Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“Yes. We are.” She brushes a careless hand over her dress. “If that’s all, I’ll see to my grieving daughter.”
“I need you to return to the city proper in two days. We have a lot of work to do.”
“Of course.” She sweeps from the room without another word.
I sigh. Demeter is going to be a problem. That’s unfortunate. She was always going to have to step down, but I was willing to forgo her trial in exchange for her alliance. She’s as much a monster as the rest of them, but she’s spent a lot of time and effort bettering the lives of the people in Olympus. The same can’t be said for the rest of the Thirteen.
I take a moment to center myself. This isn’t ideal, but it’s not unexpected. I’ve planned for the eventuality of her attempting to stab me in the back. It will be slightly tricky to time things to ensure I get the most benefit from her alliance before she turns on me, but it can be done.
There’s so much to do and so little time. The people of Olympus are galvanized, but if I don’t follow through on my promises of a new power structure after the death of the old one, they’ll turn on me the same way they’re turning on the Thirteen and legacy families now.
Antigone will return with at least a few of the Thirteen as captives, which will be a good start. The team in the lower city is taking longer than I’d like to find the machinery to bring down the secondary barrier, but they will find it. I want to have things buttoned up in the upper city before they do.
It’s best not to fight battles on two fronts.
With that in mind, I make my way back to where Nerissa stands guard over the room containing Hecate. “I’ve handled Demeter. Station two people you’re sure of on this room and check in with Antigone to see what she needs. I don’t want anyone else to slip through the cracks while I get some rest.”
She hesitates. “You’ll actually rest?”
My team is so damned invested in me sleeping, as if sleep truly brings rest instead of nightmares. “I will. I promise.” I slip back through the door and into the room. Only to pull up short at the sight of wide dark-brown eyes blinking at me. She should have been unconscious for hours, but Hecate is already fighting her way back to consciousness.
I smile. “It’s time we had a chat.”
9
Hermes
I’m getting really fucking tired of being drugged. My head feels too large on my shoulders and my body isn’t obeying my commands to move. Circe closes the door softly behind her and walks toward me, every inch a goddess taken human form. I’m so angry at her, I shouldn’t be fighting not to whimper at the sight of her beauty. I contain multitudes.
She sinks down on the couch next to my reclined body, making the cushions dent and sliding me toward her. I try to fight it, but I might as well be a human doll for all I’m successful.
“I must have gotten the measurements wrong,” she murmurs. I can’t feel the fingers she brushes down my cheek, but heat blooms in their path all the same. “It’s for the best. We’re running out of time.”
I want to blame the new tension in her body on guilt that she just gunned down two people in cold blood, but I know better. She wasn’t shaky after she shot Eros—gods, he’s really dead—so something else must have happened.
She keeps stroking my face almost absently, her mind clearly focused on other things. “I meant my offer to Hera, you know. I’ll kill her if I have to, but it brings me no pleasure to remove a Hera from this world. I can’t let her keep the baby, Hecate. We both know too well how the desire for vengeance can taint a life. I have no desire to turn around in twenty years and find some fresh-faced young thing with my murder in their eyes.”
There’s no reasoning with her, even if I could talk, but I’m a damned fool for this woman because I want to try. My lips work, the effort to press out one word leaving me exhausted. “Ex. Ile.”
“How well did that work for me?” She smiles sadly. “I realize it’s not the same. Zeus truly thought I was dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have rested until he ensured the rumor was truth.”
All these years, and I still don’t know the details of what happened. Zeus returned from their honeymoon claiming she was swept out in a riptide, only to drown trapped against the barrier. Her body was never found, but there are plenty of sea predators who could have done away with her. It didn’t matter, though. The most powerful man in Olympus wasn’t interested in recovering her remains, and so there was no search conducted.