Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Eurydice leans down. She’s very tall, nearly as tall as Theseus’s new wife. Just as pretty, too, though Eurydice’s beauty is more traditional and less feral than Aphrodite’s. “Yes, it’s a kink club. Very exclusive. Very expensive.”
If this is a trap, it’s the strangest trap I’ve ever encountered. I finish my glass and reach for another. Eurydice catches my wrist. “I think you’ve had enough. If you drink too much, you can’t participate.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Honey, I’m buzzed, but I’m nowhere near drunk enough to agree to a sex party with a bunch of people who’d like to run me over with a car.”
“That’s fair.” She releases my wrist. “Participation is absolutely optional. You can come watch, if you like. See if it’s your kind of thing.”
She’s being too insistent. I peer up at her. “Are you coming on to me?”
“No.” She looks away and then back at me. “I mean, you’re really attractive, but I’m not exactly over my ex, so I’m not great company these days. But, if you’ll forgive me for being blunt, you don’t seem like a total asshole like the rest of your household. You’re obviously sticking around for the long term, so there’s no reason we can’t get to know each other.”
Yeah, it’s still a trap.
The problem is…I’m not sure I care. It’s a distraction, and at this point, I’ll take what I can get. I’m reasonably sure that the Olympians won’t hurt me, not when they still think they can coax secrets with honey.
Besides, I’m curious about this kink club.
“I don’t know anything useful.” I peer around, searching for another waiter with champagne. “If you’re going to, like, throw me in a kinky dungeon and torment me for information about Minos and the rest of them, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. I’m not part of the family.” The words taste bitter, but that can’t be right. Minos only pulled me out of that orphanage alongside Theseus because that was Theseus’s condition for allowing the fostering. We were a package deal, and Minos has barely tolerated me in the years since. He puts a good face on it for Theseus’s benefit, but I see the way he looks at me when he thinks no one is watching.
If he can find a way to remove me to gain full control over Theseus, he will do it in a heartbeat.
“I don’t know how you think we do things here in Olympus, but torture is a bit extreme.” I give her a long look and she sighs. “Okay, I won’t pretend the people in power here aren’t capable of that kind of thing, but I honestly just thought you could use a friend.”
Damn it, I’m going to say yes. This is so ridiculous. “You’ve convinced me. But only if we go now and only if there’s alcohol there.” I’m not normally a big drinker, but I think I can be forgiven tonight. It’s the only thing that numbs the pit of worry that opened up in my stomach when Theseus agreed to marry Aphrodite.
No, that’s not the truth. It started earlier, when Minos announced his plan to take us all to Olympus, to use the Ares title to secure a spot among the Thirteen for either Theseus or the Minotaur. Something that seemed simple enough on the surface, but nothing Minos does is ever simple. Sure enough, look at us now.
Eurydice’s eyes go wide. “Sure. Okay. Let’s go.”
The champagne is really starting to kick in, which is the only excuse I need to snag a full bottle on our way out the door. Charon, a tall white guy with dark hair, broad shoulders, and the suspicious look of bodyguards everywhere, falls in behind us as we leave. He manages to get in front of us to open the back door of a nondescript black town car, though.
It’s only when we’re driving away from the hotel that I wonder if I should have told someone where I was headed. Not Minos, but Ariadne or Icarus. Whoops. I dig my phone out of my tiny purse and shoot off a text to both letting them know about my poor choices. I don’t know if either have their phones on them now, but they will before the end of the night.
Eurydice keeps up smooth small talk that requires little of me as I drink my way through the bottle I took. I slump back against the seat. “I’m not normally like this.” I feel downright morose right now, instead of my normal sunny self. It will come back. It always does. But not until I see for myself that Theseus is okay.
“I, ah, kind of noticed.” Her hazel eyes are kind. “Are you in love with him?”
That surprises a laugh out of me. “What? No. Not like you mean. I mostly prefer women.” I take a long drink from the bottle. “But Theseus is my best friend and I love him. It’s just not like that with us.” We did try it once when we were teenagers, since it seemed a natural progression of how much we care about each other, but it was a disastrous experience and we both agreed that there is no next level for our friendship.