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‘Is it possible in such little time to have fallen so hard? One of my arrows did not pierce me. How could it be?’ I asked.
‘Your arrows are the influence of the gods, another way for Zeus to toy with the mortals. They love and lust with or without them. They are not so unlike us, after all.’ The gentle words drifted over me, so calm and sweet.
‘If they don’t need me to fall in love, then why have I spent eons travelling to and from their lands with my quiver?’
‘It amuses Zeus. He enjoys your arrows interfering with the human’s willpower. It’s a game to him.’
I sat up, an odd mix of anger and joy sweeping up my spine.
‘So, I do not need to be Cupid?’
Her lips pursed for a moment before she said, ‘You do not need to be Cupid. YouareCupid.’
‘Don’t you see? I can leave. I can live amongst the mortals. I can be with Eva.’
‘Oh, sweet child of mine, she won’t remember you.’
‘I will win her heart again. I’d spend an entire lifetime doing it over and over if it meant even one more evening with her.’
‘What if she rejects you?’
‘It’s a chance I wish to take.’
My mother sighed and placed her warm fingers in my hand, squeezing. ‘Zeus wouldn’t allow it. You are immortal, and she will live a brief life next to yours. She can’t come here, and you can’t live there. Your wings and eternal youth would soon make them hunt you down.’
‘Then I will ask Zeus to make me a mortal. To live and love and die as she will.’
My mother looked aghast at my suggestion. ‘You would return to Olympus upon your death. Living with her and watching her die would break you. It isn’t the same as someone who will die within years of each other, and stay dead.’
‘I’d rather live with her for fifty years and actually experience life than survive for eons, never having lived a day.’
Standing in her elegant way, she crossed to a seat and perched on the edge, avoiding the nectar stains.
‘I don’t want you to go, but I am the goddess of love, and I, more than anyone, understand. If you truly believe the mortal is your soulmate, then you must go to her.’
‘How?’
‘Zeus may be the ruler of Mount Olympus, but there are things that even he must respect. If the girl swallowed your seed, she will not forget you. If you filled her, Zeus can’t perform his tricks on her.’ My mother smiled. ‘And if you appeal to his vanity, you may yet win what you seek.’
* * *
Zeus lazed on his throne, looking bored as I entered the room.
‘Ah, look who’s graced us with his presence.’ he said, sitting up with a glint in his eye.
‘Zeus, I have come to apologise for my outburst and for showing my true form to the humans. I was overwrought with emotion, and I couldn’t fight the change back to my true form.’
‘So you’ve seen sense?’
‘No,’ I said, to a titter of laughter from the other gods who filled the lesser thrones. ‘I have come with a challenge. I have a bet with my brother, Anteros, that I couldn’t live as a mortal for one whole human lifetime. Growing old as they do, suffering as they do, toiling and striving as they must. I wager that I could. Easily. What do you say?’
A grin crossed Zeus’ face as he leant forward and scratched at his white beard. ‘You’d miss the tranquil life of a god.’
‘Do you care to join the wager?
‘And what is in it for me?’
‘I know you enjoy surveying the mortals. It would give you decades of amusement to see me struggle. Something new to watch.’ My pulse thumped in my throat as I waited, the tension in the room was palpable.
