Barbra Annino [Secret Goddess Sin City Goddess (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.They were the shades that wandered the riverbanks, searching for a purpose, a plan, some guidance on what to do in the After.It was through no fault of their own that they had nothing to offer Charon.Cold reptile that he was, he simply didn’t care.Rules were rules.Coin was all he cared about.But I had never been one to play by rules that served no purpose.For what was law without justice?I stretched my legs and released my wings to their full, six-foot span.I shook them once, limbering up, and drank in the night air.Patches of clouds drifted over the water, which sparkled like black diamonds.The gentle lapping of the current relaxed me, and I listened for a moment, meditating, absorbing the perfume of the blooming night jasmine.A few minutes later, I calmly tucked all the coins from my winnings into my feathers, making certain they were secure and prepared for flight.It was brisk, but I preferred the heat, so I would welcome the exercise.I took a running start and leaped off the river bank, soaring high into the velvety-black sky, past cliffs made of ebony and marble, and up, up, up, until I was just beneath the moon, looking for the lost ones.There were pockets of them along the hillside, in the dark fields, and at the water’s edge.I released the coins from my thick feathers as I flew above them, one by one.I could see that some shades were afraid at first, until they spotted what had fallen from the sky.Some of them looked up and waved, while others collected the coins and passed them out to confused ones.The river was choppy this evening, and I could see the waves crashing into the jagged granite, sending up fresh sprays of seawater that coated my long hair.After I had dispensed all of the coins, I landed on top of a gray cliff twinkling with fool’s gold.I flapped my wings, shook out my hair, adjusted my pants and top, and watched as Charon was approached by dozens of souls waiting to gain passage, coins in hand.He lifted his cloaked head and raised a gnarled fist at me, his face twisted into a rage.“Tisiphone, you spiteful hellcat! I’ll get you for this!”How very original, Charon, I thought.I smiled and waved at him.“Nice to see you too, you overinflated rhinoceros scrotum.”I watched for several minutes as the shades formed a polite line.Then I turned, expanded my wings, and lifted my head to bathe in the moonlight, my best source of energy.When I felt refreshed enough for the journey home, I turned to walk through the dark forest, a smile on my face.Before I could take a step, however, I bumped into Hermes, messenger of the gods.“Tisiphone, I’m so happy to have found you.”The small god fluttered his winged sandals and landed before me.He strained his neck to look up at me as he spoke.He was a twitchy little thing by nature, but he seemed unusually antsy tonight.“What is it, Hermes?”“Hades requests your presence immediately.”Perfect.Charon had complained already, and now I was going to get a tongue-lashing.Honestly, gods could be so sensitive.I bent over at the waist and cracked my neck.Then I tucked my wings away and faced him again.“Why?”“I’m not supposed to say,” the messenger god stammered.This piqued both my curiosity and my suspicions.Hermes was well known around Olympus for his practical jokes.I narrowed my eyes.“Why not?”Hermes looked around nervously.“It’s top secret.”I bent down, stared Hermes right in the eye, and lit the fire in mine.He tried to snap his eyes shut, but it was too late.You see, my little ability, which I had mastered over the last millennia, could function as a simple parlor trick, as with Mr.Bill Hickok, but it also had the power to coax a god to tell the truth.It didn’t always work on one with more strength than I had, like Zeus, but on minor deities it worked quite sufficiently.I still hadn’t perfected the trick on humans yet, but I was working on it.“He wants you to go back,” Hermes blurted out.“Go back where?”Hermes bent his head, shifted his eyes to the right.“You know… there.”I shot up to my full height of six feet.Now it was my turn to be twitchy.I had vowed never to return.Not after what had happened last time.Not after what I had done.It was too dangerous.I was too dangerous.Chapter 2I had come a long way since that time, but still.The thought of slipping back into what I had once been terrified me.As a Fury, I was born with an innate sense of law and order.It was once my duty to police humans.To drive them to understand their crimes against humanity, decency, compassion, truth, and society as a whole.I was to coax them to repent, to show remorse.Humans being humans, you can imagine this was not always an easy task.I and my sisters pursued the cruel, the wicked, the conscienceless, sometimes mercilessly, until they had seen the errors of their ways [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne