8. Charon

8

CHARON

My phone rings while Eurydice is in the shower. I know who it will be even before I pick up—no one calls this late unless it’s business. Sure enough, Hades’s name scrolls across my screen. I glance at the door to the bathroom, refusing to feel guilty that I was fucking his sister-in-law in the back seat of my car a short time ago, and answer, “Yeah?”

“We have a problem.” Hades isn’t one for small talk, and that’s only gotten more pronounced in the last two months since we found out Persephone is pregnant. He never fucked around with security when it came to her or the lower city, but now he’s downright draconian. “I need you at the greenhouse. Take Medusa.”

I raise my brows. Medusa has shifted almost seamlessly from her old career as Athena’s knife-for-hire to working security for Hades, but there are times when her skills have come in handy. Not that Hades orders anyone killed. He doesn’t. But some situations are more dangerous than others, and for him to specifically direct me to bring her means he thinks this will be one of those times. “I’ll go now.”

“Report to me directly with what you find.” He hangs up without another word.

“Thanks, Hades. Appreciate all the information.” I crack my neck and take the time to change into a clean set of clothing. Eurydice is still in the shower. I hesitate outside the door. She’s rattled and right now isn’t the time to press her, but I’m not leaving without letting her know what’s going on.

I step into the bathroom. “Eurydice.”

“Yes?” She turns off the shower and pokes her head out. She can’t seem to decide if she wants to waltz out naked or be bashful, which I find unspeakably charming.

“I’ve been called in. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” I hesitate. “Do you want me to drop you at the house?”

“No.” She shakes her head and snags the closest towel. I like nice shit, and towels are included in that. It’s a big fluffy thing that covers her from chest to knees as she steps out of the shower. “I don’t want to have to explain to Persephone what’s going on until it’s resolved. If you’re okay with it, I’d prefer to stay here.”

If I’m okay with her staying in my town house and sleeping in my bed. I might laugh, but she’d read it the wrong way. “I’m good with that. Keep your phone on you.”

She smiles faintly. “I always do.”

We need to have about a dozen conversations, and we don’t have labels or shit that would make me feel better, but I’ll be damned before I leave without kissing her goodbye. I step forward and press my lips lightly to hers. “Sleep well, baby.”

“I’ll try.” She lifts her fingers to her lips as I turn and leave the bathroom.

The lights in the living room are off, but I can clearly see Orpheus on the couch, shirtless with one arm flung over his eyes. I don’t know if he’s sleeping or just faking it, but I pause and allow myself to look at him.

He really is pretty. He’s also not what I expected. I thought he’d come in here, all blustering and defensive, and instead he just seems sad and defeated. It’s disconcerting. Throwing him out feels like kicking a dog, and I don’t make a habit of hurting those who don’t deserve it.

He does deserve it, but that doesn’t change that my instincts are conflicted when it comes to him.

I turn without another word and leave the town house, making sure to lock the front door behind me. The street is just as quiet as it was when we arrived, but I still pause and look around.

Something feels…off.

It would be easy enough to brush the feeling away, but I find myself pulling my phone out of my pocket and dialing Minthe. She answers on the second ring, her voice groggy. “This better be good.”

“I need someone on my street.”

“What?” She yawns and, when she speaks again, sounds more awake. “Something going on?”

“I don’t know.” I turn a slow circle, but nothing seems to be out of place. “Just a feeling.”

“Okay.” Another yawn. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

“You don’t have to do it personally.”

“Yeah, I do. No reason to drag anyone else out of bed. Send someone to relieve me around breakfast.”

Minthe can be a pain in the ass, but she’s reliable as fuck. “Thanks.”

“That’s what friends are for.” She hangs up without another word. Part of me is tempted to wait until she shows up to leave, but Hades wouldn’t have summoned me to the greenhouse without good reason. Time is of the essence.

I call Medusa as I climb into my car and head out. I’m not surprised she’s still awake, just like I’m not surprised that she doesn’t ask any questions. She and her girlfriend, Calypso, seem to be night owls naturally. Either that, or Medusa bolts into wakefulness without any delay. Considering her former line of work that’s just as likely.

The drive is short enough that I don’t have much time to think. It’s just as well; tonight took more turns than I could’ve ever anticipated. First with Eurydice instigating things between us, and us losing control in my back seat. Then with Orpheus showing up in the lower city tonight of all nights.

I don’t want to think about Orpheus though.

I pull to a stop in front of the greenhouse. Technically, it’s a flower shop that’s been owned by the same family for several generations. Most businesses in the lower city are like that; they can trace their lineage parallel to the history of Olympus. Some of them are transplants. It’s not common for people to move into the city from the greater world, but it’s not entirely unheard of either.

Matthew’s family has owned this flower shop, and the greenhouse above it, since the city was founded. He’s the last of them now, except for a distant cousin who lives out near the warehouse district.

I don’t know why anyone would fuck with Matthew or the flower shop. There’s no money to be had here, and as far as I can tell, he doesn’t house any flowers or plants that are rare enough to tempt someone to steal from him.

The only value this place holds is for the people who live in the lower city. Hades in particular comes here when he needs time and space to think. These days, Persephone comes with him.

All the lights are on as I climb out of my car and head toward the building. The big glass windows are untouched, but someone has thrown a brick through the glass door. Matthew is on his knees, trying to sweep the glass into a bin.

He looks up as I approach, and the sheer relief on his face makes me uneasy. “Thank the gods you’re here.”

We don’t see much crime in the lower city, but it does exist. It’s a city, after all. Still, Hades rules with a firm and fair hand, and most people are all too happy to obey the rules. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen something like this. Maybe a few years back when the last Zeus sent his people over the river to cause problems. He, of course, claimed innocence when confronted, but we all knew it was him.

I step carefully over the glass. Nothing else seems to be disturbed, which is a relief. Or it would be if Matthew didn’t look like he was about to cry. I crouch down next to him. “Tell me what happened.”

“Alarms went off about thirty minutes ago. I was asleep, so it took me a few minutes to get down here to figure out what was going on.” He sniffles, and his hands shake where they hold the short broom. “Charon, they…” He looks to the door that leads up the narrow set of stairs to the greenhouse. I hadn’t realized it was cracked until now. “They destroyed everything.”

Oh, fuck.

I don’t get a chance to respond, because Medusa walks through the front door. She’s a tall white woman with close-cropped blond hair, and nearly as many muscles as me. Despite the cool temperature, she’s wearing a T-shirt that leaves her arms exposed, revealing her scars and snake tattoos.

“Help him clean up, and keep watch.” I rise to my feet and head toward the door to the second floor. “I need to assess the damage.”

“Will do.” She carefully nudges Matthew away from the broken glass and divests him of the broom and bin in such a smooth move that he’s left blinking at her. Good. She’s got things well in hand.

As bad as I was worried it would be, it’s worse. The entire second floor of the building has been a greenhouse for generations. Now it’s just a mess. The narrow aisles between the plants are covered with shattered glass, dirt, torn stems, and trampled flowers. I make my way around as best I can and pause in front of the sitting room that I’m nearly one hundred percent sure was created solely for Hades.

It’s been entirely demolished.

The furniture is in pieces. They knocked over the bookshelf and took the time to rip several books to shreds. This wasn’t a robbery, but then I knew that before I even arrived. Hades wouldn’t have called me out of bed for something as simple as a robbery. No, this was a targeted attack.

Against Hades.

“Fuck.” I drag my hand through my hair. A year ago, I would’ve assumed that Zeus was behind this, but our current Zeus isn’t the type to pull some petty bullshit like this. Besides, he has bigger fish to fry.

Which is the problem. A year ago, the list of our enemies was long but finite. Now, the possibilities are endless. It may be one of the Thirteen, deciding to take advantage of the chaos to fuck with Hades. Or it may be some disgruntled citizen, either from the lower city or the upper city, who wasn’t ballsy enough to attempt murder, but wanted to cause pain all the same.

Or it might be the enemy everyone is worried about.

Not Minos. He’s watched too closely to pull something like this. But he works for someone, and we still haven’t been able to figure out who. Theoretically, the boundary that separates Olympus from the rest of the world should also separate us from our enemies…but the boundary is failing.

It’s possible people are slipping through. We can’t take anything for granted these days.

I go through the place as thoroughly as I can, but there’s nothing to find. Whoever caused all this destruction knew what they were about, and they left nothing to indicate their identity.

Eventually, exhaustion drags me down the stairs to where Medusa is waiting alone. The glass has long since been cleaned up, and she managed to find some wood from somewhere to nail to the doorframe to cover the space left by the broken glass.

“I made Matthew some tea and sent him to bed.”

I raise my brows at that. “I’m surprised he agreed to go to bed. He was pretty distraught.”

“Yeah.” She shrugs. “But he didn’t have much choice since I drugged him.”

“Medusa!”

“What? He wasn’t going to be able to relax. I helped.”

Her tendency to drug people seems to be a little habit she picked up from her girlfriend. I sigh. “Did he consent to being drugged?”

“Oh…well…” She blushes, her pale skin turning bright pink. “I helped?” She sounds significantly less sure of herself this time.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and fight down my frustration. “We talked about this. You can’t just drug people, even if it’s technically helpful.”

“Sorry.” She almost sounds like she means it. She turns to look at the cash register. “He had a couple hundred bucks in there, but they didn’t even bother to take it.”

I suspected as much, but hearing the confirmation makes my stomach sink. Robbery is never a good thing. But this is worse. “Someone wanted to make an example.”

“Example?” She frowns harder. “But they just smashed some shit.”

There are times when I forget that Medusa used to kill people for a living. This certainly isn’t one of them. “If they had hurt Matthew, that would be all the declaration of war. This is more insidious. This place is somewhere that Hades and Persephone, the rulers of the lower city, come to feel safe. By destroying this, they’re saying they can get to them. They’re saying that our leaders don’t have safe spaces.” I turned for the door, my mind already racing. There aren’t many places where Hades and Persephone visit with any regularity.

Even so, I need to make some calls. Just because Matthew wasn’t hurt this time doesn’t mean someone won’t be in the next attack. Because there will be a next attack.

I’d stake my life on it.