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)
I start to step forward, but Icarus gets there first. He moves several wide steps to my right. Far enough that Minos will have to pick a target. Did I think Ariadne was going to be the reckless one? I should’ve known better. Her brother makes her look downright biddable.
Icarus’s expression is terrible to behold. He looks utterly hopeless. “I did everything you wanted. Everything you ever asked for. And it was never good enough.”
Minos sneers. “If that was true, then I wouldn’t have needed him.” He motions violently toward me with a gun. “You’re pathetic. Weak. A sad excuse for a son that no one would be proud of.” He turns that ugly expression on me. “And you’re not even a son at all. You’re just trash I picked up off the street, and instead of being grateful, you stole the most precious thing I own.”
“You don’t own me. You never did.” Ariadne steps from behind me, smoothly evading my grasp for her. It’s not until she lifts my gun in a two-handed stance that’s only slightly off that I realize she took the damn thing in the first place. Tears stream down her face, but her hands don’t shake. “I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else ever again.”
“Ariadne—”
She doesn’t look at her brother. Or at me. But when she speaks, it’s for us. “You’ve both done too much, sacrificed too much, and for what? Someone else’s war. Someone else’s gain. I’m not letting either of you get your hands dirty any longer. You deserve better.”
Minos, the fool, actually laughs. “Put that thing down before you hurt yourself.”
“Strange that you’re still worried about me hurting myself when you sent someone to kill me.”
He’s still not taking her seriously. He shakes his head, laughter trailing off slowly. “Phaedra wasn’t there to kill you. She was there to retrieve my wayward daughter. I found a use for you, after all. One of Circe’s generals needs a little reassurance to cement his loyalty. And he’s not too concerned about the goods being tarnished.”
Even after all this time, he still doesn’t know his daughter at all. Ariadne was never going to allow herself to be traded for her father’s game. Her gun doesn’t waver. “Let us go. I’m not your bargaining chip any longer. And if Icarus and Asterion are so worthless to you, then you won’t feel their loss at all.”
“You’ve lived your whole life in my household, and you still haven’t learned. If it is no longer an asset to you, you put it down so it can’t be used against you.” As he speaks, his focus swivels toward Icarus, his finger moving to the trigger.
I don’t think. There’s no time for that. My body takes over, flinging itself toward Ariadne’s brother. The one person in this world she loves even more than me. If he’s murdered by her father…
I hit Icarus hard enough to take us to the ground as two gunshots scream into the night. Icarus groans, but I don’t have time for him. He’s fine. I lurch to my feet, my brain belatedly categorizing a number of scrapes and cuts from the rough ground. But no bullet wound.
The scene hits me in flashes. Minos and Ariadne sinking to their knees with mirrored expressions of shock and pain. They’ve never looked more like father and daughter than they do in this moment. My brain scrambles to understand what the fuck I’m seeing. Minos was going to shoot Icarus. Did he shoot Ariadne instead?
I rush to her before I finish the thought. “Sweetheart? Sweetheart, talk to me. Where are you hurt?” If he got her in the chest or, fuck, the stomach—
“I’m not.”
I keep patting her down, barely registering her words. “Yes, you fucking are. He shot you. Where is it, sweetheart? We need to get you to the hospital.” Fuck the boat if it means she dies at sea.
Ariadne catches my wrists in a pathetically weak grip. “Asterion.” She squeezes me. “He didn’t shoot me. I shot him.” Her voice is wrong, distant and almost peaceful. She’s going into shock. My woman has never hurt a fly, and she just shot her father.
“Dad?” Icarus’s voice breaks. “Dad, talk to me.”
“Let me up,” Ariadne murmurs. She’s still too calm. It’s freaking me out. “Asterion, move. Please.”
I don’t want to. Bad enough that she pulled the trigger, but to actually watch the life leave her victim’s eyes… I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count. So often that I’m immune to it. There are scars on my heart from the first couple of them, though. I would save her from that if I could.
Too bad she won’t let me.
Ariadne pushes me to the side, and I let her. I follow her as she stumbles to her fallen father’s side. He’s a monster. All three of us know that, and yet even my chest sinks at the sight of the blood bubbling up from his lips. He was the only father figure I ever had, and he might have been a shitty-ass father, but he was ours. He gasps, sounding weaker than I’ve ever heard him.