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)
She ducks her head and presses it to my shoulder. “I have to keep up appearances.”
This right here is why I will never reach the heights she has in Olympus. I care too fucking much. My emotions might not rule me, but they affect me. Eris has every part of her under such tight lockdown that moments like these, where it backfires against her, are rarer than blue moons.
I don’t tell her that she should have called me. I don’t call her a fool again, even though I want to. Eris and I have had this fight more times than I can count. As much as I’d like to believe that this new violence would be enough to change her perspective, I know better.
I’m not her boyfriend anymore. There’s not a single reason for her to call me, or for us to have that fight for the thousandth time. Showing up here is crossing a boundary, but I don’t care. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done to hurt each other or how desolate my future is without her in it.
She needs me, so I’m here.
I set her on the bathroom counter and wrap the towel more tightly around her shoulders. “Don’t move.”
“I can—”
“Do not move.”
She drops her gaze and clutches the edges of the towel. “Okay. Fine.”
I hate this. I hate that she feels brittle, like one harsh word could send her crumbling. “If you’re not going to take care of yourself, then we’re going to do it for you.”
“We?” She looks up, some of the customary sharpness in her gaze. “You can’t honestly think—”
“What I think is my business. Stay there.” I stalk back into the shower. As I suspected, Theseus hasn’t moved. He tenses, but even as angry as I am, I’m not such a monster to mock his inability to stand. I’m glad he didn’t try on his own. The tiles are slippery beneath my feet, which makes for treacherous moving.
I might want to yell at him, but I don’t want him to hurt.
Gods, I’m pathetic.
I hold out a hand. “Come on.”
“I’m good.” He looks at my hand like it’s a poisonous snake. Instead of arguing, I just maintain my position until he curses under his breath and slaps his hand into mine. I carefully leverage him to his feet.
Then I shove him against the wall, my forearm against his throat. I lean in until our faces nearly touch. “I don’t give a fuck if you’re an enemy to this city or what your plans are. Our deal was that Eris would be kept from harm.”
“She’s living, isn’t she?”
Distantly, I’m aware that he’s letting me do this, that he’d have no problem fighting back and that we’d be damn near evenly matched if he did. “Don’t play with words, Theseus. You’re not good at it.”
He gives a grim smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “She’s shaken up, but she’ll be fine. You underestimate her.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I drop my arm and take a step back. “Are you staying or going?”
It’s only because I’m watching him closely that I see the indecision war across his rough features. He’s in over his head. He has been from the moment he entered Olympus, for all that he successfully murdered his way into being one of the Thirteen.
I knew that, of course. His visit to Hephaestus’s office and how he’s floundered on the public stage more than proved that he doesn’t have a handle on what it means to be a member of the Thirteen. Even when he held me close last night, I never doubted for a second that he was still an enemy.
Oh, my foolish heart wanted to believe otherwise, but no matter what my friends and family think, I know better than to believe the dream that the love of a good man is enough to change the people I care about. It didn’t work with Eris, and it certainly won’t work with Theseus.
But an enemy wouldn’t be worried about Eris the way Theseus is now. He can’t lie worth a damn, and he wouldn’t have called me, wouldn’t have sat with her, wouldn’t be hesitating now, if he didn’t care…at least a little.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asks softly, his voice almost uncertain.
I open my mouth to say I don’t care either way, but it’s a lie. I want him here. Gods, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’d like to think I’m not normally one to let my foolish heart lead me into inevitable pain, but my history with Eris more than speaks to the truth. “If you want to.”
He huffs out a breath and moves past me, wrapping the towel around his waist as he does. I watch him closely, ready to catch his elbow if he stumbles. He doesn’t, but I can tell his knee is bothering him by the stiff way he moves.