“It’s no use trying to talk sense into him.” Eris appears, looking more put together than she has a right to after being gone such a short time. She’s pulled her hair back into a slick ponytail and gone with a minimal makeup look…except for her crimson lips. She picked a fitted black dress that shows off her lean frame, and black heels high enough to make her the tallest person in the room.
“Wife.” For once, I can’t read the expression on Theseus’s face. Or, to be more accurate, there are too many conflicting expressions. Lust, anger, something like tenderness, maybe the tiniest hint of vulnerability. Theseus doesn’t know how to feel about his wife.
That makes two of us.
“I’ll walk you out.” I say.
She looks at me. “That’s really not necessary. None of this is.”
There it is. The first crack.
Theseus crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t know. Felt pretty necessary to me.”
Surprise pulls me up short. Now is the time when he should snarl something and storm out. Not stand there calmly and stare his wife down.
“Fine. It was a little necessary. Your sacrifice has been duly noted, but I have to leave now. You should do the same if you don’t want to be late.” If I hadn’t heard the panic in Theseus’s voice last night and then seen the fragility in her eyes this morning, I never would have known what happened yesterday.
Good.
She’s too stubborn to show weakness to the rest of the city, and I’m glad of it. Enemies looking for a fracture to exploit will find none.
That doesn’t mean I’m content for her stubbornness to apply to me, too. “You and your husband have more in common than either of you will admit. Both of your priorities are misguided.” I shake my head. “And you’re both too stubborn by half. Let’s go.”
Eris catches up to me as I reach the door. She’s remarkably subdued as we take the elevator down to the parking garage. The doors open and she reaches out to hold them that way. “My priorities aren’t misguided. I realize this city doesn’t mean anything to you, but—”
“This city will kill you and move on to the next Aphrodite without blinking.” I speak too harshly, but it’s the truth.
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “Sometimes that’s the price of being a person like me.”
“You’ll die for nothing, then.” I don’t normally let my feelings get the best of me, but she’s speaking so reasonably, as if the danger to her is barely worth mentioning. “Surely your life is worth more than being some footnote in Olympian history.”
Eris gives me a long look. “What did you think would happen when you came to my city, Pandora?” She says it gently, which somehow makes it that much worse. “Even if you didn’t know Minos’s plans, you had to know he meant harm to the people who live here. Did you really think the Thirteen wouldn’t step up to get between our city and the one who threatens it?”
Guilt flares. Truth be told, I didn’t care about the people in this city, any more than I cared about the people on the island we left. The only person I cared about is sitting back in Eris’s kitchen, probably flirting with Adonis.
I know what kind of person that makes me, but I made my peace with that a long time ago. I lift my chin. “How many people have you hurt for the good of this city? Including the ones back in your apartment?”
She doesn’t flinch. I don’t honestly expect her to.
Eris shrugs. “You’re just proving my point. The good of the many will always outweigh the need of one person.” She makes a face. “I’m not eager to throw myself in front of a bullet, but there’s been risk associated with being me since I was born. It’s just more explicit now.”
“I hate this,” I whisper. “I hate that you’re in danger and that you’re at odds with Theseus.”
Her expression goes contemplative. “Maybe we’re not quite the enemies we were a few days ago. I don’t know if last night actually changes anything.” Eris narrows her eyes. “What are my odds of turning him?”
I wish I had better news for her. She might see Theseus as a tool the same way Minos does, but it’s not the same. As husband and wife, he and Eris are closer to being on the same footing than him and the stand-in parent he feels he owes everything to. Her turning Theseus and having him dancing to her tune wouldn’t be ideal, but it’d still be preferable.
It’ll never happen.
I turn and look out into the parking garage. It’s full of wildly expensive vehicles and shadows. No one around to hear me tell the truth. “Not good. In his mind, Minos saved us. He swept in after a really traumatic event and seemed to give Theseus everything he could have ever dreamed of.”
“After that priest tried to hurt you and Theseus killed him, but not before he almost disemboweled Theseus. Made him quite the perfect little soldier-victim for Minos, I imagine.”
“What?” I spin back to face her. “How do you know about that?” I had given her the bare details before, but I purposefully kept things back.
“He told me.” She’s still got that look on her face, the one that says she’s seeing a thousand puzzle pieces and considering the best way to put them together. “After I was attacked.”
The story of how we came to be in Minos’s household isn’t exactly a secret, but Theseus doesn’t share private stories. Especially not ones that involve me. The people who know why he killed that priest number in the single digits. “Eris.”
“Yes?”
She doesn’t understand. How could she? I barely understand myself. What happened between them that things have shifted this much? I don’t know how to feel. I want him free of Minos, but I truly don’t want him to put on someone else’s shackles. Not even hers. “If he told you that story, then your odds aren’t as bad as I thought. They’re not good—Minos’s hold on him is too complete—but they’re not zero.”
She smiles suddenly. “I’ve worked with worse.”
“He’s not a toy to be fought over.”
“No, he’s not.” She pauses. “But if he doesn’t get out of my way, I will be forced to crush him. I won’t hesitate, Pandora. I can’t afford to.”
“Eris—”
She catches my hands, placing them on her hips. “Come over early.”
Nothing I say to either of them is going to change their paths forward. Theseus and Eris are well-matched in a number of ways, including their bullheaded stubbornness to dance to tunes set by other people. She won’t thank me for pointing that out any more than he does, and if I keep arguing, it will end things between us sooner than I’m ready to let her go.
So I don’t argue. I run my hands up her sides as she steps closer. In her heels, I barely come up to her shoulder, which puts me right at the perfect height to appreciate her breasts. They’re truly lovely breasts. I would very much like to get my hands and mouth on them.
I clear my throat, trying to focus. “You’re not going to have time for me if you’re running around the city putting out fires.”
“I’ll make time for you.” She skates her fingers up my arms and cups my face. “I’ll always make time for you. Thank you for breakfast.” She presses a kiss to my lips, light and teasing. “And thank you for being the voice of reason last night. Bringing in Adonis might not have gone how you’d thought it would, but it truly did help.”
I pull her close and kiss her properly. Eris tastes like mint and I’m smudging her lipstick, but I don’t care. I think my hands might be shaking, but I can’t be sure. When she finally eases back, I’m clinging to her. “I was worried about you. I am worried about you.”
“I know.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders and holds me close. “I know.”
Ironic that it feels like she’s comforting me when she’s the one who was hurt. I’ve known this woman a few weeks, and I have no business feeling like the world would be significantly dimmer without her in it, but I don’t make a habit of ignoring hard truths.
I care about Eris. A lot. Sometime in the last few days, I’ve slipped right over the edge of enjoying her company and fallen into…falling. Maybe that should bother or scare me, but there’s no use railing against fundamental truth. It simply is. And the fundamental truth of this situation is that I’m falling for Eris. “Stay safe today.”