“Yeah. Sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Atalanta sighs and hefts herself to her feet. She looks particularly fetching in her black fatigues. I never thought I’d have a thing for pseudo military types, but whowouldn’thave a thing for Atalanta? She’s gorgeous with her medium-brown skin, her curls styled back into a mohawk, her scars cutting through the lines of her face in a way that feels like staring into a mirror sometimes.
She gives me a severe look. “We can’t afford to drop the ball now. They’re scrambling, but not enough.”
“I know.” I don’t lift the binoculars again. There’s nothing new to see. Circe might have offered the perfect distraction, but her arrival also gave the Thirteen a chance to unite for the first time ever.
They didn’t, of course. Instead they bickered and backstabbed and talked and talked and talked. But theycouldhave. Zeus being wicked enough to unite the three legacy titles and engage in a coup—even a limited one—wasn’t on my radar, either. He normally plays things by the book, and it’s a testament to everyone’s desperation that formerly steady people are acting wildly out of character. Which is good. I want them desperate. What Idon’twant is for any alliance to stand strong.
Now Atalanta and I have to ensure it doesn’t happen. “You have Athena’s ear.” In hindsight, we should have placed her with Athena from the start; Atalanta’s skill sets certainly fit there better. But we needed eyes on Artemis—and Hephaestus, by extension—because those two were reckless and selfish and unpredictable. Athena, on the other hand, will always be one step behind Zeus, will always be steadfastly serving Olympus in the best way she can. There are no surprises onthatfront.
“No shit. I’m charming and logical.” She grins. “I’ve already started poisoning the well between her and Zeus. He helped loads when he orchestrated that cute little coup without discussing it with her first. She’s one minor inconvenience away from dropping a building on his head and taking her chances with… Well, I guess it would be Helen who would claim the Zeus title as the next eldest Kasios? Which leaves the Ares title hanging, and no one has time to put together another tournament to get a new person in there. So, yeah, it’s going swimmingly.”
I want to pretend I don’t have a conscience, but it tends to rear its goofy little head at the most inopportune of times. Like now, contemplating Zeus’s death. It was a lot easier to do with the last one.Hewas evil, and murdering him was a blessing for everyone in the city. His son, our current Zeus, is still in his fledgling monster stage. It’s possible someone could pull him out of it…
“I’m worried about Hera,” Atalanta says abruptly. “She’s got too many connections. She might be able to pull them out of this death spiral.”
I shake my head. “She hates the Thirteen. She’s more likely to set them on fire than lend a helping hand.”
“Hermes.” Atalanta puts an emphasis on my title. I am one of the Thirteen, too, after all. “Hera is daughter of Demeter, married to Zeus, and sister-in-law to Hades. Not to mention she’s got connections to Eros through Psyche, and he’s one scary motherfucker.”
“He’s a pussycat.” I wave that away and keep going before she can snap at me. “We’re not threatening Psyche, so he won’t bother with us. Easy-peasy.”
“We have different definitions ofeasy-peasy.”
I laugh. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll keep an eye on Hera—and Zeus—to ensure they don’t make any more progress trying to bring the gang together.”
“Thatdoesmake me feel better, actually.” Atalanta leans down and presses a light kiss to my forehead. She’s gone before I have a chance to react, the little asshole, striding away to the edge of the roof. A few seconds later the ladder on the other side creaks as she climbs down.
As the warmth of her presence leaves me, I can’t help wilting alittle. It’s so much easier to keep up appearances when feeding off the energy of others. We’re close to realizing the goals we’ve been working toward since the moment I met Atalanta and realized we were in alignment. The goals that started even before then, with Circe.
The Thirteen have to fall. I would prefer not to line them up and put a bullet in each of their brains, one after another. Better—smoother—if they can be convinced to step down. Then we can move forward with the plan to bring true democracy to this shit show, nominating and voting three delegates from the three main parts of Olympus: lower city, upper city, and countryside. Thepeoplewill decide. More than that, if the leaders the population chooses fuck up and don’t represent their interests, there will be checks in place to force them to step down.
I’m not a fool. I understand that there aren’t any known governments in the world right now that are fully free of corruption. That doesn’t mean we can’t strive for something better. And that something better isnota dark queen to take the place of thirteen corrupt assholes—myself included.
Exhaustion weighs heavy on my shoulders. It’s been so long… But with the finish line in sight, I can’t afford to flag. There’s still plenty of work to be done. First step being trying to talk some sense into Zeus now that the stakes are clear. He won’t be happy to see me, but people rarely are these days. I heft myself to my feet and head toward the ladder leading down to the street.
Olympus has to fall, and I still have some key support beams to kick out to make it happen. Time to get to work.
3
Zeus
I wake all at once. It’s a trick I learned at too young an age; there’s no use dwelling onwhy. I reach over without thinking, touching the empty side of my bed where my wife normally sleeps. Cold. She’s been gone for some time. Whether she woke early or barely waited for me to fall asleep before she left… It’s better not to think about that.
Because then I’ll start wondering where she went, and who she’s with. If she left my bed to go straight to Ixion’s. There’s nothing I can do to stop her. Trying would be the height of foolishness and would only serve to make me look weak. A man who can’t control his own wife. I climb out of bed and start the process of putting myself together.
It’s all unraveling. Everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve fought and bled and suffered for. Olympus. My city, my people, my place in this world.
I’ve never felt more like a pretender than as I shove out the doors of my building and stalk down the street toward Dodona Tower. Ona normal day, the sidewalks would be filled with people heading to work or running errands. Now, it’s a ghost town. The vast majority of the city has evacuated to the countryside in an effort to keep civilians out of the way of Circe’s threat of attack. An attack that never quite manifested. I want to believe it’s because we moved fast enough to thwart her, but there were days between the start of her blockade and the moment I boarded thePenelopeto find she wasn’t there—hadn’t been there in some time.
We have to find Circe.
It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world realizes the barrier that kept us separate and safe is down. I doubt it can be repaired, even with the part Circe stole all those years ago. She ensured it would fail eventually, and then she went on to make sure of it with a bomb that took out what was left of the machinery keeping it up.
The outside world will come, first with curiosity and fascination, and then with force. We have a small window to prepare for it, and we can’t very well fucking do that with Circe remaining an active problem. More than that, I have no faith that the Thirteen will be able to come together to protect Olympus from the next threat. They wouldn’t even vote to take down the blockade, and that was a clear and present danger to the city.
I whip out my phone and call Apollo, barely waiting for him to answer before I bark, “Update.”
“There’s nothing.” He sounds exhausted. “My team has been through every camera around the perimeter of the city. It’s tedious but easy enough now that most of the population isn’t present. She’s not here.” He sighs. “Or she knows about the cameras and hastaken great pains to avoid them. But, Zeus, no one is perfect. She should have slipped up.”
