“I’m aware,” I manage.
“This stunt today will only further the fiction he’s spinning of being a loving and protective husband. Are you sure he’s not involved in the shooting?”
I blink. It’s a testament to how rattled I still am that I hadn’t even considered this was all a ploy on Hephaestus’s part. He did show up at my office unexpectedly, but surely he’d be better suited to being a widower than saving my life with only one person as a witness. Sele isn’t the most discreet when it comes to gossip, and they won’t keep their cards close to their chest this time.
Still, there’s no way he could have known that.
Unless he’s several steps ahead of me…
Despite myself, I can’t help thinking back to how carefully he touched me. Gentle isn’t a word I’d associate with the man who came into his title through violence, but there’s no denying that he was gentle with me. Or that my comments about my father bothered him.
He’s not that good of an actor. If he was, he would have proven it before now. Right?
I shake my head sharply. “I can’t guarantee anything.”
“Hmmm.” Perseus steeples his hands before his mouth. “Ares, get the squads in place by this afternoon. No one moves until that happens. Tomorrow, we need to meet and discuss what steps to take moving forward.”
I press my hands to my thighs as if that’s enough to ignore the way they’re still shaking, just a little. “Who’s we? I assume you don’t mean the whole of the Thirteen.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. We can’t effectively face this outside threat until we’re unified.” He makes a face and sits back. “An impossible feat with our current Hephaestus, but there’s a target on his back, same as the rest of us.”
Helen sighs. “We’re not going to get anything done. It’d be better if you curated the group. Us. Hera. Demeter. Apollo. Athena. I suppose Hades can come as well.”
I don’t entirely disagree with her, but eight out of Thirteen is not great. “Not Poseidon? Or Hermes and Dionysus?” Artemis and my husband can barely be in the same room with each other, but surely she can see the benefit of unification?
“Poseidon has decided that he’s not concerned with mundane subjects like Olympus’s survival. He isn’t taking my calls.” He looks at her directly. “Dionysus was at that party, and I didn’t send him there, so we can’t guarantee that he’s on our side. He’s too close to Hermes to trust. No, it needs to be all of us or none of us. Better to keep shit out in the open than have meetings behind closed doors—and encourage the ones we don’t trust to do the same.”
“Even Hermes is invited? You still suspect she might be a traitor.”
“At this point, it’s less suspecting and more that I know she is. She was in contact with Minos before he came here. She’s intentionally being difficult and not sharing what she knows about his benefactor and the greater threat to the city. That makes her an enemy.”
Helen shakes her head sharply. “Forget whoever is paying Minos’s way. We can’t deal with Hermes as an enemy.”
“She’s one woman.”
I exchange a look with my sister. Perseus isn’t foolish or impulsive, but that statement is both. I’m not entirely sure what Hermes’s game is, but the fact remains that she’s not actively trying to cut down the rest of the Thirteen, so we need to prioritize dealing with the assassination clause first. “Fine. The whole Thirteen will meet. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
“Stay safe, both of you.” He ends the call.
Helen sighs. “I like how he commands it as if that’s enough to make it true.”
“It’s how he deals with an out-of-control situation.” I shrug, feigning a lightheartedness I don’t feel. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Will we?” She stretches her arms over her head and something in her spine pops. “Sorry, I’m being morose. It feels like they’re one step ahead of us no matter what we do. Minos and his people might not be actively pulling the strings on these attacks, but they’re responsible for the events that got us to this place all the same.”
She’s right, but I don’t like the way her shoulders sag in something akin to defeat. “That’s not entirely true. They never wagered on you as Ares.” I give a faint smile. “We’d be a whole lot worse off if they had control of the military and more of the Thirteen.” I’d bet good money that the original plan was to have their new Ares—either my now-husband or the Minotaur—provide security for Minos’s little house party. With that in play, they would have taken two or even three more titles.