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“If you hadn’t reacted so quickly, I might not be coming home to us tonight. Anything can happen.” She worries her bottom lip. “Maybe we should—”
“Who’s Thanatos?” I ask the question in a rush, determined to get ahead of whatever suggestion she’s about to make. Because if she wants us to sneak out and go after him, I’ll be helpless to do anything but exactly that. And, damn it, Iknowthat’s not the right answer.
Instead, I pick a fight, following the thread of jealousy that curled through me at the familiarity between Eurydice and Thanatos. I’m honestly surprised to feel it; I don’t mind our duo becoming a trio with Charon. If I felt jealousy there, it’s a dual thing—jealousy in that he gets to touch her and she gets to touch him, where before I was only able to watch.
That’s not the same sensation I’m getting with Thanatos.
The way Eurydice takes a step back and won’t quite meetmy gaze only makes the feeling more pronounced. “Oh, uh, he works for Hades, but I met him for the first time a little while ago at the club.”
“The club,” I repeat. “You mean Hades’s kink club.”
“In the lower city, when people refer to the club, they’re only speaking of one place.” She actually shuffles her feet. “Look, we had a tiny kiss, it doesn’t mean anything, and I already got read the riot act by Charon. It was before you came across the river.”
I don’t ask the other question bubbling up behind my teeth. Ultimately, it’s none of my business. I only meant to ask about it to distract her from climbing out a window and going after Charon. Still, it does bring up one question I hadn’t even realized I had. “We’re a trio, right? Which means we’re polyamorous.”
“Yes,” she says slowly.
I feel silly and I haven’t even asked a question yet, but I lick my lips and force the words out. “Does that mean we’re open?”
“Do youwantto be open?”
No. Absolutely not. But I’m afraid to draw that firm a line when things between us still feel so new. “I asked you first.” It’s a dodge, and not even a good one at that.
Eurydice studies me for several beats. “Ultimately, that’s something to discuss with the three of us. We’ll figure out our boundaries together, just as soon as Charon comes back to us.” She goes back to worrying her bottom lip. “Would you like to see the library? It’s almost big enough to get lost in; it’s a really nice room. We can wait for him there.”
It seems almost childlike, the way we avoid speaking our fears,as if to say them aloud will make them real. I’m not going to be the one to burst that bubble. I nod and hold out my hand. “Show me the library.”
33
CHARON
“You should’ve waited back at the house.” It’s the same thing I’ve said several dozen times in the last fifteen minutes. And just like every other time, Hades ignores me. He taps the screen of the tablet in his hand, his expression intense. Thanks to Orpheus’s quick thinking in calling me, we were able to catch the van on cameras and use that network to track them to where they’re headed.
To a boat waiting for them in the warehouse district.
We’d suspected they might have come from the upper city. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Our network of cameras and intelligence on this side of the river is hardly exhaustive, but it’s thorough enough that they shouldn’t have been able to evade us for this long.
Unless they weren’t staying here at all. It takes a particular ruthlessness for Circe to require her people to cross the river—and the boundary—every time they want to attack us, but it’s the only way they had a chance of escaping cleanly each time.
Until now.
“Hades.”
“I heard you.” He sits back with a sigh. “I am the fucking lord of the lower city, and they came into my territory and fucked with my people, destroyed my property, and shot at my wife and unborn children. They wanted my attention. They have it.”
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. Hades hasn’t lost his shit like this since he discovered my uncle kept the truth about his family—or, more accurately, his father—from him. I thought he’d kill the old man, but in some ways his punishment was even worse. Exile without actually being exiled. He sent Andreas to a retirement home in the country. Every need is catered to, the best care money can buy, but Andreas is miserable.
I don’t blame Hades for making that call, just like I don’t blame him for making this call today, but when his family is involved, sometimes he behaves irrationally. It makes it hard to protect him.
He won’t agree to stay in the car, just like he didn’t agree to stay back at the house. I’m sticking to his side like glue. I readjust my grip on my own tablet and lean over. “In that case, let’s go over this again. Our people in the area were able to take care of the boat before they could cross back to the upper city. They retreated to this warehouse here, and they know we’re coming. Here’s how I would like to proceed.”
By the time we park one block over from our target, we have a solid plan in place. We have eyes on the streets around the building, but not inside. Since we don’t know what we’re walking into, we can’t just blow the place up. Civilian casualties are not acceptable. Beyond that, explosions mean fire, and the last thing we need to do is set fire to our own damn warehouse district.
No, we go in quiet. We know there’s at least five of them, but it’sentirely possible there are more. We take out all but two. The survivors, we’ll transfer back to the house and lock up for questioning. Minos keeps acting like he doesn’t know anything, but these soldiers definitely do. I don’t look forward to the possibility of torture, but I’ve done worse in the name of protecting the lower city.
I check my vest as I come out of the car. Next to me, Hades does the same. We exchange a look, and it’s clear he’s not going to let me take the lead. This is the same man plagued with guilt from when he shot Eurydice’s attacker…except he’s not the same at all.
That Hades was sure that his actions, his so-called monstrousness would lose him the one person he cared about more than any other.
