She smirks over her shoulder at me. “Please. I took control of the city’s cameras. No one goes anywhere in the upper city without me knowing about it.”
Yeah, that’s a cute statement, but it’s not true. Hermes—Hecate—has always managed to dodge the camera system when she felt like it. I suspect she’s doing so now, wherever she is, or Circe would be fucking with her instead of me.Fuckingher.
The thought sends a shiver of poisonous heat through me. I’m standing here in a towel, without even the barrier of clothing to protect me from this woman. I move deeper into the living room so I can see the entirety of the kitchen. If she comes at me with a knife…
But Circe isn’t caressing the knife block. She’s pulling a pair of glasses from the cabinet and then goes onto her toes to tug down a bottle of amber liquid. She whistles under her breath. “Expensive taste.” She turns to me and holds up the bottle. “Temporary truce?”
“As if I’d eat or drink anything you touch.”
“I’m hurt. Truly.” She shrugs, sets the bottle on the counter, and takes a dramatic step away from it. “If you’re so concerned, thenyoupour.”
I don’t move. “I’m not drinking with you.”
“Are you sure? You look like you could use some unwinding.” She leans a hip on the counter and surveys me. This woman has looked at me before, fought me in a life-or-death battle, but this is the first time she’slooked. She drags her gaze from the top of my curls, over my scarred face, down my body to my toes, and then reverses course. Taking her time. Appearing to drink in the sight of me, appearing tolikeit. Witnessing desire blossom across her face… I don’t know what to do with that.
She smiles slowly. “You’re very, very good. I understand what she sees in you.”
“I don’t want to talk about her.” No need to say her name—either of her names—in this space. The memory of our last conversation, our last fight, rolls through me again. Only someone I love could hurt me the way Hecate has. “You need to leave.”
“You’re too smart for that. If I leave, I’ll just have you dragged in, and I’d prefer to save us both the indignity. I have…” She glances at her phone. “A very short time before my people start panicking that I’m gone. Let’s talk, Atalanta.”
I don’t exactly make a decision to move. It’s more that I can’t stand this stillness, thisknowing, that pervades every inch of this suddenly too-small apartment. “I’m not interested.” I stalk to the hallway to change the laundry because fuck like I’m going to get a nap now, but I’ll be damned before I have to haul ass through thestreets with only a towel for cover.
When I walk back into the main space, Circe hasn’t moved. I don’t trust that for a moment. She could have easily dosed either—or both—of the glasses with something nasty while I wasn’t watching.
But she’s right; I could really use a fucking drink.
“Atalanta…” She takes a breath, something almost vulnerable rising in her green eyes. “Please.”
It’s clearly another manipulation attempt. I retuck the towel as best I can and grab the bottle. This, at least, is sealed. If we all survive this, I’ll send a new one to Briseis. I open it and take a long drink. Bourbon. It burns down my throat and warms my stomach. After a beat of hesitation, I hold out the bottle. “Fine. Talk.”
Circe’s fingers brush mine as she plucks the bottle from my hand. She holds my gaze as she takes an equally long pull. It’s only when she passes it back that she speaks. “I’m not interested in fighting you and Hecate. We all want the same thing—yes, yes, different methods and all that.” She waves that away as if it’s a minor disagreement instead of a dichotomy of morals. “I love her. You love her. If we continue down this path, one or all of us will die and nothing will change. Which means we’ll have failed.”
I take a shorter sip this time as I consider her. She’s not entirely wrong, but… “Are you willing to stop killing the Thirteen and the legacy families?”
“Not entirely.” She shakes her head slowly. “I admire the positivity of your plan—whatever it is—but if you exile the Thirteen—especially Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon—it’s only a matter of time before they come sniffing around again. Or their children do. A new government system is a fragile thing. So many of them failbefore they have a chance to solidify. Olympus is already going to be faced with steep stakes because this city has spent the entirety of its existence being safe and mostly removed from the rest of the world.” She accepts the bottle and tips her head back, her throat working as she swallows. “Even without the corruption inherent in our system now, we’re likely to fail when facing foreign governments attempting to influence or dominate.”
I don’t drink often, and it’s been hours since I ate last. The soldier in me is demanding I stop now before I lose my regimented constraint. Instead, I take another pull from the bottle. There’s no possible way to taste Circe’s mouth over the burn of the bourbon, but I’m half-convinced I can. “By that logic, it doesn’t matter if we—you—kill them or not. The obstacles are ruinous already. A few extra molehills won’t make a difference.”
“That’s certainly one angle to take.” Her smile widens, and holy fuck, she has a dimple. “I choose another.”
I stare at the divot in her cheek for a beat too long. “You only want them dead for revenge.”
She steps a little too close to take the bottle, and this time, she doesn’t retreat. She drinks deeply and sets it on the counter. “I prefer to call it justice. They’ve more than earned their fates.”
I shake my head, making the room swim. Damn it, I’m drunk. This was foolish in the extreme; it’s like I fucking want to die. “No wonder you and Hecate get along so well. You both talk in circles for your own amusement.”
“Atalanta.” She says my name on a sigh. She slowly reaches up to cup my jaw. Her calluses brush against my skin, and fuck if the reminder that sheworksdespite her socialite appearance isn’tunbelievably sexy. She brushes her thumb over my cheekbone, trailing it down the scar that runs vertically under my right eye. “You said her name. Her real name.”
I guess I did. “Yeah.”
She leans in. She’s a good six inches shorter than me, and she has to tip her head back to maintain her hold on my gaze. “What if we table the discussion on working together for the time being?”
“We were never talking about working together.” A trap. It’s not even a good one, but I’m too tired and buzzed and turned on to care. “But sure. I’ll play. What do you want to talk about instead?”
“I don’t want to talk at all.”
Understanding dawns. I laugh in her face. “So you’ll use sex to manipulate me into seeing things your way? Nice try. It won’t work. Not for me and not for Hecate.”
