“He can’t stop it.” I feel numb. It won’t last, but it’s almost pleasant for this beat of silence before we have to move, before reality comes crashing back in. “He can’t stop anything.”
“You’d be surprised what Theseus can do when he sets his mind to it.” Pandora can’t quite mask the worry on her face, though. “Come on. I want to be there for Eris when she wakes up.”
I look at the bloodstain on the marble floor. “Go on ahead. I’m going to clean this up.”
“Adonis,” she says softly.
“I don’t want her coming back and having the first thing she sees be a reminder of what happened to her.” I can’t go back in time and save her. I can’t fix this, no matter how much I want to. But I can make damned sure she doesn’t have to face the memory all over again when she comes home.
She has to come home. I can’t allow myself to consider another outcome.
Pandora nods slowly. “Okay, that’s smart. Let’s do it together.”
“You don’t have to. I can…”
She’s already moving into the kitchen and poking around beneath the sink until she finds the cleaning supplies. It takes us less than ten minutes to remove every trace of blood from the penthouse. It seems like it should be more difficult to erase evidence of such catastrophic events, but my numbness has me in a stranglehold.
I don’t think I’m going to breathe until I see Eris and can confirm that she’s alive and well. Or as well as can be expected considering tonight’s events.
Pandora takes my hand as we step into the elevator. She’s startlingly warm, and I’m not ashamed to say I cling to her as the car descends. “She has to be okay.” I’ve said it a dozen times since we started cleaning. I don’t seem to be able to say anything else.
“She’s going to be better than okay,” she says firmly, just like she has answered me every other time. “She’s going to come out of surgery spitting mad and ready to make whoever is responsible pay.”
I shake my head slowly. “Best I can tell, the attacker wasn’t there for Eris. If they were, they wouldn’t have panicked when she got stabbed. They would have finished the job. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.”
Pandora tenses beside me. “They were there for Theseus.”
“I think so.” Which means they were sent by one of the Thirteen.
I hate to admit it, but I believe that Zeus isn’t responsible. He would wait until Theseus wasn’t near Eris to have his people strike. No, this was someone else, someone who didn’t necessarily care if Eris—if Aphrodite—was caught in the cross fire.
Maybe even someone who hoped she would be.
“Who sent them?” Pandora looks up at me, her normal happy expression nowhere in evidence. She looks furious enough that I almost take a step back. “You have an idea.”
“It wasn’t either of her siblings. But there are plenty of people among that group who wouldn’t care if she got caught in the cross fire. They wouldn’t shed a tear if she dies.” Artemis, in particular, has plenty of reason to hate Theseus…and Eris for standing in her way when she wanted revenge for her cousin’s death.
“Adonis.” Pandora’s hand becomes a vise around mine. “Right now, she’s alone and helpless on an operating table. Do you think one of them might try to take advantage of that?”
I don’t know. I don’t fucking know. Artemis has no overt in at the hospital, but that doesn’t mean she’s not capable of finishing the job. “We need to move. Now.”
My car is in the parking garage. We hurry to it and then we’re flying out the exit and toward the hospital. “Zeus won’t let anyone hurt her.” Maybe if I say it enough times, I’ll actually believe it. He won’t let anyone close…except the nurses and doctors and whoever else is needed in the surgery room. “Godsdamn it.”
“What?” Pandora clutches the handle above the door as I fly around a turn, running a red light. “We’re not going to help Eris if we die on the way there!”
“Everyone is the enemy.” I have to force my foot off the accelerator as we come up against traffic. “That’s what your people wanted, isn’t it? Look at us now. Some doctor or nurse might decide to kill her right there on the table to take her title.”
Pandora looks sick. “It wasn’t my plan. I know that doesn’t make it better, and it might actually make it worse because I came with Minos even knowing there was something going on. But I never wanted anyone hurt.”