25 The Minotaur

25

The Minotaur

As soon as I get confirmation from Ariadne that I won't be shot on sight, I head for Dionysus's place. We're in the midst of a shitstorm, and I don't see a way through. The only option we have is to cut and run, but I can't even do that until the barrier comes down. With that in mind, I try to call Hermes. Naturally, it goes straight to voicemail.

Hello, darling, you've reached Hermes. I don't know why you're calling me instead of texting. Pretty sure this could've been an email. If you're still here, I suppose you can leave a voicemail after the beep. No promises on ever getting back to you. Ta!

I curse and hang up without leaving a message. That woman is a menace. If I hadn't seen the real person beneath her chaotic exterior, I might write her off as a loss. She'll come through, though. I have no doubt about that. She's gone through too much to ensure that Circe reaches Olympus. I don't know why, but at this point, the why matters less than the fact that she's not going to fuck me over. Probably.

I walk through the main entrance of the building, fully expecting to be stopped. The nervous looks the security guards give me aren't reassuring in the slightest. But they don't stop me.

As I take the elevator up to the top floor, a distant part of me wonders at the fact that Ariadne has managed to land on her feet so effectively. If it wasn't for me, she'd be marrying a man with more money than even her father. At least if his penthouse is anything to go by.

Ariadne meets me at the door, and I can only stare at the opulence of the room behind her. It's understated, but living with Minos for most of my life means I know what to look for. Wealth practically screams from every inch of the space.

I'm not usually one to let something like this get under my skin, but on the heels of wondering what kind of life I can actually offer Ariadne, it sends a sliver of uncertainty through me. That's the only excuse I have for saying, "Are you sure?"

She blinks. "What are you talking about?"

"Us. Leaving. All of it. Are you sure you want to walk away from this?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that to me." When I don't immediately respond, she sighs and lowers her voice. "Asterion, I've had people making decisions about my life since I was born. I'm not going to stand for it any longer. I told you my decision yesterday. I stand by it. Just because things have gone off the rails doesn't change anything. Not for me."

I exhale slowly. "It doesn't change anything for me, either."

"Good. Then we can figure out what the fuck we're going to do now. Come on."

She leads me deeper into the penthouse. In the kitchen, she has a full pot of coffee brewing. There's an empty mug in the sink, but that's the only evidence that Dionysus was here. "Where did your fiancé take off to?"

"He decided it was smarter to give his report in person. I don't know that it's going to make much of a difference. Hera doesn't seem like the type to handle disappointment well."

That's an understatement. I'd like to think that I'm overstating the danger, but I know better. That woman is a monster right down to her bones. Like recognizes like. Beyond that, we haven't gotten lucky yet in this mess, and I doubt we're going to start now. "Have you had a chance to look into that stuff you talked about?"

"Sort of." She wraps her arms around herself and glances out the window. "But there's something else we have to discuss first. When I talked to Dionysus this morning, he made me—us—an offer. It's a good one, I think."

"Tell me."

I'm braced for damn near anything except what comes out of her mouth. She shifts from foot to foot. "Things are going to get ugly here very quickly. I think we both know that. He offered to send me to the countryside, to one of his residences there. It's not a foolproof plan, but it's better than walking around the city with a target on my forehead. And he offered to send you and Icarus with me."

I stare. Yeah, I didn't see that coming. Dionysus continues to surprise me. At least this time it's not with drugs or threats. "That won't end up solving anything."

"I know. Circe will still come, and the Thirteen will continue to be a threat. But it would be a reprieve." She finally looks at me. "And it would get you and my brother away from my father. I know he's only threatening me directly right now, but that's going to change when he realizes you aren't actively working with him. He'll kill you, Asterion. I can't let that happen."

I cross to her, closing the distance between us in a single step. As soon as I do, I can't believe I stood here for ten fucking minutes without having her in my arms. It feels like a missing piece of me sliding home. I rest my chin on top of her head. "You don't have to worry about me."

"Don't be naive. Of course I have to worry about you. You're actively putting yourself in danger."

"I won't let him hurt me."

She hugs me tighter. "The alternative doesn't make me feel better, either. I know he's a monster and he's responsible for so much evil and that he's hurt you and me and Icarus and even Theseus. I know that if he pushes you into a corner, if he makes you choose between us, that it will be no choice at all. But…he's still my father."

I stroke one hand over her hair. It's small comfort that she's stopped being worried about me being the one to hurt her. But that doesn't give me an easy answer to the obvious distress she's in. "I'll try very hard not to kill him. For you."

She laughs a little, the sound choked with emotion. "It really says something unflattering about both us and our current circumstances that that's a sentence you have to say. But I appreciate it nonetheless. Thank you."

The sound of heels on the tile floor has me twisting to put Ariadne behind me. At least this time, Hera doesn't have a chance to sneak up on me, but from the smirk on her face, I get the feeling she announced her presence on purpose. She glances to where Ariadne peers around my arm and raises her dark brows. "Isn't this cute and wholesome. How disgusting."

"Hello, Hera." Ariadne ignores my obvious attempt to stay between her and the other woman and steps around me. "I take it you spoke with Dionysus."

"Right down to business. Good." Hera props a hip against the kitchen counter. "You have to know this is unacceptable. The number of casualties we're looking at is astronomical. When we missed our first window, I was of the belief that we'd work together to create the proper timeline. Obviously that's not the case. Unless you can give me a legitimate solution—today—I'm pulling the plug on this whole mess."

At this point, she's welcome to it. But if she interferes overtly, then what little time I have left of Minos assuming that I'm still on his leash is over. That means things will get ugly. Fast. "We're working on a solution."

"That's what you've been saying from the beginning. You stalled about the blueprints, and now Minos is in a frenzy to get results. Isn't that right?" She looks from me to Ariadne and back again. "This is a mess of your own making. Clean it up, or I'll do it for you. You don't want that. Trust me."

"Hera." Ariadne takes a step forward but stops when I hook a hand into the back of her jeans. I don't want her closer to that woman than she has to be. Today Hera is dressed in a gray pantsuit that's fitted enough to not be able to hide a gun, but that doesn't mean I trust that she isn't hiding a weapon somewhere. Whatever leverage we might've had in our favor is quickly diminishing. At this point, if she thought it would serve her purposes, I wouldn't put it past her to see us dead.

For the first time, I am really fucking glad Ariadne is on the outs with her father. And that she's given all the information she has to the Olympians already. It ensures her value to them has already been spent. They might not have any reason to actively keep her safe beyond a promise, but they have no reason to hurt her, either.

Yet.

Hera gives her a cold look. "You have done very little but waste my time. I sincerely hope you're not about to ask me a question that will waste more of it. You know the terms of our deal. If you don't uphold your end of it, don't expect me to uphold mine."

It occurs to me that the way she's speaking seems to indicate that she has no idea the offer Dionysus made Ariadne. It's just as well. It's hard to threaten someone when they're miles and miles away. The Thirteen are more than capable of committing harm in the countryside—and so is Minos—but soon they'll have bigger things to worry about.

I could offer Hera information about the barrier, but she has a vested interest in keeping it up, and that outcome is unacceptable. That shit is coming down.

Ariadne swallows hard. "I understand. We'll figure out a way through this. Today."

"You'd better."

I give Hera a long look. "You could've just called. You didn't have to sprint down here in those ridiculous fucking heels to threaten us when we already know the stakes. Now who's wasting time?"

"Don't fuck with me, Minotaur." She starts to turn away. "I was down the street when Dionysus came to me. I decided it would behoove me to have this conversation face-to-face. I need your solution by tonight or the deal is off."

We watch her walk away and listen to the front door slam. Ariadne opens her mouth, but I hold up my hand. After a quick internal debate, I say, "Where's the bathroom?"

"The bathroom?" When I just stare, she shrugs and leads the way down the hall to a bathroom nearly the size of the apartment I'm keeping. Holy fuck, but this place is ridiculous.

I grip her elbow and guide her to stand next to the shower. "Give me a minute." I move around the room, turning on the fan as well as both sink faucets and all three of the showerheads. In a normal bathroom, that would be enough, but the sound barely fills in space. With a muttered curse, I flip off the sinks. "The shower."

"Asterion, there isn't a waking hour that I don't want you, but now is not the time to be fucking in the shower."

"In. Now." I pull off my clothes and step into the large space. It's like everything else about this apartment. Wasteful. After a couple seconds of cursing creatively, Ariadne follows me. I pull her close, and as tempting as it is to forget the reason why we're here, I force myself to keep on task. "We can't run to the countryside. We need to be here, in the city proper."

If it was possible to get through the barrier in the countryside, that's where Minos and Circe would've attacked. It's all farmland out there. Easy enough to march an army right through…except for the mountains. Olympus sits in a valley between mountains and sea. I don't think anyone has been trying to excavate the mountains, but as best we can tell, the barrier slices right through them.

Which means if we go to the countryside, we'll be just as trapped when Circe lays siege.

"I understand that you think—"

"Sweetheart, listen to me." I take her shoulders and move her back just enough that she looks up to meet my eyes. "I've been in contact with Hermes. That barrier is coming down. And the second it does, we're getting the fuck out of here. We can't do that if we're miles away."

She stares. "We'll circle back to that little nugget of information in just a second. Even if the barrier comes down, it's not as if we have a clear path to get out of here. There are only two roads and the bay. You don't think the roads will be watched?"

They will be. And we can't even get to one, because it leads out of the lower city. I don't know what will happen to the barrier that runs along the river when the external one goes down, but we can't afford to assume that it will come down, too.

"We'll take a boat. Hermes is bringing the barrier down on her timeline, not Circe's, so there's a decent chance the blockage won't be in place when it happens. We can slip away before anyone knows what's happening."

I can't read her expression. I can't tell whether it's filled with hope or despair. Finally, she says, "I don't have a boat tucked somewhere convenient. Do you?"

"Not yet." The marina will have plenty of pleasure yachts of the rich and bored, but I haven't had reason to spend time there. "Guess we'll just have to steal one."