Before I have a chance to, Callisto takes my hand and squeezes. A silent urge to listen to Hermes, to take this opportunity. No matter how strange. I suck in a breath and squeeze back. She’s right. Even if Hermes is somehow competing with Circe on who gets to kill us, she’s offering an opportunity to escape. It’s more than we had ten minutes ago. “We’re coming.”
“Then hurry up.”
I keep hold of Callisto’s hand as we slip out into the night to find the pair of guards on the ground, bleeding out from what appears to be several stab wounds. Hermes stands just to the side of the door, dressed fully in black with her braids fastened away from her face. She motions with the bloody knife in her hand. “Let’s go.”
I have so many questions, but they can wait until Callisto isn’t in immediate danger. I pause to urge my wife in front of me and then we follow Hermes as she takes a nearly direct route to the edge ofthe camp. Not the same way we came in, though. Instead of heading toward where the majority of the cars—and Demeter’s tent—are, she veers south.
The tents here are mostly dark, the hour late enough that no one has reason to be up and about unless there’s a job involved. I keep alert for guards, but either Hermes has dispatched them already or there weren’t many to begin with. The latter actually makes the most sense. Whether or not Circe has made her plans clear to the people here, she’s obviously intending to manipulate on promises instead of relying on violence. A large number of armed guards undermine the fantasy that she’s a savior instead of a conqueror.
She’s certainlycapableof force, but she’s smart enough to know that route would cause the majority of the civilians to balk. Instead, she’s allied herself with one of the most popular members of the Thirteen and no doubt will start her reign by promising to take care of the people historically overlooked by the Thirteen.
“Hermes,” I say softly.
“Not yet.” She moves so surely, weaving through the tents with no discernible path, and yet we reach the edge of the camp in less than thirty minutes. She’s taken us opposite of the main road, far to the south of where most traffic in and out of the camp is.
Hermes picks up her pace, forcing us to do the same. I keep a close eye on Callisto. She doesn’t appear to be flagging, but she’s had one shock after another, and she was shotyesterday…by Hermes.
“Hermes.”
She turns to walk backward and motions for me to keep it down. “We’re not quite far enough yet. The sound carries in the hills, especially on clear nights like this.”
“How would you know?” Callisto asks softly.
“These are my old stomping grounds. Ancient, really.” Hermes tilts her head back, weaving a little on her feet. “I should have wondered why Demeter wantedthisland specifically, but I wasn’t using it and selling it seemed to make sense at the time. I didn’t think…” She swipes a hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter. I have an off-roader just over the next hill. We can talk once we’re clear.”
It takes everything I have to keep my peace until we breach the hill in question and walk down the other side, finally losing sight of the camp. I release Callisto’s hand and move past her, grabbing Hermes’s shoulder and spinning her around. “We talknow.”
She grabs my hand and hits the pressure points to force me to release her. “All you do is talk, you fool.”
“Better that than shootingtwo pregnant women.” I clench my fists, wanting nothing more than to remove this damned threat to the woman I love.
“You talk and talk and talk, and you don’tlisten,” she hisses. “If I wanted them dead, they’d be dead.”
“Orpheus required surgery,” Callisto snaps. “That was a bit more than making a point.”
Hermes shrugs. “What do you care? You hate him.” She relents almost immediately. “Besides, that was an accident. I didn’t expect him to valiantly try to throw himself on top of you to save you.”
“For fuck’s sake, stop playing games and speak frankly.What do you want?”
She shakes her head slowly. “I’vebeenspeaking frankly. I want the Thirteen abolished and a new form of government set up—one that represents the people fully, and not just a select few blessed tobe born into the right families. I want to live in a city where a man can’t snatch up a person off the street, force them into marriage, and then murder them on their honeymoon…without a single fucking consequence.” She sucks in a breath and moderates her tone. “But what I don’t want is to see all those people murdered simply for being born into a privileged family. Doing that is no better than howhelived.”
There’s no question whichheshe refers to: my father.
She’s not done, either. She meets my gaze boldly. “You were just as much a victim of him as anyone else. You’ve fought to be a better man than he was. You have a wife you love. You have a baby on the way. Is holding a title you never wanted worth losing all that?”
I told Callisto that I don’t know who I am if I’m not Zeus. It’s the truth. But the last forty-eight hours have rocked my worldview down to its very core. I never thought I’d have a chance at love, never thought the future might be full of hope instead of dread.
I look at my wife. She’s got her emotions locked down tight, but I’ve spent months watching her every micro expression. She doesn’t believe I’ll choose her over Zeus. Why would she? I’ve given her no cause to trust me, not when it comes to this. “If I’m not Zeus, then you’re not Hera.”
She presses her lips hard together for a long moment. “I only became Hera to protect my family. Instead, it certainly seems like it just put them further in danger.”
As loath as I am to speak this vulnerability in front of Hermes, I have to know. “If I’m not Zeus and you’re not Hera, what reason do you have to stay?”
At that, her calm cracks a little. She looks like she wants toshake me. “Perseus, are you really going to pretend like I didn’t tell you I love you a few hours ago? That means something to me.”
“It means something to me, too,” I say softly. Her words are hardly a guarantee for the future, but right now we have no guarantee at all. I wrap my arm around my wife and turn back to Hermes. “I’m assuming you have a plan.”
“Of course I do.” She grins, looking a little like her old self again. “We’re going to the lower city.”
