I stepped over to put a hand on his shoulder, reminding him I was here if he needed me. Even if he didn't. I wasn't walking away until this situation was diffused. Preferably without bloodshed. The floors had seen enough of that.
"What's the big deal?" Jules asked. "You never cared about him before."
"I want to know now," Cass insisted.
"Because?" Jules prompted.
"Because—" Cass started to say. He stopped and took a measured breath. Refraining from blurting out what he knew. He didn't want Jules to find out the way he had. "There'ssomething you should know," he said, stepping away from his brother. He gave me an apologetic look as my hand fell away.
I nodded that I understood. He needed some space from his brother before he did anything rash. He wasn't trying to shrug me off.
"What did you do?" Jules asked. He gave his brother a long-suffering look, as though somehow Cass was always causing trouble.
"I didn't do anything," Cass said. "Hypnos told Harlow who Zeus is."
Jules squinted at him. "Hewhat?"
Cass didn't repeat himself. Jules heard him clearly. He just needed a moment for the words to sink in.
"Okay, so who is he? Are we on our way to kill him?" Jules asked. "Let me guess, you have some kind of elaborate plan." He gestured at all of us, looking irritated at the possibility we'd left him out of that.
"Not yet," I said. "We hadn't gotten to that yet. We wanted your input."
"Of course you did." He squared his shoulders relieved we hadn't excluded him. "So who is this prick?"
His gaze slipped from me to Cass and back again.
He frowned.
Understanding clicked into place in his mind.
He might have taken a step back if the counter wasn't right behind him.
The glass dropped out of his hand, shattering on the floor and spraying water everywhere.
He didn't seem to notice.
"You're not fucking telling me our father is Zeus," he whispered. The expression on his face was torn between horror and disbelief.
"We're saying that's what Hypnos told me," I said. "I know there's a possibility he's lying."
Jules turned to me. "But you don't think so, do you? You're sure my father is Zeus."
Cass reached out to him.
Jules jerked his arm away. "No, what the hell?" He stared at Cass like he'd never seen him before. "I know he's done some shitty things, but…" He shook his head. "If he's Zeus, then he knew about Granger Fairfield."
"We don't know that," I said.
"You don't know he didn't either," Jules pointed out. He ran a hand over the back of his hair, taking a fistful like he might rip it out of his head. "You believe this, don't you?" he asked Cass. "You believe Zeus is our father?"
"He's a monster," Cass said simply. "It fits. We should find out for sure before we do anything."
"Do anything," Jules echoed. "You mean kill him?"
"That's exactly what we mean," Boner said. "That was the goal, remember? It ends with Zeus. Or have you changed your mind?" He cocked his head at Jules.
"Changed…" Jules dropped his hand to his thigh. "Give me a few minutes to get my head around this." He stalked away to the other side of the room, muttering to himself, opening and closing his hands. He made a fist, like he might punch the wall, but dropped it down again. "This is all kinds of fucked up.”
