I want to sprint directly to the university and fight my way through the apparent mobs of people to get to Hermes. The only thing stopping me from attempting something so reckless is knowing I’ll justend up captive alongside her. Or, more likely, that I end up dead. Circe doesn’t have a history withme.
As much as it kills part of my soul to turn south from Juniper Bridge and head into the center of the upper city, it’s a necessary step. There are only two people on this side of the river who might help me—Dionysus and Apollo—and I know exactly where to find Apollo.
I don’t bother to search for a car. It’s a thirty-minute walk, but I need the time to get my head on straight. Apollo isn’t the biggest fan of Hermes under the best of circumstances, and since Minos’s party, he downright hates her. The only thing that might convince him is Cassandra. She’s where I place my hope.
I’ve gotten so used to the mostly empty streets that it’s jarring to see people out and about. Not only because of the number—unusually high for this time of day, even before the blockade—but because of the intensity on the faces of nearly everyone I pass.
The promise of violence hangs in the air. It makes my skin crawl. I’m no stranger to getting my hands dirty when the situation calls for it, but a tactical assault and a mob are two wildly different things. For someone who’s shown every evidence of being three steps ahead of the best minds in Olympus, Circe is taking a huge risk. Once a mob gets going, there’s no controlling it. You can attempt to direct it, but it’s just as likely to turn on you as your enemies.
How many more executions will it take before we have bands of people roaming the streets, looking for anyone they recognize from MuseWatch?
I tug my hood a little lower. There were a lot flashier champions in the Ares tournament, but it got me noticed for the first time inmy life. With my scars, I’m more identifiable than most. I want to believe things would have gone differently if I’d won Ares instead of Helen, but Minos was already in the city at that point. Circe still would have come, and the Thirteen would remain fractured, even if I had a vote. Maybe it would have been better to stay in the shadows behind Artemis but…
That wouldn’t have lasted beyond Minos’s party. I can’t stop myself from shuddering. I knew something was up the moment we arrived, but I didn’t expect that bitch to try to kill me. It was only Hermes’s quick thinking that kept me among the living, trapped in Minos’s basement until the party’s end. I still would have made the jump to Athena, and Athena ismuchmore popular with the public than Artemis could dream of being. All roads seem to lead to this point, to Circe and Hermes in a fraught battle for the heart of Olympus, with me scrambling to act as support.
I haven’t sacrificed all personal happiness only to have us fail now. We’re supposed to have a future. One we’ve never discussed openly, but the promise has floated between us since we started down this path. I’ll be damned before I allow Circe to take Hermes’s future the same way she took her past.
Apollo has his building locked down tight, but it doesn’t matter. If I can’t make myself as invisible as Hermes, it’s easy enough to use Athena’s override to get through the door and up the elevator. I swiped the card off her in that little scuffle in the hallway. She has no reason to check for it in the lower city—she doesn’t have override accessthere—so it should get me where I need to go for a little while longer.
The sight that greets me as I step out of the elevator makes mystomach drop. “Hector, what the fuck are you still doing here?”
Hector is a large, rugged-looking white man with sandy blond hair and kind eyes. He’s also one of the few legacy scions I can tolerate. The man is honorable enough to make him foolish, and he’s deeply in love with his wife and their new daughter. He shouldn’t be here, where anyone hunting Apollo will find him. He should be at home with his beautiful family—or, better yet, across the River Styx and claiming sanctuary.
He frowns at me. “We can’t leave any avenues open for Circe. It’s all hands on deck.”
“That’s not true. I told your stubborn ass to get out of here a dozen times.” Cassandra steps out of Apollo’s office, looking more tired than I’ve ever seen her. She’s a plus-sized white woman with flaming red hair and a nasty temper. She and Hermes dated some years ago, and though it never got serious, she’s set my teeth on edge ever since. Hermes still cares deeply for her, even if it’s as friends instead of lovers.
But she got tobelovers before becoming friends.
Jealousy isn’t a useful emotion, especially not now. I need Apollo’s skills and knowledge, and I’m hoping Cassandra’s fondness for Hermes is enough for her to convince him to help.
Cassandra frowns at me. “What areyoudoing here? We told Athena we’ll be on our way to the lower city as soon as we wrap this up. We’re almost done.”
“I came back for Hermes.”
She blinks. “What are you talking about? Hermes can take care of herself.”
I look from her to Hector. “Where are your phones?” If they’dseen the video Circe sent out, she wouldn’t be asking me this question.
“Locked down. We might be sitting ducks here, but there’s no reason to make it easy to ping us on GPS.” Cassandra crosses her arms under her full breasts. She’s too smart for anyone’s good, so I see the exact moment her mind jumps ahead to come to the natural conclusion. “Tell me she didn’t put herself in danger and get caught. NotHermes.”
“It wasn’t planned.” I have to concentrate to keep my body loose, to not fall into the resting stance of a soldier about to give bad news. “Circe staged a public farce of a trial for Peitho and executed her. Eros tried to intervene, which is when Hermes arrived. Circe killed Eros, too, and took Hermes captive.”
What little color there was in Cassandra’s face leaches away. “She killedEros?”
“Yes.” I didn’t know Eros well, having only attended some of the same events for wildly different reasons, but Hermes considered him a friend. A true friend. She has to be hurting so much right now, and she’s inthatwoman’s claws. “If Circe keeps her…”
“She can’t. We won’t allow it.” Cassandra shakes her head sharply and raises her voice. “Apollo! We need you.”
Relief makes me a little woozy. If they refused to help, I would still have gone after Hermes, but it’s good not to be on my own. At least at this stage. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I doubt any of us are going to like what we find.”
8Circe
“You should kill her and be done with it.”
I turn away from Hecate and face Antigone. She’s been at my side for a very long time, and that familiarity means I allow her to speak her mind freely. A leader without dissenting opinions in the room is no leader at all but a tyrant. Even so, some things I won’t allow.
