68

68

Me…And Them

“I see you survived.” Hades is waiting in the center of the foyer of his home when Boone and I walk in. He stands with his hands loosely in his black suit pant pockets, the sleeves of his silver button-down shirt rolled up. Why is he dressed like that?

His tone and gaze are back to calculating, lethal-edged steel. No hint of the man who shared small parts of himself with me in my bedroom.

“Both of you.”

I’ve never seen Boone go so still as when he stares down the god of death. “So, you’re the asshole who put Lyra’s life in jeopardy by making her play in these fucked-up games.”

Hades doesn’t react with so much as a twitch. “So, you’re the thief who thought he made it in and out of my home without notice.”

Boone frowns, glancing at me, then back to Hades before his expression turns sly in a way I am more than familiar with. He’s up to something.

“Caught that, did you?” Boone snakes a hand around my waist, giving me a squeeze. “Just trying to help.”

“I know.” Hades doesn’t even glance at that arm around me. “It’s why I let you live.”

Oh, good grief.

I shrug away from Boone’s touch, which he doesn’t really mean. He’s just fucking with Hades. “Why don’t you two get acquainted while I change.”

“No time.” Hades snaps his fingers, and Boone and I are wearing new clothes.

Now both men are wearing black suit pants and crisp button-downs, except Boone’s shirt is white. This is the dressiest I’ve seen him. I’m wearing a conservative black pantsuit with loose legs and long sleeves, with a butterfly made of glittering thread over my heart.

I glance from it to Hades, but he’s still closed off. Giving away nothing.

“We have a…party…to attend,” he says.

A what? “You’ve got to be joking.”

Hades just shakes his head, and we follow him out the door and over one house to Zeus’ home—yes, with lightning and clouds adorning everything and a lot of glitz, flash, and over-the-top decor. The god would do well as a designer for Vegas casinos.

In a large ballroom—and yes, Zeus has a freaking ballroom, with a mural of nymphs and cherubs serving him and only him painted on the ceiling—we are led to chairs at one of two long, beautifully decorated banquet tables that face each other. We’re at the very end of ours, near the open doors that lead out onto a terrace. Ares, Neve, and a girl who is apparently her sister are to Hades’ left, then me and Boone to Hades’ right. I’m stuck in the middle, so to speak. Dae, of course, isn’t here. Artemis is seated at a table by herself with no champion and no loved one, conspicuous as hell. And Aphrodite isn’t seated with Jackie and the young man with her. Her brother, I think.

This is a nightmare.

Maybe I didn’t rescue anyone and Hypnos and Morpheus still have me trapped in my sleeping body.

Zeus enters the room with Samuel and his loved one, a woman around his age. Even Boone sits back slightly when the god of thunder appears.

“On Aphrodite’s behalf, I welcome our new guests,” Zeus booms. The god is in his element, hosting people visibly in awe of him. “Aphrodite has taken the result of her Labor hard,” he explains.

“This is the Crucible,” Hera murmurs in a tone that sounds suitably saddened, though it’s paired with an expression that is anything but. “She knew the risks when she set that Labor up. She didn’t have to make the end so dire.”

Beside Hera, Amir’s face turns beet red. He can hardly make himself look at his patron goddess, facing instead to the older woman seated to his other side. One of his nannies, maybe? Given what he said about his family, I don’t think it’s his mother.

I move my gaze back to Hera.

The thing is, as cruel as it sounds, the goddess isn’t wrong. Aphrodite didn’t have to make death at the end be part of the rules. I get that the gods and goddesses love their ticking clocks, and death is certainly an incentive, but there are other ways. As for Hera’s blessing for Amir…now that we all know the consequences, no one is going to risk touching him. That right there is a brilliant move on her part.

The goddess’s timing in pointing that out could have been better, though.

Zeus shoots Hera a chastising look. “I will host in Aphrodite’s place. We would have postponed, but after all, our ‘guests’ are here only three days before the next Labor starts.”

Days only again? Ugh.

I mean, I guess they have a bunch to get through and only a month to do it, but still.

“First, I would like to congratulate Neve for winning today’s challenge, as she was the first to return with her sister.”

He offers her a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Your prize for winning this Labor—Eros’ bow and arrows—is already in your room.”

“Thank you,” Neve says politely. Though I’m guessing by her expression that the good manners are sticking in her craw hard.

“Now,” Zeus continues, “as we enjoy the sumptuous spread, I would like each champion to introduce their loved one.” He waves as he sits.

Awesome. My personal nightmare is reaching torturous levels—public speaking and trying to explain who Boone is to me. In front of the god I was kissing just this morning.

“Must we?” Hades drawls, leaning back in his chair indolently, expression bored.

Zeus glares first at him, then at me. “Can’t you do something about him, Lyra?”

The fuck you say. That was a calculated remark to get a rise out of one or both of us, and probably Boone, too.

Deliberately, I mimic Hades’ indolent posture and tip my head, looking not at Zeus but at Hades as if I’m studying him. “I don’t know. None of you have been able to do something about him in the several millennia since he was released from Cronos’ insides,” I say.

Hades’ mercurial eyes pin me to the back of my chair with a wild flash of satisfaction so violently fast, the only reason I know I saw it is the way I’m still reeling.

I clear my throat and force a steady gaze to Zeus, who is scowling petulantly. “I don’t know why you think I, a mere mortal, would have better luck.”

Zeus sits down hard. “We shall start the introductions,” he says with a dismissive shrug. “As you know, Dae’s person was his grandmother.”

The callous delivery drops the words into a vat of silence.

She’s sitting near enough to me, so I catch Rima’s whispered, “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than Dae’s boyfriend.”

Not hearing her, Zeus waves at Samuel, who gets to his feet.

Luckily, I’m not the only one not all that enthusiastic about this. The room has a subdued weight to it as the champions each quickly make introductions. Most aren’t too surprising. Samuel’s long-time partner is here, and Jackie’s older brother. Meike has her roommate. Trinica rescued her son. The woman with Zai is his mother, like I guessed. Diego’s wife is no shock, and Demeter, showing her mothering side, assures us their two children are being cared for by Diego’s parents. Rima’s husband is here as well.

Neve gets to her feet. “This is my younger sister, Nora.”

I slowly lean forward to look around Hades at the woman sitting directly beside him. She’s probably in her mid-twenties, so only a little younger than Neve. The Nora? The one who Neve was muttering about how she was going to be killed?

Boone gives me a low whistle—one the others don’t even notice, let alone understand. He’s using a pledge’s signals to ask me what I find interesting.

I whistle back the signal for nothingor not important.

Not true, of course. Nora looks a lot like her sister, only her hair is a darker red and her eyes more green than blue. Somewhere in between. She also has a sweeter smile…or smiles at all, come to that.

Neve’s chin tips up. “Our family are…important business owners in our community. Ares informed me that someone from outside the family has threatened Nora’s life if Ares becomes king, but now that I have her back from them…” Her eyes narrow, determination stamped across her features. “They will pay for that mistake.”

Wait. Is Neve’s business-owner family some sort of crime family, Canadian style?

Hard to imagine that accent being used during criminal acts, but that would explain a lot.

Boone taps a finger on the back of my hand to get my attention and raises his eyebrows in question. I shake my head.

He sits back as Dex gets to his feet and waves at the boy with him.

“This is Rafael…Rafe,” Dex says. “He is my nephew, my sister’s son, and he’s only ten.”

Ten? So young. I want to wrap the kid up and hide him away somewhere, or ask Hades to hide him, until the next Labor is over. Amir is already too young at sixteen. A ten-year-old shouldn’t be exposed to this.

“My dad died before I was born, and Mom is…sick.” Rafe speaks up earnestly, looking at Dex like the man is his hero. “Tío Dex helps raise me.”

I’m having trouble reconciling the image in front of me now. I mean, Dex might as well be wearing tights and a cape. How does that fit with the competitor Dex has been so far?

But the affection in his eyes as he ruffles Rafe’s hair is unmistakable and real. Until the Crucible, I thought I read people well. Am I reading Dex wrong now?

Boone leans over to whisper in my ear. “What are you going to say about me, I wonder?”

Not that I’ve had a huge crush on him for years. “That you’ve been a pain in my ass?”

“Stop. You’re going to make me blush.”

I chuckle.

Then pause. Something feels…different with us. Easier.

A glance shows me that, on my left, Hades is leaning away from me, talking to Nora. He even smiles at her. No dimples, but still, he’s charming enough that she smiles back widely, visibly starstruck. Apparently, he can put some mortals at ease.

Neve is pretty, but I have to say Nora is drop-dead gorgeous, her creamy skin flawless against that abundance of auburn hair and a smile that could compete with Aphrodite’s. What’s more, she seems unafraid of Hades.

I bet he’ll appreciate that about her.

I pull my gaze away to fiddle with the stem of my wineglass.

“Lyra?”

Boone nudges my foot under the table, and I look around to find Zeus staring at me and all eyes except Hades’ and Nora’s already on me.

Oh, I guess it’s my turn. How many times did the god have to call my name?

I stand, the same way the others did, wincing as my chair scrapes loudly against the marble flooring. “This…” I wave awkwardly to my right. “Is Boone Runar. He is a pledge in the Order of Thieves with me.”

I go to sit, and my butt is halfway to the chair when Athena slides a question my way. “Friends?”

The goddess’s brown, bobbed hair has golden highlights picked up by the fires in the braziers, and she’s smiling warmly like I can trust her. But her high brow and intense, deep-brown eyes give the impression of an intelligence that misses not a single detail. The indent in her chin smacks of stubbornness, and I’ve noticed before that she moves with the prowling grace of a fighter. She’s the goddess of both wisdom and war. Not to be trifled with.

Where is she going with this?

I pause, then stand back up. “I—”

“Yes, we’re friends.” Boone’s grin is all things Boone, and it’s no surprise when at least half of the group grin back at him. He’s always had that effect on people. A lot like Dionysus that way, despite the rough-looking exterior.

I don’t say anything. I can’t.

“The person you love most in the world is…just a friend?” Athena clearly has an agenda here. I think I’m starting to see what. “What about your parents?” she asks. “They seemed so caring on TV.”

What. A. Bitch.

“Is that really where you want to take the evening, Thena?”

I thought he wasn’t listening, but Hades is now looking directly at Athena.

Unfortunately, that only makes Athena’s eyes brighten with interest. She studies me. “Lovers?”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

Her smile turns sly. “You and Boone, of course. What did you think I meant?”

That same spark of irritation that got me into it with Hades when we first met at Zeus’ temple in San Francisco rears up. “I thought you meant Hades.” I smile back at her sweetly. “We’re not.”

The flare of surprise in her eyes is worth it. Hades, however, doesn’t react because he’s turned back to Nora like he can’t be bothered.

“Yet,” I clarify, just to see what he does.

Nothing, it turns out.

He’s clearly engrossed in whatever he’s discussing with Nora. To the point that Neve catches my eye and then looks deliberately between them before shooting me a smug smile.

I’m tempted to point out that I saved her ass two Labors ago. I don’t. “Boone is the most talented of our pledges,” I tell the room at large, “and a bit of a cheat. You might want to lock up your valuables.”

“Hey!” Boone protests. But I know that he’s protesting me warning them, not the veracity of the claim itself.

Nora laughs suddenly, but everyone else—other than Hades—is still focused on Boone and me.

“Well, that’s too juicy to ignore,” Dionysus says, joining the conversation. At least his interest seems genuine. “Got any stories?”

Hundreds, but only because I’ve been paying attention. I raise a single brow at Boone. “Which one should I pick? There are so many.”

Instead of getting irritated or even embarrassed, he laughs right back at me. “How about the time I followed Lakshmi into that museum and took the piece she’d come for before she knew I was even there?” He turns to the room. “I got back to the den with it, and Lyra about blew her top at me for snatching a score from another one of our pledges.” He just shrugs.

Grins turn to laughs, and what the fuck? How did we become the entertainment tonight?

Nora laughs again. At Hades.

Hoping that’s it, I lower into my seat. But Boone tugs my chair closer to him as I do, and I don’t miss that or the fact that he leaves his arm draped across the back. I have no idea why, other than helping me save face here. I’ll ask him later.

Boone grins. “Lyra was so pissed about the bank, she made sure—” I step on Boone’s foot, and he stops talking, looking at me with interest-bright eyes.

I forgot to tell him that only Hades knows that I’m just a clerk, and he was about to reveal that I put the earnings from that score under Lakshmi’s name, not his. Part of my job. Guaranteed to bring up questions.

“Made sure what?” Meike asks. Seriously, she and Dionysus could be twins.

Boone clears his throat. “She called the police, letting my sorry ass cool off in jail for a few days before sending another pledge to spring me.”

“Maybe she should have learned from you instead,” Dex says. He sounds reasonable. Beside him, Rafe nods along with an eager face.

But I’m close enough to hear the way the back of my chair creaks with the sudden strength of Boone’s grip, and his grin disappears behind a look of anger so stark I blink. I’ve only ever seen him look like that once, when one of the apprentices was accidentally killed because of a mistake a visiting master thief made.

“Lyra was angry with me for a reason,” he says. “I broke two cardinal rules with that stunt, ultimately putting other pledges of the Order in harm’s way. She was teaching me a lesson I needed to learn.” He leans forward, eyes so sharp they could slice flesh. “And while I’m at it…the gods may not be allowed to interfere in the Crucible, but I’m not bound by the same restriction. I hear that gift of foreknowledge you received doesn’t work all that great. You might want to watch your back while I’m here.”

Dex’s face goes so tight he looks like a pissed-off plastic doll. “It works well enough that I’m still alive and in it. We all have different ways of playing. My home could use the gods’ blessings, and I have a family to”—he cuts himself off, glancing down at Rafe, then continues—“to get back to.”

“The same as everyone else,” Boone snaps. “Are those the excuses you tell yourself for being a dick? Good luck living with your actions and decisions when it’s over.” He glances significantly at Rafe. “Someday, he’ll be old enough to see for himself through eyes not looking with rose-tinted innocence.” Then Boone hooks a thumb at Zai, who is sitting at the other table. “Ask him if you’re curious. He grew up with a father who played the Crucible the same way you are.”

Clearly, I told Boone way too much on that pegasus flight. I whistle softly. The signal for stop now.

Boone straightens to blink at me, and I can see the struggle in his eyes. He really would go after Dex if Rafe wasn’t right there. I have no doubt. And my chest tightens with reaction. If I didn’t know better—if I wasn’t carrying this curse—I’d think he really cared.

I whistle again, the signal for all fine.

His lips flatten, but finally he nods.

The others are all still staring at us in fascination. Well…Dex is glaring.

“What was that?” Athena asks. This is the first time I haven’t seen the goddess in calculating mode. Her entire body seems lit up with curiosity. There’s the thirst for knowledge we all expect from her.

“My thieves use whistles to signal one another.” Hermes is the one to answer—rather smugly, too. Then again, as the messenger god, I can see how he’d like that elegant solution.

“Lyra’s idea,” Boone tells the others. “We had our crypticodes but needed something for in the moment. At the time, we were using hand signals and sign language, but that meant needing line of sight. She came up with the whistles when she was just six.”

My only true accomplishment, as far as the Order is concerned.

I can’t help the heat creeping up into my cheeks. No one has ever in my life bragged about me. Not once.

It feels…nice.

Nora’s sudden laugh breaks the silence around us and sends me sitting straighter, which only makes me lean closer to Boone. A knowing light enters his eyes as he glances past me to her and Hades, then back to me. But he doesn’t say anything.

Then Zeus, no doubt needing to reclaim the center of attention, claps his hands. “Welcome again, guests. Let us all enjoy the feast.”

Not likely.