Page 1 of Becoming Monsterous

Chapter1

Ellie

Iknow who this woman is, with her long greasy hair, dirty fingernails, and sunken eyes. I know why Angus obeys her raspy-voiced orders, why her skinny body fills me with fear and makes Aleron kneel at her feet.

This is Aphrodite.

The Goddess of Love.

Or at least, shewasAphrodite. Somehow I doubt that the young, beautiful seductress resembled this ratty mess in front of me. Being stuck in the Shadow World for so many torturous years changed her just as much as it changed the Shades and Rotflayers. Monsters only become worse in the darkness—and there are none quite as monstrous as this one.

"Hold her tight," she says to Angus, whose thick forearms squeeze me so hard that I struggle to breathe. "I don't want her breaking free. You—get that snake under control. I'm not getting bit."

She snaps her fingers at Morpheus, who's staring at her with absolute devotion on his face. It makes my stomach flip, because just a moment ago he was staring atmelike that.

Was the overwhelming love my men were showing me just a side affect of Aphrodite using the conduit to enter this realm? Or is it possible that, for the briefest of moments, I actually had her power within me?

If that's what it's like to experience the power of love, I'm not sure that I really want it. The love they expressed was intoxicating—but as more time passes, I feel nauseous at the thought of it. Especially now that I see that same worshipful devotion on their faces forher.

It wasn't real love. In order to love, you have to be able to choose. To say no as well as yes.

Aphrodite's forced love doesn't give space for a no. That's why she has such a pleased smile on her face with each command she snaps out.

The intoxication of that feeling—the absolute control and power it gives her over others—is exactly why my ex-boyfriend Aaron was willing to kill me to summon Aphrodite. Her powers would make anyone capable of taking over the world.

Because she can make even the King of Dreams obey. At her command, Morpheus grasps Cornelia in his long-fingered palm and violentlyjerksher from my hair.

I gasp at the sudden severing. Cornelia screams, her voice a sensation of fear and pain in my head.

Flicking his wrist, Morpheus turns the snake into a white tattoo that curls around his forearm. She hisses and strikes, but her fangs sink nothing. She's been successfully stolen from me.

Whimpering at her loss, I'm as placid as a lamb when Aphrodite strides forward and sinks her fingers into my neck.

"I would tell you that this won't hurt, but it will," she says, staring down at me with black, empty eyes that reveal no emotions. "It would be so much easier if you were as pliable as your slaves. Unfortunately I can no longer make you feel love... that was nothing but a temporary trance."

"They aren't my slaves." Despite the pain that radiates from her touch as she sinks her nails into my skin, I feel the urge to defend my men. "I haven't taken their free will from them."

My eye flick down to her feet. A kneeling Aleron rains kisses up her ankle, towards her calves. No wonder she thinks of them as slaves.

"Followers, worshippers—call them what you will." She shrugs a careless shoulder. "They were yours, and now they're mine. Just like your body is about to be mine."

Pain strikes between my temples. I feel a darkness form in my head, like a nightmare. It drags me down towards unconsciousness.

Resisting it, I focus on how wrong Aphrodite is.

My triumvirate aren't mine to own or control. They don't worship or follow me.

Hell, they barely respect me at times. Though I hope, recently, that's changed for the good.

I glare into Aphrodite's blank eyes, determined to at least die fighting. Maybe if they hear me defend them from her, my men will fight back against her influence and realize that what they're feeling isn'tlove.

It's forced obedience.

"They're my equals. My—my confidants."

"Oh?"

"Yes."

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