“I promise that I’ll try.” She gives me one last squeeze and steps back. “Feel free to stay at my place if you’d like. As you found out this morning, you have access.”
Granting me access to her home was no doubt part of her ploy to seduce me, but it warms me all the same. “I might do that.”
“Good.” She pulls a compact and tissue from her purse and somehow manages to fix her lipstick in a few swipes. “You stay safe today, too.”
I’m about to point out that the entirety of Olympus isn’t after me, but I don’t get a chance before a trio of people in black tactical gear approach. I tense, ready to grab Eris and haul her back into the elevator, but she sighs. “My sister would send Achilles as part of my team.”
As soon as she says it, I recognize the unreasonably handsome white man in the center of the trio. He’s the one who fought the Minotaur in the final Ares trial. It’d been a fearsome fight, going well past the point when the Minotaur was eliminated.
For his part, he doesn’t seem any happier with the arrangement than Eris is. He gives her a cold look. “Aphrodite. We’re here to escort you.” His lips thin. “You were supposed to wait upstairs for us.”
“Oh, that.” She waves it away. “I needed to have a private conversation with my dear Pandora. I’m sure you understand.”
He turns that steely gaze on me. “What I understand is that any danger to you will be eliminated.”
I go cold. No mistaking the threat being directed at me. Eris steps between us and drawls, “Aw, Achilles, I didn’t think you liked me that much.”
“I don’t. But if you get hurt, it will make Helen sad. I go out of my way not to make my woman sad.”
“Lucky me.” She turns and presses another quick kiss to my lips. “See you tonight.”
I watch them walk away, my heart in my throat. There’s no denying that Ares set Eris up with the best people she had, but will it be enough? When every citizen of this city is a possible enemy, the chances of making it out of this without losing someone I love…
It feels impossible.
28
HEPHAESTUS
I watch Adonis do dishes over the rim of my coffee cup. My wife was right; I need to get moving if I don’t want to be late. But I can’t leave before I button things up with him.
He seems fine enough, but I don’t know if I trust that. He’s Olympian. He lies as well as the rest of them, even if he doesn’t seem to lie to me all that often. “You good?”
“Not really.” He rolls his head, his neck popping. “This whole situation is messy.”
“Messy” doesn’t begin to cover it. There were a few moments this morning in the kitchen when I forgot all about that, though. It was just nice to be there with Pandora while Aphrodite and Adonis drank their coffee. The casual intimacy relaxed something in me that I can’t afford to have relaxed, but I didn’t want it to end.
I still don’t.
That doesn’t prevent me from running my mouth. “You could walk away. We don’t have a choice about being here, but you do.” Pandora, too, but I know better than to try to push her again. She’ll make her own decisions. She always has.
“I really can’t.” He finishes the dishes and makes quick work of drying them. “Not from her. Not from you, either.”
My stomach does a strange swoop. “Adonis—”
“Be safe out there today.”
That makes me pause. “Are you worried about me?”
He huffs out a breath. “Of course I am. The public of Olympus are mostly good people, but the ambitious ones without moral compasses are looking at every single one of the Thirteen and sharpening their knives. You are one of the Thirteen.”
“No one is coming after me.” I say it confidently, even as a little kernel of doubt takes seed. Minos is hardly a caring father figure, but surely he wouldn’t put me in a position where it was likely I’d be killed…
Would he?
“You need to go,” Adonis says gently. “You can’t be late for meetings with the Thirteen. Your position is already rocky enough.”
He’s right, but I couldn’t give a fuck about the Thirteen and their rules and rituals right now. I’m starting to be able to read him better, though. I recognize the stubborn set of his mouth. There will be no arguing with him about this. “Just finishing my coffee.” I drain the mug. “This conversation isn’t over.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He plucks the mug from my hands and presses a quick kiss to my lips. “Now, go.”
I go.
Fifteen minutes later, I walk into the conference room where Zeus has called the Thirteen for what’s become a weekly meeting. It’s a waste of fucking time. There are alliances within the group, and plenty of them are at odds with each other. If Zeus says the sky is blue, Artemis will snarl that it’s purple out of sheer spite.
Not even their hatred for me and Minos is enough to unify them, though you wouldn’t know it by the glares I receive from every person in the room when I walk through the door.
Everyone except my wife.
She doesn’t smile, but her expression is carefully blank. Might as well roll out the welcome mat for me after the last two weeks. I walk around the table, careful to minimize my limp as much as possible even though my knee aches like a motherfucker.
I’m starting to think that pain will never go away.
I drop into the empty chair next to Eris. I should probably say something to showcase that she spent last night in my bed willingly and doesn’t hate me as much as she should, but the words don’t come. I’m not on her side, but that doesn’t mean I have to kick her legs out from under her when she’s trying so hard to keep her shit together.
Zeus leans forward and everyone around the table goes quiet. Neat trick. His cold gaze flicks over me, his eyes narrowing the slightest bit when he sees how close I’m sitting to his sister.
He turns that look on the empty chair in the center of the table. “Where is Hermes?”
Dionysus clears his throat. “She said duty calls and made a last-minute trip outside the boundary.”
Zeus doesn’t curse. He doesn’t so much as blink. “No one sanctioned that trip, Poseidon.”
Poseidon shrugs. He’s a big fucker with pale skin and deep red hair. “She’s Hermes. She doesn’t need approval.” His deep voice gains an edge. “Unless the laws have changed in the last few days?”
Zeus sweeps a look over the rest of the room. “Then we move on without her. Let’s begin.”
Before anyone can speak, the doors open and Minos walks in.
Shock makes me freeze. What the fuck is he doing here? He doesn’t even look at me, his attention focusing on Zeus as he smiles. “Everyone is so serious. Am I late?”
“Right on time.” Zeus doesn’t return his smile. “You have our attention. What do you want?”
Minos’s brows draw together the tiniest bit in genuine surprise. “I’m sorry? You invited me here today.”
“Yes. I did.” Zeus leans back. No one seems to breathe. “I tire of these games, Minos. You came to Olympus with an agenda, and I’ve indulged it. That’s finished now. You want something from the Thirteen. Let’s stop wasting everyone’s time and dispense with the games.”
A bold move.
I don’t know if it’s a smart one, but I keep my mouth shut as I watch Minos. Whatever he thought this meeting was about, he didn’t expect this. He also didn’t get to this point in his life without learning to think on his feet.
He smiles at Zeus, as if he can beam his charm right into the other man’s head. “But you like games so much in Olympus. I’ve merely been honoring my new home by indulging in them.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
I flick a glance at Artemis. She’s not keeping her expression as locked down as the others. If there wasn’t a table between them, she might have tried to attack Minos. I’m so used to her looking at me like that after I killed her cousin that it’s almost not worth mentioning. The way Hera reaches out and touches her arm beneath the table is, though. Especially when Artemis slumps back in her chair in response. I didn’t think those two liked each other much.