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Chapter Three
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
? Mae West
Ancient Greece. Age of Heroes.
“‘Find the horn. Storm the mountain. Retrieve the lyre. Gather the fleece. And bring back the song,’” Divina’s new friend Ere repeated word for word Shifu’s impatient instructions, mulling them over with a concentrated frown.
Even though she barely knew him, she instinctively understood that he was exceptionally smart. It was in his eyes. Glittering bright turquoise beams of intelligence and wit. The rest of the male was uncannily beautiful, but it was his eyes that made him mesmerizing.
Eyes were the windows to the soul, in Divina’s experience. You could always tell a creature’s intentions, be they human or animal, by looking into their eyes.
Which was why Divina had no doubt Ere would figure out what they needed to do. And that the big gorgeous warrior male, Sorin, would protect them all while they did it.
“Assuming that the confounded old man meant for us to pursue each task in sequence, what horn could Shifu have been referring to?” Ere mumbled to himself, his magnificent Mate ever close at hand, towering beside him, silently lending support.
Divina felt a fleeting moment of envy as she watched them.
She loved men. She wished she had one with her right now who’d cuddle, pet and dote on her.
But, alas, she lovedloveeven more than she loved men.
As such, she fell in and out of love rather frequently, and never seriously. There was simply too much male bounty in the world to prize one above all. In the millennia that she’d existed, she’d never been tempted tostayin love once she’d fallen.
“The only horn I can recall from my studies of Greek mythology is the Horn of Plenty,” Ere thought out loud.
“Otherwise known as the Cornucopia.”
Divina was not one for puzzles herself, so she had nothing to contribute to this one-sided conversation. She didn’t like to think too much.
It wasn’t that she was stupid, because she wasn’t. It was just that the exercise of her brain gave her headaches. And headaches invariably led to wrinkles, which she avoided like the plague.
Immortal youth and beauty couldn’t be taken for granted, especially in the current situation where they were all mortal. If she looked good enough to eat, it was because she worked at it diligently. The gods gifted her with killer curves; it was her job to use them to their best advantage.
“Do tell,” she urged Ere absentmindedly, as she kept her attention on the merchant stalls that they slowly navigated around as they walked through the heart of the city they’d been plopped into.
That was all the encouragement the erudite male needed.
“Well, the myth describes the magical goat Amalthea, who nursed baby Zeus while he was hidden away in a cave on the island of Crete.”
“Who was Zeus being hid from?” Divina asked.
“From his filicide-tending father, Kronos,” Ere answered quickly, expounding on his knowledge with verve.
That was something else Divina learned instinctively from an early age—if you showed genuine interest in people, it tended to make them happy. And Divina loved to make people happy.
“The Greek pantheon was a violent lot,” Ere continued. “Kronos castrated and killed his own father Ouranos to take over the world…”
Divina listened with half an ear as she strolled through the city streets, exploring leisurely.
At least they were in the middle of a bustling village at the foot of an acropolis of some import. As evidenced by the towering temples made of newly-cut limestone that glistened in the noonday sun even from a distance.
Divina was a firm believer that everyone had unique gifts. Recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses helped a person navigate the world much more smoothly.
For example, she knew that her instincts never lied.
She always sensed immediately, within seconds of knowing someone, whether she could trust them or not. And within ten minutes of knowing them, she could identify the gifts they possessed that she lacked.
