35. Orpheus

35

ORPHEUS

I can barely think as I follow Eurydice down the hall toward the kitchen. Hades really means to do it. He means to close the boundary between the upper city and the lower city. I suppose I should be grateful that he’s even give me a choice to stay. But the cost is so damn high.

What happens if Olympus falls?

I don’t realize I’ve spoken aloud until Eurydice pauses and looks over her shoulder at me. “If the upper city falls, then I suspect we’ll have a civil war on our hands. You heard Hades. He won’t raise the barrier until the Thirteen present a united front. He’s not bluffing. Considering their history, even with the threat of war on the horizon, it might be years before his terms are met.” Her hazel eyes are kind and filled with understanding. “I know. That’s so long to be separated from our families. I was just on the other side of the river a few days ago. I’ll have Persephone, but…”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her we should both go back to the upper city. The words die before I even have to decide whether I’m going to speak them or not. Leave Charon behind? Unacceptable. And even if I was willing to do it, Eurydice isn’t.

It turns out I’m not either.

“It’s a long time. I won’t pretend I’m excited about it, but the alternative is unthinkable. I want to be by your side, Eurydice. I want to be here with you when he comes out of the hospital. I want to be with you…both of you.” It’s such a relief to say it. To make the decision.

She searches my face for a beat, the knowledge slowly settling for her. “Yeah, you’re right. Besides, if things get bad enough, I don’t doubt Hades will allow us to bring our families to the lower city and claim sanctuary.”

We start walking again, and her words dog my steps. Sanctuary. I think there used to be some kind of law about that, a long time ago, but the details slip through my fingers like smoke. More important are the implications. “It would have to be really bad for our families to leave the upper city.”

“Yeah.” Eurydice stops in front of the door. On the other side, we can hear Ariadne and Calypso speaking. Laughing. Her brows draw together. “It would have to be really, really bad. I want to say it’ll never happen, but a lot of things that I thought would never happen turned out not to be as impossible as I assumed.” She smiles a little. “Kind of like me and you.”

“I guess we are pretty impossible, aren’t we?” I find myself smiling in response. “Let’s get this errand done and come back to our man.”

“Okay. Let’s.”

Ariadne is remarkably resigned as we explain the situation to her. She doesn’t argue; she just follows us down to the garage and climbs into yet another identical sedan. Medusa and Calypso come as well. Even though this first wave of enemies is supposedly dead, there are no guarantees, and Eurydice knows better than to argue with either of them about taking a security detail.

Medusa drives us to the Cypress Bridge and parks against the curb half a block over. “We walk from here.”

I am achingly aware of the sun sinking toward the horizon as we approach the bridge on foot. It is as empty as it was the other night when I walked across it. That, more than anything, makes me shiver. Medusa leads the way, her hand on the grip of her gun and her eyes seeming to take in everything at once. Calypso brings up the rear, and while I can’t see any weapons on her, the way she moves makes me think she has several hidden away. She might look softer than her girlfriend, but I have no doubt she’s equally as dangerous.

We stop at the entrance to the bridge. Eurydice looks like she wants to reach out and take Ariadne’s hands, but she manages to resist the urge. There’s something empty in the other woman’s eyes that worries me. As much as we’ve gone through in the last week, she’s been going through more for longer. I’m not in charge. Even if I was, I don’t have a solution that’s better than what Hades, Persephone, and Hera have come up with. Whatever it is that the latter has in mind, anyway. I’m just assuming she’ll keep her word to her sister.

I sure as fuck hope I’m not wrong.

“I’m sorry.” Eurydice seems to make herself meet Ariadne’s eyes. “I know my apology isn’t worth the air it took me to speak it, but I am sorry. My sister will—”

“With all due respect, I don’t believe you. Hera will use me for her purposes. It’s fine. I just have to ensure I’m valuable enough for her to want to keep me alive.” She turns without another word and walks onto the bridge.

There’s no fog in the early evening to obscure our vision. We stand there in silence and watch her cross the bridge to where a lone lean figure awaits her on the other side. They speak for a few seconds, and then Ariadne follows Hera to an SUV and climbs into the back.

“Did we make the right decision?”

Medusa shakes her head. “If you think that was your decision, you’re delusional. Hades and your sister made that call. We’re just the ones implementing it. It’s the life of a soldier, Eurydice. Welcome.”

“For fuck’s sake, Medusa.” Calypso smacks her lightly with the back of her hand. “You know damn well that you reject any order that doesn’t align with our values. This one just happened to. We’re not mindless worker ants to dance to the tune our leaders have set.”

“How do you know?” Eurydice wraps her arms around herself. It’s the most natural thing in the world to slip my arm around her shoulders and tuck her against my side. She’s shivering, but I don’t think it has anything to do with her temperature. “Which orders, I mean. How do you know what the right ones to push back on are?”

Medusa shrugs. “You feel it.” She taps her upper chest, right over her heart. “But if you’re going to challenge Hades, do it privately, and make sure you have a damn good reason for it. He’ll listen. It doesn’t mean you’ll win the argument, but he’ll hear you out. That’s more than most people give.”

Eurydice seems to chew on this for a little while. Finally, she nods. “Okay. I’ll try to remember that.” She glances to where Ariadne disappeared. “And you’re right; this wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right call.”

Gently, I turn her back toward our car. “There’s nothing to do for her now. Let’s go home to Charon.”

My skin chooses that moment to tighten almost painfully. I actually flinch. “What the—”

The answer is readily apparent as I look up into the sky and see a gold shimmering curtain descending. I only visited the boundary that separates Olympus from the rest of the world once, on a field trip back in high school. It had impressed even teenage me, the faint metallic shimmer in the air something beautiful and strange. I spent weeks after that trying to replicate the effect in my artwork, but I never quite pulled it off.

I knew there was a barrier between the upper city and the lower city, but like everyone else in Olympus, I assumed it was a lesser barrier. Less powerful because it was less visual. I was wrong. The curtain of shimmering…whatever it is…descending from the sky to the ground is identical to the barrier around the entire city. Except that’s not quite right, is it? Ten years ago, the external barrier was patchy and inconsistent. This one isn’t. It’s seamless and appears strong enough to bounce off. “Wow.”

“It’s so beautiful.” Eurydice’s hand finds mine as we stare up at it together.

“More like terrifying,” Calypso murmurs. She shifts closer to Medusa. “No going back after this.”

“That’s for sure.” Eurydice looks worried. “This is going to cause a lot of problems. I’m not exactly sad that I’m not the one who has to deal with them. Let’s get going.”

We have an entirely uneventful ride back to the house. It’s almost anticlimactic. But after the day we’ve had, I’m not about to complain. Especially when we take the stairs down to the room where we left Charon. He’s awake this time.

“Charon!” Eurydice releases me and rushes to his bed. He still looks like shit, and he’s propped on his side instead of sitting up, which seems to suggest the burns on his back are just as bad as I feared.

But he’s awake. That, in and of itself, is miracle enough.

Eurydice carefully holds one of his hands, but she doesn’t hesitate to slip to the side a little bit to make room for me. Charon looks up at me with a question in his eyes. “Heard Hades lowered the full barrier between the upper city and lower city.”

“He did. It went down just a little while ago.”

“You’re still here.” Is that relief in his voice? I’m not entirely sure. And then I am, when he keeps speaking. “I’m glad.”

I slowly, almost tentatively slip my hand into his free one. Then it’s the most natural thing in the world to wrap my arm around Eurydice’s waist. A closed triangle. It feels so fucking right, I can barely stand it. “I know I just said last night that I don’t love you yet, but I’m sure as fuck falling. Really, really hard.”

“Yeah.” Charon’s eyes drift close. “Me too.”

“How bad is it?” Eurydice asks softly.

Charon opens his eyes and gives a faint smile. “Not as bad as it looks. Burns hurt like a bitch, but they should heal up just fine without too much scarring. I’m not the one who got the worst of it.”

She strokes his knuckles. “In that case, I suppose Orpheus and I get to play nursemaid.” Her smile goes impish, though her eyes remain worried. “He’d look stunning in a sexy nurse outfit, don’t you think?”

Charon rasps out a chuckle. “Don’t make me laugh, baby. It hurts.” He smiles at me. “But she’s right. We should look into about getting you one of those costumes. Make sure there are thigh highs involved.”

I stroke my hand down Eurydice’s back. “I can’t decide if you’re joking or not.”

“You should know better. I never joke about sexy nurses.” His lips quirk. I can tell he’s in a lot of pain and trying to put on a brave face. Charon exhales slowly. “Things are going to get uncomfortable for a while. Maybe it’s selfish to be grateful that you’re both here on this side of the river, but fuck it, I’ll be selfish. I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“Of course we are. There’s no place we’d rather be.” Eurydice lifts his hand to her lips to press a kiss to his knuckles, and then she guides his hand to my face so I can do the same. “I love you, and Orpheus is falling for you. You’re stuck with us, Charon.”

“By stuck with you, you mean I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in Olympus.” His eyes start to drift closed. “Will you stay with me for a while?”

Eurydice and I exchange a look. I smile. “Yeah, Charon. But not just a little while—we’ll stay with you forever.”