It feels impossible.
28
HEPHAESTUS
I watch Adonis do dishes over the rim of my coffee cup. My wife was right; I need to get moving if I don’t want to be late. But I can’t leave before I button things up with him.
He seems fine enough, but I don’t know if I trust that. He’s Olympian. He lies as well as the rest of them, even if he doesn’t seem to lie to me all that often. “You good?”
“Not really.” He rolls his head, his neck popping. “This whole situation is messy.”
“Messy” doesn’t begin to cover it. There were a few moments this morning in the kitchen when I forgot all about that, though. It was just nice to be there with Pandora while Aphrodite and Adonis drank their coffee. The casual intimacy relaxed something in me that I can’t afford to have relaxed, but I didn’t want it to end.
I still don’t.
That doesn’t prevent me from running my mouth. “You could walk away. We don’t have a choice about being here, but you do.” Pandora, too, but I know better than to try to push her again. She’ll make her own decisions. She always has.
“I really can’t.” He finishes the dishes and makes quick work of drying them. “Not from her. Not from you, either.”
My stomach does a strange swoop. “Adonis—”
“Be safe out there today.”
That makes me pause. “Are you worried about me?”
He huffs out a breath. “Of course I am. The public of Olympus are mostly good people, but the ambitious ones without moral compasses are looking at every single one of the Thirteen and sharpening their knives. You are one of the Thirteen.”
“No one is coming after me.” I say it confidently, even as a little kernel of doubt takes seed. Minos is hardly a caring father figure, but surely he wouldn’t put me in a position where it was likely I’d be killed…
Would he?
“You need to go,” Adonis says gently. “You can’t be late for meetings with the Thirteen. Your position is already rocky enough.”
He’s right, but I couldn’t give a fuck about the Thirteen and their rules and rituals right now. I’m starting to be able to read him better, though. I recognize the stubborn set of his mouth. There will be no arguing with him about this. “Just finishing my coffee.” I drain the mug. “This conversation isn’t over.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He plucks the mug from my hands and presses a quick kiss to my lips. “Now, go.”
I go.
Fifteen minutes later, I walk into the conference room where Zeus has called the Thirteen for what’s become a weekly meeting. It’s a waste of fucking time. There are alliances within the group, and plenty of them are at odds with each other. If Zeus says the sky is blue, Artemis will snarl that it’s purple out of sheer spite.
Not even their hatred for me and Minos is enough to unify them, though you wouldn’t know it by the glares I receive from every person in the room when I walk through the door.
Everyone except my wife.
She doesn’t smile, but her expression is carefully blank. Might as well roll out the welcome mat for me after the last two weeks. I walk around the table, careful to minimize my limp as much as possible even though my knee aches like a motherfucker.
I’m starting to think that pain will never go away.
I drop into the empty chair next to Eris. I should probably say something to showcase that she spent last night in my bed willingly and doesn’t hate me as much as she should, but the words don’t come. I’m not on her side, but that doesn’t mean I have to kick her legs out from under her when she’s trying so hard to keep her shit together.
Zeus leans forward and everyone around the table goes quiet. Neat trick. His cold gaze flicks over me, his eyes narrowing the slightest bit when he sees how close I’m sitting to his sister.
He turns that look on the empty chair in the center of the table. “Where is Hermes?”
Dionysus clears his throat. “She said duty calls and made a last-minute trip outside the boundary.”
Zeus doesn’t curse. He doesn’t so much as blink. “No one sanctioned that trip, Poseidon.”
Poseidon shrugs. He’s a big fucker with pale skin and deep red hair. “She’s Hermes. She doesn’t need approval.” His deep voice gains an edge. “Unless the laws have changed in the last few days?”
Zeus sweeps a look over the rest of the room. “Then we move on without her. Let’s begin.”