I shake my head sharply. “No. They aren’t like us.”
“Theseus.” She touches my forearm. “It doesn’t have to be this way. You have the title now. I might not love the way you got it, but it’s done. You don’t have to keep doing the awful things he asks of you.” She hesitates. “Aphrodite isn’t all that bad. If you’d stop fighting her and start working with her, maybe we could put a stop to all this before it truly spins out of control.”
Hearing my wife’s name on Pandora’s lips banishes the warmth in my chest. I straighten, shifting my arm from her touch. “She’s using you. I thought you were smarter than that, Pandora.”
“Oh no, you don’t get to do that.” She narrows her eyes. “I grew up in the same place you did, and I learned the same hard lessons surviving that nightmare. You do not get to act like I’m some naive fool being led along by my curiosity. The Thirteen as a whole are monsters. I’ve never argued with that. But they are still made up of people. People with scars who have seen things just as horrible as what we grew up with. And that’s not even getting into the people who don’t live in the center city. There are people like us here, Theseus.”
“We’re not going after the people like us.”
Pandora tosses up her hands. “I wish you would stop and think. If Aeaea had the equivalent of the Thirteen, then Minos would sit on that board. He’s the very thing you claim to hate. You are, too, now that you’ve become Hephaestus.”
I push to my feet, driven by the need to get the fuck away from this conversation, from hearing that name on my best friend’s lips. “Whatever. I’m going to find Minos and update him.”
“Oh yes, do run away like a damned coward.”
I spin on my heel. My knee buckles, but I manage to keep my feet and resist wincing as pain shoots up my leg. I point at her. “That’s where you and I are different, Pandora. You can drag your bleeding heart all over this city, wasting it on people who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. I don’t give a fuck about them, just like I don’t give a fuck about anyone back in Aeaea. I give a fuck about you, and I can’t keep you safe if you’re off gallivanting around with one of those monsters.”
She sits back, her expression sad. I hate that I made her sad, that it seems to be the rule rather than the exception these days. I disappoint Pandora. I disappoint Minos. I’m fucking up. Pandora picks up her e-reader, but her voice follows me as I leave the room. “I’ve always had a monster at my side, Theseus.”
No reason for her words to plague me. I know what I am. I’m not the good guy. That was never going to be my role, and damn Pandora for pretending like I’ve ever had a choice.
In our world, you’re either predator, or you’re prey.
I had to be predator enough to protect us both. Apparently I still do.
I make my way through the penthouse to where Minos’s office is. The door is cracked, so I can hear his deep voice as he speaks to someone on the phone. I lean against the wall, waiting.
“Things are proceeding according to plan, more or less. The shipments are currently waiting in the harbor, but Poseidon has no reason to question their contents.” A pause. “No, I haven’t been able to get to the lower city. The outer barrier might be faltering, but the one on the River Styx is still strong enough to repel us if he decides to make it so, and he’s not my biggest fan.”
That’s the understatement of the year. Though, honestly, it’s a toss-up who among the Thirteen wants us dead the most. Zeus or Hades, perhaps, but we can’t discount Hera, Artemis, Athena, and my darling wife. All are formidable in their own way—even Hera, despite our reports saying it was all but an empty title. That may have been true with past Heras, but it’s not with this one. I would hesitate to give her my back, for fear of ending up with a knife slipped between my ribs.
Minos clears his throat. “The public is responding exactly as you anticipated. They’re doing most of the work for us. One of them even tried to kill Athena this morning, which is significantly more ballsy than I expected so early in the process.” A beat. “Yes, the timeline is intact. It’s a waiting game until the ship docks and our…packages…are unloaded. I’ll, of course, keep you updated.” A pause. “Stop lurking in the halls and get in here.” He’s lost the false cheer in his voice, but I prefer him this way.
When it’s just us, Minos never pretends to be anything other than what he is. A predator, just like me.
I step into the office. It’s nearly identical to the one he set up in the country house he bought from Hermes. A large, dark wooden desk dominates the space with a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city behind it. The other two walls are lined with bookshelves, though in all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him read. Ariadne is the reader of the family, but Minos would never allow her bent and dog-eared romance novels to populate the shelves of his space.
“Shut the door.”
My stomach drops, but I obey. I clench my jaw and keep the limp out of my stride as much as possible as I cross to sink down in the chair across the desk from him. Even with that effort, his gaze lingers on my injured knee and distaste flickers across his features. He grabs a tablet and his fingers sweep over the screen. “I’d like you to explain this to me.”
He spins it to face me, and the sinking feeling in my stomach gets worse. It’s a MuseWatch article on the home page. The photographer caught me right as I was walking up to Aphrodite’s building, and I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking in that moment, but I can’t deny that I look…lost. The headline is even worse.
POOR HEPHAESTUS. AT HOME WAITING FOR HIS WIFE WHILE SHE’S OUT PHILANDERING.
I skim the article, which is pitying, but significantly more sympathetic than previous ones. Adonis’s plan is working, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about being painted as some poor sap waiting with his heart in his hand while his wife runs around town with anyone who will have her.
With Pandora.
“I—”
Minos talks right over me. “Because it looks like my foster son is playing the part of a pathetic weakling who can’t control his wife. It’s been less than a week, and she’s already been photographed with four separate people who aren’t you. The entire city is laughing at you. At us.”
That’s the crux of the matter. Pandora might think I follow Minos without question, but I know what he is and what his priorities are. How he’s acted with me since the Ares competition has more than proved that. I’m no use to him if I’m not in perfect health and the very picture of obedience. “I’m working on it.”
“Are you? Because it appears you’re pining.” He spits it as if it’s a dirty word. “You look weak, which makes us look weak by extension. I have put too much effort into garnering favor with the Olympian people to have you undo it in a few short days. It’s unacceptable.”
Frustration sinks its roots into me. “If you have a better idea to gain public favor, I’d love to hear it.”
“Watch how you speak to me, boy.” His tone goes sharp and dark. “I pulled you out of the gutter and I can put you right back into it. You’ve failed me one too many times already. Do it again, and I’m going stop being so nice.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll fix it.”
“You’d better. You won’t like how things fall out if I’m required to step in.”
You’re Hephaestus now.
“I’ll take care of it.” I shake my head sharply, trying to banish Pandora’s voice. It doesn’t matter if I’m technically one of the thirteen most powerful people in the city. So was the last Hephaestus, and look where he is now.
Six feet underground, food for the worms.
The same can happen to me.
The same will happen to me if I don’t fix this.
15
PANDORA