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)
He glances up. “Yeah?”
“It will be okay. I promise.” I hate that it feels like a lie, like I’m making a promise I can’t possibly uphold. But for him, it’s worth it.
33
Icarus
There’s a pair of low black boats waiting as our group files down to the docks. Even though I know better, I can’t help searching the faces of the people gathered for Polyphemus’s one-eyed gaze. A lot can go wrong on the waves in the middle of the night—in a fucking sneak attack—and it would be just my luck to get a knife between my ribs from him, instead of an Aeaean.
“He’s with Athena’s group,” Poseidon says softly. “Orion is with Hades.”
I glance at him, that warm and fuzzy feeling he brings about inside me gaining strength. Not only because he guessed the direction of my thoughts, but because he obviously took what steps he could to ensure my safety and comfort. A week ago, I would have laughed in his face and pointed out that there’s nothing safe about our plans, that he wasted that time and effort. I don’t. It would hurt him.
I want to gather up this evidence of his goodness in the palm of my hand, a light to hold the darkness at bay.
“Remember your promise,” I finally say. To live through the night. To be okay.
He doesn’t get a chance to respond. Zeus steps toward a boat. “Let’s go.” He pulls on a long coat he’s been handed over his fucking suit. I wish I didn’t get why he made that choice. We’re the ones confronting Circe—killing Circe, if Zeus has anything to say about it—and appearances matter.
Finishing the job his father started.
We file into the two boats. I stick close to Poseidon’s side, and despite Athena’s insistence that Zeus take his own boat, he ends up on my other side. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least.
My father was never much of a sailor, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time on sailboats and pleasure crafts since my teens. This boat is nothing like that. It’s low and sleek and it charges through the waves with dizzying strength. It’s also freakishly quiet. It feels like we’re flying along above the surface of the waves instead of on them.
Nausea slaps me in the face almost immediately. I press my hand to my stomach and close my eyes, but it only makes the sensation worse.
“Here.” Something presses against my lips and I open without hesitation because it’s Poseidon offering.
Spicy flavor explodes on my tongue. Ginger. It’s so strong, it almost burns me, but it does help the seasickness. “Thanks,” I manage.
By the time I open my eyes, the relative light from Olympus’s proximity feels distant. I cautiously look back to see the city twinkling in the distance. It didn’t seem like the ships were that far offshore, but I guess distances are tricky on the water.
“The jamming devices are doing their job,” Athena murmurs. I don’t know how she can tell that. I can barely see anything at all.
I glance at Poseidon, close enough that I can pick out his familiar features in the near-perfect dark, and find him grinning. He catches me looking and shrugs. “I like being out on the water, even in these circumstances.”
“You would love Aeaea.” I say it without thinking, without considering the implications. “At least the sea surrounding it.”
He seems like he might respond, but he doesn’t get a chance. “Stop here.” Zeus doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t have to; the motor is damn near silent even as the person at the helm obeys, easing our pace until we’re only holding our location instead of moving forward.
Now, we wait.
Even with the clothing Poseidon provided, I’m so cold, I can’t stop shivering. Zeus seems not to feel the weather. He stares at the ships as if he can sink them through sheer willpower. I’m not certain he can’t.
“Fifteen minutes to midnight,” he finally says. “We move in twenty, regardless of whether we get a signal or not.”
“Understood,” Poseidon says.
We all understand. Fifteen minutes has never seemed like a particularly long time, but as we sit in the bobbing waves, ginger practically burning my tongue, it might as well be years ticking by. Poseidon sits at my side, but he’s a million miles away.
To distract myself, I stare into the darkness, trying to pick out any indication of the ships. It’s an impossible task. They aren’t pleasure vessels with large windows to shine their light out across the water. Poseidon found it strange that Deo and the others were personal owners of what amounts to military ships, but on Aeaea, the military is privatized. It’s just how things are. I never questioned it, but now, sitting here freezing my ass off while we try to break the siege on Olympus, I wonder if maybe I should have questioned it.