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“Considering you’re the reason I have a debt, I think it is your problem.”
He didn’t really mean those words, and he could tell they hurt her because her steps faltered for the first time since they’d left the mountain.
“I… That isn’t what I meant,” Dionysus said.
He did not want Ariadne thinking that what had happened to her on Poseidon’s yacht was her fault. She shouldn’t have had to worry that Poseidon would assault her, but now, because the world valued his power and had for so long, she would never be safe from him.
“I think we both know what you meant,” she said.
“I didn’t—” He paused, frustrated. “Why do I always fuck up?”
She hesitated a step.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Look at where we are,” he said, gesturing to his surroundings. “All because I promised you we would find Medusa and it turns out, it’s probably best if we don’t find her at all. I should have just continued helpingHades look for the ophiotaurus. It would have been another way to Theseus.”
Ariadne paused and turned to face him, a line of trees just behind her. “That ophio…what?”
“The ophiotaurus,” he explained. “It’s a half-bull, half snake creature that will likely be our downfall. So everything I have done will be in vain anyway.”
“Has it been found?” she asked. “The ophiotaurus?”
“Not yet,” he said. That he knew of, at least.
“Then nothing has been in vain,” she said.
They stared at one another for a moment and his chest felt funny, eased by her words. She turned from him and stepped through the trees and screamed.
“Ari!”
Dionysus scrambled after her and was surprised when the ground gave way beneath his feet. He fell forward and rolled down the side of a shallow ravine. He came to a stop and groaned as he hit a large rock. Nearby, Ariadne sat up, holding her arm to her chest.
When the pain in Dionysus’s side had subsided, he met her gaze.
“Are you all right?”
“I think I…hurt my arm.”
Dionysus paled and crossed to her, kneeling in front of her. He took her hand in his and felt along her wrist and forearm. Though she winced, it didn’t seem broken. He let his power radiate through her, knowing she’d fallen just as hard as he had and would likely be sore.
“You know what might have prevented this?” he said, glancing at her as he worked.
“Fuck off, Dionysus,” she said, rolling her eyes.
He chuckled and helped her to her feet. He tookin their surroundings, realizing that they were in fact standing on the edge of a cliff that dropped down into a massive canyon. In the valley below, amid green rolling hills, several sheep grazed.
“Well,” Ariadne said. “I found you sheep.”
CHAPTER XXX
HADES
Hades left the island of Lampri with Persephone in his arms and took her to his armory, which was located far below his palace. It was full of ancient and modern weapons, shields, and armor. It was also where he kept the Helm of Darkness, one of three great weapons made by the cyclops Brontes and his two brothers, Steropes and Arges. Unlike Zeus’s lightning bolt and Poseidon’s trident, which could wound, Hades’s helm’s magic was far more subtle but no less powerful.
“Is this…”
“An arsenal,” Hades said.
