30. Eurydice

30

EURYDICE

It’s strange that with so much bad going on, this is the happiest I’ve ever been. Waking up in bed with Charon and Orpheus is something I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to. I don’t think I want to get used to it, not if the alternative is to lose this feeling of wonder and peace.

But reality always intrudes, and we have a lot to worry about today outside the confines of this bedroom. I roll over to face Charon where he’s wedged between me and Orpheus, only to find him already awake.

He smiles a little, though his eyes are worried. “Morning, baby.”

“Morning. You’re up early.”

“Been up for a while. There were no emergencies through the night, but I want to get back to the house early so we can start planning on contingencies. We need to figure out who is fucking with us. Knowing their boss’s name ultimately doesn’t change much. We have to get them out of the lower city.”

I don’t tell him to be careful. His very job description is the opposite of that. He needs to be able to be decisive, and it’s impossible to be decisive if you’re second-guessing every decision. It’s also impossible to stay safe.

The thought of something happening to him reaches its cold dead hands into my chest and sinks its claws into my heart. I wiggle my way closer, wrap my arms around him, and bury my face in his chest. “Come back to us tonight. Every night. Promise me.”

“Baby, you know I can’t do that. I’m not going to take any unnecessary risks, but there’s no guarantees in life.” I feel him smile against the top of my head. “Just like I’m not going to ask you to stay in this town house until the situation is resolved. We both know you won’t do it, so I won’t ask for that promise.”

Something akin to guilt rises, but I swallow it down. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

“Nothing worth having ever is.” He gives me one last hug, and then carefully extracts himself from the bed. I watch him walk away, the claws in my heart pulsing with each step he takes. With all the conversations yesterday and last night, I let myself forget the sheer amount of danger we’re in right now.

If Olympus falls, the first thing Circe will do is eliminate all the leaders and those loyal to them. If she’s managed to come this far, she’s too smart to do anything else. Whether she decides to extend that order to the legacy families is up in the air.

My mother, my sisters, Orpheus’s family. Hades, Hermes, and all the rest. It will be a bloodbath.

“Charon…”

“I know, baby. We’ll get through this. Try to get some more sleep if you can.” He slips into the bathroom and quietly slides the door shut. A few seconds later, the shower starts.

I flop back onto the bed with a sigh. As lovely as it sounds to go to sleep again, it’s not going to happen. My mind is too alight with all the possibilities of what could go wrong. Orpheus stirs and tosses an arm over my waist. “We have to trust him. We have to trust everybody in power right now. There’s not a whole lot that you and I can do by ourselves.”

I blink up at the ceiling, feeling sick to my stomach. “You heard all that?”

“Yeah.” Sleep still lingers in his voice. He tugs me closer, arranging me against his body. It’s familiar and comforting. I will myself to sink into him, to let his warmth soothe me. His breath ruffles the hair of my temple. “Since we both know you’re not going to sit around twiddling your thumbs, why don’t you tell me what our agenda is for the day?”

“Our agenda?”

“Eurydice, if you think I’m letting you out of my sight with all this shit going on, you’re out of your damned mind. I’m not trained the same way Charon is, but he and I will both feel better if one of us is with you. Between me and Minthe, we’ll keep you safe.”

But who’s going to keep him safe?

It would be so easy to pretend we have nothing to worry about, but the truth is that he’s in danger because of his proximity to me. His family and brother might be the cause in the upper city, but in the lower city, I’m the one to blame if something happens to him. Panic flutters in the back of my throat.

I just started to get settled into the idea of a future with the three of us, and now it’s actively in danger. I can’t tell them to stay here and stay safe any more than they can tell me to do the same. We are who we are. That doesn’t make it easier to watch Charon come out of the bathroom, fully dressed with an empty shoulder holster in place. He moves to the safe in the nightstand and retrieves a handgun.

He catches me watching. “I wear this every day.”

It’s true, but that doesn’t change how I feel. “I know.”

“Where are you headed today?” I can tell how much it costs him to ask, instead of telling me. It’s there in the slight tension in his shoulders and the way he clenches his jaw. Poor Charon. All he wants to do is keep the people in his life safe, and we keep making it difficult for him.

Well, I can give him this at least. “I had planned on going to see Ariadne. I know she’s given us all the information she has, but I’d feel shitty discarding her like yesterday’s trash after we’ve gotten what we wanted from her.” Yesterday, the only thing she seemed to feel about the abortion was relief, and we’re not exactly friends, but nobody should be alone after they’ve made such big decisions. And she’s made more than a few.

He hesitates like he wants to tell me that it’s not a good idea, but finally gives a short nod. “You will wait for Minthe.”

“I will. I promise. I won’t go anywhere without her today.”

He doesn’t exactly look relieved. “Good. If you run into any trouble, call me. I’ll let you know if something happens and I’m going to be late tonight.”

“Okay.” This feels almost awkward, but I don’t know how to ease it. Maybe there is no fixing the fact that we’re both going to spend the day worried about each other. I watch him walk out of the room with my heart in my throat. Really, nothing’s changed from yesterday. We knew there was danger; we just didn’t know the exact source. Now we do.

My phone rings before I have a chance to get moving. I don’t know whether to be relieved or nervous that it’s my sister’s name scrolling across the screen. “Hello?”

“You’re going to see Ariadne today. I’m coming with.”

I blink. “Good morning to you too, Persephone.”

“You weren’t asleep, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks, so stop with the snarky little sister remarks. I’m leaving here in fifteen minutes, so if you want to meet me there, you’d better get moving.” She hangs up without saying goodbye.

I drop my phone on the bed with a sigh. “Hades is not going to be happy about that.”

Orpheus turns on his side and reaches over to link his fingers with mine. “I know your sister has no reason to like me, and normally I would make myself scarce to avoid making anyone uncomfortable, but I meant what I said about not letting you out of my sight today.”

I give his hand a squeeze. “I love you. My family is going to have some issues with that, and we’ll have to navigate their disapproval, but eventually they’ll realize you’re not the same person you were before, just like I’m not the same person I was before. It’ll be fine.” I really hope I’m not lying right now.

My family does love me to distraction. They’re also fiercely protective and borderline murderous when it comes to the people who’ve harmed one of us. Possibly more than borderline, though those rumors about my mother are unsubstantiated.

“Let’s get moving before we get left behind.” I give his hand one last squeeze and slip out of the bed. It’s quick work to get my hair under control, put on just enough makeup so I don’t look exhausted, and dress myself in a pair of my favorite faded jeans and the knit sweater Persephone bought me last holiday.

“I just need a few minutes to get dressed.” Orpheus stands and heads through the door into the bathroom. I take a moment to appreciate his truly outstanding body, but only a moment. I can’t afford to get distracted when we need to meet my sister. Instead, I head downstairs to find Charon has already started the coffeepot and set out two travel mugs. One is the sparkly purple thing I bought mostly as a joke from the summer market earlier this year. The other still has the stickers on it. “Always taking care of the people around you,” I murmur.

Fifteen minutes later, Orpheus and I are climbing into the back of yet another from Hades’s fleet of black sedans. Minthe adjusts the driver’s mirror, waits for us to buckle our seat belts, and then we’re off. Really, we could’ve walked.

Or rather, we could’ve walked. These days Persephone doesn’t walk anywhere. She’s almost through her first trimester, but because it’s twins, everyone is on edge. I know it frustrates her to the point where she wants to have a full-on toddler meltdown, but she’s been mostly gracious about letting us be overprotective.

We pull up next to a car identical to ours. My sister leans against the side, her head tilted back and her eyes closed in the morning light. I know she’s been grappling with the changes to her body, the stress of being the coruler of the lower city, and the general worry that comes from living in Olympus during current times, but she’s never looked better. I thought the whole pregnant-women-glowing thing was a myth, but no one can look at my sister and say she’s doing anything but glowing.

“Do you want me to wait in here until it’s time to go inside?”

I shake my head. “No, she has to make her peace with this whole thing eventually. We might as well start now.”

Sure enough, the moment Orpheus follows me out of the car, Persephone narrows her eyes. “We haven’t really had a chance to talk about this, but just know that I don’t approve.”

“Then it’s a really good thing that what I want is your love, not your approval.” It’s not, strictly speaking, true. I intensely dislike that I’m disappointing my sisters and mother right now, but they’re not thinking clearly. I can’t say for certain that I am, but at least I know my own mind better than anyone else. More than that, I know Orpheus.

Her attention flicks to him and stays there. “If you hurt my sister—again—then you won’t survive long enough to cross the River Styx back to the upper city.”

“Persephone!”

Orpheus isn’t exactly unbothered by my sister threatening him again, but he doesn’t flinch. “I’ll be paying penance for the wrongs I did Eurydice until my dying day. But respectfully, that’s between her and me…and Charon.”

My sister studies him for several long moments. “My threat stands.” She turns to face the apartment building. “Shall we?”