Free Aphrodite by Kaitlin Bevis

with that.”
    Resisting the urge to edge away and possibly offend the sea god, I chose my words with care. My powers were useless against him, and I didn’t even have teleportation rights in this realm. I didn’t see desire behind the predatory gleam in his eye at all, which somehow made him even creepier. He looked . . . empty.
    My careful words fled as he pressed against me, and I stumbled back in an effort to get some distance between us. “Why? You’re not even interested in me.” Stupid, I berated myself, stepping away from Poseidon. This wasn’t about attraction. I’d challenged him, insulted him, and belittled him. This was about power.
    He closed the distance between us, pulling me to him. When he tugged at the zipper of my dress, the fumble in his fingers scared me almost as much as what he was doing. “You don’t have to be interesting.”
    Fighting panic when my back hit the glass wall separating the balcony from the suite, I stammered the first excuse I could think of. “I, uh . . . Persephone and Hades wanted me to keep them posted. You know, dreamwalk. Some other time?”
    For one horrible second, I thought he wasn’t going to back off, but their names had the desired effect. Poseidon dropped his arms to his sides. “As you wish. I’ll swing by tomorrow with the information you asked for. Get me a copy of the schedules and those room numbers, and we’ll see where things go from there.”
    I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. “I will.”
    “So with this Elise, there may be two demigods immune to much of what we can throw at them,” Poseidon mused. “I imagine they were intended to be a mated pair.” He walked to the edge of the balcony. When he reached the silver bars, he paused, glancing over his shoulder at me. “I think we’ve allowed Zeus’s experiments to live long enough, don’t you? If they’re immune to charm, there’s no telling what other oddities they have about them or what they may pass on. They’re too dangerous.”
    My heart stuttered in my chest. “I don’t think Persephone would like—”
    “She’s not in charge of this realm,” Poseidon reminded me, flashing a vicious grin. “They’re both here; that makes it my decision.”
    Sinking the ship would be so easy for him. “They could be useful.” I leaned against the glass wall and studied my nails, trying to sound disinterested.
    “Yeah, I’m sure you’ve found plenty of uses for the half-breeds.” Poseidon turned his attention to the sea, his fingers gripping the silver bars tight enough to whiten his knuckles. “But there’s too much we don’t know. Why Zeus created them, for instance.” Poseidon’s thoughtful gaze latched on to something in the distance. “If Zeus wanted all the gods dead, why bother creating new ones in these demigods?” He shook his head. “I don’t like it. They should die.”
    “Shouldn’t we find out why . . . whoever is taking the demigods wants them?” Could Poseidon be behind their disappearances? They’d all vanished from his realm. But then, why ask Persephone to look into the problem? To avert suspicion, maybe? Or get her into his realm?
    “Not if they can be used against us. For all we know, they can kill gods regardless of bloodline.”
    “That’s a pretty big reach.” I pretended to think over his concern, as if my opinion mattered to him one way or another. “But you could be onto something. We don’t know what Adonis and his kind are capable of, but I’m in a pretty good position to learn.” I infused a smile into my tone as I approached the sea god. “Why don’t you give me a few days to find out more?” The boat would dock on the cruise line’s private island in less than forty-eight hours. If I could get Adonis to land, he’d be safe in Persephone’s realm.
    “You’d like that.” Poseidon studied the horizon, muscles tense. In the distance, stars blazed against the black backdrop of the night sky as the