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We stop at the entrance to the bridge. Eurydice looks like she wants to reach out and take Ariadne’s hands, but she manages to resist the urge. There’s something empty in the other woman’s eyes that worries me. As much as we’ve gone through in the last week, she’s been going through more for longer. I’m not in charge. Even if I was, I don’t have a solution that’s better than what Hades, Persephone, and Hera have come up with. Whatever it is that the latter has in mind, anyway. I’m just assuming she’ll keep her word to her sister.
I sure as fuck hope I’m not wrong.
“I’m sorry.” Eurydice seems to make herself meet Ariadne’s eyes. “I know my apology isn’t worth the air it took me to speak it, but I am sorry. My sister will—”
“With all due respect, I don’t believe you. Hera will use me for her purposes. It’s fine. I just have to ensure I’m valuable enough for her to want to keep me alive.” She turns without another word and walks onto the bridge.
There’s no fog in the early evening to obscure our vision. We stand there in silence and watch her cross the bridge to where a lone lean figure awaits her on the other side. They speak for a few seconds, and then Ariadne follows Hera to an SUV and climbs into the back.
“Did we make the right decision?”
Medusa shakes her head. “If you think that was your decision, you’re delusional. Hades and your sister made that call. We’re just the ones implementing it. It’s the life of a soldier, Eurydice. Welcome.”
“For fuck’s sake, Medusa.” Calypso smacks her lightly with the back of her hand. “You know damn well that you reject any order that doesn’t align with our values. This one just happened to. We’re not mindless worker ants to dance to the tune our leaders have set.”
“How do you know?” Eurydice wraps her arms around herself. It’s the most natural thing in the world to slip my arm around her shoulders and tuck her against my side. She’s shivering, but I don’t think it has anything to do with her temperature. “Which orders, I mean. How do you know what the right ones to push back on are?”
Medusa shrugs. “You feel it.” She taps her upper chest, right over her heart. “But if you’re going to challenge Hades, do it privately, and make sure you have a damn good reason for it. He’ll listen. It doesn’t mean you’ll win the argument, but he’ll hear you out. That’s more than most people give.”
Eurydice seems to chew on this for a little while. Finally, she nods. “Okay. I’ll try to remember that.” She glances to where Ariadne disappeared. “And you’re right; this wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right call.”
Gently, I turn her back toward our car. “There’s nothing to do for her now. Let’s go home to Charon.”
My skin chooses that moment to tighten almost painfully. I actually flinch. “What the—”
The answer is readily apparent as I look up into the sky and see a gold shimmering curtain descending. I only visited the boundary that separates Olympus from the rest of the world once, on a field trip back in high school. It had impressed even teenage me, the faint metallic shimmer in the air something beautiful and strange. I spent weeks after that trying to replicate the effect in my artwork, but I never quite pulled it off.
I knew there was a barrier between the upper city and the lower city, but like everyone else in Olympus, I assumed it was a lesser barrier. Less powerful because it was less visual. I was wrong. The curtain of shimmering…whatever it is…descending from the sky to the ground is identical to the barrier around the entire city. Except that’s not quite right, is it? Ten years ago, the external barrier was patchy and inconsistent. This one isn’t. It’s seamless and appears strong enough to bounce off. “Wow.”
“It’s so beautiful.” Eurydice’s hand finds mine as we stare up at it together.
“More like terrifying,” Calypso murmurs. She shifts closer to Medusa. “No going back after this.”
“That’s for sure.” Eurydice looks worried. “This is going tocause a lot of problems. I’m not exactly sad that I’m not the one who has to deal with them. Let’s get going.”
We have an entirely uneventful ride back to the house. It’s almost anticlimactic. But after the day we’ve had, I’m not about to complain. Especially when we take the stairs down to the room where we left Charon. He’s awake this time.
“Charon!” Eurydice releases me and rushes to his bed. He still looks like shit, and he’s propped on his side instead of sitting up, which seems to suggest the burns on his back are just as bad as I feared.
But he’s awake. That, in and of itself, is miracle enough.
Eurydice carefully holds one of his hands, but she doesn’t hesitate to slip to the side a little bit to make room for me. Charon looks up at me with a question in his eyes. “Heard Hades lowered the full barrier between the upper city and lower city.”
“He did. It went down just a little while ago.”
“You’re still here.” Is that relief in his voice? I’m not entirely sure. And then I am, when he keeps speaking. “I’m glad.”
I slowly, almost tentatively slip my hand into his free one. Then it’s the most natural thing in the world to wrap my arm around Eurydice’s waist. A closed triangle. It feels so fucking right, I can barely stand it. “I know I just said last night that I don’t love you yet, but I’m sure as fuck falling. Really, really hard.”
“Yeah.” Charon’s eyes drift close. “Me too.”
“How bad is it?” Eurydice asks softly.
Charon opens his eyes and gives a faint smile. “Not as bad as it looks. Burns hurt like a bitch, but they should heal up just fine without too much scarring. I’m not the one who got the worst of it.”
She strokes his knuckles. “In that case, I suppose Orpheus and I get to play nursemaid.” Her smile goes impish, though her eyes remain worried. “He’d look stunning in a sexy nurse outfit, don’t you think?”
Charon rasps out a chuckle. “Don’t make me laugh, baby. It hurts.” He smiles at me. “But she’s right. We should look into about getting you one of those costumes. Make sure there are thigh highs involved.”
I stroke my hand down Eurydice’s back. “I can’t decide if you’re joking or not.”
“You should know better. I never joke about sexy nurses.” His lips quirk. I can tell he’s in a lot of pain and trying to put on a brave face. Charon exhales slowly. “Things are going to get uncomfortable for a while. Maybe it’s selfish to be grateful that you’re both here on this side of the river, but fuck it, I’ll be selfish. I’m glad you’re here with me.”
“Of course we are. There’s no place we’d rather be.” Eurydice lifts his hand to her lips to press a kiss to his knuckles, and then she guides his hand to my face so I can do the same. “I love you, and Orpheus is falling for you. You’re stuck with us, Charon.”
“By stuck with you, you mean I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in Olympus.” His eyes start to drift closed. “Will you stay with me for a while?”
Eurydice and I exchange a look. I smile. “Yeah, Charon. But not just a little while—we’ll stay with you forever.”
