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    Ariagne
    Ariagne
    Ariagne
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Ariagne

    By Ekaterine Xia

    ()

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    About this ebook

    All she thought she ever wanted was freedom.
    Desperate for the chance to make her mark upon a world, Ariagne sneaks aboard the shuttle of the new justiciar of Elysion, intent on persuading him to accept her terraforming services in exchange for escape from her step-mother.
    All he thought he had was law and the dispensation of order.
    Aidoneus is used to being the rational one, the cold one. Serving as justiciar on an icy mining planet seems apropos for a man such as he.
    Turns out that wasn't the full truth for either of them. Together, they will discover that there can be joy to being bound, and that even the most logical of justiciars can fall to love.

    A re-telling of the myth of Hades and Persephone.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEkaterine Xia
    Release dateMar 2, 2019
    ISBN9781634650014
    Ariagne

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      Book preview

      Ariagne - Ekaterine Xia

      Ariagne

      A Hades & Persephone re-telling

      Ekaterine Xia

      Copyright © 2015 Ekaterine Xia

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-63465-001-4

      Cover Design by: SelfPubBookCovers.com/LadyDeath

      For everyone who has complicated with their mother

      and

      For everyone who makes it possible for me to fly.

      I love you.

      Prologue

      "That’s unjust, Demeter. Or, should I call you mother now?"

      Ariagne stared at Demeter, resisting the urge to reach over and shake the other goddess. How could she stand there with that serene expression, as if what she’d done wasn’t the height of betrayal? Fury surged in her blood, warming her body from the chill of shock.

      How could she?

      She had thought they were all aligned against the insidious creep of Zeus’ conquest, but…

      Demeter smiled, a triumphant gleam in her dark brown eyes. You should have accepted the offer, Persephone.

      She spread her hands in a gesture of mock helplessness. But you didn’t and so here we are.

      Have I been renamed already? Ariagne laughed, the sound low and bitter.

      You know what happens to deities who refuse to subsume into the new order, Persephone. It is merely the nature of things. Surely you would know that better than most in the course of your duties.

      Ariagne held back a shiver, already feeling the change but refusing to allow Demeter the pleasure of seeing her being lessened.

      Gods were shaped by the thoughts of mortals and the shift in their consciousness was draining the power from her as surely as if she’d been held down and blooded. She’d been foolhardy to think that her position was firmly entrenched enough with the common people that she could escape bowing to the yoke of Zeus.

      What will you do now? she asked.

      Her eyes widened when she heard her own voice, now a higher pitch than before and a look of fear crossed her face on the heels of the realization of what that childish voice meant.

      Demeter’s smile deepened.

      The newly raised goddess of the harvest waved a languid hand and an immense mirror appeared before the former goddess of rebirth and judgment.

      Ariagne’s control broke and she staggered back at the sight that greeted her.

      No longer the dark red of the amaranth or the rich darkness of winter earth, her hair was now a shimmering gold to match Demeter’s, her eyes the placid blue of a summer sky rather than spring green or the deep verdancy of a summer forest.

      Worse, it wasn’t a woman she saw in the mirror.

      The girl staring back had the soft roundedness of one who hadn’t bled yet instead of the lush curves of a fertility goddess.

      "What have you done?" she whispered.

      Demeter stepped forward and bent down to kiss her forehead. Only what I must to finally surpass you, darling Persephone. Don’t worry. I’ll take very, very good care of you, my beloved daughter. After all, you are my precious only child from the king of all the gods.

      A wave of dizziness swept over her and she fought the urge to sink into oblivion.

      No. She was stronger than that. She wasn’t going to accept the lessening without a fight to return to what she was and what she should be.

      She was Ariagne, goddess of rebirth and the natural order. If anyone knew how to come back from death, it was she. No matter how many years, how many reincarnations it required.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Argos, year 5188.

      I stared at the man on the vid-screen, noting his easy grace as he inclined his head to my stepmother and took a seat opposite her.

      Pain recalled me to myself and I released my lower lip, the floral taste of my blood spreading on my tongue.

      Aidoneus Agesander, third born son of the Agesander family, soon to be Justiciar of Elysion, and my chance for escape.

      His waist length raven black hair was pulled back in a neat queue at the base of his skull, throwing the elegance of his bone structure and those stunning cobalt blue eyes into stark definition. Even though he was pale from his extended stay in the bio-tanks, his skin carried a golden undertone that kept him from appearing sickly the way so many recently decanted ones did. Another departure was how he moved, loose-limbed and sinuous, the way some Tai-chi masters did, as if every moment was part of a dance.

      Contrary to my expectations, he didn’t just carry the name for the Old Earth Greek god of the Underworld, he embodied it.

      His expression was remote and the lush mouth that would have been sensual on another man was firmed in a stern line. It was all too easy to see this man presiding over a netherworld court, handing down edicts of life and death and justice beyond the veil.

      I didn’t know why I was even a little surprised.

      The first time I’d met his elder brother, I’d told him that his parents shouldn’t have bothered with the modesty of naming him Tallaios; they should have just gone with calling him Zeus or Jupiter. With a brother like that, I should have expected him to have the same regal carriage and sense of serene command. The knowledge of owning absolute authority sat like a mantle upon Aidoneus and whereas a lesser man would have seemed arrogant, he wore it as if it was his due.

      A shiver ran down my spine.

      Perhaps I had miscalculated.

      My father had said that Aidoneus was a kind and gentle soul, reserved and detached, but with a core of innate goodness and a propensity for mercy. But that was years ago. Fifteen years, to be exact, and before the Academy had the shaping of him. Who knew what the boy my father had met had grown into? Earth and Air knew that the man before me showed no signs of benevolent tenderness.

      His hand brushed against a frond of one of the many tillandsia plants set around the living room and the tendril curled around his fingers, an instinctive reaction to contact.

      I shivered, waiting for his reaction.

      There was no way he could know how important they were and Ceres wouldn’t enlighten him in an effort to keep me safe. No one could know my vulnerability. How he acted would therefore have to be my only basis for trusting him, or not.

      Looking down, his mouth softened into a faint smile as he tried to disengage with tender care, a look of faint surprise in his eyes at the way the tendril only tightened at his touch.

      Ceres tensed, but I knew only I would know her distress from the way she cocked her head, the intensity in her eyes as she focused on his hands. She was ready to say something, but fear struggled with her worry.

      Aidoneus bowed his head and blew a breath of air over his hand.

      The frond unwound slightly and he stroked the loosened coils off his fingers.

      Ceres said something and his smile deepened. Long, slender fingers petted the leaf down so it wouldn’t be as likely to catch another person by accident.

      Relief rushed out of me in a long sigh. No, Father hadn’t been wrong.

      I keyed in a command for one of the house robots to bring him one of the tillandsia plants before he left, with a note that it was a gift in honor of his graduation from the Academy. If he accepted it, then I would take it as a sign from the Fates. If he didn’t, then I’d simply have to find another way off planet and away from Ceres before we killed each other.

      CHAPTER TWO

      Aidoneus paused in the doorway when he saw the young woman curled up on the chaise in his lounge, cozy and content as if it should have been her every right to be there. She was reclined on her side, one slender hand toying with a curl of dark red

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