Accidentally…Over? (Accidentally Yours #5)(69)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Cimil. Enough,” Máax interrupted. “Get to the point.”

Cimil grinned, her turquoise eyes sparkling with giddiness. “From the moment Ashli met you, her light began pulling your power. She is now officially the Goddess of Love as it has always been destined to be.”

Impossible. “Why do you think Ashli is the Goddess of Love?”

“Ask Ms. Forget-Me-Yes over there. Ashli popped her good.”

All heads swiveled toward the Goddess of Forgetfulness who wore a short metallic-silver tank dress and white go-go boots, her blonde hair in Princess Leia spirals over her ears. “It’s true. Ashli hit me with something. It felt pretty good.”

“See!” Cimil pointed at him. Or the chair. He wasn’t sure. “She inherited your gift of love. And once she learns to use her power correctly—’cause we all know how easily love can go sideways on ya—she’s destined to do many great things for humanity. Personally, I’m hoping she can turn Valentine’s Day into a global holiday. And rename it hump day. Wednesday doesn’t deserve that title.”

“But my powers have been taken away; I have none,” Máax argued.

Cimil wagged her finger. “Uh-uh-uh. Your powers weren’t taken away. We just fixed it so that you couldn’t use them, but they remained inside you.”

“But I am not the God of Love, I never was. I am the God of Truth,” Máax said.

“Really now?” Cimil smiled. “Think carefully, Máax. Was it truth that drove you to come to our rescue over and over and over again? Or break our laws to help us and later take the punishment? Was it truth that got you to take an oath to Fate to keep her lie a secret? No. It was love, Máax, your love of your brethren. Truth was simply another way of expressing your love—being honest, keeping your word, those are all symptoms of love. Once you lost it, you started lying like a fiend.”

“A fiend? I lied once,” he protested.

“And broke your promise to me!” Fate barked.

“Shut up, Fate,” Penelope said. “Or shall we call you, Fake?”

“I’m not a fake, I’m just…” She sighed and sank into her chair. “… Just not like you.”

“So it’s true,” Penelope said.

“I had powers,” Fate said, “at the very beginning, but then they vanished. I don’t know why. I don’t know what I did.” She sobbed. “And there you were, all of you, complaining about your lives, how hard it was to be the Goddess of Suicide or the God of Death and War. Wah, wah, wah. You’re all a bunch of spoiled rotten deities. You have everything. Some of you even have mates and children on the way.” She pointed at Ashli. “And now that little bitch has the gift of love! I hate you all! I wish nothing but death and suffering on all of you!”

Cimil chimed in, “Shouldn’t that be suffering and then death? It’s really hard to suffer once you’re dead.”

“Cimil!” Máax screamed. “Be quiet!”

Cimil shrank into her chair, crossing her arms. “I save your ass, and that’s the thanks I get?”

Máax turned toward Ashli who looked like she might keel over at any moment. “Ashli? Can you tell us if this is true? Do you have my gift?”

Ashli’s gorgeous turquoise eyes seemed to glow against the backdrop of her light brown skin and her wild dark curls flowing past her shoulders. “I-I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t know that chairs could speak, let alone have magical powers of love.”

Máax refrained from laughing. “You think… I’m a chair?”

Ashli shrugged. “You’re not?”

He stood, walked over to her, and then reached out and touched her hand. Ashli yelped and jumped from her seat, scrambling back. “What the hell was that?”

“Ashli,” Penelope said, “that’s Máax. He’s invisible.”

Chest heaving, Ashli’s head dropped, and she closed her eyes. Several silent moments passed while everyone waited for her to answer. Did she truly have the gift of love?

Ashli’s body began to shake, and she laughed toward the sky. “Well, thank goodness for that. I know I’ve totally lost it, but I was really freaking out there when everyone said I’d mated with a chair.”

Máax gently touched her arm. “No, my love. I am not a chair. A stupid ass**le, yes, chair, no. And you are everything to me.”

Ashli’s eyes shifted from side to side. Clearly this was overwhelming her.

“Penelope,” Máax said, “why don’t you take a vote now, so that Ashli and I may be on our way.”

Penelope looked at the faces stretching down the table. “Sure. Just as soon as Fake is removed to a holding cell.”

The Uchben soldiers approached Fate, and she left quietly. Perhaps she had grown tired of hiding. Perhaps she was already plotting her revenge. Who knew? But it was time for the truth to be out. Máax had protected her secret for thousands of years. All because he pitied her, loved her. She was family. Still was. But it was time for Fate to accept her own fate and grow up. Just as it was time for himself and the other deities. But growing up is hard to do when everything is handed to you on a silver platter. The gods, himself included, needed a reason to evolve, a reason to be better. His reason was Ashli.

Penelope sat back down and grinned. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning, Penelope,” Kinich said lovingly and placed his arm around her shoulders. “We must change the laws, just as you said.”

She glowed triumphantly. “Right.”

Penelope took a vote to change the rules that governed the modification of their sacred laws. A unanimous vote by all fourteen gods would no longer be required. Ashli was the fourteenth vote to approve this change.

Next, time travel would no longer be banned or a crime, specifically for Máax. He would become their official traveler—the Keeper of Time Travel, although missions would need to be approved by a majority vote.

“And finally, Máax,” Penelope said, standing from her chair, smiling with tears in her eyes, “I move to lift any and all punishments that have been cast upon you. Your powers will be restored—whatever remains, obviously—and your physical form returned to you.” Penelope looked across the table. “All in favor?”

The gods raised their hands, smiles on every face.