Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 40

“If you keep doing this to yourself, sister dear, I swear you will harm yourself.”

Ashterah hated the laughter in Nukis tone, no doubt he was mocking her, mocking her feelings. He stood by her window staring at her back while she lay on her bed with her knees tucked to her chest. For months she had watched as Queen Emilia’s pregnancy advanced and wished she never made him fertile again.

“If you carry on this way, Octavius will become a weakness against you.”

“You are one to talk, Nukis.”

She stretched on her bed and considered the one thing she would never be able to tell her brother, she hoped her thought were written on her face because Nukis had the strange ability to read her mind even when she didn’t want him to. She needed someone to talk to, over the months she had visited her mother’s temple and found it empty. It worried her that her mother would stay far away from her home, leaving her servants to do as they pleased. It was unlike her, Helena was always there to listen to her but that didn’t seem to be the case anymore. She didn’t know if Nukis noticed, she didn’t even want him to know about her mother’s strange behavior because Nukis hated Helena as much as she hated him. For Helena, seeing Nukis’s resemblance to Robos was a constant reminder of his betrayal and she avoided him however way she could.

Ashterah’s resolve to keep her mother’s recent behavior away from Nukis was to save her mother from being interrogated by her father because Nukis would definitely bring Robos attention to the matter.

Ashterah sat up straighter on her bed as she decided she needed to check her mother’s temple again. She looked behind her at her half-brother and saw the pain in his eyes. Even years could not mask what he felt for the only woman he ever genuinely loved. Even though he was close to their father she still saw an hint of anger in his eyes every time he looked at Robos, he hated Robos for what he did to separate he and Jillien, hated that Robos could not be held accountable for his actions because he was the king of gods, the only one who could bring judgment on other gods but could not be judged by even the goddess of justice herself. As Ashterah looked at her brother she could see the calculating gleam in his eyes, see him consider ways to reverse his father’s action.

But his concerns and hunger for revenge was not her business, she needed to see Helena so she stood up.

“You should leave now,” she said to him.

The look in his eyes was replaced with concern. “You have decided to do something about your problem?”

“Yes as a matter of fact and I need you to leave so you won’t stop me.”

“Be careful, sister. Octavius is not worth father’s wrath.”

Ashterah snorted but she let him go this time. Once he was gone she changed her red dress to a white flowery one and went in search of her mother.

Termla rode on the clouds to Mount Kpamos where she approached Helena’s temple, she had come before to find it empty, not even the servants knew her whereabouts so she had sought out one of the seekers to find Helena. The seeker had revealed that Helena was on the way to her temple so Termla had followed her. She couldn’t help but notice how much Helena looked behind her shoulder as she rode her mount to her crystal temple, it was as if she wanted to make sure no one was watching which was ridiculous because Termla was just a few feet behind her, though invisible. But if Helena could not tell when she was being followed it said a lot about how preoccupied she was.

Termla stayed back and let Helena enter her temple first before dissolving her shield of invisibility. She entered the temple the same moment Helena was summoning her servants.

“Helena.”

Helena paused in her tracks at the sound of the voice she had hoped never to hear, at least not yet. The same person she had spent months trying to avoid was finally in her abode to demand answers. She had intended to call her servants and order them to put things in order so that anyone visiting would not suspect that anything was amiss but since Termla decided to invade in her space and dig into her life she squared her shoulders with a determination to face the nosy goddess. After all she was queen and no one could question her authority.

“What is it, Termla? What sort of foolishness would make you barge into my temple without an invitation?”

“There is no need to use that authoritative tone on me, my queen. You know why I’m here.”

“As if I did. Why don’t you tell over some wine and maybe some beautiful male Elonis? You look stressed. I have heard that those bastards are good at making a woman feel good, they will massage the tension out of your shoulders. When was the last time you ever had a man?” Helena asked with a sly smile.

Termla snared at Helena. Beneath her cool, deceiving surface she could see the fear in her eyes even though she was trying her best to keep her emotions away from her face. Helena’s last retort had hit a sore spot and the b***h knew that, the sly smile on her face said it all. Robos and Termla had had a flitting affair that Helena found out about and put a stop to and since then, because of her love for Robos Termla had sworn herself to eternal celibacy until she discovered she was pregnant for Robos.

“You don’t play fair.’’

“Gods don’t play fair. Now, Termla, why are you here?”

“Where are your children?”

Helena waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Ashterah is in her temple and for that bastard Nukis, I don’t care where he is.”

“You know what I am talking about, Helena!” Termla roared in a voice that shook the foundations of the temple. Helena raised a brow and assumed a defensive stance.

“You will keep your voice down when you speak to me!” she said firmly. “As for those cursed children, you begged me not to kill them- not that I could kill them without killing myself and half of the gods in this pantheon. I sent Adna to put them in the world of man.”

Termla gasped. “That is a worse fate for them. You evil b***h! You know how much men despise gods, the only reason they can’t harm us is because we have the power to destroy the lot of them. Those children are babies! Men will tear them apart!”

Helena appeared undisturbed as she shrugged. “Better they be killed than me. I will not rescind my power to the throne for two brats who have been destined to destroy the gods.”

“Helena those children did not wish to be created. You created them in your greed, blindness and unfaithfulness…”

Helena turned on her, her eyes blazing with fire as ice crystals formed on her hand. “You dare speak to me about unfaithfulness, you s**t. Where was your faithfulness when you opened your legs for Robos? Where, Termla?!” she raged. Suddenly she laughed manically. ”Where is your son?”

“You know I killed him like you asked me to,” Termla said through gritted teeth.

Helena laughed again “And you dare speak to me about wickedness. Get out of me temple”

“Helena…”

“Out!” Helena roared.

Just then Ashterah came in and stopped short at the sight of her mother’s fury. She looked her Termla who looked like she was trying to hold herself back from strangling her mother.

“What is happening here?” she asked.

“Nothing, dear daughter, Termla was just leaving, weren’t you?”

Termla stared at her for a long time wishing she could kill her on the point without incurring the wrath of the other gods on her head but there was nothing she could do so she summoned a mount and disappeared.

“Mother?”

“Don’t worry, Ashterah, there is nothing to worry about.”