“What are you doing?” Athena blinked confusedly as Odysseus dashed for the kitchen.
“We’ve got to get his fever down,” Ares said.
Athena darted past them in the hall and opened the bathroom door wide, noting absently that Hermes had found time to fix it since she’d ripped it off its hinges. After the first time she’d heard him fall.
She tore half the shower curtain off its rings pulling it back.
“Cold water,” Ares barked. “Push the plug down.”
Ares set their brother down gently. The water touching his bandaged hand churned pink and Athena winced when he splashed it over Hermes’ thin arms and shoulders. It must’ve been so cold. Such a shock.
But Hermes didn’t shiver. He didn’t take great gulps of air. He lay in the frigid water as though he was dead. But at least he stopped thrashing.
“What’s going on?”
Athena glanced over her shoulder and saw Thanatos standing in the doorway with wide eyes.
“You get out!” she shouted. “Get out of my house! Now!”
He backed out slowly. Goddamned Death.
“Ice,” Odysseus said. He emptied three trays of cubes into the bath before Ares stopped him on the fourth.
“Keep that one. We might need it later. And refill the rest.”
“Is it working?” Athena asked. “Is he cooler?”
“I don’t know.”
Time flattened. The sound of water rushing into the tub went on and on into forever, and she couldn’t tell if it cooled her brother, even as it cooled the air against her face. Her mind spun, it raced ahead and put coins over his eyes. She could actually see them, silver circles sunk into his cheeks.
Ares pressed ice to the back of Hermes’ neck, and his lids fluttered. They fluttered, and the eyes underneath swiveled back and forth, slower and slower, until he blinked. When he opened his eyes again, they fixed on her face.
“Hey,” Athena said.
“Hey yourself,” Hermes whispered. “This feels nice.”
Her heart thudded in her throat, and she gripped Odysseus’ fingers where they held her shoulder. Hermes was fine. It was just a scare. Just a bad night after too much running and too many bad dreams.
“Ares,” Athena said. “How did you know to do this?”
“You knew it, too. You just panicked.” He pressed more ice to Hermes’ forehead. “You love him too much,” he said gruffly. “It makes you stupid.”
The pulse in Ares’ neck jumped like a grasshopper. His expression was as worried as theirs. He loved their brother, too, she realized. No matter what he said.
*
They lay Hermes onto the couch with ice packs and damp towels, and covered the whole mess with an insulated blanket to slow the melt. Athena spent the rest of the night sitting on the floor, watching him sleep. Odysseus did his best to stay awake with her, but by daybreak she and Ares were the only ones left. Odysseus snored softly with his head in her lap, and Panic did the same with Ares on the other sofa. Oblivion slept beside the armrest. Or she thought it did. Its eyes were still open, but it hadn’t moved in hours, and occasionally twitched its paws like it was dreaming.
They didn’t talk, though their whispers would’ve woken no one. Athena didn’t know how to say thank you, and she didn’t want to hear the other thing. The thing that she knew. That Hermes was worse. That ice baths and an insulated couch were not a cure. They’d fought their way out of the underworld in just enough time to watch their brother die.
No. I’ll save him. I should be able to save him.
Maybe if she’d been there. If she’d stayed in the fight that day instead of diving off Olympus. Hermes had had to do everything without her.
But then Odysseus would be dead. And damn it all, she couldn’t trade one for the other, even in her imagination.