Good thinking. Inside would be bandages, gauze rolls, suture sets, and antiseptic. Hopefully more than what they’d need.
Cassandra came out, carrying another bag of weaponry. She’d shown up a half hour after Athena and Hermes got back, with Achilles by her side.
“Do you want me to get that?” Athena asked. She stepped toward the car, but Cassandra heaved the bag into the trunk on her own.
“Nope. I want you to keep on standing there with a dopey look on your face.” She smiled. “It’s fine. I’ve got it.” The smile wasn’t exactly warm, but it was something. Better than feathers exploding out of her arm. Athena went into the house. The rest of the packing she’d leave to Andie and Henry. Let the activity calm their nerves. Her hands slid over the smooth, cold surface of her oak dining room table.
Olympus. After all these years, they were going back.
“What are you doing in here?” Odysseus walked up behind her, wiping the blade of a freshly sharpened knife.
“Leaning on a table. What’s it look like?”
“Where were you last night?” he asked.
“I’m surprised you noticed I was gone.” Her tone was petty and childish. She pressed her lips together and wished they’d glue that way.
“Of course I noticed. I would’ve liked to … talk to you,” he said. He studied the blade under the light and returned it to its sheath. “I know. You don’t want any big good-byes. We don’t need them. Because we’re going to win, right? But I wanted that time. I thought you’d be here.”
“Odysseus—”
“Aren’t you the slightest bit afraid that I’ll die today?”
“You?” She laughed. He wouldn’t sandbag inside Olympus, and his hidden speed and strength were more than enough to carry him through. “Not you. Never you. In Troy you charged a thousand swords and no one touched you.”
He snorted. “I remember a wicked spear scar that says differently.”
“But still, you died in your bed, an old man.”
“So I did,” he said. He slipped his arms around her waist. “I still worry for you, goddess.”
She pushed her fingers into his hair. Henry’s Mustang growled into the driveway.
Odysseus sighed and pressed his forehead to hers.
“No more time for this, I suppose.”
28
OLYMPUS
Andie’s cave wasn’t far. Less than an hour’s drive. Athena craned her neck over Odysseus’ arm to get a look at the speedometer of the Dodge.
“What? Am I not driving fast enough?”
“It’s fine,” she said.
“If you want me to go faster, just say so. But there’s ice on the road.”
“There isn’t ice on the road. It’s almost forty degrees out.”
Odysseus gave her sideways eyes. “Not in the shade.”
Hermes leaned in between them from the backseat he shared with Achilles.
“Remember the good old days?” he asked. “When mortals just did what they were told?”
Athena pointed at Odysseus. “That one never did what he was told.”
Achilles head popped up between them, too, four heads wedged into the front seat, each one wound tight with nervous energy. Today the Dodge was six sizes too small, ten times too slow. Athena glanced into the side mirror, at Henry’s black Mustang following close behind. Around her, Hermes, Odysseus, and Achilles continued to chatter, and she tuned them out. When they arrived at Olympus there’d be no time for pondering or nerves. They’d have to be sharp and do as she ordered. So they’d better let it all out now, in the car.
“It wasn’t hard to get into the underworld?” Achilles asked.
“Nope, just blood and a boat. Same as always.”
“Was Hades there?” he asked.
“If he was, I didn’t see him,” Athena replied.
“No Hades, and no Apollo, either. Huh.” Achilles sat back thoughtfully.
“His name was Aidan,” she said. “We call him Aidan now.”
“Aidan or Apollo, he wasn’t there. And if he wasn’t there, where do you think he is?”