Shattered Gods (Dark Olympus, #10)(46)

Back in Aeaea, nothing happened that Zita didn’t see. They may be loyal to me, but that’s only because I pay them well and give them plenty to occupy them. They’re never bored while working for me, which is the only unforgivable sin in their eyes. Even so, it’s a good reminder to watch myself. “Did you see Atalanta wandering our halls yesterday?” With Hecate.

“Security here isn’t as straightforward as I’d like.” They shrug again. “Initially, I didn’t realize the maintenance halls are on a different system. It’s archaic and goofy to keep them separate, but a lot about this place is. By the time I realized you were searching for them, they were already gone.”

It’s what I figured, but frustration still blooms inside me, a poisonous flower. Those two are thorns in my proverbial paw, and the next few days would go off significantly smoother if they weren’t free to run about the city and cause problems. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. “I trust that oversight has been corrected.”

“Yep! Won’t happen again.” They grin. “You look like shit, Boss. You should take a nap or something. Maybe do one of those masks Nerissa is always talking about.”

“Thanks, Zita.” I bite down a sigh. “I’ll take that into account.”

They bob their head to a beat only they can hear. “I also have a report from the lower city team. They found the place, but there’s a lot of security around it—more than we expected. Either Hades was tipped off, or he’s naturally a cautious kind of guy.”

“Likely both.” Hecate is being unforgivably sentimental in her defense of the very people who would stand by and repeat history. She let herself get too close, and she’s always cared more than most. The moment she got free of the university, she would have called Hades and conveyed what information she could.

It’s a token of his intelligence that he trusted her…and damned inconvenient at that.

I tap a finger to my bottom lip. We already planned on bringing the trials to the public in a way that’s not possible in the university. Might as well get on with it. “I want a full list of Artemis’s sins by tomorrow morning. The more details you can provide, the better.”

“Will do.” Zita taps a few keys. “As soon as I plugged into their network, I started expanding on the information we already have. Having access to Apollo’s system would be nice, but I’m managing well enough on my own since he locked things down.”

Locked things down and retreated to the lower city and out of our reach. We can do well enough without a perfectly complete list of violent acts committed by the various members of the Thirteen, but I prefer to be thorough. “Thank you.”

“Seriously though, Boss. Not sure where you spent last night, but you should get some more sleep. Antigone is, and Nerissa won’t rest until you do. Can’t afford to falter now, and all that.”

“I’ll take that into consideration.” I walk out of the tech center and move through the hallways almost at random. I won’t be sleeping anytime soon. Every time I close my eyes, the nightmares come. The water closing over my head. Zeus’s hands around my throat, shoving me down, down, down. Blackness eating at the edge of my vision, but not enough to blind me to the hate in his blue eyes. I shudder. The few hours I got last night will be enough to get me through the next couple of days, no matter what Zita thinks.

I have no desire to interact with Artemis or the legacy family before it’s time. The former will be the trial in the morning. The latter? I think back to the children in that locked room. To their fear, so familiar that it makes me ill.

Maybe there’s something to Hecate’s plan of exile. It can’t be an option for the Thirteen or the bloodlines of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, but we could wait for the worst of the civilians’ anger to die down and then quietly ship the other legacy families out of the city. They can’t take all their riches, of course, but there’s no reason we couldn’t allow them enough money to settle anywhere else…

Ah, Hecate. Even after all this time, you still have a way of softening my sharp edges.

***


Atalanta

“The truth,” I say slowly.

Athena watches me closely. She’s always been beautiful, but the hardship of the past year has sharpened her into something beyond beauty. It tastes almost like desperation. She leans forward. “You may not have worked for me for a particularly long time, but you’re a smart woman, Atalanta. Give me credit for being the same. No matter what information you returned with, you didn’t go to the university in some misguided attempt to win back a position with me or Hades or any other member of the Thirteen. You went there for Hermes.”

I’ve spent ten fucking years being duplicitous, but right now, confronted with the truth, my mouth works and no words emerge. I clear my throat and try again. “The information I brought back is true—and useful.”

“That’s not even a good attempt to change the subject.” She leans back. “Eurydice told us about your conversation. You were desperate to save Hermes, and since I was under the impression you two only know each other in passing, that means I missed something important. I don’t like missing important things, Atalanta.” Her cool, dark eyes flick over my face and land on my shoulder. “She give you that?”