Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
If I don’t stop him, he’s going to kill the man I love.
Fear and panic give me the strength to hit him again. “Let him go!”
“Stop hitting me, or you’re next.”
“Run, Cassandra,” Apollo rasps.
Fuck no. I’m not leaving him to die, not even if to save myself. I swing the tire iron a third time. I never make contact. Theseus grabs it and yanks it out of my hands. He gives me a bloody grin. “Checkmate.”
“No!” Apollo surges up and knocks the tire iron out of Theseus’s hands. The other man goes to punch him, but Apollo is already flipping them. This time, he comes out on top. He punches Theseus. Once. Twice. On the third time, Theseus’s eyes roll back in his head, and he slumps to the ground.
I stare at the unconscious man, half-certain that this is a ploy and the moment I blink, he’ll attack.
Apollo shoves him off and staggers to his feet. “Are you okay?”
“Me?” I have to look away from Theseus when Apollo tips sideways. I grab his arm to keep him on his feet. He winces and clutches his ribs. I follow the movement. “Are they broken?”
“No.” He flinches again. “I don’t think so.”
As one, we turn to Hephaestus. He still hasn’t moved. I don’t know if it’s adrenaline, but I plant my feet and can’t make myself approach him. This is so much worse than the scene with Pan yesterday. There’s blood everywhere, spattered all over the surrounding area. Too much violence. I never signed up for this.
Hephaestus never did me any kindness—in fact, he was cruel on the few occasions we had reason to interact—but cruelty is not a death sentence. No one deserves to die like this, alone and in pain.
Apollo gently extracts himself from my hold. “Stay there.”
“Apollo—”
He reaches down to grab the fallen tire iron and presses it into my hand. “Guard Theseus.”
It’s a bullshit task and we both know it, but I can’t help the gratitude that wells up inside me. This man continues to protect me as best he can. I nod, not quite able to clear the burning from my eyes. “Okay.”
“Cassandra.” He catches my chin for the briefest moment. “Thank you. If you hadn’t intervened…”
A wet prickle at the corner of my eye betrays me. I can’t make my bottom lip stop quivering. You could have died. I can barely think it, let alone say it. I can’t comprehend a world without Apollo in it. “Check him,” I finally manage.
He hesitates now when he didn’t before. “Are you okay?”
“No. Not even a little bit.” The tire iron slips against my sweaty palms, forcing me to readjust my grip. “We have to know, Apollo. We have to end this.”
He finally nods. I watch him closely as he walks to Hephaestus. Apollo is covered in blood and is holding his ribs in a way that scares me. Surely he’d know if they were broken? Yes, but would he tell you the truth if they were? The answer to that is a resounding no. I can’t trust him to take care of himself if he thinks I’m in danger. “Apollo—”
“Fuck,” he mutters. “He’s dead.”
My stomach tries to revolt, but I fight through the nausea that hits me in waves. We were too late and now a man is dead. “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t—”
“It’s not your fault.” He pushes to his feet, swaying a little, and turns to face me. One of his eyes is swollen almost completely shut. “I have to call Zeus.”
I nod, too quickly. I can’t look at the man—the body—on the floor. “I’ll just…”
“Cassandra, I need you to stay in the garage where I can see you.” He walks to me and guides me to face away from the scene. “Don’t look, love. But don’t go anywhere. It’s not safe.”
Considering one of the culprits is groaning faintly a few feet away, I’m not certain it’s safe here either, but at least I’m neither alone nor defenseless. I tighten my grip on the tire iron and give a shaky nod. “Okay.”
“I won’t be long. I saw a phone near the entrance. I’ll stay within sight.” He moves in that direction, leaving me with the body and the murderer. To stand guard? Or because he’s between me and the entrance? Impossible to say, but it’s easier to focus on that than the scene behind me. I still can’t quite process that it happened at all. This…
I listen quietly as Apollo makes his calls. First to Zeus, explaining the situation. It goes about as well as can be expected. After he gives a quick report, there are a lot of low murmurs and apologies. It infuriates me. Apollo was sent here on a fact-finding mission. There’s no way he could have known what would happen. No one knew what would happen.