7. Adonis

7

ADONIS

“Eris would lose her mind if she knew I was here alone with you.”

“What my wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

His wife. Not mine. Never mine. She was never going to be, as she reminded me yesterday.

Most of my life, I’ve gone with the flow. I live a charmed existence and I’m aware enough to realize that, but I also realized pretty early on that I’d never hold one of the thirteen titles. My mother takes after her mother in being too outspoken and too stubborn to bend when others think she should. Old money has a way of thinking the world revolves around it instead of the other way around, and my mother reflects that.

My other parent isn’t that much better. They like to poke their nose in when they’re not welcome and have a nasty habit of sharing gossip a little too freely. Everyone does it, of course, but my parent doesn’t bother to pretend they’re not. It gets people’s hackles up.

So, no, I was never going to become one of the Thirteen.

I never wanted it, frankly. Hard to go with the flow when you’re the one directing it. It’s a lot of responsibility and I’ve seen the toll it takes on those who hold those positions. The power might be nice, but I have everything I could ever want. Why do I need more?

I know better now.

Hephaestus watches me like he’s not sure if I poisoned his drink. Honestly, it’s not a completely irrational fear. I wouldn’t do it, but there are others in the upper city who wouldn’t hesitate. But if Eris wanted him dead, he’d be dead, and I might be so furious at her that I can’t think straight, but I won’t trample on her plans.

“But you do want to hurt her. Hurt us, really.”

Hephaestus shrugs. “I got what I wanted. I’m one of the Thirteen.”

Surely he doesn’t expect me to believe that line. I’ve seen Minos’s kind before; Eris’s father, the last Zeus, was a lot like him. Charismatic enough to have the people of Olympus enraptured, and all the more dangerous because of it. Minos didn’t come to Olympus to place one of his children among the Thirteen.

He came for Olympus itself.

Which is why Eris is doing what she’s doing. The best and worst thing about her is that she will always put this city first. Her father was Olympus’s monster and raised his children to be the same. Somehow it got twisted into this messed-up sense of responsibility because of the family she was born into. Now that she’s Aphrodite, that feeling of responsibility has only gotten stronger.

Her brother is leaning hard on her. Probably her sister, too. Three of the Kasios family. It’s never happened even once in Olympus’s history.

“Why did you invite me for a drink?” Hephaestus asks abruptly. “Be honest with me.”

Honesty is a risk, but it’s all I have. I take a breath and lay my cards on the table. “I don’t want you to hurt Eris.”

He studies me. Hephaestus is a big man. He looks every inch an old-world warrior with his broad shoulders, square jaw, and callused palms. Based on the final Ares trial, his foster brother is trained with a sword, and I suspect Hephaestus is as well.

He’s dangerous. The kind of dangerous we don’t see in Olympus. Here, battles are fought with bladed words and shady alliances. Or they used to be. The assassination clause was virtually unknown until a few weeks ago.

Until Minos came.

Until Theseus murdered the last Hephaestus.

He smirks. “She dumped you and married me. Why do you care what happens to her?”

I shrug, forcing my body language to remain light and uncaring. “I am angrier at her than I’ve ever been, but that doesn’t mean I want her hurt.” I love her. That love might have twisted and morphed into something unrecognizable, but we have too much history to ignore. “You obviously didn’t want this marriage, and your family has more than proven that they’re willing to kill to get the titles. Killing her would give them the Aphrodite title and end your marriage in one move.”

“I won’t pretend I haven’t considered it.” He shakes his head. “But you’re missing a vital part of negotiations, Adonis.” Hephaestus leans forward. He’s tall enough that we’re almost even like this, tall enough that the bar between us suddenly doesn’t feel like much of a barrier. “What will you offer me to ensure her protection?”

I blink. “That wasn’t very subtle.”

“Neither was your statement.”

He’s right, but I’m merely matching his energy. Since he took over the title, it’s never been clearer that he isn’t from around here. Minos might know how to talk to the press, but he hasn’t passed on that skill to his foster sons. Hephaestus’s brusque attitude has already set people on edge and created a problem with how people perceive him. Eris’s antics this morning are just one more nail in the coffin. “We do things a certain way here. Trying to go against that isn’t going to earn you any friends.”

“I’m not here to make friends.”

Yeah, I know.“That’s the problem.” I catch a faint thread of some woodsy scent he’s wearing and have to tell myself not to inhale deeply. Hephaestus is attractive enough to turn heads if one is willing to risk their safety in his bed. He’s the enemy, but this is Olympus. Sleeping with your enemies is practically a professional sport. No, the more important truth is that he’s Eris’s husband. No matter how angry I am at her, that’s a line I shouldn’t cross.

That’s a line I refuse to cross.

I lean back and busy myself putting away the bottles I pulled to make the drink. “You’re losing the battle of public perception on multiple fronts. People don’t like you, and they do like your wife. Normally, you might have been able to garner sympathy that she’s cuckolding you, but people are actively rooting against you at this point. They want you humiliated. They’re downright gleeful at the prospect.”

His brows draw together in a truly fearsome glare. “This city is fucked.”

“You came here and put a target on your back.” I sip my drink even though I don’t feel like drinking anymore now that my anger is fading. “You don’t respect the rules of this place. From the moment you came here, you’ve acted like you’re better than them—than us. Did you honestly think people would thank you for it?”

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.” A dangerous edge has come into his voice. He hasn’t bothered to pretend to be anything other than what he is—a predator—but he dampened it a bit in our previous encounters. This man, though? I fully believe he beat another human to death.

An idea comes to me slowly. It’s a terrible idea, one that will have a good portion of my peers turning against me. I’m not sure I care. I might not want Eris hurt physically, but that doesn’t apply to her reputation. Ultimately, Hephaestus being a member of the Thirteen that the public actively hates weakens the entire ruling body when they need most to project strength.

All for the love of Olympus, right?

I know my smile has taken on an edge, but I can’t quite reclaim the easy expression I normally wear. “I propose a bargain.”

He narrows his eyes. “I’m listening.”

Now’s the time to turn back. Nothing will come from this except more misery. I should be focusing on picking up the pieces of my life created when Eris shattered our relationship. I might garner more pity than I can stomach, but it will pass. Olympus has a long memory on some subjects, but broken relationships are a dime a dozen. No one believed Eris and I would go the distance.

No one except me, apparently.

Admitting how naive I was feels like swallowing acid. “I’ll help you fix your image. In return, you’ll promise not to harm her.”

He sits back slowly. The movement brings into attention the shift of his muscles beneath his button-down shirt. It doesn’t fit quite right, not having been tailored for his sheer size, and even as I notice that, I can’t help the heat that rises in response to his strength. I’ve always been attracted to strength in its many forms; to my detriment, most of the time.

Hephaestus considers me for a long moment. “Why?”

I know better than to hand away a weapon for free, but this is hardly a normal situation. Hephaestus obviously wants to use me against Eris, and I’m angry and hurt enough to be used, but he’s too smart not to check for strings. I cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t care what your foster father has planned; you’re weakening the entire body of the Thirteen, which is weakening Olympus as a whole. You need the public on your side now more than ever.”

“I couldn’t give a fuck about what the public thinks.”

“You can’t afford to be that reckless.” And neither can the city. I don’t think for a second that the Thirteen will come together, join hands, and fix things. It doesn’t matter. A stable Thirteen translates to a more stable Olympus.

“You aren’t doing this for the good of the city, or at least that’s not the whole reason.”

He’s not wrong, but he already knows Eris is my weak spot—and I’m hers. No reason to remind him. “Are you worried that you can’t handle anything I can bring to the table?”

He smiles, slow and languid. It completely transforms his face. Oh, he’s still got the brutal beauty, but his smile softens it into something truly devastating. “I can handle anything you throw at me, Adonis. In fact, I look forward to it.” The sheer insinuation in his low voice gives weight to the air in the room, and suddenly it’s hard to draw a full breath.

Gods, he’s dangerous.

I knew that, but he’s been such a blundering, prideful fool since taking the title that it was easy to tell myself I imagined his rough charm from the house party. That I imagined my response to it. “I’m not offering that.”

“Not as part of the bargain,” he agrees easily. Too easily. Before I can reiterate that I’m not, under any circumstances, having sex with the person who’s married to my ex, he continues. “How do you plan to fix my image?” The words have a sarcastic edge, but he looks genuinely curious. “Fight fire with fire?”

I laugh. I can’t help it. “That’s a losing game. Eris has been playing the press since she was a teenager. Earlier, even. No, you have to go in a different direction.”

Interest lights his dark eyes. “Okay, you have my attention.”

I haven’t spent any time thinking about this, but I was trained the same as Eris. I’ll never have the same media spotlight that she does, but my parents taught me early that perception is a weapon at our disposal. It’s easy enough to come up with a solution that has a chance of working. “You play the doting husband.”

“Pass.” Hephaestus’s face twists. “Everyone knows I didn’t choose the marriage. No one will believe I’m following my unfaithful wife around with hearts in my eyes.”

“Not if you keep standing next to her and glowering like you want to murder her.” I set my glass down. “You need to make them root for you. The only way to do that is to play on their pity.”

“I do not want their pity.”

Pity is obviously a sore spot for him, but I don’t care. “Let me paint you a picture.” I lower my voice, forcing him to lean in. “The steadfast, loyal husband and the philandering wife who flaunts her lovers in public. Who do you root for?”

“Pick another option.”

“You’re not capable of any other option and Eris is too beloved, even if it’s that they love watching her spectacle. You have no chance of being more charming than her. You don’t have her connections. Minos is tolerated right now the same way people tolerate an amusing jester, and he shows every evidence of building that amusement into goodwill, but you don’t have his skill. People do not like you.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.”

I eye him. “If you’d played it the way I suggest from the start, pretending to be in love with her, or at least besotted with her, then people would empathize with you. Half the city wants to be in Aphrodite’s bed, and the other half wants to be her. You’re a newcomer to Olympus, so it’d be easier to project their feelings onto you…except you keep being an asshole, which turns that empathy to hate. If you’d started things this way, she never would have been able to pull that stunt this morning.”

His mouth thins. “I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like any of this, so that’s hardly news.” I catch my tone going playful. I am not going to flirt with him. I don’t even like him. “That’s my offer. Take it or leave it.”

He considers it. I like that he doesn’t simply take me up on it without thought. Finally, he says, “If you’re trying to get close to me to spy, it’s a waste of time. I’m not soft enough to share pillow talk, and Minos certainly isn’t going to let anything slip.”

My skin flares hot at the idea of pillow talk with Hephaestus. I want to say desiring him is just a side effect of a broken heart, but there was a spark when we first met, too. Not enough to indulge in, not when I was with Eris.

But I’m not with Eris anymore.

That’s enough. You said you didn’t want her hurt, and now you’re fighting not to flirt with her husband. What do you think that would do if she found out?

Not that hurting me was enough to give her pause before moving forward with her plan.

“Then I suppose you have no reason to say no.”

His smile widens. “Guess you’re right.” He reaches out a big hand and I do my best to ignore the zing that surges through me when I slip my hand into his. “Okay, Adonis, you have yourself a bargain.”