Kiss of Destiny Read Online Free Page B

asked. “Or was he lured to his death?” She seemed to take a salacious glee in the possibility.
    “They came out together. That’s what I saw.”
    “Your waters flow far and deep, Arethusa,” Nephele said with a smile.
    “Not far enough that I could hide from Alpheus,” the nymph said bitterly. “If justice had been served, I would still be paying homage to my lady Artemis, but my choice to remain chaste was irrelevant to him.”
    “Chastity is over-rated,” the flower nymph said slyly. “We keep our youth and vigor by claiming men.” She smiled. “As many as possible.”
    “You said it was romantic that he came back,” Nephele pointed out.
    “Because it would make a repeat conquest easier,” the flower nymph declared with a toss of her hair. “Much easier than enchanting him and keeping him captive.” She pouted a little. “Don’t they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder? Something about seeing a captive all the time makes me want him less.”
    “Because you remember your conquests so clearly,” Nephele said with false sweetness. Nymphs were of two varieties: those who adored sex and couldn’t get enough of it, and those who chose to remain chaste. Of the first variety, the flower nymphs were notorious for being insatiable.
    Nephele was one of the few nymphs who tried to keep her desires in balance without being chaste. Aura had always admired her for that and tried to strike a similar balance. She enjoyed sex enough that she wanted it to remain a special act.
    She shivered in recollection of the dragon shifter’s kiss. What would it be like to be with him?
    “Actually, I don’t,” admitted the flower nymph.
    “If one came back, would you even know you’d seduced him before?” Nephele asked.
    “Would it matter?” countered the flower nymph and Nephele shook her head.
    She then returned to Arethusa’s story, pointedly turning her back on the flower nymph. “When the Earthdaughter and her mortal lover escaped from the Underworld, was Hades angry?”
    Arethusa nodded. “Very! Because one of the things this man did was kill an Erinye.”
    The nymphs all sat back in horror. “Which one?” Aura whispered, even though any one of them would be bad enough.
    “Tisiphone!”
    The nymphs gasped. This was the worst possible situation.
    “And Hades pronounced his judgment. He poured the contents of his cup over Tisiphone’s body—”
    “Not that vile potion,” the flower nymph said with a shudder.
    “The very one,” Arethusa said before continuing. “And then he said ‘Tisiphone, the face of retaliation and the avenger of murder, take life again and exact your own vengeance upon your murderer and his kind. Pursue them through all eternity, until your thirst for revenge is sated.’ ”
    “As if that would ever happen,” Nephele murmured and Aura nodded.
    Arethusa spread her hands to finish her story. “And she changed!”
    “To what?”
    “To a woman with hair the color of fire.”
    Nephele rolled her eyes. “You are telling a story. No one has hair of that color.”
    “She did!” Arethusa protested.
    “And then?” prompted the flower nymph.
    “And then she disappeared.” Arethusa lifted a finger. “One of her sisters asked where she could be found and Hades said ‘You all three have walked in whichever realm you chose. Tisiphone will live only in the realm of the living until her vengeance is served.’ He looked at the man before this last bit. ‘She will strike among the living, even as she abides in secret. His kind will never know of her vendetta until her vengeance is served.’ ”
    Nephele shuddered. “You have to feel sorry for him. Imagine being responsible for bringing a curse like that down on all mortal men.”
    “But he wasn’t a mortal man, not really!” Arethusa crowed. Her audience regarded her in bewilderment. “He changed into a dragon and they flew out of the Underworld, right through the crack in the world that the Earthdaughter