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H was frowning at her. Unable to believe her presence or unconvinced of her identity? Tess could identify with either possibility.
“She who will destroy the world,” Danny muttered. “Temptress.”
Oh, God, he’d told her. He’d used that word when they were… She was Pandora.
“Carrie’s really gone?” H asked.
Grief might take time to catch up with him. The last letter from her mother was still in one of the trailer’s nightstands. At least, she thought it was, Danny could have put it anywhere. Handing the letter to H, given what it said, might be cruel.
“It’s your fault,” Danny said to H, his candor harsh and cold. “They killed her because of you. Same reason Pandora has been running her whole life. They’re in this because of you.”
“I know,” H said, accepting the criticism.
“What Carrie got was a relief. I don’t have a damn clue how you’ll keep Pandora safe now. Z blames you for everything, I can only guess he does.”
“Because you haven’t talked to him,” H said like he didn’t believe that for a second.
“Hey, I got the alert like every other operative. Only I didn’t have a damn clue what the fuck was going on. You should’ve trusted me! I’m trained to take a bullet for you, old man. Fear doesn’t exist. Fuck, you should’ve trusted me. Trusted your training.”
“I didn’t want to do that to you,” H muttered, folding his arms again.
“Don’t give me that shit. I would’ve been there.”
H shook his head. “This was your life. Your home. Everything you knew. You’d do anything to protect it. I always accepted Olympus came first for you.”
“If that was true, why didn’t I walk with Z?”
“Didn’t walk with me either, son.”
“Now everything we ever knew, everything you built, is scattered to the wind,” Danny said and turned to kick one of the desk supports in a show of rage. “And we can’t put it together again—”
“Because I’m an asshole, yeah,” H said. “You did that part.”
“Can you fucking blame me?” Danny asked, driving his hand through his hair. “You don’t give a damn, do you? Or what? You’ve put it back together and left me in the cold?”
Offense hit H so hard that it became fury before he took a breath. “I’ve been out there in the cold! I left them to you, every single one. What’s your primary mission?”
“I don’t—”
“Ares!”
Danny silenced and squeezed his lips together, holding his emotion behind the dam of his strong jaw. “Return to base.”
“That’s right. Fail or succeed, whatever happens, you return to base.”
“I’m here,” Danny said, backing up to open his arms. “I’m fucking here, and what? What the fuck am I supposed to do?” He held up four fingers. “Four people know the code to unlock Olympus, only four. Z was never gonna come back here, there’s nothing here for him to kill. Fuck knows where P is, or if Styx is alive, andyoudid this.”
“You knew I would come back for you. I did come back for you. Z had already killed Minotaur. We were on a clock. He told me you were his; I had no reason to doubt that. I came back. I came to get you.”
Danny was shaking his head. “You lied to me. Every fuck else knew. I was the only one with my thumb up my ass when the shit came down. I would’ve told you straight, you never would’ve pulled it off.”
“It wasn’t my idea.”
“I don’t give a damn whose idea it was. Let me guess, it was the Six? Which one? Huh? Even now you still won’t tell me.”
“To protect you,” H said, his own frustration lingering in those words.
“Fuck protection! Look at me, asshole,” Danny said and lunged forward to hit H’s shoulder, forcing him to look. “You created me for this.”
