Eris (The Lost Goddesses #4)

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

E nzo didn't know if Eris and his grandmother getting along boded well or not. Bianca hadn't gotten along with any of the other women he had ever brought home. The goddess didn't seem bothered by the fact that Bianca was a self-proclaimed priestess of Aphrodite and La Madonna either. In fact, she didn't act like it was strange in the slightest.

Maybe you are the one who should have believed her all along , an uncomfortable thought prodded him.

Bianca led the way through the apartment and opened a door to her altar room. It was completely devoted to Aphrodite, adorned with statues, candles, seashells, flowers, perfumes, and small tokens and offerings. Statues of La Madonna also made an appearance, and somehow, everything felt aesthetically beautiful and heavy with feminine power at the same time, much like Bianca herself. She made space on a small lace-covered table that she used to lay out cards and throw her collection of sea glass, shells, and pearls to read futures.

"Oh my," was Eris's surprised reaction to the room. She studied both Bianca and Enzo, her head tilting as if she were seeing something that they couldn't. "Your connection to Aphrodite is very strong. I wasn't sure if she was still living because she hadn't appeared to Hades or any of the others since they came out to the world. But I can sense her presence here."

Enzo could feel his grandmother's smug happiness because of her compliment. She looked like a well-fed cat.

"Thank you, Eris. That means a lot to me. As I said before, Aphrodite has always made time for her human descendants if they bothered to acknowledge her," Bianca said and tapped at the table. "Put the palladium down here, nipote ."

Enzo set the statue down carefully and stepped away from it. He didn't want to be sucked into old memories again. He hadn't had time to process the last lot that bombarded him.

"May I?" Bianca asked Eris.

The goddess nodded. "Go ahead, but be careful. Enzo had a strong reaction."

"Understatement," Enzo murmured. His grandmother could handle the supernatural a lot better than he could. Eris gave him a concerned look, which surprised him, coming from a woman who had kidnapped him off the street.

Laverna's words came back to him about Eris's desperation. After everything that had happened and that he had learned in the past few hours, there was no way he was going to fight about it. When he made his mind up about anything, he would always see it through to the end.

Bianca unwrapped the palladium, and her eyes glazed over as she touched the goddesses worn face.

"I can feel her power in it," she said, swaying slightly. Enzo put an arm out to steady her. "This journey is the most important thing you will ever do. It's what you have been waiting for your entire life. A new beginning for not just us but Eris and Athena too. Curses lifted, life balanced, wrongs will become right once more."

Bianca started to shake, and Enzo helped her into a chair. Eris moved to cover the palladium back up.

He crouched by Bianca's chair. "Nonna? How can I help? Do you need water?"

"I'm fine, but you need to go and pack. Don't worry about me. Eris will keep me company. Go now, nipote . Get your things. It's getting late," Bianca said, patting his cheek. "My beautiful boy. I'm so happy it's going to be you."

Enzo squeezed her hand and got back up. He didn't know whether to feel happy or not. Everything had felt safe and boring for a year, and now he had no choice but to let Eris do what she did best and cause discord in his life.

"I'll make sure she's okay," Eris assured him.

Enzo didn't know why, but he trusted her.

"I won't be long," he said and got up.

Enzo moved through the apartment and unlocked the door adjoining his own. His family owned the whole floor, and generations of Silvianos had grown up in it.

When Enzo had inherited his half when his parents died, he had gutted and repainted it. He had updated the kitchen and made sure everything was just to his liking.

Not long after, he had met his ex-wife, Katarina, and she had put her own creative stamp on it. Stamps that he had only just finished removing in the past few weeks.

It had coincided with Eris's first appearance in the bar, and he had felt the flame of attraction begin to burn in his gut. He had thought it was a sign for him to maybe give dating another go.

Now he knew it was a very different sign altogether. Aeneas, Troy, curse breaking. Maybe he had been hit in the head by a thief, and he would wake up in the street behind the bar. He doubted it. His wildest imagination couldn't have put this night together.

Enzo ran a hand through his curls and down the tender skin on the back of his neck. There was no denying the bits of dried mud and grass on his clothes or the thrumming under his skin whenever he got too close to Eris either.

Enzo knew he had no choice but to leave Rome. Eris made that clear. He grinned at the thought of her threat to tie him up because she would do it the second he got too cheeky. It only made him want to see how far he could push his luck with her. Eris made him want to do reckless things like that just to see how she would react.

Before Katarina had come into his life, Enzo had been the first to crack jokes, play pranks, and be optimistic.

Maybe a mad sea journey would bring that part of him back. Smiling at the thought, he stripped off his dirty shirt, tossed it in the laundry, and went to pack his bags. He had a quest to go on.