Ambrosia of the gods was the blood of Zeus and his children. Any other god's blood, considered false ambrosia, was as good as poison. So, why would a son of Zeus need a vial of false ambrosia stored away for a rainy day? Troubling, indeed.
4
Following a satyr into an abandoned house in the middle of the Georgia countryside probably didn't count as a smart decision, yet Sage was about to do exactly that. The old wooden home had seen better days, now withered from weather and falling into disrepair. If it looked bad from the road at a distance, up close it resembled a death trap. Holes speckled the porch and tarps covered two of the windows. Part of the roof suspiciously dipped inward at the left end.
"You really live here?" she asked as he ascended the steps ahead of her. There hadn't been signs of anyone residing here.
"Not by choice." Adonis' shoulders tensed, and he paused. "Circumstances are not the best right now."
"I get that." She tried to sooth his bruised ego. "Some months, my roommate and I have to eat a lot of ramen so we can make the rent."
"It's not a lack of money," he snapped, then didn't say anything else until he went inside and a light came on. Adonis raised a camping lantern and stepped back to give her room to pass. "In or out. It's about to rain."
Sage hesitated. She hadn't meant to offend him. Lightning flashed and lit up the area ever so briefly. Trepidation coursed through her in those milliseconds where she could see the dazzling blue of his irises. The best course of action would be to hike back to her car and pretend none of this happened. Unfortunately, she couldn't deny that impulsiveness; curiosity and stubbornness were her greatest downfalls, and as she entered the house, heading back no longer crossed her mind.
Adonis closed the door behind her as thunder boomed and rain pelted the roof. Somewhere out of sight, the clang of water splattering a cast iron pot indicated at least one leak. It wouldn't surprise her if there were more. Why stay in this dump? Did the place hold sentimental value, or was he in hiding?
"The water runs, cold only. The toilets flush…though you'll have to use lanterns or candles to see at night. There's limited food in the pantry." He wouldn't meet her gaze.
"You don't have to be embarrassed—"
"I'm not," he snapped, eyes flicking in her direction.
She kept making him angry, and again she couldn't decide if it was sexual frustration or if he didn't like her. "Sure could have fooled me." Sage stepped closer to him, forcing him to look down at her. "Why are you so determined to push me away?"
"I invited you in, didn't I?" He leaned against the wall, still hanging on to the lantern in the entry way. "Isn't that the opposite of pushing you away? Of course, if I had, you didn't seem determined to leave."
She snorted and shifted the bag on her shoulder. "You've been the very pinnacle of welcoming." Maybe a bit sarcastic, but he hadn't hidden any of his annoyance, so why should she.
"If you don't like it, go home." He turned his back on her and entered the living room area. In the darkness, not much was visible. A couch of an indeterminate color took up the middle of the room. An air mattress filled the corner next to a cellphone hooked up to a portable charger with a big solar panel on one side. A digital tablet rested beside those. That was really all there was of note. Bare walls surrounded them, some with nails sticking out where paintings once hung.
Sage set her bag down next to the couch. "I would go home, except I summoned you and I want to see this out to determine why. If not for sex, to know the reason why I was drawn out here to you. If Gaia didn't make that possible, something did. I would appreciate if you'd stop getting mad at me because you got yourself cursed."
"You did not summon me, and if you were cursed, you'd be pretty pissed when it kept messing up your life too." Adonis pulled a TV tray out from behind the couch and set it in the middle of the room. He placed the lantern on top and took a seat on the far end of the couch. He glowered at her. "I went for a walk, you were dancing in the woods next to my house, and if you were, in fact, dancing for a man or spirit to find you, that is how you chose to show yourself to me. I would have never even seen you otherwise. Gaia didn't do it, and sometimes coincidence is just that—coincidence."
She mentally rolled her eyes. "You don't really believe that." She sat on the couch, in the middle. He shifted closer to his armrest to get away from her. "What do you mean by saying I revealed myself? Like I was invisible then not? Or did you mean naked…"
He sighed dramatically, balling his hands into fists on top of his thighs. "Satyrs cannot see nymphs unless they want to be seen. You wanted someone in the woods to see you dance, so I did." His gaze dropped to her chest and shot back up. "So now I'll always see you whether you want me to or not—unless you
