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)
Her lips curve. Athena always has liked people who are prickly. It’s why we get along well enough when we’re forced to interact. “We kill your husband.”
What?
“What?” Apollo leans forward to look at her. “How does that help anything? Minos has already leaked the information about the clause. As you said, the cat’s out of the bag.”
“Yes, there’s no taking back the information about that blasted little law.” She taps the table again. “Which means there’s no reason not to use it to our advantage. You can bet Minos will eventually do the same. He might not be behind the recent attempts, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be behind future ones.”
The latter is nothing more than I’ve already considered. I look at Perseus, who hasn’t said anything yet. There’s something almost like panic fluttering inside me. They mean it. They really will kill Hephaestus. “Well? You support this?”
“Don’t you?” His gaze sharpens on me. “You hate him. What’s more, having that man in that position hurts the city. We rely on whoever holds the Hephaestus title and their people to keep the more technical parts of the city running, as well as come up with new advancements to better the quality of life for our citizens. Even if he wasn’t an active enemy, he’s not suited to the role and you know it.”
I do know it. I’ve thought the very same things in the past. There’s absolutely no reason for me to want to shove to my feet and yell at my brother for suggesting such a thing. There’s no reason for it to feel like the walls are closing in.
A few days ago, I would have jumped at the chance to become a widow. This marriage was only meant to serve the purpose of distracting the public and distracting Hephaestus, and it’s failed at both tasks.
But that was before my husband knelt in front of me and bandaged my wounds. Before he saved my life. Before he comforted me in his own rough way last night when I was at my lowest. “We gave our word that we wouldn’t harm him if he married me.”
“It’s for the good of Olympus,” Helen says softly. There’s sympathy in her eyes, but also a steely determination I know too well. “They’re right. It’s a good call.”
I won’t have to do anything. Just take the path of least resistance and allow the people in this room to plot to make me a widow. There will be no more vicious arguments that turn into sex. No more trying to outmaneuver each other. No more lying next to his big body, quietly snoring beside me and lulling me into sleep.
I…can’t do it.
Pandora said bringing him over to our side was nearly impossible, but it’s fully impossible if he’s dead. I’ll take those odds. I’ll take any odds right now. “I can turn him,” I blurt out.
Athena snorts. “No, you can’t.”
“Yes, I can.” I lift my chin, fighting to keep the uncertainty out of my face and voice. I need to project the cold bitch Aphrodite or they won’t trust me. “He’s smitten with Adonis, and he’s warming to me despite the tumultuous start to our marriage. If I can turn him, his connection to Minos means he’ll be a bigger asset than anyone else we can stick in the role.”
Perseus might as well have been glazed over with ice. “He’s not suited to the title.”
“The strength of the title is the people behind it. Hephaestus’s senior team has seen three people in that position. One person can’t outweigh all that experience.” Helen’s proven this with Achilles and Patroclus in her corner, but I won’t throw her under the bus like that right now, not when she worked so hard to be worthy of the Ares title even before claiming it. Hephaestus’s team seems to hate him, but that’s beside the point.
If anything, my brother’s blue eyes get icier. No one else in the room seems to breathe. Perseus leans forward. He opens his mouth and his brow furrows in frustration. I tense, but he seems to discard whatever he was about to say. He sits back with a sigh. “You have three days.”
I jolt. “Three days? That’s an impossible task.”
“Either it can be done or it can’t. The amount of time shouldn’t factor into it.”
That’s not even remotely reasonable, and I’m about to tell him exactly that when Apollo shakes his head sharply. “Surely you aren’t entertaining this. He’s a murderer.”
Perseus turns that cold gaze on Apollo. “Murder isn’t an unforgivable sin in this city and you know it. If we can turn him, he’ll be an asset in whatever comes next.”
“We have an asset from Minos’s household already.”
“Oh?” He raises an eyebrow. “Then you’re here to report that your outreach to Ariadne has borne fruit?”