Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5) (94)

“They are our people,” she repeats. Her eyes are colder than I’ve ever seen them. “And they know I’ll personally put a bullet between their eyes if they try something.”

It’s not a guarantee, but it’s all we have. I’m not a doctor. I can’t perform surgery. I take a shaky breath. “Okay.”

Pandora is squeezing my hand so hard, I’ve lost feeling in my fingers, but her voice is relatively even. “We’ll wait with you until we know she’s safe.” She glances at me, a silent message there that I’m in total agreement with. Neither of us will be sent on our way once Eris wakes up. I don’t care if I have to fight Ares, Achilles, Patroclus, or even Zeus himself. I am getting into that room to see Eris with my own eyes and make sure she knows she’s safe now.

But she’s not the only one I’m worried about.

I allow Pandora to lead me to one of the uncomfortable seats in the waiting room. We sink down and exchange another look. “Will Theseus be okay?”

“I don’t know.” A line appears between her brows. “Minos has been very careful to use disappointment and praise in turn to keep Theseus in line, but that was when Theseus worshipped the ground he walks on. If he confronts Minos directly, that won’t hold. I don’t know what Minos will do.”

Despite my best efforts, I think back to the final Ares trial. The Minotaur fought Achilles, Patroclus, and Helen at the same time. He almost killed Patroclus, and when Helen eliminated him, he kept fighting and might have killed Achilles, too. I’ve never seen anything like it. The whole time he enacted such violence, he didn’t have any expression on his face.

“If Minos sets the Minotaur after Theseus, what will happen?”

She flinches. “Blood and tears, Adonis. Blood and tears.”





36


HEPHAESTUS





Pure rage carries me all the way to Minos’s home. I can’t stop replaying the attack. I should have been stronger. Faster. Fucking something. The attacker got the drop on us, but Eris should have stayed down. What was the fool woman doing, rushing at the fucking assassin?

Trying to protect me.

I can’t pretend the cloying feeling in my chest is anything but guilt. It’s sticky and sharp and every breath seems to drive it deeper into my lungs. She was trying to protect me, her enemy, the man she only married to keep this fucking city safe.

The city doesn’t deserve her. The Thirteen sure as shit don’t.

I shove open the door hard enough that it bangs into the wall behind it and tries to rebound. I catch it easily. “Minos! Where the fuck are you?”

It takes seconds to reach his office and find it empty. I charge into his bedroom with the same results. Those are the only two places in this apartment he spends any time, which means he’s not here.

Footsteps sound, but I know before Ariadne rounds the corner that it’s not the person I’m seeking. She skids to a stop, her eyes wide. “Theseus. Oh gods, is that blood?”

“Yes.” I start past her. “Where is he?”

“Shouldn’t you, um, maybe wash your hands? Take a breath?”

I don’t grab Ariadne and shake her, but the temptation is there. “Where is he?” I repeat. I keep my words so low, they’re almost incomprehensible. I don’t care. If I start bellowing, I’m going to annihilate this apartment. I want to rip into the walls, to smash and break whatever I can get my hands on and howl to the fucking moon.

None of it will make a difference or ensure Eris lives.

Ariadne hesitates. She looks around and steps closer. “I heard about Aphrodite. I’m sorry.”

“Ariadne.” I take her shoulders and lean down, getting in her face. “Where the fuck is your father?”

“Are you going to kill him?” she whispers.

I don’t ask her if she’d try to stop me. Minos’s relationship with her and Icarus is no less fucked than his relationship with me and the Minotaur. It’s just a different flavor of fucked. Maybe she doesn’t know if she wants to stop me or get out of my way. That’s fine. I don’t know what I want right now, either. “Where is he? I’m not going to ask again.”

“Get your fucking hands off my sister.”

I look over slowly to find Icarus in the doorway. He’s got a baseball bat in his hands and while he doesn’t look like a stone-cold killer, I have no doubt he’d take that damned bat to my head and waste both our time. I drop my hands from Ariadne’s shoulders. “My fight isn’t with either of you. Tell me where he is and I’ll go.”

Icarus adjusts his grip on the baseball bat, but doesn’t lower it. “She’s Olympian, Theseus. Surely you’re not going to burn bridges with all of us over your wife.”

“I am putting a stop to this.”

“It’s too late,” Ariadne whispers. “There’s no stopping it.”

I give her a sharp look, but I’m not about to fold now. It doesn’t matter if we can’t stop Minos’s greater plan. I don’t give a fuck about this city as a whole. But I’ll be damned before I let Eris stay in the crosshairs. “I’m not going to ask again.” I don’t want to hurt either of them, but if they stand between me and their father, I will go through them to get to him.