and it slams back against the wall with a loud bang. I have a tunnel of vision glaring down straight to Rita. All I hear is complete silence, I can feel eyes one me, but I don’t care or see anyone except her.
I walk right up to her, and I see her arm wrapped around my father. At first, she has a smile on her face at seeing me walk into the room, then she notices the death glare I am sure is written all over mine at the moment. “Leia!” she says in a squeak.
I come face-to-face with her as she drops my father’s arm and turns her back to him.
“Rita, if you are here to toy with my father’s heart again and leave for another century, you better say so now so I can just bury you where you stand! Just because you didn’t get your way hundred years ago, don’t think for a minute that I will let you twist up and tear down the man who has finally come back from his despair, and then disappear again when you want to throw a tantrum! I will rip your damn black heart out first!” I shout at her.
Seeing my blood still boiling, my father puts Rita behind his back, comes close to me, and places his hand on the side of my face. I can feel his power rush through me and send a calming feeling, as if cold water is running all over my body, to cool me down.
I look up at him, not ready to let go of my anger. I want to release all my hatred on the woman who hurt the only parent that has loved me. He smiles down at me, “Leia, I am not exactly sure what you meant about her not getting her way; however, it warms my heart that you are worried for it.”
I look around him and see Rita hiding behind him with an actual frightened look on her face, grasping the back of his tunic.
“I know you don’t understand, Father, but that doesn’t matter. Rita knows what I am talking about!” She had better realize I am speaking the truth. I will happily rip her apart and feed her carcass to the sea life if she tries to pull her shit again. I hear a chuckle to the side of me and turn and see Proteus and Delphine trying to hide smiles behind raised hands covering their mouths.
Of course, just seeing them lightens my spirits and I rush over to give each one a hug. I then back away and notice that there is someone else in the room on the other side of the table. I look over to him, and wow! That is one beautiful man—tall, broad shoulders, square jaw, and dark hair with bright blue eyes. He looks like he is in shock, his mouth gaping open, probably from having to see my display toward Rita. Feeling embarrassed, I duck my head down and feel a flush go over my cheeks at the thought of what he just witnessed. I look to my father. “I am sorry to barge in on you. I will be seeing you all at dinner shortly.”
I turn abruptly, before anything else is said, and exit as quickly and gracefully as I can. I see Natal by the door biting her lip and trying not to laugh. I wrap my arm around hers as I come through the door to drag her back with me to my room. Natal looks at me as if she has never seen me before. “I have to say that was the most splendid thing I have ever seen you do. Seeing Rita hide behind your father, worried you were going to start slicing her up that second, it was a beautiful scene. Wow, I had no idea you could act like that.”
“Oh, I wasn’t acting; I was dead serious about what I would happily do to her if she hurt him again.”
Chapter 4
Tane
“Who of the goddesses is she?” I ask to anyone that is listening. After seeing her storm through the door, seeing this beautiful goddess looking as if she will rip someone’s head off, and having that someone be Poseidon’s consort, I am in awe. Her turquoise eyes were glowing and swirling to green and back to turquoise, and I watched a red aura glow around her. I am sure I am not the only one who saw that. Her fury was so palpable you could feel it in the air. It was all focused on one woman: Rita. I turn from the door she exited through and look to Rita, and I see Poseidon has a cheesy grin on his face. I see him shake his head at the door that the beauty had left through and turn to Rita.
“I believe my daughter was a little upset,” he says to all of us, looking at Rita with amusement in his eyes.
She looks up at him. “You think? I didn’t know the sweet Leia I knew could ever be that angry at anyone, let alone me. I am quite certain she means to cut me to pieces and feed me to the sea life,” Rita tells Poseidon.
Then it registers what they both just said. Leia! Oh shit! Leia, that beauty with wrath that would make any sane immortal or mortal get out of her way and power I haven’t witnessed before, is Poseidon’s daughter. She will be one of those goddesses you don’t underestimate, yet whatever Poseidon did to calm her immediately made her blush from the root of her hair to the cute little toes sticking out of her sheer gown. Apparently, she never displays that type of wrath normally, or maybe not in front of people she doesn’t know.
Proteus speaks up then, “I would be cautious, Rita, about what you do to upset her in the future. She has a side to her that none of us have witnessed before, and one we would probably not want to be the target for either.”
“Wait, you have seen something in your visions?” Poseidon asks Proteus. Of course, I keep looking back and forth between them trying to keep up with the conversation and thinking of the goddess that just swept my breath away as she glided right out that door.
“I may have gotten a glimpse of the goddess she is destined to become when she hugged me.” He smirks at Poseidon.
Poseidon moves away from Rita and looks at Proteus with a confused look on his face. “I don’t understand, what do you mean what she is destined to become? She is a full-grown goddess. She only has two forms and her powers aren’t anything much different than most sea gods and goddesses. If she had anything else in her, it would have shown by now,” Poseidon argues.
He laughs out loud, the sudden sound in the quiet room is almost startling. “Oh, Poseidon, you know yourself never to underestimate anyone. Besides, in your time raising Leia, have you ever witnessed her eyes changing like they did or her aura glowing like that?”
I watch Poseidon run his hand through his hair and let out a long pent-up breath. He turns to Rita, who is standing behind him.
“No, I have never seen her that way before. Should I be worried about what this change is?”
“No, she will only tap into that side of herself if something she loves is threatened or hurt. Apparently, she was trying to protect you from Rita.”
Poseidon