“That’s great. Well, good luck.”

“Thank you, and tell Avery hi next time you talk to her.”

“I will.”

Marina looked up and down the street but didn’t see anyone she didn’t recognize. If Stalker Boy was around, he was out of sight, but he couldn’t stand in the bushes forever without someone having a problem with it. If she kept checking, she might get a peek.

The server brought her coffee and Marina opened her laptop and googled Aphrodite. Might as well start with the source, right? If the ring held Aphrodite’s blood then maybe it was attracted to other things that she liked as well as to the Seeker. Maybe she had a penchant for vanilla croissants and the ring was right here in the café in the lost-and-found box. It was just as reasonable a theory as anything else. She scanned several sites that offered up information on the goddess but ultimately, it was all legend and speculation.

She picked up her coffee and took a sip. Of course it was all speculation. What else could it be? Humans didn’t believe that those gods actually existed. Plenty believed in a god, but probably not a lot worshipped at the altar of Zeus. These were legends. The stuff tall tales and sometimes interesting movies were made of.

But the other Seekers were real.

They hadn’t been successful, but maybe there was a common thread among them that would give her a hint. Cleopatra, Lady Godiva, and Marilyn Monroe. She started searching again and stopped ten minutes later when her breakfast came out.

Well, they were all women. And all were considered beauties of their time. All had power of some sort. Cleopatra was married twice with many lovers. Lady Godiva married once and had no known lovers. Marilyn Monroe married three times and the lovers part was sketchy as hell. Cleopatra had four kids. Lady Godiva had nine. Marilyn never had any, although she’d tried. One lived in Egypt. One in England and one in the United States. All lived in opulence.

Marina was never considered a great beauty and certainly not “of her time.” The only power she consistently displayed was over Snooze and since she fed him, that wasn’t really anything to brag about. She’d been married once and her husband had a lover, but that probably didn’t count. She had one child, who might be destined for prison if she couldn’t straighten things out, and she currently lived in a shack on a mosquito-infested bayou where her only bathroom sink desperately needed a plumber.

Her life and theirs couldn’t have been more different.

Unless you counted Lady Godiva riding naked on a horse to get lower taxes. Marina had never ridden a horse sans clothing, but there was that one jaunt on a four-wheeler. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been a financial boon to anyone except the doctor who’d treated the grass burns she’d gotten when she wrecked. She’d be willing to do it again if someone would lower her taxes, although she suspected that the government would be more inclined to give her a break if she agreed to always ride clothed.