23

23

Apollo

I can’t deny the surge of satisfaction that goes through me to realize that my kisses and my touch turn Cassandra into this blushing, stammering person. It’s a heady thing to know that I affect her just as deeply as she affects me, but now’s not the time to let myself get distracted. My cock hasn’t quite gotten the memo, not with the memory of her softness imprinted on my body. I clear my throat. What had she just said? She’s fine. Of course she’s fine. She’s never anything but fine.

I press my hand to the small of Cassandra’s back and paint a charming smile on my face as I turn to Ariadne. “You’re not a fan of hide-and-seek?”

She grimaces, the shadow of some remembered pain flashing over her face, gone almost too fast to catch. “No, I don’t like the dark.” Her tone is not quite right for the apparent lightness that she’s striving for, but her fears are not my business. The information she possesses about her father is.

I step out of the closet after Cassandra and start inching toward the door, taking my time. If she thinks we’re attempting to extract information from her, she’ll kick us out. Better to make all the right appearances of leaving and see what I can glean in the precious few seconds available to me. “How are you liking it in Olympus, Ariadne?”

“It’s a lovely city.” There’s a reservation in her that wasn’t present the last time we spoke. I can’t tell if that’s because she’s unhappy that we’ve intruded on her private space or if she knows more than she’s saying. I pulse my fingers against Cassandra’s back and she, smart, savvy woman that she is, fakes a stumble and catches herself on the dresser.

“Oh, sorry,” she says. “I’m just feeling a little dizzy.”

Ariadne, true to my suspicions, is far too nice to ignore someone blatantly in need. “Here, sit down.” She rushes forward and guides Cassandra to perch on the edge of her bed. She doesn’t look particularly pleased about it, but her feelings are less important than the opportunity Cassandra has provided us.

“Olympus is somewhat of an acquired taste,” I offer.

Cassandra snorts. “Acquired, if you have the power for it.” She shakes her head, pressing her fingers to her temples. Even knowing her as well as I do, I would be fooled by the misery on her face if I didn’t know this was all an act. “Some people find Olympus to be exactly what it is, all glitz and glamour covering a rotted core.”

Ariadne gives a faint smile, though her eyes remain serious. “Seems like you don’t have a high opinion of your city.”

“It’s the truth, even if most people pretend otherwise.” Cassandra shrugs one shoulder. “But it’s all I know. Was it like this where you come from?”

“No,” Ariadne says slowly. “Aeaea is nothing like Olympus. It was lovely when I was a child but…things changed.”

I exchange a look with Cassandra. I’ve never heard of Aeaea. Is it a city? A town? A named property the way some people favor? “What changed?”

Ariadne shakes her head slowly. “You seem like a nice man, Apollo.”

I don’t get a chance to respond before Cassandra laughs. “Unlike everything else in Olympus, Apollo is exactly what he seems. You can’t say the same for most of the guests here, let alone the members of the Thirteen, but Apollo somehow managed to be raised in a legacy family and take over one of the thirteen most powerful titles in the city, and yet he’s a genuinely nice guy. He’s practically a mythical creature.” She lifts her gaze, her faux dizziness washing away and only seriousness remaining. “There are plenty of people in power in Olympus who deserve any trouble your father could bring and more, but not Apollo.”

“Yes, well, my father does what he wants.” She says it with the air of someone who’s given up all hope, a stark contrast from the personality she’s shown us to date. She seems to realize it, too, because she forces a bright smile. “You know how it is. Parents, right?”

It’s not my business,I remind myself. This woman is not my business. Olympus is.

I cannot take every injured dove under my wing, no matter what Cassandra accuses me of from time to time. Even hiring her five years ago had my family blisteringly unhappy with me for months before they finally gave in and admitted that I’m more than capable of making my own decisions. They still think she manipulated me, seduced her way into my life to take advantage of my position. They especially believe that now that we’re publicly dating.

That’s neither here nor there, though.

“Ariadne, if you ever need a safe space,” I find myself saying, “I know a few places that offer sanctuary.” There aren’t many in Olympus, but they are notable. The lower city offers a special sort of refuge for those Hades—and now Persephone—deems worthy, and the strength of that refuge has only increased since he forced the entire city to acknowledge that he’s more than a myth.

The other lies within Hera’s domain, a temple of sorts that now houses orphans but used to extend to anyone who claimed sanctuary. It has become mostly toothless over the last few Heras, courtesy of the late Zeus, but our current Hera is making moves behind the scenes to reclaim what power belonged to her title before it was gutted by a dangerous and greedy man.

I am very curious to see what our new Hera will do, given enough time.

Ariadne raises her brows. “That’s quite the offer. You don’t know me. I could say yes and then turn around and work against you.”

I shrug again. I’m not normally one to let instincts guide me, but there’s something about this woman that makes me feel like she’s in trouble. Minos might play the part of the doting father in public, but he’s already proven himself to be a superior liar. After the last Zeus…

I didn’t have the power to fight that man and what he did to his own household. I was too green when I took over as Apollo, and even when I had enough experience to undermine him where possible, it was like trying to use a colander to bail out a sinking ship. Zeus was simply too powerful.

Ariadne is not Helen or Eris or Perseus or Hercules or even the last few Heras who died far too young from mysterious accidents…

But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least try.

“The offer is a standing one,” I finally say. I hold out a hand to Cassandra. “We should get going and leave Ariadne to her peace.”

Ariadne lets us get to the doorway before she speaks. “I, uh, appreciate the offer. I’m not going to take you up on it, but I do appreciate it.” She hesitates. “I’m glad I was right about you.”

Right about me?“Like I said, the offer stands.” I give her half a smile and turn through the doorway, tugging Cassandra behind me.

I’m not sure what the plan is now. The game continues, but until Hector has a chance to go through those emails and chase down any leads he finds, we won’t know if this mission was a success. Still, it’s our best lead, and with how things have played out so far, it’s likely the only one we’ll have. Best to go back down to the second floor and make the appearance of continuing to participate.

I glance down at Cassandra, realize she’s trying not to pant as I all but drag her behind me, and force myself to slow down. “Sorry.”

“Penny for your thoughts.”

“We should leave.”

Cassandra misses a step. “What?”

“We should leave.” I slow down further and look around. Hiding in our room is foolish. Better to aim for one of the many sitting rooms. Going back downstairs is a waste of time. Theseus will be headed up once he clears the grounds and the first floor. I readjust my grip on Cassandra’s hand and tow her around the corner. The hallway is empty, but in the distance, I hear someone cackling with delight. It sounds like Dionysus.

“I heard you.” Cassandra digs in her heels. “This one.” She opens the door on her right and pulls me through. It’s set up similarly to the one we were in last night, though the color scheme is a variety of purples that make my eyes ache. It’s almost seamless, but there’s something off, and so the many tones clash despite essentially being monochromatic.

I shut the door behind us automatically. “There’s no good place to hide here.”

“I don’t care.” She takes a step back and props her hands on her hips. “Why are you suddenly saying we should leave?”

“We’re not getting anywhere, aside from that lucky find with the laptop. At this point, I’d be better spent back in the city center, working with Hector to go through all that information. I’m useless here. I don’t know what game Minos is playing at, and he’s laughing himself silly because he has us playing parlor games.” Saying it aloud feels like almost too much. I’m so frustrated, I could throw something. “More, we’ve been warned twice now about your presence here. At least one person might be missing and that’s enough for me to get you out of here now that we have something to show for all this.”

“That wasn’t an accident.” Her gaze is focused on somewhere in the middle distance. “The laptop and the emails. Did you catch what she said? That she was right about you.”

I shrug. “I have a reputation. It doesn’t mean much.”

“Apollo, you are too innocent sometimes.” She shakes her head. “I bet we’re going to find exactly what we’re looking for in those emails, and I would bet Alexandra’s college fund that Ariadne knows that.”

That stops me short. “You think she’s working against her father?”

“It’s possible.” Cassandra frowns. “Or it’s a double bluff and he put her up to this, but Minos doesn’t give the vibe of someone who puts a lot of value on people he considers soft, and Ariadne is soft right down to her sunny center.”

It always amazes me how she can make these jumps. I can usually reach the same conclusion, but it takes me a lot longer—and a lot more second-guessing myself—to get there. “If that’s true…”

Excitement lights up her dark eyes. “We could have someone on the inside, or at the very least, if we could flip her to our side, we’d have an inside track to more information.”

“Which means we can’t leave.” Up until this party, Minos kept Ariadne away from the public eye, and I don’t expect that to change going forward. We won’t have access to her again, not if we leave now. “We’ll have to—”

In the distance, someone screams.

I freeze. “Did I just—”

“Yes.” Cassandra starts for the door. “That was a scream. It sounded like Eurydice.”

I snag her wrist. “Stay here.” If there’s danger, I want her as far from it as possible. “Or, better yet, go to our room and lock yourself in.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m not coming with you.” She jerks her wrist from my grip. “Are you going to keep wasting time arguing, or are you coming?”

She’s right. We don’t have time to waste. “Stay close.” I lead the way through the door into the hall. Already, voices are raised somewhere in the distance. Downstairs. “Come on.”

We find Eurydice and Charon in the library. At first, I don’t see what the problem is, but then Charon wraps an arm around her shoulder and steps back, revealing the body of Pan. He lies on his stomach, blood pooling the carpet beneath him. “Oh no.”

Tears pour from Eurydice’s eyes and she allows Charon to pull her into his arms and tuck her face against his chest. “How did this happen?”

“I don’t know.” He looks at me over her head. “We were waiting in the parlor after we were found by Theseus and came in here when we heard a crash.”

“Did you see anything?”

“No.”

Cassandra pushes past me and moves to kneel next to Pan, careful to avoid the blood. Before I can say a word, she presses her fingers to his throat. A few seconds tick by. She looks up sharply. “He’s still alive.”

Just like that, this situation becomes vastly different. “Charon, call an ambulance. Now!”

He pauses long enough to guide Eurydice to a chair just out of the way—and out of sight lines to Pan—and then rushes out of the room. I join Cassandra at Pan’s side. “Do we move him onto his back?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “There could be a spinal injury. We can’t move him until the paramedics arrive. They’ll know what to do.”

I stare down at the man. “What was he doing in here? I thought he went out the front door.”

“He must have circled back.”

It doesn’t matter why he’s here, only that he is. I sit back on my heels and look around. We explored the library briefly this morning, but it’s just like every other personal library I’ve visited. It’s relatively subdued compared to the rest of the house, a reasonably sized room with dark bookshelves and several cozy overstuffed couches arranged around a large bay window. It’s probably a lovely place to spend an afternoon.

There’s also nothing sharp to accidentally stumble and fall against. Not to mention Pan’s wound is on the back of his head, as if someone clubbed him when he wasn’t looking. But what…

“Apollo?”

I look up to see Eurydice standing on the other side of the chair, a marble tortoise held in her hands, blood spattered across its carved back. “I found this under my chair. Tucked away as if someone tried to hide it fast.”

It’s all the proof we need.

Someone tried to kill Pan.