I won’t be here to see it. Maybe that should mean I don’t care, but I do.
There’s no help for hiding my footprints and Hermes is too savvy to miss their existence, unless she’s distracted by the new information, but I can’t hope for that unlikely occurrence. Wiping away the proof is a waste of time, too.
In the split second it takes me to realize I have no way to conceal the fact that someone overheard, Hermes and Minos are wrapping up their conversation. I’m out of time.
I hurry back down the passageway as quickly as I dare, unable to resist casting looks over my shoulder. The door remains closed as I turn the corner and rush back through the mirror and into the bedroom where I left my shoes. I look down at my dirty feet, but there’s no help for it. There’s no time.
The temptation to confront Hermes is strong. Even now, when I’m questioning everything else, I don’t question that she means me no harm. She wouldn’t have warned me away from this place, this party, if she didn’t care what happened to me.
Similarly, I can’t believe for a second that she’d set Dionysus up on the chopping block. She must have negotiated his safety ahead of time with Minos.
But everyone else?
The thought leaves me cold. I slip on my heels and stride out the door, careful to close it softly behind me. I want to rush back into the living room and grab Apollo and get him as far from here as possible, but I make myself walk slowly to the bathroom and slip inside. I take the time to wash my hands. To attempt to steady myself, though it feels a fool’s errand. My reflection stares back at me, too pale, eyes too wide. I’m shaking and I can’t seem to stop.
We were wrong. So fucking wrong. Pan was a mistake. Atalanta disappeared because she’s too formidable and would stand between Artemis and a threat. Hermes has been working with Minos to potentially assassinate one or more of our leaders at a moment when the city is most vulnerable to outside threat. An outside threat Minos seems to be playing vanguard for.
Treason.
They’re talking about treason.
The murders have to happen at the party. Soon. It was a stroke of pure luck that the mistake with Pan didn’t send everyone scattering. Once they return to their lives in the center city, there will be security and other things in play that will make it harder to target them. No one brought security to this party, which I didn’t find strange until now. I know why Apollo didn’t, but why not the others?
Unless… Maybe I wasn’t as wrong as I thought. Maybe this really is the double bluff; it’s just happening sooner than anyone could have dreamed. I saw Dionysus’s face after Pan was attacked. He looked sick. With guilt?
If they thought they were making dark deals with Minos, they wouldn’t bring security here to witness it. People talk, and if you start overtly betraying friends and your people, you won’t have many friends or people standing around you in the future.
Only the Thirteen would be arrogant enough to think they had nothing to fear.
Charon, Adonis, and Eurydice should be safe, barring more mistakes. Their value lies in their connection to the various members of the Thirteen and the power they hold individually, but killing them brings Minos and his people no benefit.
Who will be the target?
I’m so wrapped up in worrying at the problem that I don’t hear Hermes come in, don’t even notice her until she appears at my shoulder. “Someone’s been eavesdropping.”
I jump and then curse myself for jumping. I hadn’t planned on confronting her, but she’s here and we have too much history to let this go. “What are you thinking? Minos? Murder? Treason?”
“Everyone who is in danger knows the law.” For once, she doesn’t have her easy smile in place. “Just like they understood that accepting the title of one of the Thirteen came with risks. If they choose to ignore that, it’s their mistake.”
“You’re a member of the Thirteen,” I grind out. “He could stick a knife in your ribs and then all your plotting and planning will be null and void.”
“He could try.” She nods slowly. “But I’m better than he is, and he knows it.”
“Hermes…” I search her face for the woman I fell for all those years ago. “I never thought you would hurt this city for your own ambitions. Why are you doing this?”
“I have my reasons.” An answer and yet no answer at all.
I shake my head slowly. “You won’t get away with it. Not you and not him. I’ll tell everyone. They’ll leave and the opportunity will pass, and Zeus and Apollo will drive Minos and his people from the city. All this will be for naught.”
“You can tell them, Cassandra.” She smiles now, but it’s bittersweet in the extreme. “But honey… No one other than Apollo will believe you. At least not until it’s too late.”
31
Apollo
I know something’s wrong the moment Cassandra walks back into the room. She’s the kind of white that’s leaning green and her eyes are too wide. In all the years I’ve known the woman, I’ve never seen her panic—not even when we found Pan—but I have a feeling that’s what I’m witnessing now.
My body takes over even as my mind processes the little details. Her hands are damp, and her feet are dusty-looking in her heels. I reach her in two strides and take her hands. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s bad,” she whispers.
It doesn’t occur to me to make excuses. I simply slip my arm around her shoulders and guide her out the door. This close, I can feel little tremors working their way through her body, and I grit my teeth against the questions piling up.
She was gone less than fifteen minutes. I know, because I couldn’t help watching the clock even as I chatted with Charon and Dionysus about a new batch of wine the latter had created over the winter. It isn’t in distribution yet, and Charon wanted to negotiate something close to an exclusive deal for the lower city.
In that time, something happened to shake Cassandra up this terribly and I wasn’t there to protect her. I hug her closer to me as we reach the stairs. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
That’s enough to keep me quiet as we make the rest of the way back to our room. I shut the door and she staggers to sink onto the edge of the bed. Now that I can see her clearly, she looks even worse. It frightens me.
I cross to her and sink to my knees before her. “Tell me what happened.”
“No one’s going to believe me.” The sorrow radiating off her makes my chest hurt. I would do anything to dispel it.
I cover her hands with mine. “I will. Tell me what happened,” I repeat firmly.
She won’t meet my gaze. Her eyes dart around the room and her lower lip quivers. “I don’t know if I believe me and I actually heard them talking. It’s too wild, too much.”
I think back over the last little bit and make a few connections. “Hermes and Minos.” It has to be. Surely the staff talking wouldn’t shake Cassandra like this. From there, it’s another leap in logic to guess what scared her so badly. “They were talking about the real reason he invited everyone here. It’s worse than we guessed.”
“Pan was a mistake.” She closes her eyes and her shoulders slump. “Minos is going to kill one of the Thirteen and take their place.”