13. Eurydice

13

EURYDICE

I probably should have left Orpheus back in Charon’s town house. Today promises to be a challenge even without him at my side, and his presence will make things more difficult. I’m not ready to explain what’s happening between us. To be honest, I’m still not certain myself.

But I gave him a choice and he made it.

I lead the way up the wide stairs to the imposing front door. The first time I saw this building, I was scared out of my mind. Now, it’s a second home. I know these hallways, with the thick carpet and dark color palette. I spent time in the sitting rooms we pass as we move deeper into the house. I even have a bedroom on the second floor that has slowly gained a significant portion of my clothing over the last year. I think most of my stuff is in the lower city now.

I hear the panting and yips before the trio of black dogs come barreling around the corner, Cerberus, Scylla, and Charybdis. Technically, they’re barely more than puppies, but they must have some massive hunting dog breed mixed in with the rest, because they easily come up to my hip. Cerberus barks when he sees me and picks up his pace.

I can tell the exact moment that they noticed Orpheus. Their happy barks turn to growls and they surge forward, putting themselves between me and him. They press against my legs even as they bark, deep and feral and filled with warning. To his credit, Orpheus doesn’t move.

“What’s going on out here?” My sister steps out of a nearby room—the library—with one hand on her gently curved stomach. She looks good. Healthy. She would argue with me if I said as much, but pregnancy agrees with her. There’s a glow to her skin, and she’s never looked more like our mother than on days when she wears comfortable wrap dresses like the one she has on right now. Her long blond hair is braided back from her face, and her eyes narrow when she realizes who else is standing in her hallway. “What are you doing here?”

“Call off the dogs, Persephone.” The dogs like me just fine, but they don’t listen to my commands. They don’t seem to listen to anyone except Hades and Persephone…and Georgie, the cook.

“No, I don’t think I will.” She crosses her arms and glares. “Explain, Eurydice. Now.”

It’s always like this with my siblings, to say nothing of my mother. They like to conveniently forget that I am an adult and have been for years now. Part of it is my fault; I knew they liked taking care of me, and so I allowed them to do so. It was easy and comfortable. I just had no idea I was digging myself into a hole it would be impossible to climb out of.

I cross my arms over my chest, mirroring her body language. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re my sister, and you’re residing in my city, so I think you’ll find that it is, in fact, my business.” She transfers her glare from Orpheus to me. “Tell me you’re not seeing this piece of shit again. You know what happened last time.”

I haven’t had much cause to regret calling Persephone for help that night, but there are moments like this where I wish I had done literally anything else. Not only because I acted the part of unwitting bait that put both my sister and Hades in danger, but because it’s cemented me in their minds as the baby sister who is always in need of protection. They don’t trust my strength. They sure as fuck don’t trust my instincts.

I might understand their reasoning, but that doesn’t mean I like it. “Call off the dogs, or I’m leaving right now.”

Persephone glares, but while she might be the fearsome queen of the lower city to everyone else, she’s still my big sister. I’ve seen that look before, and I know exactly how far she’s willing to push it. I may not have been the object of her frustration often in our childhood—Callisto and Psyche hold that honor—but I’ve witnessed it enough to know her boundaries by heart. She’s not going let me walk out of here with him, not without answers.

She snaps out a command, and the dogs immediately go silent and sit. They’re still creating a barrier between me and Orpheus, but at least we can speak now without yelling. It’s better that I get the drop on this so that I can control the conversation. I raise an eyebrow. “My relationships are my business. If I want your advice, I’ll come to you for it, but unless you’re willing to sit through several hours of our mother giving you all the pregnancy advice you never asked for, don’t be a hypocrite.”

She lifts her chin. “That’s different. Mother hasn’t been pregnant in over two decades. All of her information is outdated.”

“Just like your information about Orpheus is outdated.”

Persephone gives a truly impressive snarl that would do any of her dogs proud. “You can’t honestly expect me to be okay with this…whatever this is.”

Of course not. If our situations were reversed, I would be feeling the exact same thing. Gods, at this point I’m almost willing to shove our current Zeus out of the window just like the last Zeus in order to save Callisto from him. Only the fact that our eldest sister seems totally fine, even flourishing, as the new Hera has made me keep my silence.

“I expect you to respect my decisions,” I snap.

Persephone stares at me for several beats. I brace for us to continue arguing, but she finally shakes her head and grimaces. “Fine. I will respect whatever it is you have going on here.” She points a finger at Orpheus. “But don’t think for a second that just because my sister has a soft heart, the same can be said for the rest of us. If you hurt her again, there won’t be a body left to find.”

“Persephone!”

For his part, Orpheus doesn’t seem overly concerned. It’s not that he’s being arrogant—I’ve seen what that looks like on his gorgeous face. It’s more that he is…looking to me to lead the way. It’s not quite the expression he wore when he knelt at my feet, but it’s similar enough that the thrill of pure power goes through me.

I didn’t know it could be like this. I didn’t even know that I wanted it to be like this.

Orpheus nods at me and then looks at my sister. “Eurydice is in full control. I won’t hurt her again.” I don’t know if the words are for me or Persephone, but they warm me all the same. Maybe I’m a fool to be feeling soft feelings for him again. Maybe they never went away at all. I don’t know which option is more terrifying.

Persephone shakes her head slowly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.” She props her hands on her hips. “I suppose you want him to come to lunch with us?”

Truth be told, I hadn’t thought about it in too much detail. I’ve been feeling my way with this from the start, and somehow I don’t think that’s going to change in the future. I’m reluctant to let Orpheus out of my sight, but it won’t be a relaxing lunch with my sister if he’s present. I worry my bottom lip for a moment until the solution lands right in my lap. “He’ll wait in the car.”

“He’ll wait in the car,” my sister repeats slowly.

“Yes.” Like a good dog. I don’t have to say the words aloud. Understanding is there in Orpheus’s dark eyes, in the way they flare hot before he looks down at the floor. The slippery slope beneath my feet only gets more so. I…want him. I don’t know why that’s such a revelation, not when I’ve wanted him since we were teenagers. He likes to pretend that he always wanted me back, but it’s not the truth. He was popular and universally beloved by our peers. Handsome, rich, from a legacy family. The only thing about him that didn’t quite fit the cookie-cutter norm was his art, but that only made him more attractive to everyone around us.

It wasn’t like that for me and my sisters. We grew up differently; our life in the countryside outside of the city proper was a simpler one. Oh, we’ve always had money and all the luxuries that come with it, but people don’t play the same vicious politics out there. We were wholly unprepared for our move into Olympus.

Each of my sisters went about survival a little differently. Callisto was in so many fights that first month that her knuckles still bear the scars. Psyche let their shitty comments roll right off her like water off a duck’s back, and then she turned around and played the game better than any of them. Persephone crafted a sunshine persona that was impenetrable.

And all three of my sisters stood between me and everyone else. Or at least they tried. The thing is, there are more than a few years between each of us, and so I spent plenty of time without them playing the part of my protectors. I learned my own lessons during those times. I’m not fierce like Callisto, or cunning like Psyche, or untouchable like Persephone.

In the end, I leaned into the parts of me that everyone around me saw. Fragile. Delicate. In need of protection. To some people, that made me a victim in waiting. But there were plenty of others who stepped into the gaps left by my sisters’ absence. They were always louder and stronger than I was, and that’s how I know Orpheus never actually saw me. I was always standing in the shadows of others. It was the only way I knew how to protect myself.

I’m not content to stand in the shadows of others any longer. “If you’re done interrogating me, I’m famished.”

My sister shakes her head. “Let’s go.”

The trip into the upper city isn’t comfortable in the least. I sit between my sister and Orpheus, feeling like I’m being ripped in two by the silence. It’s a relief when we pull up in front of the Dryad and Persephone climbs out of the car. I reach over and pull the door shut to give me a moment alone with Orpheus. “Are you okay waiting here?”

“You’re asking me now?” He smiles as he says it. “It’s fine. I don’t want to ruin your lunch.”

I don’t know what to do with this new Orpheus. Without thinking, I take his hand. “Look, I get that you made a mistake last year, but that doesn’t mean that you need to have an entire personality transplant. You’re kind of freaking me out.”

“I’m sorry.” He turns his hand over and laces his fingers through mine. With our palms pressed together, I feel the fine shudder that moves through his body. He leans back against the seat and closes his eyes. “I understand what you’re saying, but you have no idea what it’s been like since we saw each other last. I’m not the same person I was, just like you’re not quite the same woman you were. Part of that is because of what happened with you, and part of that is other shit going on that has nothing to do with you.”

“You mean like Apollo cutting you off?”

He opens one eye and looks at me. “Yeah, that’s part of it.”

I have no business pressing him, and now isn’t the time to do it, but I can’t help asking, “And the rest of it?”

He squeezes my hand and gently slips free. “If you really want to know, ask your questions tonight. I don’t think right now is the time for that conversation. Persephone is waiting for you.”

He’s right, but I still have to fight against the urge to lift my voice and tell Medusa to take us back to the lower city. Only the fact that I have other things I need to accomplish today keep me silent. “Very well. I’ll ask my questions tonight.” I lean forward until my breasts press against his arm. “And if you’re a very, very good boy today, you’ll get a reward.”

“Fuck, Eurydice.” He makes a helpless little sound that goes straight to my pussy. “You sure know how to motivate a man to be on his best behavior.”

I catch his chin the same way Charon caught mine last night and tilt his face to mine. That delicious surge of power goes through me when his eyes flutter shut. I don’t know that I want his submission in every area of life, but I can’t deny that I love it right here, right now. I press my thumbnail to his lip, earning another of those sounds that make me clench my thighs together. “Think of me while I’m gone.”

“I don’t have a chance of doing anything else.”