Chapter 12: Missing Piece

Eros kept me wrapped in his arms until the door to his chambers opened and his father burst through.

"I've been patient enough, son. It's time you join me and your brothers. You see how much Phobos and Deimos enjoy accompanying me into battle. Why can't you at least try to join us once?"

Eros clenched his jaw and glared at him. "I've told you already, I don't want to follow in your footsteps. My interest don't lie in war. Why can't you see that?"

"And why can't you see that you're wasting away your true calling?" Ares raised his voice. "You have great potential, son. I will not let you throw away your talents for some moronic love spells! You're too good for that!"

"Moronic love spells? Is that what you think of my craft?" Aphrodite walked in, eyes narrowed at the God of War.

Ares cleared his throat and glanced at the Goddess. "It's not... I didn't mean to insult you. But can't you see that Eros is better off honing his innate skills of battle?" He pointed at their son. "He can no longer be your consort without his wings. Now he only has one choice left. Though he's still being stubborn about it..." Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair.

"Don't remind him of his wings!" Aphrodite chastised. "You know how devastated he was when he could no longer use them." She looked at Eros with sadness in her eyes. "My poor darling."

"I thought making you lose your wings would help you see reason, son," Ares said, shaking his head. "Instead of moping about it, I expected you to come to me. To join me."

"What did you just say?" Aphrodite whispered, widening her eyes. "You made him lose his wings? You were the one that poisoned our son?"

"It wasn't poison!" Ares argued. "It was a potion that was made to take his wings."

"He almost died because of your potion!" she cried.

Ares blinked. "No. It wasn't meant to harm Eros. Only his wings."

"You weren't even here when it happened! When he was burning with a fever! When he couldn't move a limb! When he barely managed to sleep! When he screamed in pain!" Tears streamed down the Goddess's face as she looked at the father of her children.

With each sentence that Aphrodite uttered, my anger rose higher and higher, as I listened to what Eros had to endure. All because he didn't make the right choice in his father's eyes. I barely raised my foot to take a step forward when Eros's voice halted me.

"Get out of my chambers," he said calmly. "Please."

His parents looked at him, but didn't make a move to leave. Ares opened his mouth to say something.

"Get out!"

Aphrodite dragged Ares with her and left the room, shutting the door behind them.

As soon as they were out, Eros marched toward the armour on the wall and threw it on the floor. The loud sound of gold metal crashing into hard marble echoed through the room.

Eros then turned and walked up to me, dropped his face into the crook of my neck, and sighed.

When I reached for his hands, they were balled into fists. I gently unclenched his palms and slid mine against them, intertwining our fingers. His angered breathing slowly calmed, along with his racing heart. He lifted his face from my neck and looked down at me.

I met his eyes and we simply gazed at each other for a moment. "I'm sorry that you--"

His lips were suddenly on mine, interrupting the rest of my sentence. Eros kissed me slowly. Gently. I closed my eyes and let the soft caress of his lips cloud my racing thoughts, until I could no longer think of anything but this moment.

He parted our lips and put his forehead against mine as we caught our breaths. "Perhaps I was meant to lose my wings," he said. "If I didn't leave Olympus and come down to the human world, I would have never met you."

I opened my eyes and gazed into his honey pools before bringing our lips back together.

~~~

"I brought the third piece," Lena whispered, looking around the dimly lit chambers. "Are you certain no one will find us here?"

"I'm certain," Eros said. "Hecate will tell us if anything happens. You don't have to whisper. No one can hear us."

"Let me get something straight here," Rib mused. "If Hecate is the Goddess of Magic, why can't she go into the Underworld and return everyone to Asterin?"

"Even Hecate can't get through the gates of that world when they're closed," Eros explained. "And even if she could, Zeus will not let her. Our only hope is this Helm of Darkness. Hades had used it to cross through to different realms. If we can assemble the pieces together, we can use it to enter the Underworld."

Rib raised his brows. "For someone as powerful as her, I'm surprised that she listens to Zeus."

"Although the Gods speak up about their disagreements, they still fear Zeus. There's a certain line they will not cross without his approval. Hecate will help us as much as she can without being caught by him, but we can't rely on her entirely."

"Hmm, I see..." Rib scratched his chin.

"Should we try to assemble the Helm now?" Lena said, motioning to the three pieces of the Helm of Darkness on the table before us.

When Eros reached for one of the metal pieces, Rib snatched it away from him, then smiled sheepishly when the God raised a questioning brow. "In case another mass abduction happens when we put them together. I don't want to disappear. You're the only immortal here."

"Hades cannot take you from Olympus, but if holding it makes you feel better..." Eros stepped away and motioned for the man to keep the black metal.

For the second time today, Rib, Lena and I each held up our own pieces and put them together, aligning the broken edges with their matching counterparts. We waited for something to happen.

"How long does this take?" Rib asked.

"We don't know," I said. "When I asked grandfather about it, he told me that it should seal itself together when all the pieces are aligned."

"We can hold it for a little longer. Perhaps it takes a few minutes," Lena suggested.

We held the three metals for a long time, waiting once again.

"My arms are starting to hurt," Rib complained, loosening his hold and breaking away his piece from mine and Lena's.

"Wait," Lena said. "Bring it back for one more minute."

Rib sighed and realigned it.

"I don't think you aligned it properly this time," I said, pointing at the small gap the size of a pebble.

"I didn't?" Rib craned his neck to see it, then shifted his piece to close the space.

I frowned. Although the gap was now gone, I noticed a slight protruding of the edge of his piece. "Could you bring it back to the way you aligned it before?"

"But you said it was wrong."

"I want to see something."

When he realigned it to what I thought was the wrong way, the protrusion of his piece was gone and the Helm looked properly aligned. Though there was that small hole once again.

"Are you certain that Zeus broke the Helm into three pieces?" I asked Eros, staring at the gap.

Eros frowned, looking at it too. "That's what we all heard. He broke it into three and threw them into the human world."

"I think there is another piece," I said, examining the shape of the gap and remembering something I saw at the meeting with the Gods. "Zeus himself has it."

"How do you know?" Lena asked.

I lowered my Helm piece and put it down on the table. Lena and Rib did the same. "I saw a ring on his finger with a black stone on it. Well, I thought it was a stone at first... But it's the same shape as the missing part of this Helm."

Lena widened her eyes. "That could be it! The missing piece!"

"Then we stood holding these pieces together like idiots for nothing?" Rib grumbled.

"Not for nothing," I said. "If you hadn't realigned your piece, we might have never realized that we needed one more to complete it."

"I suppose you're right."

"The only problem now is to find a way to steal that ring from Zeus," Eros mused. "We could ask Hecate to teleport it, but he could sense her magic being used on him. That would put her in a bad position. Hera would never agree to help either. She's always on her husband's side..."

"We can take it when he sleeps," Lena suggested.

"He rarely sleeps," Eros said.

"Does he bathe?" Rib asked, brows raised.

Eros looked at Rib as if he was the brightest being in this world. "In fact, he visits the bathhouse very often. We can steal the ring when he's there. Great idea!"

Rib scratched his head. "I was simply curious if he bathed..."

Eros laughed and slapped his shoulder. "Either way, it was a good question that lead to a good idea. Now all we need is to plan our strategy well. We need to make him believe that he lost the ring in the bathhouse."

"What if he never takes it off?" I asked. "If he made a ring out of that Helm piece, he did it to keep it close. I doubt that he would take it off when bathing. You know him better than we do. Is there anything that could make him take off that ring?"

Eros thought for a moment. "We'll need to bring his guard down first. He's on edge right now because of everything that's happened. Especially after you spoke ill against him at the meeting. That got him angrier... He doesn't like getting his ego bruised.... But he does love getting his ego stroked." He looked at me. "I think I have a great plan."

~~~

"No," I said as Eros dragged me to the bathhouse with him. "I'm not doing it."

"It's our best chance and you know it," he reminded me.

"Why can't Lena do it? She's much better at it than I am."

"Because she's not the human who insulted him in front of every God at the meeting. Trust me, I know how to get to Zeus."

I sighed, slumping my shoulders and accepting my role in Eros's scheme as he pulled me behind him and I dragged my feet.

When we were at the entrance to the bathhouse, Eros put his hand on my cheek and said, "Remember the plan, all right? You can do it, love. I'll be there too. Lena and Rib must be in their positions already."

I took a deep breath and nodded.

Eros kissed my cheek, winked, then disappeared into the men's entrance.

I went into the women's area and changed into a thin tunic that fell to my knees. Wrapping a towel around my body, I walked out into the bathhouse where steam from hot pools all around thickened the air as some Gods and Goddesses sat with their half-naked bodies submerged in the water.

I looked around to find which pool Zeus was using, until my eyes landed on a head of white hair. Taking a breath to prepare myself for what was to come, I headed in his direction.

"Ah, granddaughter of Helios," he greeted me when I approached. "Came for a bath too? Your human friend here decided to join in as well." He motioned to Rib across from him who was pretending to sleep with a small towel over his eyes, his head tilted back to rest against the edge of the pool.

"I wanted to apologize for what I said at the meeting," I murmured, pretending to look away from him as if embarrassed. "I've been feeling so terrible about it that it hasn't left my mind since."

"Apologize? I do love a good apology." Zeus stroked his white beard. "Come join us. The water is splendid."

I looked down at the water and felt relieved that it was hard to see through it due to the steam. Taking off my towel, I slowly lowered myself into the hot bath. Zeus appraised my figure as I did so, humming to himself.

I pretended to slip and yelped as I fell against him, hands on his bare chest. "Oh my, I-I'm so sorry. How clumsy of me." I pulled away and sat beside him, pretending to look ashamed. "It seems I can't act properly when I'm around the King of the Gods himself. The paintings of you in the human world don't do you enough justice."

Zeus laughed and spread his muscular arms, resting his forearms on the edge of the pool and letting his hands dangle. As I thought, he hasn't taken off his ring to bathe. The small black metal shone on one of his fingers.

"Is that so?" He smiled. "I think now I understand your little outburst at the meeting earlier. You wanted to get my attention, didn't you? While there were better ways to do it, consider the attention of the King of the Gods caught by you, beautiful human." He moved closer to me.

I almost laughed at how easy it was to fool him with a few words of flattery. As Eros had predicted, he ate my words right up, without questioning my motives.

I met Zeus's gaze and smiled, then my eyes went to his ring. I gasped. "That ring is beautiful! The shiny black stone brings out the brightness of your hair."

He smoothed back his hair with the ringed hand, then extended that hand in front of him to appraise the piece of black jewelry. "You know, you do have a point. It creates a good contrast." He met my gaze with a smile. "You have a great eye for detail, and I must say you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen."

I looked down and pretended to blush. "Thank you, but I believe that your eyes are the most magnificent," I lied, picturing a pair of honey eyes in my mind to make my voice sound sincere.

Zeus chuckled and lifted my chin with one finger. "There's no need to be shy of me, beautiful human. I will let you look into my eyes for as long as you wish. I've been told by many how striking they are."

I frowned.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I was simply thinking that while I have to wear heaps of golden jewelry to make myself look appealing, you achieve the same result with only one ring on you."

He chuckled once more and shook his head. "I don't even need the help of this ring to look appealing, nor do you need to wear anything." He slid the ring off his finger and offered it to me. "Try it on. I promise you, your beauty will outshine this old thing."

I put it on my finger and looked at my hand, wiggling my fingers.

"See? Wasn't I right?" Zeus said, wrapping one arm around my shoulders.

I widened my eyes then took off the ring. "I-I think it looks better on you-- oh no!"

The ring flew from my hand and plopped inside the steaming water, close to where Rib was sitting. He reached for the towel on his face with one hand and placed it on the edge of the pool. "What's all this commotion about?" he yawned.

Trying my best to tear up, I apologized to Zeus. Lips and voice trembling, I kept apologizing to him, while keeping my attention on Rib from the corner of my eye.

Lena approached our pool and scolded Rib for leaving his wet towel and almost making her trip. She picked it up and stormed off in anger.

"You don't need to apologize," Zeus said, caressing my arm. "It is my fault. I must have startled you by getting too close so suddenly. Forget about the ring. Perhaps the Fates have deemed it right to drown it in this pool."

I sniffled. "But I feel terrible for letting it fall."

"What are you doing here, Cassia?" Eros's angry voice penetrated through the steam. "And with Zeus? Are you serious? We had one fight and you run off to another God?"

My eyes went wide. "I-I can explain!"

"Oh, you will explain! But first I'm getting you out of here before you take it any further, or worse, join other Gods in this bathhouse!"

Eros pulled me out of the water, threw me over his shoulder and carried me out of this place. Water dripped on the marble floors, leaving a trail behind us as he took me to his chambers and closed the door behind him.

He placed me down on the ground and his angry expression was replaced with a grin. "Well done, love. You had him completely fooled."

I couldn't help but grin back. "I honestly didn't know I had it in me. It felt great."

His grin vanished. "What felt great? Zeus's touch?"

"No," I said. "It felt great knowing I had such skills within me. I couldn't even seduce Hector when I was locked in that cage. I thought I was hopeless in this regard."

The corners of his mouth lifted back up. "It seems you seduce Gods just fine."

The soaked fabric of my tunic began to feel uncomfortable. I glanced at the pile of clothes I'd left here to change into when our mission was over. "Could you step out for a moment?"

Eros glanced at my tunic and cleared his throat. "I'll let you get changed then." He walked out of his chambers and closed the door.

Once I was finished, we joined Rib and Lena in the same chamber as before, where the pieces of the Helm of Darkness were left on the table.

Lena unfolded the towel in her hand to reveal Zeus's ring inside it. It was the same towel that Rib had used to cover his face with at the bathhouse.

"If you'd thrown that ring any further, I wouldn't have been able to catch it underwater," Rib told me. Then he smiled. "But I'm glad our plan worked."

Eros took the ring from Lena and pulled the black metal off. "Let's try putting the Helm together now."

Lena, Rib, and I aligned our pieces once again, leaving the gap for the final piece open.

"I hope this works," I said.

"I hope so too." Eros brought the missing piece to the gap.

As soon as the metal made contact with the rest of them, they all fused together, making us widen our eyes at each other. It had finally worked.

The Helm of Darkness was complete.