Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
In the end, there’s not really much say, is there? This isn’t my choice, no matter how little I like it. It’s his. “Okay.”
“Okay?” He repeats it almost as a question but then gives himself a shake. “I’ve received the bare-bones update from Athena and Ares, but is there any additional news?”
I’m pathetically grateful to be back on solid ground once more, even if that solid ground is currently a shit show. “Circe has us on a wild-goose chase. There have been half a dozen sightings of her around town, but every time we rush out to apprehend her, it’s either a mistaken identity or she disappears like a ghost. We’re wasting time and resources, which is no doubt exactly what she wants, but I don’t know what the fuck else to do.” I hate admitting inadequacy, but there’s no one here to witness it except Poseidon himself.
He scratches at his beard. “I told Demeter to keep an eye on the mountains bordering the countryside.”
My head jerks up so fast that my neck twinges. “What did you say?”
“It’s all patterns, isn’t it?” He motions vaguely with his big hand. “Every step of the way, Circe is showing us something over here”—he wiggles his fingers—“while she’s doing something over here that furthers her goals.” His other hand comes from behind his back, where it has been hidden previously. “She did it with Minos and his party and the assassination clause, sowing discord in the city.”
The pieces click together faster and faster. “And in the lower city, with Hades. She had him chasing his tail while she was filtering people into the city and setting up the blockade.”
“The blockade was a distraction, too.”
Maybe, maybe not. There’s no way she could have known about Icarus’s blackmail, or that it would work. She was betting on the Thirteen not being able to unify to vote and attack her—a bet she would have won if not for the temporary coup. We weren’t sure until we were on the water that Icarus’s former patrons would obey his order to abandon Circe, sending four of the five ships back to Aeaea. There’s no way Circe could have known. If we hadn’t acted, I suspect those ships would have actually taken action at some point.
But Poseidon is right. Circe has hedged her bets from the beginning. She did it with the ships, too. Otherwise she would have been aboard when we attacked. Or the ships would have used their weapons on the city the moment they had a chance. Instead, they sat out in the water, igniting terror and confusion and cutting off our trade. Even so…the mountain pass? “There’s no way through the mountains.”
“Isn’t there?” Poseidon shrugs. “Maybe that’s the truth. Or maybe we just assumed it was the truth because the barrier made us complacent. All our maps of those mountains predate the founding of the city and the formation of the barrier. There might be passes that have changed in the intervening time. That kind of thing wouldn’t necessarily be visible by satellite. We’d never know.”
Circe shouldn’t know, either, but there’s no space for shouldn’t when it comes to that woman. I nod slowly. “I’ll talk to Ares and have her divert some of her people to scour the foothills that make up the perimeter around the civilian encampment. There’s no guarantee that we’ll find a pass even if it exists, but at least we won’t be caught flat-footed if there’s an attack from that position.” Even as I say it, it feels right.
Of course Circe would attack from where we least expect it. Of course she would have me chasing my tail in the city proper while she sinks her claws into the civilians in the countryside—where we evacuated them. Again. “Fuck.” I rub my hands over my face. “Do we bring them back to the city?”
“I don’t know.” Poseidon looks just as agonized as I do. “There don’t seem to be any good choices.”
“Truer words, Poseidon, truer fucking words.”
14
Zeus
My wife doesn’t make it home in time for dinner. I should have expected that. Not just because of how tumultuous our relationship is, but because of everything that happened today. My losing control in the bar. The fucking video being released not an hour later. Everything.
I should be more understanding. If I were a better man, I would be. But as the minutes tick by into hours, all I can hear is Atalanta’s voice in my ear.
Do you know where your wife is?
Foolish of me to think she would come to me for comfort. She hates me. She’s told me so often enough to have it inscribed on my bones. The only time she lets down her mask is when she’s orgasming, and even then it’s done in the dark. If she’s looking for comfort, she’ll have gone to her mother, her sisters, or…her lover?