17. Charon

17

CHARON

It takes everything I have to keep my temper locked down through the next few hours. I have my orders though. Eurydice is safe enough when I deliver her and Ariadne to the small private clinic Hades ensures stays funded so that its services are available to anyone who needs them. It’s also staffed by security people Minthe personally chose. It doesn’t get the same attention the clinics like it in the upper city do, but we installed the best security system money can buy just in case. There is absolutely no reason for me to see the women past the front door. They’re safe.

Too bad my instincts don’t give a shit.

All I can focus on is the fact that Eurydice lied to me. She stood there and assured me that she would keep Medusa with her the entire time she was in the upper city, and the first chance she got, she was running off to put herself in direct danger. I don’t need to know the details of Ariadne’s pregnancy in order to know that. She’s throwing herself on Hades’s sanctuary, and she wouldn’t do that if she wasn’t desperate. Which means Minos, and anyone he can bring to bear, will be out tracking his daughter. Considering the current climate in Olympus, I don’t think he would hesitate to hurt Eurydice if he thought she helped Ariadne.

And that is what I cannot forgive.

At least not until I have her in my arms and can reassure myself that she’s actually fine.

With nothing else to do, I turn my fury and frustration on the easiest target. Orpheus. “I hope you’re fucking happy.”

“Hardly.” He leans against the car next to me, his dark gaze pinned to the front door of the clinic. “But if she’s keeping secrets from you, proving myself to be untrustworthy just means she’ll be keeping secrets from me too.”

I understand what he saying, but that doesn’t make me want to strangle him any less. “You keep talking like we’re a team. We’re not.” It doesn’t matter that I decided I’m good with Orpheus being a package deal with Eurydice. What does matter is that she put herself in danger and he didn’t try to stop it.

“If we’re not a team, then why are you mad at me?”

I open my mouth, but no words come out. He has a point. I don’t like it, but he does. “You weren’t there the night she was chased through the warehouse district, terrified out of her fucking mind, and then attacked in plain sight of the lower city banks. You weren’t there when she pieced herself together over months, until she felt strong enough to go out on her own. If you had been, you would understand why I am so angry right now.”

“You’re right. I wasn’t there. I have so many fucking regrets about what happened that night, and how things fell out afterward. I’m glad she had you. Truly, I am.” He turns to face me, his body language still far too relaxed for my liking. “I know you’re scared shitless at the thought of her getting hurt. I am too. I’m not a fighter like you, but I would still put myself between her and any danger without hesitation.”

I don’t know if I believe him.

I don’t know if it matters.

We shouldn’t get too into shit without her here, but there’s something that needs to be said, and it’s better to get it out of the way now. “You mean to stay.”

Orpheus tilts his head back, giving me a good look at the line of his throat. I have the nearly overwhelming urge to set my teeth to that unmarked skin. He speaks before I can do or say something I’ll regret. “That’s up to Eurydice.”

It’s as good as saying yes. I respect him for not pussyfooting around the subject. “Are you planning to try to steal her back to the upper city?” My voice is deceptively mild, covering up the sudden shift inside me. I may have decided on her—and Orpheus—but that doesn’t mean either of them feel the same way. What if Eurydice only saw this year in the lower city as a pause, a moment to catch her breath before flinging herself back into the glittering poison seeped into the other side of the River Styx?

I can’t stand in her way. Doing so would mean clipping her wings, and I’d die before trapping her like that. Even if she takes my heart with her when she goes.

“I don’t know.” He sighs. “I didn’t exactly have a plan when I accepted your…invitation…to cross the River Styx. All I wanted was to apologize and to find a way to live again instead of just existing. I didn’t expect to have even a chance with her again.” His lips quirk. “I didn’t expect you either.”

I know what he means, but I’m still pissed about everything, and I’m not willing to meet him halfway. Not right now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you?” He moves faster than I would have believed possible and snags my wrist. One moment he’s standing beside me, and the next he’s in front of me, chest to chest. “So we’re just going to pretend I wasn’t choking on your cock a few hours ago?”

He smells really fucking good. I could push him off easily, but I let him press us harder against the car. The contact grounds something in me that’s been spinning out since Hades called and told me to go to the upper city to pick up Eurydice, who was not where she was supposed to be. I take a slow, deep breath. “You were there for the taste of her.”

Orpheus raises his brows. He really is pretty in a way that makes me want to smudge him up a bit. His lips curve. “Keep telling yourself that if you want.” His gaze drops to my mouth, and for a moment I really fucking hope he’ll kiss me. His smile fades, and he steps back slowly, almost as if he craves the contact as much as I do. “I might have come here for her, but plans change.”

I have to swallow down my desire before I can speak with anything resembling a normal voice. Only the fact that he’s suffering the same tempers the experience. “She might still send you away.”

“Yeah, I know.” He drags a hand through his hair. “Not a whole lot I can do about that. If she tells me to get lost, then I’ll respect her decision.”

“I don’t understand you,” I say softly. “I know your reputation, and I know what she’s told me about you in the moments when she was willing to talk about before, but you’re not acting like I expected.”

He shrugs, though there’s a new tension in his shoulders. “Both Eurydice and I have changed a lot in the last year.”

That’s the damn truth. Even as I tell myself now isn’t the time, I can’t help thinking about what we did this morning. Of her riding my mouth as he sucked my cock. A perfectly choreographed dance of three. There was no clashing of egos or friction to slow us down. I don’t know if we can get that synergy outside the bedroom, but if we can…

A car pulls up before I can finish that thought. I tense as Hades steps out. Gone is the relaxed man I talked to in the study earlier today. Instead, this is the lord of the lower city, the holder of one of the three legacy titles of the Thirteen. Two other cars pull up and Thanatos climbs out of one. He looks at me, and something almost like fear crosses his expression, but before he can say anything, someone starts cursing behind him, and he’s unceremoniously pushed aside.

Calypso takes his place. She’s a beautiful plus-sized woman with long dark hair and a mean streak longer than the River Styx. She’s also a gigantic pain in my ass. It looks like she’s going to keep that trend today.

“Please tell me you’re not all planning on standing out here like the firing squad.”

Hades gives her a cold look. “She claimed sanctuary.”

“Exactly.” She props her hands on her broad hips and glares. “No matter how she feels about what’s happening in there, she’s going to have a lot of conflict going on in her head when she walks out that door. The lot of you are going to scare the shit out of her.”

Sometimes I wonder what Medusa sees in her, but what do I know? The only parts of Calypso I ever witness are influenced by the fact that she doesn’t particularly like me much. She doesn’t seem to like anyone much. I try to take it as a compliment, since she wouldn’t have dared be honest about her feelings while living in the upper city, but it’s hard to appreciate the sharp side of her tongue.

For his part, Hades is mostly unaffected. “You have a suggestion, I’m sure.”

“We’ll take her.” She holds up a hand, even though no one is jumping in to offer a different option. “You don’t mean to, but you scare people, Hades.”

“Who says he doesn’t mean to?” Thanatos mutters.

“She’ll be safe enough with me and Medusa. We’ll give her a couple days to find her feet, and then bring her to you.” She raises a brow. “And then you can truthfully say you don’t have her when the rest of the peacocks come rattling your door.”

Hades considers that for several long moments. He finally nods slowly. “What you’re saying makes sense.”

“Gee, thanks.”

His lips quirk, but the smile dies before it can fully appear. He nods at Thanatos. “Escort them home, and wait until Medusa gets there. Have someone watch the street through the night.”

Calypso glares. “That’s not necessary.”

“I say it is.” He crosses to me and lowers his voice. “Did you know about this?”

I hate admitting the truth; it burns my throat. “No. She was supposed to go to lunch with Persephone and then come back to the lower city.”

“I see.” He glances at the door again. “Do you want to handle that, or should I?”

I have to clench my jaw to avoid telling him that there’s no fucking way I’ll let him handle Eurydice. It’s not a normal reaction, and I know Hades well enough that such a statement shouldn’t have me fighting not to punch him in the face. What the fuck is wrong with me? I clear my throat. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I expect a report in the morning.” It’s a testament to Hades’s insight that he’s giving me the night. Since I desperately want to put Eurydice over my knee—not that I’d admit as much to him—it’s a good call. He swivels enough to look at Orpheus, and what little warmth there was in his dark eyes disappears. “I did not invite you to the lower city. I highly doubt my wife did either.”

Orpheus meets his gaze steadily. A flicker of admiration ignites inside me; it’s not easy to hold Hades’s eyes when he’s got that expression on his face. Orpheus says, “No, you didn’t invite me.”

“And yet here you are.” Hades shifts a little closer, the move threatening. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t toss you into the River Styx for the harm you’ve done.”

I expect Orpheus to fold. He did the moment Eurydice snarled at him, and while he hasn’t shown me his throat, he also hasn’t challenged me directly. But he doesn’t. He just squares his shoulders a little. “With respect, Hades, that’s between me and Eurydice.” His gaze flicks to me. “And Charon.”

It’s nothing more than he said when we were alone, but having him publicly acknowledge me and the possibility of a relationship rocks me back on my heels. I keep underestimating Orpheus. I can’t guarantee that he’s not the selfish prick that I always believed him to be, but he’s also more than that.

For the first time, I look at him and feel desire that has nothing to do with Eurydice.