Santorini Paradiso Ch. 13

"Yes. You are right, Petro – " Adonis was now on the same wavelength, too. "And whoever broke that demon free would need to have found a way to hide from the Sentinels. "

"Matera, ena charti kai molyvi, parakalo?" Petros said to his mother. She smiled beatifically and elegantly pointed at the table before him, and there were several sheets of fine paper and pencils where none had been before.

"Anglika -- English, please, pedthi-mou." She chastised gently.

"Don't worry about me." Elena grinned at the goddess, automatically also reaching for one of the pencils and a sheet of the fine vellum.

Petros folded one of the sheets in half, and then half again, and began to write in each quadrant the names of likely suspects. Adonis stood and moved behind his brother, leaning over the table as he worked, interjecting now and then with a comment or two. Eddy, likewise, was standing and contributing to the boys' strategic discussion. Aphrodite and Selene sat near one another and were also conversing in low tones.

Their voices faded into the background for Elena as she began to sketch. The feel of the pencil was strangely reassuring. She found that her hands were no longer shaking. In fact, the graphite was taking on a life of its own as the pencil began flying across the paper. She became lost in it, as usual. It was as if she was simply highlighting an image that was already in place – it merely needed the touch of her hand to be visible to others.

Elena didn't know how long she'd been drawing. All she knew was that she had to finish it.

There. There were the thick and intelligent arched brows that suggested more than a hint of derision. Here, here his lower lip was still seductive, despite being curled in an almost cruel smile. The hollows below his piercing, beautiful eyes betrayed a lack of the comfort of easy sleep. His dark hair waved around this angular, handsome face beneath – what was it? A crown? No – no – more a sort of battle helmet that carried fierce looking, inverted ram's horns jutting forward from the crown of his head just above his hairline.

How sexy and devious he seemed to her, grinning up into her face as her pencil rapidly revealed him. Elena could almost imagine how a kiss from those uncompromising lips might feel. There would be no gentleness, no yielding. It was a mouth that took what it wanted. And those eyes. Hypnotic. Beguiling.

A sound penetrated her consciousness. And there it was again. She didn't really want to stop but it kept nagging at her. Meanwhile, a phrase was rolling around between her ears. It was an almost sickening little song, like a perverse children's rhyme. It was on her lips when, finally, they roused her from her impassioned trance-like state.

"ELENA!" A hand accompanied the voice, marked by concern. She looked down at it and saw that Adonis had gently grasped her wrist. If he hadn't lifted it such that the tip of the pencil no longer touched paper, she probably wouldn't have noticed.

She looked up, noting that all eyes were on her. Concerned eyes.

"Neither Titan nor Olympian be. From a colder, darker place he comes. The seducer, the mischief maker. The changeling. He will seek to unbalance that which balances all. He is the Trickster and he is coming."

Adonis let go of her and Elena dropped the pencil, covering her mouth with a besmudged hand. Her eyes went wide and she looked around at everyone, her heart pounding in her chest. She had said those words, but her voice had sounded strange in her own ears. She had no idea why, or where the words had come from.

Selene and Aphrodite sprang out of their seats and ran around to her – an audible gasp came from her mother as she regarded the remarkably lifelike drawing.

Aphrodite tentatively reached one hand down and touched the page, as if afraid the image may come to life.

"Fuck. Me." She looked up, noting that none of the men seemed to understand why she or Selene were so upset.

Selene absently stroked Elena's hair, lost in thought.

"What?!" Elena exclaimed. She knew it was bad, she just didn't know why. "Mom - what did I do?!" She pleaded.

"It's Loki." Her mother said grimly. She looked up at Eddy, and his face paled as he seemed to recognize what she was saying.

"Holy shit." He said, sitting back down abruptly.

"Who the fuck is Loki?!" Elena asked. "And how did I—" She swallowed nervously, unable to finish asking the question. Her mind was reeling.

A voice from behind her spoke. A voice Elena hadn't heard in years.

"You have the sight, my dear. It's one of your many gifts, Lena. Why do you think I kept encouraging your art? I knew it would come in handy one day."

Elena spun about in her chair and exclaimed: "Aunt Sybil!!" She jumped up and ran to her, wrapping her arms around the woman who'd cared for her when her parents no longer could.

Sybil hugged her in return, patting her back in that soft, comforting way she'd always had.

"Hey Sybs." Eddy said, grinning up from his place at the table.

"Looking good, as always, Eddy." Sybil answered, winking at him. Selene rolled her eyes, then proceeded to pace around. Aphrodite lightly touched the side of "Loki's" face before walking slowly back over to her seat. She seemed to be actually uncomfortable -- something Elena would not have imagined possible.

Elena numbly introduced her "aunt" to Petros and Adonis, who were both looking anxious and were, she noted silently, deliberately trying to keep their minds blank so she couldn't penetrate their thoughts.

"Everyone, sit. Start talking." Elena said, pointing at Sybil. Weariness was beginning to set in. She wiped with a dampened napkin at the dark powder the pencil had left on her hands. It was really bothering her that the sketch had rubbed off on her, for some reason.

"Loki is one of the Northern clans." Sybil began. "They are the 'gods', for lack of a better term, of the Norsemen."

"Are you shitting me?" Elena asked, incredulous.

"Is it really so hard to believe, poppet?" Eddy asked. "After all, why shouldn't there be as much substance in those legends as there are in ours? The parallels are incredible between them and your Mother's family, by the way. Very similar dysfunctional issues, too."

"If I may continue..." Sybil interrupted with mock severity. Eddy smirked and held up his hands in surrender and leaned back, popping a corner of a cornetto in his mouth.

"While the overall family stories are similar, Loki is a different breed altogether. He has had many names among many tribes and religions over the years. But in all of them, one thing runs constant: he likes to start trouble. Sometimes it's just mischief – but sometimes, he can truly be malevolent. His ego is as gigantic as all of the gods... Sorry, girls, but you know it's true." She said as an aside to Selene and Aphrodite.

Selene merely shrugged unapologetically, but the goddess of love barely acknowledged the comment, so lost was she in thoughts of her own. Thoughts that made a tiny frown appear between her winged brows.

Adonis noticed this, making a mental note to himself to pull that thread at another time.

"And so when Loki feels slighted, or insulted – well, all Hell breaks loose. Literally."

"So..." Elena began, looking down at her handiwork. "Do you think he could be behind all of this?"

"He's capable of it, absolutely. But I confess, sweetheart, that if you had not drawn his image I may never have considered him. The Northern gods have been in abstraction for a very long time. We thought – foolish though it appears now – that they'd all entered the Fade."

"The Fade?" Elena prompted.

"Well, it's like a dimensional place of rest – like a retirement community for the gods, I guess you could say. But without the Golden Girls." Sybil was reaching for some berries, grinning at her own joke. Eddy chuckled.

"So, do you think Loki is... I dunno... bored and causing trouble, that he somehow feels slighted? Or is something else going on? Something darker?" Elena continued musing aloud.

"What I want to know is: how can we stop him?" Petros sounded downright dangerous.

"I seem to remember that the Northern Clans had many vulnerabilities. Can he be killed? Because I will kill him if he comes near our Elena." Adonis's voice was low and menacing.

She knew she should not like this talk of killing, but as it was in defense of her baby and herself, it gave Elena a rushing sense of pride, and a perverse sexual thrill. She closed her eyes for a moment as she felt a flood of wetness between her thighs.

Quickly, in a way that was cloaked from the others, she pushed an image to her beautiful boys. Her body, sandwiched between them, their skin slick with sweat. They rubbed against each other, and Elena lifted a thigh, allowing one brother to slip his hard cock inside her. She gripped the other brother's erection with both hands and stroked up and down, while she rubbed her clit against the base of his shaft. Her tongue tangled with each man's in turn. Elena's moans and the wet slapping sound of their fucking were the only sounds filling the silence.

Both men looked at her, their eyes dark. Adonis made a low noise, rather like a growl, deep in his throat.

Eddy was serious now, leaning forward in his chair. "Ragnarok."

It shocked the trio out of their little fantasy.

Selene ran nervous hands through her luxuriant hair.

"Yikes."

It was all she said, but it conveyed a wealth of meaning. One that was clearly lost on everyone else.

"Dad?" Elena prompted.

"A future catastrophic event... foretold in the Norse 'Poetic Edda'. Scholars debate whether it was actually spelled: r-a-g-n-a-r-o-k –or whether it is really r-a-g-n-a-r-o-k-k-r."

She knew her father was not pedantic, so this had to mean something. "What is the difference?" Elena was almost afraid to ask.

"The second means 'Twilight of the Gods' – but the first spelling means 'the doom' or 'the destruction' of the Gods." Everyone was quiet as this bit of news sank in. Eddy continued after a moment, his face grave.

"It is foretold that there would be a great battle, ending in death among the highest pantheon. The world would be destroyed - submerged by water. Some also speak about years of winter, but interpretations vary." He brooded for a moment.

He then suddenly closed his explanation by adding: "It is Loki who brings this all about."

They all reflected for a while. The sound of the lake lapping at the shore was punctuated only by the sound of birds twittering. Their music seemed inappropriately cheerful.

"What does this have to do with me?" Elena finally asked, her voice small. Petros and Adonis each took hold of one of her hands.

"I don't know, baby." Eddy replied softly. Looking at Sybil he asked: "Is it possible that Loki somehow learned of the prophesy? That he's trying to subvert it?"

Sybil blanched, sitting up straight in her chair. "He didn't hear of it from me. It's not possible. I never told anyone but the two of you."

"Don't forget..." Selene added thoughtfully. "There is a similar prophesy around Adonis and Petros, who are far older - they have walked this earth for millennia. Anyone who knew their story might have been looking for another female child born of the remaining gods."

Adonis's hand squeezed Elena's tightly as he leaned forward in his chair. He turned toward his beautiful and uncharacteristically quiet mother.

She looked up at him, meeting his gaze. Her chin lifted defiantly for a moment, one eyebrow raised. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She demanded, but something in her voice betrayed her – the slightest tremor.

All eyes turned her way.

"Mother?" Adonis prodded quietly. There was a not-so-subtle warning in his tone.

She seemed to hesitate for another moment. Then, breaking, threw her napkin on the table in a huff.

"Okay, okay!! I fucked him, alright?! I fucked Loki."

Aphrodite exhaled an impatient-sounding sigh.

***

To be continued...