Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
It’s guilt that has me reaching for the phone. I shoot a look at my brother, but he’s still dead to the world. I know what he’d say if he knew what I intended. It doesn’t matter. I’m doing it.
I dial Hera.
She makes me wait until I think it’s about to click over to voicemail, and only then does she answer. “I truly hope you’re calling with a solution.”
I almost laugh when I realize what she’s talking about. Dodona Tower. My father’s team. Our deal that no longer stands. “You have bigger problems to worry about now.”
She’s silent for a beat. “Are you threatening me, Ariadne?”
“Not in the slightest. But I have it on good information that the barrier is coming down. Today. It’s too late to stop it. The only thing you can do is be ready.”
“What?” Her cool confidence falters, and actual worry worms its way into her tone. “Surely you can’t be serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t.”
“Fuck,” she says quietly. “I have to… I need to…” She stops short. When she speaks again, she’s back to being the cold woman I’ve dealt with to date. “Thank you for the information. Our deal is off. Your father’s team will be eliminated. Good luck.” She hangs up.
I’ve done as much as I can. What happens next is up to her. I have sympathy for her, even if I don’t like her much. I don’t know who will win in a contest between Hera and Circe. But hopefully I’ll be long gone before I have the chance to find out.
“Good luck to you, too, Hera,” I whisper. I grip Icarus’s shoulder and give him a shake. “Get up. Asterion is on his way. We need to be ready to move when he gets here.”
“Ariadne?” His voice is still thick with dreaming. “I was having the most awful nightmare. We…” He blinks, shakes his head, and looks around. It hurts to see the innocence of sleep fall away from his expression and be replaced by the hardened exterior my brother has cultivated. “Not a nightmare, then.”
“It’s a nightmare. It’s just not confined to the sleeping world.” I vow right then and there that it doesn’t matter what it takes, I will see Icarus happy. His dreams were never the same as mine. He doesn’t look at the horizon and imagine all the possibilities it holds. He’s only ever wanted acceptance. Acceptance from our people, acceptance from our father.
Icarus smiles, and though it seems to warm his eyes, I know it for a lie. I hate that he feels like he has to be dishonest with me, but now isn’t the time to call him on it.
I put my backpack on and head for the front of the house to be ready for when Asterion calls. It seems like a small eternity before my phone buzzes in my hand. I almost drop it in my haste to answer. “You’re here?”
“Yeah.” He sounds more tired than I’ve ever heard him. “There’s a car parked across the street with two people in it. I clocked them when I drove by the first time. I’m not really in the mood to murder more people tonight, so we’re going to time this carefully. I’m driving around the block. You and your brother need to run out and jump in the back when I pull up, and then we’re going to take off.”
Later, we’ll talk about his statement about murdering more people tonight. What the fuck were he and Hermes doing? There’s no time now, though. “Okay. There’s not a good place to hide in the front, so we’ll have to come out the door.”
“Get to the front door. Now.”
“We’re there.” I grab my brother’s hand, keeping the phone to my ear. We’ll be sitting ducks the moment we exit and start the sprint to the front gate and street side. If the watchers are under orders to kill us, they have plenty of time to do it.
Asterion is silent for several seconds. “I’m at the corner and about to turn. Run, sweetheart.”
I hang up and shove my phone in my pocket. “Now.” As much as part of me doesn’t want to release my brother’s hand, I have to in order for us to move efficiently. He opens the door, and we sprint out down the cobblestone pathway of dead plants. The door doesn’t have a lock on this side, so I thrust it open without slowing down. I catch sight of the car across the street that Asterion must’ve been talking about. The people inside throw open the doors, but it’s too late. Asterion slams to a stop at the curb, and Icarus shoves me into the back seat and dives in behind. We barely get the door shut before Asterion is veering back into traffic and away from the house.