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“I literally do not care.” She glances at me. Considering her words, I expect to see anger on her face, but there’s just a calm resolve. “You’re on the staff now, and you’re officially a citizen of the lower city. If you try to slip my security detail, I will track you down and drag you back to Hades and Charon by your hair. No hard feelings; it’s just business. You want to go somewhere, you talk to me about it, and we figure out a way to do it safely. If we can’t do it safely, then we go to Charon and see if he has extra resources to lend. There’s a proper way to do things, Eurydice, and I expect you to hold the line.”
I swallow my instinctive angry response and force myself to really think about the words she saying. She’s not treating me like a child. She’s laying out clear boundaries and expecting me to hold them. I can do that. “I understand. You have my word that I’ll talk to you before doing anything that might be dangerous.”
It’s not until she stops at the curb in front of the town house that the events of the afternoon catch up to me. Events of the last couple days, really. I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in days. The stress feels like it’s wearing me down to a single thread that might snap at any moment. Ariadne’s words keep circling around in my head. They all add up to one conclusion.War. The one thing that we thought we were all safe from, and it’s coming knocking on our door, sooner rather than later.
I don’t know how we’re going to survive it.
25
ORPHEUS
I know something’s wrong the moment Eurydice walks through the door. There’s a slant to her shoulders that I don’t like, as if she’s carrying the world on them. I rush to her but stop before making contact. We might have shared a bed last night, but that doesn’t mean that she’ll welcome comfort from me. “Eurydice?”
“It’s bad,” she whispers. “It’s really bad.”
Slowly, tentatively, I lift my arms a little. An invitation. She doesn’t hesitate. Eurydice throws herself into my arms and wraps me up tight. She buries her face in my neck. I rub her back with one hand and cup the base of her skull with the other, massaging little circles into the spots behind her ears. “You don’t have to tell me, but if you want to talk about it, I’m here.”
“I knew we were in trouble, but…” Her voice is muffled, but still clear enough. “I mean, Theseuskilledthe last Hephaestus at Minos’s party. I thought I understood the stakes. I was wrong. We’reallin danger.”
A shiver of fear works its way through me. It’s been bad enoughwith the Thirteen walking around with targets painted on their chests. It sounds like she’s talking about something more, something that will affect every single citizen in Olympus. My parents. My brother. Cassandra. “You reported to Hades?”
“Yes.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask what Hades intends to do, but he has no reason to have shared that information with her. Eurydice and I might be related to members of the Thirteen, but that doesn’t mean we’re part of the group that rules Olympus. Most of the time we find out information when the rest of the population does. That’s never bothered me before, but right now all I want to do is call my brother and demand answers. Apollo is a good man. If he thought our parents were in danger, he would make whatever moves were necessary in order to protect them. I believe that with my whole heart.
But what if he doesn’t know all the details?
“Eurydice, I have to tell my brother.”
She hesitates. “Please give it a day. Hades isn’t like the rest—or at least the rest beyond your brother. He’s a good person. He won’t let our families be hurt for something as meaningless as politics.”
I might laugh if I didn’t feel so shitty. “Right, because it’s not just my family at risk. I should have thought of that. Your sister and your mother are both in the Thirteen, and Psyche lives in the upper city. Sorry. I keep trying to not be a selfish prick, but I guess some things take longer to unlearn.”
“Oh, Orpheus, no.” She cups my face with her hands. “I had the same thought when I first heard what Ariadne had to say. I wanted to call my mother immediately. But there’s a right way to go aboutthese things and…well…Hades essentially hired me. I answer to him first now.”
I stare at her, not sure what to think. There’s a part of me that wants to tell her she’s out of her mind for thinking that she can operate in Charon’s league. She’s going to get hurt. Except…what if she doesn’t? I don’t know Hades beyond his reputation for being fair. He’s married to Persephone, who is one of Eurydice’s most overprotective sisters. He wouldn’t have hired her if he didn’t believe she was more than capable of doing the job.
More, I’m not going to be the one to dim the light in her eyes. Not again.
The need to call my brother is almost overwhelming, but I wrestle it down. The information about this danger might be new, but the danger itself isn’t. Apollo is on alert. He won’t be caught flat-footed, and I highly suspect that he already hired guards to monitor our parents. It seems like the kind of thing he’d do.
Or maybe I’m just making excuses to do what I want. Just like I always do. I have Eurydice in my arms, and even with a threat against the entire city bearing down, I don’t want to leave her side. Disgusted with myself, I pull away with a bitter laugh.
At least, I try to. Eurydice tightens her hold on me. “Orpheus. Where did you go in your head just now?”
“Nowhere. I’ve been here the whole time.”
“No, you haven’t.” She presses her fingers against my temples. “You were okay, and then you got this look on your face, and I don’t think it was directed at me.”
I should move away again, but I can’t make myself. Not with her touching me. Instead I close my eyes. “After you left, there wasa time when I thought I was better off. Then I realized that I was living in a world without color; you took the entire palette with you when you walked out of my life.”
“Orpheus—”
“Please let me finish.” I hesitate for a few moments, but she doesn’t keep speaking. I almost wish she would. Better to focus on her, but that’s just my self-pity talking. “I’ve been a selfish prick. Even losing you wasn’t enough, initially, to snap me out of that. I essentially went through the stages of grief. When I first believed you were gone for good, I was angry at you for blaming me for Zeus’s actions. That stage lasted until Apollo stepped in and cut me off. I tried bargaining with my brother afterward. I’m sure you can imagine how well that went. I spent the next six months depressed, barely able to get through my day.” I curse and shake my head sharply enough to dislodge her fingers. “Fuck, I’mstill doing it. I don’t know how the fuck to stop being so selfish. I try. I swear to the gods that I’m trying. I just keep fucking failing. How can you and Charon stand to be around me?”
“Orpheus, look at me.”
I don’t want to open my eyes. It’s a childish fear, as if by keeping my eyes closed, the heartbreaking truth won’t be real. As long as I don’t see her expression, I don’t have to acknowledge the anger and recrimination there. Maybe she could pretend that I’d changed, but after what I just told her, she’ll know I haven’t. That I might not becapableof changing. Now’s the moment she will send me away, and I deserve nothing less. Keeping my eyes closed won’t change that.
