Aidan staggered yet remained standing even as his entire body was shoved backward. He looked down, expecting to see blood from Zeus's attack. But there was no wound. In fact, there was no pain.
Confused, he glanced around until he saw Leta lying on the floor a few feet from him. "Oh, my God," he breathed, scrambling to reach her. She must have thrown herself in front of him to protect him.
He knelt on the floor and rolled her over, to see her struggling to breathe as blood coated her entire body.
"Leta?"
She coughed up blood before she spoke in a raspy tone. "I couldn't let you die, Aidan. I'm sorry."
Sorry? Why was she apologizing to him for saving his life? It didn't even make sense.
Zeus turned on M'Adoc. "I thought you said she was incapable of caring?"
M'Adoc maintained his stoicism. "She must have gone Skoti without our knowing."
Fury darkened Zeus's brow. He held his hand up and M'Adoc was instantly drawn forward into his grasp. "You don't make those kinds of mistakes."
Hades made a sound of extreme boredom. "You're wasting your time, Zeus. You stripped their emotions so if you're trying to make him afraid now-"
"Shut up," Zeus snapped at Hades before he shoved M'Adoc away from him. He stiffened before he gave M'Adoc a dire warning. "You better keep a wary eye on your brethren. I'm holding you personally responsible. You fail to corral them and it'll be your blood I bathe in."
Aidan saw the fury and fear flash in M'Adoc's eyes before he straightened and faced Zeus. Then his face was as blank as it'd been before Zeus attacked him. "I understand, my lord. Your will be done."
"You're damn right my will be done." Zeus glared at all of them. "Now get that human out of here and clean up this mess." With those words spoken, he dissolved into a light bronze dust and evaporated.
Still on the floor, Aidan held Leta close to him as she struggled to breathe. "You're going to heal again, right?"
"No," Hades said as he stepped forward. "She was hit with a god bolt from Zeus himself. There's no coming back from that."
Aidan frowned. "I don't understand."
"She's dying," Hades said in a tone that was devoid of all feeling.
It took several seconds for those words to permeate the fog in Aidan's head. "She can't die. She's an immortal goddess."
"Who was just assaulted by the king of the gods." Hades said in the tone of a teacher talking to a dense student. "Yes, she can die."
Aidan couldn't breathe as he looked down at her. "Why? Why would you have done this?"
"I love you, Aidan," she said as her eyes teared up. "I couldn't let Zeus kill you. I could never watch someone else I love die in front of me." She lifted her hand to lay it gently to his cheek. "It was why I had to kill Dolor. I knew Donnie would only summon him again and I didn't want him to hurt you anymore. I couldn't chance it."
His own tears swelled at her words. He crushed her against him before he looked up at Hades and M'Adoc. "We have to save her. Tell me what to do."
Hades let out a tired breath. "Thunder-Bluster wants her dead. There's nothing we can do. We heal her and he will rain down on her all kinds of pain. The kindest thing you can do is let her go."
"No! Save her!"
But the god wasn't listening. Hades stepped back and looked at M'Adoc. "Let's give them privacy to say goodbye."
Aidan saw the sympathy in M'Adoc's eyes before he faded away. Hades followed suit.
Alone now, he breathed in the scent of Leta's hair.
"I wish I'd been born human," she breathed against his neck.
"I would have changed nothing about you."
He felt her smiling as she tightened her grip in his hair. An instant later, she expelled her last breath and fell limp in his arms.
For three full heartbeats, Aidan didn't move. He couldn't. It took that long for reality to set in.
Leta was dead. She'd given her life to save his.
He refused to believe it. Pulling back, he looked at her. Her eyes were partially open, her face grayish. There was no life in her eyes. Blood coated both of them.
"Wake up," he breathed, knowing it was an impossible request. "Don't leave me, Leta. Please."
But all the begging in the world changed nothing. She was gone and he was alone.
His heart shattering, he pulled her against him and did the one thing he hadn't done since the night his parents had died. He sobbed.
Rocking her in his arms, he held her for what seemed to be forever as he cried. All he wanted was to go back in time and change all of this. To start fresh and new.
To tell her he loved her too.
"I love you, Leta," he whispered into her ear, knowing she couldn't hear him.
Why hadn't he said it earlier?
But then he knew. He'd been afraid to voice it. Afraid she would somehow use that to hurt him. Now she would never know just how much she'd meant to him. It was so unfair.
"She knows."
He looked up to find a tall, beautiful blond woman standing over him. "Who are you?"
"Persephone." She knelt by his side with sympathy in her eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss. Leta was a wonderful woman." Pulling out a small black handkerchief, she wiped his eyes. "You need to return home now. I'll take care of her for you."
"No!"
"Aidan," she said quietly. "You can't stay here. Believe me, you don't really want to. I will make sure Leta is taken care of, but you have to go."
Aching deep inside his soul, Aidan knew she was right. He pressed his lips to Leta's cold temple before he allowed Persephone to take her body from his arms. "Will you bury her with her family? She doesn't like to be alone."
Tears welled in her eyes as she nodded. "You do love her, don't you?"
"More than my life. I wish to God she'd let me die in her place."
Persephone sniffed as she took Leta from his arms. "Deimos," she said, summoning the god to appear in front of them. "Can you take him back to his world?"
Deimos nodded before he and Aidan vanished.
As soon as he was home again, Aidan turned on him. "Why did you take me there?"
"I wanted you to know how much she cared for you."
"Why? So that it would haunt me for the rest of eternity? No offense, Deimos, but as the ghost of Christmas Present, you suck. At least Scrooge was given a chance to fix his life. I can't fix this. Why the hell did you show it to me?"
Deimos shrugged. "Zeus was going to kill her anyway. As you told Persephone, she didn't like to be alone. I thought it would be nice for her if you were at least there when she died. She needed you."
He was right, but it did nothing to stop the pain inside Aidan. "Thank you, Demon. For everything."
He saw the sympathy on the god's face before he left.
Alone, Aidan stood in the center of his living room, feeling bereft. Closing his eyes, he could feel Leta here. Hear her laughter. Her jacket was still on his tree where she'd left it.
Needing to be closer to her, he walked over to it so that he could touch its softness. "I wish I had you back, Leta. If I did, I'd take better care of you than anyone you've ever known."
And if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride.
Aidan pulled the small hat out of her pocket and lifted it to his nose. It contained her scent and that brought another set of tears to his eyes. His chest tight, he went to the mantel where he had pictures of Donnie, Heather, and Ronald. One by one, he plucked them off and tossed them into the fire where the glass heated and shattered and the pictures burned.
The only photo he left was the one of his parents. He set Leta's knit hat beside it and stepped back.
Yeah. That was his family, and only they deserved a place of honor on his shelf.
Aidan woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his front door. He looked at the clock... it was just after noon on Christmas Eve.
"Leta?" he breathed, tossing back his covers to run to the front door. Wearing nothing more than a loose pair of green boxer shorts, he threw the door open to find Mori and his wife with a medium-sized suitcase.
Shirley raked a hungry and amused look over his body. "I know it does nothing for you, Mor, but that just made getting on an airplane and coming to this godforsaken place worthwhile. Thanks!"
Mori rolled his eyes as he pushed past his wife and came into the house. "Merry Christmas, Aidan."
Aidan stepped back and allowed Shirley to sashay in behind her husband before he closed the door. "What are you doing here?"
He'd barely closed the door before another knock sounded. Frowning, Aidan saw Theresa and Robert on the porch, holding a small tree between them.
He'd hired Robert to be his manager two weeks before Donnie had started blackmailing him. Short and tiny with brown hair and bright blue eyes, Theresa was his publicist. "And again I say, no offense, but what are you doing here?"
"We couldn't stand the thought of you spending one more Christmas alone," Robert said. "Mori called and asked if we could come out to make you a decent meal on Christmas Eve and we agreed. It's time you realized that there are people in this world who do love you, Aidan."
Before Leta had come into his life, he would have tossed them out of his house and locked the door behind them.
Today, they were more than welcome.
"Come on in. Let me go get some clothes on."
"I don't know," Theresa said with a laugh. "I kind of like your Christmas suit."
Shirley laughed. "You mean 'birthday suit,' don't you?"
Theresa set the tree in the corner by his fireplace. "I'd like that even better, but heis dressed in holiday green. Christmas suit."
Aidan smiled before he went to his bedroom and pulled on jeans and a sweater. By he time he returned, Shirley had poured eggnog for everyone while Robert and Mori decorated the tree with tinsel and Theresa unwrapped a HoneyBaked ham in the kitchen.
He was amazed by their actions. "You know you guys don't have to do this. I know all of you have family you'd rather be with."
Robert scoffed. "Your surly butt or my klepto aunt Coco who always steals the silver by putting it in her purse when no one's looking... hard choice, buddy."
Theresa chided him. "You're our family too, Aidan. And this year, I think you need us the most."
She had no idea just how right she was. "Thank you, guys."
Robert grinned. "You say thank you until we burn your house down with these Christmas lights."
Aidan laughed at him as Shirley handed him a glass of eggnog.
"To Aidan," she said cheerfully. "Which reminds me of an old toast my grandfather used to give."
"And that is?" Aidan asked.
"To those who know and love me, I wish you well. All the rest may go to hell."
"Here, here," Mori said as he paused to lift his own cup.
Robert agreed. "Very fitting."
Aidan nodded. "Yeah. I'll have to remember that."
"I'm sure you will."
Aidan took a sip before he realized something. "I don't have presents for any of you."
Mori scoffed. "Don't worry. You're here with us and that's all the gift any of us need. We really are here for you, Aidan. Not because you pay us, but because we really do care about you."
And for the first time in years, he believed that. "Thank you.All of you." Then Aidan looked up at the ceiling and whispered "thank you" to it as well, hoping that somehow his words would get back to Leta. He was sure she'd had a hand in this.
The afternoon went by fast as Theresa warmed up the food she'd brought and they had a good lunch of ham, potatoes, gravy, and green beans, with pecan pie for dessert. Aidan could count the traditional Christmases like this that he'd had in his life on one hand.
And none of those had been nearly as special as this one. But all too soon, it was over and his guests were leaving.
He stood on the porch, watching them drive off with a lightness in his heart that had never been there before. Smiling, he picked up his phone and called Mori, who answered on the first ring.
"Did we forget something?"
"You can call the studio on Monday. I'll take the job."
"Are you screwing with me?"
"No, Mori. I'm serious. I'll do it."
The rented Town Car stopped in the driveway and Mori got out to look up at him. He pulled the phone from his ear. "I love you, man!" he shouted. "In a purely platonic kind of way."
Aidan laughed as several birds took flight in fright. "Love you too, Mor. Definitely in a platonic way."
Mori saluted him before he got back into the car and drove off.
Aidan hung up the phone and returned inside where the smell of pecan pie warmed him all the way to his toes. The day would have been perfect if only...
He couldn't finish that thought. It was too painful.
Yeah. There was also something to blight the happiest times of his life. But even so, he'd needed this and he was grateful to his friends for making this day special.
Sighing, he started for his den when he heard a light tapping on his door. He glanced into the kitchen to see if Theresa had forgotten something. She was always misplacing and leaving things behind. But he didn't see anything.
He opened the door, then froze.
It couldn't be.
Eyes so blue they didn't seem to be real stared up at him.
"Leta?"
Her smile dazzled him. "Can I come in?"
" Abso-fucking-lutely."
She launched herself into his arms.
Breathless, Aidan held her close, trying to make sense of this. "How can you be here?"
"Hades released me from the Underworld."
"I don't understand. Wouldn't you need a sacrifice?"
"Not if he does it. Once I died, Zeus no longer had power over me. Only Hades." She squeezed him so hard, his back popped. "Persephone was so touched by what you said that she told Hades I had to be with my loved one... You."
"For how long?"
She shrugged. "I'm human now. Just like you."
He couldn't believe it. More relieved than he'd ever been before, he scooped her up and closed the door with his foot.
She frowned at his actions. "Where are you taking me?"
"To my bedroom where I plan on nibbling on you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I love you, Leta, and I intend to make sure you never doubt me."
She brushed his hair back from his eyes. "I would never doubt you, Aidan. And you will never,ever have a reason to doubt me."
