“Don’t play dumb,” I countered, walking toward him. Sand clung to my boots and the bottom edges of my gown. “You hate me, and you’ve made it clear you want me dead. Gods,you tried to kill me, Ares. Letting me sink to the ocean floor? That takes care of your little problem really easily. But you justsavedme. From a fate even worse than death, like you so happily pointed out. Now I need you to be extremely clear. Why the fuck did you do that?”
Ares folded his arms over his chest and rocked back on his heels. His expression betrayed nothing. “I saw someone push you.”
The hooded figure that had lurched out of the darkness. In the terror of the moment, I’d almost forgotten why I’d even ended up in the sea.
He continued. “I followed you when you left the palace, and I figured what you were doing. You wanted to run. And I had every intention of stopping you until…well, I saw someone push you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. It was storming too hard for me to get more than a glimpse of them. The rain washed away their scent, too. And then you were falling, Orpheus was crying, and that raven of yours screeched like the world itself was ending. So I decided to pull you out of the water.”
“But…” None of that explained why he, of all people, had helped me.
He stepped closer. Dense mist whorled around us, a whirlwind of wind andwet. His hand found his hair, and he ran his fingers through it. Droplets fell like coins on the beach. And there was something so…predatoryabout the way he moved, in long, fluid motions. So silent and smooth, like he was a lion stalking prey that had spotted him but did not yet know that he wanted to eat its flesh.
“I suppose I want you to face your trial,” he said.
I arched my brow. “And you think Erebus will sentence me to something worse than….that?” I waved at the water, shivering when the wind gusted against us once more.
He heaved a sigh. “I don’t think you killed Hestia.”
I blinked at him. Surely I hadn’t heard that right.
“I overheard you talking to Orpheus just before you fell. The things you said…well, they aren’t the kind of things a guilty person says.” He gazed out at the sea, his jaw tight. “That means someone else here did it, likely whoever pushed you. And I want you to help me track them down.”
A bitter laugh scraped from my throat. Drawing back my shoulders, I erased the small distance between us and pushed my finger into his immovable chest. “How dare you, Ares. You threw my mother’s ashes at my feet, and then tried to kill me. It was the worst day of my life, and it felt like my world was ending. And yet…and yet you want me to help you?”
“But I stayed my hand,” he said intently. “I didn’t commit. If I had, you’d be dead.”
I shook my head, scarcely believing the words coming out of his mouth. “Why didn’t you?”
“You know why I didn’t. Demeter told you.”
“Because there must always be a Titan on the throne in Troy.”
He inclined his head in the approximation of a nod.
My eyes narrowed, and I waited—waited for him to drop the hammer and reveal everything he knew. But he didn’t say a word. He just continued to stare at me, his eyes locked on mine, his expression unshifting, as if he were daring me to do the same.
“So what do you say?” he murmured.
“To helping you?” With a frustrated sigh, I lifted my gaze to the ridge above, where the steps vanished into the misty gloam. Orpheus would be out of his mind with worry. He and Hector had to be somewhere close. I had to find them. “Where is my advisor? Is he far behind you? I’ll need to—”
Ares took my chin between his fingers and yanked it sideways so that I faced him once more. “This decision is yours and yours alone. You can’t ask him for help with this one. I don’t want anyone else to know.”
I jerked my chin out of his grip. “You want me to hide this from Orpheus?”
“The fewer who know our suspicions, the better. I don’t want any of the others to know we’re looking into this together. As it stands, none of them would never guess it. That gives us an advantage.”
I huffed a laugh. “This is madness.”
“It might be, but Hestia is dead, and I can’t bear to stand aside and donothing,” he said, his voice rough. Deep pain flared in the depths of his eyes, and for a brief moment, I truly felt for him.
“Selene!” a hoarse voice shouted, barely audible over the waves crashing against the shore.
“Ah.” Ares’s face tightened. “Your minion has found us. What’s your decision?”
I frowned, ready to tell him I didn’t want to be near him, let alone help him. But then a single thought shuddered through my mind. The truth was, someone had just tried to get rid of me. It would have worked, too, if not for Ares. And even though that should frighten me, all it did was make me angry. Despite the mask of calm I wore outside the privacy of my own rooms, a bloody darkness had slumbered inside me most of my life.
