My Distant Stars

by Raven_Pearls

Summary:

Hercules, the divine son of Zeus, is discontent with his idyllic life on Olympus. Despite possessing nearly everything he desires, he yearns for a meaningful pursuit. With nothing to strive for, eternity feels like a prison. He rediscovers his purpose when he is awakened to his true calling by a plea for aid from Thebes. The God of Heroism has a lot to learn about what it takes to become a True Hero, but nothing will stand in his way.

Chapter 1: The Golden Boy

Glory waited for him when he opened his eyes. He’d known it would be there. It always was. In his life, reliability was the flipside of boredom. Hercules, the Son of Zeus, rose from his oversized bed of clouds and stretched his muscular body. 

His strength, an inherent facet of his being, had been with him since infancy, as had the golden sheen of an aura that radiated from his flesh. The ichor in his veins pumped full throttle, longing for adventure and a test of his abilities.

Yet, what was there to strive for?

Hercules muddled through his morning routine naked to the sky. It didn’t matter. Nobody was around in his corner of Olympus to see. He poured a profuse amount of nectar-infused olive oil over his muscles and then scraped it off with a strigil directly into a jar.

He had once thought it would be interesting to change up the style of chiton he wore, but now he couldn’t be bothered. He wore the same plain blue chiton under his ornate golden armor, combed his hair, and then slid on his favorite golden headband. It didn’t stop his red-gold curls from flopping over the edge of it, but as long as it was out of his eyes, he couldn’t be bothered to change that.

He’d awoken after Apollo began his daily trek across the sky, so he’d just have to wait until evening to see his brother.

Funny, they called him the Son of Zeus, as if his father didn’t have many sons. Perhaps they were still calling him by that title as a backhanded reminder he didn’t have much of a job. He watched the gates of Olympus, blessed athletes, and sometimes healed them, but even he couldn’t muster much interest in his calling.

Despite his manifest uselessness, Hercules remained a favorite on Olympus. He wandered out of the room he’d occupied since he was a baby and found Pegasus already flying circles around it.

“Hey, buddy,” he said and raised an arm to flag down the horse.

Pegasus trumpeted a friendly greeting and paused his flight so Hercules could climb on.

“Where should we go today?” he droned to the horse.

Pegasus flapped his wings excitedly.

“I know, anywhere will be fun.” Hercules looked around at the gleaming clouds and pillars of his home. There truly was nothing that could top this place. Glorious, untroubled perfection as far as the eye could see. And it was so… empty.

While he drank with Bacchus, sang with Apollo and the Muses, and sometimes helped Hermes with a delivery, Hercules always felt like a marginal addition to whatever company he kept.

Nobody had a problem with him, or at least he was pretty sure they weren’t bothered having him around. Still, he had nothing much going on in his own life and no direction to strive for anything better.

“Wanna go see what the earth heroes are doing?” he suggested to Pegasus.  “I mean… if they’ve got any right now.”

Hercules was supposedly the god of heroism, but there weren’t any heroes to sponsor. Or at least, none of them paid him much attention. He didn’t have his own temples, but every Temple of Zeus came with an adjacent sanctuary, and most arenas had a shrine to him. Sports heroes seemed to be this generation’s heroes du jour. He would’ve liked to be active during Perseus's time or when Jason first set off searching for Argo. He would’ve told the latter not to go. Even if he didn’t know where that thing was, there was no way he could help with that helpless search.

Then again, who was he to get in the way of a man pursuing a dream? If he’d ever had a dream, he’d pursue it with the entirety of his being. Yet, there was nothing to strive for in Hercules’s life. He knew several things to be true: He was his father’s favorite son, everything in his life was perfect, and he would live forever.

Had the other gods never tired of the fact they were born to perfection? He’d had one long conversation with Athena about it, as she was the only deity philosophical enough to entertain his queries. Seemingly, the formula for escaping this boredom was to invest in mortals so that the finite nature of their lives would heighten your own excitement for what they could accomplish while they were alive.

It didn’t seem to matter which athlete rose to the top of each heap. Year after year, Hercules would get excited for the victory of some kid who’d asked him to sponsor him, and then that kid would retire with his years’ worth of olives and free meals for life and forget to touch base with Hercules ever again.

Seventeen years of that had tarnished those trophies in Hercules’s eyes. He’d grant a boon to anyone who asked, but he no longer invested much interest in their success.

Hercules and Pegasus flew over Olympus and caught sight of Zeus and Hera lounging on matching couches. They’d augmented their daily nectar and ambrosia with grapes and cheese, so they may almost look like a normal mortal couple at breakfast.

“Hey, Hercules!” Zeus flagged him down with an oversized orange hand. “Come join us! Your mother and I were just talking about you!”

Hercules glanced at Pegasus, shrugged, and then corkscrewed down to the clouds between his parents. “Morning,” he said.

“It’s always so good to see you,” Hera said.

“You too, Mother,” Hercules said. “What are you planning to do today?”

“As the goddess of queenship, I plan to travel around observing all the queens and princesses of Greece. There are some promising young ladies out there.” She looked in Zeus’s direction, but the king of the gods stuffed most of a bunch of grapes into his mouth as if to avoid commenting. “In any case, I’d like to invite you along.”

“Why?” Hercules asked immediately. He was pretty sure it wasn’t the polite way to ask, but he was too distracted by his own boredom to keep track of things like etiquette.

“Oh, it’s… just that your father used to like talking to them, and we’ve noticed you… don’t talk much to anyone.”

His mother was hinting at something else. He wished she wouldn’t try so hard to hide her meaning. It was exhausting. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve said everything there is to say,” Hercules said. “Nobody around here seems all that interested.”

“Oh, that’s not true. You’re a wonderful conversationalist!” Hera beamed at him. You’re so thoughtful and empathetic, and you always have such keen insight into the deeper meanings of what people have to say. Would you like to come with me when I bless a royal wedding in Crete?”

“No thanks,” Hercules sighed. 

Thinking of marriage made his stomach churn with jealousy.

It didn’t seem to bother his father all that much, but most of the people Hercules knew were his immediate relatives. The dating scene on Olympus was just like everything else: unchanging.

Pegasus flapped his wings impatiently.

Hercules hopped down and got him an apple from the breakfast table, then got a wedge of ambrosia for himself. “I think Pegasus and I are gonna fly around and see if anyone needs help. Someone might today.”

“You should check on Thebes!” Zeus said enthusiastically. “They’ve always got something going on!”

“Zeus!” Hera scolded. “The situation in Thebes is not a mere amusement.”

“What’s happening in Thebes?” Hercules asked. The Ambrosia melted in his mouth, thick with the soft sweetness of honey harvested from the groves of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Hestia had outdone herself this morning. Nobody could make a fruit cake like the goddess of the hearth, especially not with golden apples at her disposal.

“Oh, the usual family conflicts,” Zeus said.

“Which side are we on?” Hercules asked.

“Nobody’s,” Zeus replied. “Ares forbade us from helping Thebes win any wars at its founding, and the invasion force is dishonorable. We can’t support them any more than we could in the city.”

“So the city is just… doomed?” Hercules exchanged a skeptical glance with Pegasus. This was, generally speaking, and in his professional opinion, usually the part where a hero was supposed to step in.

“I know it’s difficult,” Hera said. “Sometimes the mortals damn themselves, and we have to allow it because they have free will.”

“That can’t be right.” Hercules shook his head. “Come on, there’s gotta be some other way.”

“Let it pass. You’ll see that the Fates have a plan,” Hera said. “So what else will you do today?”

“I dunno,” Hercules sighed. “Maybe I’ll go check on some retired heroes and see if they’ve got anything planned…” He knew retired heroes only ever wanted to talk about their glory days, but at least they wanted to talk.

Apollo was his best friend on Olympus, but his brother’s tight schedule kept him occupied all day. Everyone else seemed busy, too, but Hercules had nothing much. Maybe he’d start “guarding” the sanctuaries of the Muses and see if they could teach him an instrument while he sat there.

Of course, Thalia sometimes made him uncomfortable with her aggressive flirting, but at least it was something to pass the time. It was too early to numb his mind with Bacchus. He’d have to try and pretend he had something important to do, or he’d go mad. Bacchus would probably take that as a sign of brotherly affection.

“Well, I hope we get to see you again soon,” Hera said.

Hercules mumbled a farewell to his parents and flew off. “I’m probably being ungrateful,” he told Pegasus. “I think something’s wrong with me. Do you think… maybe I’m not supposed to be here?”

Pegasus made an incredulous noise at him.

“Yeah, I know…” Hercules sighed and bowed his head in defeat. “Well… it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Let’s try to make the most of it.”

As he flew, a growing awareness of a presence in one of his sanctuaries mounted in the back of his mind. He was probably another showboating athlete who wanted to impress his competition.

He ignored the sensation of someone burning incense for him until he recognized it was a feminine scent. Something… floral? He wasn’t an expert.

“Mighty Hercules, I know I’m not your usual client,” a soft, warm voice called to him. It was a woman’s voice. Or, a girl, he wasn’t sure about mortal ages. Girls never talked to him. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, or… if this is even your department… But if you could… if you don’t mind… Could you please intervene and help the city of Thebes?”

Hercules grimaced.

His parents had already made it clear there was nothing he could do for Thebes. He flew Pegasus higher, away from that voice, but it pulled him in again.

“Please, Son of Zeus. You’re the only god nobody has asked… And you are the god of heroes. If we are worth saving, I ask formally, as the Princess of Thebes, for a boon of heroism. May you raise someone from our hopeless city or grant us your favor before we’re wiped out. Not that I expect… Sorry, I don’t usually pray. Gods tend to ignore us in Thebes. But… I guess that won’t be a problem for much longer…”

Hercules’s insides twisted. No, his parents didn’t mean to intervene, but why shouldn’t he? It’s not like he had anything better to do that day.

“Excuse me, buddy,” he said to Pegasus. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Chapter 2: One Last Hope

Thebes probably didn’t deserve saving.

Megara had lived there for seventeen years of unending misery, and now she lay in the darkness of her bedroom, staring at the ceiling and listening to the rasps of her own breathing. That morning, she’d wandered back from trying to convince a centaur to steal her Lethe water from the Underworld to no avail. The scamp had run off with her money, and though she knew he’d gone to Athens, it was equally certain that she lacked the requisite muscle to retrieve either her money or the amphora. Assuming he’d gotten her one.

Stupid. Fruitless.

While her brothers had been relieved to see her return, King Eteocles had punished her harshly for running away from school. Half her face and her whole throat were still in pain, but at least she was alone. The war was imminent.

The whole mess of Thebes would be pillaged and flattened in a matter of days.

If Cadmus had known his people would last only a few generations after settling in Thebes, he would’ve taken his people back to Phonecian lands.

Someone knocked at her door, but Megara closed her eyes to ignore it. Couldn’t anyone leave her in peace? The armies would arrive soon, and then everyone would be dead. Why couldn’t she pass her last few days in peace?

“Meg?” It was Ismene. The only sane child of Oedipus.

“Malaka,” she sighed aloud and rolled out of bed. “What do you want?”

Ismene opened the door a crack and peeked through. “Hey… Are you… feeling any better?”

“What do you think? My face hurts, your big brother almost killed me, and half the family won’t talk to me because I wouldn’t let Adonis paw at me.”

Her cousin bowed her head and entered Megara’s room carrying a jar, a bowl, and a linen towel. “I know I’m pretty useless around here, but I wanted to try and apologize for the way people have been acting around here.”

“You really don’t have to do that,” Megara sighed. “You’ll get in trouble for talking to me. I’m social poison.”

“You’re family.” Ismene knelt at Megara’s bedside and poured some fragrant water into the bowl, then dipped the linen towel in it. “This is for your face… It should bring the swelling down from where you got hit.”

“What difference will that make?” Megara snapped.

Ismene flinched. “I thought… maybe it would make a difference that someone cared to address it. The boys are all focused on the war, but… you’re still here.”

“Aren’t you afraid of the war? You know what invaders do to princesses. Even if Polynikes is your brother, that hasn’t stopped him.”

“No matter what’s happening out there, we have to be decent people in here,” Ismene said.

“For what? None of that gets us anywhere,” Megara said. “All we do is suffer.”

“I know that, but maybe in the Underworld, we’ll see that it all paid off because we’ll have an easier time there.”

Megara considered the orchard said to grow in the Underworld, where shades supposedly wandered and ate of the fruits. “Our fate is to be just like everyone else in death. There’s no reward for being decent, Issie. But… I still appreciate it.”

Ismene wadded up the linen cloth and offered it to Megara. “They’re serving dinner soon. I know you’re not invited, but I could bring you something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You’re just upset. You always get like this when you’re upset.”

“If I did, I’d be dead by now,” Megara pointed out.

“Okay, but…” Ismene sighed heavily. “I wish Thebes had a hero. You know there are other city-states that have more than one hero? And they don’t even really need them, but we do!”

“There’s no hero who can fix this.” Megara pressed the linen to her face and sighed in relief as the inflamed skin was soothed. “You know, Issie, there are people who called your father a hero. And yet, somehow, you’re the only person in your family who’s worth anything.”

“Shh…” Ismene checked over her shoulder toward the door. “Meg, we can’t say things like that.”

“Why not? All of us are going to die soon. This is the perfect time to say what needs saying.”

Tears collected along Ismene’s cheekbones. “Meg, we can’t lose hope. The gods might save us. Maybe Polynikes will change his mind! We can still have hope.”

“There’s a reason Hope came out of Pandora’s box,” Megara said. “It’s one last cruelty of the gods to make us believe we have anything to look forward to.”

Ismene leaned her brow against the bed and began to weep openly. “I just… it’s all too much, Meg! How can you stand it? Why hasn’t it broken you?”

Megara bit her lip. This wasn’t the intended outcome. She rubbed her cousin’s back. “It’s just because I accepted our lot. I tried to run off and change things, but I got ripped off by a centaur. We’re Thebans, honey. We’re nothing but a joke to the rest of Greece. We have our dignity, and we love our artistic expression, but we’ve always been waiting for someone to wipe us out. We don’t get heroes without a massive reversal of fortune to ruin the whole thing. Nobody’s coming to save us.”

In a remarkable turn of events, not one of the things she’d said to her cousin went a single cubit in the direction of cheering her up.

Ismene jumped up from the ground and raced out of the room.

Megara was left in the shadows, wondering if she ought to have offered Ismene false hope or if the blunt approach would help her resign herself and ultimately deal with the fate coming for them in a better way.

She climbed back into bed and pressed the linen against her face. She didn’t bother with dinner, only occasionally dabbing the linen back into the water so she could press it back against her skin.

It was true that no mortal heroes bothered with Greece. It would take a miracle from some highly invested god to make a difference, but she couldn’t think of which one it would be.

Zeus had caused the very existence of this place with his selfish bull-headedness. Well, bull-everythingness.

Hera wasn’t the type to intervene in war.

Aphrodite had nothing to do with her family. She was probably too embarrassed by the Oedipus incident.

Athena… well, it wasn’t as if there were trained soldiers or generals in Thebes, so who would she direct or influence?

Bacchus had once been Dionysus, their patron deity who came through Zeus and the very bloodline of Cadmus. But he hadn’t done anything useful in decades.

Ares was the whole reason for this war.

There was that new one. They’d opened a sanctuary to him not too long ago. He was about as old as she was… What was that name again? Hercules.

He was a son of Zeus, but she couldn’t exactly hold that against him. Wasn’t he the god of… athletes?

Megara went to sleep, alternating between the view of Ismene’s tears and the speculations on what Hercules even did.

She woke at the witching hour to shouts and a scuffle.

Megara rolled back out of bed, holding her blanket around herself, and peeked out into the hallway through a sliver of an open door.

Haemon was at it again. Her middle brother had a temper on him. “No more excuses!” he roared. “This is all your fault! You don’t get to put this on anyone else!”

Eteocles and a few loyal guardsmen were no match for one Haemon. If only Haemon could be a hero of Thebes. He slammed Eteocles to the wall and started choking him with one forearm while beating off a couple of other guardsmen.

“We’re all going to die because you’re a selfish power grabber!” Haemon snarled at their cousin.

The guards’ combined power finally dragged Haemon off Eteocles, but that didn’t stop the conflict.

“This throne is my rightful place!” Eteocles shouted back. “Polynikes never deserved to reign as I do!”

“Neither of you should be king!” Haemon shouted back. More guards flooded the courtyard to aid in the process of subduing Haemon.

This was the mess their family was damned to. Was this what Ares always wanted?

Megara shut her eyes against the ongoing conflict as more and more people assembled in the courtyard. She’d been hit and screamed at so often that it was barely an inconvenience, but now that there were so many people involved, it was starting to look like the war had already landed at their palace.

Ismene appeared at a door on the opposite side of the courtyard, only for Antigone to rush out of that same door and leave her alone.

While her parents had been alive, Ismene had been relatively sheltered. They’d seen the softness in her and hadn’t punished her for it. Now, she would die with the rest of them or face the indignities of the conquered woman.

She wasn’t ready for it. 

Someone had always been there in time to save her from it.

Not like Megara.

Her brothers had been away too often, and her parents never cared when others “disciplined” their daughters.

There was time to think of herself later. By which she meant she never would. She had to help Ismene, or nobody ever would.

While everyone was still distracted by this late-night brawl, Megara slipped on her sandals, tied some lavender incense into her girdle, and rushed out of the palace.

Thebes was full of its usual miseries, but the palace was fairly close to the temple district. After a few hours of pausing in shadowed alcoves to rest, the sun rose over the condemned city. She found the temple of Zeus by Apollo’s light and tiptoed onto its grounds.

Priests were offering tireless prayers to their god. Nobody noticed a teenage girl slipping her way through the temple’s grounds toward the sanctuary of Hercules.

It consisted of a circular building surrounded by Doric columns that depicted the young god in feats of strength.

She eased its door open and found it empty except for an impressive statue of Zeus's son. She wondered if the statues were designed by the gods themselves or if the fact that he was a young bachelor god made his statue look so… human.

She’d seen the temple of Zeus before, but she’d never felt like she could have a conversation with him. Hercules looked as if he were a friendly teenage guy who might invite you to the Speedy Pita.

That made it easier for him to burn the incense.

She didn’t know how to pray, and really, she was too tired to think clearly. Did it really matter in the end? Either he’d agree or refuse, but there was so little hope that he would do it, and the words would hardly make a difference.

Her eyes wandered the sanctuary for inspiration. A few barbells and a weight bench decorated the sanctuary, along with garlands and trophies bearing his name. Had he earned them, or were they waiting to go out as prizes for contests that had yet to take place?

Should she talk to him as if he were an athlete? Play on his need to win? Maybe he’d like to defeat his uncle Ares in a fight that everyone else would think impossible.

If she had more faith, this would be easier, but at least she could represent Ismene's faith. She might be the last person in Thebes who remembered how to have hope, but Megara was the last one who could take action.

Chapter 3: Damsel in Distress

The last time Hercules appeared before a mortal, he’d done so to give advice on the perfect discus throw. The kid who’d come to see him hadn’t really needed his help; he just wanted to say he’d gotten advice from Hercules himself.

Every interaction was so superficial, he grew weary of animating his statues. And yet… He hadn’t expected this petitioner to be so pretty. It was still early, and she stood in the temple’s shadows, but he could see a gentle slope of a nose and luxurious auburn hair that curled around her delicate face… He’d spent so much time admiring her face that he forgot what she’d called him about.

“Wow… you actually appeared.”

“Don’t… most gods?” Hercules leaned closer to her. “Hi. What can I do for you?”

The girl took a step back and bowed her head. “Sir, our city will be wiped out if nobody does anything. I don’t know, maybe we deserve it. But I had to try. My cousin, maybe you’ve heard her pray to you before, or maybe she hasn’t thought about it. But she thinks we could be saved. But…” she sighed. “I don’t want to waste your time.”

“No! No, you’re not wasting my time. I’ve got… nothing going on. Who’s trying to destroy your… wait! This is Thebes, right? My parents were talking about this city earlier.”

“So you know… The gods know?” She raised her head again, and this time, he caught sight of her bruises in the proper lighting.

“Hey, what happened?” Hercules hopped off his pedestal and knelt in front of her. It was awkward, considering the proportions of his statue, but he was too focused on remedying the injuries she’d suffered to care about that.

The girl squealed and covered her face, and Hercules was struck with the realization she thought he was going to hit her.

Someone had hit her.

Right in that beautiful face. He thought he’d seen marks on her neck, too.

These were unforgivable offenses.

“It’s okay,” he said in his gentlest voice, though even that echoed. He didn’t usually do this, but he returned his statue to its usual pose and walked out of it. He was still much taller than her, but he could scrunch down more easily to soothe her. “I’m a helper. I don’t like hurting people. Will you let me look?”

The girl peeked at him from behind her hands. She was shaking.

“I don’t think I remember your name. Could you say it for me?” Hercules smiled his most charming smile and hoped it worked as well on her as it did on his parents.

“Megara,” she said.

“So pretty,” Hercules said, crouched lower, hands on his knees. I’ll help you, Megara.”

“Oh, good…” Megara lowered her hands from her face, inadvertently revealing the fingerprint-shaped bruises along her neck. Thebes has seven gates, and there are seven armies. I think the plan must be for them to send one army against each gate.

“Hold on.” Hercules didn’t touch her, but his hands hovered near her face. “How did this happen?”

“Oh… I… well, I ran away, and the king is my cousin, and he’s always done this, so he thought it was… Are you mad at me?” she winced, and her voice grew squeakier as she spoke.

“No, not at you. What kind of king thinks he can do that sort of thing?”

“Kings and princes think they can do anything,” Megara scoffed. “Just last week, I was talking to the Prince of Thrace, and he…” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she turned away. “Ever since, I… wish I could just forget it… But then I tried to get Lethe water, and a centaur ripped me off…”

“I’m really sorry.” Hercules didn’t remember if it was proper to hug someone he’d just met; he just knew she needed it. He pulled her into his arms and held her while she trembled with tears. “That’s so unfair. People shouldn’t do that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, well…” She hiccupped with tears.

Hercules had never seen anyone so sad before. It broke his heart. He had to fix it. “I’m a god of healing, you know, I can fix some of this mess.” He raised one hand to her shoulder. “I’m not gonna choke you, all right? You know I wouldn’t do that?”

“I don’t know what you’d do, but… I guess I’ll trust you.”

Hercules rested his hand against the bruises on her throat. He sank his aura into her skin and eased the blood so that it could flow untroubled through her flesh. The pain and discoloration soon followed until he had willed her back to perfect health. He did the same then for the mark on her face.

All the while, she was giggling. Her laughter was sweeter than a cherub’s.

He’d never felt the urge to kiss anyone, but he’d dreamed of it. Why not her?

He leaned in closer but then remembered himself and pulled away from her. He was not his father.

“That… feels better than it did before I was hurt,” Megara marveled. She pressed a hand to her cheek, then her neck.

“A little of my power’s still there. You’ll be fine now. I’ll let everyone know you’re under my protection. The next guy who strikes  you will lose his hand.”

“That’s a little… extreme.”

“Are you sure? Because I think someone who hits girls is too cowardly to use his hands for anything worth doing.” He had her laughing again, but he wasn’t sure she ought to be so amused by what he’d said.

“I know my brothers don’t like it when someone hits me, but I think that’s just because they care about their sister.”

“It’s a credit to them that they do. But any man who loves his mother knows it’s a crime to mistreat a woman. We’ll have to make sure more guys learn that lesson in Thebes once I rescue your people from this invasion.”

“It’s not just Thebes,” Megara said. “These invaders are definitely planning to take any girl they find and violate her. We’re all taught early on that men search for girls in times like this.”

“None of them are going to hurt you. I swear this to you by all the stars,” Hercules declared. “We’re not doing that today. I don’t want to send you home where people are going to do things like that to you, so stay here. Anyone who finds you here and tries to remove you from my temple is an idiot, and I’ll make him pay for it.”

“My brothers might not understand,” Megara said. “They might think I’ve just run off…”

“I’ll make sure everyone knows that I’m taking over this war.”

“Really?” she gasped. “I didn’t think you’d go that far… have you won a lot of wars before?”

“My siblings usually keep me out of these wars, but this time, I’m going to make a difference for you.”

“You mean for the city?” Her eyes were purple . Was that normal for mortals? Why was she so pretty?

“Uh… yeah. For the city!” Hercules scratched the back of his neck. He felt like an idiot. A real hero, not someone who’d just been given the title at birth, would know how to handle this situation.

Was this what it felt like to be around a girl he wasn’t related to, or was she exceptionally gorgeous? Did it matter?

This wasn’t the time. First, he’d saved her city, and then he’d see if she was open to dating.

“Remember to stay here, all right? I want to make sure you’re safe until this business is handled, and I can check on you again.”

“Uh… sure thing.” Megara looked around the sanctuary as if trying to decide how to make herself at home.

“There are some facilities on my dad’s side of the temple, but if you close this door, you should be left alone.” He set a hand atop her head. It was meant as a blessing gesture, but it made him recognize how soft her hair was. Focus! “Back soon,” he promised her. He vanished from his temple and went back to Pegasus, who’d found a tree full of songbirds. “Pegasus, I know what we’re going to do today!”

Chapter 4: The Duel

The first step was to find Athena. Hercules had never fought in a war before since he’d never been invited. Still, he knew one thing above all: his sister would take any opportunity to annoy or, better yet, defeat their brother. Ares didn’t even know Hercules was against him, so he wouldn’t be watching for him.

“Now, Hercules, it’s dreadfully unfair odds in Thebes,” Athena said from her war table. She manifested a map with models to demonstrate what Thebes looked like, with the massive gorge to one side of it and the seven gates to the city with armies marching on them. “Their current standing army is comprised of unwilling and untrained conscripts who didn’t know that they were going to be called upon to fight. How will they even stand a chance?”

“Me,” Hercules said bluntly. “I’m a god, and I’m tougher than all seven armies. I’ll knock them off the field into that gorge there. So what do you think? Use me. I’ll be your secret, ultimate weapon against Ares, and you’ll get to brag about it for the next few centuries.”

Athena stroked the down feathers on Ibid’s chest. “That does have a certain appeal to it… There’s something sudden about this… What is your motive in taking part in this war?”

Hercules blushed.

“Wait, let me guess.” Athena leaned in closer to nudge him with her elbow. “It’s about a girl, isn’t it?”

“Well…” Hercules looked down at his feet, shuffling them nervously. “She petitioned me this morning, and I couldn’t… um… She’s a princess of Thebes, and they’re gonna kill her if they get in. I can’t let them hurt her.” He raised his head, remembering the way she’d arrived at his sanctuary, bruised and shaken. “I won’t let anyone hurt her.”

“I see,” Athena nodded and looked down at the table once more. “That does change things. You’ve never had a girlfriend, have you?”

“I still don’t have a girlfriend,” he clarified. But… hey, this is a pretty good opportunity for me. She’s… so pretty…” His blush carried into his aura, and he sighed. His body sagged to one side, and he propped himself on the table. Nobody’s ever asked me for help before… it felt…” he pressed a hand to his chest. “Meaningful.”

“And we can’t be letting the fair damsel down, can we, little brother?” Athena released a puff of elegant laughter that wasted no extra mirth. “We’ll get you on a date with destiny  as soon as we clear up this nasty business with the armies!”

“Great! I knew I could ask you. You’re the smartest person I know.”

“That’s because I’m the smartest person in existence,” she clarified. “So! Ares thinks he can pull a nasty trick on a vulnerable city. He’s got something else coming!”

Alongside Athena, Hercules arrived on the field outside of Thebes, helmeted and ready astride Pegasus.

“Go survey the armies,” Athena instructed. “With any luck, seeing a god standing against them will convince some generals to turn back and avoid bloodshed.”

Hercules nodded. “Maybe I should talk to them too? It could make them feel guilty for what they’re about to do.”

“You’re such a sweet little godling,” Athena cooed. “But don’t bother. You’ll only spur them on to defend their honor. You have to unman them.”

“So… I cut off their…?”

“No, no. Be the man they can’t be and remind them of the battlefield hierarchy. Scare the living daylights out of them. Between the two of us, we can deal some real damage to some egos!”

Hercules and Pegasus usually maintained modest proportions. Pegasus was roughly the size of an above-average stallion, and Hercules was an above-average human, the right size to ride Pegasus without toppling off.

But their Olympian status made it no trouble to adopt a more monumental stature. Pegasus was initially fashioned out of clouds and had the ability to draw from the clouds around him to grow exponentially when required.

Hercules flew Pegasus in a circle over the first army he found and shouted down in a voice to match his new size, “Turn back! Do not assault the walls of Thebes! They are under the protection of the gods!” He drew his sword, and as he encircled the army, the wind from Pegasus’s wings, as well as the drag of his sword, created a wind tunnel that lifted multiple soldiers off the ground.

He abandoned that group and flew toward the next. Nobody was prepared for him, but several from the ranks closest to the first army he’d routed had started to pull back before he reached them. “Get away from Thebes!” he shouted down at them. “This city is under the protection of the Mighty Hercules, Son of Zeus! Abandon this venture or suffer my sword!”

That sounded good, right?

A bright red light appeared on the field, and Hercules recognized it immediately. “Sport!” his older brother Ares shouted at him. Stop trying to ruin my war!”

Hercules shared a glance with Pegasus, who did the equivalent of rolling his eyes. If this was getting handled, it was getting handled now. He charged through the sky to Ares and landed in front of him. He towered over the squat god, even though Ares wore his helmet so high on his head that it added another head length to his height. “You’re going to stop this war before it begins,” Hercules told him through his teeth. “Enough games. This is a dishonorable farce, and you know it.”

“I already set up a whole wing of the Underworld with Hades to house the casualties!” Ares protested.

“Tough,” Hercules hopped off Pegasus and leaned over Ares, arms folded. “I’m not letting it happen. If you want to fill that wing of the Underworld, I’ll wipe out everyone in these armies you brought, and they can go there.”

“Hey, talk about not fair!” Ares stomped a foot. “You can’t do that!”

“You’re the one who cursed this place,” Hercules said, nodding to the city without taking his eyes off Ares. “You know they can’t win this war, but you’ve tipped the scales to make it ridiculously unfair for them, anyway. This is why nobody likes you.”

“What! Hey, that’s a low blow, Sport! Mortals need war! It gives them something to strive for! Not like your petty little athletic competitions, this is something with real stakes!” Ares poked an accusatory scarlet finger against the armor covering Hercules’s pectorals.

“Yeah, and those stakes are generations of suffering mortals who never did anything to you and don’t deserve what you’ve done to them,” Hercules responded to his brother’s goading with a hard shove to the ground. He yanked the helmet off of Ares’s bald head and snarled down at him. “You’re a pathetic, grasping toad with bad manners and worse body odor. You wanna talk stakes? Fine. Let’s handle this one on one. If I win, you lift the curse off of Thebes and help them recover from this stupid vendetta of yours.”

Ares gasped. “Me? Fight you? Sport! You’re Dad’s favorite! He’d smite me!”

“Let me deal with Dad.” Hercules reached down and picked Ares up by the breastplate, making his stubby legs kick helplessly in the air. “You? You’re going to have to deal with me. ”

“Okay! Okay!” Ares waved his arms around just as pathetically as his legs. He scrambled to compose himself, and failing that, said, “If i win, you have to help me with my next war campaign! You’re… way scarier than either of my boys. And I named them Fear and Terror!”

“Charming,” Hercules drawled and tossed Ares to the ground. “I know those idiots. You did a great job with them, by the way.”

“Thanks– hey!”

Hercules drew his sword and aimed it at Ares. “Are we doing this, or what?”

“Yeah! We’re doing this!” Ares grew another few sizes to try and equal Hercules. “And you’re going to be sorry you finally decided to care about war during the mother of all wars!”

“I’m only sorry I haven’t gotten involved sooner,” Hercules snarled back at him.

By his calculations, his brother was too close to the walls of Thebes. If he wasn’t careful, he might charge into the walls and damage them irreparably. He had to be careful.

Ares charged at Hercules with his sword raised, roaring with the rage of all the armies that were still arrayed against Thebes.

Hercules waited.

Ares was all bluster. Always had been.

All Hercules had to do was wait. Once he was in range, Ares swung at Hercules, who met that swing with his sword and stepped in closer while the blades were locked.

“Huh?” Ares barked, but Hercules had already unstrapped his armor. 

One good yank was all it took to toss Ares’s breastplate across the field and land it in the gorge, where it could not injure bystanders. 

“Hey!” Ares screamed. He was now in his linen undergarments, leaving his hairy barrel chest on display for all to see. He moved to cover himself, and Hercules took his sword.

With both swords in hand, Hercules angled them at his brother’s neck. “Yield!” Hercules snapped at him.

“Okay, okay! I yield!” Ares raised his hands in surrender.

“On your knees,” Hercules ordered.

Ares obeyed at once.

“Release the curse,” Hercules demanded.

“The curse is gone!” Ares’s words echoed across the field and into the city.

“Take these men home and apologize to them for bringing them to battle against the God of Heroes. And then go back to your sons and beg them to grow personalities.” He threw Ares’s sword down with disgust and walked backward from him.

He didn’t trust his brother not to take the coward’s advantage if he turned his back.

Athena arrived at his side and then pointed at Ares. “Ha-ha! Loser! You’re a loser! Look at you, losing!”

“Thanks, Athena. You’ve been super helpful today,” Hercules said.

“Oh, you’re welcome. I’ve just spoken to Prince Polynikes and explained to him that this war is over. He’s taking his troops back into exile. Go, team!”

Hercules cheered with mock enthusiasm but then realized what he’d actually accomplished. He cheered for real that time and ran to Pegasus for a celebratory headbutt. “Thebes is free!” he declared. “I saved a city!”

He’d done something . It was better than he’d thought.

Not only had he done something, he’d done it knowing that a beautiful young mortal girl had asked him to do it. “Athena, can you… clean up around here? I’ve… um. I’ve got a date!”

A face appeared in the clouds. “Now, hold on, son!” Zeus called down to him. “Isn’t there something you forgot to do before your first anti-conquest?”

Hercules counted on his fingers. “Er… Trash talking… show of force… wagering… duel… save the princess…?”

“You were supposed to ask me!” Zeus called down. “War doesn’t fall into your domain!”

“This was an act of heroism, and I am the god of Heroism!” Hercules contended and posed with his fists planted at his sides with his elbows cocked out to display his arms.

“Yes, and we’re very proud of you,” Zeus said in a not-at-all-condescending tone. “But we’ve got to have a talk about boundaries first!”

Hercules made an incredulous noise. This was really getting in the way of his date. “I just rescued a city!” he didn’t sound too juvenile, did he?”

“Go, it’ll be fine,” Athena whispered in his ear and winked at him. “Dad’s just upset you didn’t invite him to watch. Give him the rundown. You were spectacular!”

“Thanks,” Hercules bowed his head as his heart swelled with praise. “Have I ever told you that you’re my favorite sister?”

“I knew it instinctively. Now go on, and if you meet up with Aphrodite before seeing that girl again, it couldn't hurt.”

Chapter 5: Waiting in the Wings

Megara spent a few serene hours in the temple of Hercules. She hadn’t slept well at home, but despite a lack of beds in the temple, she was able to lie down untroubled. Nobody came to hurl the door open and scream at her or announce a new, terrible consequence of being born into the wrong family.

A howling wind finally woke her and forced her to stop ignoring her hunger. She’d never heard its like, so she woke to investigate the source.

It only took a quick peek outside the temple door to see a massive wind tunnel stirred up by a massive white flying horse. The same one, she knew, that was depicted inside the temple. She read Pegasus on one of the inscriptions. 

Hercules and Pegasus rode circles around their enemies, shouting for the soldiers he’d caught within the whipping winds to leave Thebes. He was doing that for her .

A warmth she’d never experienced went flooding from her heart through her limbs until it formed a blush on her face. The last thing anyone had done for her was all three of her brothers getting her away from Adonis before he could do unspeakable things with her. 

Now, a god was going out of his way to do something unforgettable that they’d discuss throughout Boeotia and then through the rest of Greece.

Megara combed her fingers through her hair self-consciously. She’d been so focused on getting to the temple to petition the god she’d forgotten to take care of her messy hair, and then she’d taken another nap. She must look like a complete wreck and a half.

There was a moment when Ares challenged Hercules so loudly it rocked the city, but the younger god was unimpressed.

On any regular day, Megara would pretend she wasn’t moved by that expression of disgust with his foes, but this was not that day. After all, there was nobody to lie to.

Megara pressed a hand to her once bruised cheek and remembered only the way it had tingled when he healed her. She ducked back into the shadows of the temple, unable to contain herself while looking at the god in the distance.

This ingenious move put her alone in a room with that same statue of him that had come to life. Could he still see her? Was there anywhere to clean up before he returned?

Megara peeked back out of the temple and noticed a sacred spring for cleansing oneself before an athletic competition.

Perfect.

Without a comb available, she did her best with her fingers. She bowed her head under the flow of water and oiled it before she sat in the sun to air-dry her curls.

Hercules was so monumental she could watch him from her vantage point atop the acropolis, and from the crowds amassed at every vantage point in the city, other people were doing the same.

Everyone would speak of this day for the rest of their lives.

“There you are!”

Megara jumped at the sound of Antigone’s voice.

A cowering Ismene followed on her heels, apologizing silently with her eyes.

“I didn’t believe her when she told me you were out here because I thought you were smart,” Antigone snapped at her.

“Buzz off, Tigs.” Megara dismissed her cousin with a wave of her hand. “I’m the one who asked the Mighty Hercules to do this, and it was Ismene who inspired me to do it. You should be thanking both of us.”

Antigone followed Megara’s gaze out beyond the walls of the city. “That’s because of you?” she was audibly impressed, but Megara wouldn’t hold her breath for praise.

“You actually did it, Meg!” Ismene cheered and rushed over to hug Megara. “I can’t believe you went through with it, and it worked!”

“What did you offer him?” Antigone asked.

“That’s the best part. I explained how unfair this whole thing was, and he said he wanted to do something about it. He’s so… different.”

It was marvelous, even difficult to grasp as reality, but it was true. Thebes had never seen freedom from Ares’s curse.

“What do you think life could be like without the curse?” Megara asked Ismene.

“Under the reign of King Eteocles, we will flourish,” Antigone said. “We will achieve greater prominence than ever. Our trade routes will flourish, and our industries will boom. We shall be the greatest generation of royalty that our people have ever seen! Think how exciting it will be to marry the greatest king of Thebes since my father!”

“Wow, it’s like you forgot what he did to my face yesterday.”

“You deserved that for running away.”

“I’m not marrying that scumbag, so you can start fantasizing about the glory of your house to someone who cares.”

“Of course, you’ll marry Eteocles. Nobody else will have you.”

“That’s not fair, Antigone,” Ismene said. “All she has to do is tell people she has a direct line to the Mighty Hercules, and he will support any house she marries into. They’ll reconsider her then, for sure.”

“Or maybe I’m not interested in getting married off, and I’d like to make some decisions for myself,” Megara interjected. “But… thanks, Issie. It’s good that someone can still see sense in your family.”

“Are you really suggesting that you’d refuse my brother?” Antigone rounded on Megara, who was still watching the events of the duel over her shoulder. “He’s your king! It is, furthermore, your filial duty to obey the head of our household!”

“Don’t you think we’re already a little bit of a mangled tree after what happened with your parents?” Megara asked. “Nothing against either of you, but I don’t want to mix blood with a cousin who’s the son of a mother and her son. You’re free to do as you like with Haemon, but that poor sap’s in love with you. I don’t even like you , let alone your brother.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think! You’ve got to follow the edicts of the family!”

“Please stop shouting. We can all talk about this,” Ismene begged.

“Yeah, we really should be praising Hercules for saving the city,” Megara said, though she paused as she saw Zeus's face appear in the sky. It sounded like Hercules’s fight on behalf of the city had not met with the king’s approval. Were they in trouble again? Was the fighting about to begin now? Would removing the curse now give them a chance to make a difference with their untrained boys as an army?

Hercules was summoned back to Olympus. She may never see him again. Why did that bother her so much?

“You need to come back to the palace with us,” Antigone said. “Come on. I’m sure there’ll be a feast to celebrate the victory today, but you’ll have to answer to Eteocles for running off.”

“You’d have to make me leave,” Megara retorted.

“Excuse me, what?” Antigone took a step closer to her. “This is a sacred space, and I will not violate it.”

“Good, so you’ll leave me here and stop ruining my day.” Megara folded her arms and crossed her legs, making herself more comfortable on the bench. “Get out.”

“You can’t tell me that! I am not only a senior royal to you, but I’m from the direct royal line, and you are not!” Antigone wound up with a backhanded smack, only to remember at the last moment that she couldn’t perform any violent act on sacred ground.

“Issie, you’re free to stay here with me until we get our situation figured out,” Megara said, never taking her unwavering gaze off Antigone. “Tigs, get out of here before I provoke you into doing something to violate the sanctuary. We wouldn’t want you punished for your lack of decorum and inability to negotiate, would we?”

Antigone sputtered with rage. “You will obey me! You will come to the palace where you belong.”

“Who’s going to force me? Bring your brother here. See if he can give orders any better than you can. It’s his fault this war ever started, so maybe he’s got some practice that’ll help.”

“I’ll bring your brother so he can see what a disgrace you are!”

“Great, we’ll discuss how boneheaded you are and whether you should be married off to Haemon because maybe you’ll abuse his kindly nature. I’m sure he’ll be heartbroken for a while, but he should get someone better to replace you in no time with us to sell his winning personality. There are way more worthwhile princesses in Greece than princes, so there’s no telling what the possibilities could be for him.”

“I’ll go back with you,” Ismene volunteered. “I’ll explain everything, and then we can get back to normal.”

Megara raised a hand to her appeasing cousin. “No, normal is unacceptable. The curse is broken. We don’t need to play that game anymore.”

“Are you sure?” Ismene asked.

“I’d rather die than marry Eteocles, and you can tell him that. Tell him to come here and collect. I’ll be waiting.” To punctuate her statement, Megara checked her nails. They were looking exceptionally clean today. She felt as if she’d been cleansed head to toe even though she’d focused on her hair.

She could get used to this place.

“What exactly do you plan to do here?” Antigone demanded.

“I’m going to thank the god who saved our city. You can slink off and heap praise on the man who imperiled it.” Megara waved her off, got off the bench, and strode back into Hercules’s temple.

Antigone started to protest again, but Megara slammed the temple door behind her.

Now that it was just her and the statue, she realized that she had nothing to offer the god. Nothing material. Everything she owned belonged to someone else.

She dropped to her knees before the statue. ‘Thank you for all you’ve done for me today,” she said and clasped her hands together in the most pious pose she could think of. “I own nothing that I could give you, but if you think of something I could make for you, I’ll do my best to have it to you in a timely fashion.”

It sounded so impersonal and transactional.

This wasn’t the same as calling on Athena to help her with a weaving project. Hercules had gone up against a family member and turned away a whole set of armies to protect her, and all she’d done was ask.

“The only thing I own is my voice, and the only thing I can give is my gratitude,” she said.

A thought sparked to life at the back of her mind, and she rose to her feet before she could tell herself it was stupid. She climbed atop the pedestal supporting the seated statue of the god so she could reach his cheek, and after a brief pause, she bestowed a gentle peck to one. It was no more than she would give her grandmothers before they died, but it was hers to give.

“Thanks again. You’re officially my favorite Olympian.”

Chapter 6: Domain Errata

“I can’t believe you wouldn’t come to me with this!” Zeus boomed, pacing in front of his throne while Hera sat on her own. “You included Athena, but not me? Why not?”

“You were… busy today. Weren’t you?”

“Only a little. We could’ve set that aside for you,” Hera said.

“This is your first major battle, and I found out halfway through!” Zeus folded his arms. “What got into you, anyway? A war? Why did that have anything to do with you?”

“Well… see… I met this… girl…”

“A girl!” Zeus and Hera chorused together.

“You met someone?” Hera gasped. “Who is she?”

“And what does she have to do with this war?”

Hercules chewed his lip, but he decided it was time to let it out. “She’s the princess of Thebes, and she came to me because it’s not fair that Ares has been cursing them since they were founded. If nobody did anything, the seven armies were going to wipe out the whole city. Neither of you was going to do anything, so I don’t see why it’s a problem that I did.”

“You’ve never shown an interest in war. We didn’t expect this from you,” Zeus said. “You jumped into Ares’s domain with no warning and publicly humiliated him. There were Spartans who saw him fall, you know.”

“Maybe they’ll develop a personality outside freakish militarism now that they’ve seen he’s not the greatest ever,” Hercules suggested.

A zap of smoky flame preempted the arrival of Hades. “And what about me, huh? Did you consider what a disappointment it would be for me to set up a whole wing of the Underworld, and then you kept it empty?”

“Hades, this isn’t about that,” Zeus scolded his brother gently.

“You really shouldn’t want people to die,” Hera remarked.

“I’m sorry. Isn’t death the domain I was so graciously gifted by– wait, who was it? Oh yeah! You!” he snarled at Zeus.

“It was so long ago! Are you really still bitter about that?” Hera sighed.

“It only gets worse with every passing year, so yeah! I’m still bitter. I get no respect for this job, but you keep insisting I do it!”

“What else are you good for, exactly?” Hercules snapped.

“Excuse me?” The fire in Hades’s hair went out briefly, and he stared wide-eyed at Hercules. Then that fire flared back up, red this time. “I’m not the one in trouble right now! How dare you talk to me like that?”

“I’m the guy with the moral high ground, and you’re the one obsessed with killing people,” Hercules shot back. “Are you honestly going to try and convince people that you don’t belong in the Underworld? What else would you do with yourself? Become a god of disease? That’s the only way I could think of you getting to enjoy your favorite pastime. We already have a goddess of violent deaths, and I’m sure she’s not having too great of a time, either.”

“Hades, Hercules, we’re family. We ought to get along,” Zeus said. He grabbed each of them under one massive arm and enforced a bear hug of friendship. “Now, Hades, you know the rules. You accommodate the dead souls. You don’t get to try and kill people.”

Hades glared at Zeus. “Did you miss the part where he also ended the curse on Thebes? How he just prevented years' worth of natural disasters and tragedies that were going to bring me so many more souls?”

“Yeah. It’s called being a hero,” Hercules shot back. “Maybe we should both do our jobs and do a little less complaining about it.”

Hades flared up again and broke away from Zeus. “You think just because you’re the golden boy around here, you can step on everybody’s toes?”

“Do you even have toes?” Hercules asked.

Hades gagged on his own irritation.

“If you and Ares had succeeded today and wiped out all of Thebes, then those other disasters would also stop. Did you think about that when you were planning your genocide?”

“You know what? No. And I also don’t need a curse to start any of those. All I need is a little vacation to Po-Po’s palace when he’s in a bad mood.”

“Hey! You really shouldn’t admit things like that in front of me,” Zeus said. “I’ll punish both of you for wanton acts of murder like that!”

“Ah!” Hades pressed a hand to his chest and pretended to laugh. “Did I say I would make him do anything? Po-Po is such a wise ruler of the seas. He doesn’t need anyone to influence him. He can choose when to flood or not to flood the seas!”

“Call Posiedon up here,” Hera said. “We should have a talk with him about his erratic usage of the seas. There are domain errors here that must be addressed before they cause mortals undue distress.”

“What is it with you and mortals?” Hades demanded sourly. “They die so quickly anyway. What’s the point of getting invested?”

Hercules was about to answer when he heard that same voice that had initially drawn him to earth speak directly in his ear.

“Thanks again. You’re officially my favorite Olympian.” 

And then he felt a sensation he’d only experienced when his mother thought he’d done something cute as a child. Since he was a god, his childhood had been short.

It was an innocent kiss on his cheek, but it still thrilled him, so much so that he could leap high enough to make a loop over the moon. He’d cry out in joy and throw his arms into the air if only he weren’t in such a tense conversation with his family.

Megara had kissed him! The sweet innocence of the gesture left him unable to fully shield his glee.

“Hercules? What’s gotten into you?” Hera asked, ever attentive to her son.

Hercules closed his eyes, swaying as if he were drunk. “Heh… um… Can I go…? I just heard back from a petitioner, and uh…” he released a stream of laughter that probably made him sound drunk on top of looking like it.

With his eyes closed, he could see through the eyes of his statue at Thebes. There was Megara, with her wide violet eyes and shining touseled hair. 

He hadn’t thought she could be more beautiful than the first time he saw her, but now he’d been proven wrong. So blissfully wrong… She was blushing and whispered now to him, “I’m sorry if that was too much, but it was all I could think of. Unless you can think of some service I could do in your name… but then again, all of Thebes is in your debt, so we could try and pool our resources. Would you like a new temple? We could get you one of your own to celebrate your victory.”

He didn’t need her to give him anything or do anything for him. He’d treasure this feeling for all of eternity.

“Something is wrong with that kid! Have you had someone check him?” Hades asked.

“Come on, he’s just… happy…” Zeus nudged Hercules. “Wake up, son! We’re going to call Ares and try to talk him down.”

“Wha…?” Hercules’s voice had gone soft and breathy. He thought he’d lose feeling in his legs and fall over.

“You took a sudden turn,” Hera said. “We’re worried about you. What’s happened to you in the last few minutes?”

“Oh, I… have to go… I’ll explain later.” He chuckled one more time, then abandoned Olympus.

He couldn’t keep Megara waiting. She might wander off.

Chapter 7: Giggle Fit

Perhaps he was too busy enjoying victory on Olympus to hear her. Atop the mountain, he had ambrosia and nectar to feast on, along with a dozen of his closest relatives, even if he and Ares were having a bit of a falling out at the moment.

Megara slipped off the pedestal and secured the blanket around her shoulders. “Goodbye,” she whispered. It was starting to feel odd to speak to him now that she wasn’t sure he was listening when she spoke.

Her cousins would be waiting for her outside. She couldn’t afford to make herself obvious with this strange flirtatious dynamic she’d developed with a god. They’d never understand or forgive her for this if they had heard her partaking in it.

“Wait!”

Megara swung back around, startled, and her hair swung over her shoulder as she moved. 

The Mighty Hercules sat on his pedestal, illuminating the room with his golden aura and blushing at her. “I didn’t think you’d… um… That was nice.”

“I didn’t think you’d take such an active role in saving our city.” Megara wasn’t sure what to do with herself, so she dropped to one knee. “How can we ever repay you?”

“Ah, it was nothing!” Hercules beamed. His golden light shone even brighter. “But… What you did… I know you don’t think it meant a lot, but… it really did!”

“Oh.” His smile made her nervous. She’d never had this feeling before, and it bubbled in her stomach, ready to burst out in a giggle fit. She wasn’t the kind of girl who lost control at no more than a smile. She had so much more dignity than that.

Hercules strode toward her, impossibly tall and shining like the sun. Then, a thought seemed to occur to him, and he shrank himself down. He was taller than any man in her family but no longer a walking monument. She could tilt her chin upward and look directly into his eyes. He was almost human. “I thought… when you did that, it was the sweetest thing I ever felt in my life. I really hope you’ll come to see me more often, Meg.” He raised his upturned palm as if inviting her to take his hand.

Should she? What should she do when a god asks her to hold his hand and praises her for a kiss? There was no proper response. She would have to go with her instincts. What did she have to lose? With a dreadful potential husband in the form of Eteocles waiting for her at home, why not dally a while longer with a god?

She placed her hand in his.

The excitement that hummed through his skin and aura was infectious. It forced the giggles out of Megara before she could clap her free hand over her mouth to restrain them.

His joy was hers.

She giggled again, this time turning away and squeezing her eyes shut, but no form of restraint had any effect.

“You don’t have to hide that. It’s cute,” Hercules told her. “You know… I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind… Now that I’m here, I mean. If you would do that again.”

Megara’s brows rose. “It was that good?”

“I wasn’t ready that time, and I was talking to my lame uncle and my parents. I’m going to remember that… ah… tribute you gave me… forever. But maybe we should, um… try again? And if you didn’t mind, I could try it on you, too.”

“On me?” she gasped.

“Yeah! But… only if you want to. I thought… You gave it to me as a gift, but… I still wanted you to see how much it meant to me.”

“You just saved my life and my city. If you wanted to, that’s not a problem.” Was she really agreeing to this? What if it was too much, and she not only giggled but cried? She’d gone so many years, mainly experiencing harsh and hostile touch or nothing. What would happen to her if the first hint of affection from a god was anything like holding hands with him? She may never see her dignity again.

“It’s going to be exactly like what you gave me,” he promised. “Nothing intense, and I won’t ask anything more from you.”

That didn’t sound so bad, but she didn’t trust her new, giggly self. She was someone else. “I’ll go first,” she told him. “But you’re too tall! I can’t reach you up there.”

Hercules chuckled and crouched over her. “It’s really nice of you to offer to do that again, Meg,” he whispered. The warmth of his breath reached her, laced with a scent similar to lemons or oranges but clearly something that was all Hercules. It smelled good enough, but how would it taste?

Megara wouldn’t close her eyes and risk her aim to go off course. She had to watch those sapphire eyes draw nearer, but she’d made up her mind. His aura hit her lips before they reached his skin, and the buzz rushing through it felt like it was enough to make her mind go blank. She’d never had to process so much anticipation.

Stubborn as ever, Megara pressed a kiss to his cheek.

A fresh hit of his aura was so intense that she had to pull back, giggling uncontrollably.

“So cute,” Hercules whispered. He squeezed her hand, wrapped his free arm around her shoulders, and pulled her close so that he could return the gesture.

There it was. Megara’s mind’s eye flashed with his golden light, unable to process it without a squeal.

She didn’t feel like the same person who had crept into his temple that morning. She’d been in the dark so long that so much light threatened to blind her, but she couldn’t move away.

No, she wanted more of him.

She couldn’t have more. That was impossible.

She was going to break her own heart on the rocks of his passion.

“I ought to leave,” she whispered.

“Oh… I didn’t mean to… was it too much?”

Megara’s skin tingled with the remainder of his kiss, and it was the same that had been there when he healed her but stacked atop itself. It had been too much in a way. She couldn’t process it. She was going to lose her mind! “Oh, it wasn’t too much,” she murmured. Acting classes had made her an excellent liar. “But it’s time for me to go home, right? Because if we do too much…” 

The idea of going any further with this god who overpowered her senses so thoroughly was the kind of thrill she only indulged in when she wanted to erase her circumstances completely. As much as she wanted to move on and do something so different, she forgot where she came from. She didn’t think she wanted to do that as the mother of a demigod child.

“Will I see you again?” Hercules asked. He tugged her a little closer, and she went without complaint.

For a moment, she could imagine never leaving him.

“I’m sure you will.”

“Have you been here all day?”

“Oh. Yes, I have.”

“Did you have anything to eat?”

“No…” Was that an offer? Dared she ask?

“I thought… you’ve been here all day, and maybe before you go, you might have the opportunity to do whatever you want before you go home to what you’ve got waiting for you.”

“With you?”

“Eh…” Hercules combed his hair with his fingers and scratched the back of his neck. “I… well, I wanted to take care of you.”

“You’ve already done more than I expected. You don’t have to do that on top of everything.”

“What if I’d like to spend more time with you?”

“With… me ?”

“You’re the only person I want to spend my time with,” he said, and his lashes hung low. “I’d love to get to know you more if you allow me to. If you want to, that is.”

She was hungry. And she liked spending time with him, too.

“The only problem right now is that you look like a god, and everyone knows what you look like. People would bother us.”

“Oh…” his face fell. “Yeah, that would be pretty annoying…”

“So you’d have to disguise yourself.”

Hercules perked back up. “You’d go out with me, then?”

“Sure. I’d like any excuse not to go home.”

“Why not?”

“My cousin was just here bragging about getting me married to her brother,” Megara said as her smile turned queasy. “I can try to get you a better temple built, one where it’s all about you and not just an offshoot of your father’s. The city owes you that much, at least.”

“Wait, you’re going to become a queen?” His skin was gold, but Megara could swear that he was blushing. “Does that mean we couldn’t go out together?”

“No, it doesn’t. Marrying me off is what they want,” Megara rolled her eyes. She could always run away again. “I’m a princess, so they think I have to do what they want,” Megara explained. “My role is to marry whoever is best for my family, not for me. I don’t want to marry who they tell me to, but I don’t have a choice unless I run away. I don’t know how to live out there in the world. Not yet, anyway. I know how to work with people. That’s not the problem.”

“So what’s the problem?” 

“I don’t want to marry that jerk. He’s the guy who beat me up yesterday.”

The blush she thought she saw on the god’s face vanished. “He what? And then he thinks he can marry you?”

“Some members of my family understand the fine art of diplomacy, and then the rest thing diplomacy is what you do with your fists.”

“Well… I won’t say that doesn’t work for me sometimes,” Hercules said, absently massaging a bicep. “But… that’s not right. He can’t love you if he treats you like that.”

“He’s never pretended to love me. He’s been hitting me since we were kids.”

“Then don’t marry him,” Hercules said firmly. “Wait for… someone else. Maybe someone else would be nicer to you.”

“I’ve already gone around Greece trying to make it work with any of those princes, but they hate my attitude.”

“What attitude?” Hercules frowned. “You’ve always been sweet to me.”

Oh, that was the trick. He didn’t really know her.

Well, he would soon enough. She couldn’t hold it back forever.

“That’s because you’re a god. I know better than to talk back to a divine being who could punish me for my sass. But mortals are another story. I never fail to call people out when they do things they shouldn’t, and I still… Well, nobody really appreciates it when I do that.”

“My uncle Hades and brother Ares don’t like it when I tell them what for, either. I get it. They’re all bluster, though. They want to hurt people, but they can’t hurt me. So they lose their temper, and then they lose the argument.”

Despite everything being different, from their stations to their mortality status, Megara wondered just how similar they might be. “I have one request. If we go out, can I get my look together? I’d like to spend time with the hottest guy in the cosmos without looking like a rat that rolled in a trash heap.”

Hercules was back to blushing. “I can transport us anywhere in the world… If you want to go home and get dressed, bathe, or do whatever, all you have to do is call on me, and I’ll carry you wherever you want to go.”

“Deal!” Megara clasped his hand in hers. “If I’d known this was a valid way to pay for my city’s safety, I would’ve done it a long time ago.”

“You’re not paying me,” Hercules said, his eyes wandering her face and resting on her lips. I’m repaying you for helping me feel alive.”

Chapter 8: The Hero and the King

Megara had difficulty reconciling the events of the day with the fact Hercules easily transported her to the palace’s bath complex.

“When should I come back for you?” he asked.

“I’ll need at least an hour, and you can figure out where we’re going while I’m getting ready.”

“A whole hour?” Hercules asked with the same attitude of a child who’d never had to wait for anything in his life.

“I need to get all my grunge cleaned off, do my hair, pick a dress… “ Megara shrugged. “I don’t know. It could be two hours.”

“Two?” Hercules gasped. “No, no, one, definitely! Or call me when you can so I will show up as soon as you’re ready!”

“You’d better hurry off so I can get started, or it’ll be even longer than that, and I’m already hungry.”

“Okay!” Hercules dove in and pecked her cheek one more time, then vanished.

After he disappeared, a golden haze lingered in the air, and Megara stepped into it to let it tickle her skin. She wished she could bathe in it.

She did a little twirl in it before she strode through the baths, pampering herself as much as possible. There were cute little diadems she’d never tried before. Maybe they were Antigone’s. That made her want to wear one all the more.

Her hair was loosely bound back from her face, and she wore a diadem, along with a spare set of earrings and a gold chain necklace. The only question she had left was what she’d wear, but she found a girdle and a purple chiton bordered in gold to answer that question. It took her a few times to decide how she would wrap it.

She snacked on a few palm-sized oranges that she suspected Antigone was saving for later and wrapped her dress a few different ways. At last, she settled on draping it off of one shoulder and belting it with a girdle that framed her curves to the greatest advantage. She examined herself in the light from the open ceiling and saw a faint sparkle on her skin. It was almost like Hercules was still with her.

She stepped out of the baths complex, and that was her mistake.

Eteocles and several courtiers were approaching the men’s side of the baths when they stopped to stare at her.

“There you are! We thought you’d never leave the temple of Zeus!” Eteocles said.

“I was at the temple of Hercules, actually. I’m the one who petitioned him to save us.”

“Thank you,” Menoikeus said. “That was some quick thinking!” His smile faded into the typical Theban skepticism that had already painted every face around him. “Wait. What did you offer him?”

“I didn’t offer him anything. He did it because he saw an injustice and chose to do the right thing.”

“I guess that’s what heroes do,” Haemon suggested.

“Good thinking,” Eteocles strode toward her. “And you’re already prepared for the celebration. That forethought will make you an excellent queen, just as I had planned.”

“I’m not marrying you.” Megara danced away from him in the swish of her skirts. “You’re delusional if you think I’ll marry you after that stunt where you almost killed me!”

“I wasn’t going to kill you, and it wouldn’t have lasted so long if you hadn’t resisted for so long!” He lunged for her, but she moved out of the way.

Menoikeus, Haemon, and Megarion rushed up after Eteocles to restrain them, but he swung a wild elbow and slammed it into Megarion’s nose. Menoikeus stopped to help Megarion, but Haemon was focused.

He swung for the king, but the guards were on him.

“Nobody can attack the king,” the guards growled at Haemon.

“Look what he’s doing to my sister!” Haemon shouted.

Megara had been so distracted by the situation with her brothers that Eteocles had pounced. He enveloped her in a bear hug and bent over her, 

“You will learn to obey!” he snarled into her ear. You will be my queen, combine the lines of the royal family, and marry me tonight!”

Megara twisted and wriggled herself toward freedom, scratching Eteocles’s face over her shoulder. “I’m not marrying you! You don’t get to pick for me, either!” She slammed her foot down on his, and finally, she broke free. She charged for the door, but Eteocles grabbed her arm and swung her to the ground.

A shock of pain hit at the same time as her brothers called to her from behind the guards’s wall of defense for her assailant.

“You’re going to kill her!” Menoikeus cried.

“Let her go!” Megarion shouted.

Haemon was roaring and grunting in an effort to fight off guards unarmed.

“Yield, Meggie. You’re not getting out of this.” Eteocles had her by the throat, and once again, he closed his hand around it.

She was losing her grip.

Megara’s eyes rolled backward. She wished she’d had the forethought to call Hercules herself, but she wanted to handle this situation herself. 

“Ss…” she forced through her teeth as her eyes watered. Her makeup would be completely wrecked. Why was that the priority? What was she thinking? Where had her mind gone?

“What was that?” Eteocles loosened his grip so she could breathe. “Were you about to apologize?”

“Sorry, Hercules,” she gasped. “I wanted to go out with him, but I’m going to die.”

“That’s your choice?”

“No! Meggie, get up. We’ll figure this out!” Menoikeus redoubled his efforts to push through the line, but they were once again fruitless.

Megara locked eyes with Eteocles. “I’d rather die than marry you. And you will become a kinslayer. You will be hounded by the Furies for the rest of your life.”

Eteocles jumped back from her, his hand swinging wildly backward into the air. “You’ll not trick me! Wait until you recover, and then–”

A shining golden hand grabbed him around the wrist, clamped down, and squeezed until bones were popping in Eteocles’s arm. The king howled in pain, only to be flung aside so Hercules could kneel over Megara.

“Are you okay?” Hercules asked while checking her neck.

Megara wheezed at him in reply, as humiliated as she was that she couldn’t say more.

“I’ve got you,” Hercules healed her once again, with hands against her skin. That same aura sank into her skin much easier than before, and once again, she could breathe.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and fresh tears escaped. “I’m sorry, I got all dressed up and then…”

“Shh, this isn’t your fault.” Hercules lifted her into his arms and waited for her to be settled. Once she was secured, he glared at Eteocles, where he writhed and cried on the ground. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you. Someone like you shouldn’t be anyone’s king, and I, for one, think you should remain celibate until you understand how to treat a lady.”

“Thanks for saving our sister, Mighty Hercules,” Menoikeus said and dropped to his knees. Haemon and Megarion did the same. “Please, keep her safe. Despite our best efforts, we cannot protect her as well as you can. As her eldest brother, I bequeath her into your care.”

Haemon snickered, shaking his head. “Assuming you need our permission, you have mine, too.”

“Get her out of here, sir,” Megarion said. “We’ve got a beating to take on her behalf.”

“Why so?” Hercules asked.

“Forgive my brother, we Thebans have a particular sense of humor,” Menoikeus said.

“He means because if I’m gone, Eteocles will take out his rage on them instead,” Megara told Hercules.

“Is that so?” Hercules inclined his head. “So, you are a tyrant, is that it?”

Eteocles, clinging to his flopping hand, scrambled against a wall. “I’m not a tyrant! That little bitch keeps undermining my authority and–”

Hercules’s aura flared with a reddish hue. “Excuse me? What did you just call my girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Every member of the House of Cadmus chorused.

“Well… We’re going on a date today, so we’re… I think we’re a couple?” His uncertainty made Megara imagine he hadn’t been born as a god into the grandest of all dynasties. He sounded humble as if she could refuse him, and he would accept that refusal.

Why was he so much better than the son of a disgraced hero whose legacy would forever bear the scars of a curse he’d never earned himself?

“You can be my boyfriend if you want…” Was she fluttering her lashes? Malaka! She was the most cliche teenager in the cosmos.

“I do want!” Hercules cleared his throat. “I saved Thebes for Megara. Anyone who raises a hand against her will answer to me. I lifted the curse of Ares, but he’s not the only one who can come up with nasty ways to punish people I don’t like. Except I’ll be much more direct.” He smiled at Eteocles’s hand. “Tell everyone how he got that way, guys. I’m taking her out for the day, and it’ll be up to her if she comes back. Nice meeting you three.”

With that, the golden light that surrounded Hercules covered Megara’s eyes, as well. When she could see again, he set her down beside a long colonnade of marble columns along a breathtaking coastline. 

While Megara got her balance, he pressed a hand to her back.

“Sorry, it took me a while to get back to you. I was distracted trying to find the best spot I could bring you.” He brushed his knuckles up and down her back. “You’re gorgeous, by the way… Gorgeous and alive… I can’t believe that guy…”

“It’s like I told you, he thinks he can get whatever he wants if he orders people to give it to him.”

“Do you want me to pick a new king for Thebes? I could make it look like my dad’s idea; he’ll do lots of things if he knows I’d like him to, and it looks like you’ll need it.”

“You know what? Probably. But right now, I’d rather we just took time to figure out what this thing is between us.” She looked up at him. “My first boyfriend is an Olympian.”

“Yeah…” he glanced away shyly, and somehow he even blushed. “And… I hope I’m your last one.”

Chapter 9: Megara and the Dream Date

“Your hair is still really pretty,” Hercules said, running his fingers through Megara’s curls. “I love how it hangs down on one side; it reminds me of how beautiful your face is.”

“Do you tend to forget?” she teased.

“Oh, no… no, but…” he stumbled around.

“You’re not used to teasing, are you?”

“Definitely not. Nobody messes with me. I guess nobody thinks I’ll know how to take a joke. I’m everyone’s baby brother, and they think they have to be extra careful with me. That just makes me feel left out because I’m not part of anything with anyone.”

“Now you’re part of something with me,” she said, offering her hand.

Hercules wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he kissed the palm and held it. “I want to show you everything beautiful I’ve ever seen, so each time, I can tell you that even with all that, you’re more beautiful than anything I ever saw.”

It was Megara’s turn to lose her words. She stared at him with her mouth hanging open for so long that Hercules stepped in to press his lips to hers.

Her hand twitched in his, and her free arm wrapped around him. She was still wearing a trancelike expression when their lips parted. “I’ll go anywhere with you,” she whispered.

They stared at one another in shared wonder for a long moment until the silence was broken by Megara’s stomach growling.

“What was that?” Hercules began looking about for a small, disgruntled animal.

“That’s a sound mortal stomachs make when we’re hungry,” Megara replied.

“Oh! Then let’s feed you! What do you like eating?”

“Hummus, octopus, cucumbers, grapes, and steak.”

“We can try to get all of that!” Hercules didn’t wait. He swung her into his arms. “It sounds more interesting than nectar and ambrosia. I have that every day! I’ll try anything you tell me is good!”

He carried her along the colonnade toward the scent of roasting meat. “What kind of meat is that?” he asked her. “I only ever smell the offerings. I’m not sure which one is which.”

“That’s pork, and I don’t think most people sacrifice it to the gods. Hestia, maybe, but I’d be surprised if you ever had it offered to you. You’re sort of…” She glanced over his broad shoulders and his powerful arms, “... not pig-like.”

“Thanks?” Hercules flexed for her.

“You’re welcome. Now, beef, I could see that as a valid offering to you. We’ll have to get that sorted out when you have your own temple.”

“Maybe I’ll specify I want an add-on for my girlfriend to get away from her family,” Hercules suggested.

“Really?” Megara giggled but covered her mouth as soon as the sound escaped. “I’d… that sounds really nice.”

Hercules set her down at a table overlooking the sea and flagged down the nearest server with an unapologetically glowing arm. 

“Do you have money?” Megara whispered. “I’m not sure if you use money on Olympus…”

“I’m a god,” he reminded her. “I have access to any offering anyone has ever given me, and besides that, I can pay people with blessings. I’ll get you anything you want.” He took her by the chin so he could guide her close and kiss her cheek. “Anything,” he reiterated.

Though she was sure he didn’t mean it the way she heard it, Megara’s heart skipped, and a blush blossomed across her face. What was she doing? She’d never been so starry-eyed. What was the catch?

Megara sat where Hercules put her, watching him discuss the fact he was on a date and wanted his girlfriend spoiled with the waiter. He was the most open person she’d ever met, and somehow, he’d picked her. What had she done to deserve this?

Hercules rejoined her and offered her his open palm to hold his hand. “Guess what? We’re about to get bread and olives. Isn’t that exciting?”

Megara restrained the urge to snicker at him. “Everyone gets bread and olives. We’re getting the usual service.”

Hercules’s eyes widened even more. “They’re treating me like I’m normal?”

“Yeah, congratulations. For now, at least, they’re treating us just like everybody else.”

“That’s great!” Hercules slammed his hand down on the table a little too hard. It rattled but thankfully didn’t snap. “I’m going to get one of everything you tell me is good, and then we can get as much of it as we want!” His aura glowed brighter and brighter as he spoke until she had to cover her eyes.

“You’ve gotta turn that down, or we’ll all turn out like my great aunt Semele!”

Hercules diminished his light, then steadied her with a hand on his shoulder. “Gee, I’m so sorry, Meg; I don’t usually have to think about stuff like that.”

“I’ll be all right as long as you learn how to control that,” Megara sighed and patted his arm. “Have you ever had wine before?”

“Yeah! Dionysus is my brother. He’s always trying to get me drunk, but it doesn’t work too often. Takes a lot to drown my ichor in alcohol, but he’s always there to try again.”

Megara speared an olive with one tiny skewer and held it out to him. “So when that comes, you’ll already know what it tastes like, but you should try this.”

Hercules looked carefully at her to see if she was serious about letting him go first, then carefully accepted the olive off of her proffered skewer. “Wow!” he pulled back to marvel at the flavor. “It’s… so many things!”

“Salty and savory,” Megara supplied. “It’s been cured in vinegar before they served it to us.”

“That’s so complex!” Hercules exclaimed. “Do you eat things like this every day?”

“When I eat!” Megara had to laugh at the expression on his face, but she hadn’t counted on him taking her seriously.

“Don’t humans eat every day?” he marveled.

“Sometimes I’m too upset, or I get locked up,” Megara shrugged off her statement, but Hercules was watching her intently.

“That will never happen again,” he told her in a low, steady voice that made her shiver. “If anyone tries to lock you up again, you call for me. I’ll destroy your prison and your captor.”

She believed every word he said. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to bring down the mood,” she said.

Hercules shook his head and curled an arm around her shoulders. “I never thought of what life would be like as a mortal before. I thought, for the most part, people were happy. But maybe it’s my job to help more people be happy. Starting with you.”

She had no way of responding to that declaration, so Megara dipped some of the bread in the olive oil at the bottom of the bowl with the olives. “You should try this. It’s one of the best things ever.”

Hercules bowed his head to try it and surprised her by kissing her cheek. “This stuff is great.” He didn’t return to his previous level of exuberance until the octopus legs arrived. 

With every new texture and flavor, Hercules reminded Megara more of a fresh puppy who’d learned his first tricks. People were staring at them now from all corners of the restaurant, many of them ordering from the menu to try whatever Hercules had praised so highly.

Still, though she knew most of the attention was on Hercules and the food, Megara fidgeted whenever she felt new eyes on her.

“Was that everything in the whole world?” Hercules asked when they’d exhausted the menu. He had yet to appreciate their bevy of onlookers.

“Not even a quarter of it,” Megara assured him. “You’ve got plenty more to try.”

Hercules’s eyes were aglow with that prospect, but when he finally took a good enough look at her, he frowned. “What’s the matter? Did I eat too much? Are you still hungry?”

“Oh, it’s nothing you did…” Her eyes darted from his to a badly-hidden couple peering at them through some shrubbery. “We’ve just become… popular.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not… necessarily…” Megara cleared her throat. “I don’t know if they explain this concept to gods, but too much attention is bad for people. Even if they don’t mean it in a negative way, anyone who’s envious or approves a little too much can curse someone with the Evil Eye. The only remedies are good luck charms or the Eye of Athena.”

“The what?” Hercules frowned. “Athena’s… eyes? Oh! Do you mean the blue eye-shaped designs I see everywhere? That’s because of Athena?”

“They ward off evil in her name,” Megara clarified. “But then I guess…” she paused as she realized a pair of eager blue eyes were staring into hers, “You’re her brother. Maybe you have the same power.”

“I could! I’ll deflect any negativity! It’ll never get to you!” He scooted in closer and fixed her with a wide-eyed stare. “Is it working?”

Megara leaned back in her seat and covered her face, but her giggles still exploded past her hands. “You can’t look at me like that! It’s not fair!”

“What way am I looking at you?”

“I can’t! I’m not looking at you until you stop!”

While Megara’s eyes were still covered, they couldn’t block a pink light or a cheesy chorus of, “ Aphrodite, Aphrodite, Aphrodiiiteeee !”

This was so bizarre that Megara uncovered her eyes.

“ The goddess of love !”

Megara sat up straight. Was this the part where the goddess of love herself told her that this relationship could never work?

“Hey, kids,” Aphrodite said, sitting across the table from them as if she were a friend on this outing with them. “I’m so glad to see the two of you getting along!”

“Nice to see you, too, Aph… but could you please let us finish our date and then give us a review?”

“Oh, I know you’ll do great. That’s why I’m here.” Aphrodite raised her hands, and a pink scroll appeared between them. She then rolled the scroll across the table to them. “You may not be ready for this, but the way the two of you are moving and shaking, it’s only a matter of time, and I need to catch you while you’re still sane. People in love are really bad at following directions, so I’ll keep this simple. That scroll is full of instructions for things you can do that won’t make you pop out a demigod on your first try.”

Megara sat back and folded her hands in her lap. It was less obvious than covering her stomach. “What do you mean?”

“See, you haven’t been a couple for a full day yet, and that trajectory path is– well, it’s a slope. As the goddess responsible for love, you two have set off every alarm. Has anyone given you the demigod talk yet?”

Megara and Hercules exchanged confused glances, which was enough for Aprhodite to know she had to take it upon herself.

“There’s a reason most gods don’t cavort with humans. There’s an extreme power imbalance, so if a mortal woman lies with a god, there will always be a child as a result. Sorry, I don’t make the rules, but you two have to live by them. That’s why I made you this.” She tapped the scroll proudly. “This will help you solve that little issue by postponing the inevitable until you’ve had a chance to get to know each other better and figure this whole crazy thing out.”

“Is it that crazy?” Megara asked, even though she was talking to only the second god she’d ever met.

“Oh, honey, this is insane,” Aphrodite chuckled. “Zeus frowns on anything unconventional, and he’s the only one who’s ever openly fooled around by mortals. Hera’s only recently forgiven him. Anyway, this sort of thing usually doesn’t go well, but I want to change that. We’ve got a world of possibilities, and the love industry has gotten stale. So let’s make this work! We’ll make the two of you legendary!”

“Sounds awesome!” Hercules said. “Do you…” he scratched the back of his neck, “... know a lot about demigods?”

“They’re cute but demanding. Make sure you’ve got a plan! And by the way, what a lovely spot you’ve chosen! You clearly have excellent taste! You should try the theater next!” She blew them each a kiss, and then she rose into the sky on a trail of pink light.

Clarity pinched the back of Megara’s mind. Teiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes, had once told her, her cousins, and her sisters that many of them would die for love. That phrase hadn’t meant much at the time since a plague was ravaging her people, but now, she had to wonder if she would be counted among the bodies by the time the prophecy ran its course.

Hercules waited for a while before he asked, “Have I ruined your life by dating you?”

That question crystallized the prophecy and Aphrodite’s admonition as one. Megara shook her head, still formulating what she was about to say.

“It sure feels like this is way out of the ordinary and maybe dangerous.”

“It probably is dangerous. The way I see it, I’m probably supposed to be dead, but being with you has definitely ruined my chances of ever falling for another guy. You’re all I can think about.”

Chapter 10: Justice

The nearest theater to them had already begun a play. Rather than disrupt the performance, they perched with Pegasus on a hill overlooking the stage.

“I hang out with Dionysus, so I’ve seen a few plays, but I’m not sure I was sober enough to understand them,” Hercules mentioned to her during the second repetition of the chorus’s opening song.

Megara was distracted, but she looked up at him with a smile. “Oh, well, I study theater at school. I enjoy seeing professionals in the craft. It’s inspirational.”

“I’d love to see you onstage.”

“Well, I’d be under a mask, so at best, you’d hear me onstage.”

“You have a beautiful voice.”

“I’m well-trained.”

“I think you always had a beautiful voice, and they helped you realize it.”

“Maybe that’s true. You’re really good at finding ways to twist something into a compliment.”

“I’m only detangling the compliment from the tangled mess of humility you wrap it in. You ought to be proud of your accomplishments, but it’s like you’re afraid to be.”

Megara considered that, but as she watched the events on stage, she found herself less capable of reason. This was no mere play. This was the tragic life of Oedipus, her uncle-cousin, played out before her very eyes. Hercules was bound to recognize that this was the sordid history of her family any minute now!

“I’ve got to watch more plays,” Hercules said. “It’s like this is happening but not really happening, and I’m completely sober!”

“It’ll get wilder soon. You’ll probably think you’re drunk by the end of it.” Megara drew up her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them.

“Are you cold?” Hercules draped his arm and his cape over her shoulders and held her closer. 

While a zephyr lapped against their faces, the golden aura that surrounded Hercules enveloped Megara as well, making her feel as if this were no more than a mild spring afternoon. She hadn’t been cold before, but now she was lost in the intoxicating warmth of Hercules.

“Thanks,” she whispered. 

Now, she felt as if she might be drunk, as her head bobbled with an inability to process so much of him all at once. Aphrodite was right; they weren’t ready to dive into whatever activities were outlined in her scroll. At this juncture, she might faint dead away in the attempt.

Hercules rubbed gentle circles on Megara’s arm. “You’ve got to tell me what’s bothering you. I worry about it too much to let it drop.”

Her anxieties raged, but Megara knew there was ultimately no point in concealing the fact she was born into the family this play was exposing. Could she bring herself to speak the words?

Before she could muster enough courage to break the silence between them, someone onstage called on Creon. There was mention of Thebes and its many perils, and she felt a wave of understanding rush through Hercules into her.

“Do you want to leave?” he asked.

“I’m not sure… this is supposed to be our time getting to know each other, so… this is me. I’m sure one of those girls on stage is supposed to be me.”

“That’s where you came from, but it isn’t who you are. To me, you’re passionate and caring, and you have a firm sense of justice. That’s already more than anyone’s put onstage.”

Megara sat up straighter. She hadn’t expected any of that praise, nor did she know how to process it. Were those things true? They didn’t speak to how she saw herself at all.

“I can’t believe how much you’ve been through,” Hercules murmured after a few minutes of watching the events play out onstage. “That prophecy… I can’t let it come true.”

Megara shook her head. “This play is about how you shouldn’t try to alter the course of a prophecy. If it’s meant to be, nobody can change it.”

“Yes, I can,” Hercules retorted. 

There was no point arguing with a god.

“Maybe so,” she placated.

“Things change sometimes. My father overthrew his father, who overthrew his father before him. We’re doing something different now: talking about our disagreements. The whole order of the universe is better now, more peaceful. You’re going to see it. We’ll create something so much better together.”

Megara wasn’t ready to fully embrace this worldview, but the conviction in his voice was enough to banish most of her doubt.

At the end of the play, Hercules gasped and instinctively covered her eyes so she wouldn’t see the bloodied mask of Oedipus. “I’m so sorry you had to see that!” He whispered and kissed the top of her head to comfort her.

“I saw it already. I was a child, but I saw it.”

Hercules shuddered and began to rock her. “I wish I could’ve stopped it,” he whispered. “I was too oblivious… I didn’t know this would happen, or I wouldn’t have let it happen.”

This she believed.

“Everything here was set in motion before I was born,” Megara reminded him. “How much older are you than me?”

“I’m… uh… I don’t really know how old I am. It sort of doesn’t matter for someone like me.”

“It matters to me. Ask your mother.”

“Sure, maybe she’d remember.” Hercules brought her to her feet and studiously kept her turned away from the stage. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. You were supposed to have a perfect day with me.”

“I love how you think you can protect me from things that have already happened. You’ve already done more to set all of this right than the rest of the pantheon. Laius could’ve been punished without so much collateral damage. Someone could’ve created a less horrific punishment for the rest of us who were powerless to stop what he did. We should’ve been able to deal with the tragedies of his horrific behavior and move on, but no. All of us are forever shamed and imperiled by him.”

“Not forever,” Hercules said. “We’ll figure it out. Polynikes is out there somewhere. He might become a problem. But I’ll find him and stop him. Eteocles is a poor king, and I will remove his crown if he fails in his duties. If your father or mother should raise a hand against you, I will make them see the error of their ways. This ends in our generation. The next will know nothing of those hardships that we don’t tell them.”

The finality of his statement, coupled with the fact that he was in no uncertain terms referring to the children he intended to have with her, made Megara’s head spin. “You can do all that?”

“Nobody else has tried. I believe all that remains is to try.”

“I guess that’s the major difference between where we grew up. I’d never hear anyone from Thebes say something like that.”

“Never before,” Hercules corrected.

“Sure. But you still need to figure out what you’ll do with all this power of potential.”

“What would you recommend?”

At first, all she could do was stare at him. “You want my opinion?” She was so stunned by the opportunity to share her opinion without condemnation that she couldn't remember what it was.

“You have so much more experience and wisdom than I do. I couldn’t have realized there had to be change in the world if you didn’t show it to me. I’d have been lonely and confused, but I wouldn’t know that I had a job to do. I’ve always been sort of… admired for doing nothing?” he made a face. “That sounds a bit wrong…” He scratched the back of his neck. “But I was born beloved and never did anything to earn it, and then there was no way to go, but down, so I’ve been on a plateau for a long time. You’ve got a fresh perspective. You can teach me how to be better. So yes. I’d like to know what you think I should do.” He took both her hands and gave them an encouraging squeeze. “Please.”

“In that case…” She couldn’t think while staring at him. Megara turned away to collect her thoughts. “There ought to be some way to make things right,” Megara said. “I know Laius was a bad person, but that doesn’t mean every man in a position about to get cursed is pure evil. I feel like the gods could do a better job of recognizing when someone is intentionally or unintentionally trespassing against Olympian morality. I mean, even some laws on Olympus could be more flexible. Your father still has Prometheus chained up, and he’s getting his liver eaten out every day because he gave us fire. Without fire, we’d die. I feel like there’s a lack of appreciation for mortal frailty all around.”

“You’re right; all of that’s awful. I’m sure if I talk to my father, he’ll understand. You make it all make so much sense! Don’t worry,” he nudged her softly with his shoulder. “My father’s a reasonable guy, and he’s the god of justice. He’ll see it for what it is, and he’ll do the right thing.”

Megara watched him for a moment, wondering if it would occur to him that his father hadn’t seen fit to change things yet, and he’d had centuries in the case of Prometheus. Saying anything about that might provoke reprisals from Olympus, and she was already pushing her luck. Someone might credibly accuse her of hubris now, so she would have to make peace with her blessings and not reach any higher.

“Is something wrong?” Hercules brushed her hair from her face to get a better look at her expression.

“Oh, I was thinking… we’ll have to go our separate ways soon.” She didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to be with him always. But that was foolish. She’d never get away with that.

“We do?” Hercules asked. Why? Is there a time limit on dates? I’m sorry, nobody told me. I wasn’t sure I was doing this right…”

“I’ll fall asleep soon, and we can’t… shouldn’t… I mean… it’s not usually done to stay out all night…”

“Do you want to go home?”

“No, I’d rather stay with you forever.”

A light shone out of Hercules that didn’t hurt her eyes, but it washed away the budding shame she felt for revealing the depth of her affection for him. He took her hand and put it over his heart. “We can find a way, Meg. Soon.” He held her hand over his heart, then pulled her closer with an arm around her waist. “But you’re right… Aphrodite had a point: we’re moving so fast… If we don’t separate for now, there’s no telling what’ll happen…”

She knew exactly what would happen. She could feel it starting now. Though she knew that given a minute more to abandon her inhibitions, she’d beg him to take her right there on the ridge; the time was not yet ripe. “Come see me tomorrow,” she whispered, then pecked his lips with a kiss that was just as brief as it was adoring. It’s about time I went home and got rested up. I’ll need my energy to keep up with you tomorrow.”

Chapter 11: Mortality

Hercules landed Pegasus in the center of the Theban palace’s courtyard and helped Megara down. His hands lingered at her waist, and Megara gazed up at him in the starlight.

“When I wake up tomorrow, I’ll think you were a dream… you must be one. Nothing as wonderful as you has ever been part of my life. It’s so difficult to believe you’re here with me.”

“I’m here,” Hercules assured her. He squeezed her hips, making her gasp. He loved how easily he could get a reaction out of her. “See? Real. Besides, even if you think I’m a dream when you wake, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hercules said and kissed her forehead, intending to tell her good night and walk away. Except that when he pulled back, he couldn’t bring himself to separate from the one person that filled his heart. “I don’t want to leave you, though.”

“Then stay.” Megara tugged him toward her bedroom door. “At least for a little while, we don’t have to be apart.”

“Are you sure that’s proper?” he asked. “What if something… uh…” he brushed his hair over his shoulder. “I… don’t want to do anything that’ll stick… um… with you.”

“We don’t have to do anything. All we have to do is be together. Who knows what’s been going on here while we were out? Maybe my cousins are planning vengeance on me. We should stay together so you’ll be able to help if I need it.”

It was all too easy to recall the mental image of when the king, Megara’s cousin, had tried to choke the life out of her. Perhaps she was trying to cajole him, but it was working. He could see the necessity of being with her, but could he be with her at all times? Surely, there were monsters out there that he had to fight while keeping her safe somewhere. But was anywhere truly safe?

“I will hear you call for help wherever I am,” Hercules told her and took a hanging curl from her headpiece to toy with between his fingers. Then he allowed it to spring back into place while he smiled. “I felt it when you were… suffering… earlier.”

“If you think that’s enough…” she sighed and dropped his hand. “Do I seem… lecherous to you?” She blushed at having said the word

“N-no, not at all. Th-the bedroom’s your… one place you can entertain guests…”

“And I’m tired,” she added. She was blushing. It took longer in the moonlight, but he saw that blush spread across her face.

Hercules cupped her face in his hands and brushed his thumbs along her cheeks. “I think there’s something I could do for you,” he said. “What if I left a mark on you so everyone would know not to mess with you, and the ones who do would summon me?”

“A mark? Like a tattoo?”

“Well. It wouldn’t have to be something people see all the time. Not if you don’t want it to be. But I could find a way to show off your connection to me that would ward off anyone who might try and hurt you… and if it doesn’t, I’ll kill him.”

“Why do you assume only men would try to kill me? Jealousy is a powerful instigator.”

“Jealousy? Because you’re prettier?”

“No, because you’re a god and hotter than any guy they could land.”

“Oh…” he hesitated. So… is that a yes or a no?” He wanted to do everything as it pleased her, but he still couldn’t erase the thought that he had to mark her now, for both of their sakes. “I’ve never done it before; it’s probably silly. Maybe I was overreacting, thinking you’re more vulnerable than you are. I’ll listen when you call to me.”

“Maybe some other time,” Megara suggested. “I wouldn’t have a problem with it. It would be more of you.”

Hercules’s heart fluttered. He wasn’t sure if he could contain this joy, but he knew if he let it show, he’d look pathetic in front of her. “I’ll guard you while you fall asleep, and then I have to go talk to my parents.”

“What will you tell them?” Even in the starlight, he could see the pink flood her face.

“They need to know I found the girl I’ll spend my whole life with.” His hand lingered on her cheek, and he knew that the moment he left, he would wish he stayed. 

“Come with me, and we’ll read Aphrodits’s scroll.” Megara pulled the scroll from her hip sash. “It’ll give us something to think about even when we’re apart.”

Hercules’s mouth felt dry, the same way it would if he thirsted for nectar. He couldn’t refuse. “Show me the way then.”

Megara led him into her room and barred the door behind them. She sat on the bed and gestured for him to follow.

“I’ll… uh…” Hercules sat on the floor beside her legs. “I don’t think this is the right time for that yet.”

“Fine,” Megara slipped one leg free of the slit in her dress and brushed it against his cheek. “But I can make sitting there just as interesting.”

“Oh…” Hercules leaned away from her leg, but he couldn’t stop staring at it. He slowly slid to one side, smiling sheepishly up at her. “Are you sure you need that scroll?”

“If a goddess said I did, then I must, right?” Megara unrolled the scroll and pondered the contents of the first sheet of papyrus within.

“Is it… very complicated?” he asked, scooting back toward her.

“No, it’s oddly simple.”

“What is it?” Hercules got up on his knees to see. 

The first few entries on the scroll were about the philosophy of love, featuring remarks on the dynamic between the two of them as a god and a mortal. He couldn’t absorb it all at once, but he wished he wasn’t so nervous. He might have made some pithy observation that impressed his new girlfriend.

Instead, Megara unrolled the scroll further and discovered the first image of the two of them partially clothed, entwined in an adoring embrace. The picture clearly captured not only their size difference but also their personal features.

Each of the images showed the two of them kissing, but the more Megara unrolled the scroll, the images that were revealed showed them with their mouths on one another’s–

“I think that’s enough for now!” Hercules jumped off the floor and walked to the opposite side of the room, scratching the back of his neck. He started pacing the room, hot with thoughts of what he was capable of doing with her.

“Are you scared of it?” Megara’s voice was so small and vulnerable that it caught him off guard and dragged him back to her side.

“No. I’m not afraid, but I don’t think I’m ready for so much at once. All I need to know is if you’re grossed out by it.”

“No. It’s… sort of cute in a way. Look how happy you look.” She held up an image of him with his face buried in her legs. “I’ll let you do that any time.”

“ Oh …” Hercules pressed his hand to his temple and wobbled on his feet. 

Megara caught his hand. “Soon, but not now. I’ll study this, and then I’ll give it to you, and maybe it won’t be so overwhelming the next time you see it.”

“When it comes to you,” he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, “everything will overwhelm me. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

Megara got to her feet and pulled him down into a proper kiss. “We’ve got time to figure this whole thing out between us. We need to make rules for ourselves because we don’t have to be like anyone else before us.”

“You’re right.” Hercules lifted her to his eye level and leaned back so their next kiss would fully engulf her in his arms and press her against him. This was greater than any experience on Olympus. There was no comparison.

He slowly set her down on her bed and helped pull her hair free of the accessories she was wearing. “Sleep well, love. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

“It would be so much easier to sleep if you stayed,” she told him.

A shiver of longing went through him. “I don’t trust myself. I don’t want to give you a child so soon after meeting you. You need to be treasured as you are before you take on any burdens.”

“We could just sleep next to each other without any of that.”

“I wish I knew I had enough control for that,” Hercules said. “I won’t risk your well-being on my weaknesses.”

“You have weaknesses?” Megara asked, her eyes wide and tracing his physique.

Hercules laughed nervously. “Well, yeah, but… obviously not physical ones. I mean, I’m still a person, even though I’m a god. I’ve spent most of my life alone, and suddenly I have you… You’re more important to me than anything else in my life.”

“So soon?”

“I know what life’s like without you, and I never want to go back. You’re the only person in my life that doesn’t require me to prove I’m worth something. Yeah, I helped you, but you thought you would look at me when nobody else would. You gave me a purpose, and I’ll never forget that gift.” He lifted her into his arms once more, then set her down on the bed. “Sleep well, my love. I’ll return to you soon.”

He rested his hand on her brow and poured warm, gentle happiness into her, then slowly departed through her door.

Unlike when he flew before with Megara, Hercules streaked through the sky like a shooting star in reverse. He flew so high that constellations waved at him as he passed by. Virgo twirled starry hair around her finger. Aries the ram trotted after him a ways. Bootes, the ancient hero, swung a club and cheered in greeting.

Hercules crowed with joy and jumped off of Pegasus’s back. He fell through the atmosphere, arms outstretched to embrace the cosmos.

Never in his untroubled life had he reveled in such glee. He’d conquered his own ennui. Life held meaning at last, and he’d never let it go.

Pegasus caught him and he lay slack along his buddy’s back.

Everything he saw seemed more beautiful than before.

“Son! What’s made you so happy?” His father’s voice caught a scrap of his attention. Zeus had manifested himself in the clouds as a floating head. 

Hercules sighed blissfully and resumed a proper mount on Pegasus’s back and corkscrewed down toward the cloud.  “I can’t wait to tell you, Father!”

As he reached the cloud bank etched with Zeus’s face, the god himself manifested and seated himself on a chair made from the clouds. “I’m all ears, son!” he said, adding a footstool made from the clouds to help him lean back on his chair.

“I’m in love!” Hercules exclaimed. “I can’t stop thinking about Meg!  She’s the most wonderful , most beautiful girl in the cosmos! I can’t wait to see her again! I want to spend the rest of my life with her!” As he spoke, Hercules vaulted onto a set of parallel bars he fashioned from the clouds. He sailed in a circle around the bar, then lay back on it with a sigh. “I’ve never felt like this before, Father… She’s everything I’ve been missing in my life…”

Zeus regarded his son unmoved. “So, have you lain with her?”

Hercules startled with a blush, sat upright too fast, and dropped down to bounce off the clouds. “Father!” he scolded once he was back on his feet. “We just met!”

“What difference does that make?” Zeus asked.

“It… makes a lot of difference? We need to get to know each other better.”

Zeus rolled his eyes. “But Aphrodite gave you the talk? About demigods?” He took his son’s mortified silence as an invitation to keep talking. “Son, demigods can be a serious commitment. You’ll pass on some facet of your nature to the child, who may be a hero someday. You’ll have to give advice, and always remember that he or she is running around until they die.”

That horrid word stung Hercules to his core.

What could part that word from the ones he loved?

“Well, son?”

“No, I’ve not lain with her.”

“Do you intend to?”

Yes.

He wanted nothing more than to bury himself in her and lose all sense of self. He wanted to be one with Megara and show her the depths of his gratitude for awakening him from interminable boredom.

“Not yet,” he said. “Aphrodite gave us a scroll to help us explore each other without… er…”

“How long do you plan to prolong this phase?”

“Phase? I mean… for… ever?”

Zeus sighed. “Hercules… Son… mortals don’t last forever.”

Revulsion against that statement stirred in Hercules’s chest. He'd never allow his beautiful Meg to wither away, and her hair would never go gray. He wished to kiss her lips forever and so he could not allow them to rot off her bones.

“Father, I wish to formally request that we make her my divine consort in the near future if she agrees. I can’t lose her.”

“Sure you can; I’ve lost dozens of mortals,” Zeus said.

Hercules blinked a few times and decided the best thing to do was roll past the topic and into the next. “If you loved Meg, you wouldn’t want her to die, either. Wouldn’t you change the rules to stay with someone you loved?”

“The rules are unshakable,” Zeus said. “I’m the one who made them. Why would I undermine my own authority?”

“Because your son loves someone, and you don’t want him to lose her?” Hercules felt himself pouting but didn’t stop it in case it helped him plead for his beloved.

“I know you think you love her, but she’s nothing more than a pet. You will be distracted by her for a time, but you must learn to let go.”

Hercules pointed to Pegasus. “I’m not letting go of Pegasus, and he’s technically a pet.”

Pegasus chirped at the offense.

“Sorry, but it’s a technicality,” Hercules said. 

“This Meg girl can be replaced with hundreds of girls like her. You have to learn that you shouldn’t immortalize a girl he’ll get tired of. Once you’re sick of her, you won’t be able to  escape.”

Hercules balked at this. “What are you talking about? You don’t even know Meg! How can you judge her?”

“She’s mortal. You can’t possibly understand because you haven’t spent enough time with them, but mortals are limited, fleeting creatures. They’re amusing, but they’re meant to worship us. What you’re doing is unnatural, heaping worship on a mortal girl.”

This cold reply shook Hercules. He’d had so few reasons to cry in his entire existence that this one caught him off-guard. He dropped to the clouds on his knees and let the tears burn trails down his face. “What… what if I did spend time with mortals, and I knew better?”

“You should remember your place in the cosmos,” Zeus said. “It’s unbecoming of a young god like you to break down and weep over a mortal. Remember your telos. You are a god of masculinity and strength, not sorrows and hysteria.”

“So that’s it? I have no way to win her life, and all you’ll do is ridicule me?”

A void emptied beneath him, and Hercules could sense the oncoming ennui ready to swallow him whole and leave nothing. 

“Give it time. Remember who you are, and shake it off. I’ll see you for nectar and ambrosia soon,” Zeus said. Then he was gone.

Hercules dropped to fully stretch out against the cloud, racked with sobs for the future of the girl he loved. Zeus had to be wrong. There had to be a way. If only he could think of one.

Chapter 12: Part of Your World

All night, Hercules watched life in Thebes return to normal. There were crews of people sent out to the field to fill in crevices opened in the earth and clean up any bodies. He hated the sight of the dead, but seeing them only threw into vivid relief what would happen to Megara if he didn’t act somehow.

He sat on a cloud with a sleeping Pegasus and sailed overhead to look down upon the people within the city walls. It wasn’t long before his desire to see Megara again drew him to the crest of the acropolis again. Nobody could see him, but he saw his beloved below, holding a scroll– not that scroll– and giving orders.

It seemed that people were building mobile structures. What were they for?

Pegasus rolled over on the cloud and whinnied sleepily.

Hercules checked his friend over his shoulder, and when he looked back down at Megara, he found her conversing with the king. Her cousin.

Megara put her tablet with its papyrus list between her and her cousin as a shield and backed away from him. He pursued.

Hercules was getting sick of this guy. Didn’t he know better than to mess with his girl?

He lowered his cloud closer and sought their words in the air.

“Leave me alone!” was a predictable thing for Megara to say, but the note of fear in it tugged at Hercules’s heart.

“You owe it to this family!” the detestable king countered. “We have been trying to marry you off for so long, but nobody wants you, and all of a sudden, you have a direct line to a god?”

“He’s done everything he’s going to for you! What’s between the two of us is personal, and you won’t get a thing from me!”

Hercules couldn’t help but smile. Her ferocity made him a little light-headed. 

Even as the rough voices of builders invoked him, he acknowledged them at the minimum so he could focus on Megara. She evaded her cousin once more, but he caught her by the wrist and swung her around so he could catch the other one despite her attempt to punch him using his momentum.

Leaning over the edge of the cloud, Hercules gripped the fluffy edge of it and forced himself to remain calm. He hadn’t seen much of Megara’s life, but the last time he’d intervened at the palace, she’d almost died. It may not take years for her to die of old age, now that he thought of it. As long as she was in this palace, there was no assurance that she would survive the week! He had to get her out of there!

Hercules drew his hand back, ready to summon Megara onto his cloud with him, but he wondered if that was safe, considering she was mortal. While he was still deliberating, he watched as Megara was thrown to the ground.

Many ran to her, but Eteocles screamed, “I am the king! I will mete out justice to the insubordinate!” He lodged a kick in her ribs, and Hercules watched her recoil. Eteocles brought Megara back up, limp and groaning, and whispered in her ear while Megara tried to fight free.

This was more than enough. Eteocles had failed to heed his final warning.

Hercules was moved to action, unthinking and brutal. Never in his life had he been so enraged, so incensed on behalf of another. He’d given this man one chance when he saw him choking the life out of Megara before, but now, he would receive no further mercy.

The cloud Hercules sat on started to glow with his red-gold rage, and he stood upon it, harnessing all his rage into a single beam of light. His concentrated ire shot silently, without warning, toward the King of Thebes. It left a hole through his skull the size of an egg, and he collapsed, toppling Megara with him.

None could deny the divine origin of the beam. Hercules watched them scurry about the courtyard while Megara forced herself to her feet and reoriented herself. She looked in every direction until she saw the cloud, which had doubtless been much altered by Hercules’s fury.

Unlike his father, who rumbled and darkened the sky and let off a heavy crack of sound at the release of his thunderbolts, Hercules had never smitten anyone. He hadn’t thought to give a warning, and after all, he’d given a verbal one already. One, and only one.

Megara raised her arm to block the light off the cloud and gazed up in his direction. Did she know it was he who had carried out this righteous smiting on her behalf? Already, the body of her cousin lay limp at her feet, and he wished to remove her from it.

He’d never seen his father smite someone before, but his recent acquaintance with the concept of death and corpses was not a pleasant one. He wished that a body would fade after its death, but he knew well enough now that it wouldn’t. It created a gruesome sight on the courtyard floor, but the blood wouldn’t flow from the body. Eteocles’s brain and blood were cauterized by the blast.

All those mortals other than Megara dropped to their knees, and now he heard their tearful propitiations, begging him for forgiveness and protection from his wrath. A flood of begging prayers flooded Hercules’s mind, but his anger was now satisfied.

He responded to these prayers with a firm, gentle voice, saying: “I will kill all who do harm to Princess Megara. He had one warning, and this is yours. Treat her with care, and honor her name. Do not test my patience.”

Now that he had carried out this execution, Thebes would require a new king.

Rage-saturated ichor flowed through Hercules’s veins, and he wondered if he were going out of his mind.

No, he decided when he saw Megara limping along with a servant who brought her to a couch while another shaded her with a parasol. If he had waited, he might not have a Meg, anymore.

Servants brought her wine and cheese, but there didn’t seem to be anyone who’d check on her physically.

Hercules watched as the servants scurried away from her, and Megara curled up on the couch. 

He ought to go down there and check on her. He could use his healing powers like he’d done before. Everyone else was distracted by the hole in their king's skull.

Clearly, he could’ve thought through the proportionality of his response, but he wasn’t a mortal who would be chased around by the Furies. If someone had to take this creature out, at least it was him, and he could defend his reasoning to anyone.

“Yeesh, isn’t it a little creepy watchin’ your girl from up here?”

Hercules narrowed his eyes rather than turning his head toward his uncle. “Aren’t you a bit out of your domain right now?”

“Hey! I’m just sayin’. I came up here to check on that kingly corpse. Can’t say I’m not surprised you started a murder venture. I didn’t think we’d ever have something in common!”

“Isn’t murder that thing you do when someone doesn’t deserve to die and you ruin everything?” Hercules asked. “I sort of thought that was a hobby of yours. My father is the god of Justice. Why shouldn’t I carry out justice when mortals can’t?”

“Hey, hey! I’m not judging; that’s your department. But you know, I could suggest a few more people you should put a hole through. By the way, nice, clean handiwork! Not like your dad, yeesh! This kill had class!”

“Get off of my cloud, okay? I’m not in business with you or your lame attempts to make me like you.”

Hades slung an unwelcome arm around his shoulders. “Not so fast! Ya see that girl down there? Well, technically, for now, she belongs to you, but in the end, they all eventually belong to me.”

The same urge to smite arose in Hercules, though he knew it wouldn’t work on Hades as effectively. He’d have to do something, though. His aura flared up as if the light of it could repel his uncle. “I’m not kidding. Leave me alone.”

“It’s just such a shame you can’t spend more time with her because, hey, she’s mortal! She’ll probably get married soon, you know. Mortal girls never stay single for long, and y’know, she’s got curves that’ll–”

Hercules swung a backhanded fist into Hades’s face. “Not. Another. Word.”

But Hades had a point.

Under normal circumstances, Megara would already be married. Zeus had made it clear that he couldn’t marry her and that he wouldn’t make her a goddess to live with him.

Hades finally moved further away from him. “I’m tryin’ to talk to you, you little–!” Hades flared up with flame that might’ve done some real damage if he weren’t immune to it.

Hercules glared at his uncle, hoping to intimidate him off the cloud so he could get back to thinking over his options.

What he got in return was a seething rage that made what he felt seem insignificant in comparison. It was a deep-seated, murderous poison that made him shiver. What had he ever done for his obnoxious uncle to hate him so much?

As quickly as he’d seen it, that hatred vanished behind a pleasant (enough) veneer. He was not stupid enough to believe it. “I’m no expert on love,” Hades started.

“Obviously,” Hercules snarled back.

“But I think no couple can stay together if they’re too different. You see, I brought this little potion along, and I thought you’d consider taking it. That is if you care about her enough.” Black smoke surrounded Hades’s hand, and a glass vial appeared in his palm, topped with a skull and full of a magenta liquid. “It’s available if you ever want to go down there and try your luck.”

“I can go down there whenever I want,” Hercules reminded him. “I was there yesterday.”

“As a tourist !” Hades barked out a laugh. “But you should be thinking long-term. You’re not as dumb as your father, are you?”

“Will you buzz off?” Hercules snapped. “Bring me one that’ll make her a goddess, and we’ll talk.”

Hades’s fake smile vanished. “So, ya don’t really wanna end up with this girl, after all, do ya?”

“I’m not going to become mortal, so you can take potshots at me, no. So go back to your musty basement and count your cobwebs or something. I’ve got a life to figure out, and you’ve got… I’m not sure. I think maybe you’ve got some kind of hobby? Dolls, right?”

“You really are a gem, aren’t you?” Hades snarled. “But don’t bother listening to your dear old uncle. I only know what happens to mortals in too short a time. You seem to be slowly figuring that out, but I gotta wonder: How long before she breaks it off with you because she’s sick o’ waiting around for ya?” Hades exploded into a cloud of smoke that made Hercules gag.

He knew it was on purpose and that his uncle was somewhere enjoying watching him choke. He brushed the last remnants of the smoke away from his face and glared at the empty bit of sky his uncle had occupied.

How dumb did Hades think he was to take that potion?

Or maybe not stupid, but emotional.

His eyes wandered down to the courtyard again.

Meg was taking a nap. He shouldn’t disturb her, but he knew he needed to be close to her.

Maybe he shouldn’t be a real mortal, but nothing was stopping him from a little charade.

“Pegasus,” he said over his shoulder, “how’d you like to meet some nice mares at a stable in Thebes?”

Chapter 13: Alcides

Supposedly, the people of Thebes mourned their king the day after his death. Megara sat in her school’s amphitheater, trying not to roll her eyes out of her head. Everyone knew Eteocles was personally responsible for the narrowly averted war that had almost wiped them out. The only person who seemed genuinely broken up about the situation was Antigone, and you might’ve thought she was the heroine of a tragedy for how she carried on.

“Eteocles was my brother, the son of Oedipus. Whoever takes the crown next must be just as worthy as him,” Antigone said.

“Here we go,” Megara muttered to herself.

“I believe it is our duty to call upon the esteemed Polynikes to take his rightful place and finally end this conflict,” Antigone said.

The entire auditorium gasped.

Antigone was a senior royal. Despite the obvious horror on everyone’s faces, they knew there was no way to speak up without being silenced by the crown.

Everyone except for Megara. She got out of her seat and saw the rage in Antigone’s eyes at the mere sight of her. “Polynikes is an inbred bastard who should never wear a crown,” she said. “Thebes will never accept him as a king.”

“How dare you, Megara? Sit down!” Antigone snapped.

“Oh, get over your tantrum, Tigs,” Megara spat. “Remember that fun little joke he pulled on the city by planning to wipe us out?”

A few people murmured support for what she had to say, but Megara kept her eyes fixed on her cousin.

“How dare you speak this way in front of the commoners?” Antigone shouted.

“You’re the one out here insulting everyone’s intelligence! Go home and try to think of ways to be a decent person, or so help me, I’ll tell Haemon to break faith with you!”

“Go ahead!” Antigone gripped the podium as her face reddened. “Show the whole family how childish and selfish you are!”

“Are you serious? Do you hear yourself talking?” Megara shook her head, and her ponytail whipped around to hit the people near her. “You’re the one here who lacks empathy! You’re forcing the rest of us to pretend your brother wasn’t a worthless meat sack and that the other one is any better! It’s time your line stopped inflicting horrors on our people, including your horrendous speech! Go home before you embarrass yourself and the rest of us any further!”

Antigone began to disagree, but Haemon appeared from backstage. He whispered to her and guided her off stage, giving Megara a sad, sympathetic look on the way out.

The head teacher and theater director took their place and, among other mourning minutia, introduced a new student.

“Who would bother coming here for the first time on a day like today?” Megara wondered aloud.

All eyes turned to the search for a new student, but the boy ended that search with a wave.  “Hey, everyone!” he called cheerfully. He got to his feet and posed with his fists on his hips, looking up with a grin as he showed off what was a passably fit physique for a teenager. “I’m Alcides!”

A few people started to chuckle, and one person shouted, “No one cares!”

“Be nice to the new kid,” Megara said. “He had terrible timing, and he’s obviously a little out of place, but nobody cares about you, either!”

The new kid looked right at Megara as if trying to share a secret with her. He was a conventionally attractive boy with an athletic, tanned frame. He had chestnut brown hair tinged with gold that curled around his face in an unruly mane. Despite his attractiveness, he seemed uncomfortable in his own skin. He shifted around as if looking for a comfortable stance, but something that didn’t change was the way he looked at her.

If she hadn’t spent so much of her time recently locking lips with a god, she might’ve struck up a conversation with this guy.

Megara rolled her eyes. “Oh, now I get it. You’re a weirdo.”

He laughed. “I guess I am!”

Megara looked away. He was a temporary distraction from the Hades-on-earth that was high school, but his chipper attitude was getting on her nerves.

Someone nudged her shoulder from behind. “Wanna get out of this lame session?” Theron asked when she turned to look at him.

“Yeah, but not with you,” Megara said. “I’ve got a boyfriend now, and the last guy who messed with me got a hole through his head.” She rose from her seat in a huff and strode out of the amphitheater as soon as the speaker was finished.

A set of footsteps close at her heels put up Megara’s defenses, but she didn’t turn to let her shadow on to the fact she knew he or she was there. She took a sharp corner and whirled around to see Theron keep walking, only to slow down and backpedal in her direction.

“What do you want?” Megara demanded.

“Obviously, this thing with your cousin is bothering you more than you’re letting on,” Theron said. “You don’t seem the type to admit it, but I know you’re bothered. You can tell me about it, though. Nobody else has to hear.”

“What makes you think it’s any of your business?” Megara snapped, folding her arms. “Guess what? My business is not your business.”

“Oh, sure,” Theron said. “Not yet. But I understand you better than a lot of people here would. Is it true you were there when he died?”

“Yeah, because he got killed for messing with me. He was trying to coerce me into marrying him. Kind of like how you’re trying to pry into my business as if it has anything to do with you. Remember that small detail where my boyfriend is a god? Are you planning to what? Wrestle the god of strength? You’re better off walking away before either of us gets irritated enough with you to do something about it.” She turned her back on him. That was a mistake.

“Listen to me!” Theron gripped her arm so tightly that the bruises Eteocles had left before his death were reinflamed. 

She yelped, and her knees buckled. “Let go!”

“Stay still for a minute and listen!” Theron snarled at her.

“Take your hand off me!” Megara pushed on his hand, but he wouldn’t relax his hold. 

“Stop making a scene!” Theron dragged her closer, and then an idea occurred to him. “We’ll have to go behind the scenes for this talk.” He dragged her heedless of her attempts to free herself, and Megara felt her hope diminish with every step. He yanked a door open and then hurled her through it. 

Megara leaned heavily on her side and sat stunned while he barred the door.

How was she going to get out of this one?

Hercules. How would she reach Hercules in this place?

Megara’s mind swam with confusion while she tried to force reason between her ears. Unfortunately for her, she was mired in confusion as Theron approached again.

“Do you even care what we commoners have been through during this whole thing?” he demanded.

“Sure, it’s been bad,” she mumbled.

“Nobody would ever ask you to go to war!” Theron continued as if she hadn’t spoken. He grabbed a stage sword from a costume rack and approached her with it. “You think none of this affects you, don’t you? As a princess, you’re exempt from the things that we have to go through, so none of it matters!”

“Listen, I barely know you, but you seemed like a not-terrible person until this morning. How about you put down the sword, and we’ll talk about this outside?”

“No! You’re going to sit there and hear me out!” Theron leaned over her. “I’ve done something desperate to survive your family’s petty war, you know. Hear me out. You owe me.”

“I literally have nowhere else to go right now,” Megara said. Had she broken a bone? Her body felt so rattled and numb that she likely wouldn’t know.

“You know Hades? He offered me a deal. If I could find someone who would die for me, I would live. But I didn’t go with that option. I raised him one better. If I could find someone who would serve him, he’d protect me from danger.”

“So what? Do you expect me to volunteer? Who do you think you are to me?”

Theron lifted her off the ground, his grasp so tight she couldn’t breathe. “I think I’m someone you never gave a chance because you’re enamored with a god. But I’m the realistic option. Gods always leave their mortal paramours. He’ll forget you and leave you when the next pretty young thing presents herself. You can’t stay young and beautiful forever like he can. What are you realistically worth to him?”

“More than you are to me,” Megara remarked with a defiant jut of her chin. “Get your hands off me, Theron, before you do something you can’t talk your way out of.”

Someone knocked on the backstage door. “Meg? Are you in there?”

That voice sounded familiar, and she would’ve worked harder to figure out who it belonged to if not for the way Theron shook her.

“Who is that guy? How does he know your name?”

“It’s… I don’t know; maybe it's the new kid? I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

“You should’ve always been my girl,” Theron said. “Now you’re basically more interested in that new kid than me.”

“Maybe because he hasn’t assaulted me?” Megara suggested.

“This isn’t assault,” Theron said. “This is me reminding you who you should love. Not some know-nothing god, but me.” He pulled her in tighter for a kiss. He pressed his whole body to hers, and she felt the telltale hint that he had plans for her.

With all her might, Megara tried to force her way free while someone banged harder on the door. 

“I’m coming in there!” The voice was full of rage.

“Ignore him,” Theron said, then went back to kissing her.

The door burst open despite the bar that held it closed, and a figure marched into the room.

“Meg?” The voice was different now, wounded but even more familiar. “What are you? Who is this?”

“Will you mind your own business, dweeb?” Theron snapped at Alcides.

Megara gasped several hoarse breaths into her lungs and balanced on all fours. “Get… away… from me!” she crawled away from Theron, who snagged her by the hair.

“We have unfinished business to discuss,” he told Alcides. “You’d better remove yourself from our business.”

“Stop it,” Megara begged and felt a little of her pride dissipate with the words.

“Yeah, stop it!” Alcides lunged at Theron and tackled him to the ground.

At first, Theron maintained a grip on Megara’s hair that made her move a few inches after him, but his hand spasmed open with the first few punches from Alcides.

“What did you think you were doing?” Alcides roared. “Who do you think you are?” He kept punching Theron, who could only lie prone and sputtering.

A small cluster of students had gathered at the door and peered down the stairs at them. 

Megara tried to collect herself, but she was now covered in bruises, and her hair was a mess. Nobody would believe she’d emerged from this unscathed. They might think a few other things, too, unless she could present proof that nothing had happened—not because it wouldn’t have, but because Alcides had interrupted them.

She inched toward the door, hoping to escape both boys who had seemingly too much interest in her.

What would Hercules think?

“You’ve got to stop punching him!” a student pleaded with Alcides. “He’s going to die!”

Alcides raised his fist one more time, then paused. 

Theron lay bloodied beneath him, and he seemed to see through the red-hot rage in his heart. Finally, he let up and dragged Theron to his feet.

“Get out of here,” Alcides ordered and shoved Theron toward the door. “Don’t touch her again, or I swear by Zeus Almighty I’ll smite you where you stand!”

Theron spat blood onto the ground. “Everyone knows you’re a brute, new guy! We will only learn your name to remark on how great a monster you are!”

“How am I the monster when you dragged a girl in here to violate her?” Alcides demanded. “She didn’t want to be with you, so you thought you could take her?”

Megara blinked at Alcides in astonishment. Aside from her brothers, he was the first mortal man she knew who didn’t believe “no” meant “yes.” Where was this guy from? Could Thebes start an exchange program and never take their guys back?

“You don’t know the whole story here, man!” Theron said. “She would’ve been my girlfriend! But then she had to get all delusional. She believes a god could love her.” He walked toward the stairs, and their fellow students parted so they wouldn’t have to stand beside him. He took hold of Megara’s hand. “She belongs to me. She might not know it right now, but you can’t keep her from me. It’s destiny. She’s going to come with me, and then she’ll understand. She’ll know why we have to be together.”

Unsuccessfully, Megara tried to yank herself free.

“None of that! Behave yourself!” Theron started to drag her back up the same stairs he’d thrown her from, but Alcides was right there with him.

Megara hadn’t even seen him move.

“Unhand her!” Alcides punched Theron in the solar plexus so hard he flew into the air.

He went up the stairs, howling in fear, then over the walls of the school. He landed with a heavy crash, and the screaming stopped.

Everyone now stared at Alcides in disbelief.

Any hope he’d pass for normal was gone with the wind.

Chapter 14: Cover Blown

Blinding rage had seized Hercules by the throat at the sight of a boy harming his Meg. How many days in a row would someone raise a hand against her? How many times would he hear her scream or watch bruises form olive-dark against her skin? The boy was now forgotten.

Many of the onlookers who had originally watched him throw the door were gone now, fearful of the man who’d done it. Good. He didn’t need distractions or anyone who could potentially get hurt if he weren’t paying attention. He wasn’t all that good at paying attention to anything but Meg at the moment.

Hercules crouched beside Megara, and he helped her sit, hearing a crackling noise as she hissed with pain. 

“Yeah, well, I can handle it from here.” She flinched away from him. “You’re the one who needs the help! What do you think you’re doing? Who are you?” she whispered through teeth gritted against the pain. “You’re obviously not from here.”

“Definitely not,” he whispered back with a low chuckle. “We’ll talk about it later. You’re hurt. Let me help you.”

Megara shied away from him. “Look, New Guy, I didn’t want the other guy pawing at me, so don’t you start, too!” Through the harshness in her voice, Hercules saw what was really driving her: fear.

Why should she be afraid of him? He was the one who’d come to save her. “Meg, I’m not some random new guy. I’m the man who loves you. I would do anything to protect you.”

“Herc?” Her eyes widened with recognition. “Why did you...?”

“My father said I couldn’t be with you because I’m a god, and you’re a mortal. But he doesn’t know where I am right now, and if he searched for me, he would only see a mortal boy with the girl he loves.” He winked. “What he doesn’t see, he can’t control.”

She gasped. “You’re defying the will of your father?”

“To be with you. You’re more important than he is or ever could be.” He eased her to her feet, keeping her balanced against his side. “Can you walk?”

Her lips twitched, holding back a grimace of pain. The answer was no, but she wouldn’t admit that.

“As long as we’re cautious, I can be with you,” he assured her, working his aura through her skin and into her bones.

“Cautious like hurling a guy so far your father probably saw him whizz past Olympus?”

Good. Her humor was back, along with the color in her face.

“Not my most calculated move. I just needed to get him away from you.”

“Great job.”

“I can go get him later and see if he apologizes.”

“You seem to have forgotten how fragile mortals can be, Wonder Boy,” Megara shook her head. “You think he’s alive after you pulverized him? You’re giving him a lot of undeserved credit.”

He definitely hadn’t considered that. “I thought... If he landed the right way, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“That’s not how it works. He’s as dead as Eteocles by now. You’re... you’re not planning a murder spree, are you?”

“What? No!” 

Murder was a wicked thing to do, counter to his nature. Yet, it may be considered that he had perpetrated it twice now. Shame wrapped its ghostly fingers around his heart. Had he betrayed his telos?

What justice might his father mete out on him?

No. He’d already determined the righteousness of his first slaying. Though he’d perpetrated the second unawares, he was loath to regret anything he did in the service of Megara’s safety.

“He would have harmed you worse than he did if I allowed him to,” Hercules remarked. “Let someone argue with me. I’ll never concede that his life outweighed your safety. Now... Let me see you move your leg.”

She winced hesitantly, but he had her. Wherever the pain was, he flooded it with his aura until he’d driven away every shadow. She relaxed with a heavy sigh.

A few curious students peeked through the door.

“She’ll be okay, I just have to get her to the asclepion,” Hercules said, lifting Megara into his arms. “She fell down the stairs. We need someone to set her bones.”

“Are you sure you didn’t push her?” one of the skeptical Thebans questioned.

“It wasn’t him,” Megara said. “Theron did it, and then he ran off. I think he’s probably racked with guilt right now. Maybe someone could check on him.”

Hercules looked down at her, a little surprised that she’d come up with that so quickly.

“I’m not going after that guy; he can show up when he feels like it,” said another student.

“He’s a real creep,” Megara said. He wanted to throw me in here and force me to date him by ruining me for other guys. "I have New Guy Alcides here to thank for saving me and for helping me put myself back together—with the help of Divine Asclepios, of course.”

The Thebans had already lost interest. Their eyes glazed over, and they walked away with a chorus of “Yeah,” “Okay,” and “Whatever.”

“Your people don’t get fired up about all that much, do they?” Hercules mused.

“Self-preservation takes a lot of energy,” Megara sighed. “Doesn’t leave much left over for anyone or anything else.”

“We’re changing that,” Hercules said with conviction. He carried her out into the sun and strode toward the stables complex where he’d left Pegasus. “In our new Thebes, the people will be optimistic and care for one another instead of treating them with indifference and cruelty.” He set Megara down on the fence and whistled for Pegasus, who came trotting out of the shadows alongside a young spotted filly. 

“Looks like both of you are hard at work finding a mate today,” Megara observed and stretched one leg forward out of its slit. There was a moment when all he could think of was uncovering the other leg and then what hid between them, but Hercules brushed that away.

“I had a head start,” Hercules said in a soft voice that he hoped would obscure what he’d been thinking. He didn’t want to focus on thoughts like that.  “Ready to go? I thought maybe we needed some distance from… all of this. We could have a picnic.”

“Have you ever had a picnic before?”

“No? Never had someone to do it with. But I live on top of a mountain and in the sky. I see lots of people having fun eating outside, and I want to share that with you.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do, but I don’t see any supplies.”

Hercules winked as he set her on Pegasus. “I know I’m in disguise right now, but I’m still a god. We’ll have everything we need.” He climbed on behind her and held her close with his arm across her body.

Megara covered her face with both hands as they flew into the air. One day, he hoped she’d be comfortable with flight but wouldn’t push her to it.

He was the one to scout out a secluded hilltop shaded by a tree for their picnic and bring them down for a landing. “Are you doing all right?” he whispered.

“I uh… need to lie down.” She staggered once she was on her own two feet and leaned against the tree. Then, she slowly crumpled against its trunk. “Flying makes me imagine what it’ll be like when I die. Maybe I’ll be like Theron and fall off of something.”

“That won’t happen,” Hercules said firmly. He didn’t want to imagine that, either.

“Well, it’s going to happen somehow. Maybe I have that fear because it’s my destiny.”

“You have another destiny, Meg. I’m going to make you a goddess.”

At first, he thought Megara would argue with him, but her confusion resolved into a broken cackle. She regretted not believing him, but she certainly did not.

“I mean it, Meg.” Hercules caught her by the elbows and turned her toward him. “I won’t let you die. I’ve lived without you before and can’t do it again. This is it. You and me. I’m going to make sure nobody can hurt you again, and I’ll give you everything you want.”

Heat rose at the back of his neck, but then it flashed across his face. Why should he presume he had a right to her entire life? What if she didn’t want to live with him forever?

“I…” he sighed. “I won’t let you die, but… that doesn’t mean you have to live with me. I just can’t let the only person who’s ever looked at me like a person die. I need to give you something worth as much as what you gave me.”

Megara reached up to take his face between her hands. “You already have,” she whispered. “Everything you feel for me is mine as well. Maybe that means something.”

He couldn’t hold back. He dipped low for a kiss and held her close. He’d never let Hades take her or Zeus deny her. She was the single most important being in the entire cosmos, and he would be with her forever.

Chapter 15: Runaway Dreamers

Ever since she got the courage to take the step and ask for help, Megara’s life had changed. She wished she had learned not to be so ashamed of needing help earlier in her life. It would’ve helped if her parents didn’t heap so much shame on her and her brothers for lacking independence.
Hercules summoned a blue blanket and dozens of gold, blue, and purple pillows. The gesture was so thoughtful that Megara could cry.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. “Do you want more pillows?”
She had to fight her constricting throat to speak. “Oh no… it’s… it looks wonderful… Thank you.”
“You’re sure?” Hercules leaned in a little closer to examine her face. “You look like you’re about to cry.”
“There aren’t a lot of people who’re nice to me,” she explained.
He frowned. “I’m not letting that go, but how about we talk about something pleasant for now? What would you like to eat today?”
“Oh! Am I choosing?”
“I don’t know that much about mortal food. What’s good?”
“Honey cakes… spinach pies… grilled meat…”
“Which meat? Someone’s offering me some beef right now. I can take the scent of it and turn it into the real thing for us.”
“I’ll take that then!”
“Done!” Hercules nodded toward the blanket, and a blink later, it was strewn with a collection of every bounty she could think of. “You like grapes, too, right?” He lifted a bowl full of them.
“Of course!” Megara took one from him and popped it into her mouth. “It’s traditional to sit. You first, I’ll figure out where I fit when I see how much space you take up.”
“Why not take the same space as me?” he winked, ate a bunch of grapes off the stem, and then flopped onto his side on the pillows. “Where’d you like to sit now?”
Megara considered and looked around the empty fields. Once she was sure nobody was watching, she daintily knelt near his chest. “This is a softer blanket than I thought it’d be.”
“It’s one of mine from Olympus,” Hercules said, reaching past her for a beef skewer. “The pillows are from one of Aphrodite’s misdirected attempts to make my room look less Spartan.”
“They’re pretty,” Megara petted a silk pillow and then lay down on it. The branches of the tree that shaded them rustled with the same soothing rhythm of waves against the shore. She could fall asleep here with Hercules, but then she’d miss this time with him.
Hercules stretched out an arm behind the pillow her head rested on and propped her up. He lay close to her and kissed her cheek. “I’m so glad you’re here with me… I can’t believe what you’ve been through this week. You deserve a break.”
“Any time with you is instantly better,” Megara told him. “I love the sound of your voice…”
He gasped in pure delight. “I love your voice, too!”
“Then I guess we should keep talking, huh?”
“Yeah!”
“I’m glad you kept your voice the same even though you’ve changed your appearance.” She reached up to scratch the line of his jaw and sighed. “It feels a little bit like I’m spending the day with a stranger.”
“I thought I should hide myself even though I sort of flew out here and used my godly powers… There’s a chance none of the other gods noticed.”
“Then maybe I should get to know Alcides. “I’m guessing his favorite color is blue?”
“That’s a safe bet,” he chuckled. “I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it’s the color of the stuff people tend to give me, and that doesn’t bother me. So I guess it’s my favorite, but I’ll go for anything as long as it’s nice.”
“Can you guess what my favorite color is?”
He turned away so he didn’t guffaw directly into her face. His laughter had her joining in before he spoke. “No, you don’t really give any hints. It’s too subtle for me to figure out.”
The laughter only got stronger now that he’d shown off his attempt to mimic her sarcasm.
“You’re so cute sometimes.” Hercules bent lower to kiss her brow and sighed. “Here.” he picked up a flaky, triangular square of spinach pie and offered her a corner.
Megara didn’t let her blush stop her from nibbling that corner off and savoring its contents. “It’s like a team of chefs prepared it all for us. I can’t believe you’d do all of this for me.”
“Why not? Don’t you deserve it?”
“Obviously, you’re the only person who thinks so.”
“Then I’ll have to care extra for everyone!” He punctuated his decision by offering her more of the spinach pie. “But you know what? I’m gonna make more people care! Everyone ought to know how great you are!”
Megara shook her head and rolled her eyes at his exuberance. “Good luck with that. What’s my boyfriend’s family do for a living? Since I’m a princess, all the guys they’ve tried to set me up with were kings and princes.”
“Then I should be a prince, too!”
“Of what, though? That lie is too easy to disprove. We’ll need something more solid.”
“Uh… what do… mortals… do?”
“Farming, mainly. In the city, you can get people who work in all sorts of trades, though. Maybe we’ll leave that one alone for now, and you can dodge that question if it comes up. By the way, how long are you planning to stay on Earth with me?”
“Is forever too long?”
She snickered. “Sorry, Herc, I’m a little short on forever.”
“Not for long.” Now that she’d finished the pie, he kissed her forehead and picked up a skewer for her instead. “My father might think it’s stupid of me to be with you because I’ll blink, and then you’ll be dead. But he doesn’t know how hard I’ll fight for you.”
Megara took the opportunity to eat the beef he offered to mull that over. “Are we doomed if Zeus doesn’t want you to be with me?”
“No, we’re not doomed. My father might not always be reasonable, but I’m not afraid to play the ‘favorite son’ card if it’ll help you. We’ve got a couple of examples from history, like Ariadne and Psyche. Even if there’s been a pause, we don’t have to assume he’ll never make an exception to his rules.”
“Have you considered if there’ll be consequences for having a mortal turn immortal?”
“The cosmos will improve, that’s for sure.”
“What about you spending time with me? Will the God of Heroism be missed?”
“Unlikely,” he shrugged. “Nobody really needs me for anything on Olympus. That’s why it’s always been so dull up there. You’re the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’m ready to stick by you until you get sick of me.”
“If nobody is looking for you, maybe you could change back into yourself. I miss your face.”
Hercules glanced at the cloudless sky. “It might be safe.” He shifted his features back into their recognizable Herculean state. His clothes even transformed from stiff linen to luxurious silk robes. The only change she recognized was how he hid his aura. “This’ll make it slightly less obvious,” he explained. “If someone’s passing by, we’ll just be a pair of aristocrats enjoying time away from our servants.”
Megara traced the familiar lines of his nose and jawline and sighed. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you for making life worthwhile. You deserve to be a goddess. My father will see it eventually.”
“What if I don’t?”
“You do.” He offered her a honey cake. “We just have to figure out what you’ll be the goddess of because beauty and wisdom are already taken.”
Her heart raced so quickly that she could only stare at him momentarily. Then she took the honey cake, but found he was sweeter still than the honey.
“There’s still the prophecy to consider. Teiresias has never been wrong. He speaks for the gods. Your parents put the words in his mouth that I was destined to die for love.”
“Shh,” he ate another of the honey cakes in two bites. “Don’t be afraid of anything. Let me take care of these things for you, okay?” He pouted into the sky for a moment, making Megara want to kiss him again. He broke her concentration on her daydreams when he said, “Die for love could mean a few things, right? It could be metaphorical.”
She might’ve made a few comments about his propensity for critiquing prophecies as if they were poetry, but she didn’t want to ruin the mood. “Why not ask Apollo? He’s your brother and the God of Prophecy, so he should have some insights.”
“Great idea!”
“In the meantime, where are we going to meet up? Alcides doesn’t have a house for me to visit.”
“Uh…” he pouted again in thought.
Megara leaned up to peck his lips with a light kiss this time. “I love it when you do that mouth thing,” she told him by way of explanation.
“Which mouth thing?” he kissed her again, but with more toe-curling passion. “Or was it this one?” He pressed a searing kiss to the side of her neck.
“Ah… well, I love those, too. But when you’re disappointed or irritated, you pout, and it makes me think of how much I love the shape of your lips.”
He traced hers with his fingertip. “I love the shape of your mouth, too. And what you say. And how you say it…” He pressed a hand to his chest. “If I was mortal, could I die for how much I love you? Maybe that would fulfill your prophecy.”
“You wouldn’t die. I’d keep you alive!” Megara squeezed his fingers against his heart. “But maybe we need to think of a place we can go that nobody’s going to get in our way so we can plan more.”
“They’re building me that temple soon. Whatever a god does in his own temple is his business.” He tilted his head as a sly gleam entered his eyes. “You could visit me there.”
“And… what if you needed someone to preside over festivals and such in your honor? Maybe a priest named Alcides?”
Hercules’s brows rose. “Then he’d have a house!”
“And… maybe he’d need help!” She hadn’t even fully thought out the words that she spoke, but impressions of the two of them dressed in holy robes and then sneaking off after a ritual to be together were quickly forming in her mind. “What if he married a priestess for his patron deity, and they lived on earth as symbolically the divine and the mortal living together? Do you think your father would object?”
“It’s the most brilliant idea ever hatched!” Hercules declared, sitting up and bringing her with him. “We’ve got to do it!”
The sky had no objection, but the earth below them shook. The instability knocked Megara into Hercules’s arms, and he covered her with his body to shield her.
Too close for comfort, a hole opened in the earth, and a creature with two heads, each sporting one eye, climbed out.
“Look! It’s the mortals Hades promised us!” One head exclaimed.
“That one doesn’t look so mortal…” the other one replied.
“Don’t be stupid! He said there’d be mortals having a picnic under a tree! Do you see any other trees with picnics?”
“Let me handle this,” Hercules said in a low, commanding voice. “Don’t worry.” He kissed the top of her head as he disentangled from her. “I won’t be long.”

Chapter 16: Wildflowers

Leave it to his uncle to ruin the perfect day. Maybe he was jealous because people generally hated him, and he’d been unsuccessful in wooing Aphrodite for untold centuries. No matter the reason, Hercules would put a stop to this.

Hercules checked over his shoulder to see Megara’s eyes wide with fear for the second time in a day. He smiled down at her, hoping to inspire calm. “Enjoy the show!” He winked at her, but all she could muster was a shaky half-smile. He’d have to go back and fix that soon.

The creature had uttered his uncle’s name.

When he was done with it, his uncle would face his reckoning. “My uncle sent you?” he snarled.

“Uh, he’s the Lord of the Dead,” one of the blue cyclopean heads said. “Not your uncle.”

“Shoulda known better than to come out here unarmed, mister fancy-robes!” the second head crowed.

“And you brought your girl out here to get eaten, too!” 

Hercules was beyond hearing them out.

The very idea that he would consume Megara as if she were part of the picnic he’d prepared for her was so infuriating that his body radiated the raw golden power of his godhood. Hercules pulled the tree out of the ground, roots and all. He hefted it over his head and charged at the monster. “You’ll never eat another human being again!” he roared.

The Cyclops stepped out of the way, but that would not save him. 

Hercules swung the tree wide and swept the legs out from under his opponent. Hercules lined up a second shot when he was still falling and swung the monster into the sky. He shaded his eyes and watched it fly toward the aether. When he decided he had enough time, he checked over his shoulder to see how Megara was doing.

Not well, from what he could see. In the meantime, Pegasus was fanning her with one wing. As he should!

Hercules blew her a kiss, which made her smile. She blew one back, and he hoped she’d be better soon.

How many times a day could the Fates throw peril at one girl?

The biclops fell faster than he’d risen. Hercules had to jog to intercept him, but it was a leisurely run. 

He lined up his shot and jumped into the air alongside the monster. Then he slammed the tree into its side.

The double-headed cyclops flopped helplessly back into the hole from which it had emerged. “Tell my uncle the next time he sends someone after me, I’m going down there after him!” His voice echoed back at him. Something ought to have heard him.

Hercules re-planted the tree where he’d found it and made it gleam with his power to ensure that it could remain alive. “Thank you, Gaia. I’ve returned your tree to you. It served me well. Please re-seal the opening that they emerged from.”

Finally, he knelt beside Megara once more. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled, but he could tell she was shaken. “It’s not every day a girl gets to see her man knocking monstrosities around.”

“Heh! If you like that, I could arrange something.” Hercules sat cross-legged on the ground. He placed a hand on the grass and said, “One more thing, Gaia. Could you close up that tunnel to the Underworld, please?”

There was no audible answer, but the earth closed itself up, and a patch of wildflowers appeared in place of the hole.

Hercules grinned as a thought occurred to him. “Right back!” He kissed Megara’s clammy forehead and jogged over to the wildflowers. There were many colors, but all of them would suit Megara. He picked three handfuls, then ran more excitedly toward Megara.

“Gaia won’t be mad you picked her flowers, will she?” Megara asked, eyeing the flowers with wary interest.

“Nah, she likes being honored like this.” Hercules picked what he considered the prettiest flower from the bunch and offered it to her. “I still have a whole evening to spend with you, and it’s going to be perfect.”

Megara’s delicate fingers wrapped around the flower’s stem, and she took a moment to enjoy its scent. “Where will we go?” she asked.

“Not sure… We’ve done the beach, we’ve done the meadow, we’ve seen a play…” With his hands full of flowers, an idea occurred to Hercules. Before he was fully aware of what he was doing, Hercules was tucking flowers into Megara’s hair. “That must be what Gaia intended… the flowers look so much better on you.”

He loved her blush. She ought to be somewhere guaranteed to keep that smile on her face. Somewhere that was designed with women in mind, where he could have absolute certainty that nobody would do her harm. A flash of inspiration arrived when he had wound several flowers into Megara’s hair., “I got it! The best idea! We’ll go to the sanctuary of Aphrodite!”

“We’d be safe there?” Megara blinked up at him. “Aren’t you a little concerned that she’ll give the game away?”

“Aph is the least likely to sabotage us. She’s too invested in couples sticking together, so she’s bound to love our plans!”

“Then take me.”

The phrase struck Hercules in a way Megara probably hadn’t intended, but recognition of the double meaning quickly registered in her eyes. She glanced away, embarrassed.

“I mean, there. You should take me there. We should go.”

“It’s okay,” Hercules said with a light chuckle he hoped would put her at ease. “How about we relax here for a few more minutes before we go? We can finish the rest of our picnic like nothing ever happened.”

“You don’t think we should be worried?”

“I’m scarier than anything Hades can send after us,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, the old timer never does more than two things a day unless one of them is throwing himself a pity party. Never learned the meaning of a contingency plan, but still thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room.”

Megara snickered. “You’re pretty good at that.”

The praise lit him up brighter than his aura. Hercules sighed and leaned back against the pillows to admire her. “Thanks…” he pulled her down to join him and nestled her close. “I learned from the best.”

Though at first, she melted easily against him, Megara glanced around. “If he knew where we were, do you think he’s still watching us? He may not do anything about it, but it’s still creepy.”

Hercules considered. “I think right about now he’s smashing and burning too many things to focus. But let’s not worry about him. Let him watch us have a good time.” He split one of the spinach pies and handed her half. “Life is good when you’re not a bitter, nasty jerk with anger management issues.”

“Only since I met you.” She nudged him with her foot.

“Aww.” Hercules arranged her hair over her shoulders so her hair would drape along with the flowers he’d wound through it. 

“Would you like to learn how to braid it?” she asked.

“Yes!” he dusted his hands off and scooted closer. He raised his hands to begin but realized he was at a loss. “Where do we start?”

Megara sat with her back to him and pushed all her hair behind her back. “Use your fingers. Divide into three sections, then start crossing them over each other.” She reached back to show him with the first two cross-overs. “See? Just keep switching them until you reach the end. I’ll wait.” With that, she curled her knees close to her chest with a pillow in between.

Her hair was softer than Pegasus’s mane right after it had been washed. The flowers couldn’t match her natural scent for sweetness. His fingers brushed her skin more than necessary as he finished the braid. “We could easily sneak you into a nymph party,” he said, running the braid between his hands. “I could do this for hours…” Though one hand continued to stroke her hair, the other went trailing down her neck.

She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “If you can learn to braid that fast, imagine what else you could learn.” Her smile drew him to lean in closer. “I think Aphrodite would be proud of how I’ve studied her pink scroll and the sacred texts within. Maybe we should go show her how faithful we are.”

Starting now, he wanted to learn more, but he wasn’t about to do any of that in an open field where his uncle might be watching. “Close your eyes,” he whispered. “I’m taking us there and sending everything else to my temple. I don’t want you to get dizzy.”

Megara closed her eyes and tucked her face under his chin. Her breath puffed against his throat.

He had to get her where they could have some privacy.

A blink later, they stood in the reception room of Aphrodite’s most exclusive sanctuary. Eros stood behind the counter.

At the sight of him, he fluttered his wings and ticked something off his list. “Cousin Hercules. We’ve been expecting you. Please, come on in. My mother is waiting for you.”

Chapter 17: Stealing Fire

The winged man seemed to be waiting for them. He wore an “I know what you’ve been doing” smile as he directed Hercules and Megara to a pink room with heart-adorned marble walls. A pair of large, puffy-cushioned seats were arranged in front of her.

“Special delivery, Mom!” the winged god called.

Aphrodite herself was draped along a couch, eating cherries. “Oh, yes! You two! My newest favorite couple in all of Greece! Come, sit down! Thank you, Eros, you’ve been very helpful.”

“All in a day’s work,” Eros said, then muttered for only the two of them to hear: “Thanks for falling in love on your own and sparing me the arrows. You won’t believe the situation going on in Athens! Some maniac stole arrows because the girl he liked picked someone else! I'm gonna spend all day cleaning up after him!” He flitted away before either of them could respond.

“I hope the two of you enjoyed your picnic,” the goddess said. “The erotes were aflutter today. Gods don't usually fall in love with mortals. It's usually something unsavory. I'm glad to see you're a trendsetter, Herc! Big news down at the arrow factory.” She gestured for them each to sit on one of the seats.

“That’s great.” Hercules scooted his seat closer to Megara, and she felt her heart settle into a more comfortable pace. “The picnic was great, but there was just one little thing that bothered me. Hades sent a monster after us in the middle of it.” Hercules took Megara’s hand and squeezed it as if to reassure himself she was alive.

“That does sound like something he would do…” Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “He’s probably jealous because he can’t get a date.”

“Maybe,” Hercules said. “But I have to talk to my father about it, and I want to make sure Meg is safe and taken care of while I'm gone.”

“You don’t need to leave now, do you?” Megara asked in a voice much smaller than she’d intended. She didn’t know how to navigate talking to other gods. It was a wonder beyond reason that Hercules had sparked such a connection with her. She wasn’t about to push her luck.

“No, not now. But I’d like to get this handled soon. I can’t let Hades get away with what he tried to do.”

“Of course not,” Aphrodite said. “And while you’re here, I have a few tests I’d like to conduct.”

“Tests?” both Hercules and Megara questioned in tandem.

“Not philosophy or astronomy or anything tough, but y’know, love tests! To see how I can help you!”

Neither of them had time to react before the chairs they sat on started moving.

Megara clung to the sides of her chair and squeaked as a semicircular marble table appeared in front of her. A scroll popped into existence in front of her, and a pen with a red feather stuck out from a golden inkwell. 

“We’re doing love homework?” Hercules asked incredulously from behind his own desk.

“Yes! It’ll tell me how compatible you are! The better you’ll be as a couple, the more I’ll help you stay together!”

“How do we prove something like that?” Hercules asked plaintively. "Can't we just convince you to help by explaining our situation? We've made some plans. You can tell us if they'd work!"

A small squadron of erotes flew cooing into the room. They carried a pair of banners that were too large for any of them to handle on their own. When they unfurled the red silk, golden light shone through them to illuminate a series of questions.

“Okay, now, I want ya to answer honestly even if you think the questions won’t make ya look good,” Aphrodite said. “When I see the final answers at the end of this, I’ll tell you whether I think your basic personality traits are compatible enough to last long term despite the forces that aren’t in favor of you as a couple.”

Megara stared at the papyrus laid out for her awaiting the answers she wasn’t sure she had, then up at the list of questions.

Hercules seemed to be doing the same.

“Well, go on!” Aphrodite said. “When we’re done here, I’m taking you to the spa!”

Megara shared one more befuddled look with the deity that might prove to be compatible with her, then bowed her head over her work. The questions didn’t seem at all related to the topic, but many of them were easier to answer than she’d expected. She reached the end after covering both sides of the scroll with enough answers to make her question how well she’d ever known herself.

“Good job, you two!” Aphrodite snapped her fingers, and both scrolls vanished, only to reappear in her hands. They floated into the air, surrounded by a red-gold aura, and coiled together like a pair of snakes.

The two scrolls swirled in the air until, at last, they formed a single scroll and fell back into Aphrodite’s hands.

“Did we pass?” Megara leaned forward for a better look, but she still couldn’t read what had appeared on the final scroll.

While Aphrodite scanned the results, Hercules quietly stepped out from behind his desk. “I took your little test, Aph, but I’m not going to let anything or anyone tell me if I should be with Meg. I already know we belong together, but I have one major important question of my own.” He waited for Aphrodite to indicate she was listening before he continued. “This isn’t exactly your department, but there’s overlap. Meg, do you want to tell her what the prophecy said?”

Megara sat up straighter as the memory shot through her mind. “Teiresias warned me and other girls in my family that some of us would die for love,” Megara said. 

“And you wanna know if that ‘some’ applies to you,” Aphrodite concluded. “Would it make you feel better to know?” Aphrodite asked. “Maybe knowing is the worst thing for mortals. It steals your ability to enjoy life while you have it.”

Megara bunched up her free hand in her skirt to contain herself. “I thought it might help… making up my mind.”

“Uh-huh…” Aphrodite scanned the contents of the scroll one more time, then rolled it up. “You’re dating a god. I don’t foresee having to sacrifice yourself for him anytime soon. However, if you choose to have children with him, there’s always the risk women run of making that choice. Any child of yours will have a greater than average chance of escaping both the womb and childhood, as demigods are exceptionally healthy. That said, this kind of prophecy isn’t time-sensitive, so it could mean you live into old age before something happens. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

Megara shrugged. Her head was starting to ache at the multiple avenues Aphrodite had opened up for her.

Hercules moved to her side and took her hand. Though he met her eyes with softness, he was firm when he spoke. “I don’t want her to die for me. There is absolutely no reason for that. I want to make her immortal, so it should be impossible for her to die for any reason.”

Aphrodite pursed her lips. “Zeus would never allow that.”

“Why were Psyche and Ariadne permitted but not Meg? Eros and Dionysus are the same rank as I am, and both of them got permission to deify their consorts.”

“Zeus changed the rules because Dionysus was immortalizing and resurrecting anyone he liked for a while. It started with his mother, but he wasn’t content with that because he hated the idea of death. Hades complained, yadda yadda, Zeus caved, and Dio went into such a slump that he changed his name and let himself go.”

Hercules raised a brow at that. “And nobody so far has seen fit to object?” He tugged Megara to her feet and squeezed her hand. “I’ll do it. I just need to know she’ll be safe if I do.”

“That’s not a guarantee it’s easy to make,” Aphrodite sighed. “But your results are promising. Both of you make decisions based on practical reasoning, and you prioritize integrity. Megara enjoys excitement and adventure, and hey, Hercules, you’re the god of adventurers! Your differences will strengthen your ability to work together and creatively solve problems. I have no reservations about the two of you as a couple. My only concern is that you’ll have Zeus to worry about.”

“My father is going to have to deal with it,” Hercules said firmly. “He’s omniscient but never has enough time to do anything important, and he doesn’t waste his time checking in on me. There’s plenty of space for new gods on Olympus. Once my father sees he can’t stop me–”

“Don’t forget Prometheus,” Megara said, rubbing Hercules’s arm for attention. “Your father may love you, but he might also use you as an example.”

Hercules sighed. “You could be right…”

“But you’re not wrong, either,” Aphrodite said, arms folded in irritation. “I’m a fertility goddess, and only mortals care about that whole side of my domain! The gods come to me for relationship advice and beauty tips, and that’s it! I’m a complex deity with lots of jobs!”

“That sounds frustrating,” Megara said, cautiously stepping halfway behind Hercules in case Aphrodite’s frustration spilled over. “But you know… maybe we could help.”

Hercules cleared his throat. “We um…” he glanced down at Megara with a blush. “What do you mean? You want f-fertility blessings for… us?”

“That might be too much to ask for.” Megara clasped his hand in both of hers and gave him a reassuring squeeze. Her eyes flickered in the goddess’s direction. If this were going to work, Aphrodite had to think it was her idea. “The best way to showcase a blessing like that would be a big family, but we aren’t ready for that. If my prophecy comes true, we'll never have that chance, anyway. It's probably hopeless since Zeus is the most powerful of the gods. If he doesn't want us together, none of the gods would dare stand up to him to change anything. I think we should consider splitting ways.”

"What?" Hercules exclaimed. "Why-? No, we can't just-"

"She's already told us it's hopeless, so why hold out hope?" Megara sighed. "Nobody can salvage this situation."

“Now, hold on!" Aphrodite loomed over them in protest. "You two can make an offering for me, and if you dedicate your relationship to me, it’ll definitely be my business!”

“Oh, I… I don’t have any doves. I’m sorry, my lady.” Megara bowed her head and folded her hands behind her back.

“There’s more than one way to offer blood in my name. I also take sacred acts as payment. As long as it’s done in my sanctuary, it’s dedicated to me. But first? You two should get pampered! You both look like you need it!”

“Sacred… acts?” Hercules’s voice was barely audible.

Megara rubbed his arm. She could handle this question. “Do you mean like in the scroll?”

“ That and something else! After that assessment, it’s time the two of you made this thing official! Once I’ve endorsed your relationship, it’s done, and nobody can undo it. And then…” Aphrodite glanced around at her erotes. “Yes, I’m right.” She clapped her hands, and the erotic flew away, then quickly returned with a large roll of red papyrus. “It’s not the standard contract this time. I’ll add a clause…” She frowned at the paper, then waved her hand. A few of the words reshaped themselves on the papyrus, and finally, Aphrodite nodded. “Yes, that’ll do it.”

Megara squinted at the scroll. “Is this… that’s a marriage contract?” Her face burned.

Where had all her sensible thoughts flown to? She ought to have some excuse to wait, but every time she separated from Hercules, some other guy showed up to beat her into submission. He’d killed the last two, but the cycle might end if they were married. Either it would end, or it’d intensify.

With her teeth digging into her lower lip, Megara read and re-read the scroll, seeking certainty.

“I’d do it, but I need to know it’s what she wants.” Hercules turned fully to face Megara, took both of her hands in his, and lifted them to his lips. “I don’t want to rush into anything. We’ve only known each other for a few days. But you’ve already changed everything about my life and put it into perspective. Everything that came before you is irrelevant. I can’t imagine going back to that life, but… maybe I overcomplicate yours?”

“Hey, now,” Aphrodite stepped up and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “This is bringing down the mood! I’ve declared this a good romance, and you have my endorsement, so now enjoy it!” She steered them through another door that Megara could have sworn wasn’t there a minute ago.

“We’ve got a lot to sort through,” Hercules said while Megara took in the misty pink haze around them.

“Ah-ah-ah! Not in my temple! I’m a lover, not a strategizer! My temple, my rules!"

"What... what's this room?" Megara squinted through the mist that smelled vaguely of cherries.

"Told ya I had tests to run," Aphrodite said. "That was the written exam. This one'll be more hands-on."

Megara looked over her shoulder at the goddess, but she was gone, and so was the door out of the room. "What... the...?" she started, but who was she talking to?

Hercules was gone.

Chapter 18: The Game of Life

A pink mist surrounded Hercules, which was just as thick as the hurt and confusion that had hit him when Megara suggested leaving him. Had he already failed her somehow? Of course, he hadn’t seen that thing with the monster on the horizon… did she worry he’d go on a murder spree against every other man who spoke to her? That wasn’t it! Both men had been threatening her, and one was about to kill her! She had to know that, didn’t she?

“Meg?” He called, reaching straight ahead with both hands.

As a god, he should be able to teleport to her location, but they were both under Aphrodite’s power. No god could undo the work of another, and for some reason, Aphrodite’s work had been this. Where was he? Was Megara even in the same chamber anymore? Had Aphrodite sent her to another one of her sanctuaries to keep her away from him?

Hercules kept walking forward until his outstretched hands met with the cool surface of a marble wall. “You’re not my girlfriend,” he grumbled. “Aphrodite! Meg? Where’d you go?” The mist smelled of flowers. The aroma was so strong he thought he might choke on it if he were mortal. Was Meg choking on it right now while he stumbled around like a useless oaf? He couldn’t afford to be useless. He had to be her hero.

His hands wandered helplessly through the mist, seeming just as lost as his mind.

Earlier that day, it had seemed inevitable that he’d marry Meg, and soon. They’d made their crazy plans, and he’d been ready to throw himself headlong into them.

Why would she imply to Aphrodite that she might walk away?

What would he do without her?

Didn’t she want him anymore?

Wasn’t he good enough?

He wasn’t making any progress through the mist. He sat with a heavy thud, and his feet splayed out ahead of him like a doll dropped by a child. His long ginger hair drooped over his eyes and across his shoulders.

Did he even matter if Meg rejected him?

None of his relatives would notice if he became less active. They hadn’t given him anything to do in the first place. He’d slide back into the background, never to be seen again. Meg was the only person who seemed to care about him and wanted to spend time with him. How could that change so quickly?

What had he done?

Or had her love for him been so shallow-rooted that it fell victim to the first opposition?

What was it that made their relationship too complicated to pursue? He’d always been so decisive and never had a problem declaring what he wanted. He didn’t want much, anyway, and his father was the omniscient king of the cosmos. Nothing was ever far from his hand. 

Now, though… Megara was at risk, and he didn’t have permission from his father for the one thing that mattered most. He’d fight to the ends of the cosmos for her, and nothing would frighten him. But for that to work, she had to love him back. She had to want him back, or all that effort would be pointless.

He’d changed since meeting her. There was a softer, gentler angle to his personality now, and he wanted to explore it. Megara was the only person who could bring out that side of him. Who else wanted to see the God of Heroism be such a softie?

“I’m so lost…” he admitted into the mist. “Meg…” his voice cracked. “Don’t you want me anymore?”

He was sabotaging himself with self-doubt. The tears that burned at the corners of his eyes were nobody’s fault but his own. Meg hadn’t even said any of the things he’d convinced himself she must think or feel. He had to find her so he could ask her all the questions that weighed on his heart.

If he thought positively, he’d know that Megara might be considering the consequences of being with him so she could better plan for every outcome. Or maybe she didn’t want him or Aphrodite to think she was taking advantage of a lovesick god to reap rewards from him. She might still love him in either of these scenarios and wasn’t flippantly cutting him off with no warning.

There was another possibility. What if Megara had been bluffing to get Aphrodite’s attention?

He sat up straighter.

Aphrodite had been wavering before Megara suggested that their relationship might fall apart. This was Aphrodite testing them, but Megara had pushed for it. This was all going according to plan!

Hercules jumped to his feet. “Meg?” he called into the mist. “I’m going to come find you! I’m not giving up on you!”

Even if she might have given up on him… he couldn’t leave it open-ended like this!

“Herc!” she called back., but her voice was faint.

He had to get to her. With all his concentration, he still couldn’t will himself to her side. Aphrodite’s power separated them, and he could not undo it. What would happen if he didn’t find her in time? 

“Meg! I hear you, but I can’t find you! Where are you?”

“I think… island?” She’d said more in the middle, but Hercules couldn’t hear it.

What did she mean by saying she was on an island? Weren’t they both in Aphrodite’s sanctuary?

Why had he brought her here? He should’ve taken her directly to his own temple, where nobody could steal her away and leave her in precarious places.

This was the true danger of dating a mortal. She had no powers and was much too vulnerable for his liking.

He cleared his mind of all misery and honed in on what Megara had told him. She thought she might be on an island. Either there was a pool with an island in the middle of it, or it looked like an island because it was high up out of the mist.

Zigzagging throughout the room, he finally hit upon something promising. It felt like a wall with handholds, but that was probably not what it was. He grabbed onto the handholds, anyway, and hauled himself up. Eventually, he had to break through the mist and see her… or at least get the layout of the chamber.

He pulled himself further and further until his head hit something like a ceiling. Was it the ceiling? He put his hand up and didn’t feel marble but a strange, squishy substance that moved when he pushed on it but wouldn’t let him pass.

Something landed on that substance. Though he couldn’t see through it, he thought whatever it was might be someone’s feet. He pushed up on one and heard a loud squeak, then another thud a short distance away.

“Sorry!” he called through the barrier.

At least he knew where she was now.

“I’ve got… cut…” He was sure she’d said more, but again, he couldn’t hear it all.

“You’re hurt?” he asked.

“No! Hold still!”

That sounded like she was right above him. No wonder he could hear everything she said.

He didn’t move, waiting for what she’d do next.

Something appeared about a foot away from where he perched, glittering through the mist. It slid through the mist, and it started hissing through the hole. That glittery blade kept sliding in a circle, wide enough that it couldn’t accidentally swipe at Hercules.

She was so smart.

The barrier that had prevented him from escaping the misty room slapped down on his head with a squishing noise, but he easily shook it off. It slid back down from whence he’d come, and he was able to look through that hole to see Megara wielding a spear with a pink sparkly blade shaped like a heart.

“I know, it looks goofy, but it gets the job done,” she said and tossed the spear aside, then knelt by the opening. She now wore a glittery pinkish-purple gown that matched the spear, and her hair was in a more elaborate style than before.

“What happened to you?” Hercules asked, hauling himself out of the hole to sit on the edge of it.

“Aphrodite thought…” she waved her hand. “Okay, I admit I don’t know what she was thinking, but she told me that I was in need of a makeover, and I had to choose what I wanted from a rack of… stuff, I guess. The spear was there, and she told me it would help me cut you out of there if I wanted to be with you again. I could’ve picked a scroll or a crown, and I think those were different paths. There was more stuff, but I couldn’t leave you like that.”

“Thanks.” Hercules knew he was blushing, but he tried to hide it by distracting her with questions. “That stuff you said to Aphrodite, did you mean it? Not about the spear, I mean, before.”

“Oh, you’re worried because it sounded like I was giving up?” she rolled her eyes. “Don’t you know me better than that, yet?”

Hercules bowed his head sheepishly. “I mean, I hope I do, but I know how much trouble I’ve caused you, and I don’t want to be that to you if… if you’re done and want a normal life…”

“Ugh, you say that like I want you to be just like everyone else.” Megara had moved around the opening she carved into the mist and sat beside him. She nudged him with her shoulder. “C’mon, Herc. I just needed Aphrodite on our side. She was wavering, so I had to make her pick. Did she want us together or not?” She kissed his blushing cheek. “And she does. Almost losing her new favorite relationship made her remember that. We’re going to be fine with her help.”

Hercules wrapped an arm around her. “You should still go pick up the crown or the scroll if you want them. You’re so brilliant; you should be able to study whatever you like, and you deserve a crown since you’re a princess…” He stroked the curls that slanted to one side across her face. A crown should fit there nicely.

“I don’t want either of those things if I’d have to trade you in to have them.” She covered his hand with hers and brushed her cheek against his palm, then kissed it. “See? We’re a team. Maybe I scare you a little bit sometimes, but I don’t mean to. You’ve got to trust me that I mean what I say, and I’m sticking by you.”

Joy filled all the gaps in his heart left by his fear that she’d leave him. Hercules gathered her into his arms and kissed her fully. It was the only way he knew how to express his feelings, and he hoped his aura would speak for him so she’d understand the rest.

A vigorous applause distracted him from the kiss. He pulled back, leaving a hand on each of Megara’s shoulders in case Aphrodite tried to separate them again.

“Great, you two! I’m convinced! You’ll go to great lengths to be together. That means we’ll get far even if Meg has to die for love!”

“Hold on!” Hercules jumped to his feet with Megara in his arms. He fixed Aphrodite with a steely glare. "That is beyond unnecessary! I'm immortal. Why would I risk my mortal girlfriend for myself? That’s not how this works. I kill for her. She’ll never die for me!”

Aphrodite’s smile widened.

“Excellent!”

“No more tests,” Hercules growled. “You’re my aunt, and I care for you. I probably need your help, but I can’t keep getting yanked around. I think we’ve done plenty to prove ourselves to you, and we need to focus on the future. If you want to give us advice, that’s great and welcome, and I’d love to hear it. But please, let’s all be honest with each other.”

“I agree, my lady,” Megara said more meekly. “I am grateful that you’re so careful to ensure we’re supposed to be together, but I think we proved our point.” She kept her smile in her voice, but there was no less conviction in what she said. “What are our next steps?”

“There are options, as always,” Aphrodite said. “I have the power to marry you two right now, and with that endorsement, there’s no undoing it. But maybe you want to wait until there’s more of an audience? Or maybe you want to put it off for a year or so before becoming parents.”

Megara and Hercules glanced at one another.

“I don’t want to put that pressure on you,” Hercules said. “I’ll do whatever you want, no matter what you decide.”

“Could we get married and still put off having children?” Megara asked Aphrodite.

“Not if you consummate it,” Aphrodite said.

“And if we… put that off until we were ready?”

“It would be possible, but the marriage will only be half as valid until you do that.”

Megara bit her lip. “I don’t think I’m old enough yet,” she whispered to Hercules.

“Then we won’t do that,” Hercules assured her, rubbing her back gently with one hand. “I’m not putting you through anything that you’re not ready for. That would be burdensome for you and give me only pleasure. That’s how we do this now.”

“So what’s your choice?” Aphrodite asked.

“Let’s put this off for a year,” Megara said. “And at the end of it, I think I’ll be ready for… you know, the rest.”

“And I’ll spend that whole time finding ways to make you safe,” Hercules promised and sealed that promise by kissing her forehead. “I’ll make it so you can feel secure carrying our children if that’s your wish. I don’t want you to feel like you’re in danger because of me. Entirely the opposite.”

“But before any of that can happen, I want this made permanent.” Megara stroked his arm. “So, Aphrodite, it’s time we asked you for that favor.”

“Okay, so the instructions are really simple because people in love tend to have a difficult time following instructions. When I say ‘do you?’ that’s when you say, ‘I do.’ Ready?” She waited for a beat while the two nodded and then proved they could follow instructions.

Then, they were married. It had happened. Hercules was the happiest of all the gods in the cosmos.

Chapter 19: The Trophy Room

Megara set aside her newly won spear. It glittered in the firelight, but it didn’t feel right to wield it. Not yet. She looked up at the god who’d become her husband, and her mind spun once again. “We did that,” she said, visibly shocking him.

“Yeah.” He gazed down at her, his golden aura sending beams all around the room like sun rays. “I still can’t believe it.”

“Did we move too fast?”

“No,” Hercules spoke with resounding confidence. “Don’t worry about that. We’ve got that much figured out, but we have options for how we’ll approach that in the wider world. We don’t have to tell anyone who you don’t want to know, but if you prefer, I’ll publicly claim you.”

“What about your father?”

Hercules shrugged. “Zeus can’t say anything about what’s already done. He can’t un-marry us. He’d have to go against Aphrodite, and let me tell you: nobody smart opposes Aphrodite.”

Megara giggled. She took Hercules’s glowing golden hands and pulled him deeper into the room. “Let’s take a tour, husband .” She giggled at the word, and Hercules chuckled along. “You try it, too!”

This giddy feeling hadn’t been so powerful since she was a child. She gazed up at her new husband with eyes that felt as if they must be glowing—or perhaps they might be reflecting his light back at her. 

“You are so beautiful,” Hercules marveled, caressing her hair as if it had been spun from gold. “I can’t believe you’re here with me.”

“I don’t know how it happened, either,” Megara admitted. “I have to ask you, though: Will you regret my choice to wait?”

Hercules raised a brow. “You know what’s best for you. What should bother me about that?” He smiled and guided her to a free-flowing wall fountain that poured wine from a cherub face into a reservoir shaped like a scallop shell. The wine had a pinkish tint to it, something Megara had never seen before. “Want something to drink?” Hercules asked as Megara was still examining it.

“I think we should try it at the same time,” Megara said. “I want us both to enjoy everything that happens tonight.”

“That’s noble, and I appreciate it.” Hercules kissed the top of her head and held one cup and then the other under the wine spout. He held a cup out to her and clinked the cups together when they each had one. “I know you’re still worried,” he told her in a low, gentle voice.

“After all this buildup and talking in circles about our possible futures, I don’t want you to think I haven’t fully committed to being what you need. You are a god, and I honor you as such. I never want to lose sight of our dynamic. Hubris has never served my family well.”

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t want you to think of me as a god and put me above you. That isn’t the point of this relationship. The point is how grateful I am that someone sees me as a person and loves me. That’s why I’ve made you my wife.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her with such tenderness there was no mistaking how deeply he meant his words.

“This is all new to me, and it would have been new enough if you were a mortal man, but you’re a god on top of being my husband. It’s difficult for me to navigate this as a mortal princess.”

“I understand.” Hercules rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry about any of that. It’s new to us both. We can figure it out together.” He pulled back so she could see his smile. “Meg, I’ve never been in love before, and now you’re my wife. That’s a lot of things to catch up with for me, too. And since you’re a mortal, your life is infinitely precious. I worry every time I look away from you that you’ve stopped breathing, and somehow, it’s my fault.”

“I’m hardier than that!” Megara tried to offer a smile that would cut through his upset.

“Maybe so.” Hercules ran his fingers through her hair. “But you’re so soft… and your hair is like the softest silk…” He shuddered. “Meg, you’re so beautiful and delicate. I wish I could be more lax about your safety, but I can’t. Time has always passed differently for us on Olympus, so there are times I worry I will blink and a decade will have passed. I’ve always worried that I’ll miss out on time with you or that I won’t be fast enough to save you.”

Those words wrenched at her heart. She couldn’t imagine the stress he described. It meant so much to her that he would be open with her regarding his fears. As touched as she was by his admission, she was just as amused by it. “You’ll just have to spend more time with me until it makes sense.” She reached up and caressed his face. “My hero, my god, my love, my husband… we’ll have so much time together, you’ll understand what a mortal is like, and you’ll never have to worry so much that I’ll expire when nothing is wrong with me.”

“I have some healing powers,” he remarked as if she’d never noticed that before. She wouldn’t point it out. It was too obvious that he was saying it to self-comfort.

“That’s right,” she encouraged him. “I’m so grateful that you want to protect me–”

“I will protect you,” Hercules countered.

Megara smiled, sipping more wine from the fountain .”I believe you, don’t worry. I only meant to set up how I mean to see you as my protector, and I won’t fight you on that. But I want to comfort you. I want you to know that you don’t need to be so afraid. While you’re with me, I know I’m safe. I also know that while you’re here with me, you have no reason to worry. I’ll be so careful and besides, what could anyone do to me while you’re here?”

“You may be right on that point.” Hercules scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t want to be an idiot about this, but now you know what’s going on in my head.”

Megara shook her head. “How about we change the subject and focus on getting us to unwind?” She brought her wine to the bedside, where a copy of Aphrodite’s pink scroll waited for them. “If we read through this, I’m sure we’d find ways to distract us.”

The breath audibly caught in Hercules’s throat. “You… want to distract me with activities from Aphrodite’s scroll?”

“It’s only the pink one, no pressure,” Megara said. “This is about pleasing and distracting you so you can’t be afraid.”

“I can be as afraid as I want,” Hercules replied, his twinkling eyes betraying his joke.

“We can discuss some favorites tonight,” Megara purred at him. “Ki know if we give ourselves the chance, we’ll forget everything that’s bothering us, and it’ll be a lovely time.”

Megara opened the scroll and eyed some of the familiar positions, then shifted nearer to the back of the scroll so she could see something new on every page. “Are you feeling adventurous?”

“I just want to hold you…” Hercules demonstrated by wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. “I was so anxious before. I’m so glad that you’re still here with me.”

“I still can’t believe you believed I’d abandon you like that.”

“At the time it made more sense to me that you’d give up on me than that I was worthy of keeping you with me. I thought you’d be better off if you took whatever Aphrodite offered you…” He blushed, looking away from her, but Megara didn’t miss the pain he tried to hide. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back and get those things?”

“Hush.” Megara refilled his wine. “We’re not going back down that path. I’ve chosen what I want. I want you. Respect my choice.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He stood straight as a child who’d been reprimanded by his mother.

Megara tossed her head back and laughed at him. “Hercules, my dear god! I’m not scolding you, and I never want you to think of me as the sort of person who does. We’re a team now. You’re my husband. Among mortals that would make you my master.”

That comment hardened Hercules’s eyes to flint. “I’m not your master, and nobody else is, either.”

“I know…” She stroked a soothing hand along his cheek. “But I’m trying to tell you how it is with mortals so you understand what it’s like on earth. That way you won’t be shocked by anything in front of other people, we can handle it between the two of us. I want us to work together, and part of that is me never leaving you to figure things out by yourself.”

Such a gentle smile appeared on his face that it warmed her heart before his aura surrounded her with the warmth he felt toward her. “I’ll try to teach you all the sorts of things you’ll need to know that you’re the wife of an Olympian. You’re a very special mortal, you know that, Princess?”

“Oh, I know.” She snickered, even though it was mostly to humor him. She wrapped her arms around him and let the light of it permeate her body. “I know I’m you’re convinced of that. What’s something you’ll teach me?”

“It depends on what I’ve got to fill in for you. What do they teach princesses, anyway?”

“Diplomacy, public speaking, party planning, weaving, how to seduce princes…”

Hercules blushed so hard it bled into his aura. She didn’t even have to see his face to know it was happening. “They taught you… uh… before the pink scroll?”

“Here’s the thing: they taught me how to catch a prince but not what to do with him once I got him. They told my cousin Antigone and I was fortunate enough to overhear. Otherwise, I would have no awareness whatsoever of what occurs between men and women.”

“Wouldn’t it have been a nasty surprise to hear right before you had to go the process?”

She looked up at him, her chin pressed against his chest. “Which is why I eavesdropped. Antigone’s way sounds boring and awful. She will lie on her back and try to pretend it isn’t happening.”

Hercules wrinkled his nose at the suggestion. How was a god so cute all the time?

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”

“It’ll be different for us. I want you to be comfortable, happy, and excited when you’re with me.”

“I already am.”

“Then it’s working!” His joy radiated into her through his aura,, making her giggle involuntarily. 

“We should explore more of the room!” Megara pulled him along the wall with the wine fountain to a table covered in folded-up outfits for each of them to choose from, each of them sparkling like Aphrodite’s garments. There were grooming kits for them both, Megara’s bejeweled and Hercules’s made of carved horn.

Another table was prepared with trays of food, from fruits that gleamed as if they were gemstones to a row of skewers stacked with juicy-looking steak. There was a bowl of tzatziki to dip it in, and besides that were sliced cucumbers and a loaf of bread with dried cranberries inside it.

“Are these love foods, or is it just what Aphrodite knows you like?” Megara asked.

“I’m not used to human food, so she’s probably guessing, but everything looks good to me.”

“I think it means she expects us to stay in here for a while.”

“The odds are in her favor if that’s what she expects… This is technically our wedding feast, huh?”

“Unless you want another one for my family?”

“Do you want them there? I mean, aside from your brothers and that one girl cousin who isn’t evil.”

“I think they can survive hearing about it, and they can throw a feast for us if they want. This is between the two of us.”

“I’m so…” Hercules cut himself off, gazing at her in pure adoration that she could feel seeping into her own flesh through his aura.

“Overwhelmed with joy?” she suggested.

“Yeah…” His smile crinkled his eyes. He took both her hands in his and lifted them to his mouth so he could kiss her knuckles. “I’m glad you can figure out my feelings instead of me having to figure them out myself. You’re so much better at expressing myself than I am!”

Megara snickered. “Maybe eventually you’ll understand me that well. You’re so expressive, and I can literally feel your emotions radiating off of you. It’s impossible to misread you. I’m not quite the same, I understandd if you feel like we can’t be exactly the same in that regard.”

Hercules stroked her hair, fingers threading through her hair. “I’m starting to read you well. I think I understand a little more the longer we’re together… One day, I want to make you my immortal wife. Then we can feel one another’s emotions through both our auras.” He spread her loose curls over her shoulders, letting the soft tendrils drape around her.

It was a surprising turn. Megara hadn’t expected the pleasure of feeling her hair drape around her. Her heart swelled from this overflowing affection. At that moment, she believed nothing could go wrong.

A rumble ran through Aphrodite’s temple, something like an earthquake mixed with a lightning strike.

Hercules wrapped his arms around Megara and shielded her with his body.

“What’s happening?” Megara squeaked.

“ Hercules !” A voice roared through the temple. “I know you’re here! Come out here this instant!”

Hercules groaned. “It’s my father.”

“What does he want?”

“I’ll find out. Stay here. Stay safe.” Hercules kissed her brow. “Eat some food, drink some wine. This is my responsibility.” He kissed the top of her head, squeezed her shoulders, and left her in the room.

It struck Megara as he walked away that she may never see her new husband again.

Chapter 20: Shifting Goals

Hercules emerged from the trophy room and closed the door firmly behind himself. His father might be omniscient, but maybe he couldn’t see clearly through Aphrodite’s temple walls. He needed to be careful. Megara’s life depended on how he handled his father’s rage.

Aphrodite’s voice helped him pinpoint Zeus’s location to a wide reception chamber. “How dare you intrude on my temple? You established the hierarchy! I deserve to be respected in my own space!”

“My son is here! Hades tells me—”

“ Hades ?” Hercules roared into the room. “Give me one good reason to listen when that spidery freak is a trustworthy source for anything!”

Zeus whirled on Hercules. “He was right! You’re right where he said you would be!”

“And did he tell you how he tried to murder me?” Hercules demanded. He looked to Aphrodite next. “Didn’t you tell him?”

“Hades was already there,” Aphrodite said. “I’m surprised he didn’t come here to make it worse!”

“Hades tells me you’ve been with the mortal girl and killed two men because they were getting in your way!”

“That’s a funny way of saying they were either in the process of trying to kill or violate her! At some point you have to accept he is an evil bastard ! What he said is in bad faith. You didn’t wait for my side of the story?”

“You didn’t even come to me and tell me what you planned or what had happened! I had to hear it from two other people!”

“I had to take care of my wife; she’s more important than what you think of me.” His voice was more impressive than he’d expected.

“ Wife ?” Zeus echoed.

Hercules gestured to Aphrodite. “Ask Aph, she married us.”

“It’s true, I did.” Aphrodite folded her arms and glared at Zeus. “You stepped out of your domain to keep them apart. Love is my department. I’ve decided to sponsor them despite your arbitrary disapproval.”

“ Arbitrary ?” Zeus roared, shaking the temple again.

Eros and a few cherubs appeared to see what was wrong but quickly flew away.

“This is not arbitrary! My son has defied me! Every generation of this family, the king’s son rises against him and destroys him to take over!” He turned his blazing blue eyes on Hercules. “You couldn’t stay happy with everything you had, could you? You want more! You want to defy me!”

“No! Father, I want to be with the woman I love! I want what I do to mean something! It doesn’t matter to the other gods. It matters to mortals! I’ve never been around them so much, and when I finally helped her, when I saved Megara’s people, I realized that was what I was always meant to do. She showed me that. I only matter to myself because of her. I can’t wallow in inconsequential perfection for eternity! I need to matter!”

“You’ve disobeyed me,” Zeus rumbled. “You’ve killed twice in the name of your illicit affair! I told you you weren’t to meddle with mortals. I told you a mortal girl is only good for a short time. You need to learn that even if you think you can defy me, you will always lose!”

“None of this is an illicit affair. It’s my marriage . Mother will back me up on this. I can’t believe you’re torturing me because you’re afraid I’ll try to rise against you. You think I want your throne? No! Hades is the one who’s been active against you this whole time, and he tried to kill me when he thought I was mortal! Aren’t you concerned that your brother will rise against you? I can help you against him!”

“You’re not deflecting from yourself!” Zeus towered over his son. “Denounce that girl and come back to Olympus with me!”

“Um? Excuse me? Hey!” Aphrodite jumped between Hercules and Zeus. “He can’t do that!  That’s not how love works, and if he broke it off with Megara, that would mean breaking his oath that he made in front of me not even an hour ago! He’s right, by the way! Hera won’t stand for you dissolving a marriage between her favorite son and the woman he loves! Especially not so soon after it was sworn to!”

“Was it consummated?” Zeus rumbled.

Hercules didn’t have the chance to lie. He knew his startled embarrassment had given him away before he could respond.

“It’s not valid; it’s only the promise of a marriage, and it can be dissolved,” Zeus said.

“But it won’t be!” Aphrodite snapped her fingers for attention. “Part of the agreement was that they’d put off consummating the marriage until Megara was old enough to have a child with less trouble! You don’t get to rewrite the terms when I set them! This problem was already addressed, and you sticking your beard into it won’t change anything! Just set the thunderbolts down and be happy for your son!”

Static rage flickered through Zeus’s face. “Hercules, you’re throwing your life away! Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve stepped off Olympus and made it seem like you’d rather be with mortals than your own family!”

“I wouldn’t have to if you’d let me immortalize my wife!” Hercules shot back. “We’d have no reason to go behind your back to be together, and I wouldn’t have to stay on Earth to be with her. If you want to blame anyone for this situation, I’m sure Aphrodite has no shortage of mirrors!”

Aphrodite chuckled at Hercules’s last comment, but it was that same comment that set Zeus off.

“You want to live with a mortal? Fine! I’ll give you what you want!” Zeus aimed an accusatory finger at Hercules, shooting a golden beam of light directly at his chest.

Life and power seeped out of Hercules so quickly that he didn’t have time to react. He wobbled on his feet, feeling so much of who he was draining out of his body that his mind turned to mush, and his eyes went bleary.

“Cut that out!” Aphrodite blocked the beam with a flash of pink.

Hercules staggered backward, dazed, and landed heavily on the ground. His whole frame felt heavy—like a sponge saturated with water. He hadn’t lost his shape, but he’d gotten so much heavier… Or maybe it was the opposite. He’d been wrung out and lost so much that was essential to him, and now he was dry.

His mind swirled so intensely that all he could hear was the back and forth between Aphrodite and Zeus.

“This is my! Temple!” Aphrodite shrieked. “You don’t get to mistreat your son in front of me! It’s an affront to love itself! To me! Now you’re going to fix it this instant!”

Zeus looked genuinely chastened. “I’ll give him conditions. He’ll get his immortality back.”

“And!” Aphrodite stuck a dainty pink finger in Zeus’s face. “The moment he does, she will too! Say it!”

Zeus went cross-eyed, but he like any other god with a crumb of sense, knew defying Aphrodite never went well.

“Yes…” Zeus growled. “When my son regains his immortality, he will… also… see his wife become immortal with him…”

Hercules wobbled to his feet. “What must I do, Father?” his heart raced so quickly it hurt.

Zeus drew himself up to regain the dignity he’d lost by letting Aphrodite order him about. “You’ll have to re-embrace your Telos. Become a True Hero. Earn it this time. I’ve let you stay spoiled for too long. You must train as all mortals do and re-learn heroism from the ground up.”

Breathing hard, Hercules gazed up at his father, the light radiating off of the king of the gods hurting his eyes for the first time. “You know what? Hades is the one who’s been acting against you all this time. Not me. You never needed to be my enemy. All you’ve done is make it possible for Hades to kill me. I hope you’re proud of yourself. I’ll take this challenge and exceed expectations. But you’ve got to know this changes everything between us forever. Get out of my sight, Father. I have important business to attend to.”

Refusing to show how wobbly he felt, Hercules strode out of the room. His mind raced, and once he was out of sight, he longed to weep. He hadn’t really appreciated his immortality. It was such an integral part of him. What he missed most was the sense of being his whole self. He paused outside the door to the Trophy Room. Would Megara be happy to see him like this?

Hercules cringed. He had so much bravado in front of his father, but now…?

The door opened, and Megara looked up at him with concern in those soft violet eyes. “What happened to you?” she whispered, cupping his face in her hands.

“I’ll explain later…” He leaned into her touch, his eyes closing with a bone-deep exhaustion he’d never experienced in his life. “First… I think I need a nap…”

Chapter 21: Perspectives and Prophecies

Megara lay bewildered on the bed Aphrodite had intended for her and her new husband to share wedded bliss. She rested his head on her shoulder and listened to his tear-stained breaths as they puffed against her neck.

Only one thing was clear: Zeus had demoted Hercules from god to… something less than a god. The pain of this transformation must be mixed with the betrayal of the fact it was his own father who did this to him. Hercules had come directly to her. His heavy footsteps had given her a hint of what to expect. His drained, ashen complexion twisted her heart with empathy. Megara had no idea what came next, but anything they did, they would do together.

Her fingers trailed through his hair and down the sharp, handsome lines of his cheek and jaw. The slightest touch as she stroked his skin made him shiver, and he pressed closer to her. Her heart broke for him. He’d never needed comfort more than this moment, and all he had was her. Could she ever muster enough wherewithal to offer what he needed?

Over the course of her young and tragic life, Megara had encountered multiple ordeals that had given her a taste of what he must be in the grip of now. She had often wished that there was someone to comfort her in those moments. Haemon always did his best. Menoikeus meant well, and Megarion could only mirror her own pain back at her. She’d have to do better than any of them. She could piece together the best amalgamation of what comfort she’d ever received and wrap it in the love she’d built with Hercules. It was new, but it would have to be enough to get them through this day.

Megara kissed his brow, bowed her head over his, and brushed her nose through his hair. He still had that scent to him, like lemons and honey, living sunlight. But there was something else. Something earthy. That could have always been present, hiding behind his aura, but suddenly he felt more real. He wasn’t a dream come to life, he was a man, and she loved him.

“Mm… Meg ?” Hercules’s voice crackled, his voice rumbling through his chest and into hers.

“I’m still here,” she whispered to him, her fingers following the waves of his hair from the back of his neck to his shoulder.

Hercules pressed his face into the arch of her neck and moaned out his pain against her skin.

“You don’t have to talk; I think I know what happened.” Megara kept her whisper as soothing as possible—or at least, she hoped it would be comforting. “I know Zeus changed you. That must be so painful for you. But I’m here. Whatever you need, I’ll do my best for you.”

There were many cosmic battles she could never fight, but the one for her husband’s happiness was not insurmountable.

Hercules opened his shadowed azure eyes to gaze at her. He looked like a lap dog whose owner had dropped him out a window. “I can’t protect you anymore, Meeg… Or not as much…” He closed his eyes, winced, and released a shuddering gasp of pain.

“Are you afraid this matters to me?”

He opened his eyes again. “You married a god…”

“I married a man who happened to be a god. Did you lose your personality and your powers at the same time?”

A tremor went through him. “No? Or at least, I don’t think so…”

“Of course you’re sad, who wouldn’t be? But that has nothing to do with whether I love you.” She emphasized that point by kissing his brow once again. “I will always love you. You know that, don’t you?”

He winced again. “Well… I-I…”

“You thought I’d get bored with you when given options to move on and focus on my own independent endeavors. Now you think I’ll lose interest in you because you aren’t a god. I married you. I want to be with you . The point of this is that I get to be with the only man I’ve ever met whose heart is so magnanimous, whose voice is so sweet, and who will stop at nothing to do the right thing. If we can’t be together forever, so be it. I was never promised forever.”

Though he was still apparently suffering, Hercules propped himself over her with an elbow on either side of her. The deep blue of his eyes sought to draw her into their depths. She went willingly, prepared to drown. “You mean all of that?”

“Have I ever given you the impression I’d lie to you?”

He shook his head. “It’s just that I can’t believe how lucky I am… I don’t feel like I deserve you anymore…” A hot tear dropped from his eye to her cheek. 

Megara didn’t bother to wipe it away. “You listen to me,” she cupped his face once again. I married you. I will stay with you. Your godhood was never what made you worthy of me. It was your heart. It still is. I don’t care what anyone else says about you. Don’t listen to anyone else; my voice is the only one that matters. Maybe I’m the only person who can see what you’re worth, but I’m not letting you forget it. Got that?”

Though he smiled, the tears didn’t stop falling. “Sorry,” He whispered and wiped his tears off her face. He slumped to one side, draping his body across her torso and keeping most of the weight off her with his elbow propping him up. “My father said I have to be mortal because I defied him. He mentioned how he and his father both overthrew their predecessors, and he doesn’t want me to become a threat to him.”

“That stuck-up, paranoid….” Megara remembered she was slandering the king of the gods and stopped. “Herc,” She began again. “We’ll figure this out. It might even be easier for us to figure this out together now that you’re mortal. We don’t have to bother with all that temple business, do we? This is a completely normal relationship between a princess and a hero. Nobody would bat an eye.”

“You don’t think they’ll ask questions when I’m not a god anymore?”

“No, I think they’ll be easily convinced that you became a mortal to better relate to them and that you intend to become the people’s hero. Even if you’re truly mortal, there’s no reason they can’t believe you denied yourself godhood for a time to become more familiar with the human experience.”

Hercules smiled. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Public relations and diplomacy are some of the only interesting things I’ve learned from being a princess. Whatever we choose to say, I’ll see to it that people believe it.”’

“I’m in awe of you, once again…” He smiled despite his pain and trailed a hand up and down her arm. “I was too upset to remember this before, but Aphrodite made my father promise that if I could regain my godhood, you’d become a goddess alongside me.” He took a deep breath and searched her eyes. “Is that what you want?”

“I don’t care about immortality. I care about you. Tell me what our future holds, and as long as we’re together, I’ll take whatever comes.”

Hercules surged forward and kissed her before she could react. His kiss was full of words he couldn’t speak. At least when he ran out of words, his tongue could still be eloquent enough to communicate. When he pulled back, he rested his brow against hers. “Meg… I don’t think I can ever fully thank you. But I’ll try. Every day, I’ll try.”

“Don’t forget we’re in this together. I’m trying, too. Neither of us has much experience in this marriage, but we’re going to figure it all out together. What did Zeus say would make you a god again?”

“I’d have to become a True Hero. I have to ‘embrace my Telos’ again.” He frowned, not even comforted by his own impression of his father. “I have to train, too, according to my father.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard for you.” Megara grinned as broadly as possible, hoping to influence him. “You’ll be amazing at hero training, and you’ve already been a hero. Why should this get you down? It’ll only make you a stronger god than you ever were before!”

“Really?” He asked shyly. The way his ginger lashes hung over his steadily brightening eyes made Megara’s heart race.

“I believe in you completely. You’ll always have me on your side cheering you along.”

Hercules gazed down at her with an intoxicating mix of affection and joy. “And you’ll become my goddess, just like I’ve been dreaming you would be. I can’t wait to be with you forever.”

A thought whispered through Megara’s mind, but when she focused in on it to better understand waht she was thinking, it roared. “Herc…” she whispered. “When you were a god, we had to put off consummating our marriage because it was guaranteed to get me pregnant… but now…”

Hercules’s eyes lit up. “Are you thinking…? Are you sure you’re ready to…?”

“We don’t have to do everything, but we should try more from the pink scroll—if you have the energy. I don’t want your father to rob us of our joy. This isn’t a setback. This is our road map to victory.”

“It is? Could we? Meg, I…” He looked away, then glanced shyly back at her. “I’m not sure I’m brave enough to presume…”

“We can make this up between the two of us. Aphrodite left us enough instructions, but what we do between the two of us is a conversation. It has to make sense to both of us and communicate what we want the other person to know.”

“How are you so wise?” Hercules leaned in and brushed his nose against hers.

“I’m quoting the scroll,” Megara snickered. “But, even if Aphrodite gave me a shortcut to that wisdom, it’s still true. And hey… I just had a thought. You’re mortal now. You should experience eating like one.” She nodded to the food Aphrodite had left them. “You didn’t really need food before, and you loved it. Think how great it’ll be now that it actually nourishes you.”

He perked up a little more. It was almost as if he hadn’t lost the aura or the echo of his voice. “I’d like that.” He reached over and pulled the table bearing all the food Aphrodite had left them closer to the edge of the bed. “We’ll share it.”

Megara didn’t comment on how impressive it was that he could move that heavy marble table in his state. He might start spiraling into thoughts of what had changed about him. 

“What do you think I should start with? Is there a specific order that makes the most sense?”

Megara grabbed a beef skewer. “I’ve been thinking of these the most.” She picked the topmost chunk off the stake and nibbled at it. The steak was so juicy despite waiting through their interlude of distress that she hummed with the pleasure of eating it. “You should have the next one! And remember to chew slowly. Don’t try to force it all down now; you might choke on it if you aren’t careful.”

He looked at her with a sudden concern. “Is being a mortal really that difficult?”

“Just about everything is more difficult. You can’t disappear and reappear wherever you want to go, injuries take weeks to heal, or they don’t heal at all, and you definitely can’t smite people whenever you feel like it.”

Hercules savored the beef she’d given him and hummed with pleasure. “When we’re gods, we will still feast like this.”

“Of course.” Megara rested her cheek against his arm. 

Hercules breathed heavily from the burden placed on him. Even without the presence of his aura, his emotions flowed seamlessly into Megara’s heart.

“It’s daunting, isn’t it?” She wrapped an arm around his middle to squeeze him close. “But do you know what I think? I have a great respect for the power of prophecy. I believe that in giving you this challenge, Zeus has ensured your victory.”

Hercules looked down at her, a glimmer of hope in his sapphire eyes. “You think that was a prophecy?”

“Yes. I believe that you are destined to meet the terms of this challenge. As a god of heroism who had never faced the challenges that mortals endure to become heroes, you were the concept to aspire to. This is your chance to become an example. ”

Hercules sat up fully then, his eyes fixed on a point in the ceiling. “I believe you. You are so much wiser than me.”

“My perspective is different. That doesn’t make me any wiser.” She cupped his chin in her hand to bring him back around to look at her. “You will live up to your Telos, and you will embrace your full potential.” Hercules took her hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “It will mean more to me than anything ever has because you’ll be there with me.”

Chapter 22: Mortal Delights

No evidence of disappointment showed on Megara’s face, but Hercules had to believe she wouldn’t be happy with the downgrade in her newlywed husband from god to man. 

While he continued to agonize, Megara offered him a handful of grapes and cherries to pick from. “Watch the cherries. There are pits in the middle, and you could choke on them, so don’t swallow. There are seeds in the grapes, too, but they’re not as bad. You can eat them.”

“There are so many things to remember, aren’t there?” Hercules asked. “How do you survive like this with so many rules to learn?”

“Yeah, now that you’re down on my level, I’ll catch you up. You’re a smart guy. You’ll have it figured out in no time.” 

Her smile was so genuine, his heart clenched then relaxed. “You sure about that?”

“Come on, give me some credit. You know I wouldn’t put up with an idiotic version of you.”

“Maybe if I was a handsome, shiny idiot.” 

“There will be no disparaging my husband in my presence, even from you.” Her casual use of that term made his heart jump. Her eyes softened, and she stroked the back of his hand. “You were nothing but gracious to me when you were a god, and I was a lowly mortal. What kind of a wife would abandon you after that?”

“Dunno…” He made himself laugh despite his burning heart.

“Don’t worry. We’re in this together. I bet you’ll be back to your shiny self within the year,” she assured him with a wink.

“So soon?”

Megara shrugged. “Trust me. You’ve got this. You’ve always been amazing, but now they’ve given you the opportunity to prove yourself and show them how amazing you are.”

Her faith in him was so intoxicating it made his blood run hot. Hercules lightly traced soft patterns into her thigh with his fingertips, finding her skin through the slit in her skirt. “I love you so much,” he whispered.

“I can tell.” Megara lounged back against his shoulder. Somehow, how she ate that pork skewer made him feel strange… Did she know what she was doing to him? “Where do you want to go after this?” she asked in a low, sultry voice. He was starting to think she altered her voice on purpose…

“After…?” Hercules gulped, still clasping her thigh. “Uh… after dinner, you mean?”

“There are other entertainments to enjoy.” That purr in her voice was all the elaboration required.

Heat spread through his body, and it made him blush. “I thought we agreed…”

“That was when you were a god, and the odds of getting me pregnant were one hundred percent. Now, you’re either a demigod or a mortal. That reduces the odds to a rate I’m willing to bet on.”

“Are you messing with me?”

“Always.” She crossed her legs, making her skirt slide off her leg, and showed him her entire soft white thigh from knee to hip.

His mouth dropped open. “You’re a tease… a minx…”

“I object to being called a tease… I’ll give you everything you want. But a minx, yes… I’m a bold flirt and rather audacious when I know what I want. I’m also much more cunning than you are. So I’m afraid all that is your problem now.”

“My problem…” Hercules’s head spun. He anchored himself to reality with his hand around her thigh. “ Meg …”

She smirked up at him. “Forget your arrangement with your father. I’m going to make you feel like a god again.”

His breath caught in his throat, his mind spinning even further out of control. “Are you sure about that? It’s an important decision, and I don’t want you to make it spur of the moment.”

A catlike gleam of mischief flickered in her eyes as Megara nudged him onto his back. “While you were gone, all I could think about was how much I wished I could be close to you again.” She stroked his cheek. 

He caught her hand before she could drive him mad. “Are you trying to drive me insane?” he asked her.

“No, I’m succeeding.” She winked at him. “You want me, right?”

An unbidden growl escaped Hercules, and he paused, stunned by the sound as if someone else had made it.

“That’s what I thought.”

Hercules narrowed his eyes up at her. “Do you have some kind of plan?”

“Mostly, the plan is to provoke you until you do something interesting.”

“Oh, you want interesting ?” Hercules brushed her skirt out of the way so he could stroke both her thighs and guide them around his waist. First, his thumbs and then his whole hands moved from caressing the outsides of her thighs to the insides.

Megara closed her eyes and sighed. “That’s nice…”

“But is it interesting ?” There was a distinct difference between the softness on the outsides and then the insides. He kept tracing her thighs to find the line where the texture changed.

Wearing a smug little smirk and little else, Megara spoke with utter nonchalance, saying, “Oh, I’m not sure. It’s sweet. It’s making me ticklish, it’s–”

Hercules flipped them over, pushing her back into the pillows where she could only squeak. He lifted one of her legs, tracing a line from her knee down her thigh. “What? No teasing little comment?”

She blushed. “Knocked the sass right outta me, big guy.”

“I’m mortal, not weak. Big difference.” His fingers reached the juncture between her thighs. He met her eyes as a challenge, waiting to see if she objected.

Instead, Megara lifted her hips toward him, her eyes alight with playful challenge.

Hercules kept a hand on the small of her back so she wouldn’t drop her hips back to the bed. It took all the boldness he could muster, but he swelled two fingers around her entrance. “I hope I didn’t really knock the sass outta you, Meg. I love it.”

“Mm…” was all Megara could say. Her lashes fluttered over, and her eyes rolled back in ecstasy.

Entranced, he pressed those two exploring fingers into her before he had time to think about it.

Megara’s trembling had gripped his wrist.

Hercules leaned down to kiss her cheek as sweetly as ever.

A dainty giggle bubbled out of his wife. When she opened her eyes again, she unveiled pure adoration.

The voice of reason in his head warned him not to overwhelm her. He pulled his fingers out, even though she whimpered in protest. “Not too much at once,” he told her calmly, looking her in the eye as he sucked his fingers clean.

“ Herc …” she groaned, staring at him while her eyes went foggy. “What are you doing?”

“Getting to know my wife,” he said as casually as he might comment on whether the sun was out. “I will be amazing at it.”

The delight in her laughter spurred him on. 

“It starts like this,” Hercules whispered, his fingers trailing back to her entrance to stretch her open with the same two fingers that had explored her before. “You won’t regret this,” he whispered.

“This was my choice. You’ll start your mortal life feeling the greatest pleasure available to mortals. With me. Always with me.”

A shudder went through him. “Thought I was supposed to be the possessive one…” He trailed a line of kisses from her cheek down to the neckline of her dress.

She threaded her fingers through his hair and unpinned her dress with her free hand, so it drooped away from her body. “Consider this our rehearsal for when we’re divine lovers. We will bring honor to our patroness.”

Hercules chuckled, not too interested in his aunt. “Yeah.”

“You wanna run the show, or do you need me to? I can always play cheerleader; my whole team would say so.”

Hercules chuckled. “I won’t say no to some encouragement! Any time you tell me I’m doing something right, it will be exactly what I needed to hear.” He gazed down at her, memorizing how she looked before their consummation. He’d want to remember the effect he had on her. “Before we do anything we can’t undo…” Like stretching her with his Olympic-sized fingers? “Is this how you want it? Or would you prefer to take the lead?”

Megara shook her head. “I like that my man is in charge.”

Her man . Hercules chuckled as a rush of confidence threatened to inflate his ego. “I’m trying to behave right now… But  I admit I want to taste you everywhere… I’m not even sure where that thought came from, but it’s drowning out my rational mind…”

“Shh,” Megara pressed a finger to his lips.” You’re going to be okay. You’re already an excellent lover. Have fun with it.”

“Fun?” he repeated, chuckling as he thought of just how innocent her suggestion compared to the thoughts in his head.

“Whatever you’re thinking right now, follow your instincts. They’re given to us by the goddess who kept us together and gave us a path to immortality. We must honor her.”

A shudder ran through Hercules’s newly mortal body. As a god, he’d had more self-control, but as a mortal, he felt as if his body had all the power. It directed him to trail kisses all over her body. Everywhere he pressed his lips, he felt heat gather as if he were lighting a series of little fires. “You can spend this time thinking about the goddess, Meg. I’m currently more concerned with my favorite future goddess.” His kisses trailed from her neck down between her breasts, then toward her stomach. “My goddess, my princess, my wife…” he chanted softly as he moved back up to her chest. This time, when he reached it, he nipped at the underside of her breast.

“Wow, I’m all those– eep!” His nip on her breast shocked her, but then she giggled. “Mm… say more sweet things. I’m already hooked… You called me a goddess… that might just make me the first mortal worshiped by an Olympian.”

“You’re a pre-goddess. I was just the first person to notice.” He reached past her to the red scroll left on the bedside table. “I’m going to pick something random out of this, and then I’ll give it to you.”

“We haven’t even opened that thing. Neither of us has any idea what’s in there!” She protested.

Hercules casually unrolled the scroll and smirked at a page. “Hold onto this, Princess,” he said.

Megara had a split second to look at the image on the scroll before he lifted her leg and hooked it over his shoulder.

“What are we–?” Megara started, but the answer was right in front of her. He watched as the realization solidified in her mind.

Hercules copied the diagram precisely. This new position gave him more access to her center.

“Oh…” Megara had recognized how little effort it would take to finally enter her. 

But he had to do this right. He didn’t know if the time was ripe yet. It had to be for both their sakes. “Before we start this, can you promise to stay vocal for me?”

“Vocal? Are you saying that’s finally a good thing for me to be?”

“You have been so far, but it’s so important that you communicate with me. Not just so I don’t do something wrong, but so you can encourage me while I do something right.” He pressed kisses into her neck. “Every little sound you make when I touch you means something to me, and I need to hear it. I have to know I’m doing this right…”

“Shh, it’s going to be great. Let me start with just a little, please. I want to feel you, too.”

“Are you sure about that?” Hercules smirked at her. “Meg, I’ve still got my armor on. You haven’t had a chance to feel what you’re after. It’s not going to be like my fingers, you know…”

“And your fingers felt great, Herc. But more is better. I want it… and I’ve never been so ready for anything…” Her fingers traced the outlines of his armor and worked him free of it.

He held still, astonished by how those gentle touches could bring him to life. The moment he was free, his need began to overwhelm him. “Goddess…” he gasped, staring down at her as he gravitated toward her until their bodies were pressed together. “After this, it can’t be undone… you have to be ready because this will change both of us forever. I can’t let this hurt you. I need this to be good for you. You have to tell me if I’m hurting you so I can make it stop.”

“You mentioned before how vocal I am, have some faith in me. I’m too vocal to hide when it hurts. Even so… the idea of stretching for you is undeniably erotic…”

The image her words conjured, especially as they rested against silken sheets in Aphrodite’s temple, made Hercules groan. “You always know the perfect words to say…” he murmured.

Her eyes gleamed dangerously just before she put on a pout he knew was meant to play him. “Please, Hercules? We’re already married. Why should we put this off? I already swore. Don’t make me wait any longer when I’m so in need of you…”

The knowledge that she was toying with him wasn’t enough to help him keep his senses. “You sure know how to get a man going, princess…” He pressed himself against her, stunned by the sensations that followed.

“A little further. I’m not afraid to stretch for you.” She pressed her hips forward to take him in without his having to move.

“Oh!” Hercules gasped, staring down at her in amazement.

Immortality couldn’t compete with this feeling. He had to tell her so and express the exquisite delight of the accommodating way she accepted him. “Ah… gods, Meg! Oh… so good… very good…” It’s not his best description, but it’s close enough.

“I know,” she said as if she understood that. “You’re safe with me, be free. I’ll let you. I trust you. I love you.”

He still wasn’t sure he should be doing this, but there was no way to resist her encouragement. He gave himself over to instinct. 

The sensation of her tightening around him drove him to the edge of madness. He wasn’t aware of the moment it happened, but when he was sane again, he knew he’d fallen over the edge. That was the only way to explain how smug Megara looked.

She contracted around him with victorious little cries, drinking him in as if she were dying of thirst. “Best thing ever.”

Chapter 23

Wrapped in silk and warm, powerful arms, Megara’s mind reeled on the edge of consciousness. With all the sudden changes the two of them had undergone in the last day, her dreams were a jumble of conflicting mental horizons. She had married a god but only consummated that relationship with him when he’d already lost his godhood. He’d lost it for her; now, she was all he had.

The responsibility of that realization weighed heavily on her. She now had to be worth his sacrifice so he could be with her.

Was that even possible?

 She now existed as the reason that a son was in rebellion against his father, that father was the King of Olympus… If his vendetta against her remained intact, she could scarcely hope to stay alive for much longer. Where would that leave her husband?

All of this should frighten her from extricating herself from the drama and retreating to the sidelines. So far, that was the way she had always insulated herself from the horrors of life in Thebes. Mortal girls– especially Theban mortal girls– had to know when they risked Tartarus for reaching too high.

Did that advice still apply if someone had reached down for her? If he relied on her presence so much, she was obliged to stay with him, even if it meant following him back to greater heights. 

Perhaps a hasty retreat would have been the smart thing to do, and it would have insulated her from some of the struggles she would encounter in the future. 

She was too accustomed to doing the smart thing, playing it safe. This one time, for love, she preferred to take a risk. He needed her more than she needed to control every aspect of her life, and she’d prove that before she had a chance to doubt herself too much.

The more aware she grew as wakefulness returned to her, Megara recognized his arms were still around her. There was a warm spot atop her head where she discovered he’d been weeping into her hair. Hercules’s hands traced up and down her body, pausing on her arms and her hips as he pressed their bodies together.

If she ever thought that she might have made the wrong call, Megara resolved to remember this moment.

Seemingly noticing her stir, Hercules kissed her forehead. “Thank you,” he whispered. You’ve done so much. Thank you for still being here…”

Megara forced her eyes open even though she was too groggy to see his face.

“You’re so adorable when you’re just waking up,” Hercules whispered and kissed her forehead, hair, and the top of her ear. He only paused to enjoy her squeaky little early-morning cries.“I’ve been watching how innocent you look when you’re asleep. And when you open your eyes for the first time, all groggy with that soft, adorable voice…” He cradled a hand under her neck and pulled her head up to him for a kiss firm on her lips.

He may not be a god anymore, but Hercules’s kisses were still divine.

Megara let herself melt into the purity of his affection and pressed herself closer to him, just in time to remember she wasn’t wearing clothes. The blankets around her were the only barrier between her body and his, and they did nothing to block his heat or his scent…

“You’re the only person I know who loves me as both my new self and who I used to be,” Hercules whispered.

She recognized a flaw in that logic, but her groggy mind struggled to reorient her around it. “We… um…” she blinked a few times to rid herself of her grogginess. “Other people haven’t seen you yet. I’m sure you’ll be popular again, Golden Boy.”

Hercules chuckled brokenly. “Maybe, but you’re the most loyal girl I ever met, and you’re mine!” he curled a hand under her head and pulled her close so he could kiss her cheek. “I know we must go out into the world now, but I’ll always want to bring you back here.”

“Or we could set up our own space now that you live on Earth with me,” Megara suggested. After all, we were already building you a home-style temple; why shouldn’t we use it?”

Hercules nodded thoughtfully. “I’d like that… what sorts of things would you want to take from here to enhance our new home?”

“The wine fountain is nice…” Megara shrugged. “The only vital thing for me to take from here is you.”

Hercules dragged in a heavy gasp and leaned down to kiss her firmly on the forehead. “How do you always say exactly the right thing?” he whispered, pulling her more tightly against himself. “Even when I’m down at my worst, you make me smile.” He trailed kisses from her forehead, along her cheek, and down to her ear. Each time, she found herself squeaking from the contact and shuddering.

He may be mortal now, but he still had godlike power over her.

“I… I think finding ways to adjust to bad circumstances is how I’ve survived this long,” she whispered. “I’m happy to teach you my methods…”

“Heh… thanks…” Hercules murmured directly into her ear. “You’re already the one reason I’m not losing my mind over this situation. I’ve lost my immortality, family, and home, but I don’t care about that.” He took her hand, interlacing their fingers, and then propped himself over her, resting his forehead against hers. “You’ve made losing everything feel like a victory.”

Megara gripped his hand in return, squeezing despite the immense power differential. “Maybe it’s because you finally have what you wanted,” she whispered.

Hercules snickered in a manner dangerously similar to how she laughed. “And what I want is you…”

“You wanted a purpose,” she countered. “The things you did before never felt like they mattered, but now you have the chance to make significant choices and…” she stopped when one of Hercules’s hands moved from holding himself over her and instead traced her lips.

Gazing down into her eyes, Hercules’s thick ginger lashes fluttered low over his azure eyes. “You’re enough purpose for me,” he whispered. “The other stuff is a bonus.” Having made this point, he left kisses all over her face while leaving one thumb to lightly stroke her bottom lip.

The tickling and tingling sensations that overcame Megara drove thought away until Hercules lightly pulled her lip lower and whispered, “Open your mouth,” directly into her ear.

Megara automatically accepted his instructions, and as a reward, she earned a deep, passionate kiss from an erstwhile god. He cradled the back of her head and stroked a line down her body with his free hand. It was all so overwhelming that she didn’t react when she felt him move his caresses from her side to her chest.

“Last night, you showed me a new way of communicating, and I’ve got a message for you,” Hercules whispered against her lips. He stretched her arms over her head and held them with one hand while the other traveled across her chest.

“What– why?” Megara gasped.

“Why am I restraining you, or why am I touching you?” Hercules was unbothered as he continued to explore and massage her. “The answer to both is so you can be the only focus for a while. If I let you, you’d be too tempted to try and spoil me in return. So I won’t.”

“Oh, I–” she began, but suddenly he’d replaced his hand with his mouth, and the massage continued. Rather than address his comment about keeping her the center of attention, all she could do was scream with pleasure.

This only encouraged him. He’d thoroughly consumed all her senses, and she could not resist or participate. Seemingly sensing that, Hercules released her arms and trailed his free hand down her body. He never let his attention to her chest. She had no idea to contemplate what he would do before his fingers had trailed between her thighs.

“Of all the accomplishments I have to my name, I’m counting this at the top,” Hercules whispered, then went back to work, making Megara feel like she was floating.

On one level, it was disconcerting to realize how out of control she was and surrender to him. Why was it so easy for her to let herself float away like this?

“So cute,” Hercules whispered, “all those noises you’re making… adorable…” He curled an arm under her, intensifying every affectionate motion. It seemed he would be content leaving her pleased with nothing for himself, but guilt welled up in her at the thought of simply accepting that.

“Herc, you…” she gasped, her mind wandering off mid-sentence.

“You don’t have to speak. Your other noises are just as easy to understand,” he remarked, never letting up.

“I don’t–” she broke off, interrupted by her cries of delight. She gripped his shoulders, the only anchor she had to reality. “Herc! I don’t want to do this alone!”

“I’m here,” he reminded her.

“Not the same thing!” she insisted.

“No?” A teasing edge to his voice made Megara think he might not have lost all that prince-of-Olympus confidence along with his immortality and status. “Well, if you’re so worried about being alone, I could consider giving you some company… Now that you’re my wife, I’ve got to take care of you, right?” His grin stretched wider. “My wife…” he repeated with a gleeful chuckle. “ My wife …”

“Yes, yes, that’s me,” Megara replied while he positioned himself between her thighs. “If you repeat that anymore, I’ll start to think there’s something wrong with you.”

“Nothing’s wrong… I just love my wife!” Hercules’s smile concentrated into pure determination. “I’ll have to catch up with you, hon. Wait for me if you want us to go together.” Somehow, his voice remained even and casual, as if he were talking about an actual trip they were talking about, something innocent.

“I’ll help you catch up,” Megara promised, guiding him closer with one hand. “See? I’ll make it so easy for you. Will you please… put us back together?”

Something in the way she made her request switched up his attitude. He groaned, releasing her hands to grip the bed sheets instead. “This is you making it easier? I won’t be able to control myself…” 

“That’s my job,” she whispered back.

“No, your job is to get spoiled like the gorgeous princess you are,” Hercules insisted. This time, when he positioned himself over her, Hercules had a reinvigorated expression of determination, firmly setting his jaw. Hercules opened his eyes again, and this time, that same intense focus she’d seen before overtook his features. He pushed inside her without another word. 

“Oh!” Why was she surprised? She’d asked for this.

Hercules appeared equally shocked for a moment, but then he smirked at her. “Sure, you don’t want to slow down again?” he teased.

“Don’t bother pretending either of us can slow down anymore.”

“Heh!” Hercules’s last vestiges of innocence erupted from this burst of laughter, but then he focused once more. “I’m not hurting you am I?” The way he worked his jaw let her know how difficult it was to hold back. 

“No, no,” she insisted, despite how raw she was from the night before. She couldn’t scare him off on day two! “I like it!” she assured him, though her mouth was hanging open, ready to scream again. “Herc, I love it.” Now she smiled and thought perhaps she’d broken through to him.

“Me too, Meg.” He pressed in deeper, and this time, he kissed her. He gripped her hand, lacing his fingers between them, and plunged into a rhythm of rocking his hips into her as deep as he could go. His swift and decisive movements pushed away all thoughts Megara had of ever directing the morning’s proceedings.

In reality, she could only cling to him and let him overwhelm her senses.

“You’ll be my goddess,” he whispered, pressing close against her while he continued to move. “You’re already as beautiful as a goddess… more beautiful than any goddess… you’ll stay like this forever… I’ll worship you for eternity…” Hercules accompanied each declaration with a greater intensifying of their intimate embrace. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“I have to try…” He hooked his elbows under her knees, angling her hips upward and plunging forward with greater intensity than before. Why was he sorry for this?

Megara couldn’t think deeply enough to contemplate what he was driving at. Instead, she had to focus on him driving into her. 

“Doesn’t… hurt?” he panted.

Megara shook her head, struggling to hold onto at least one shred of her sanity long enough for him to catch up with her. 

“I’m sorry, Meg,” he murmured again, “I can’t stop…”

“ Don’t stop.”

“But I–” he started, but Megara stopped his mouth with a kiss.

That was all he could take.

He didn’t move off her until both of them were spent, and each had swallowed the screams of the other. Then Hercules threw himself heavily onto the pillows but never released her hand. “Meg…” he panted, “are you…? I didn’t… I mean…?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him, wondering if those questions were about to become a routine between them. “How about you? You’re the one who did all the work.”

“That’s how I like it,” Hercules admitted with a lopsided grin. “You know I thrive on accomplishments… especially when I get my laurels from you.” He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her palm.

“Let me get some of those laurels now and then, okay?” she gasped out through laughter. “We’re in this together. That’s what we promised Aphrodite.”

“All right, all right… but I’ll still do most of the work.”

Maybe it was nonsensical, but they indulged in their shared laughter. There was no stopping them now.

Something had changed forever. She rubbed her cheek against his while his arms wrapped around her. The rest of the world melted away. No matter what, she could be happy as long as she could find refuge here.

Chapter 24: Envoys

“Mortal?” Menoikeus repeated. He and the other Kadmeas had gathered in the dining room for a private, parent-excluding meeting. The King of Thebes regarded Hercules with concerned scrutiny. “And you became a mortal for marrying my sister?”

Hercules bowed his head. “It’s more that I defied my father, but that is how I defied him.”

Menoikeus looked between the two for a solemn minute, then spoke again. “Is this at all connected to the incident where a student at the high school was hurled to his death on the school’s campus?” That look on the king’s face said he knew the answer.

“He was in the process of assaulting your sister,” Hercules shrugged. “If you want to punish me, go ahead.”

Menoikeus’s eyes widened. “That will not be necessary. I also heard a mysterious boy was wandering the grounds at the time…” He tilted his head without phrasing the question.

“It seemed like a good idea then,” Hercules shrugged. “Too bad I can’t disguise myself anymore. I think I was really onto something there.”

“It wasn’t as good of a plan as I would’ve helped him come up with, but he was alone when he made up his mind,” Megara supplied. “If anyone asks, it was a god in disguise meting out divine justice. No need to elaborate.”

“Fair enough,” Menoikeus said. “Though this leaves the conflict with Zeus… None of us wish to suffer curses from the gods. If there is a way for us to atone, please tell us how we may do it in a non-fatal manner. Since she is your wife now, I cannot be the one to pass judgment on her as an elder brother, but if you wish me to pursue the matter as her king--”

“No!” Hercules wrapped his arms around Megara. “I’ve been punished, and if the gods want any punishment on her, I’ll take it in her stead. You and the rest of your family are not to suffer for any of our actions. I have been commanded to train as a hero under a trainer of mortal heroes, and so it will take some time before we can take up residence at our villa. In the meantime, I’d like someone to stay there until the construction is completed to ensure everything goes well and the place isn’t looted.”

“Haemon and Ismene should stay there,” Megara added. “If you don’t mind, that is.” She glanced at her brother and cousin, neither of whom had anticipated a suggestion of that kind.

“Don’t you mean Antigone and Haemon?” Haemon asked, raising a brow at his sister.

“Do you honestly think she wouldn’t make it unbearable if you spent an hour alone with her in a house?” Megara shot back.

“I’m engaged to her! We’ll live together eventually!”

The tightening of Megara’s facial features would inevitably reveal her distaste for that sentiment, but she couldn’t hide it now. “She’s not allowed in my house.”

“Your suggestion is noted,” Menoikeus replied. “Megarion will stay there. He must leave the palace and maybe see the sun a few times daily.” The eldest son of Creon put up a hand so that the youngest’s objections went unformed. “He will move in the day you leave. How soon will this training begin, Hero?”

“At once,” Hercules said. “I must earn my way back to godhood as quickly as possible. As much as I love being on earth with my wife,” he paused, and a blissful grin stretched across his face when he spoke those words. “I would rather know I can secure her safety with no reservations. Now that she’s involved in cosmic affairs on my account, it’s my duty now.”

“Agreed,” Menoikeus said. “I am proud that my sister is allied with you, though I am sorry you have lost status on her behalf.”

“That’s not it,” Hercules replied with some ferocity. He collected himself and added, “Meg and I will reach Olympus together. This allows us to grow together in ways we couldn’t if I’d stayed immortal.”

Menoikeus made a skeptical face characteristic of the Theban people, but Haemon nodded his approval of that sentiment.

The first word Megarion spoke in the entire exchange was, “Wow,” to which he added, “You’ve got it so bad for her it’s made you delusional.”

“That’s how I’m keeping him,” Megara responded to her twin. “Delirious and delusional. He’s a goner as far as I’m concerned.”

“And happy to be one,” Hercules chirped. He lifted Megara into his arms bridal style. “My father didn’t see it, but we’re perfectly matched. I’m pleased she’s my wife, and she’ll be sticking around for all my adventures.”

“Just keep her safe,” Haemon said. “If things get rough out there, Megarion and I can always lend aid.”

Megarion cut his violet-slitted eyes in his older brother’s direction. “Speak for yourself, you gigantic hairy ham.”

Haemon burst into hearty laughter while his siblings rolled their eyes in unison.

“It is true that as Megara’s family, we will aid her,” Menoikeus said. “Your relationship has met with resistance that we do not envy, but we remain your allies. The sons of kings are often so thwarted by their fathers. It stands to reason the prince of the gods would face opposition similarly. I myself have had some difficulty pleasing my father with the possible queens I have sought. Perhaps in that we are alike, Mighty Hercules.”

“I agree, but I hope you find someone soon. If I meet anyone I think would make a fine queen, I will send her to you before anyone else. I still consider you my family, and I would hate to see you lonely and without a queen for longer than necessary.”

“Speaking of that old devil, where is he hiding?” Megara asked.

Menoikeus made a mischievous little smile. “He’s busy. Antigone took it upon herself to become envoy to Polynikes, and I recommended that our father go along with her to exert his authority over our unruly cousin… Cousins . But who knows? It could be months before they return.”

A worst-case scenario crystallized instantly in Megara’s mind. “Just watch out. Antigone might decide she can join her brother in some righteous endeavor against us.”

“Once again, your caution is commendable and will not be discounted,” Menoikeus said.

“Careful, if you encourage her to think she’s got influence here, she’ll aim for your crown,” Megarion said.

“Me? Ugh!” Megara gagged dramatically. “No chance! Thebes is your problem. I’ve got a full-time commitment here with a high-maintenance god-prince.” She patted Hercules’s bicep. “I’ve got to keep him mollified at all times, and he’d get antsy if I tried to rule a polis.”

“Uh…” Hercules blinked at her a few times, uncertain whether he should be offended.

Megara poked him. She was kidding, after all!

“Heh! Oh, he-heh!” Hercules grinned. “Uh, yeah! Yeah, y’know, I um… I am really, really sensitive, yeah!” He put an arm around her. “In fact, we’d better get out of here before the last time she took care of me wears off and I get needy again.”

“Yes, I’m sure we’re in danger of that,” Megara said drily.

“Hey, you’re the one who told everyone I’m high-maintenance! Wouldn’t wanna be exposed as a liar, now!” Hercules pressed a kiss to her brow. 

“You don’t wish to dine with us tonight?” Menoikeus asked.

“Aw, we can come back,” Hercules said, winking at Megara. “I’m taking her home to settle in and see if we’ve gotta pack anything. Tomorrow, we’ll seek out the hero trainer, either Chiron or Philoctetes. It depends on who’s accepting new students.” With that, Hercules strode out of the palace, still carrying his newlywed bride.

“So odd to walk everywhere,” he said. “I’m used to thinking of where I want to be and going there with no more than the blink of an eye.”

“Now you’re down at my level, Wonder Boy. We lowly mortals don’t have that luxury.”

“You’re not lowly! Just... not as high up.”

“You realize that’s the same thing, right?”

Hercules pouted, contemplating how he might argue with her. When he came up with nothing, he instead shrugged it off. “Maybe I have a lower rank now, but that doesn’t mean anything about my life has diminished. Everything’s better, actually. You’re the reason for that, by the way.” He gave her temple a quick kiss before lifting her onto Pegasus.

“We’re both aiming for the stars, though,” Megara mused.

They took off, drifting over the city of Thebes, its problems seemingly diminished by their perspective. Megara wondered if she’d forget what it was like to struggle in a mortal city when she eventually joined Hercules on Olympus.

“You’re quiet again…” Hercules pointed out.

“Are you not entertained?”

Hercules snorted. “That’s not what I mean. It’s… good to hear your voice.”

“I could sing for you if you wanted.”

“ Yes . But first, tell me if you’re all right.”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t be? We had a pleasant conversation with my brothers, and my father and Antigone weren’t there to ruin it.”

“True. But we’re in a new spot in life. Your brothers blessed us to pursue this spot between gods and mortals. I’d go home, but I’ll take you with me. We’re almost envoys between our people.”

“Now who’s lost in their thoughts? You’re making all of that up. I hadn’t even thought any of it.”

“Maybe I’m overthinking it… but you matter so much to me, by the way.” He kissed the top of her head.

They flew over the city to come to rest at the temple Megara had built for them. It was almost a home, but they’d never entered it as such before. The fact their home was a temple finally hit Megara.

“We’re in a strange position now, I get it,” she said, unlocking the front door. She was about to take the first set,p but Hercules lifted her over the threshold instead.

“Are you sorry we’re not like everybody else?” He asked softly.

Megara huffed, wrapping an arm around his neck. “Herc. I fell in love with a god. Who cares about anyone else?”

Chapter 25: Day 1

In the hours before waking, Megara found herself surrounded by the same familiar scent of Thebes. It was thick with yesterday’s olive oil and many fires– not all of which were intentional, as well as that hint of wrongness from so many miserable people milling about and suffering. That would normally have bothered her, but there was something new to thwart the effects of that melancholy miasma.

Even stripped of his divinity, Hercules had a citrus-sweet scent even though his body gave off pleasantly masculine heat. She burrowed against his chest, not yet conscious, and forgot about the world outside.

The closer she drew to waking, the more aware she was of his steady breathing into her hair and how he draped his thick, rope-muscled arm across her back like a shield.

When she stirred, so did he, brushing his thumb along her shoulder blades. His breath puffed hot and full of promise, and suddenly, he had rolled over, pulling her on top of him.

“Don’t wanna crush you…” he muttered, drawing fingers through her hair.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled back at him and kissed his chin. “See?”

“Ah–hmm…” he grinned, and his eyes opened in sapphire slits. “Morning, beautiful. Glad to see you didn’t run away while I was out.” Before she could respond to that, he gave her a firm hug.

“Where would I go?” she asked.

“Who knows?” he shrugged shoulders that looked all the larger with the pillows for comparison. “I’m the only god ever to lose his divinity. Maybe a side effect is turning into woman repellant.”

“Oh, please,” she rolled her eyes and yawned. “You don’t know how women think if you don’t recognize why I’m with you haven’t changed.”

“My dreams don’t have to make sense to be real,” he said with surprising sobriety despite how thick with sleep he was.

“No,” she agreed and kissed his cheek. “But now that you’re awake, the dreams are memories that can fade. I’ve had hundreds of those. Don’t let them bother you. I’m not going anywhere. You’re likelier to chuck me into the sun for getting on your nerves than I am to leave you.”

Hercules made a small scoffing huff and gave her a light swat on the rear that made her squeak. He may be mortal now, but he reveled in that victory with the smile of a god getting carved into a victory frieze. “I know what to do with you if you get on my nerves. You’re not as complicated as you think you are.”

A blush collected on Megara’s face as she recognized just how quickly he’d reduced her into squeaking like an ingenue. She’d always considered herself a tough Theban girl, homegrown amid tragedy and ready for anything the world threw at her. That was not the conduct of a girl who could face down a century of curses and make a joke. “If you’ve got me figured out, maybe I should invent new mysteries to stay interesting.”

“Go ahead, I’ll have you figured out in a fortnight or less.”

“Deal.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “Now, we should get ready to find your new trainer. I wanna gang up on you with someone.”

Hercules rubbed his face to get some of the sleep off it. “Does that mean packing?”

“It also means getting out of bed, lazybones.” She rolled off the bed so quickly that she almost crashed to the tiled floor below, but she caught herself on the side of the bed and tiptoed to her dress crumpled on the floor.

Hercules propped himself up on an elbow and watched her with a smirk she would’ve been proud to wear. “Maybe I’m lazy, I’ll give you that. But I bet I can make you change your mind about hurrying out the door.”

Megara arched a skeptical brow that was quickly joined by the other in surprise as Hercules shrugged off his blanket and lounged on the bed, watching her. His eyes were wicked, gleaming sapphire,s and she realized she was already outdone.

“Well?” He asked, grinning over the victory he knew he’d already won.

With a dramatic sigh, as if accepting the unspoken invitation were a grand inconvenience, Megara walked back to the bed. “ Fine , I’ll indulge you one more time.”

Hercules casually reached over and pulled her back to him. “Lucky me,” he purred. “Gotta squash my nightmares somehow…”

“Just don’t squash me in the process. I’m highly squishable.”

“Heh!” Hercules shook his head. “Not a problem. I’ll be careful with you, my dainty little princess. Now we’re gonna have some real fun.”

It hadn’t been long since they’d first seen it, but Megara thought Hercules must have memorized several pages from the red scroll. Whatever he claimed to have dreamt about the night before, he showed a great deal of forethought in how he reclaimed her and pushed her back into the same erotic haze they’d discovered at the temple. Aphrodite must feel well and truly worshipped.

Hercules waited for her to wind back down after he drove her into a haze of Aphrodesian pleasure. “We’re staying a little longer,” he said. “I’m keeping you here for at least another day.”

“Oh… ‘kay, sure…” she murmured. She didn’t have the energy to disagree.

Hercules snickered and nipped at her earlobe. “I win. Tell me I win.”

“You win,” she mumbled reluctantly.

“I know I do,” he replied with a smug chuckle. 

The way things were going, Megara suspected he was about to pull her back in for another round. He wasn’t exactly subtle.

It would have been inevitable if not for the screaming commotion from outside.

The two of them clung together as the howling for a hero threw cold water over their passion.

Hercules met her eyes with an apologetic look, and then he kissed her forehead. “Stay here, princess. I’ve got to see what that’s about.”

“Hey, I’m part of the team, too.” She sat up as he rolled out of bed to arm himself.

“Let me assess if it’s dangerous first,” he said. “If I don’t come back for you,” he pointed a long, Olympian finger at her, “ stay .”

She was not accustomed to obedience. If she was honest with herself, she was already planning how to rush off after him whether he wanted her to or not. But there was something about his voice that carried with it a command powerful enough to emanate from a sanctuary.

“All right,” she agreed, letting him hold her gaze.

He seemed to think she meant it.

 

Chapter 26: Precedent

Hercules emerged blearily from the sanctuary he had created with Megara, standing between her and the mob who’d come to call his name at the gates. He didn’t know too much about mortals, but there had to be precautions with so many around.

They didn’t seem rageful; they were screaming in terror.

A jubilant ripple ran through them as they caught sight of their hero, and Hercules rewarded them with a flex and an awkward smile. “What do you need, citizens of Thebes?” he asked, projecting his voice to be heard over their clamor.

Many voices chorused at once, but the gist emerged.

Firstly, Princess Ismene was kidnapped from the palace, and a threatening message warned her family that she was held in the gorge near the dragon of Cadmus. She challenged the disgraced son of Zeus to witness the wrath of the ancestral beast, lest she sacrifice her sister to its jaws.

Behind him, Megara wobbled and leaned heavily against the wall. “Why… I knew she hated me , but why would she go after Issie like that? Ismene doesn’t deserve that…”

“Neither do you,” Hercules replied with gritted teeth. “Don’t worry. I’ll save your cousin. You should stay here and wait. She’ll need you to comfort her. Maybe you can set up a welcome-home breakfast for her or something.”

“I’d love to, but I’m going with you.” Megara took a thick violet length of cloth and wrapped herself in it. “She’s my cousin. If I’m part of this whole hero thing you do, there’s no more fitting mission for me to take part in. Let’s show all of Thebes we look out for family. Except for Antigone .” Her eyes narrowed to dangerous lioness slits, making Hercules shiver with desire he would have to put aside for the moment.

“Very well. But when we’re out there, you must follow my instructions. I cannot concentrate if I’m worried for your safety.”

“I’m a strategist, not a pugilist,” Megara said, clasping her dainty hand around a few of his rough fingers. “Let me see what we’re dealing with, and I’ll give you the best input I can.”

Hercules lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. “Very well, my love. Please have mercy on my nerves, though. I can face anything except for your pain.”

“I’ll remember that,” she said with a little smirk that once again made him shiver. He’d have to find some way to handle this.

It wasn’t exactly a coping mechanism, but he lifted Megara onto Pegasus, and they flew over the crowd.

“If we get there ahead of them, there won’t be so many to watch,” Hercules said, the one way he could justify how fast they flew.

Megara was not handling it well.

In other circumstances, when they weren’t in such a rush, he would slow them down so she could manage her acrophobia, but there wasn’t time. She’d forgive him when they saved her cousin.

Somehow, she mustered the calm to point him in the right direction since his incomplete knowledge of Boeotia set limits on him. They navigated to the gorge before Megara could complain too much about their situation, and Hercules rewarded her by carefully spiraling Pegasus to a landing space at the head of the gorge.

On first examination of the rocky, desolate place, Hercules noted one massive boulder against the gorge wall and a series of stone temple structures carved into the opposite wall. “What am I lookin’ at?” he asked when he helped Megara dismount to get her bearings.

“Cadmus tried to set up shop closer to the gorge but ran into issues . Those buildings up there house the mausoleums of all my accursed ancestors. They’re overlooking the site where he locked up our immortal headache.”

“The dragon.”

“And now it seems like Antigone’s become part of our collective migraine. Could you, perhaps, accidentally let her die?”

“I’ll see what happens, but that wouldn’t exactly do wonders for my reputation, would it? I don’t think starting with a civilian body count would look so good on the record sheet.”

“Call it a warm-up with unfortunate consequences. Whatever happens, Thebes has dealt with this thorn in our side for far too long. She thinks she knows best, and…” Megara broke off, frowning. “I don’t see her.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Not when she’s got the only good cousin and an agenda. Our generation has to be different, Herc. We’ll erase everyone who won’t make Thebes a better place, but we must preserve what’s best in all of us simultaneously.”

“Agreed,” Hercules drew his sword. If he were still a god, he’d see through all obstacles to his goal. He’d know where to find Ismene. “Follow me.” He didn’t check to see if she was. Instead, he led the way along the gorge toward the mausoleums.

“Just so you know…” Megara ventured after a few steps, her voice close enough that she didn’t have to raise it. Good, she could follow instructions when it suited her. “The dragon of Cadmus has been waiting behind that rock for generations. The last time it was out, Cadmus knocked out all its teeth and shoved it into a cave. It has an immortal head and regenerates over time. The only way it’s stayed contained this long is its inability to get out… I bet it’s been beating its head on that stone this time.”

“It has to be torture if it’s immortal and starving for that long,” Hercules remarked.

“Don’t worry, I’ll cry it a river while I think about all the people it’s eaten.”

“What I admire most about you is that sweet disposition,” Hercules remarked, throwing a wry grin over his shoulder.

She huffed a breath of laughter in response and smirked. “You’re more Theban by the day.”

“What can I say? I’ve had time to immerse myself in the local culture.”

“How cosmopolitan.”

The two of them were laughing when they came alongside the entrance to the first mausoleum. The shadows made him retake her hand, and he brandished his sword between them and potential danger.

“Do you smell sulfur?” Megara whispered.

The question made Hercules’s whole body tense. He nudged her against the stone wall and attuned his senses to that telltale scent. It did smell like his uncle just ahead. That combination of smoke and sulfur could only come from one place.

“We’ll have to stay quiet,” Megara advised.

Hercules nodded, his eyes narrowing and his mouth settling into a sneering pout while he thought it over. There had to be a reason Hades was involved in this scenario. What did Antigone have to offer a god? Aside from her sister…

Hercules felt a twinge of pain in his jaw from how tightly he clenched it. He didn’t know Ismene well, but Megara cared for her. He’d trust his wife’s opinion of the girl and protect her just as if she were his friend.

Maybe she was his friend! Hercules relaxed at the idea he had more friends in his new life than he’d thought.

Voices came from up ahead, and Hercules steeled himself to listen.

“Where are they?” Hades snapped. “You promised he’d come to fight the Hydra!”

“It’s not my fault they’re slow. Neither of them is all that smart.”

Hercules rolled his eyes.

Megara’s nails dug into the heel of his hand. She didn’t speak, but he knew how affronted she must be.

He’d avenge her upon the traitor, but he would await the best moment with patience in his quickened heart.

Megara tugged on his hand, distracting him from the ongoing spat between Hades and his presumed newest minion. He followed Megara’s gesture into the canyon, where he saw the pitiable figure of Princess Ismene, bound in chains to the massive boulder he’d noticed upon arrival.

“It’s like Andromeda,” Megara whispered.

“Don’t worry. You’ve got a Perseus right here.” He winked at her and gave her a quick show of him flexing both arms. Even if he looked silly, this was his best move to comfort her.

Megara smirked and rolled her eyes, seemingly more at ease but still eyeing her cousin’s predicament. “They’re watching you, big guy. There’s bait in the trap, and when it springs…”

Hercules set his hands on her shoulders. “Do you trust that I’m the god of heroism?”

“You were…”

“It’s my birthright and my nature. I’m asking for your faith in me, Meg… may I have it?”

Violet uncertainty wavered in her eyes, but Megara nodded. She flickered her gaze up toward the mausoleums again, then whispered. “Ismene cannot join our ancestors today.”

Hercules clasped her hands in both of his. “I won’t allow that,” he swore, then led her back along the canyon wall toward Pegasus. “I’m going down there on my own because if you have to fly away, do it. But Pegasus will get her up here with you as soon as Ismene is free. Understood?” He settled both hands on her shoulders, nudging her closer to Pegasus.

“I’ll do what I must,” Megara responded cryptically.

Hercules knew if he didn’t establish a firm expectation now, she’d swerve past all his recommendations in the future. Well, if this was the first day of eternity, so be it. He lightly squeezed her shoulders, then turned away. Even lacking training, he knew how to extract a hostage from a dangerous predicament.

Sliding down a slope into the canyon, Hercules felt his uncle’s eyes cursing him from above.

This was a day to set expectations. As part of that, Hades would learn to accept failure.

Chapter 27: Compensation

Megara saw the spikes on the Hydra’s back at the bottom of a goblet of wine passed to her by one of the servants who’d helped serve her family her entire life. She could hear that inhuman shriek and those teeth… She drank down bittersweet wine and glanced around the palace courtyard.

So many people were here to celebrate their new hero’s defeat of their founder’s nemesis. The creature wasn’t dead , exactly. That wasn’t for sure, but that vicious rage was quieted now. Hercules had ripped its limbs apart, shredding the ancestral terror.

Her hand was still shaking.

The shaking started when she flew down to scoop Ismene out of danger. Lamentably, she had to leave Hercules to contend with the beast. Her mind was on fire with terror from being so close to that massive, draconic creature. To leave the man she loved to face it alone…

“You’re holding yourself together well,” Megarion approached her with a trayful of honey-drizzled pastries. “How was it up close? They’re saying the creature kept growing new heads when Hercules cut them off.”

Megara took a pastry off the tray, flicking her eyes around the crowd again. Hercules hadn’t gotten back yet. He was still out getting his ceremonial bath at the temple complex. She just wanted to run out and see if he was doing all right, but she was here, shaking and trying to look casual. “If you think this is handling it well, either you’re going blind, or I’m a better actress than I thought.”

“It’s the other one,” Megarion said. “Guess there’s some benefits to being tortured by the family curse for your whole life. Even Ismene seems to be recovering.”

Megara’s eyes tracked Ismene through the doors into the residential space. Menoikeus and Haemon had gone with her. Megara prayed to any god who’d support her cousin for the aid to bring her through without breaking her mind. “Issie was kidnapped by her sister, who already betrayed the family and chained up so she could be a monster’s appetizer before my husband and I came to get her.”

“Instead of being a monster’s toothpick, we’re keeping her pampered in the palace from now until she’s married off,” Megarion said. “You don’t have to worry about Issie anymore.”

“You say that like you think that makes a difference. Antigone got in here before, and she’s allied with Hades. There’s a narrow limitation on what she can do now.”

Megarion made a face, then rolled his eyes. “I knew Antigone was a melodramatic drama queen, but I never thought she was that morbid…”

“Keep your guard up and pray to all the Olympians to watch our family,” Megara said.

“Ah, your in-laws are on good enough terms to look out for us instead of screwing us over?”

“Who knows? They like attention, though. Maybe they’ll respond well.” Megara’s mind wandered from the Olympians above to the lord of the world below. As much as she hated granting any credit to her enemies, the team-up made sense. Antigone had been around Megara since before she was born and ditto with Hades and Hercules. The two of them knew their adversaries far better than the reverse.

Megarion waved a hand in front of his sister’s face. “I know we swore never to become party royals, but how about just this once you relax? It doesn’t look good when the hero’s girl mopes on the sidelines.”

“How ‘bout we switch clothes, and you can spend the rest of the night pretending to be happy?”

“Pass. Just got this tunic tailored.” Megarion stuffed another of the honey pastries into Megara’s mouth. “Lighten up!” he left her like that, moving so quickly he almost hid the smug expression he wore. He thought he did something there.

Megara dipped the pastry in her remaining wine, ate it, and then drank it down to the dregs.

There were so many people at the palace! She’d thought she’d be off with Hercules by now to discover his trainer and move on to a life of solitude, at least for a little while. 

Instead, the palace was full of commotion and eyes that followed her along the shadowed colonnade. She walked outside, grabbing a wineskin on the way out to pour herself a new cupful.

The garden air, perfumed with jasmine and almond flowers, made her take a deep breath to impose serenity on herself. Sanity slid seasick through her mind, but she walked more or less steadily to the center of the garden. She sat on a stone bench, letting the coolness of the stone beneath her and the crisp night air breeze away some of her thoughts.

She looked into the stars, then, thinking of how much nicer it would be when Hercules had his stars up there. If only he were immortal again, she could stop replaying moments from that day and thinking of how precarious his position on this side of the Styx had been. She may never stop thinking that the beast’s jaw seemed unmoored from its skull, waving in the air while it roared its battle cry.

Both her shoulders tensed closer to her ears. She’d chosen this life with the man who meant more to her than the rest of the cosmos. She was in this now. Somehow, she’d have to overcome this queasy feeling and make it like it didn’t bother her so much.

With how difficult it had been to convince Hercules he could include her in his livelihood, he could easily cut her back if it was too much for her. He’d feel compelled to.

Megara tipped back her wine again. It left a warm, buzzing sensation on her tongue running through her head. She ought to lay off the wine soon. Right after she stopped thinking of all those teeth… Legend had it that Cadmus knocked out enough of that dragon’s teeth that he replenished the settlers killed in a confrontation using those teeth. Supposedly, Megara herself was descended from these tooth warriors. She preferred to think of the goddess Harmonia and her necklace of beauty. She was the only member of her family who hadn’t been cursed and willingly took the curse onto herself.

With her head bowed in thought, Megara took longer than usual to register the change in general clamor from the palace.

In the distant hum of voices, one stood out to announce the arrival of the Mighty Hercules.

She sat up straighter as she realized he was finally here.

What would he think now that she was outside? Did it seem like she hadn’t been waiting for him all this time?

A desperate surge of anxiety brought Megara back to her feet, but she was now too wobbly to stay there. She thudded back onto the bench with a painful impact. Gripping the edge of the bench, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere for now.

She squeezed her eyes shut and doubled over, bowing toward the ground. She’d been so stupid to let herself overindulge. Anxiety couldn’t rule her. All that effort she’d put into dealing with people to bolster solidarity with Hercules was for nothing if she wasn’t there when he arrived!

How had she so quickly failed as a wife?

The hum of voices solidified into someone asking Hercules if it was true he was a fallen god. Her ears burned at the sound of his name, and she lifted her head when she heard him speak.

“Yeah, I fell all right, I fell in love!” Even without seeing him, she knew he was wearing his cheesiest grin.

The crowd loved his dorky giddiness, and Megara did as well. However, she was so agonized by the saccharine tone.

“Where’s Meg?” he asked casually.

Should she speak up so he could find her more easily?

She couldn’t get up at the moment and didn’t want to stumble into the party or call out so everyone could hear her slurred speech… But if he didn’t find her soon, he’d be frantic. That would be her fault, too.

“I’m gonna go find her,” she heard him say over the dull hum. It wasn’t a minute before he called her name across the courtyard. “I’m so glad to see you!” He rushed up to her, still smelling the oils used to wash him at the temple.

Megara smiled her greeting to him. "Herc..." she drawled, "have you tried the wine? It's so sweet!"

“Heh-heh… can’t be sweeter than you!” Hercules strode across to her. His arms had new scrapes, but he acted like nothing was wrong. He’d been so close to death… “Thought I’d see you in there,” he said, kneeling in front of her spot on the bench.

“I needed some air… then I couldn’t move…” she admitted before her natural reticence could make her clam up.

Hercules furrowed his brow, carefully brushing her hair back from her face. "Whoa…” he whistled, looking her over while softly brushing his thumbs along her cheeks. “Looks like you’ve been sampling a lot of the wine.”

“Yeah…” she blushed, knowing he’d feel it under his thumbs. “I um… I was thirsty. What about you? Did you need something to drink?”

“Not at the moment,” he said mildly. “Besides, it takes much more than a glass or two of wine to get me down.”

“How do you know that? Have you done lots of drinking before?”

“Nah. But I’ve spent enough time around Bacchus to have something to measure by.” He patted her shoulder. “How’re you doing? Do you wanna walk around a little bit and get your land legs back after sailing on the wine-dark sea?”

Megara rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine, no big deal.”

“Are you sure?” Hercules leaned in closer. “I bet you wouldn’t say that if I told you I’d carry you back to bed if you needed the help.”

“Are you sure you want to go? This is your party…”

Hercules shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, you do.” He wrapped a solid arm around her shoulders. “Is that what you want?”

“Your fans’ll get mad at me… since you’re not over there…”

“Hey, look,” Hercules tilted her chin up. “Don’t think of it like that. I’ll just say victory makes me long for my wife.” He kissed her brow. “I’m sure if they’ve seen you, they’ll figure out why.”

She made a slight, unconvinced noise.

“That’s what we’re getting a trainer for,” Hercules assured her. “You sound a bit different…” He furrowed his brow. “Are you drunk?”

“‘Course not!” she protested. She bent down to retrieve her cup and show how little she’d had to drink, but she wobbled dizzily.

“Careful!” Hercules caught her around the waist and pulled her upright. “Seems like it kinda snuck up on you, huh?” With his lopsided smile, he examined her face. “That’s all right, I’m friends with Bacchus. He’ll help you through this if you want, but I can also do the honors.”

“You’ve got a party…” she slurred.

“Who cares?” Hercules swung her up into his arms. “C’mon, little lady, we’ll find you a nice place to ride out this feeling.”

“Are you sure? I don’t wanna ruin your night…”

Hercules raised a brow at her. “If you think for one second I’d rather socialize with a roomful of strangers than take care of you, you must have had a lot to drink!”

“It wasn’t that much,” she protested. Honestly, she couldn’t recall how much she’d had to drink, but she wasn’t about to try hard enough to admit it.

“Sure,” he said with a little wink. “What do you think? Shall we go back through the party, or should I sneak us back through a window?”

“Oh… windows sound fun!”

“I bet they do.” Hercules took her to the shadows and skirted the villa. “I hope we’ll have a nice place to stay while I’m training, princess,” he said. “You’ll need lots of soft pillows.”

“I’ve got you,” she reminded him.

Hercules barked a laugh. “You wouldn’t like to sleep on the hard ground, though. If there’s no place for you to get comfortable, I’ll build you one. Maybe the trainer will want me to stay in some kind of barracks-like accommodations, but I refuse to put you through that.”

“Aww, cutie,” Megara giggled.

He paused, right about to climb through their bedroom window, to examine her face in the mingled moon and torchlight. “You’re gonna have to be careful with that cute little giggle,” he said, then climbed into their room with her. Once indoors, he deposited her on their bed in a giggling heap. He stood over her momentarily, surveying her with his arms folded. “Who are you, and have you seen my wife?”

Megara made a face at him. “I can be as bubbly as I want when I’m drunk.”

“That so? Who gave you permission?”

His question deepened her pout. “I gave me it,” she said. “Besides, you were gone so long, and there were people everywhere, and I couldn’t stand how many of them there were, and I missed you, and that battle was so terrifying, but you weren’t around!”

Hercules blinked a few times to digest what she’d said. It took him a long moment to speak, during which he leaned over her. “I’m sorry about that. I thought you’d want to be here soon, where you’re safe and comfortable. I wanted to clean myself for you so I’d be worthy of you again.”

“Ask me next time!” she snapped.

“I will,” he promised and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry you went through that. Did you drink so much just because you were lonely, or was there something else?”

“I worried maybe the Hydra poisoned you.”

He nodded solemnly. “That’s a rational worry to have, and next time, I’ll be more mindful of whether you’re worried about me. Is it not very team-friendly to leave you alone like that?”

She shook her head. “And there were so many loudmouth strangers, but everyone was busy with Ismene, so I didn’t have someone to commiserate with.”

“On the bright side, that’s a big word, so you’re probably getting over it slightly. Plus, now that we’re here, you’re safe from all those people you dislike.”

“That’s so many people…”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed! But hey, I get it. Now that I’m a mortal, everyone wants a piece of me, like I’m a curiosity, and they want proof they saw in person.”

“I’ll claw their eyes out,” Megara declared with no hint of irony.

“Heh. I’m going to assume you’re still drunk and let that slide. Now we’re together, though, so how about we focus on how amazing that is?” He trailed his hands down her sides.

“We can…” she finally let go of the little things that frustrated her and drew a deep breath. “Nobody smells as nice as you…”

He chuckled. “Trust me, it’s probably down to the nymphs at the sanctuary. They handed me all kinds of oils to get that nasty monster gunk off of me.”

“You smell like fruits… were they dryads?”

“I guess,” he shrugged. “I was just focused on getting clean.”

“I like it when you smell like fruits. Did you know I like fruits? And I like wine! And wine is made of fruits !”

By the end of her declaration, Hercules was barking with laughter. He clutched his sides and shook his head. “I take it back. I’m gonna need you to get drunk way more often now.” He leaned down to comb his fingers through her hair while holding her close to his chest. “You’re funny regularly, but this is a new depth of silliness I like seeing on you.”

“I’m not silly!” she protested.

“Uh-huh,” Hercules said in a comedic monotone while caressing the sides of her face. “I think it’s about time you get some rest.”

“No!” she protested. “You’ve been gone so long! I don’t wanna leave you!”

“I’ll stay right here,” he promised soothingly.

“There’s a party waiting outside!”

“So what?” he shrugged. “They seem to be enjoying themselves.” He sat on the bed and brought her into his lap so she could rest against his hardened leather cuirass. “Don’t worry about anything or anyone. I gotcha, you snuggly little drunken princess!”

“All right…” She curled closer to him in his arms and closed her eyes. It would be so easy to drift away into sleep.

It became even easier when Hercules rolled them onto their sides and rubbed her back. “I’m honored that I get to be the one who sees you like this,” he whispered.

“Welcome,” she mumbled into the leather shell he wore. “If you’re not going back out there, I want the armor off.”

His arms tightened around her. “I’d rather be ready if I must be,” he said softly.

“Are you scared?”

Rather than answer, Hercules drew circles on her arm with his thumb. “Are you?”

“Only if you are.”

“Then I’m not.”

“Doesn’t count if you lie for me.”

Hercules sighed and kissed the top of her head. He breathed deeply as if taking courage from the perfume in her hair. “I’ll tell you a secret. I’ve never had to fear for my life before. Today… things are different.” He bundled her into a blanket and held her cocooned in his lap, snuggling her close. “I’m not just scared for me, though. I was able to fight back. I won. But what if something like that got ahold of you?”

“That’d be over pretty quickly.”

The sharp intake of breath she felt against her hair spoke for Hercules, though he remained speechless. The way he rubbed her arm seemed more and more like a nervous tic. 

He’d been so much happier when she was silly. She wasn’t drunk enough for this… But she was an excellent actress.

Chapter 28: Invincibility

Playing the cool, confident hero was easier when she couldn’t see his face. No bath was long enough to wash off thoughts of how close he’d come to those oversized fangs digging into his flesh. The terror on Ismene’s face, the anxiety that he’d die in the attempt to save her…

In hindsight, he’d known he shouldn’t be so confident from the beginning, but putting up a front was the only way he knew to salvage himself from his self-doubt.

Now, he wished he’d taken Megara with him to the baths. She wouldn’t have minded sharing a sacred bath with him; anyway, she always knew how to make him laugh. But once he was alone, he knew he could only intoxicate her with his fears unless those got squashed before he saw her again.

All his life, he’d been unable to face the same perils as mortals and had a passing impression of the weight it forced them to carry. As long as he remained on earth, he bore it alongside them, and though he was much more equipped to face life’s hardships than most of them were, did that give him the right to expect he’d dodge through an incredibly risky course of life unscathed?

He wasn’t fully back to his ordinary self when he decided to leave the baths. If Megara could only steady his uncertain view of himself, he had to find her. When he didn’t immediately find her in the crowded party, a small part of him gave in to panic. Had she fallen prey to the same kidnapping scheme that took her cousin?

Finding that instead, she was safe and drank herself silly, Hercules’s heart lightened. Hearing her somewhat childish, giddy speech pattern made him fall in love with her all over again. He could talk to her all day in that state, but he knew he’d eventually miss her more rational side. After the day he’d had, sneaking away to a small sanctuary in the palace was the best way he could drag himself out of the mire his thoughts sank into.

He didn’t know what room he dragged her into, and she seemed to think they were at home, so she didn’t question it.

They’d stay there until he was ready to see the world and all its perils again and even expose her to it. This was the last thing he wanted. He had to be the bulwark that protected her from the whole world, but now she knew he was afraid. How had he let that slip?

He wished she’d go back to a silly, giddy little princess, but there was no disentangling that row on the Tapestry of Fate.

“How come you’re not in the blanket with me?” she asked, her voice slurring back into a sweet, bubbly tone.

The truth was, he didn’t know whose blanket this was, and he thought it best not to gamble with which of her relatives might come back for it.

“I just want to hold you so you’ll be all warm and snuggly,” he responded, hoping she would forget that she saw through him by morning. He could always go back to being her invincible champion. Once she believed it, he would too.

“You’re too big not to share cuddles,” Megara said as if this were an obvious fact. “There’s so much of you to cuddle.”

Even while drunk, Megara knew how to press a point.

“I’ll get in the next blanket with you,” he promised while rocking her in the blanket. 

If she went to sleep, he could sneak her back to their villa, and she’d think she’d been there the whole time. Maybe she’d be a little disoriented at first, but–

Megara’s small, soft hand caressed his cheek. “Did ya know how cute you are when you’re all cuddle starved?” she asked.

Her voice didn’t have quite as intense a slur as before, but she still had that charming bluntness that made his heart flutter. “I’m not cuddle starved. I’ve got you right here,” he said, giving her a firm hug.

“I bet you tomorrow you’ll wake up all whiny like ‘Meg, I need you, please,’ in your whiniest voice, and I’ll just have to climb on top of you so you’ll get all the cuddles you could ever want.”

His cheeks burned under her hand.

This was not the somewhat innocent version of her she was when intoxicated. But she tried hard to keep up the act, so he played along. “Okay, okay, you’ve got a point,” he said, chuckling softly as he continued to rock her. “Can you blame me for needing you so much? You’re gorgeous… and you give amazing cuddles…”

“That’s true, I do.  It’s a point of pride for me.”

He kissed her forehead. “And ya know what? You’re the only person I’ll ever get cuddles from. How about that?”

“Mm… good. Other people scare me, but you make me safe.”

He didn’t care whether she was drunk or sober anymore. That was such a sincere comment it melted his heart. Whether or not she intended it to, her words had escaped somewhere deep in her heart. He lifted her chin to look into her eyes, though the dim room obscured much of her face. “You don’t have to be afraid of the world…” he stroked her chin with his thumb. “I’m here to protect you.”

"Yeah, I know," she cooed at him. “That’s why I’m admitting what scares me. I know you’ll make it all right.”

Joy rippled from his heart throughout his body. A chuckle escaped him, and he lifted her into his kiss. He didn’t know any other way to express the same sentiment in return when she’d gotten him so choked up.

Something changed in her breathing, and he pulled back, worried she’d fallen asleep on him. “You tryna leave me?” He wanted it to sound casual and playful, but something vulnerable had snuck into his voice. That wasn’t supposed to be there.

“What?” she mumbled and yawned. “Hold on... where were we?” She rubbed at her eyes as if that would chase off the urge to sleep.

Honestly, he didn’t know where they were. He looked around the room but didn’t see much in the shadows. “It’s all right… I should’ve just let you sleep. You’ve been so stressed today and had too much to drink.”

“Me? Who cares about me?” She frowned. “You fought a big old monster today. I just watched.”

“That was enough to stress you out, though, and I can watch over you.”

“Why? You gotta sleep, too.” Whether or not she was still buzzed, her sleepiness had taken over from that earlier delirium.

“Fair…” He looked around. This wasn’t the place to do it. He didn’t want to take the chance people could listen in on them in an intimate moment or take advantage of them not being vigilant enough with the party raging outside their door. “We’ll go home then.” He stood back up off the bed.

“Wait… aren’t we home?” For what was probably the first time, she looked around the room.

“Technically, this was your home until recently.”

Megara thought briefly, narrowing her eyes as if she could squint into the darkness and remember where they were. “We’re in the palace… but not my room… we’re…”

“Leaving,” He carried her back through the window and whistled for Pegasus.

Megara strained to look back into the window, but he cautioned her to be careful so she wouldn’t fall.

“But I could fall soooo well.”

“I bet you could, Miss Overachiever. But for right now, I’d like you just to sit tight, okay?” He climbed onto Pegasus. “Now, while we’re flying, the one thing I need you not to do is fall, okay? We’ll be all right if there’s no wiggling around to try and show off.”

“Don’t worry, I hate heights more than Hydras.” Her usual voice returned for that comment, making him laugh at hearing it after its absence.

The reminder shot ice through his veins, but Hercules smiled at her. “You let me worry about the Hydras. Just remember to stay adorable and gorgeous, okay? I know you can do it, Princess.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Not if I get even drunker.”

“That’s a challenge I think I’ll pass on. I’d rather you were cute and giggly and not miserable. I think the level of drunk you got tonight was just right.”

“I could get drunker,” she said, in the same tone as claiming she could fall well.

“But should you?” They were halfway home now, with the sky all to themselves. The casual banter calmed his heart and warmed his blood.

“Don't think so, but I am good at it.”

“I believe you. You don’t have to prove it.”

“If you’re around, I don’t have to drink. You make me calm instead.”

He chuckled at the thought. It was the second time she’d expressed it, but it still warmed his psyche to know it. “That’s sweet in a strange, adorable kind of way.”

“I’m a strange person.”

“Yeah, a bit, but you’re mostly gorgeous. How’re you feeling, by the way? Not nauseous or anything?”

“Nah…” she yawned. “Sleepy.”

“Then, as soon as we’re home, I’ll tuck you into bed.”

“No deal if there’s clothes.”

Hercules barked his laughter toward the silent stars. “Okay! Okay, I yield to the princess’s demand, no clothes!”

“I knew you always do what I want,” she said in smug satisfaction that would’ve annoyed him on anyone else.

“For you? Anything.” He squeezed her as they descended toward their villa, partially to anchor her to him and partly because he’d never felt closer to her than after this conversation.

“You know what I want,” she said, sounding more awake than before.

“Do I?” He slid off of Pegasus and into their courtyard.

“Well, part of you always knows what I want,” she said, her sly little smirk giving away that she’d once again risen to the usual level of wicked she preferred to inhabit.

“You got me there,” he admitted, carrying her to their bedroom, where they were sure to get into all kinds of trouble.

“Not yet.”

He snorted. “You’re sure you’re ready for it tonight?”

“I can be if I wanna be.”

“Probably, but—”

“And if I tell you it’s what I want…”

Hercules paused to open their door but also to mull over her comment. “Fair…”

“Besides, once our clothes are off, you’ll still be cuddly, won’t you? And you love it when I give you special cuddles.”

His laughter caught in his throat. “You like this new tactic of messing with me, don’t you?”

“As long as it’s working on you.”

“You know you always please me, and it makes me want to please you in return.” He settled her on the bed, still wrapped in the blanket he had “loaned” from the palace, and sat beside her. 

“I’d like for us to reconnect,” she said in a much more sober tone. “Please? Do you wanna be connected to me now?”

A gasp caught at the back of his throat. “Yes…” he whispered as he released his breath. “There’s nothing I want more…”

She knew it, too. “Even when I’m super adorable and giddy, huh? Do you know what’ll make me cuter? Giving me what I want.”

“Heh! Well… you do make an irresistible plea…” He leaned in closer and kissed her fully on the mouth. She still tasted of wine, but the sweet warmth of her breath was more complex than the mere scent of alcohol. He stroked her side and tugged her dress away from her curves.

“Oh, now you’re in charge, huh?” she whispered.

“You know you can tell me how much you like it, don’t you?” he asked with a cocky smirk before he dove in for another kiss. Before he’d pulled back from it, he’d left both of them bare to one another, and he didn’t even bother to hide his desire. 

“Okay… I admit, I like it,” Megara whispered when he pulled back from their kiss.

“That’s right, you do,” he said, starting to feel more like an invincible champion by the moment.

Unprompted, Megara’s legs went up around his waist. “The Mighty Hercules and his many talents…” she purred. “How fortunate for me to have you all to myself… There’s nothing like you…”

“I’m saving at least half of my talents just for you,” he promised, gently lifting her hips closer to his. “I bet even though I’ve told you how beautiful you are so many times, you still don’t believe me.”

“Maybe I just like hearing it.”

“And you’ll hear it again and again…” He brushed his hands along her legs, going slightly lightheaded with his need to be with her again. “Gods. When you wrap around me, you’re the most comforting blanket ever woven…”

“And flexible, too, since you’re my favorite thing to wrap around.”

That was it. He pressed into a new kiss and into her. Flashes of brilliance rushed behind his eyes at the welcome expressed in her soft embrace. This was where he’d draw the courage to fight the next monster or reverse the next disaster. He just had to keep them both alive through everything they would face.

Chapter 29: Ultimatum

Megara realized how much she’d changed when she realized that the knots in her stomach had nothing to do with how high up they were. They flew out of Thebes early in the morning, before any random fanatics could swarm them or anyone could wake up and worry about whether Hercules had spent enough time with his guests at the party the previous night.

Soaring over the sea wrapped in a blanket with saddle bags slung over Pegasus’s sides, she was nervous because their lives would never be the same.

Who knew what this trainer of heroes would demand of them? Could she ever be part of this hero life as she’d requested? The previous day’s dragon encounter had shaken her to her roots. Would she freeze up the next time they confronted a monster? She’d be a liability. Less than useless. Unfit to participate or assist.

Hercules twirled a thick auburn curl hanging from her ponytail. “You’re bothered,” he said.

“So you started bothering me more?” She may have been lost in thought, but she hadn’t stopped being a Theban princess.

“You like it when I play in your hair,” he replied, unperturbed. “Are you still scared of heights? I can turn you around so you only see me if that would help.”

“No, no… It’s nothing I want to discuss when the wind’s in our ears! Let’s help Pegasus concentrate. I know the gods gave him directions to this place, but he might lose his place if we distract him.”

“Not a chance, but it’s thoughtful of you to suggest it.” Hercules lightly pinched her hip. “What’s really bothering you? I want a hint.”

The blush that washed across her face when he pinched her made her feel just as unsteady in her mind as being drunk had done. “Nervous of how things will change,” she spat out.

From their location above the Aegean, Megara noted the Athenian Acropolis in the distance. They’d traveled further south than she’d expected, but it shouldn’t take more than a day on foot to reach the location... Air travel might be a significant improvement, after all.

“Things will get better the closer we are to immortality,” Hercules said, kissing the top of her head. “Trust me, it’s great. You have no idea what you’re missing, but I’ll make you my goddess forever to compensate for lost time.”

Megara blushed, but they circled lower, so the wind against her face cooled her cheeks. Curiosity drew her eyes downward to see a relatively small island in that she could already see every shore of it. The place was littered with broken parts of a colossal statue, an overgrown arena, and a strange collection of columns and broken wooden parallel bars littered along one shore.

“Is this the place?” Hercules asked in a voice that made Megara think he was voicing his thoughts aloud rather than hoping someone would answer.

Pegasus made an affirmative noise anyway.

“Are we sure the trainer is still alive?” was Megara’s question. “From what I know at this point, Zeus is likely to send you to the Underworld after your trainer as some kind of joke.”

“My father isn’t that evil,” Hercules said reflexively, but he didn’t sound convinced.

They touched down on the island near a freshwater lagoon.

Hercules helped Megara dismount, leaving Pegasus rider free. With a self-satisfied pride, Pegasus preened his wings as if to gloat over a job well done.

“So where’s this legendary trainer of heroes?” Megara asked. “Judging by the look of this island, maybe he exploded?”

Hercules cringed. “Seems like it comes with the territory..." He checked their surroundings. “We’ll have to go around and look for clues... How about you lead the way?” Hercules stepped back and gestured forward with an accommodating sweep of his arm.

“What should I look for?”

“I have a feeling I ought to rely on your expertise.” He winked. “Besides, if you lead the way, I get to watch your back.”

Megara rolled her eyes, but she had to admit his charm was working on her. She strode past him, letting him enjoy the view in the process. For the best effect, she pretended not to know what she was doing.

On the way deeper into the woods, she heard various female voices laughing. She cast the question, “We’re sure the trainer is a man, right?”

“I mean, unless there’s a lot I wasn’t told,” Hercules replied.

Megara shrugged, leading the way toward the laughter. “At least it sounds like I might have some friends on this island while you’re busy doing man things.”

“I’m glad to hear it! I’d hate if you were bored waiting on me to achieve destiny.”

“I also have to achieve destiny, or you’ll leave me behind.”

Even as she said it, Megara was struck by the idea of how likely it was she might get left behind. At times, Hercules’s infectious hopefulness could make her believe she could join him as a goddess, but failure was far more likely. She was grateful to be facing away from him so that she wouldn’t agitate him. This was his big day, meeting the trainer who would take him closer to his telos.

A bleating goat caught the attention of both she and Hercules. They discovered the goat in question with its front half buried in some underbrush. 

“Aw, the poor little guy’s got himself stuck!” Hercules bent down to lift the goat from the bushes.

What emerged was no goat. At least, not a full one.

Megara had only seen satyrs in illustrations on pottery and the occasional fresco. City girls and wild beastmen scarcely had occasion to cross paths, and that was on purpose. Sons of Pan were well known for taking liberties with mortals and nymphs alike that were best avoided.

The pudgy goatman protested and even wound up a tiny fist at Hercules’s face. He stopped, fist poised midair, and stared at Megara. “Oh… hello…” The satyr licked the palm of his hand, smoothed down a few stray hairs atop his head, and aimed what he must have considered a sultry expression her way. “I’m not too picky... humans, nymphs, yer all gorgeous.”

This thing was flirting with her? 

Hercules shook the goatman. “That’s enough of that!” He dropped their new acquaintance back to the soft ground, where he flopped with an irritated huff. “I’m here to find Philoctetes. If you know where I can find him, I’ll forgive you for flirting with my wife.”

The satyr looked up at the two of them, arms folded. “Who’s lookin’ for him?”

Hercules cleared his throat, the prelude to his patented ‘hero voice.’ When he spoke in his exaggeratedly deep voice, Megara rolled her eyes. “I am Hercules, son of Zeus, God of Heroism. I am here to re-examine the domain to which I was born and once again ascend to Olympus as a greater master of my Telos than ever before.”

As he spoke, the satyr stared slack-jawed at Hercules. When he was done, the little creature began stroking his goatee. “So ya want Philoctetes to teach you to do what ya already do?”

“And my wife,” Hercules said, taking Megara’s hand. “She will be a heroine, and she will show everyone how she does it more gracefully and beautifully than anyone ever did before.”

Megara raised a brow at him but didn’t question his effluent praise.

“I don’t train girls,” Philoctetes retorted.

“Maybe we should go ask Chiron,” Hercules told Megara conversationally. “I heard this guy was the best, but he’s only good at half his job.”

“Is he?” Megara asked. “You certainly have a favorable first impression of him.”

“Do you think I shouldn’t?” Hercules asked. “I know he’s trained Odysseus, Perseus, and Jason; did you not hear his name in connection with their early lives?”

“I’m not much of a hero historian, but what I do know is that you’re the God of Heroes, so you can choose your own mentor. Nobody who would pass up the opportunity to teach the very god of his field a thing or two deserves to teach it. I have heard how wise Chiron is and how admirable; I’m sure he will know how to teach both of us.”

“Chiron!” Phil exclaimed, seemingly offended by the sound of the other trainer’s name. “That two-bit showboat of a centaur? I’m retired, and that blowhard is selling his scrolls from here to Macedonia!”

Megara shrugged. “Maybe he has some manners.”

“This isn’t how I thought our meeting would go,” Hercules said. “I have enough humility to know that there is an essential quality to heroism that a man cannot grasp if he is invulnerable. I would like to experience the art of heroics from one with such experience, and if I reach Olympus with your aid, I will write you in the stars alongside me. You will have to earn it as much as I will, but I will not forget anyone who aids me in the ascent.”

Awe grew in Philoctetes’s beady eyes. He stood a little taller. “I always wanted to train the greatest hero, whose image could hang in the stars…”

“Who is greater than the essence of a thing?” Hercules asked. “Will you aid me in reaching my destiny?”

Philoctetes looked between Hercules and Megara, then back again. “Her, too?”

“Her above all,” Hercules responded firmly, folding his arms. “I’m happy to work with you, provided you show my wife the respect she deserves. I’ll thank you not to aggravate her. She’s a princess and deserves to be treated with courtesy.”

“All women deserve that,” Megara interjected.

“You’re right,” Hercules nodded with a softening of his voice. Then he turned back to Philoctetes. “Megara is the only woman I can speak for on this island. Agree to treat her well, and we’ll stay. Is it an agreement?”

Philoctetes stroked his goatee awhile longer, then nodded. “How can I refuse an offer like that? A’right yer godliness. Lemme show ya the ol’ arena!”

Chapter 30: Two Words: Run

Dawn again.

Though he’d never had reason to care about hours or days, they weighed heavily on his broad shoulders. How long did mortals take to age? He’d watch Megara’s features as she slept and wonder how the time would wear away at her. It took less and less effort to coax her into sleep. This hero business was wearing her out, though he knew she’d never admit it for the sake of her pride.

He wished they had enough privacy to indulge in watching Iris paint the lights that swept across Megara’s face. Someday, they would, but he’d stolen every minute he could for now.

Hercules crept out of the ramshackle bed afforded them in the arena. It had never been adequately used as a staging ground for heroic Games, but there were still remnants of Phil’s ambitions. Now, though the bed creaked, Hercules used all his skill to slip free of it silently, as he was loath to wake Megara before she was ready. There were still bruises on her arms from yesterday’s attempt to incorporate her into the hero business, and she needed recovery time. Every second of sleep was sacred while roughing it far away from the city with its palaces. Because of him, her life was way off track. He wasn’t about to make it worse.

Phweet!

Frozen in place, Hercules recognized that the harsh blast was from a pan flute, not a divebombing harpy. Phil had played that harsh blast on the pipes while standing at the top of the arena stands, and the sound ricocheted through the curved oval much like Hercules’s sword while eliminating an arc of targets. He could still see the rubble from the day before behind his trainer, and he was sure that part of today’s work would be cleaning that up.

“I’m up!” Hercules charged up the stairs toward the satyr, moving as silently as possible. “Meg’s asleep!”

“She should know how to get up for an early morning if she’s part o’ this, don’t ya think?” Phil rolled his eyes and folded his arms over the pan flute hanging off his neck. “You’re the one who insisted on having Princess Prissyskirts involved in--”

Hercules fixed Phil with his narrow-eyed glare, looming over his diminutive stature and blocking out the sun. “You’ll respect her. Everything she’s done since I got kicked off of Olympus has been done with incredible loyalty and grace. She didn’t have to stick by me. She could’ve sent me off on my own and done any number of things behind my back. You’d be lucky to find a woman with even a fraction of her integrity and courage. So, I don’t want to hear a word about her getting in the way or ruining your day. Ever.”

The satyr put up his hands and took a step back. “Yeesh... Holy Hera, you don’t have to give me a speech every time.”

“Obviously, I do if you keep needing one.” Hercules checked over his shoulder to see if they’d woken Megara. She was apparently either asleep or hadn’t seen fit to move. Hopefully, she’d be capable of it after roughing it on the ground.

He should take up carpentry if he found a spare minute.

“Let’s get out there since you’re so eager,” he said, not looking down to acknowledge his trainer. He’d get out all this frustrated aggression in the arena.

“Not so fast, buddy. Rule number 903: a hero marches on his stomach.”

Hercules was pretty sure he’d heard that quote somewhere else, but he paused. “You want me to crawl everywhere?”

Phil huffed. “I go to the trouble of gettin’ a breakfast set up for ya, and yer not even smart enough to know it’s my job to feed you.”

“Big job.” Hercules finally looked down at his trainer. “There’ll be enough left over for Meg, right?”

Phil shrugged.

“There will be enough left over.”

He’d brought her to this island where she had to sleep on the ground. He wouldn’t also let her starve.

Phil waved a dismissive hand. “Just don’t focus too much on her. You’re the one who needs as much energy as possible.”

“Which hero rule stipulates I have to be a selfish jerk?” Hercules asked in the same tone as if he were asking a teacher a genuine question.

With a huff of annoyance, Phil hoofed his way to a long table set up in what had once been a dining room for victorious heroes. Hercules noticed everything seemed unused, and the walls had large fresco squares painted on as if that was where Phil’s successful students would be celebrated if he had any.

Choosing to tuck that observation away until the appropriate time, Hercules appreciated the modest spread of skewered meats and spinach-barley salads. It was an odd thing still, this reliance on various foods instead of one. Food was so much more interesting than its smells! Hercules wished he could marvel at it with Megara, but since she remained abed, he carefully sectioned off portions of everything on offer to ensure she was spared when she was ready. Assuming she knew where to join them.

He would have to be extra noisy so that she could follow the clamor.

“Focus, pal! I’m not yer nanny goat. You’re a full-grown man!” Phil had climbed onto a table to get as close to Hercules’s face as possible. “You gotta get serious about training, or you’ll never make it! What’s got you so distracted?”

Hercules narrowed his eyes. “Base motor functions of eating breakfast?” he asked in a monotone not unlike a Theban may speak with. “The fact it’s early in the morning, and I’ve left my wife alone?”

“Ya worried about competition?” Phil’s voice had a mocking edge, but Hercules shrugged him off.

“This is a new situation, but you should know by now because we just discussed this. I don’t find disparaging remarks about her to be humorous at all. Let the woman sleep without you sullying her name.”

The satyr was beyond arguing his point. He was too busy gnawing at some tall grasses he’d collected in a basket. While he maintained a sour countenance the entire time, he could have been much more disagreeable had he chosen to be. "I only got one bit of advice for ya, kid. Run!"

Before he’d given that discrepancy in his coach's command much thought, he was out on the field again. Did the satyr say there'd be two words to confuse him? To make him act on instinct and test how quickly he could respond? Had he forgotten what he planned to say? It didn't matter, really. Not on a morning like this.

The morning dew clung to his feet as his sandals pounded grass, but he was more interested in the distance he could gain running outside the arena than he was in sticking to the sands. Most monsters didn’t live in the sand, anyway. Did they? He’d like to think most would live in environments that weren’t such a bad trek. Everything was bothersome now that he couldn’t vanish and reappear whenever he wanted.

As he ran, Hercules allowed his thoughts to coagulate into a pleasant hum of fleeting images and impressions. He’d rarely enjoyed anything quite so much while he was a god, but this new life. His new life outstripped the old in many ways. His return to Olympus would crystallize the best parts of who he’d become. He’d never forget how different it was to feel the cool grass whipping against his mortal flesh. Was it the impermanence, or did his aura block sensation?

He skidded to a halt at the starting line in the arena, smirking proudly at his trainer.

Phil seemed impressed but held his ground as a skeptical satyr. “Yer good, kid, but were ya that good on Olympus?”

Hercules shrugged. “Never really paid attention, didn’t have to.”

“Well, now ya do. I want ya to do the same thing another twenty times. Go!”

Twenty. It was probably overkill, but Hercules was already off. His mind sank under the surface while his body surged with each fluid motion. It was getting tedious, but there was still some enjoyment in knowing he did it well. On the third lap, something swung up into his field of vision: a wooden dummy with a sinister smile painted crudely on its wood-grained face.

Without breaking stride, Hercules vaulted toward the model enemy and splintered it with one blow from his fist. It crumbled against his knuckles and fell to dust as he stepped over its resting place. He skidded to a halt before Phil, this time planting his fists on his sides and waiting for praise.

Phil folded his arms as if Hercules’s triumph challenged his pride. “You think you’re done? That was the first twenty! If that wasn’t too hard for you, you can give me two hundred!”

How tedious. “Just running? Nothing else to do? My mind will be mush before I ever tire. You have plenty of challenges available to place before me! Why not show me how clever you are at creating obstacles? Let me measure my prowess against yours, wit for wit.”

‘You tellin’ me you’re already thinkin’ strategy?” Phil raised a bushy brow and stroked his goatee in thought. He sank deep into thought and mumbled to himself. When he appeared to decide, he bleated and snapped his fingers.

“I want ya to count how many times you can lift the five thousand pound weights while I get yer course set up. I usually give graduates this challenge, but you’re so eager. Why shouldn’t I let you see what I got?” Phil didn’t wait for Hercules to reply. He was a man with a mission, and his hooves led him into the shadowed arches of the arena.

Calm rested on Hercules’s shoulders like the touch of his new favorite person. He could envision himself closer to the goal every moment. He could all but taste the sunlight atop Olympus!

A door creaked open, and Hercules’s senses honed in on that noise. As he’d hoped and suspected, Megara had entered, combing her fingers through her cloudy mass of auburn curls.

“Meg!” Hercules practically sang her name, pivoting while balancing on one foot away from Phil and bounding over to her. Before he reached her, Hercules noted that she had a slightly apprehensive expression, but he caught her up in his arms regardless. He caught her up and spun her while exclaiming, “This morning has been fun, but now you’re here!”

Megara flailed her arms around and squawked, “Herc! The sweat! I just woke up!”

Abashed at the realization that he’d offended her sensibilities, Hercules gently settled Megara back on her feet. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Gee, when’re ya gonna get used to sweat, sweet cheeks?” Phil teased.

Megara whipped around to confront Phil so quickly that Hercules had to hustle to intervene. She’d drawn a harsh breath to bite back, but Hercules stepped between them.

“Princesses aren’t wrong for their preferences,” Hercules said in a gentle, placating voice to Megara, then turned back to Phil. “I’ve got a pretty short list of flaws I’ll admit to, but anger and jealousy are at the top. Go on, test me.”

“I should go,” Megara said quietly. “I just came to tell you I’m too sore and tired to participate today, but maybe I should have stayed away so you wouldn’t have a conflict because of me.”

“No, no!” Hercules whirled around, forgetting all about his sweat and her reaction to it, so he scooped her into his arms and rushed into the dining area. He settled her on the couch and laid out all the food he’d set aside for her. “Don’t leave yet, please?” he invitingly nudged the food closer to her. “I’m sorry for what he said and for being all sweaty, but where’re ya going?” He knew there was a hint of a pout forming on his features, but he couldn’t stop it. He’d gotten too used to her being around. He wasn’t sure what to do without her.

While she obliged and began to pick at her breakfast, she spoke in a low voice to avoid Phil overhearing them. “I hear there are some nymphs on the island. Maybe I’ll befriend them and learn some tricks that’ll make me useful around here.”

“You’re useful,” Hercules said firmly, undaunted, when she gave him a skeptical look. “Really! You keep me motivated, and you cheer me up when Phil’s a--” Hercules glanced around, knowing he’d get punished if he heard a whiff of disparagement in this conversation. “Anyway, don’t be down on yourself just because we haven’t found your talent yet.”

“I think I’ve figured it out.” Megara scooped barley salad into a pile for her to pick away at, mesmerizing him with the graceful motions of her fingers. “I’m a talker. I approach situations diplomatically and find compromises, and in lots of cases, I prove that people already agree with me. All this running around may help with my stamina keeping up with you--”

“Your stamina is fine!” Hercules protested.

Megara shot him a smirk under hooded eyes but didn’t comment on his protestation. “I’m not about to match you physically in that way. That’s not my job. I get to do the fun part.”

“I dunno, swords and archery are pretty fun. I don’t want you to miss out.”

“I get to watch you, and trust me, as far as fun goes, I win every time.” She winked, then took a dainty bite of roasted skewer that made his head spin. “But for my power to work, I need friends. I think if I can make some powerful connections while you’re building up your powerful body, the both of us can make some real progress on this island.”

How did she still get him blushing? “Oh, well... hey, that’s a good point... so, um... you’re-- you’re going now?”

“Not just yet,” she purred, abandoning the last table scraps to scoot closer to him. “I think I gave you the wrong impression earlier. You think you disgust me, don’t you?”

A tremor shook through Hercules’s bones and he shied away, leaning back as she bent closer to him as if to spare her the smell. “I... I um...” he had words in his brain somewhere, but where’d they go?

“Get as sweaty as you want, I don’t mind. I just didn’t want Phil to get any ideas.” She lightly flicked her fingers against his knee, which made him accidentally jerk his leg away from the surprise. “You go do what you’re best at, and I’ll do what I’m good at. Then we’ll get some time alone together and talk about it. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Hercules’s inner voice screamed at him to regain his composure and impress her somehow. For a desperate moment he didn’t think he could, but at last, he cleared his throat and smiled. “I thought you hated people.”

“Nymphs,” Megara emphasized, walking her fingers up his chest, “are not people. Besides. I hate everything a little less because of you. So maybe we’re already a good team, huh?”

“We’re a great team!” Hercules caught her hand and kissed it. “You finish up. I’m pretty sure if I stay a second longer, you’ll get me out of my armor.” He slid further down the bench to make his escape.

“Would that be so bad?” Megara asked, crossing her legs as if she knew exactly how much he admired them, bruises and all.

“No.” Hercules winked at her, “But it might take up the rest of the day, and we both have work to do, right?”

“Say the word, and I drop everything for you,” she shrugged.

“Heh,” Hercules leaned in the door to give her one more once-over. “I’ll take you up on that when we’re both feeling better. Don’t have so much fun you forget about me while you’re out there.”

She rolled her eyes and toyed with the remains of breakfast, somehow making the last few bites linger specifically for his benefit. “Don’t worry. After a day around nymphs, I’ll crave some interesting conversations. You’ll have my full attention tonight.”

Hercules snickered, and she joined him. It was almost like their own language, and it gave him a thrill that got his feet moving. “You bet I will,” he said, then darted off to see what Phil had waiting for him.

Chapter 31: Diplomatic Fumble

There had to be some way to categorize sitting on the sidelines exhausted from the merest exertion as “helping” or “participating.” Inconvenient. That was the best and only way to categorize herself. Trying to become a heroine when she considered herself built for tragedy had swiftly become the bane of Megara’s existence. She was in the way more often than not, and her skills seemed entirely irrelevant to the challenges at hand. As much as helping her husband with his hero career appealed to her, and his insistence that she was also a hero was endearing, there was simply no fitting into that same mold. She’d have to find some other way to make herself useful.

As she trudged along the boundaries of Phil’s island, she recognized signs of nymph activity. Chief among these were the trees twisted into strangely feminine shapes, their branches reaching toward Apollo’s chariot in supplication. Megara had never been around much drayad activity, but it was no mystery who she was dealing with. She had to launch this diplomacy campaign with only time on her hands, but she didn’t have to be hasty with it.

She would have to appeal to the dryads and convince them that somehow, a mortal girl like her could help them in ways they could not help themselves.

If it were up to Megara, there’d be a broader category of heroism that included someone who could do no more than chat with an enemy until they fell in line with one’s will or who could sing like a siren without the after-effects.

Perhaps if she were just clever enough, she’d clear that space for herself.

There didn’t seem to be all that much time to catch up with Hercules, though. He’d been created to embody the concept of heroism, so of course, he took to training like a mule to a mountain. Somehow, he even seemed to enjoy it. He was having the time of his life while Megara felt more and more ridiculous.

There was no way around feeling like a perfume jar covered in mud. She was covered in mud.

As far as Hercules knew, she had no complaints. Why should she bother him with her misery? He worried enough already.

She trudged across the pitiful landscape of Phil’s island, glaring at every suspicious rustle of a bush.

If there were some undeclared cousin of Phil’s running around just waiting to be an irritant, she was going to kick him.

Her face hit the ground.

In a distant haze of stunned confusion, she realized that she had heard the sound of a heavy thud, which was still ringing in her ears.

Now that she was planted on the grass, the second impact that rumbled through the ground shook her whole body.

Frozen and sore in the grass, Megara was too stunned from the quakes she had and hadn’t registered that her mind lost contact with reason.

Hercules?

Sure, he could shake the earth like that if he wanted, but what for?

Megara tested her arms. Not moving. Too achy and tired.

At least she could still blink. Still, think…

Slowly, she forced some feeling into numb limbs and rolled onto her back. She stared up at the azure sky and wondered if Zeus had fashioned Hercules’s eyes from pieces of that sky.

Gods. She’d really hit her head.

Voices. She couldn’t discern the words just yet. Their meanings spilled and sloshed through her mind as if someone poured wine into a leaky vessel… but she could tell they were feminine. A collection of feminine voices in a deserted wilderness could only mean two things: Amazons or nymphs.

She was fairly certain it would be the latter, but stuff didn’t make as much sense as she’d expected it to anymore.

Slowly, Megara wobbled to hands and knees. Though she felt rather pathetic, she successfully assumed the position of a half-competent one-year-old.

Nobody could see her like this. She struggled over to a tree and used it to ease herself to her feet. As her vision became less blurred, she noted the odd angular shape of the tree. It didn’t look like a regular olive tree; it had… curves?

Megara yanked her hand from the tree trunk, so stunned by feeling as if she had randomly touched a stranger that she forgot to steady herself.

There she went, like a genius, careening toward the ground.

Fragrant flower petals hit her in the face and combed into her hair, driven by a breeze that held her off the ground.

Her feet left the ground. Megara stared into the strangely humanoid forest before her, dazed and constantly smacked in the face with a steady stream of flower petals.

The voices went from conversational to gales of giggles. It was as if a group of children had discovered a new toy.

Before Megara could rally her senses, she was moving through the air toward the sound of rushing water.

She tried to move her legs, but an odd stinging sensation stopped her.

If she ever got back to Hercules, she’d never let him hear the end of this.

The floral-infused breeze brought Megara to a clearing where a pack of frolicking multi-colored nymphs all seemingly embodying the playful children she’d envisioned.

A few of them had their arms outstretched, petals flowing from their fingertips.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” one of these flower nymphs asked.

“All we ever get around here are satyrs and heroes-in-training! Didn’t think a girl would wander out here!”

The flower nymphs settled Megara on the edge of the lake, sitting with her legs trailing in the ripples.

“I’m here with my husband,” she replied, surveying the faces all around her. They all stared back with varying degrees of interest and disdain. If Megara were more in control of her faculties, she might have already formulated a strategy. Now that she was at a disadvantage, she smiled as cordially as she could muster.

“Husband!” the nymphs repeated, and all began excitedly whispering amongst themselves. Their voices became breezes and the sounds of tumbling waters rather than speech, and Megara couldn’t catch a word of it.

Their flurry of excitement made her cautious. Why would the notion of a husband be so novel to them?

She couldn’t analyze them too deeply. The throbbing aches all over her body forced thoughts to shatter before they could grow too complex.

“So you aren’t a maiden, then?” the nymph who asked this question had a daffodil-gold tone to her skin, and her hair conformed to that same mental image. “Girls, she outranks us.”

“Are you making fun of me?” Megara’s bronze tongue was dulled by her current state, but her instincts roared to take on the offensive.

“No, not at all! Not if you’re married to a hero.” This speaker had a lavender tinge to her skin, and Megara instantly trusted her just a cubit more than the others.

“He’s the greatest!” she declared in full confidence. Why should any of them know he was in a middle gray zone of banishment?

“Oh, you’re a mess!” a teal-skinned nymph observed with what looked like humor. Laughter bubbled from her like the flow of spring water from its source. “Will you tell us all about your hero if we clean you up?”

Megara weighed this exchange with what focus she could maintain. Was there some kind of catch to this? What were they after, exactly?

Regardless, she couldn’t go back to Hercules like this. Logistically, the odds of reaching him were low, and even if he saw what had become of her, the guilt would consume him. He didn’t need that for his afternoon.

“Fine,” she mumbled.

The nymphs crowded around her, still speaking their half-human language while they brushed her face and hair with flower petals and fragrant branches. Breezes that brushed across her face perfumed her senses with healing energy. The rosy, minty lavender scent invaded her senses, whisking away the disoriented pain. She couldn’t understand the nymphs’ power, but she was grateful for it.’ One of the girls produced a clay bowl shaped by hand and resembling a folded leaf. She poured water directly into Megara’s mouth without asking if she was ready.

This water proved a capstone upon all the healing that had begun with the other methods.

Clarity drew her back to the moment.

The nymphs around her were all leaning in, eager for her half of the deal.

Megara brushed her hair back from her face. “His name is Hercules,” she began, and the nymphs gasped.

“The son of Zeus!?” several of them exclaimed at once.

“You’re bluffing!” accused one of them with dewy green skin.

“I am not!” Megara huffed. “He is the son of Zeus, and he’s training right here on this island! I’m here to learn alongside him but lack his... talents.”

The nymphs all giggled. She wouldn’t have to explain that statement.

“Looks like you failed, though,” the teal nymph said. “Can’t even walk through the woods without getting destroyed. Poor thing.”

Megara rolled her eyes. “Thanks for your concern. I’m still here to figure out what I’m capable of and how I can help everyone. I don’t want to be a burden even if he can carry me. If we’re in this together, I have to give him some value.”

“Isn’t it enough to be pretty?” an orange-tinged nymph with dark green hair asked.

“Anyone can be pretty, but I told him I wanted to accompany him to Olympus, which means I have to do something extraordinary. Every pretty girl doesn’t follow her husband to live with the gods.”

“No, usually you’d get left behind so he could marry a goddess,” the purple nymph observed. “But what is he like? Would he leave you?”

“No!” Megara’s whole body revolted at the idea. “He’s too sweet, loyal, kind, and adorable, and you wouldn’t even guess because you’re thinking of him like some random god instead of who he is!”

Several of them put their hands up while giggling.

“You’re crazy about him, huh?” asked the teal nymph.

“You’d all be crazy about him too, but he’s all mine.” Megara tossed her hair. “Have we talked about him enough? Will you tell me about what you did that healed me?”

“You don’t have nymph powers,” the teal nymph said. “But... now we know someone on this island worth seeing!” The nymphs shared glances, grins growing all the while. “And we’re faster than you.”

Megara’s eyes widened, and she had the moment to ask, “What?” before the lot of them darted through the trees and out of sight.

All except for one, the girl with the lavender and lilac tones in her skin. “Oh, dear,” the nymph said. “I think you may have said too much.”

“I...?” Megara slowly rose out of the water. “This isn’t my fault!”

“I think we should start at the beginning since I’m your only friend right now.” The nymph stepped closer. “I’m Ianthe, the nymph of the purple tones in sunrises and sunsets, and all purple flowers. The others are a little... boy crazy. They’re about to ruin your marriage.”

Chapter 32: Limits

Meg had left him with a problem. Quite the significant one.

Every footfall, every thrum of his pulse, reminded him of what he was missing. His pounding heart and deep rumbles of breath couldn’t fully stop the burning of her absence and what he knew they could do together.

How many mindless minutes—hours?—had transpired since last he saw Megara? His frustration escalated into his training maneuvers. He threw himself into an obstacle course for the fourth time. Was it too easy, or was he not taking it seriously enough? He hadn’t gotten a scrape yet, at least.

There was something to the way he could focus purely on the physical thrill of facing death, which dulled the ache, but it wasn’t fully gone. Perhaps it would never disappear fully, and that was part of marriage. He was, after all, quite new to the dynamic.

Hercules rolled to victory at the end of the course, his mind still whirring. “Yes!” Hercules was so thrilled to have finished all his tasks that he pumped both arms in the air and flexed. He’d thrown everything into that last push, and it still wasn’t enough to grant him relief. “That’s the best one, right? Have I done everything right? Is it time to do more hero stuff?”

The last obstacle crumbled behind him and fell into the sea.

Hercules kept his smile plastered in place, but he couldn’t stop the way he winced at his own unintended destruction. “Oops. Sorry about that. I can go fish that out later.”

Unless Uncle Po-Po got ahold of it first and kept it out of spite.

Phil wasn’t amused or nearly as impressed as he’d hoped. Either that, or he was irritated by Hercules’s confidence. “You’ll get yer chance to be a hero, kid, but you gotta put in the work. That’s how we mortals do anything worthwhile.”

Hercules rubbed his brow in frustration. “I did that whole routine four times in a row. Why isn’t that enough to impress you?”

Though Phil crossed his arms against the suggestion that he’d skipped multiple steps on the path to true heroism, there was a furrow in his brow that made Hercules think he was in agreement. Maybe he didn’t want to say so too early and seem expendable.

“Sure, it means somethin’, but it doesn’t mean yer not gettin’ slower,” Phil remarked. He made a tally mark beside the water clock he was using to time Hercules’s obstacle course run-throughs. “You gotta focus! I sharpened those scythes four times since ya got here!”

“It means something,” Phil conceded at last. “We gotta develop your discipline. Ya breeze through things too quickly, like they don’t matter. You don’t take time to learn the lessons; all you wanna do is move on to the next thing. That’s not gonna cut it in the big leagues! Everything matters: every second out there will always matter. You could end your career in a thousand embarrassing ways if ya don’t pay attention.”

Mortality was probably the worst invention the gods ever dumped into the cosmos.

“Got it,” Hercules said, rubbing the back of his sweaty neck. His trainer wasn’t the person he needed to fight. He had to fight against his own vices, and whatever monster he could find that was tangentially related to his quest. 

He stretched his arms overhead, giving his whole body a chance to burn one more time before he could relax fully. It was so much easier to relax when he was a god. “You got something tougher? I’m getting too used to that one; it’s not as exciting anymore.” While he continued to stretch, he gazed hopefully toward the edge of the forest. Could Meg be done with whatever she’d decided to do out there? He was sure she’d come back with a fine enough story, and it would be good to let her recount it while he repaid her for her earlier teasing.

“It’ll take me some time to reset the course,” Phil remarked, stroking his goaty beard. “Fine. You want surprises? I’ll throw ya off!” He darted away, surprisingly fleet of hoof for his portly stature.

He’d thought he’d prefer being alone with his thoughts, but that only left him with no distractions from his missing wife. He walked into the structure of the stadium, to where the sacred baths awaited.

This interior space was mercifully shrouded from the island sun, and the water flowing from a harnessed spring was always frigid enough to bring relief to his steaming muscles.

He used a bronze cup to scoop the water out of the trickling spring and tossed it against his face, then scooped more out to hit his hair and then the rest of his body. Steam was almost visible sizzling off his flesh. What a ridiculous sight he must be, unable to cool himself down for all that he tried.

Even now, he was thinking of what he’d do with Megara to bathe away the strains of their day. This would be an excellent place to explore the sensual education they’d received from Aphrodite. Where was that scroll of hers again?

Hercules wandered back out of the bath, ruffling his hair to air-dry it, only to be presented with an unfamiliar woman leaning against the stadium wall.

Startled, Hercules shied away, smiling anxiously. “Whoa! Hey, uh, where’d you come from?”

“Oh, I’ve been on this island for a while…” the woman stepped closer, her eyes gleaming with interest. “But there’s never been such a handsome man here before…” she stepped closer, and raised her arms to him as if to embrace.

Megara would not like this.

“Heh– thanks?” Hercules put his hands up to block her in the most delicate gesture he could manage while still being firm with her. He walked out from under the awning into the sunlight. 

Only when she followed did he recognize that she was green from the rustling waves of her hair to her dainty bare feet. A nymph! No wonder she’d snuck up on him so easily.

“Aww, aren’t you modest!” A voice from behind him made Hercules realize he’d been too fixated on the first one. He had to guess this voice belonged to a nymph, as well.

Hercules whipped his head around. This girl had a treelike grain on her sun-browned skin, even reveling some whorls as if the wood of the tree was warped. Her hair was a fluffy mash of leaves and flowers, and her eyes were wide.

This was getting out of hand. Why were there two of them?

No, three!

This third one was blue-tinged. She glided toward him on a silvery mist, and he remained rooted in place.

What did they want? He had to speak!

The arms of te nymph behind him wrapped around his neck, bonelessly twisting around his neck.

Seconds later, the newcomer had begun to trail her frigid finges against his arm.

“We’re so lucky she brought you here,” said the nymph behind him. 

She. Meg?

“You spoke to Meg?” Hercules grabbed one of those twisting arms. It was getting a little uncomfortable to breathe…

“Poor thing,” the girl in front of him cooed, stepping closer while he was distracted. “She got so disoriented and lost… we just had to come investigate her darling husband!” She trailed her hands up and down his chest.

He was still trying to wriggle free of the arms around his neck, and her closeness was in dire need of response… but what could he say? He didn’t want to do any harm… but no harm had better come to his wife, either. “Where’s Meg?” he demanded, trying to gently shake the nymphs off.

“Don’t be silly…” the girl with her arms wrapped around his neck whispered directly into his ear. “She’s going to be fine.. But not before we have a little fun…” she kissed the shell of his ear, making him tremble involuntarily.

“Stop that!” He twitched and wriggled, but the nymphs weren’t any looser. His arm was too cold! He realized too late that the watery nymph beside him was encasing it in ice!

“Don’t fight it,” the icy water nymph said in a measured voice as if this wasn’t a horrific event. “The rest will be here soon… we only came ahead to make you hold still.”

“Others? What?” Somehow he’d become even more confused than before.

In the distance– but not far away– a howling noise drew his attention away from his assailants. It was only then he realized the truth: A band of nymphs had all decided to see– and examine– him at once.

 

They weren’t massive centaurs or winged harpies that he could fight to the death with impunity. It was a rainbow of nymphs with arms outstretched, all racing down the hillside toward him.

“Where’s Meg?” he repeated, trying to twist or shake himself free. Now it was less of a demand, and more of a hope the answer would get her to him sooner. Why did he feel so terrified without her around? She’d know how to face this, wouldn’t she?

“That’s not important right now, hero,” said the girl behind him, who tightened her vines around him a little more securely than before. “You’re ours now.”

Where had they all come from?

The whole band rushed down the hillside, all shrieking obsessively. He couldn’t escape in time. There were too many arms wrapped around him, and these less sophisticated nymphs were swift.

Was this what it was like if someone got banished to Tartaros? He thought the question to himself seconds before his next band of assailants appeared.

Before he could tell them to calm down, or even begin to formulate some other coherent response, Phil entered the fray.

“Hey, hey!” Phil shouted on his behalf. “Ladies, relax! He’s just a hero in training!”

That statement rankled Hercules, though he was in no position to argue.

One of the girls with a greenish tinge to her skin grew out a hand like a branch wrapped in rough bark and swept the satyr aside. He went flying into a nearby tree. Now with horns embedded in a tree trunk, Phil couldn’t fight his way back out in time to provide his pupil aid.

Uh-oh.

Hands—both soft and rough—were everywhere. Bark scraping against his cheek, scaly naiad hands along his arms, breezy petals rushing through his hair.

The screams were universal, and now he’d added to the load.

Hercules flung his arms to both sides, but then he realized the dangers he might present to his delicate assailants if he weren’t careful.

His indecision didn’t stop the many hands, with their fingers digging in and their vines wrapping. What was he supposed to do?

“I get it!” He cried, trying to push away any of the figures who would yield. “I get it, Phil! I need your help! Can you call ‘em off?”

“You think I got anything to do with this?” Phil called over the howling nymphs.

Hercules grabbed an arm, yanking its owner away from him.

Though she fell quickly, this nymph fell against her fellows, and they all rallied along with her.

What did they want?

They tore at his hair, his cape, his armor.

If he couldn’t escape, what would they do with him?

How far would he let them go before he fought them back like true monsters? Was this a test? Should he fight as a hero or surrender as a gentleman?

All around them, they were screaming that they finally had a real man on the island and a hero, too. He couldn’t address any of their commentary, but he got the idea that they considered him fair game as he inhabited their territory.

 He put both arms out, trying to block the clinging, tearing creatures from reaching his body, but there were too many of them, and they were everywhere. He’d have to make a firm, difficult decision soon. He’d have to decide if it was worth the possibility of harming them.

The ground opened beneath him, and he sank down to his knees.

All right. He had limits, after all. 

Chapter 33: Higher Ground

The burning sensations all over Megara’s body were not in the least settled by the lingering terror of what was happening to “ruin her marriage.” There had been plenty of nymphs around to ruin an afternoon at the very least, and here she was the brilliant architect of their meeting.

Why was she such an idiot?

“You’ve got to let go so the healing will work!” Ianthe nudged Megara, once again guiding water from the sacred pool to swirl around her. “It won’t work if you don’t let it in!”

“What does it matter? I’ve got to get back and help Hercules before who-knows-what happens to him, and it’s all my fault!”

“Oh, please. How long have you been on this island? It was only a matter of time before they caught wind of a cute boy within arm’s reach. One time I hear they grabbed this cutie and pulled him into a sacred spring and they’ve kept him there for years now!”

“Uh… lucky him?” Megara didn’t want to think about Hercules getting dragged off by a bevy of horny nymphs with designs on him. Especially when she was so far behind and had no way to catch up.

“Not really, I think they’re not so great with the chit-chat. I only spend so much time with them because we’re all Oceanids.”

“If you’re an ocean nymph, why are you playing in a lake?”

“I’m a special case, but most water nymphs enjoy a spring or two. Plus, we’re not so far from the sea.”

The water spiraling around Megara took on a pleasantly purple tinge, mesmerizing in the tones that ran from lavender to violet.

“Focus, okay?” Ianthe prompted. “Breathe it in. Take the healing and make it yours.”

Sprinkle sparks of water flicked against Megara’s face, little pinpoints each time. The water was nearer and nearer until it became a foggy purple mist. It was accompanied by the thick yet sweet scent of violets, tinged with the potent strains of lavender. 

“Oh, yeah, I’m part cloud nymph and part flower nymph. That’s why I’m able to do so much at once,” Ianthe said, but Megara’s mind was too focused on the all-consuming mist that surrounded her and then soaked into her skin. It felt now as if it were part of her, and all the pain evaporated like morning mist at noon.

Everything was clearer now, and there was only one problem: she’d unleashed a bunch of powerful immortals on her newly mortal husband. This was her responsibility to resolve.

“I’m going after them now,” she said, getting to her feet and wringing extra healing water from her hair into the sacred pool.

“Hmm…” Ianthe walked around to face Megara, a serious look on her spritely features. “How’re you gonna do that? They’re definitely more powerful than you, and you’re outnumbered two to ten.”

“Two?” Megara tilted her head at Ianthe in question.

“Did you think I’d heal you up just to let you wander off and get messed up again?” Ianthe shook her head. “Give me some credit, girl. Whatever we do, you’re going to have to take me along.”

Megara’s eyes widened. “Does that make you my friend?”

Ianthe gave her a patiently amused smirk. “Yeah, I think that’s how it works. So what now?”

“I thought I’d maybe yell at them and scratch at their eyes.”

Rather than scold Megara for silliness, Ianthe stood with a patient smile, arms folded as she waited for her to offer a newer, more sensible idea.

“We need someone or something that can control them,” Megara said, watching the nymph’s face for approval.

“The only things we could rely on for that role are the gods,” Ianthe replied. There was no sign that she thought Megara had made an impossible error. Instead, she inclined her head. “Any divine contacts we could call on?”

“There’s always Aphrodite…” Megara trailed off, frowning. “Aphrodite helped get us together, but does she have anything to do with nymphs?”

“She runs in our circles, but maybe we should find someone with a little more direct authority,” Ianthe said. “Lots of them are Oceanids, so we could call on Amphitrite.”

The suggestion flooded Megara’s mind with clarity. “That’s brilliant! What about the forest nymphs, though? Maybe Bacchus?”

Ianthe laughed, like the ripples of the sacred spring. “If you’re looking for calm, that’s not his department.”

Megara should’ve known that! She was losing brainpower on this whole situation. Had she hit her head harder than Ianthe could heal? “We have to try something, and quickly. I can’t think of any way I could overpower them myself. They’re not mortal women, and… well, maybe they outclass me in lots of ways I can’t contend with.”

Why hadn’t she let herself consider the possibility that one or multiple nymphs may have left a dent in Hercules’s resolve? What if it was possible they’d…

“Focus!” Ianthe clapped, drawing Megara out of her Theban ruminations. “I’ll help you get in touch with Amphitrite, but you’re the one with the hero husband, so you need to do most of the talking. All right?”

Megara nodded, still a little shaken by the possibilities swirling in her mind. “The sooner we resolve this scenario, the better. I should never have come out here, so this is my fault.”

“You have got to stop making all this stuff your responsibility when they’re the ones who chose to respond the way they did,” Ianthe remarked. “If you could just hold on a second, we’ll get some help, and then we’ll get my sisters and cousins out of your man’s hair.”

The mental image conjured by that comment made Megara shudder. She watched Ianthe raise her arms overhead while standing at the edge of the pool. In tandem with the nymph’s movements, the pool’s waters began to swirl, gradually taking on a purple tinge. Soon, a disk of lavender foam appeared at the center of the swirling waters, and it was then Ianthe spoke.

“O great queen of the seas, we bare our hearts to you in the name of love and loyalty…” Ianthe glanced in Megara’s direction for approval, to which the startled mortal nodded. “Grant us the authority to quell the wrath of my sisters, the nymphs of the sea, and those of the air and the wood,” the prayer continued. “We humbly request your intervention in this matter, without which we fear we will lose a good man to the whims of nymphs driven mad with desire.”

“I can’t let them do anything like that!” Megara gasped.

“So we call upon your authority to grant us relief, o glorious queen of the deep!” Ianthe continued as if incorporating Megara’s statement into the prayer.

The misty disk atop the swirling waters became tinged with turquoise, and a woman with a snail shell where hair ought to be rose from it. It was becoming easier for Megara to accept the appearance of grandly powerful gods and goddesses now. Perhaps this was a dangerous sentiment to indulge in, but Poseidon’s consort wore such a trustworthy smile that it inspired a matching one on Megara’s face.

“Oh, I hate it when the nymphs get their hands on some poor mortal,” Amphitrite lilted. “Who’s the poor specimen?”

“Hercules,” Megara blurted out, which drew the goddess’s eyes in her direction.

“The son of Zeus?” Amphitrite replied, dumbfounded for a minute afterward.

“He’s training on this island, and I thought I could make friends with the nymphs, and that would help us, but they ran off, and I think they’re doing unforgivable things right now!”

Amphitrite’s eyes widened. “As in my nephew Hercules?”

“The same!” Megara clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture. “Please, this is all because I approached the nymphs thinking it would make me useful if I did, and he didn’t have anything to do with it! Normally, I’d try to handle this myself, but… if they’re driven mad right now, I know they’d overpower me in an instant!”

“Show me the way,” Amphitrite said. “We’ll teach them some respect.”

Megara bowed her head. “My gratitude is immense… Please grant me permission to turn my back on you, Highness. I don’t want to show you any disrespect.”

“My nephew is more important than silly things like that,” Amphitrite said.

Megara barely gave her enough time to finish her statement before she rushed back through the woods. One blessing of being on an island meant that there was no way to go, so off-course, she couldn’t find her way back to Hercules along the coastline.

Assuming he was still on the island…

Her anxiety fueled her progress through the trees, leading the immortals behind her.

She hadn’t gotten too far before she heard heart-wrenching cries of, “Let go! Go away!” Intermingled with wordless, gagging shouts. Was someone restricting his breathing?

“I should chop down this forest,” Megara hissed as she hurried through the trees. “Those girls aren’t so immortal that they can withstand–”

“The forest didn’t hurt you,” Amphitrite replied from not far behind. Apparently, she had a fine pair of land legs, and she knew how to use them.

Megara rushed faster despite the difficult terrain. She may not want to see what happened when she arrived, but she had to. Especially if Hercules was in genuine danger.

She broke through the last trees, and saw the floor of the stadium far below.

Hercules was now squirming and waving his arms, but not attempting to hit any of his assailants.

“Always the gentleman,” Megara muttered through her rage-gritted teeth. She turned to Amphitrite. “These are your girls, right?”

“I know the mothers of the ones who aren’t,” Amphitrite said, stalking past Megara toward the stadium. “They are about to get the STERNEST talking-to I offer!”

Ianthe caught up last and gave Megara a reassuring smile. “It’s all going to be okay. You did the right thing asking for help.”

It still made her uneasy. She ought to have handled this situation on her own, without troubling the gods. What kind of offering would be demanded after the visit from the sea goddess? Would she even be capable of paying it? As a princess it was possible to take something of the royal treasury and offer it, but there were few options available now that she’d followed her husband to this island. Would it be enough to build a shrine out of seashells? Was she even capable of such a thing?

The thoughts plagued her all the way back to the stadium, while she watched the goddess advancing through the trees. How odd that she had what appeared to be eye stalks or antennae and yet she was mostly human. She didn’t see such modifications on most of the gods, but then again, the sea was full of the strangest oddities.

They heard the screeching and howling of the nymphs in the distance accompanied by faint, gasping noises that could only be coming from Hercules. Why did he sound like that?

Megara sped her steps toward the arena, almost passing the goddess in her haste.

A mad tangle of limbs surrounded the unmistakably bulky figure of Hercules. They rocked with his attempts to shake them off, legs flying while they pawed and clawed at him. The only part of Hercules to escape was the mournful, frustrated cries muffled by the multiple bodies piled atop him.

Megara picked her way down the slope of the arena seating, shouting, “Hey! Get off my husband!”

None of the nymphs paid any attention to her, but there was a loud noise of surprise from under them.

What they did notice was when Amphitrite emitted an echoing cry that reverberated through the curvature of the stadium. “How dare you mistreat my nephew?” demanded the goddess. 

This broke the frenzy on the topmost nymphs, who turned just in time for Megara to single them out. She clawed at them, yanking at arms and legs to drag them back off of Hercules, shouting, “Malaka! I never thought I’d spend so much time cutting the grass!” She jabbed indiscriminately with elbows and knees, and even found herself biting a few of them.

It was Amphtirte, however, who made all the difference.

A shadow veiled the stadium, and the breeze prickled with sea-foam chill. “Remove yourselves at once!” the goddess’s voice rocked the whole stadium, and the last of the nymphs removed themselves.

Now that they had all fallen away, Hercules dropped hard to the sand below, both dazed and half peeled out of his armor. His cape was shredded and discarded, which only gave her a hint at what he’d been through. A thick red band showed around his neck, which had evidently made all the difference. 

Megara dropped to her knees beside him, breathing hard from her attack on the nymphs. Any words that would have occurred to her washed away while Amphitrite continued the nymphs’ verbal scourging. There was no joke she could make in this moment.

Instead she threaded her fingers through Hercules’s sweat-plastered hair and smoothed it away from his face. “They took your sweat band,” she murmured.

“Oh, no ,” Hercules muttered, then when he tried to smile he coughed.

Megara winced though she tried to smile as well. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Did you tell them this was how I wanted to spend an afternoon?” Hercules asked, still fighting to smile.

“No! Not at all, this was… not what I expected.”

“No kidding?” Hercules rubbed at his throat and coughed again. “Where’d you find them all?”

“They were swimming in a nearby sacred spring…” she trailed off, tracing the thick red line to the back of his neck. It was there she noted the abrasions and scratches on his back where the armor was peeled away. Megara bowed her head in shame. “I’m so sorry… I should’ve stayed home and minded my own business.”

Overhead, Amphitrite continued to harangue nymphs for misbehaving. “You’re going back under the sea where you’ll accompany me in shepherding the fish! And as for you, Demeter will hear how you dryads treated her nephew!”

“What did they want from you?” Megara whispered, pinning Hercules back into his armor.

Hercules blushed and glanced away, warily watching the nymphs who now squirmed under the authority of their goddess. “Probably better we don’t talk about that right now. I’m sure you can guess. I didn’t get many coherent statements out of them, but I didn’t need much help figuring it out.”

“I’m sorry…” Megara caressed his face between her hands. “I thought I could be helpful, but I was foolish. I’m not any help at all.” She noted a thick line around his neck, as if someone were strangling him. “Oh…” She shook her head, tracing it with her fingers. “What was this for?”

“Uh… I fought less when I couldn’t breathe.”

Megara narrowed her eyes. “You should go home.”

“Home?” He tilted his head, staring at her in confusion. “What home?”

“Sorry. It’s because of me you lost your immortality. This wouldn’t happen to a god.”

That dazed fog left Hercules’s eyes, and he took her hands. “Meg. Understand this. You’re far more vulnerable than I am, and I’d go through this… maybe once a week because I can still be here with you. My aunt over there is being very helpful, but that’s no substitute for what I have with you.” His eyes darkened with the weight of his words.

“I just went to make friends, and I couldn’t even do that,” Megara whispered in anguish. “I should know how to–”

Hercules nodded toward Ianthe and Amphitrite. “Didn’t you make friends at least?”

Megara glanced over her shoulder at the nymph and the goddess. “I suppose they count as friends…”

“They should. I’m glad you brought them here. Do you need more friends?”

Megara shrugged. “I don’t think I’m so good at the friend thing.”

“You will be, you just need practice. Later. Right now,” he scooped her into his arms. “We need some time to ourselves.”

Chapter 34: Honesty

“I’m sorry,” Megara whispered as soon as they’d crossed into the shadows of the stadium’s interior. “I’m causing trouble for your hero trajectory, and it’s humiliating.”

“That’s why I need to chat with you.” Hercules nudged a door open with his foot and carried Megara into the baths, setting her down on a bench. He joined her face to face, kneeling before her with hands to either side of her thighs. “Go on and tell me what makes you think all of this is your fault.”

“I… was the one who went looking for the nymphs… they didn’t even know you were here until I showed up…”

“And you don’t think they’d have noticed at some point? It’s a small island.”

He was right.

“You’re always blaming yourself for things,” Hercules observed in a low, soft voice. “There are always things that the Fates have in hand. It’s not for us to control that. All we can do is respond with dignity and honor.”

“But… just now… aren’t you upset by what happened with the nymphs?”

Hercules tilted his head. “Yeah. But you know what? I’m mostly bothered because maybe I could have resolved that… Maybe I could have freed myself if I wasn’t so paralyzed by confusion.” He gently took her hands in his. “I’m also worried what you think of me now.”

“I think I should’ve taken better care of you.”

Laughter shook Hercules’s big shoulders. “That so?”

“You have to admit–” He’d stopped her mouth with a long, powerful finger across her lips.

“Don’t get flustered.”

“I should be the one comforting you after what you endured. Please don’t make this all about me, not when I hate myself so much.”

Hercules’s brows rose. “Hate yourself?”

Rage-tinged anguish burned the back of her throat, making her croak while her confession tumbled free. “I was supposed to be your helper! How am I contributing to this mission when all I can do is discover new problems?”

“Stop.” Hercules wasn’t angry; he didn’t even raise his voice. But his hands went to her arms and he squeezed for her attention. “Meg, you’re forgetting to ask if I blame you and you’ve already jumped to thinking I’m going to punish you, so you’re doing it to yourself. Am I right?”

He was right again.

How did he do that?

Megara stared through blurry, watery eyes at him, her face burning with embarrassment. “I… I’m kind of insane, aren’t I?”

Hercules moved his hands up from her arms to frame her blush between his palms. “Trust me. I understand why you’d be so quick to blame yourself. I’ve seen your family dynamic in action. Believe me, mine’s not as different as you may think. But here’s a major difference. We’re not stuck with either of our families anymore. You’re my family, and I’m yours. We make our own rules.”

“We do…?” Megara gazed into the cloudless sky in his eyes.

He may be mortal now, but she still saw her favorite god.

“Yeah,” he breathed out the word in a voice that had become huskier than before. The warmth between them was almost enough to make Megara forget what she’d seen. 

She put her hands on his shoulders and tried to maintain as businesslike an attitude as she could. “You’re hurt.”

Hercules shrugged. “I’ll get over it.”

“Have you ever been hurt like this before?”

With a thoughtful noise, Hercules pouted in thought, squinting at the ceiling. “Nah, probably not. But we’re talking about you right now and you’re trying to deflect. I won’t let you cut me off that easily.”

“I won’t let you distract me, either. Let me help you get cleaned up, at least. I have no idea what was in those nymphs’ nails when they cut you.”

Hercules furrowed his brow. “Uh… why should that matter?”

It was tough not to let her smirk get out of control at his naivete. “You could be poisoned, love. Happens to us mortals sometimes, and it can end up nasty. Let’s try and head that off.”

“Poison…” he repeated, bewildered, but he allowed her to lead him deeper into the stadium’s facilities.

“This is one thing I can do that Phil can’t,” she said lightly as she nudged the door open with her hip and settled Hercules under a fountain spout shaped like a roaring lion.

“There are a lot of things you can do, and he can’t,” he remarked, looking her up and down. “I can think of a few right now.”

She rolled her eyes to cover for the shiver that ran through her at his gaze raking over her. “I’ll get a sponge and a strigil,” she murmured and scurried to the shelves laden with fresh supplies.

Phil may not be the most emotionally aware goatman, but he understood the necessity of human hygiene, at least. She collected the necessary tools and turned back to her husband, whose gaze was still fixed on her.

“While I was out in the woods, the only sane nymph helped fix me up. Oh, right. I didn’t mention I got hurt in the woods.” She knelt beside Hercules and poured oil into the sponge.

“You what?” Hercules leaned closer. “How?”

“I was walking when someone shook the ground under me. Then the nymphs, I guess, pulled me toward them, and they didn’t try to maneuver me around any obstacles. Or they didn’t do it very well.” With that matter-of-fact explanation out of the way, she started rubbing the oil on his abrasions.

“Maybe I shoulda thrown some of them off even if it hurt them… So that one sane nymph, the purple one. She likes you ‘cause you wear her favorite color all the time, huh? Or is it your pretty eyes?”

“We’re talking about why she got along with me, not why you’re obsessed with me.”

“I could talk about that subject for hours…” While he allowed her to brush the sponge along his arm, he used his free hand to stroke her knee. “So go on, she helped you feel better, and then…?”

“We summoned Amphitrite. Probably could have done it sooner if I didn’t get my head knocked around so often.”

Hercules’s hand tightened around her thigh. “Meg… telling me stuff like that doesn’t make it any easier to control my temper… They hurt you, and they got nothing but a warning.”

“They were mostly stupid in my case… but Ianthe told me they were going to ruin our marriage when they left me.”

“She said that?” Hercules hissed, both with rage and the need to control his pain signals.

“I think she suspected they’d have their way with you,” she said lightly, stroking the sponge softly against his raw skin.

“They tried… but I’m not sure exactly what their plan was with so many swarming me at once. They didn’t give each other much space. Lucky me, eh?” While his brilliant grin made Megara snicker, she wouldn’t let him distract her any more than he’d forget her struggles.

“As far as luck goes in situations like this.” She tousled his hair. “I’ll have to spoil you so we make up for it!”

Even her pretended amusement couldn’t block out the look he gave her at being tousled like a child. “How will you spoil me, then?” His voice made her pause. It was much deeper than last he spoke.

Had she done something wrong? Teased too much?

With a heated huff of air that spread a blush through her skin, Hercules set his hands on her hips. “You’re running out of time to be the one who’s doing the spoiling. Let’s see what you’re capable of.”

Seemingly less and less the more he did things like that.

“Ah…” Megara carefully reached the bathing sponge into the flow of water, and added oils to it until it felt soft enough to deal gently with Hercules’s raw skin.

She wished she could will him better, and skip the awkward in-between stages toward healing. The god she’d fished out of the stars shouldn’t have to suffer for being with her.

Cooling mist seemed to fill her mind in response to the heated shame that had begun to bloom. In place of that shame, she honed all her focus on the way she gently ran the sponge along his skin.

In reversal of how she’d felt when Ianthe healed her wounds, she was now capable of breathing out that same purple light she’d breathed in. The water became an extension of her will. 

Regardless of her confusion, Megara focused her will on pushing that energy through her breath into the sponge that worked along Hercules’s flesh. It was working . How was it working? She’d figure that out after she’d set him to rights again.

“What’s happening?” Hercules asked, dazed.

“I think I learned a new trick from my new nymph friend… but I don’t know how.” Saying it aloud made Megara feel a little ridiculous, but she only spoke the truth.

Hercules took her free hand and wrapped it around his side, leaning in. “I’m feeling much better,” he murmured close to her lips. “Let me thank you, my goddess.”

There was no time for Megara to respond before Hercules tugged her closer and placed a fevered kiss against her lips. There was no confusion in his gesture, only the certainty that he would hold her there until she understood the depths of his affection.

Nymphs and their powers were now completely forgotten. Megara dropped the sponge and cupped Hercules’s face in her hands instead. This was what they’d been missing all day. Why couldn’t they indulge like this more often?

Seconds later, he pulled back, and Megara watched him through fluttering lashes. He seemed dazed, much like she felt. Their eyes met, his deep and powerful and her own blurry and dazed.

“Heh,” Hercules breathed out, part laugh and part sigh. “It’s almost like you’re already a goddess.”

“This isn’t me!” Megara pulled back, staring at the sponge as if she had picked up the wrong one. No, it was an ordinary sponge, but something luminous gleamed violet below its surface. She reached in with the tips of her fingernails, and pinched out a scrap of sponge infused with whatever strange power was in it. No sooner had she pulled it out for inspection than the magic faded entirely.

“Face it,” Hercules said, taking her hand by the wrist and pulling it to his lips. “You’re magical.” He teased her with faint little kisses along her palm until she squeaked and squirmed free.

“Will you let me fix you up? Don’t distract me! There’s so much you that needs fixing!”

“I could help you prioritize, if that’ll help you concentrate…” His purring voice sent chills through her. Seeing this progress in her response to him, he seemed to escalate. He held her hand and traced circles in her palm with his thumb, leaving sparks of excitement in his wake.

“Don’t do that; it’s my job!” She play-pouted at him, then dipped the sponge in oil once again and returned to the business of rubbing it into his skin.

“You don’t think I can learn a thing or two from you? I only spend all my time thinking about you, that’s all… and you’re learning new tricks, so why shouldn’t I?” He caressed her knee and slid his hand up her thigh. “I’m thinking of a few right now.”

“You’ve been through something awful today; maybe you shouldn’t do any of this stuff too quickly.”

“Are you afraid of me now?” he asked, halting the progress of his hand down her leg.

“Of course not! But right now you need help and–”

“And right now the best thing you could do for me is let me be with you.” The playfulness left his voice, and instead he spoke in a low, steady voice, “I need to be with you again. Is it so difficult for you to understand how being with you makes me feel like everything is right again? When I was made vulnerable and out of control and I couldn’t think of what defense to put up for myself, I…” Hercules dug his fingers into the softness of her thighs. “It would just be nice if everything went back to the way it should be.”

How unfathomable. For it to be her petty mortal presence… it didn’t make sense.

“You… you don’t mean I… make you feel less…?”

“It’s not an exaggeration,” Hercules replied firmly. He shifted her closer to him on his lap, firmly repositioning her legs to frame his torso. 

In a stunned silence, Megara gaped at him while he easily maneuvered her body. She kept her hand clamped around the cleaning sponge but felt entirely ineffectual despite the tasks she’d given herself.

“Have you ever known me to lie about how much I love you?” he asked with a hint of frustration in his eyes. “Why would you deny me now?”

“I never would!” Megara dropped the sponge into the water, noting a faint lavender ripple.

“You’re pretty good at denying reality,” he murmured, and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You have to tell me what’s really going on, just like I’m doing. When you have problems or needs, don’t hold back. I’m telling you right now how much I need you. Do you need me?”

The very thought he’d doubt her made anxiety prickle at the back of her neck. “Of course, I need you! That’s why I’m trying to take care of you! I’m the reason you’re mortal, I’m the reason you’re on this stupid island, and I’m the reason you were hurt by a pack of monsters who wouldn’t have even known you were here except that I drew attention! All of this is because I needed your help and I drew you down to my level! I’m forever sorry, and I’ll apologize even when you don’t want to hear it!”

In the midst of her frenzy, Hercules caught her by the chin. “There… my honest love… tell me one more thing. Do you need friends ?”

“I… I think so, I just don’t know how to keep them.”

“I’m going to give you everything you want forever.” He moved his hand to caress her hair and kissed her forehead.  “I always want us just like this… honest and connected. I’m so proud you can be this way with me.”

“Considering I’m from Thebes… something was bound to happen eventually that would close me off. You caught me at the perfect time.”

“How fortunate for me!” He smirked, his grip tightening even more as he pulled her even closer, their bodies flush together. “I get to have you all to myself… but I’m a generous lover… you shall have friends to pass your time with.”

“I could find some way to do that for myself, you’ve got so much to worry about…” She didn’t have much available space in her mind to think about someone other than the man who’d once been a god and was now so close to her she couldn’t focus on anything else.

“There are some things we can only do for one another,” Hercules murmured, kneading her in anticipation. “We’re going to do something special right about now…”

“Not fair, we already knew you’d… ah…” Megara lost her focus once again. Who could speak over the building pressure between them?

The two of them were breathing hard, all problems far away. All that mattered now were the moments they shared from this moment and into oblivion.