She beamed up at him. “I’d like that. Sandy, you’re coming too, right? You’re with me? You know he’s not Theseus. Alena is wrong.”
“A threesome, really?” I couldn’t help the words. Beth glared at me and I glared back. We were friends, we’d survive this, I had to believe it. Even if it felt like something was broken that couldn’t be fixed. A crème br?lée spilled on the floor, ready to be tossed in the trash.
“No,” she snapped. “I just don’t want her around you.”
Anger coursed through me, and a low hiss rumbled through my chest. Theseus tightened his hold on Beth’s waist and slowly guided her to the door while I stood there shaking with the growing fury.
“Alena, lovely to meet you.” Theseus winked and they were out the door. Sandy crept down the rest of the stairs and paused at the door. “I’m sorry, Alena. I have to go with her. I don’t want him to hurt her.”
“I get it, just . . . be careful. He is Theseus, and he’s here to kill us all.”
Her eyes were sad and she looked away. “I don’t know. I . . . I just don’t know.”
She closed the door behind her with a soft click, and I counted to ten in an attempt to get control of myself.
“Son of a bitch!” That word slipped from me in a burst of emotion. I stomped through the house, looking for something to hit, something to . . . I don’t know, destroy, maybe.
“Your scales are showing.”
I spun and glared up at Ernie, my voice coming out in a fair imitation of Yaya’s you’re-in-shit-now-you’d-better-run-if-you-want-to-survive tone.
“You! You gave him one of your arrows! I thought you were my friend, you little fat-bottomed jerk!” I took a step toward him, and he floated to the ceiling, his eyes widening.
“What? No, I didn’t . . . Oh my gods.” He put a hand to his face. “I thought there was one missing. I . . . he took one, I didn’t give it to him, you have to believe me.”
His eyes begged, and I tried to see through my anger and betrayal. Tried and failed.
“How could he have taken it from you? You just leave them sitting out there on the street to be grabbed?” I snapped.
“No, it . . . they’re made for me. I leave them behind at the forge, though, because I don’t want them to be taken.” He held his hands out to me. “Please believe me, I didn’t give it to him.”
“Maybe you should hide them better.” I slumped against the wall and stared up at him. “Your timing is rather suspicious, even without the arrow business. Theseus was here, and he’s got Beth in his thrall because of your arrow.”
He nodded and slowly dropped from the ceiling. “You believe me?”
“While I probably shouldn’t”—I watched him draw closer—“I do. I don’t think you’d actively try to get us killed. So if it isn’t because of Theseus, why are you here?”
Hurt flashed over his face, and I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s been a poop-filled day,” I apologized.
The flutter of his wings stopped. I opened my eyes to see him sitting on the back of the recliner. “I’ve been trying to find a moment to talk to you all day. I didn’t want to interrupt you and your yaya, even though that monkey bread smelled amazing. And I was pretty sure you didn’t want me interrupting your . . . talk”—he waggled his eyebrows—“with Remo.”
I glared at him even as my face heated. “So instead you decided right after Theseus walks out with two of my friends is a good idea?”
He sagged in the air. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m sorry? I’m torn in two directions. If I completely tell Hera I won’t help her, I will get no inside information for you, something that you need.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared up at him. “And do you have any such info?”
“Well, no, not yet—”
I snorted and turned my back on him, struggling to breathe through the anger. Theseus . . . damn him to hell and back. I might not say the words out loud, but I could say them in my head and not feel too bad.
“Alena, tell me what happened. Please?” Ernie dared to float in front of me, lowering himself to the edge of the sink.
I let out a sigh, and with it the worst of the anger faded.
“He has Beth believing his name is Tim, and that he cares about her. She was ready to fight me just because I tried to tell her he was Theseus and not Tim.” I rubbed a hand over my face. I slumped into a kitchen chair. “Why isn’t he just attacking me? I hate to say this, but at least I could do something with that.”
Ernie pulled one wing around him and played with the feathers. “Look, Theseus isn’t like Achilles. He was king of Athens, and the goddess he’s tied himself to is Athena. Goddess of wisdom . . . so he’s not going to play a purely physical game with you. He’ll twist your world inside out and then some. He handles things almost opposite to how Achilles does. I mean, look at Achilles. He didn’t even update his clothing or weapons; he came at you with all the old-school stuff, including the Bull Boys. Theseus is smarter than Achilles. A lot smarter, and the fact that he’s lining your friends up against you . . . I hate to say it, but it doesn’t surprise me.”
His words made sense. “Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about. Can you tell me anything about him, other than what you already have?” I looked at Ernie, watching him for one of his tells. His left foot bobbed several times before he stilled it. I looked away with a soft snort. “Never mind.”
“No, I want to help, Alena, I do. Let me think a minute what I can tell you.” He flew to the table and sat on the edge next to me. “Okay, it’s obvious he’s learning what the world has to offer him in terms of taking you down. He would have watched that video your idiot husband took of you fighting Achilles in the stadium. I mean, it’s all over the Internet. He’ll have learned from it. That is his style. He’s feeling things out right now and trying to make your life harder by taking away your allies. And he has some abilities with charm. I bet that’s why Sandy went with him. Yes, he took my arrow and used it on Beth, but not on Sandy. But she still went with them, right?”
I frowned as I nodded.
He went on. “It only works on those who are susceptible.”
I waved both hands in the air as if batting away steam. “Yeah, but he’s still going to have to fight me at some point, right?”
“He may not. What if . . .” He stumbled to a stop and clamped his mouth shut. “I can’t tell you anything else.”
My jaw clenched and I fought against the tears. Forget it, I needed a good cry. I lowered my head, hid my face, and let the tears fall. Mostly angry tears, but I’d lost two friends in the space of as many minutes, and the pain of that hovered in me as well. Ernie fluttered down and patted my back. I took a swing at him.
“Go away, Ernie. Just go away.”