Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(63)

Artemis hesitated in front of the portal, glancing quickly over her shoulder at the floor-to-ceiling windows that showed dawn beginning to lighten the already blush-tinged sky.

"No, fool!" she yelled into the madly swirling disk. "You weren't supposed to go through with her!" The goddess leaned forward, trying to see within the glowing passageway.

From the shadows Bacchus moved swiftly on silent feet. With one decisive motion, he rammed his shoulder into the center of the Huntress's back. Artemis shrieked and fell into the disk just seconds before the portal went dark, slamming firmly shut as dawn broke over Mount Olympus.

Bacchus' laughter was filled with terrible triumph.

Chapter 21

Pamela was on her hands and knees. Her breath came in ragged sobs, and her teeth chattered in time with her body's trembling. Her body! Frantically, she felt her arms and face. She'd turned into something - something green and growing and decidedly not normal. But now she was normal again. Human again.

"All is well now, my sweet," Apollo said, reaching out to her.

She flinched away from his touch. "You!" she gasped, but before she could say anything else, Phoebus' sister fell headfirst into the small room just before the swirling pearl-colored disk disappeared.

Artemis sputtered a foreign curse as she picked herself up from the floor. Her brother stared slack-jawed at her. "I will make Bacchus sorry Zeus saved him when his foolish human mother - " Her tirade broke off as she realized the portal was closed. "No," she breathed the word. "We can not be trapped here."

"What the hell are you?" the words exploded from Pamela.

Apollo and Artemis turned to the little mortal who crouched on the floor. Pamela had scuttled backward until she was pressed against the closed door. Her eyes were huge and looked impossibly dark against the whiteness of her face.

"Pamela," Apollo spoke in a soothing tone, holding his hand out to her again. "You know who I am."

"No!" she said sharply, recoiling from his touch. "I didn't ask who you are. I asked what you are."

"You're going to have to make her forget," Artemis said, completely ignoring Pamela. "She has seen too much. Look at her - she remembers." The goddess raised her slender hand. "Oh, I'll do it for you; I know you've become entirely too attached to her. Sleep and forget," she flicked her fingers at Pamela, who automatically flinched back.

"Stop!" Apollo shouted. "I don't want you to tamper with her."

"What in the hell is going on?" Pamela's legs worked just well enough for her to stand up, but there she stayed with her back to the door, pressing her hands flat against solid wood to stop their trembling.

"Why isn't she sleeping?" Artemis asked her brother. She shook her hand and studied her fingers.

"The portal is closed," Apollo said.

His sister scowled at him. "I can see that."

Apollo simply kept gazing at her. Then his sister's eyes widened. "When the portal closed..." Her words faded.

"When the portal closed, it severed us from our powers." Apollo finished for her.

Artemis' hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped in horror.

"Okay. That's it. I'm leaving." Pamela jerked open the closet door and left the room on legs that felt like rubber.

"Look what you've done now," Apollo growled at his sister before he hurried after Pamela.

"Me?" Artemis sniffed indignantly. Reluctantly, she followed her brother. She didn't want to. She wanted the portal to reopen. She wanted to return to Olympus and have a long soak in her mineral spring. She wanted her immortal powers returned to her and... She sighed and stepped into the hall.

Apollo had caught Pamela by the elbow just a few feet from the closet door. She was trying to pull her arm from his grasp as he murmured reassurances to her. Artemis shook her head. How the mighty had fallen. She marched up to the two of them.

"Be still, mortal," she said in disgust. "It is really very simple." She pointed at her brother. "His true name is Phoebus Apollo, God of Light, Music and Healing. My name is Diana, but only if you are of ancient Roman descent. Otherwise I prefer to be called Artemis, the Huntress Goddess. I also have an affinity for the moon, just as my brother is allied with the sun, but I certainly wouldn't want to give you so much information that I confuse you," she finished sarcastically.

"You're gods?" Pamela hoped fervently that she would wake up very soon.

"Yes. Immortals. Or at least we were until the portal trapped us in this wretched world. Now I suspect we are just extremely attractive mortals," she said dryly.

"Apollo and Artemis," Pamela looked from brother to sister.

"I told you it was simple."

"You're f**king crazy!" she said.

"I didn't want you to find out like this," Apollo said. "But you know Artemis is telling you the truth." He frowned at his sister. "Even if she is doing a poor job of it."

"What?" Artemis said. "If you wanted soft music and the scent of flowers, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to oblige you - at least until the portal reopens."

"You're not helping," Apollo told his sister.

"But there's no such thing as the gods. It's just mythology," Pamela said.