Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Except Hermes.
I can’t think about that too closely right now. I always knew what Hermes was capable of, but knowing in theory and seeing it play out are two very different things. She tried to protect me in her own way, but I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.
They’ll have one chance to keep this under wraps, and even then I don’t know if it’s possible. This isn’t like my parents. They were the only two who planned the assassination, the only two who acted on it. They didn’t have one of the Thirteen in their corner.
The Thirteen are still going to try to cover it up. It means more blood. More death. Maybe a fire this time instead of a car crash.
A broken laugh escapes my lips. I guess I have my answer on what Apollo would have done if he’d held the title when my parents attempted to assassinate Athena. Theseus got farther than my parents did, but he hasn’t been successful. He hasn’t completed the ritual required to trigger the clause.
Even as I think it, a faint groan has me turning despite myself. I don’t think Theseus is going to be in any shape to do damage in the near future, but if he’s already stirring, I’m not about to take anything for granted. “Stay down.”
He’s nowhere near as bloodied as Apollo. I stare at him, nauseous and my head swimming with adrenaline. He cracks open one dark eye and meets my gaze. I tense. “Don’t say a word.”
He rasps out a painful-sounding breath. “I claim Hephaestus’s title by right of might and the laws written upon Olympus’s founding.”
“No,” I whisper. I know what comes next. My parents rehearsed it often enough before their failed assassination attempt. “No,” I repeat, louder this time.
He ignores me. “Cassandra…” Another harsh breath. “You stand as my witness.”
The tire iron falls from my nerveless fingers.
33
Apollo
The nightmare only gets worse as time goes on. Zeus sends Ares. In the thirty minutes it takes her to arrive—she must have been waiting close by because there’s no way to reach this location from the city center in such a short time—Minos and his family have already tried to bully their way into the garage. Holding that door while it takes everything I have to stay on my feet… Well, the less said about it, the better.
Three black SUVs of an identical make and model to the ones behind me in the garage careen up the driveway. They screech to a halt close enough to have the Minotaur taking several quick steps back to avoid making contact with the front bumper.
Ares steps out, her gorgeous face set in forbidding lines. She’s wearing a perfectly tailored pantsuit, which would be at home in a boardroom if not for the shoulder holster clearly visible as she lifts her arm to motion the occupants of the other two vehicles forward.
I recognize one of her partners, Patroclus. He’s one of the best strategists in the city, a tall white man with short dark hair and square frame glasses who prefers jeans and T-shirts to the suits the others under Ares’s command favor. He’d been injured badly in the competition to become Ares but appears to have made a full recovery in the intervening weeks. There were rumors that Helen had a fling with Patroclus and Achilles during the tournament, but they turned the rumor mill on its head when they came out publicly as being in a polyamorous relationship a few weeks after Helen became Ares.
Zeus hadn’t been thrilled with that, but there wasn’t a single thing he could do. His sister had outplayed him. With all of Olympus salivating over her new relationship, he couldn’t afford to meddle without worrying about his already precarious reputation.
Ares makes a beeline for Minos. “You. Get out of my way.”
“With all due respect—”
She lifts her brows. She won’t thank me for making the comparison, but she’s never reminded me more of her father than in this moment while she faces down a blustering Minos and intimidates him into taking two large steps back without saying a single word. She gives him one last derisive look and turns to me. “Where is he?”
“This way.” Cassandra hasn’t move from my line of sight, and I haven’t dared leave the door unmanned, but I’m eager to get back to her side and remove her from this whole nightmare. I never would have asked her to come here if I knew things would become actually dangerous.
“Patroclus,” Ares snaps.
“I’ve got the door,” he says, and he falls in behind her, blocking Minos and his family from approaching. Two of their people stay with him and the other two follow us as we head into the garage.
“This is fucked,” Ares murmurs.
“Yes.” There’s nothing else to say. “Theseus was unconscious when I left, so hopefully he hasn’t…” My voice trails off when I see Cassandra’s face. Her lips are pressed together tightly and she’s even paler than normal. I follow her gaze to where Theseus has dragged himself up to lean against the tire of the SUV.