I eye him. Yeah, he’s downright smitten. It’s there in the way his body seems pulled in by a gravitational pull Adonis is putting out. Their shoulders keep brushing, and he grabs Adonis’s mug to refill when he gets his own coffee.
I’ve only seen him like this once before, with a guy he had a summer romance with right after Minos brought us into his household. He’s soft with me, but it’s a different kind of intimacy, born of our shared trauma. We’re best friends and I’m closer to him than anyone else in the world, but it will never be romantic.
It will never be Theseus looking like he looks right now, like he’s not entirely sure what to do with his hands. He’s a warrior. I’ve seen him move through a series of opponents—one of the training exercises Minos insists on—as if he’s water and untouchable. He might not be able to move quite so fluidly now, but he’s still graceful in his way.
Not right now.
He’s moving like he did when he turned fourteen and grew six inches in a few months. His body was new and strange and he had to relearn how to move through the world without slamming into things.
I press my lips together. This is a recipe for disaster. I don’t know if the other three aren’t aware of it, or are intentionally ignoring it, but there’s not much to be done if they are determined to see the course through. I’m not sure they are determined to see it through, though. The whole mood this morning feels very unreal, as if it’s a bubble just waiting for someone to pop it.
Really, I’m a hypocrite. I have no intention of putting distance between me and any of these people. It’s just going to hurt when things blow up in our faces. “Theseus.” I wait for him to look at me. “Minos was looking for you this morning.”
He meets my gaze steadily. “I’ll call him once I’m done with the meeting.”
Something like hope flutters in my chest. A month ago, he would have dropped everything to rush for his phone and apologized the moment his foster father picked up. Still, I know better than to believe Minos’s influence is waning.
“I see.” My best friend is many things, but fickle isn’t one of them. It will take more than a pretty face and charming smile to pull him from that poisonous household.
Adonis looks between us. “Should I give you a minute?”
“It’s fine.” Theseus leans back. “Pandora is worried about my priorities.”
I snort. “Only because your priorities are suspect.” If I knew what Minos was up to, I might be tempted to go straight to that golden asshole in his tower and use the information to leverage Theseus’s freedom.
Except, no, I’m still being a hypocrite. No matter how little I like Minos, I won’t do anything to endanger Theseus. There’s not a single reason for Zeus to honor his word about not harming Theseus if he married Eris. In fact, there are half a dozen reasons off the top of my head to make his enemy disappear and stick someone he trusts into the Hephaestus title.
“It’s no use trying to talk sense into him.” Eris appears, looking more put together than she has a right to after being gone such a short time. She’s pulled her hair back into a slick ponytail and gone with a minimal makeup look…except for her crimson lips. She picked a fitted black dress that shows off her lean frame, and black heels high enough to make her the tallest person in the room.
“Wife.” For once, I can’t read the expression on Theseus’s face. Or, to be more accurate, there are too many conflicting expressions. Lust, anger, something like tenderness, maybe the tiniest hint of vulnerability. Theseus doesn’t know how to feel about his wife.
That makes two of us.
“I’ll walk you out.” I say.
She looks at me. “That’s really not necessary. None of this is.”
There it is. The first crack.
Theseus crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t know. Felt pretty necessary to me.”
Surprise pulls me up short. Now is the time when he should snarl something and storm out. Not stand there calmly and stare his wife down.
“Fine. It was a little necessary. Your sacrifice has been duly noted, but I have to leave now. You should do the same if you don’t want to be late.” If I hadn’t heard the panic in Theseus’s voice last night and then seen the fragility in her eyes this morning, I never would have known what happened yesterday.
Good.
She’s too stubborn to show weakness to the rest of the city, and I’m glad of it. Enemies looking for a fracture to exploit will find none.