Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
His mouth works, and I can tell that part of him agrees with her, even if he doesn’t want to. He clears his throat, his tone lowering but becoming no less angry. “What makes you the best person to make this decision?”
“I’m the only one who has the audacity to actually get shit done. Well, me and one other. Consider us an army of two. You and Hades and the few who actually want change just sit around and wring your hands while the very people you’re supposed to be protecting are harmed by the very system that you benefit from. I’m not willing to do that. Not anymore.” She takes a deep breath. “Join us. You’ve watched the Thirteen play at being gods in this city for too damned long not to recognize the cost. Help us change things.”
“No.” He shakes his head slowly. “You might be right that things need to change, but we need to focus on Circe. The rest of it can wait until that threat is dealt with.”
“I had hoped you would understand. Oh well. I told her you wouldn’t listen, but she insisted.”
“You told who—godsdamn it!”
She doesn’t wait for him to finish questioning her. She spins and punches me in the stomach. It happens so fast, I don’t have time to brace for it. I crumple like paper. I hit the floor on my side, curled up with my knees to my chest. Fuck, that hurts. Worst of all, I don’t stop her from leaving. I don’t even slow her down. I don’t see her jump over me and shove through the window, but I hear it slam open and feel the wind of her passing. I failed.
“Icarus. Icarus, talk to me.” Poseidon crouches next to me, his hand rubbing soothing circles on my back. “Did she reopen one of the cuts?”
“No. Wind…knocked out…of me.”
“Okay.” He exhales shakily and keeps rubbing my back. “Try to relax. Your breath will come.”
As if his words summon reality, my body slowly unclenches and my lungs allow air to move through them. I gasp in a breath and start to sit up, but Poseidon shifts his grip to my shoulder, keeping me on the floor. “Slowly.” He helps me sit up and urges me to lean against the cabinets.
“I kind of hate her,” I wheeze.
“I kind of do, too.” He gives my shoulder one last squeeze and rises to shut and lock the window above the sink. It’s a foolish thing to do, more to comfort us than anything else. Hermes has long since proven that she can get in and out of nearly any residence. I used to think that was pure rumor, but it’s obvious that it’s true. Fuck, she was fast.
Poseidon slides down to sit next to me, his shoulder pressing against mine. After several beats, I finally force myself to speak. “What do you think about what she said? About Circe and Hera and Olympus and the rest?”
“I don’t know. I might not like her methods, but she’s not wrong about the system being broken.” He taps his middle finger against his thigh, his expression distant. “But I don’t see how this helps the city. The barrier protected us from the outside world. It ensured foreign nations couldn’t meddle and use us. Now it’s gone and Circe is poised to invade. People are going to die. A lot of people. How can that be a good thing?”
That’s the question, but I don’t have the answer—or at least not an answer that’s comforting. “Maybe Hermes means to take the city for herself. Maybe that’s how she’ll break the system.”
Poseidon sinks down to sit next to me, his big shoulder pressing to mine. For just a moment, I can almost believe it’s us two against the world, rather than simply a captor and his captive, sharing a moment of mutual misery.
He sighs. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
16
Poseidon
I want nothing more than to sit on this kitchen floor all day, Icarus’s shoulder pressed to mine and his now-steady breathing centering me. Being Poseidon has never been easy, but it feels like the walls are closing in now more than ever. There’re no right moves, only wrong and worse. I don’t have any answers, and I don’t know the right questions to ask to find them. In short, I’m fucked.
But there are too many people depending on me. I can’t afford to sink into depression and hopelessness. I have to move. I’ve already wasted too much time. I heft myself to my feet and give my body a good shake. “Come on.”
Icarus stares up at me and I have a hard time understanding what I see in his dark-brown eyes. It’s not fear, not horror, but there’s something I can’t quite define. Finally, he accepts my hand and allows me to carefully lift him to his feet. “Where?”