Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
“It’s a little too early to say for sure if anything is working out, but I’m doing better than I was.” I put a pan on the stove to heat. “I want you to get your stuff from the apartment and come here. I don’t know what our father is doing, but it’s obviously hurting you. I’m not exactly free, but I made a deal with Hera. She’ll protect you.”
Icarus laughs bitterly. “You’re always looking out for me. But when you needed help, you didn’t even think to turn to me, did you?” He takes hold of my hand before I can formulate an answer. “I’m sorry. I’ve been worried and I’m indulging in more self-pity than I usually allow myself. Don’t think for a second that I begrudge your choices, Ariadne.”
“But?”
“But you don’t have to ride in to rescue me this time. Between our father and the Olympians, you need to keep your wits about you. I don’t want to become the lever that they use to control you. Maybe it’s my time to play your knight in shining armor for once.”
I can respect that he doesn’t want me to give up anything for him, but it doesn’t mean I like the direction this conversation is going. “If you have the option of Hera, why would you stay with Father?”
“I’m not going to stay with him.” He shrugs. “I’m going to take a page out of your book and bargain my knowledge for safety.”
I stop in the middle of pouring blueberries into the pancake mix. “What are you talking about? I already gave them everything.”
“I’m not talking about the Olympians, Ariadne. I’m talking about the Aeaeans.” He says it with such exhaustion that I want to hug him again, but the brittle set to his shoulders says that he won’t accept it this time.
“Our people don’t hold any love for us. Father made sure of that.” I’m snapping at him for no damn reason, but I can’t seem to stop. I worked myself into exhaustion compiling the information that I facilitated Apollo finding. It took weeks. All for the chance to get me and Icarus out. And he’s dismissing it as if it means nothing.
My brother shrugs. “People whisper secrets during pillow talk that they would never put on a computer. They don’t have to hold love for me to fuck me, and when they fucked me, they inadvertently gave me all the information I need to ensure their…cooperation.”
I stare. I know he was free with his charms back on the island, but he kept to our peers, the adult children of the scions. Most of those operated the same way our father did—keeping all their information to themselves. The only secrets Icarus would be able to find are unsubstantiated rumors. “There’s no proof that the information you have from your past lovers is true.”
His mouth twists. “Ariadne, for every lover I had in public, there were two in private that wanted to keep our…activities…secret. I wasn’t just fucking our friends. I was fucking their parents, too.”
“Icarus,” I whisper.
“Don’t do that.” He shakes his head sharply. “Don’t pity me. Every choice I made, I made willingly. I sought them out, not the other way around. No matter how this conflict ended with Olympus, I wanted us to have a way out. And we do, Ariadne. Some of the secrets I hold will pave our way to freedom, financial and otherwise.”
He might have chosen this, but the only reason he was put in a position to do so was because of the trap our father created. We never possessed any freedom of our own, and if Minos had his way, we never would have. I would be married off to further his power. Since he made it clear from a very young age that he didn’t intend to pass on his businesses and money to Icarus, he likely would’ve married off my brother as well.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to hear. I would have saved Icarus from such desperate measures if I knew he was considering them in the first place. “But my deal with Hera—”
“Is just another cage.” He stands and crosses to me, taking my hands in a desperate grip. “Just stay alive long enough for that damned barrier to come down and we can escape. I don’t need to bargain secrets with the Olympians. I have enough blackmail secured to fund us for the rest of our lives. We can go anywhere, do anything. You’ve always wanted to travel. You can do it, Ariadne. Just trust me.”
I don’t know if I’m feeling hope or despair. The barrier coming down means my father and Circe have furthered their goals enough to take the next step in assaulting Olympus directly. It means people will die—more people. They might not be my people, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the potential loss of life. If I was, I never would’ve betrayed my father to begin with. I never would have agreed to Hera’s plan. I never would have done…a lot of things.