Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5) (53)

I don’t have an answer any more now than I did earlier. I have lived a very simple life. Even in the orphanage, fighting for food and to keep Pandora safe, things were simple. I didn’t have to be smart or cunning; I just had to be brutal enough not to be fucked with. That trend continued in Minos’s household. He doesn’t prize me for my smarts. He points at a target, and I destroy it.

Things aren’t simple like that anymore. Every action, every word, has layers on layers. My life is a fucking onion, and I’ve always been shit at reading between the lines.

I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I don’t need to know. I’m a man of action, after all.

The reassurance feels like a fucking excuse to do what I want, but I ignore that and push slowly to my feet. “I’ll see you at seven.”

Aphrodite still looks dazed and a little lost. “I never said I’d have dinner with you.”

“Your place or mine?”

She blinks and finally shakes her head. “Mine. Gods alone know what you have stocked in your fridge. It’s probably beer and ketchup.”

“I’m a man of taste. There’s mustard, too.”

Her lips quirk. “Lucky me. No, come to my place. I’ll order in.” She narrows her eyes, her smile fading far too quickly. “Then you can tell me why you saved my life.”

Maybe by tonight, I’ll actually have an answer for her.





20


APHRODITE





My sister shows up within thirty minutes of the attack, a mere five minutes after my husband finally leaves me alone. She bursts through the door of my office and looks wildly around before landing on me. “Oh thank fuck, you’re okay.”

I blink. “Are you okay?” Helen looks exhausted. There are faint circles beneath her eyes and her normally impeccable clothing looks like she slept in it. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that this city has gone mad.” She drags a hand through her long hair and shuts the door. “We’ve had three assassination attempts in the last twelve hours, including yours.”

“Three?”

“Yeah, some fool tried to drop a shipping container on Poseidon.” She makes a face. “They’re no longer among the living.”

“Oh.” I don’t know if I want to ask whether or not Poseidon was the one to remove that threat.

Helen doesn’t give me a chance to figure it out. She crosses over and crouches down to look at my legs. “Do you need to go to a hospital?”

“No.” I barely resist the urge to brush my fingers against the bandage on my thigh, the memory of my husband’s gentle touch confusing and disorientating. He saved me. I still haven’t had time to process that. Truthfully, I can barely believe it happened, but even more shocking was the quiet moment afterward. The moment where I fell apart and he somehow managed to make me feel safe. I certainly don’t know what to think of that.

“Probably for the best.” Helen sits back on her heels. “I can’t guarantee the hospitals are safe right now. Nowhere is safe, really. This is so fucked.”

Her phone trills, its jaunty little tune totally at odds with the seriousness of the situation. I raise my brows as a deep voice says, “Hey, sexy,” against the music. “Charming.”

“Achilles has a funny sense of humor.” She fishes her phone out of her pocket and frowns. “It’s Perseus. Hold on.” A few button clicks and she answers with video. “Eris is okay.”

Our brother’s face fills the screen. Anyone who didn’t know him would think he looks much the same as ever, but I grew up with him. I recognize the stress deepening the faint lines bracketing his mouth and the fact that he’s starting to get the same dark circles beneath his eyes that Helen is.

He looks at me a long moment. “We’re locking down.”

“That’s a mistake.” Helen shakes her head sharply. “If we look like we’re running scared, the city is going to riot. MuseWatch is already practically salivating over each new attempt. We can’t afford to go into hiding.”

“I don’t give a fuck.” He looks at something off-camera and his expression shutters. “I’ll be with you in a moment, Hera.” A few seconds later, she must leave the room, because he relaxes a little. Hardly matrimonial bliss over there. “We can’t afford to lose another of the Thirteen, and none of the three attempts in the last twenty-four hours actually followed the clause’s parameters. If one of these attempts succeeds, we’re going to either have a violent civilian who doesn’t know a single thing about their new responsibility, or we’re going to have a vacancy that will take time to fill. Neither of those outcomes is acceptable.”

“Or we’re going to have another of Minos’s minions in the role.” Helen makes a face. “Though he’s been remarkably quiet since the wedding. I don’t think he’s behind any of these, and Apollo agrees with me.”

“I. Do. Not. Care.” Perseus bites out the words. “We are locking down.”

“No, Helen’s right.” I’m still feeling a bit shaky, but I’m not about to admit as much to my brother. “Perception matters as much as anything right now. We can’t hide.”