Ezra lays his head in his arms. CJ’s expression is unreadable.
“So…” Tolliver says, “do we, like, do something?”
“Yeah,” I say. “We lay low until this blows over. I mean, CJ stuck a fork in Hades. I think we’re good.”
Ezra lifts his head. “Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. Killing Hades with her own weapon? Sounds fake.”
“ShesaidTitans were killable,” I argue.
“Okay, sure,” Ezra says. “I’m just saying the rules may be different now that you brought her back to life and put her in someone else’s body. She might wake up and pull that giant shrimp fork out of her chest and go on with her world domination as though it were a bad case of heartburn.”
“When I kill people, they stay dead,” CJ says.
Tolliver clucks his tongue. “You’re going to feel really silly when Hades shows up alive in a few days.”
Ezra whips his head toward CJ with horror. “How many people have you killed?”
CJ only stares at him.
Tolliver sits forward. “Alright, I think we should hide Elle. There’s obviously a reason Rook chose her to do the ritual and that Hades wants her to keep doing it.”
“Yeah,” CJ says. “Because Elle was the only one of us stupid enough to fall for it.”
Tolliver scoffs in offense.
I shrug. “No, that’s a fair hit.”
“What about Poppy?” Tolliver asks.
I grit my teeth, picturing Poppy’s face as she turned me over to the Nightshades, Dante’s soul pulsing in the distance.
“I think…” My voice fails and I clear my throat. “I think Poppy is going to be staying with the Phantoms for the foreseeable future.”
CJ slaps the table.
“She betrayed us?” Tolliver asks.
“I didn’t say that,” I argue.
“But you also didn’t not say that.”
“I—it’s—Poppy—” I splutter, then sigh. “She did what she had to do.”
“She gave you up to the syndicates, didn’t she?” CJ all but growls.
I scratch the back of my neck. “Can we get back on track?”
“Screw that,” CJ says, pushing away from the table. “It’s bad enough that she worked for my family before, but now…”
“Look,” Ezra says placatingly. “Jobs go bad. They just do. Crew members betray you. And that’s why I work alone.”
He sits back and crosses his arms.
We’re all silent for a moment.
I clear my throat. “When you started, I thought it was going to be motivational.”
“It was.”
