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)
It’s too much. That’s about what it amounts to. Too much chrome. Too much marble. Too much money spent on things that hardly matter beyond aesthetics. But it’s as safe as any place in Olympus, so it’s home.
I lead us through my front door, not pausing in the open space that is my living room and kitchen, instead pressing my hand to her lower back and guiding her down the hallway to where my bedroom and home office are. She stands there silently as I turn on the shower but bats my hands away when I reach for her zipper. “I can do it.”
“Cassandra, let me take care of you.” I pause. “Please.”
She hesitates and finally nods. “Only if you promise to let me bandage you up after we get clean.”
Truth be told, I’m not certain there’s anything to bandage. My eye is swollen and that side of my face throbs with each beat of my heart. Theseus got me several times in the ribs, and I have no doubt my skin is a rainbow of bruises, but I’m moving well enough now that I don’t think anything’s broken. But if it will make her feel better to see for herself, I’m hardly going to tell her no. “Okay.”
I strip her slowly, letting her presence ease the fear still thrumming through me. She’s safe. The situation might not be, but she’s safe. I have never, not once, put my personal feelings or relationships above this city.
I did that today.
I have to live with the guilt of that. I don’t know if it would have made a difference, but I don’t know that it wouldn’t.
Cassandra steps out of her panties and turns to me. “There’s nothing you could have done.”
“Are you a mind reader now?” I try for a smile but drop the attempt halfway through.
“No.” She shakes her head, dark eyes serious. “But I know you. We were operating with the information we had at the time. If not for Hermes all but inviting me to eavesdrop, we wouldn’t have saved Artemis, either. Even with the attack on Pan and our theories, we didn’t have all the facts.”
Rationally, I know she’s right, but it’s nearly impossible to look at things from any shade of positive light. “A man is dead because I failed.”
“A man is dead because Minos orchestrated a plan to get multiple members of the Thirteen into one place and then his sons attempted a triple murder.” She frowns up at me. “Lay the blame where it deserves to be, Apollo.”
She unbuttons my shirt slowly and then carefully peels it away from my body. Cassandra hisses out a breath at the sight of the bruises already blossoming beneath my skin. “Promise me that you don’t think it’s worse than bruising, or I’m going to take you to the hospital right now.”
I cover her hands with mine. “It’s not worse than bruising. I’ll be hurting tomorrow, but there’s no sharp pain or difficulty breathing that would indicate something more serious.”
She stares at me for several beats and then nods. “I want to get cleaned up and then…”
I wait, but she doesn’t continue. Carefully, I take her chin and guide her back to look into my eyes. “And then?”
“Would it be okay if you held me for a while?” Her lower lip quivers a little and she makes a visible effort to still it. “I don’t think I’m doing as okay as I’m acting.”
My heart twists painfully in my chest. I would do anything to have saved her from this experience, from witnessing the very act that had such a horrific impact on her life twelve years ago. “Of course, love. Anything for you.”
34
Cassandra
I can barely look at Apollo’s body without the fear of what-if seeping in around the edges, the idea of a world without him so cold and dark that I can’t stop shaking. He thinks I’m rattled because of witnessing a murder, and I won’t pretend I’m remotely okay with that. Or the reminder that this isn’t all that unusual for him. How can he live like this? How can any of the Thirteen?
Getting beaten barely registered as a blip for him; he immediately pivoted to worrying about the greater good of the city. I should care about the city. There are a lot of innocent people who live here.
But it’s the potential loss of him that has me burrowing beneath his ridiculously expensive sheets and arranging my body carefully against his. I’m not certain I can touch him without causing him pain, but he tugs me close all the same and I don’t argue.
I need this.
I think we both need this.
For a long time, we simply lie there. I allow his slow breathing and the steady thump of his heart against my ear to soothe me. He could have been hurt so much worse today…but he wasn’t. That’s the important thing. He’s here. He’s with me.