Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
My shock shatters. “Wait. There’s a barrier between the upper city and lower city. How am I supposed to get through it?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He leaves my apartment, closing the door softly behind him.
I stare for a long moment and curse. “What the fuck was that?”
4
EURYDICE
I’ve gotten very good at dodging my sister and brother-in-law. It’s easier with her these days because she’s massively pregnant with twins, so I hear her coming well before she has a chance to catch me slipping out the front door.
I’m not trying to be sneaky exactly. This is the lower city; there are few places I can go that Hades won’t find out about. Or more accurately, that Charon won’t find out about.
But he’s off on some errand tonight, and so I’m taking advantage of his absence. Again. I have no doubt I’ll face his disapproval when he finally tracks me down, and I’m not quite ready to face him after what happened last night…
We both said things we can’t take back. No matter what he offered, there’s no returning to the safe friendship where we both pretend there’s nothing deeper. I’ve ruined it.
No. I’m not thinking about that. I need to focus. Ariadne texted me earlier that she could get out tonight, so we’re meeting on the bridge. Not the Juniper Bridge. I still avoid that one, even three-quarters of a year later. It’s not quite superstition that something bad will happen if I revisit the place where everything changed, but it’s not not superstition. If I take the long way around to the Cypress Bridge every time I need to cross the river, well, that’s my burden to bear.
Mine and Charon’s, since he’s usually driving me.
I promised Charon I wouldn’t go to the upper city, but Ariadne has an open invitation to the lower city, courtesy of Hades. He hasn’t explicitly said that he’s aware of the task Aphrodite gave me—or I suppose she’s Eris again, since she relinquished the title—but nothing happens in the lower city that he’s not aware of. Eris promised me that Ariadne had an invite, and I don’t see why that would have been revoked. Getting her to flip on her father is still the goal.
I’m not a complete fool though. I know better than to go out alone without letting someone know where I am. Since there’s no way I’d clue in any of my sisters, I text Eris.
Me: Headed to meeting with Ariadne. Plan on talking and maybe having a drink in the lower city.
She doesn’t make me wait long for a response.
Eris: I think my invite to the lower city is still good too. Want me to head your way?
I almost say yes. Eris is more than a little terrifying, but that’s a benefit in this city and probably in this situation. She’ll come in all sharp smiles and double-edged words, and I won’t have to do anything but sit there and look pretty.
Which is exactly why I can’t say yes.
If I really want to stand on my own, I have to stand on my own.
Me: I’ve got it covered. I’ll text you after I’m done talking with her.
Eris: If that’s what you want. Drop your location when you pick a place.
I frown at my phone. Really, that’s too much. What’s she going to do if I don’t text in a reasonable amount of time? Ride to the rescue? Call in my sister to ride to the rescue? The thought makes me grit my teeth. When I was first approached by Eris at that ill-fated house party, I thought finally someone was seeing me for my potential instead of as the broken-winged bird to be hidden away from the world. And at first that was even true. Not so much now.
Me: I said I’ve got it covered. Just wanted to keep you in the loop.
Eris: Fine, fine. I hear you loud and clear.
Eris: Be careful.
I flip my hood up and stride down the street toward the bridge. It’s a good twenty-minute walk, and the night is plenty cold, but it feels good to be out on my own. Like maybe I’m really as capable as I’ve been pretending to be. It’s not so late that people have all gone home, and I nod to those I see as I walk. Reports will get back to Charon—to Hades—within the hour, but I hope they both see the value in what I’m doing and don’t charge in to rescue me.
I’m the only one who can do this.
Ariadne Vitalis is a weapon in the making, and we need one now more than ever. Honestly, it might be too late. When Minos’s foster son, Theseus, killed the last Hephaestus and took his place, it created ripples that are in danger of becoming a tsunami of terror and violence. I don’t know what possessed the founders of Olympus to slip an assassination clause into the near-forgotten laws but…