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)
He kicks out the bigger man’s legs and then slips behind him. We all freeze at the metal glinting in the low light cast by nearby boats. My brother is holding my father’s discarded gun to Poseidon’s throat. His eyes are wild and reckless, his voice panicked. “No one move or I blow his head off.”
“Icarus, no!” I lurch forward, but Asterion catches me around the waist and pulls me back to his chest. I’m struggling and I can’t seem to stop, but he holds me effortlessly.
Poseidon’s people have frozen. The man himself seems shocked by the turn of events. My brother has a fist in his dark-red hair, and he’s holding the gun so closely that the muzzle dents the skin at Poseidon’s temple.
Icarus looks around wildly at the black-clad people gathered around. “No one move or he dies.” He jerks Poseidon back a step, closer to us. “I mean it!”
This has all gone so wrong. “Icarus…”
But he’s not listening to me. “Throw your guns away. Now.”
Poseidon’s people don’t hesitate. There is true fear on their faces as they carefully set their guns down and kick them away. Asterion might have been right about Poseidon caring about his people, but it’s obvious that they care about him just as much.
“Move, Ariadne. We don’t have much time.” Asterion tugs me back a few steps, and Icarus follows, muscling an unresisting Poseidon along as we retreat down the dock. Poseidon’s people carefully shadow our steps, but they keep well back. Too far away to help, and yet…I don’t see how we’re getting out of this. Even if we make it to the boat.
Eventually, the dock runs out, and Asterion pulls me close to a white sailboat with Daedalus written across the bow. “Up.”
I’m afraid of what will happen if I leave the dock. “But—”
“Trust your brother.” He lifts me and all but tosses me onto the boat, quickly following behind.
I stumble and scramble to the edge. The deck is a little higher than the dock so I have a perfect view of the standoff happening below.
“Give me a few minutes, Icarus.” Asterion takes my shoulders. “I know you’re scared, sweetheart, but I have to focus on getting this thing running. I need you to untie the lines keeping us at the dock. Can you do that for me?”
He’s coddling me, but I can’t stop shaking. “How much time do we have?” Surely the barrier is about to come down. If it does before we’re ready…I don’t know what happens.
“The lines, sweetheart.” He lifts his voice. “Icarus. Get Poseidon up here. We can toss him into the water once we’ve made a clean escape, and he can swim back to shore.” A neat solution. One that doesn’t require yet more deaths tonight.
I scramble to the first line on the side opposite where my brother is. The boat seemed absurdly large standing next to it, but now that I’m onboard, I wonder how we’ll manage the seas on it. I have to trust Asterion. He said he can sail, and I believe him. We just have to get the fuck out of this marina.
My fingers are clumsy with fear. It takes me three tries to get the first knot undone. I can’t see what’s going on. Someone is shouting, but it’s hard to tell who over the roaring in my ears. I want nothing more than to rush back to the other side of the boat and see what’s going on, but doing that won’t help. It won’t get Icarus and Asterion and me out of this alive.
Resolve steadies me. There are entirely too many things that I can’t afford to think about right now. Action is easier. I get the second knot undone on the first try and then rush back to the other side of the boat for the last two.
The third knot is just as easy as the second, but on the fourth, I pause. If we’re entirely unmoored, how likely am I to drift away before they can jump aboard? I don’t fucking know. I don’t know a goddamn thing about boats. If I do something to fuck up our ability to escape, I’ll never forgive myself. And I already have more than enough to never forgive myself for.
Movement draws my attention just as I unravel the last tie. Poseidon elbows my brother hard enough to send him stumbling back a step. It’s all the opportunity the big man needs to spin and level a punch to my brother’s stomach, folding him in half. Even though he doesn’t say a word, it’s as if his people heard a rallying cry. They rush down the dock toward us.
“Icarus!” I scream.
Asterion rushes to my side. “Fuck!”
Poseidon turns to us. He’s as composed as ever, as if he wasn’t just held hostage by my brother. “Surrender. There’s no need for more violence.”