“Maybe not, but that’s how it is.”
They turned the corner toward Henry’s room. Athena stood in the hall, talking to their mother. Both wore broad smiles. Cassandra’s mother put a hand to her chest and shook her head sympathetically, and Athena nodded. Cassandra lip-read Athena say, “Thank you.”
Athena. Since the day they’d met her, both of her parents swallowed everything she said and asked for seconds. So easy. But it wasn’t real charm. It was a goddess’s trick. A stretched mask of humanity to help them smooth their lies.
As they approached, Athena disengaged herself. She touched Cassandra’s shoulder as she passed. To her watching mother, it must’ve looked like a sympathetic, familiar gesture. The fond gesture of a friend. But Athena hadn’t even looked at Cassandra when she did it. The text message arrived a few moments later.
HENRYS GETTING OUT TODAY. I WANT ALL OF YOU AT THE HOUSE TOMORROW MORNING. EARLY.
Cassandra hit delete. Hard.
Gods. Goddamn gods.
*
The girl sitting across the table from Cassandra was beautiful, just like Andie and Henry said. Braided, brown hair was gathered with ribbons down her back. And she had the most incredible eyes, like the beach glass they’d found on a family vacation in Florida. She seemed at ease, too, even as the others sat and stood, leaned against counters and walls like refugees with arms in slings and bandaged knees. Black bruises ringed around necks. Calypso, the girl’s name was. Cally. Odysseus’ girlfriend, shown up out of nowhere to change everything they knew about him.
Poor Athena. Whether Cassandra liked her or not, to have someone blow in and claim the boy she loved had to be hard. Especially when the girl looked like Calypso. Say what you would about Aidan, but at least he never had secret girlfriends popping out of the woodwork. If he had, Cassandra would have turned them to leather.
Hermes whispered something to Athena so quiet that only gods could hear. It was irritating. They’d gathered at the butt crack of dawn at Athena’s whim, and for what? To watch her sigh and look out the window? Hermes glanced their way and shrugged, thinner and thinner in a red t-shirt emblazoned with a snowboarding logo. His methane-torch eyes shone large and worried in his face.
“Someone has to start,” Odysseus said. “Hera’s back. What are we supposed to do about it? Find out how weak she still is? Bait Ares and follow him until we find where they hide?”
“What does it matter about Hera?” asked Andie. “Ares is the one sending wolves after us and stabbing Athena in the jungle.”
“But he’s taking orders from her.”
“So what? Immediate threats first. Let’s kill the wolves. They said Henry has to die.”
“They must’ve made a mistake,” Odysseus said. “Thought he was me or something.”
Athena dragged her hand across the countertop.
“None of this matters now,” she said. Her voice cut through all the others. “We need to find Achilles. That’s what Ares was after in the jungle. That’s what he wanted to choke out of your throat. We handle him”—she looked at Cassandra—“and then we focus on Ares, Hera, and Aphrodite.”
“Look, we can’t ignore the wolves,” Andie said. “Especially if you’re going off again after Achilles.”
Achilles. The name sliced through Cassandra’s ears like a knife. For once she didn’t mind Athena pushing the hunt for Aphrodite aside. Achilles was the greatest warrior Greece had ever seen. He’d been the terror of her people. He’d murdered dozens of them. Hundreds. But none with more hatred than Hector.
“We’re not going off after Achilles,” said Odysseus. He looked at Athena gravely. “Not when all she wants is to find him and kill him.”