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"Yes,pater. I'm sorry," Ariadne said and left his office before she climbed over the desk and shoved her fist down his throat.
Ariadne was still fuming by the time she made it back to her apartment in the Hellas District.
With the anger came the inevitable hopelessness that no matter how much money she saved or how hard she fought, Minos was never going to let her go.
Giving her Lia's ashes was just another move in their silent game of wills.
"Don't forget your mail, Aria," the ancient landlady demanded from her desk in the foyer.
"Thanks, Mrs. Contos," Ariadne said politely. It was so rare for her to get any mail apart from the marketing flyers of the local shops that she had a habit of not looking in her box for weeks. She made a show of unlocking the box to appease the still watching Mrs. Contos, and she was surprised to find a yellow package inside of it.
Ariadne stilled when she noticed it was addressed in her full birth name, knowledge she thought only she and Minos had.
It would be impossible for anyone to identify her from fingerprints or DNA left at crime scenes. Minos paid good money to ensure that his priestesses didn't exist in any police or medical databases.
Ariadne had burned her fingerprints off years ago, back when she believed all of Minos's bullshit and wanted to impress him with her devotion.
Ariadne placed Lia's ashes on the mantel of the broken fireplace, turned on her coffee pot, and stared at the package on her kitchen counter. If someone knew who she was and what she had done, then the envelope could contain anthrax or any other number of nasties sent for revenge.
"Don't be ridiculous," Ariadne huffed and tore open the package and tipped out its contents. Inside was a smartphone with a pin code written on a scrap of paper.
"What the…" Ariadne tapped in the code just as the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"We are the Pithos, and we have a job for you, Spindle," a digital voice replied, and Ariadne's safe, anonymous world fell out from beneath her.
2.
Ariadne took three deep breaths before she demanded, "If you know so much about me, you know I don't work freelance or take private contracts."
"Minos Karros likes to keep a tight grip on his pretty assassins. Tell me, Spindle, how's that working out for you?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," Ariadne said, even as her pulse raced.
"We are offering you a contract. Your reward will be five million drachmae and a way to keep out from under Minos’s dirty thumb forever."
"Why?" It sounded too good to be true, and Ariadne was too smart to bite that bait.
"Pithos wants to get rid of scum like Minos that seek to corrupt Greece."
Ariadne snorted. "Sounds too idealistic to be true."
"I'm sure it does to a woman raised by a monster. We are monster hunters, Spindle. Destroy our monster, and we will destroy yours."
"I'm not dumb enough to take you at your word. For all I know, you are Minos trying to fuck with me and test my loyalty."
"There will be another package delivered to you within the hour. You have until sunrise tomorrow to give us your final answer. Consider what a life of freedom is worth to you."
Ariadne knew she should call Minos straight away, tell him that some jerk gang called Pithos was out to fuck with his business.
Instead, she drained her coffee, stuck the phone into the back pocket of her jeans, and went out. If another package was going to turn up in the next hour, she was going to make sure she saw the face of the person doing the delivery.
"By the saints, I thought you'd died, it's been so long since I've seen you," Dimmi said as Ariadne made it to the food van permanently parked across the road. Dimmi was probably the closest thing she had to a female friend, so Ariadne made a point of giving her business at least once a week. Their friendship was another weakness, like the apartment, but one that she was determined to keep.
"Dim, I was here three days ago. Stop drinking on the job," Ariadne said as she took the bottle of juice Dimmi gave her through the van's serving window.
"My darling, I'm not drinking. I miss seeing your beautiful face. You want your usual?"
