Free The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) by Jovee Winters

across the waters here, so whatever this light was, the enchantment came from Calypso herself.
    I’d visited Poseidon’s grotto once. It’d been a bachelor’s paradise, with a bevy of nude sirens and sea creatures to warm his bed. Poseidon’s waters catered to nothing but the carnal.
    Calypso’s, on the other hand, teemed with actual life. With citizens that lived and breathed and worked and loved. She’d built a true utopia in this Below, and had I been brought here under different circumstances, I might have enjoyed it more.
    I snorted as a sudden flash of memory ripped through my thoughts: her in that bizarre costume, riding me like I was a stallion, with her head tossed back and a look of wonder in her eyes.
    A wild, witchy, enchantress.
    In so many ways, Calypso was a mystery to not just me but all the Pantheon. Water was the essence of life. All peoples of all nations and tongues worshipped her, even without ever uttering a prayer. Without water, life would cease to exist.
    Because of that, she was a great power and, should she ever wish it, a threat to Zeus’s reign.
    Poseidon was also a water deity, but he’d been born long after her. No, the true power had always lain with Calypso—Thalassa, as I was coming to think of her—but she’d always been a shy, absent creature, content to live out her days as a hermit and so often overlooked by those of us on Olympus.
    I grinned, wondering at a world in which she reigned and we no longer did, and I found it not to be such a terrible thing.
    My position would always be secure. She was life. I was death. One could not exist without the other. But many of the Pantheon were antiquated beings with ideals no longer suitable to this day and age.
    Just then, the door was thrown open, and a maiden I’d never seen before swam inside.
    Her hair was a silvery gray, and though her face was more mature, she was not in the least bit old. She was rather attractive, sturdy and solidly built with sharp features that, separately, weren’t entirely pleasing but together created a symmetrical harmony. A tail the same shade as her hair swished as she swam inside.
    “’Ello, Master Hades, and ’ow are you this fine mornin’?”
    Blue eyes the shade of a clear spring sky smiled back at me.
    There was something about her movements, the expert precision to them, and the lithe sway of her body that caught my attention instantly.
    In her hands she carried a wooden tray brimming with food. Biscuits. Fruit. Cheeses. Nuts. I sniffed, instantly scenting the honeyed mead in the smoking stoneware pot.
    “I’m fine, Miss—” I paused, awaiting her name.
    Bobbing cutely, she said, “Janita. The name’s Janita. I’m about to hie meself off to the king’s palace for the day, but the goddess wished to see you fed well.”
    Leaning back on my hands, I watched as she set the tray down on the nightstand.
    “Did she? Give your mistress my thanks.”
    She nodded, nibbling on her luscious bottom lip and looking far more nervous now that she no longer carried a tray. Her eyes darted toward the door and then back to me at least three times.
    Clearly she knew she should leave but wasn’t quite ready to do it yet.
    “Something you wish, Janita?”
    She cleared her throat. “Well, it’s only that the mistress weren’t sure what types of food ye liked, ye see. And um...tomorrow she’d like to pleasure you.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not the right word. Please you, please you. Aye.”
    I thinned my lips, entertained mightily.
    “Does she? How kind.”
    She picked her thumbnail. “Well?”
    Snapping my fingers, I called the tray over to my side and began to nibble on the cheeses first. The golden squares had a nutty, sweet taste.
    “The cheese is very pleasing,” I murmured. “Though I’m not fond of nuts.” I pushed that plate aside.
    “Yes, yes.” She bobbed her head. “And the fruit?”
    I shrugged, picking at the bowl of figs. “I’m partial to