12. Orpheus

12

ORPHEUS

When I came to the lower city, some part of me really hoped I had a chance of getting Eurydice back, even as I told myself it was impossible. That there was nothing I could do to earn her forgiveness. I even believed it…until Eurydice told me to crawl.

Now, I’m not certain of anything.

And then there’s Charon. He’s a new component to the entire situation that I didn’t anticipate. He’s not trying to take charge. It’s more that he’s supplementing Eurydice’s dominance. It’s hot. I never thought that I would be happy on my knees, but there’s something so incredibly peaceful about handing over the decision-making process.

For the first time in my life, I’m not thinking about what comes next, at least in those moments where I’m following orders. I’m not stressed about living up to the legacy my mother has created as one of the top models in the industry. I’m not worried about following my father’s advice to live my life to the fullest and compromise nothing, because youth is fleeting and it’s something he always regretted letting pass him by. He isn’t quite trying to live through me, but it’s close enough that he’s always advising me to take the least stable path because “there’s plenty of time to settle down—emphasis on settle—later.”

That’s not even getting into Apollo. He’s a good brother, but he can’t conceptualize how challenging it is to live in his shadow. He doesn’t make mistakes. He’s not greedy, or selfish, or malicious. He’s a fucking paragon of virtue, and he casts a long shadow as a result.

I don’t know how I’m supposed to go back. There’s a clear line dividing my life—before last night and after last night. There’s every chance that Eurydice will use me until she’s purged every part of her that ever cared about me, and then she’ll cast me out for good. It’s even likely. I don’t know what happens then. I feel adrift, floating mindlessly except for the tether that connects me to her.

My knees ache pleasantly as I kneel on the tile floor and watch her get ready. It’s a ritual that I know by heart, and yet somewhere along the way I stopped appreciating the experience. I’m sure as shit appreciating it now. The long line of her throat as she tips back her head to put her hair into a high ponytail. The smooth curve of her shoulders, left bare by the tank top she pulls over her head. Her dainty feet, with that damned yellow nail polish.

My fingers twitch. The sensation catches me by surprise, and I stare at them as if I’ve never seen that before. Do I…want to paint? The question almost makes me laugh, but not in a kind way. Maybe Eurydice really is my muse. What a horrifying thought. Better to spend the rest of my life with that hollow spot where my creativity used to be than to get a glimpse of the way it could be again, only to have it ripped from my hands a second time.

I did it to myself. I know that, and yet it doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

Charon steps out of his closet, breaking my spiral. He’s dressed in the way I’ve always seen him previously, his broad form clothed in a perfectly tailored suit. This one is a pleasant gray that manages to make his eyes look even stormier than normal. His gaze flicks to me and away. Does he feel as conflicted about this sequence of events as I do?

I want him. Of course I do. He’s sexy as fuck, and there have been plenty of times in my past where I’ve enjoyed the particular kind of seduction that comes from coaxing the restrained partner into wild abandon. Charon would be a challenge. He is a challenge.

But this isn’t a mere seduction where pleasure is the only thing on the line.

He drifts a big hand down Eurydice’s spine. It’s not quite a possessive gesture—more that he is amazed he’s allowed to touch her at all. It makes my chest ache. Charon leans against the counter at her side. “What’s on the agenda today?”

“I’m meeting up with Persephone for lunch.” She lifts a hand. “Yes, we’re going to the upper city. If the security is good enough for Hades, then I think we can both agree that it should be good enough for you.”

He makes a face. “That’s not a fair argument.”

“What makes you think I have any interest in being fair?” Eurydice smiles at him in the mirror, her expression soft. “We’re not doing anything particularly wild. We got word that Pan is out of the hospital and back in the Dryad. We just want to check up on him, and going to lunch seems the least pushy way to do that.”

He looks like he wants to argue. I watch in fascination as he obviously talks himself down. His attention shifts to me again. “What about him?”

Eurydice takes a shuddering breath and turns to look at me as well. “Well?”

It takes me a few moments to realize she’s talking to me. I roll my shoulders, trying to get my thoughts in order. For better or worse, the last twelve hours have created a strange little bubble around the three of us. Eurydice might not be willing to throw me off a bridge, but the same can’t be said for the rest of her family. I have absolutely no desire to see Persephone, but this isn’t about what I want. Not right now. “What do you want?”

She crosses her arms. “Listen, I know you’re all about paying penance right now, and while I find immense satisfaction in having you crawl for me, you are still a person with thoughts and feelings and needs. Scenes end, Orpheus. Would you like to come with me, or would you rather stay here and wait for us to return?”

Part of me wishes she would make the choice for me. She’s already made it clear that she won’t though. I take a deep breath. Maybe it’s foolish, but I can’t shake the feeling that if I let her out of my sight, this will all end. Dealing with her sisters and their blatant hate is a small enough price to pay for spending time in Eurydice’s presence. “I would like to come with you, if that’s all right.”

She studies me for a long moment and finally nods. “Okay.”

Charon has his phone out and is typing away with his big fingers. “Medusa will be on your security detail. Are you going to see your mom as well or coming straight back?”

Eurydice sighs, and although the sound has plenty of exasperation, there’s more than a little fondness. “I was planning on coming straight back afterward.”

“Then I’ll send Minthe too.”

“Charon.”

He hesitates without looking away from this phone. “You know I worry about you.”

“Medusa is more than formidable enough to ensure I’m safe. If you put too many people on my security, you might as well signal that I’m someone important. You’ll make a target of me.”

She’s…manipulating him. She’s not exactly lying, but it’s clear that she has an agenda, and it’s equally clear that hers is at odds with what Charon wants. I can’t see a good reason not to have more security. As best I can tell, Eurydice hasn’t spent much time in the upper city in the last year, but she has access to all the same sources of news that we do. She has to know how dangerous it is.

Why is she trying to have less security?

I open my mouth to ask, but Eurydice shoots me such a venomous look that I snap my jaw shut. Oh yeah, she knows exactly what she’s doing. Curiosity unfurls inside me. She’s up to something, but she’s still willing to let me tag along.

Finding out what Eurydice doesn’t want Charon to know is more than worth the price of an uncomfortable lunch.

She pushes away from the bathroom counter and waves a hand at me. “You’ll need to wear something else.”

I don’t have anything else to wear. All three of us know it. Charon transfers his frown from his phone to me. “I think I have something that might fit.”

That startles a laugh out of me. “There’s no universe where we’re the same size.” We’re close enough in height, but he’s built much wider and thicker than I am.

Charon ignores me, turning and heading back into the closet. He reappears a few minutes later with a pair of pants and a button-up shirt. I want to argue, but Eurydice sends me another of those sharp looks. It’s not quite a command, but it might as well be. Which is how I find myself taking a quick shower and putting on Charon’s clothes.

The biggest surprise comes from the fact that…they fit. I don’t know if that means they don’t belong to him, or if at some point he was significantly thinner, but I don’t ask. In fact, I say nothing at all until Eurydice and I are leaving the apartment side by side. I wait two blocks before I ask the question that’s been burning on the back of my tongue. “What are you hiding from him?”

“What makes you think I’m hiding something?”

I smile a little, though it feels bitter. “You forget, Eurydice. I might’ve been a shitty boyfriend, but I’ve known you half of my life. You never answer questions with a question unless you’re trying to hide something.”

She glares. “You always do that. We might’ve gone to school together, but it’s not like we moved in the same circles. You don’t get to act like you’ve known me for that long; you didn’t even notice me when we were teenagers.”

That’s the thing that she’s never understood; she sure as fuck never believed me when I tried to explain it. I always noticed her, from the moment that she and her sisters walked through the front doors of our private school. It was the fall after her mother had become Demeter, and they brought a novelty that legacy kids like me rarely saw. Most of my peers treated them as the enemy, and I won’t pretend I didn’t go along with it at times, but Eurydice fascinated me from the first moment I saw her. Delicate and beautiful and positive in a way that I still don’t understand. When everyone around me was jaded, interacting with her always felt like a breath of fresh air.

It still does if I’m being honest.

Not that I’m interested in having this argument again. She won’t believe me now, just like she never believed me in the past. What I’m more interested in is the fact that she’s still dodging my questions. I could press her on it, but I think I’ll find more answers if I go along with her today like a good little obedient submissive. Maybe I’ll learn something in the process.

The house she leads me to is exactly the sort of home I expect a person who holds the title Hades to own. It doesn’t match the rest of the buildings in the lower city; it’s a sprawling Victorian mansion that takes up almost an entire city block. I have to pause and take a few seconds to process what I’m seeing. It’s beautiful in a creepy, atmospheric kind of way. It also makes me wonder if it was built solely to feed into the myth of Hades. For the last thirty years, his name has functioned as a sort of boogeyman. Something to scare children with. Before that though, the title Hades was not to be fucked with. There’s no other explanation for why Zeus targeted it specifically.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. That Zeus and that Hades are no more. The men who hold the titles now are very different creatures. It’s some small consolation that they seem more intent dealing with Olympus’s enemies than in making enemies of each other.

At least for now.