Zeus
The call from Athena took me on a wild-goose chase. A woman who might be Circe was spotted in the university district, which led to two hours of combing every street and business with nothing to show for it. I’m practically weaving on my feet when I stumble through the doors of Dodona Tower. I need some food and possibly a catnap before I figure out the next steps.
The only warning I get for what’s coming is the receptionist looking a little guilty. When the doors open to my floor, my sisters are waiting for me.
Eris waltzes over, wearing a long dress that ghosts over the floor, and presses a glass of scotch into my hand. “Sit down before you fall down.”
I stare at the drink and then at her. “What the fuck is this?”
“An intervention,” she snaps. “Now, do what I say or I’m going to take you out at the knees, and you’re too old to bounce back from that as easily as you did when we were kids.”
I blink. Eris has always been the sharpest of my siblings, but usually she keeps that part carefully concealed. Apparently her husband is rubbing off on her. Ares steps in front of Eris and motions to the chair in my office—but not the one behind my desk. “Sit down, Perseus. It’s time we talked.”
Evenshelooks a little different than normal. MuseWatch once coined Ares—Helen, then—as the most beautiful woman in Olympus. It’s still there, but she’s gained an edge that she never possessed before. With her hair slicked back and her clothes nondescript and dark, she almost seems like a different person. Until I catch her eyes and see the familiar stubbornness there.
I could storm out, but I’m so damn tired that sitting down with a drink sounds really fucking nice right now, even if it comes with a conversation I don’t want to have with my sisters. With anyone. Maybe Hercules had the right idea. He left Olympus years ago and hasn’t looked back. Not even for us.
I drop into the chair and motion for them to get it over with. “Commence with the intervention.”
My sisters exchange a glance. They don’t look overly similar—Ares with a warm summer beauty that literally stops traffic on occasion and Eris with the same cold glamour our mother possessed. Ares’s red highlights show in the lamp behind her and Eris has hair dark as the darkest night. And yet they are undeniably related. It’s there in the careful way they hold themselves, our father’s training running strong despite our best efforts.
Ares is the one who begins. She perches on the edge of my desk and crosses her arms over her chest. “The coup was a risk and I agreed to help because I saw the benefit of dealing with Circe onceand for all.” She sighs. “Also, you didn’t give me much choice, seeing as how you’d already started the damn thing before talking to me.”
I sigh. “But?”
“But you failed,” Eris snaps. “The rest of the Thirteen would have forgiven damn near anything if you were successful, but you went around them, undermined their power, and Circe still escaped.”
“The blockade is gone. That’s a success.”
“Tell that to MuseWatch.”
I frown. “I did. MuseWatch ran with my narrative this morning.”
My sisters exchange a look. Again, Ares speaks first. “That was the original story, but there have been two in the last hour debating whether you’re abusing power and what recourse the citizens of Olympus have if you are.”
I curse. Of course. I should have known it wouldn’t be as simple as leaking a single story. Ididknow, but I’ve been a little too busy to set up the promised follow-up interview with Clio Mousa. “I’ll deal with it.”
“That’s not all.” Ares shifts nervously. “You’re behaving erratically. It’s starting to worry our allies.”
What few allies we have left. I take a too-big drink of my scotch, relishing the way it burns down my throat and warms my stomach. “We’re hardly in a normal scenario right now. Never in the history of Olympus have we existed without the barrier. There are enemies within the city, and surely ouralliescan see that we need to move decisively.”
“Perseus.”
Every time they say my name, it snaps me back to earlier today, to my wife’s lips forming it, to the softness in her tone that I’ve never heard before. I scrub my free hand over my face. “What?”
Another of those shared glances. Eris clears her throat, not quite meeting my gaze. “Look, I know I walked away from the Aphrodite title when you needed me there, and doing so hurt your position. I realize I don’t have much of a leg to stand on, but you’ve been seen all over Olympus acting out of character. And I’m not just talking about the coup.”
They’re not wrong about my unraveling at the edges, but I’m not in the mood to cooperate. If they want to do anintervention,they can spell out exactly what I’m doing that’s so worrisome. “If you’re not talking about the coup, whatareyou talking about?”
Eris hesitates, actual worry flickering over her expression. “Today—in the middle of the day—you were recorded fucking your wife in a godsdamned bar in the theater district.”
I’m out of my chair before my brain fully processes her words. I snatch the phone out of her hand, horror and fury rising with each racing beat of my heart. “Who the fuckdaredrecord us?” I can count on one hand who knew we were there in the first place.
If I thought for a second that Ixion was responsible, I’d be happy for an excuse to kill him with my bare hands. But as soon as I see the video, I know it couldn’t have been him. The short recording is grainy in a way that suggests it was an interior security camera. That means there’s only one possible culprit. “The bar owner sold this to MuseWatch.”
“That’s not really the point,” Ares cuts in. “The rest of the Thirteen already didn’t have much confidence in you, but you’reactively undermining it. You look like a fool. Everyone believes Hera and Circe are leading you around by your nose in turn.”
I’m barely paying attention. Upon closer inspection, I’m only moderately relieved to note that the footage is too low quality to see the details of our nudity. Not that it matters; the motions themselves are clear. The video stops when we do, cutting off well before that moment where she said my name, the moment that might have been a turning point for us.
