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)
“Don’t thank me. I take no joy in any of this.” She casts a single look at the dead bodies and marches through the front door, leaving me to follow on her heels. “Olympus needs to be focused on the outside threat, not on worrying about what I’m doing.”
It seems to me that the only thing Olympus should be worried about is what Hermes is doing. But her actions are serving my purpose, so I keep my mouth shut and follow her out the door.
We walk a block in silence before a roar sounds behind us and a cloud of dust kicks up as the building comes down. Just like she planned. She turns abruptly to me. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
I stare at her outstretched hand. “You used me as bait.”
“Only a little. I knew you could handle it and, look at that, you handled it. Now, you’re wasting time.” She rolls her eyes and wiggles her fingers until I take her hand and allow her to shake mine. “Good luck with the rest of your life.”
“Just like that?”
She extracts her hand from mine and gives me a narrow look. “Literally nothing from the start of this situation has been ‘just like that.’ I’m cleaning up a mess generations in the making. Now stop wasting time and get out of here.”
I watch her walk away until she turns the corner and disappears. If I gave a shit about Circe or the Olympians, I would tell them all to watch out for Hermes. But I don’t, so I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Ariadne.
“Hello?”
I frown. “What happened? Why do you sound like that?”
She laughs but not like anything is funny. “We had a close call with some Olympians. Athena’s people. They know we came to this house. We managed to trick them into thinking that we left, but I don’t know how long that will hold before they circle back. We’re kind of trapped.”
Alarm floods me. “I’m on my way.”
“Okay.” The relief in her voice only makes me worry more. “Did you do what you needed to with Hermes?”
I glance back at the remains of the unassuming building filled with dead guards and then turn the corner and head deeper into town. “We have maybe an hour or so before the barrier comes down. I’m going to come for you, and then we’re going to the marina. Stay inside until I get there. I’ll call you when it’s safe to come out.”
“What are you going to do?”
“The same thing they were going to do to you if they caught you.” I take a deep breath and keep going before she has a chance to protest. “I’m going to clear a path. We don’t have time for a messy confrontation, so it will be a quick getaway.”
She takes a sharp breath like she’s about to argue with me and then exhales shakily. “Okay. We’ll keep our heads down until you get here. Please be safe.”
“I haven’t failed you yet, sweetheart.” It feels like a lie. Safety is the one thing I can’t guarantee. Actually, there’s not shit I can guarantee right now. I’m going to do my damnedest to get her and her brother out of here, but with both Minos and the Olympians gunning for us, that’s a tall order.
It’s only as I’m hot-wiring a car to head toward the address I sent them to that I wonder if this was all part of Hermes’s plan from the beginning. She doesn’t want Olympus or Circe looking too closely at her, so she’s offered us up as sacrificial lambs to keep their attention. It seems like something she would do.
Fuck that. I’m done sacrificing for other people, and I’m sure as shit done letting Ariadne do it. We’re getting out of here, and the rest of them can murder each other and raze the city to the ground for all I care.
32
Ariadne
Waiting for Asterion is a special kind of agony. I keep analyzing our short conversation and trying to decide if I actually detected exhaustion and pain in his tone or if he’s really okay. He was shot, for gods’ sake. And in between obsessing over that, I jump at every creak and groan the house makes. We can’t see the street from any of the windows, but every time a car passes by, I’m certain that the Olympians are returning to murder us.
For his part, apparently all the excitement exhausted my brother, and he passes out on the couch. It’s just as well. I’m not fit for company.
It’s happening. It’s finally happening. The barrier is coming down, and we’re going to be able to get out of here. Hope and elation twine with guilt and fear. Because our success means bad things in the future of Olympus. It’s not my city and they’re not my people, but that doesn’t make their lives any less valid. I don’t think Circe is intent on whole-scale slaughter, but it’s not like I sat in on any of the planning meetings. The only information I have is what I was able to hack and deliver to Apollo. There’s nothing in that correspondence about a massacre, but that doesn’t mean it represents the whole of her plans.