“News?”
“Not yet.” He doesn’t look at me as we make our slow, painful way to the sliding glass doors. “She’s still in surgery. They’re not even updating Zeus and Ares.” A pause. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I grit my teeth. “But I will be.”
The two people in question stare at us as we move through the doors. Zeus glares at me and I glare right back. This motherfucker better not think he can keep me from my wife. He stalks up to us, and just like every other time we’ve stood close together, I’m surprised to find he’s not particularly tall. He’s got a big presence.
Zeus eyes me. “Find somewhere else to be, Hephaestus.”
Hephaestus. I’ve fucking hated that name since taking it. Maybe I should balk at shucking it aside, but the truth is that it feels like a burden and I’m sick of carrying burdens for other people. “I’m done.”
“Excuse me?”
“Consider this my resignation. I’m out as Hephaestus.”
He narrows his eyes. “What trick is this?”
“No trick.” I see Pandora sitting in a waiting room chair, her knee bouncing nervously as she watches us. I finally understand what she’s been saying for years. Gods, it’s a miracle she’s put up with my contrary ass. I turn back to Zeus. “I’m done. Being one of the Thirteen is a nightmare. You all can fuck right off, just like Minos can fuck right off.”
If anything, he glares harder. “If this is some ploy—”
“For fuck’s sake, Zeus,” Adonis mutters.
I give him a squeeze even as I keep my expression locked down as best I can. “Suspect me later if you want. Right now, you’re standing between me and my wife, and I will take you out at the knees if you don’t get the fuck out of my way.” I seem to be saying that a lot lately, but it’s the truth.
He steps slowly out of my way. “You fuck with her, I’ll cut your throat myself.”
I’ve spent most of my life getting into fights with dangerous people, so I have plenty of experience when someone’s bluffing. Zeus isn’t. It makes me like the fucker a little bit. I grin. “I fuck with you, you’ll have to get in line, because she’ll be the first one to put a blade to my throat.”
He hesitates and nods shortly. Then he gets the fuck out of my way. About damn time. I make it three steps before I pause. What I’m about to do is more a betrayal than resigning from the title, but I’m not going to pry Eris or Adonis out of Olympus, which means I have to keep the fucking city standing for them. “Minos has several shipments in the harbor. I don’t know if they’ll be under his name, but you want to get to whatever that cargo is before he does.”
Zeus stares at me a long moment and then gives a sharp nod. As I turn from him, he’s already pulling out his phone.
Pandora surges to her feet and rushes to us. She pulls both me and Adonis into a hug, and I manage to hold them to me without it being incredibly awkward. Maybe I’m getting better at this whole comfort thing?
It’s easier when I don’t have to find words. There’s nothing to say. Eris will live. I refuse to believe in any other outcome. Without me as Hephaestus, it means we only have one set of enemies to deal with. Yeah, that means the entire fucking city, but still. We’ll figure it out.
We manage to get three seats against the wall and sit there as the seconds tick by, one of my hands clutched in each of theirs. I stare at the door, willing the doctor to arrive with good news. I do it for so long, that when she finally does, I almost don’t believe it.
She’s a curvy exhausted-looking woman with light-brown skin and her hair hidden under a cap. She eyes us. “She made it through surgery. Two of you can go back.” She holds up two fingers. “If you make a fuss about it, none of you can go back. She needs to rest, and I’m not going to have you fighting in my hospital.”
“I’ll go.” Zeus steps forward. I fully expect him to take Ares, but he turns those cold blue eyes on me. “You coming?”
For a second, I think he couldn’t possibly be speaking to me, but Adonis gives me a squeeze and then he stands to help me to my feet. “We’ll be right here when you’re done.”
I take a deep breath, feeling weirdly adrift as I walk away from them, but Adonis and Pandora aren’t the ones who need me right now.
My wife is.
37
APHRODITE
Getting stabbed hurts like a bitch. I do not recommend it. Maybe I should have agreed to the extra pain meds the nurse insisted on, but my brain is already foggy from whatever they gave me to keep me under during surgery. I’m alone in this hospital room, and virtually helpless. I’m not going to make it any easier on someone who wants me dead.
Gods, I’m tired.
I close my eyes. Just for a moment. Just to give me a break from spinning my mental wheels trying to see a way forward. It feels like I’ve been churning for my entire life and yet I’m really no better off than I was as a child.
All the freedom I fought for. All the power. And yet here I am, once again the target of the violence I fought so hard to escape. It’s not the same as growing up in my father’s house. It’s not remotely the same.
I feel just as trapped.
The door opens and I jolt. “Fuck, that hurts.”
I expected the nurse, or maybe a doctor. I didn’t expect my brother and my husband to enter the room without bloodshed. They both look like shit. Perseus probably hasn’t slept in days. Theseus has blood stained in the creases of his fingers.
I have never been so glad to see two people in my entire life. My lower lip quivers, and I can’t seem to make it stop. “Is that blood?” My voice comes out strange. I want to blame the drugs, but I feel small and weak and unforgivably glad to see my husband. “Are you okay?”
He looks down at his hands and curses. “I thought I got it all.”
“Shitty at your job as always, Theseus.”
I glare at my brother. I know his bitchy attitude spawns from worry, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie here and let him drive the wedge between me and my husband any deeper. “He is Hephaestus, and you will refer to him as such.”
“No, he’s really not.” Perseus says it without any inflection. “He resigned his title less than an hour ago. It was all very dramatic.” He glances at Theseus. “While I appreciate the tip about the ships, you were too late. They were unloaded sometime last night. Poseidon has no idea what was inside them.”
“You have all the resources of Olympus at your disposal. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
The words don’t make sense. Not the resignation, and not whatever ship they’re talking about. I know I should care about the latter, but I can’t get past the former. “You resigned?”
He gives Perseus a dirty look and rounds the hospital bed to sink gingerly into the chair next to me. “I have some things to say, but I’ll wait until this puffed-up parakeet leaves.”
My brother crosses his arms over his chest. “I left my sister alone with you, and she’s been almost shot and successfully stabbed. Anything you want to say to her, you can say in front of me.”
Theseus’s jaw goes tight, and I can’t help tensing. The tiny movement sends a fresh wave of pain through me. I should have expected it, but it catches me by surprise and I whimper. He looks back at me and takes my hand. “Do I need to get the nurse?”
“No.” My voice is hoarse. “No, I’m fine.”
He narrows his eyes. “You refused more pain meds, didn’t you?” My brother starts cursing, but neither of us look at him. Theseus squeezes my hand slowly, almost like he’s not sure if it’s the right move. “We’ll talk, and then you’ll take your meds, Eris. Promise me.”
“It’s not safe,” I whisper.