Yeah. I did. And I’ve been regretting it ever since. “That’s right.” I don’t touch him. He’s jumpy enough to drive us right off the road, and I don’t want to waste my morning with that bullshit. I lower my voice, injecting as much threat as possible. “So you’re going to drive me where I need to go, and you’re not going to try anything funny. If you do, I’ll snap your fucking neck.”
He swallows hard. “Yes, sir.”
I sit back, but keep my eye on him as he drives the rest of the way to Minos’s place. It’s only now, sitting here in the back seat of a man who considered killing me to further his own power, that I can’t deny the truth any longer. They were right. All of them. And I was fucking naive.
I barely wait for the car to stop at the curb outside Minos’s building before I toss money at him and climb out. My knee is stiff and painful, but I try to keep my limp minimized as I walk into the lobby and take the elevator up.
Luck—if that’s what you want to call it—is in my favor. Minos and the Minotaur sit in his office, their heads together as they examine a tablet between them. They both look up when I walk through the door. Minos opens his mouth to speak, but I get there first. “When were you going to tell me that I was a necessary loss?”
“Excuse me?”
I shut the door and lean against it. “Something’s been bothering me.” No reason to tell him where that doubt comes from. It doesn’t matter for this conversation. “You aren’t behind the attacks, but the second you had one of us trigger that clause, it put a target on every single one of the Thirteen’s backs—including mine.”
“You knew that would be a risk.”
Yes, but I hadn’t thought I’d face it alone. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I didn’t quite believe Minos when he said he wasn’t behind all the attacks. Oh, I don’t think he’s had a hand in the recent ones, but why wouldn’t he look to place more of his people among the Thirteen? The days after I took the title were rife with uncertainty; it would have been the perfect time to strike.
Unless he has no intention of a second strike.
Unless he never had an intention for a second strike.
“No putting that cat back in the bag, is there? Everyone knows it’s a thing now, which means the Thirteen will be hunted for the rest of Olympus’s future. Kind of hard to enact plans when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder.” He doesn’t contradict me, just watches me work through it with a small smile on his mouth. Holy fuck, I’m right. “You don’t plan on replacing the rest of the Thirteen with your people, do you?”
“Our people, Son.”
There was a time when, even though I damn well knew better, hearing that word from him was enough to override anything else I could possibly say. A weakness, and one he exploited. “There’s not going to be a Thirteen when you’re through,” I say softly.
The Minotaur gives Minos a long look, but that fucker always plays his cards close to his chest. Even knowing him for years, I can’t say for sure if he knew about this before or if he’s only hearing about it now.
Minos leans back. “Don’t you worry about my plan. I—”
“I think it’s time you shared that plan with us.” I glance at the Minotaur. “You would have been in the crosshairs, too, if you’d managed to kill Artemis and take that title. Don’t you want to know what he’s up to?”
He crosses his massive arms over his equally massive chest. “Yes.”
Minos narrows his eyes. “All right, boys. I suppose I can let you in on some of the plan you’ve both managed to fuck up repeatedly.” The words sting, but not as much as they used to. He shakes his head slowly. “Olympus is a ripe fruit to be plucked. They have little experience with anything resembling war; peace has made them soft.”
“We’ve heard the spiel.” I’ve never talked to Minos this way before, but the events of the last couple days keep compounding in my head. Adonis’s uncertainty. The vulnerable look in Aphrodite’s eyes that she wasn’t quite able to hide. Pandora’s fierce words. The worry all three of them share for my safety.
When I came to Olympus, the only thing I cared about was Pandora’s happiness and Minos’s approval. Now, things feel more complicated.
Minos glares. “One of you was supposed to take Ares. The other was intended to use the assassination clause to take another title. With two in the Thirteen, it would have been enough to start the destabilization process. You failed.” He turns that furious look on the Minotaur. “As a result, we had to take a different route. The end outcome is the same. The Thirteen fall, and a new leadership rises in its place.”