“It’s time for a new order of things. A different structure of government. The Thirteen can no longer rule Olympus.”
This time, when I lunge at her, Atalanta’s not close enough to stop me. It’s not until I have my switchblade to Hermes’s throat that I realize she let me get close…and that she has her own knife pressed to my stomach. She’s still and relaxed as she smiles. “Fast, but not quite fast enough.”
I am so damned tired of everyone in the room thinking they are the smartest motherfucker to exist. I glare down at her. “You’re working with Circe.”
“I’m not.”
Lies, lies, and more lies. My hand’s shaking so hard I have to choose between moving back or cutting her. I move back. Barely. “You want the same thing she wants. You’re working to bring down the Thirteen, just like she is. Stop fucking lying to me.”
“I’m not lying.” She speaks slowly and calmly, inching her knife away from my stomach. “Wanting the Thirteen to no longer be in power isn’t the same as wanting to annihilate them, no matter how much some of them deserve it.”
None of this makes any sense. I shove away from her. We all know I’m not going to stab her now, and continuing to posture like this only makes me look weak. Weaker. Fuck. This whole situation is fucked. “You’re arguing semantics. I don’t have time for this.”
My family’s lives hang in the balance. Maybe Hermes doesn’t want them dead the way Circe does, but her plan will end with the same result. “You have to know there isn’t a single member of the Thirteen who will step down unless they’re forced to. If you’re not working with Circe and you’re not willing to kill them, then you’re going to fail. You’vealreadyfailed if you’re still trying toreasonwith Zeus.”
In the front seat, Atalanta snorts, but it’s Hermes who answers. “You’d be surprised what people will agree to if they’re desperate enough. But you’re right, I have no desire to murder my way through the Thirteen and the legacy families in order to raze this power structure. It would take a lot of time and effort, and younever really get blood out from beneath your cuticles.” She makes a show of examining her nails, painted a bright neon yellow. “Which is whereyoucome in. If you can convince Zeus to step down and ensure that none of his siblings move up to take his place, that will send a message the others will heed. This city is full of sheep who think they’re wolves. They just need one to take the plunge first, and ithasto be a legacy title.”
The laugh that bursts from my lips contains an edge of hysteria. No matter how different Hermes claims she is, she and Circe are obviously moving along the same wavelength. “From the moment he gained sentience, my husband was trained by an abusive monster to take the title Zeus. He won’t hand it over until he’s dead. There’s nothing that I—or anyone else—can say to change that truth.”
“Then he’ll die.” Hermes doesn’t say it like it brings her joy, more like it’s an unfortunate side effect of a problem outside of her control. “You’ve seen how the Thirteen abuse their power, even if you’ve been relatively protected by virtue of yourmother’spower. How many times have you looked around at the legacy families and felt nothing but loathing? For all that you’re part of them, you’re separate enough to see how toxic their excess is. Your mother is aware of it. She might be one of the most excessive of them all, but at least she cares about the greater population. The same cannot be said for the rest of them.”
“Youare part of the Thirteen. Don’t act like you’re better. You’ve been enjoying those excesses for a very long time, Hermes.”
“I have my reasons. I always have. We can argue about that, or you can acknowledge that you’re against the wall and you don’t have a choice. Because you’re one of the Thirteen too, Hera.” Sheflicks her wrist, pointing her knife at my stomach again. “And you don’t get to extract yourself with divorce or your husband’s death, either. Not when you carry the next Zeus.”
It takes everything I have not to press my hand to my stomach, as if that would protect my little parasite from danger. I lift my chin. “Conjecture. I’ll talk to Zeus for my own reasons, but I’m telling you now, it won’t work.”
“We’ll see.” She nods at Atalanta. “This is far enough.”
As the car rolls to a stop, my frustration blooms hot and sticky on my tongue. I want to scream, but if I start screaming now, I can’t guarantee I’ll stop. “Ares considers you a friend, or at least she did. Dionysus, too. Even Hades. I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
Hermes doesn’t look at me. “Sometimes friends have to hurt in order to help. They might have been my friends once I became Hermes, but there’s a whole life I lived before I claimed the title. A whole identity. The Thirteen took something—someone—from me, and I vowed I would live to see their downfall. You know how to play the long game, so I’m sure you’ll appreciate the patience I’ve demonstrated.”
None of this makes any sense. If she was going to orchestrate the downfall of the Thirteen, why wait until now to do it? She could have started at any point during the last… Realization dawns. “Every time someone said, ‘Hermes has her reasons,’ they had no idea, did they?”
“A lady never tells.” The words are right, accurate to the Hermes I thought I had come to know. The tone, however, belongs to a stranger. Hard and tight and filled with the kind of rage that hasno end. A rage she’s been hiding since she became Hermes. Maybe even before that.
“If you do something to threaten my baby again, I don’t give a shit how fast you are, I’ll slit your throat.” I issue the threat calmly, enunciating each word carefully.
Atalanta snorts, but Hermes smiles slowly. “I always said you Dimitriou women are interesting. Don’t stop being interesting now, Callisto.”
The car stops, and the locks disengage. I waste no time getting the fuck out of there. My head is spinning, but for all that drama of her staging this conversation, I don’t really have much new information. Zeus has labeled Hermes a traitor for some time now. I don’t think anyone quite realized the depth of it—or her ultimate goal—but not that much has changed.
I stumble back to where my car waits, and Nephele opens the door for me. It’s only when I’m back inside the dim interior that I start to shiver. All three of them look at me with worried expressions, but I shake my head. “Not now.” Maybe not ever.
As much as I trust them to watch my back and protect me, can I trust them with this? There’s a reason I held back telling them what Circe plans. Their loyalty begins and ends with me as Hera. If I lose my title, I lose my trio. I can’t trust them. Not fully.
The city rises before us in all its glittering glory. It’s a little dimmer than it used to be, but no less beautiful. Strange how, despite my best efforts, it really does feel like home. I don’t want to see it razed to the ground.
Ixion finally clears his throat. “What did Athena want?”
I almost forget myself and ask him what the fuck he’s talkingabout, before it belatedly registers that I was supposed to be meeting with Athena, not Hermes. The implications ofthatare even more complicated than everything else. Atalanta is working with Hermes? How did those two even cross paths in a way that would orchestrate any kind of relationship? It’s not important in this moment to know the answer to that question, but the not knowing threatens to eat away at me. I believed I was getting a handle on all of the petty politics and backstabbing, and every time I turn around, it’s proven to me again and again that I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing.
I don’t bother to smile. “The same old, same old. Threats, threats, and more threats.”
13
Zeus
