Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
And yet I loved him. Pathetic. I should be rejoicing now that he’s gone, now that I can finally be my own person. But I don’t feel anything at all. Not joy, not relief, not even grief. Just a yawning emptiness that feels like it might swallow the entire world whole.
“You wanted him dead, and yet you’re not celebrating,” I finally say. “Let’s not throw stones from glass houses.”
He frowns, his amber eyes flicking over my face as if he’s trying to read my thoughts. He’s welcome to them. At least right now. Finally, he crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Only a couple of the cuts on your chest actually needed stitches. You should be healed in a relatively short time as long as you don’t aggravate the wounds. So you’ll stay in this room and avoid doing anything to aggravate the wounds while I deal with the mess your family made.”
Right. The mess. Circe. I seem to remember saying something incredibly dramatic before I passed out a second time in the tub, but I had almost forgotten that particular sword hanging over all of our necks. Circe deals with failure as well as my late father did. She’s hardly going to spare me out of the goodness of her heart. Which means I have to get out of this city before she invades properly.
I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but hopefully I have at least a couple days to figure it out.
My best bet is the man who stands before me. He’s Poseidon; he’s bound to have access to a wide variety of water vessels that could potentially slip through Circe’s net in the dark of night. But first I have to escape him…or turn him to my way of thinking.
“You stripped me,” I say. I don’t particularly care that he took off my pants and underwear, but this kind of accusation is a surefire way to get a bead on the kind of person he is.
Did I think he was blushing before? This new flush to his pale skin puts that one to shame. He practically turns as crimson as his hair, and he shifts from foot to foot like a small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Interesting.
He clears his throat a few times. “I put a towel over your hips. I didn’t see anything. You were covered in blood, and so the pants had to come off. It was all very respectable.”
How infuriatingly charming. “Respectable. What’s respectable about someone unconscious and bleeding as you ogle their naked body? And not just anyone—the man you’re holding captive.” Every word is designed to worm its way into the crack he’s exposed to me. Because he is supposedly a man of honor, and people of honor are inherently more manipulatable than others. They expect you to hold the same moral center that they do, and so they never see you coming.
“That’s not… I didn’t…” He clears his throat. “You’re trying to provoke a reaction out of me.”
“If I was, it’d be working. You feel guilty. And you should.”
He glares. “I am sorry for the harm you came to while under my care, but you aren’t going to be able to manipulate me. You tried to harm my city and everyone in it, which makes you the enemy. I need to leave now, but when I return, I fully expect you to give me the information I need to protect my people and the rest of the city. Do you understand me?”
Do you understand me?
He says it softly, evenly. He’s not yelling at me. He’s not even really threatening me. And yet my body locks up all the same. I’m thankful for the blanket covering my lower half because it hides my clenched fists from his gaze. It takes more effort than it usually does to paste my charming smile on my face, to force my shoulders to relax as if his words have found no purchase. It’s vitally important not to show your weak underbelly to those who want to hurt you. It doesn’t mean they can’t hurt you, but at least they won’t be able to find your soft center. “It’s cute how you’re so committed to the bit. Even Demeter breaks character sometimes. I’m your enemy. Why are you pretending you care about the people of Olympus to me?”
Poseidon’s brows draw together. “What are you talking about?”
If he keeps this up, it’s going to jump straight past charming into irritating. I wave my hand. “It was a smart move taking the strong, silent stance and gaining a reputation as a man who’s for the people or whatever. I can see why you’d go that route instead of the others when you came into the title so unexpectedly…unless it wasn’t unexpected.”