Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Ugh. Why do I have to do everything myself?” I tore the rag off and tossed it at my maid, Annis. “Have the necklines lowered two inches on all of those dresses immediately.”
“Yes, Sirena,” she replied, scurrying out.
Naked, I padded across the expanse of my palace room. Jade columns held the canopy over my silk-topped bed. The pattern painted on my headboard matched the design on my cool tile floor. A fact that would be confirmed when it wasn’t covered in discarded clothes. The list of packing requirements for the academy was as offensive as it was short.
No dresses. No more than seven tunics. No more than seven pairs of pants and they must be brown or black.
The audacity of telling me what I can and cannot wear. I, a daughter of Hera, the queen of the heavens herself. It was my dearest wish that one of those mousy instructors would try to make me wear brown pants.
I carried my foul mood onto the patio, searching the skies for Tawny. Where had that blasted creature gotten to? Was everyone and everything out to irritate me today?
Sighing, I leaned against the balustrade—looking out over the palace gardens and, all around us, Trono City. Why anyone would live somewhere else was beyond me. This was the home of intelligence, beauty, and refinement. This was the crowning jewel on the map of Olympia, from the Weeping Mountains of Arachne to the Islands of Paradise.
This was the only place worth defending. The Deucalion Army should be stationed in and around Trono City, and the city alone. Let the ignorant, peasant demigods of the towns and villages defend the land their mothers hunched over and spat them out on. Let them handle their own schooling. Let them do their own training. Half the money in the palace coffers went to the academy because it had to be free to everyone.
Such a fucking waste it curled my lip to think about it. So much would change when I finally took my rightful spot on the council. The days of handouts and wasting money on the worthless were coming to a quick end.
“He’s not here.”
I turned as Mother entered my room.
“If you were hoping Alexander would catch a glimpse of the naked maiden on the balcony and fall hopelessly in love, I must dash your dreams. He sent word this morning that he’s escorting a novice to the academy and won’t be back before it’s time for you to leave.”
I slipped my robe off the bed and covered myself. “I was looking for Tawny, not Xander.”
“Oh?” Mother said with a delicate lilt that betrayed her true feelings. “Because that pigeon will grant you the most powerful match since Hera and Zeus themselves wed on Mount Olympus? Naturally, he’s your first priority.”
Was this a natural trait of all daughters of Aphrodite? To shatter their opponent’s confidence with a few well-aimed sarcastic quips. I’d certainly witnessed her do it dozens of times during my mother’s reign as the Aphrodite councilwoman—one of the twelve most powerful demigods in the land.
Of course it was. My mother didn’t earn her place by being a weakling. She raised me to be no different—especially in the face of her.
“Relax, Mother. Xander and I belong together. Our marriage is inevitable. So why would I stress about it and give myself early frown lines?” I reached for the dresses Annis left behind. “Should I bring the green or the red one to the academy?”
“The red obviously. How many times must I tell you green makes you look sickly?” she snapped, flinging the twenty-gold-piece green dress over her shoulder and off the balcony with uncanny aim. “I simply do not understand you, Sirena. You say you’re committed to making this match happen. More importantly, you say Alexander is committed to this match, but the reports his father received all summer claimed he was happily hopping from bedroll to bedroll of the Artemis watchers.”
“That was nothing!” I cried, temper flaring. “None of those mud-splattered sluts are interested in marriage, or could claim Xander if they were. He was blowing off steam. Getting all of that out of his system before I become the only woman in his life they’ll report on.”
“Is that so?” Mother ate the distance between us, making me lower myself on the bed without word or touch. Intimidation was not her power. No, that was the natural result of her true power: reducing her enemies to sea foam. I wish I could say she would never use that power on me, but I’m certain my father once thought the same... before she reduced him to bursting bubbles on the lawn. He swore he would never cheat on her again.
Mother made sure of it.
“Well, if that’s the case, I expect to send out the announcement of your engagement by the end of your novice year. We’ll hold the wedding in the summer. We can’t have Alexander spending another one blowing off steam.”