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)
No. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. I stumble after her, suddenly losing all grace and poise. “Persephone, you have to listen to me. She already has people in the lower city. They have you in their sights—literally. If you don’t do what she wants—”
She shakes her head again. “Think, Callisto. It doesn’t matter if Hades steps down, because he’s a legacy title. Even if the Thirteen are gone, the people of the lower city will follow him, no matter what his name is, no matter where he is. Circe can’t let him live. And she can’t let me—us—live, either.”
“But she promised…” Even as I say the words, I recognize what Persephone is saying as truth. But desperation keeps me going. “If he left the city, if you left the city, she wouldn’t try to hurt us.”
“No. That’s my answer, Callisto.” She starts to turn back toward the boat. “I’m here for you, and I love you. If you want to seek refuge in the lower city, I will fight to make it happen. But I will not ask my husband to give the lower city and his title. Circe doesn’t have the market cornered on suffering, and it would do her well to remember that.”
I open my mouth to keep arguing, but I never get a chance to. A boom sounds, so loud that it makes my ears ring, and pain blossoms in my shoulder. I blink and press my hand there, my brain not wanting to process what the red against my skin means.
I’ve…just been shot.
Interlude II
Hermes
Hera is more resourceful than I realized. She also doesn’t listen worth a damn. It would make me like her more under different circumstances, but we aren’t in different circumstances. Hera, Persephone, Orpheus, Medusa, all standing out in the open without the slightest bit of concern about a sniper. I don’t know what they’re thinking.
“We’re in a war, people,” I murmur under my breath. I exhale slowly and pull the trigger at the same time. It would be the easiest thing in the world to riddle them with bullets and put an end to this once and for all. Hades would crumble without his beloved Persephone. Zeus wouldn’t, but it would still fuck with his head something fierce to lose his Hera. Following in Daddy’s footsteps and all that. Even killing Orpheus would serve me, because it would send Eurydice and Charon into a death spiral, which would further destabilize Hades, Zeus, and Demeter in the process. A neat solution. There’s only one problem.
I like them.
Well, maybe not Demeter, even if I appreciate her cunning. But the others? When Hades disposed of the last Zeus, finally realized his potential, and fell madly in love with his new bride? I cheered just as loudly as the rest of Olympus. He’s what passes for a unicorn in this city—a genuinely good man.
But, no matter my personal feelings on the matter, I can’t allow them to have this meeting and go their merry ways to fuck up my plans.
I shut down the frenzy of my thoughts and focus on my targets. Hera’s got a wicked graze in her upper arm. I should have known such a small injury wouldn’t be enough to take her down.
Persephone gets a careful bullet graze across her back. Thankfully, Medusa is pinning her in place so I don’t have to worry about her jerking and endangering herself. Next is Orpheus, throwing himself forward to protect Hera. She’s so furious, I can practically feel the energy of it from here, high up on an abandoned building’s roof.
“You silly noble fool, stay down.” I pull the trigger again, but I misjudge Orpheus’s trajectory and take him in the upper chest instead of the arm. Shit. I think I broke his collarbone, but with surgery and a nice extended recovery, he should be fine. Probably. Most importantly, he’s down, Persephone is down, and Hera is down. I fire off one last shot to skim Medusa’s leg so she doesn’t feel too guilty when the adrenaline wears off. She’s a good bodyguard; she’s just no match for me.
I pack up my rifle in automatic movements, dismantling it and strapping it into the case, which then slides into my bag. I’ll clean it when I get to safety. In the meantime…
I trot down the stairs and through the dusty building, plastic sheets still covering the windows from where the company ran out of funding and, in a rare instance of nepotism failure, the owner’s family didn’t swoop in to pay for the construction to be completed. I dig out my phone and call the paramedics.
The operator answers immediately. “Hello, what is your emergency?”
“There was a shootout!” I pitch my voice to match the man I heard on the street earlier, yelling at his wife about…something. “Four people are down.” I rattle off the address and then hang up. Most of the first responders are in the country with the rest of the city’s population, but some of them chose to stay behind. By my calculations, there should be an ambulance scooping up my hapless victims inside of five minutes.