Page 54 of Becoming Monsterous

Smiling at Aaron's fear, I stalk towards him and loom over his cowering form. "I'm going to turn you into a marble statue. But first... I want to know. Why the fuck did you do it?"

He blinks up at me, whimpering. "I don't want to be a statue."

Behind me, Aleron hisses again. "That's okay. I can disembowel you instead."

Cornelia strikes out at Aaron, showing her poison-dripping fangs.

"Okay, okay!" Throwing his hands up, Aaron scrambles up the sofa and plasters himself against the wall. "I'll tell you what happened. Maybe then you'll be able to forgive me."

He dives into a story, and I listen closely, waiting for a pang of sympathy or a bit of the old love I had for him to come along.

Instead I mostly just feel bored.

It's exactly what I predicted. The Magistrate found him, discovered he was exploitable, and taught him how to summon monsters.

Because Percy couldn't summon Aphrodite himself, he had Aaron do it. It was his best plan after all—openly summoning the goddess of love would risk war. But he wanted ironclad contracts for all the monsters, and Aphrodite's powers were the best way to achieve that.

Aaron... well, he fucked it up. That part I knew. I just can't believe how easy it was for the Magistrate to get Aaron to sacrifice me.

"I'm cutting you off there," I declare, enjoying the way he flinches at my voice. "Clearly you need to a learn a lesson. But the only way you'll manage to pull that off is time. So I'm going to turn you into stone and hope that when I change you back in a century, you will have learned your lesson."

Maybe it won't be me changing him back. Maybe it'll be Medusa, or some other gorgon. I honestly don't care—I just want him to stop babbling excuses for nearly killing me.

As I pull on my powers, Aaron manages to blabber out, "Ellie, wait! I lo—"

I don't let him finish.

He doesn't love me.

I would know, after all. I'm the goddess of love now.

Chapter36

Ellie

"Idon't know if this fixes things, but maybe it'll delay him," I tell Lise as we settle Aaron's frozen statue into the empty room of gorgon statues. "Sorry if he smells weird. His apartment wasn't exactly... habitable."

"I'm just glad you're okay. And your other powers..." Lise glances around her nervously, like she's afraid someone will overhear us in this giant empty room, which, fair enough. "Do you think maybe you could lift my curse?"

I blink at her. "Can I even do that? I mean, Midas is the one who gave it to you..."

"You can bless me," she says, her eyes widening with excitement. "It's not something the goddess of vengeance can do since, well, vengeance isn't exactly a blessing. But love... love, like fortune, can be a blessing or a curse."

I suppose that's true. If Midas can curse her, maybe I can bless her to lift that curse.

I'm willing to try anything. But I can't find any memories or knowledge in Aphrodite's subconscious to help me pull it off.

"What do I do?"

Lise grabs onto my hands and pulls me into a hug. I grab onto her tightly, watching an aura of gratitude and affection come off her and trail towards me, like a thread of love but even stronger.

When she pulls out of the hug there are tears in her eyes. She dashes them off and shoots me a grin.

"Just bless me, I think. When Midas did it, he put a finger on my forehead and told me that misfortune would always be mine... then said I had the golden hair of a lioness and, well, that was all it took. I was hoping maybe something similar from you, but about love instead, might do the trick."

I consider my words carefully, then find a phrasing that might be right, with a little internal help from Medusa. "I've got something. Maybe... kneel in front of me? That way it feels more formal."

The whole thing is a little silly. Having Lise get down on her knees in front of me in an empty room feels like some kind of play-acting we're doing.

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