My sister’s story comes out in fits and starts. About how she and Orpheus were supposed to meet in a part of the upper city that she’s not overly familiar with. About how he never showed. About how he ignored her texts and sent her calls straight to voicemail, even as her fear grew and a strange man refused to leave her alone.
I keep stroking her temple and hair, soothing her in the only way I can. Her palms are skinned from where she fell, so terrified that she barely noticed the scrapes until now. Her arm is bruised from where he slammed her into the side of a building before she escaped him the first time. There are bruises on her knees from where he threw her to the ground on the other side of the bridge.
I note and file away every single injury. As much as I want to blame Orpheus for this, there’s only one person responsible. Zeus. Even thinking his name has rage flickering higher inside me. I want blood for blood.
When Eurydice drifts into silence and her eyes slide closed, I finally look at Hades again. He’s already on his feet, draping her in a throw blanket that had been on the couch from the last time I was reading in this room. It feels like a thousand years ago.
He passes me my phone. “Update your other sisters.”
Right. Of course. I should have thought of that myself. I accept the phone but don’t unlock it. “You made a huge sacrifice saving her.” He’d shot a man. He’d beaten him. I think if I hadn’t yelled his name, he wouldn’t have stopped beating him. I don’t know how I feel about that. I wanted that man to suffer, but seeing such unrestrained violence was shocking.
“It’s nothing.”
“Don’t do that.” It’s difficult not to raise my voice, but I’m painfully aware of my sister’s head on my thigh. “We’ll pay the consequences for this, and I’m not sorry you saved her, but I also am not going to let you brush it off. Thank you, Hades. I mean it.”
His big hand cups my face. His dark eyes hold a legion of thoughts that I’m not privy to. “I’m sorry you had to see me lose control like that.”
I don’t want to ask the question, but I make myself put the words to voice. “Did you kill him?”
“No.” He drops his hands. “And you won’t pay any price for my decision. I’ll ensure it.” Before I can argue, he brushes his thumb across my bottom lip and then stalks out of the room.
I have to clench my jaw shut to keep from calling after him. From telling him that he doesn’t have to shoulder this alone. I’m the reason he broke the treaty. I can’t let him bear the cost by himself.
First, though, he’s right. I need to update my other sisters. I type out a quick update and send it to a group text with only Callisto and Psyche. They don’t make me wait long for responses.
Psyche: I’m so glad she’s okay!
Callisto: That fucking asshole.
A picture appears, a screenshot of one of Orpheus’s social media accounts. It’s a shot of him surrounded by a trio of beautiful women with a giant smile on his face. The time stamp on the posting is right around when he started sending my calls straight to voicemail.
Psyche: He’s dead to us.
Callisto: When I get my hands on him, he WILL be dead.
Me: He’s not the one ultimately responsible.
Me: It’s Zeus.
Callisto: Fuck him. I’ll kill him, too.
Psyche: Stop it. You can’t talk like that.
Me: We’ll figure it out. Right now, Eurydice is safe, and that’s all that matters.
Psyche: Please keep us updated.
Me: I will.
Eurydice shifts and opens her eyes. She hadn’t fallen asleep after all. “I’m sorry.”
I put my phone aside and focus on my youngest sister. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
She rolls onto her back so she can see my face better. The sweet innocence I’m so used to seeing when I look at her is gone. There’s a jaded world-weariness that I wish more than anything I could wipe away. She takes a deep breath. “Hades isn’t supposed to cross the river.”
“Very few outside the Thirteen believe Hades exists.” Or at least that was the truth before we started our campaign to rub Zeus’s nose in the fact that I’m with Hades now.
“Don’t do that. I know I’m the youngest, but I’m not nearly as naive as you all act. It doesn’t matter what the rest of Olympus thinks. It only matters what Zeus thinks.” She grabs my hand in both of hers. “He’s going to use this to get to you, isn’t he?”
He’s going to try.
“Don’t worry about that.”
She shakes her head. “Don’t shut me out, Persephone. Please. I can’t stand it. I thought I could ignore the Thirteen stuff and just be happy but…” Her voice goes watery. “Do you think Orpheus set me up?”
I might be nurturing an intense new loathing for her boyfriend, but I truly, truly want to be able to answer that question with a negative. Orpheus was never good enough for her, but his only real sin was being a musician more in love with himself than with my sister. That makes him a fuckboy. It doesn’t make him a monster.
If he sold her out to Zeus?
Monstrous doesn’t begin to cover it.
Apparently Eurydice doesn’t need me to answer. “I can’t help wondering if he did. He was acting weird today, more distant and distracted than usual. I thought maybe he was having an affair. I think I would have preferred that. It’s over between us. It has to be.”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted my sister to leave Orpheus in the rearview, but not like this. He was bound to break her heart at one point or another, but this level of betrayal goes so deep, I don’t know how she’s going to navigate her way through. We’ve sheltered Eurydice as much as we could, and look how that turned out. I sigh. “Let’s see about making you some tea and finding you a sleeping pill.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “I don’t think I can sleep without one.”
“I know, honey.” I climb to my feet and pull her up with me. She’s safe. We’re all safe tonight. There will be consequences for our actions, but there’s nothing else to do tonight except settle my sister into a room and be there for her.
I thought I could target all Zeus’s anger at me. I thought leaving Olympus wouldn’t bring down negative consequences on anyone else. I feel so fucking naive.
Even if I left tonight, disappeared never to be seen again, my sisters would bear the consequences of my actions. Hades would bear the consequences of my actions. The entire lower city will. I have been so incredibly selfish and I’ve put so many people in harm’s way.
I get a shower going for Eurydice. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispers.
I’m not sure if leaving her alone right now is a good call, but she really isn’t going to sleep without some tea and a sleeping pill. I’m sure Georgie has at least the former down in the kitchen. Someone will know where to find the latter.
I open the door and I’m not even remotely surprised to find Hades there. Somehow, I’m even less surprised to see the steaming mug of tea in his hand and the bottle of sleeping pills. For some reason, his anticipating my needs makes me want to cry. I swallow past my suddenly prickling throat. “Eavesdropping?”
“Only a little.” He doesn’t smile, holding himself so tense, it’s almost like he expects me to turn away. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.” I step back so he can enter the room. The feeling in my throat only gets worse as Hades sets down the mug and pill bottle and steps back. I press my lips together. “Can you hold me? Just for a few minutes?”
Just like that, the cold in his expression thaws. Hades holds out his arms. “As long as you need.”
I step into his embrace and cling to him. I’m shaking and I’m not sure when I started. This night began with the highest of highs and then plummeted into the lowest of lows. If Hades hadn’t broken the treaty, I don’t know if that man would have stopped. I might have lost my sister. I bury my face in his chest and hug him tighter. “I can never thank you enough for what you did tonight. Just…thank you, Hades.”
No matter what else happens, I won’t let him bear the cost of his actions alone.
I’m done running.
