Goddess Unboxed

  Goddess Unboxed

  Academy of the Divine, Book 2

  Isadora Brown

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Newsletter Information

  Did You Like Goddess Unboxed?

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  It took three days before the Council gathered together for this meeting. I was sure if Zeus did call it, rather than me and Apollo, it would have been held at my mother’s engagement party if that was what he wanted. Zeus, the Golden Prince, could get anything. He was some kind of savior, strong and brave and loyal to his people.

  And yet, the guy was kind of an idiot. It was blasphemous to even think that. I knew that. But this was the same guy Apollo and I caught fucking his ex-girlfriend at his betrothal party. Luckily, my younger sister Seph, his fiancée, was nowhere to be found and didn’t actually see it.

  Or unluckily, depending.

  The Box was gone too. The reason we were even having this meeting in the first place was the Box. In fact, Zeus got much of his reputation because he managed to send the seven Titans into that Box, protecting Olympus from guaranteed chaos and destruction.

  If it fell into the wrong hands…

  Worse, if Seph took it…

  I tried not to think about it the last three days, but I couldn’t help it. My mother refused to talk to me. She thought this was all my fault. She seemed more concerned that Seph could lose Zeus in all of this and how everyone was going to view her rather than the well-being of Seph and the other Divine in Olympus.

  I wished I had someone to talk to about this. Granted, I had Apollo, strangely enough. But I met him at that party, and I wasn’t sure I actually trusted him. He didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with the Watchers even though he used to be the best. It didn’t even matter that his twin sister Artemis was on the Council, either.

  Something happened to him during his time as a Watcher, something bad.

  When I needed to distract myself from thoughts of Seph, I threw them at Apollo. The only reason Apollo was even helping was because no one questioned Zeus, not even the sarcastic drunk who wanted nothing to do with being a Watcher. As ignorant, as silly, as Zeus could be, he still commanded a level of unmatched respect.

  Apollo came to my door on the third day. “It’s time,” he said after Rimbaud, our butler, opened the door and announced Apollo’s presence.

  I didn’t even grab my purse. I moved down the hallway and to the foyer where Apollo was. I stepped over a broken vase, one of my mother’s precious flowers upended from its home, soil staining the pearl-white marble. I was surprised no one had cleaned it up yet, and wondered, for a moment, if I had the time.

  “Waiting for a written invitation?” Apollo barked from the doorway.

  I frowned, wrinkling my nose, and pulled at the brown leather vest I still wasn’t used to wearing. I was in my Watcher leathers, minus the gloves, my hair pulled into a ponytail. I turned to my mother, idling in the hallway nearby, pretending to be fixated on the contents of her wine glass rather than what was going on between me and Apollo. I waited.

  I wasn’t even sure what I was waiting for. Something. Some kind of acknowledgment.

  My mother was staring at Apollo, eyes narrowed, nose wrinkled in disgust. Even though I felt the same way about him, some kind of protective instinct kicked in and I glared. She didn’t have the right to judge him. She didn’t even know him. And right now, he was doing a lot more for Seph than she was. Whether it was because Zeus had practically forced his hand was besides the point.

  Apollo looked me up and down when we headed out the door. “What are you wearing?” he asked, his tone flat.

  “My uniform.” I dropped my gaze and took his in. “What are you wearing?”

  He had on pants and a t-shirt. Tennis shoes. Completely casual. Indifferent. Like this meeting meant nothing.

  “I’m not a Watcher,” he said, lifting a shoulder.

  “So?” I threw my arms out. “Don’t you care?”

  “About…?” An arched brow. He didn’t get it. He really didn’t get it.

  “I don’t know, your reputation!” I bellowed. I began to stalk the length of the foyer, stomping my booted feet. “How can you show up to a Council meeting in jeans? Like…that’s so disrespectful.”

  “You think I give a fuck?” he growled. “You gonna come, or what? I don’t have to be there, you know.”

  This time, I smirked. “Yes, you are,” I said. “Zeus wants you to be part of this. I don’t know why –“

  “He doesn’t trust you, junior,” he said as I closed the door. I flipped him off and he cracked a grin. “Feisty, even so early in the morning.”

  “I had my coffee,” I said, lifting a shoulder. “Maybe you could grab a cup. Might help you with your crankiness.”

  His grin only widened. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said. “This crankiness is all natural and can’t be cured with coffee.”

  I grunted. “Maybe you just haven’t had the right kind of coffee,” I pointed out.

  We stopped in front of his car and he managed to actually open the door for me before walking around and getting in the driver’s seat.

  “You didn’t have to dress up, you know,” he said, eyeing my uniform again as he started the car. “You look ridiculous. Do you honestly think they’re going to take you seriously just because you wear what they tell you to wear?”

  “What is your problem?” I crossed my arms over my chest and my seatbelt, adjusting myself in the seat. The cracked leather seemed to retain the stale scent of cigarettes. By my feet, there was a crumpled brown bag with an empty glass of an expensive alcohol. I didn’t recognize the brand. “What happened to you, anyway? You were the most revered Watcher, like, in the history of Watchers. Sure, Zeus might have Boxed up the Titans, but you faced everything else. You sent Deimos and Phobos to the Underworld, you resisted the allure of Apate and managed to conquer her manipulations. How do you end up a drunken pathetic hot mess a couple years later?”

  Apollo laughed, catching me off-guard. I wasn’t trying to be funny. Really, I wasn’t.

  “Life fucking sucks sometimes, princess,” he said. He glanced at me quickly before reverting his gaze ahead of him. “You’ll figure that out.”

  “Got it,” I said, nodding once. “You’re copping out.”

  “What?”

  “I never figured you for a coward, Apollo,” I said, glancing out the window.

  “Coward?”

  I glared at him. “Why do you let people think you’re a shell of the person you were?” I demanded to know. “Don’t you care what they think of you?”

  “I could give two fucks and then some about what people think of me,” he grunted. “And you best start thinking the same damn thing too. You can’t base your life on how others see you, Dora. You have to figure out what the fuck you want to make of your life.”

  “So, that’s it then.” I dropped my gaze before raking it back up his frame. “You want to be this pathetic drunk who amounts to absolutely nothing? You want to constantly replay your glory days and bask in the awe and affection people still hold for you instead of doing anything more?”

  Without warning, Apollo slammed on the brakes. Luckily, the seatbelt holding me in place held me back from flying through the windshield. I glared at him, my heart racing inside of my chest. What the fuck was his problem?

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in a low voice. I almost wished he would yell at me. That would make
this better. I didn’t like barely being able to hear him. I didn’t like the heaviness his voice brought on me. “If you were smart, you’d shut your mouth and do what you do best: be a good little Watcher for the Council, yeah? Because nothing good is going to come from this meeting.”

  “What are you even talking about?” I asked.

  “The Watchers don’t want shit to do with the Box, don’t you get that?” Apollo asked. He pulled up to the gates of the academy and slowed the car down. “For fuck’s sake.” He muttered this under his breath, pulling on his black sunglasses, almost as though he wanted to mask his face.

  “I need to see some ID, sir,” the man in a gold and red uniform said.

  “I have a student badge,” I chirped, leaning over and flashing them my badge. “I was, uh, my mom had a betrothal ceremony I had permission to attend and now I’m returning to campus. So…um, I’m being dropped off.”

  It was probably more explanation than they needed but I didn’t care. It was imperative we get to the meeting on time. In fact, I needed to do everything by the book, to the best of my abilities. I was going to get face time with the Council. Opportunities like this didn’t just fall into my lap. I needed to take advantage of this. I needed everything to go perfectly.

  Even if Apollo was hunched over, scowl permanently etched on his face despite the clerk waving us through.

  I replaced my badge in my wallet and snapped it shut. “What’s your problem?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Oh, come on, Apollo,” I said. “Help me understand because I don’t. I don’t understand why you’re so…so bitter about the Watchers. I don’t understand why you drown yourself in booze and misery. Something had to have happened for you to be this miserable. And I just…”

  “What?” He slid the car into a parking spot and killed the engine. “You think you can fix me? You think I’m misguided because I don’t bend over for the Watchers to fuck me in the ass whenever they want?”

  I flinched at his crass language, hoping he didn’t see.

  “I’m not going to do it anymore,” he said.

  “But you were –“

  “I don’t give a flying fuck what I was,” he growled, slamming his palms on the wheel of the car. “I’m not that person anymore. I don’t want to be that person ever again. And if you had any sense in that fucking head of yours, you’d get out before it’s too late. They don’t care about you. They don’t care about any of it.”

  “Your sister –“

  “Has her own fucking agenda, just like the rest of ‘em,” he snapped, glaring through the windshield. “No matter how altruistic it is, she’s doing it for herself. Because she thinks she’s right, when the truth is, she’s just as terrible as they are.”

  “But they –”

  “Dora,” Apollo said. “You don’t know shit about the Watchers. And I just wish you’d fucking listen to me.”

  “Says the guy who’s constantly interrupting anything that comes out of my mouth,” I snapped back. “I’m just asking you what happened. I don’t understand your perspective and I’m trying to. That’s it. But you keep –“

  “It’s not your fucking business,” Apollo snapped.

  I shouldn’t have let his words affect me. I barely knew the guy. I shouldn’t care. But I did. It felt like he clawed at my face, like he slapped me with fire on his fingers. I clenched my teeth to keep myself from jerking back, from reacting.

  “Fine,” I finally said, needing to break the reframing silence that smothered us. “Fine. I’ll stop.”

  I shook my head. I couldn't believe I even cared, that I even tried. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of the car without saying goodbye, without saying anything.

  What could I say?

  I thought maybe –

  But that was stupid. It was clear Apollo was not the sort to have friends, to care about anyone other than his alcohol and misery. And there was nothing I could do or say to change that.

  I just couldn’t believe I wanted to.

  But…I was over it.

  As I headed to the elevator in the structure, I prayed to whatever Divine cared about me that I wouldn't have to deal with Apollo ever again.

  Chapter Two

  I all but stomped out of the elevator once I reached the third floor. Junior Watchers weren’t allowed here. This was reserved solely for the Council and anyone they deemed fit to be here in the first place. And I couldn’t even enjoy it because of this mess I was in with Apollo.

  I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, wishing I could let my hair fall in my face and mask me from any curious gazes. I still didn’t feel…like I belonged here. Like I hadn’t earned my place.

  There was no one on the floor save for a red carpet and red walls. A black settee sat in front of a red door. There was only one room on this floor and that was where the Council convened to discuss important topics, pressing assignments, anything that was relevant to Watchers and Watcher business.

  I didn’t feel comfortable sitting. Not yet. In fact, I almost wished Apollo had come in with me. I didn’t like being here on my own. Didn’t like the silence that overwhelmed me with its prevalence.

  Instead, I began to pace. I was still frustrated with Apollo, still upset about his charming personality and the way he thought I was ignorant about everything when the truth was, he was wrong about it all. The Watchers were good. They wanted to protect. They wanted to keep the Divine and the humans safe. And that was something admirable. I was proud to be part of an organization like that.

  But Apollo’s words haunted me more than I wanted to say. He had been a Watcher – the best one. Why would he give that up?

  “I’m not surprised to find you here so early,” a familiar voice drawled from behind me.

  I jumped and nearly stumbled forward as I spun around.

  Cronus stood behind me, lithe body wrapped in a black on black suit. His shoulder-length black hair was slicked back from his face, bringing out his angled features even more. His sea-foam eyes dropped to my body and I stiffened, hoping he wasn’t judging my choice in attire the way Apollo had. It wasn’t like I had been to one of these meetings before. I was dressing the way I thought was appropriate.

  But there was something else in his gaze, something that caused me to shiver. I didn’t want him looking at me at all, especially not when the corners of his lips quirked up into a smirk.

  “Perfect,” he drawled. “You are just the person I wanted to see.” He reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder. “We must have that discussion we’ve been putting off, hmm?”

  My heart quickened. I tried to subtly rub my moist palms on my pants. I didn’t want him to notice that his close proximity made me anxious. If I was going to be a Watcher, I couldn’t let anything affect me in such a way, especially not the person who was supposed to train me.

  “Oh?” My voice cracked, and there was a flicker to his lips. He knew exactly what I feared, and he enjoyed it.

  I closed my eyes, clearing my throat. I needed to get a hold of myself. I didn’t want him to think I was weak. It wasn’t just because of this situation, or the fact that we were alone, but part of me thought this was some sort of test. I had to prove myself to him. Cronus heavily influenced the Council, and he could tell them I was not fit to be a Watcher. And if that happened…

  I wouldn’t even let myself consider what I did with my life if that were to happen.

  “Yes,” Cronus said, taking a step towards me. “It is imperative for your evaluations. They are coming up, are they not?”

  “In the summer,” I said. At least my voice hadn’t cracked, but as he grew closer to me, I noticed my mouth got dry. My instincts were to back up, to get away from him, but I rooted myself in place. I could not cower. Not right now. I had to prove myself, though I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

  “So close,” he said. Instead of standing in front of me, he moved to circle me. I wanted to turn with him, to keep my eyes on his movement, but his
hand reached out and held my waist in place.

  I nearly flinched at his touch.

  I didn’t want him to touch me, but I couldn’t seem to do anything about it.

  No, that’s not true. You can do something, you’re choosing not to.

  “You’re quite fit, are you not?” he asked in a low voice.

  The hand on my hip slowly trailed across my lower stomach, long, sinewy fingers leaving a trail on my skin.

  “Healthy. Sturdy.”

  I swallowed. It felt like my skin was on fire. I wanted nothing more than to rip his hand away from my own, to claw at the skin he touched until I shredded it from my body and he was unable to touch me in the same place. I wanted to step under a shower of fire until I felt cleansed. And still I couldn’t move.

  “Tell me.” He finally turned to face me once more, dropping his hand from my waist but refusing to back up, to give me any chance of reclaiming my breath in any way. “Would that body of yours be able to handle the onslaught of attention from someone who wanted to take something from you?”

  I inhaled sharply, shaking. I knew what he was referring to. I knew what he was getting at.

  “What do you want from me?” I managed to ask. The words were pathetic, barely even registering despite the fact that we were both alone in this room with no other distractions, no noise, no hint of anyone outside.

  I wished Apollo had come in with me.

  Stupid.

  Immediately, I banished the thought. I should be able to take care of myself. I was a Watcher, for goodness sake. I couldn’t let anyone save me from a situation I could clearly get out of myself.

  And yet, I felt trapped.

  I felt paralyzed.

  There was no way out for me.

  I wanted to move, to breathe, but I found I couldn’t.

  “If you are to be a Watcher,” Cronus said slowly, “and a female Watcher at that, you will be treated differently than your male counterparts. It’s just nature. And I need to know that you’d be able to handle the assault on your body should you fall into the wrong hands.” He stepped even closer to me, eyes never leaving mine. “Will you fight? Or will you let yourself be taken? Do you want it? Deep down inside of you, is there a small part of you that longs to be taken advantage of by someone you respect, someone you admire, so you can claim no part in it?”