Shattered Gods (Dark Olympus, #10)(53)

“Yeah?” His tone is a study in casual.

Suspicion takes root. I frown down at him. “How much trouble are you going to be in for helping me?”

“Hopefully none at all.” He grins. “But if there is trouble, we’re more than capable of handling it.”

The surge of warmth in my chest staggers me. I don’t know these people, not really, but I like what I do know of them. I just hadn’t realized they felt the same way. “Hades is going to be furious.”

“Probably.” He almost sounds like he relishes the incoming argument. “Like I said, we can handle it.”

“Thank you. To all three of you.”

“Thank us by staying alive.” He pushes the boat back from the platform. “Good luck, Atalanta.”

I watch as he turns and heads back downstream, disappearing in short order around the curve of the river. After so many years of functioning on my own, with only Hecate as relief from the loneliness, it’s odd to discover there are actually people I care about in this city beyond her. People who seem to care about me, too. It won’t matter in the long run; it changes nothing. The realization feels monumental all the same.

“Time to move,” I mutter. I turn to the ladder, blow on my hands to put some feeling back in my fingertips, and begin to climb.





Interlude 2

Persephone




“You need to rest.”

I turn to face my husband, the love of my life, the best man I’ve ever known. “You first.”

Hades grimaces. “We still haven’t found Circe’s people in the lower city. And there’s the woman herself to deal with once that’s done. I’ll rest when the lower city is safe.”

“Exactly.”

He huffs out a breath. “I’m not pregnant with twins.”

I press my hands to my stomach instinctively. I’m not far enough along to feel the babies move. They aren’t even really babies yet, but the love I already feel for them goes beyond measure. It has my chest trying to close, my throat burning, a sensation as deep and uncomfortable as fury. This entire experience would be fraught enough to navigate with my husband’s overreactions to anything resembling a threat to me and the pregnancy without there being a very real and present threat to both.

Hades presses himself to my back and wraps his arms around me, his hands resting gently over mine. “Promise me you’ll stay in the house while I’m out today.”

I hate this. I hate even more that I don’t have a good reason to deny him. My husband isn’t the one putting me in a cage currently—Circe is. “Being in the house didn’t stop her from sending pictures from her snipers to Callisto. It didn’t stop her people from attacking the club.”

“I know.” He rests his cheek against my temple. “But short of sending you out of the city…”

I turn in his arms. It’s already more awkward than it was a couple weeks ago. If I manage to reach full term, we’ll barely be able to touch each other over the size of my stomach. Gods, I hope we make it to that point. Seeing my fear reflected on Hades’s face has me speaking something I never thought I would. “What if they’re right?”

His gaze shutters. “Be more specific.”

Okay, so he’s going to be difficult. I give him the look that statement deserves, but I still obey the light command. “I don’t mean the murder, and I certainly don’t mean all the other things Circe and the others have done in pursuit of this goal, but…” I swallow hard. Why is this so difficult? “I know being the protector of the lower city has been your entire identity since you were a child too young to shoulder it. What would our life be like if there was a different form of government here in Olympus? If we didn’t have enemies sending threatening photos to our family members?”

He leans forward and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I don’t know, little siren. But abandoning the city to Circe won’t create some kind of utopia. It will be trading thirteen tyrants for one. I won’t damn our people to save myself.”

“I know.” And I do. I could point out that I wasn’t suggesting bolting to save our own skins, but he knows that, too. We’ve done some variation of circling this topic half a dozen times over the last week. There are no good answers, only bad ones. “I’ll stay in the house today.”

“Thank you.” He gives me a proper, if brief, kiss and steps back. “I have to go.”

“Come home to me.”

“I’ll do my best.” It’s as close to a promise as he’s willing to make.

I watch him walk away just like I always do these days: with my heart in my throat, determined to memorize every moment as if it’s enough to preserve the short time of happiness we’ve had together. It’s not enough. It’s never enough. Maybe that makes me greedy, but I don’t care.

I find Eurydice and Callisto down in the library. Seeing them together is confirmation of Hades putting Eurydice on unofficial guard duty for Callisto while she’s in the lower city. My husband offered sanctuary to my sister and brother-in-law, but he doesn’t trust either of them. I don’t exactly blame him considering the events that led us to this place.

Even so, Callisto is family and she’s made more sacrifices than any of us. I sink down next to her on the couch and lean my head on her shoulder. “This is a mess.”