She’d grown up thinking Demeter knew everything. That she had some all-seeing eye and looked into the future just to be certain her daughter was doing everything exactly as Demeter ordered. She certainly saw more than most parents.
But now, she was curious if maybe her mother didn’t know everything. Maybe her mother was just as lucky as her daughter.
Three days had passed since she’d gone to Olympus. Three days for her mind to run in circles about the strange man who’d found her in the gardens.
He’d been so different, it was hard to even consider him as an Olympian. She only personally knew a few of the gods, but they’d all had so many children it was hard to guess who he might have been.
He’d worn his dark hair long, tied at the back of his neck but still falling around his face in tendrils. Those dark, soulful eyes had seen right through her and into her very soul. His square jaw proved him to be a stubborn man, but his broad shoulders looked like they could carry the weight of the world.
She had thought about him every night since. Who was he? Why hadn’t she asked his name?
And he’d come so close to kissing her... why hadn’t she let him?
Cyane walked around one of the marble columns that held up the roof of Kore’s private home. “The oceanids sent me to invite you to the tide pool.” She tucked a strand of inky hair behind her ear. “We were all hoping that... well, maybe you’d tell us about Olympus?”
She shouldn’t. She was supposed to be waiting for her mother because there was a mortal festival they had to attend. Mortals loved Demeter more than they loved Zeus, although they’d never admit it out loud. The King of the Gods would kill them for such thoughts.
Kore glanced up at the sun. The festival of the harvest wasn’t until later tonight. Surely she could go with the oceanids for a little while? They could help prepare her for the festival. Then she’d be ready when her mother called and still have time to see her friends.
She grinned, then tossed a bundle of peplos and himations at Cyane. “Then you need to dress me for the festival.”
“Is that tonight?”
“Yes, and Mother will be livid if I’m not perfect when I need to be.”
Cyane clutched her heart and nodded fiercely. “We’ll make you stunning. She’ll be so impressed with how you look! Now hurry, or we won’t have time to ask all our questions!”
Giggling, Kore grabbed her friend’s hand, and they raced away from her home.
She was never allowed in the ocean. Demeter hated Poseidon so much that she wouldn’t let her daughter anywhere near the sea. But Kore could wander into the tide pools where the oceanids waited. They couldn’t come out of the water at all.
Technically, Cyane wasn’t supposed to be able to leave the water either. But she’d begged her father to serve Demeter as a handmaiden. She could exit the ocean a few days a week to serve her mistress, but then had to return to her home.
Sometimes the sea gods did that. Especially with daughters like Cyane, who were wanderers and terrible at listening to their parents.
Kore picked her way across the jagged rocks to the oceanid’s tide pool. It was deep enough to reach her neck and swirled with glittering blue magic. Nine oceanids waited within. They reached out their arms and helped ease her into the chilly saltwater.
“Kore!” They all murmured in excitement. “You’ve been to Olympus!”
She finally felt as though she had something worthwhile to tell them. She’d always stayed quiet while they talked about their adventures in the oceans and with the other gods. All Kore ever did was tend to fields with her mother, and that wasn’t an interesting story to tell.
Now, Kore could tell them everything about the most revered place to their kind. And she did. Kore described every detail, including the way the marble floor gleamed in the sunlight and the fine fissures of dark grey she’d seen in it.
She described every god. Hermes and his winged shoes. Apollo and how handsome he’d been, even though he’d also been rude. Ares with his blood red helm, and Poseidon with his strange moving beard.
Maybe she embellished. The oceanids thought the gods were above reproach. They didn’t want to hear how her bottom had been grabbed. If Kore had been in their place, she wouldn’t have wanted to hear it either. It was more fun to listen to the good rather than the bad.
The only thing she didn’t tell them about was the handsome, shadowy gentleman who had helped her while she sat on the bench.
Somehow, their interaction felt private.
Kore would likely never see the god again. She probably wouldn’t go back to Olympus with her mother. Besides, her mother was right. All the Olympians were grabby, foul mouthed monsters. They expected too much from her. And Kore...
Well, she just didn’t fit in. What had she expected, really? She’d been raised by nymphs and naiads.
She should be happy among them.
But even as she giggled with them and let them brush her hair, she didn’t feel like she was one of them. She never had.
Kore was more than a nymph. She could make plants grow with a thought and wither fields with her mind. She could grant blessings to mortal men and women who prayed to her and her mother.
Although very few even knew Kore existed. That was the primary reason she could go with her mother to the festival. The mortals thought she was a handmaiden.
“Look up,” Cyane murmured, a stick of charcoal in her mouth warping the words. She placed her fingers delicately underneath Kore’s chin. “Open your eyes wide, please.”
Kore opened them as much as she could and stared over Cyane’s shoulder. “I’m just saying, Olympus was beautiful, but I don’t think I’ll go back.”
“Why not?” One of the oceanids asked. She was more like a naiad than the others. Her darker hair shone with green rather than the deep blue of her sisters. But she was pretty enough. One of the lesser gods, or maybe even a remaining Titan, would snatch her up as a wife.
“I’m not sure,” Kore replied, but it was a lie.
She still dreamt about Poseidon’s hands on her bottom. She could still feel the bruising squeeze of his fingers and his laughter as the others didn’t even try to stop him. If Artemis hadn’t been there, who knew what would have happened.
Poseidon might have dragged her away into some hidden alcove with his hand over her mouth. And all Demeter’s nightmares would have come to life.
Kore held herself very still as Cyane circled her eyes with the charcoal. She told herself she was calm, but really, she felt frozen like she had with Poseidon. “I don’t think it’s very safe, is all. Maybe Mother was right.”
The naiad snorted. “Your mother would lock you up like a bird if she could. She’s put you in a cage, Kore.”
She was in a cage. But maybe that was better when gods like that existed.
Footsteps echoed across the stones, and only one person would stomp toward a pool full of oceanids. Kore tensed and Cyane slipped with the charcoal. The rough stick poked Kore in the eye.
She flinched and Demeter seized her by the shoulders, hauling her out of the tide pool. “What are you doing?”
Kore pressed a hand to her injured eye. “The oceanids were helping me get ready for the harvest festival.”
She could almost feel her mother’s glare. It wasn’t aimed at her daughter. Instead, Demeter glared at the oceanids who she’d blame for this transgression. At least it was better than her mother’s thundering scream followed by a month locked up in yet another cage of her mother’s making.