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)
She doesn’t have to be perfect when the Thirteen are a fucking mess. There are only a handful of us who have held the titles more than a year, and none have experience in anything resembling what we’re dealing with now. We’ve been coddled, the people holding the thirteen titles playing at being modern-day gods, untouchable in the way only the rich and powerful can be. All those power games seem so petty now.
“Hermes doesn’t slip up.”
He curses softly. “There’s no sign of her, either. I know she’s in the city—she called Cassandra yesterday to tell her to stick close to me—but I’ve caught no evidence of her on tape.”
If Hermes, that fucking traitor, can do it, then it’s possible Circe can as well. We clearly have holes in our security, and have for quite some time. “Keep looking.”
“I will.” He hesitates. “Are we going to talk about the fact that you went against the Thirteen’s vote and attacked Circe?”
I don’t want to. The temporary coup worked to break the blockade but not to remove the greater threat. Hard not to see it as a costly failure. “It needed to be done.”
“There are laws for a reason,” he says quietly. “I’ve supported you since you became Zeus, but that support is not unconditional. If you keep breaking the laws, I’ll be forced to stand against you.”
His feelings are nothing more than I expected. There’s a reason I only told my sister—Ares—and Athena about the coup. The fewer people who knew what I intended, the fewer people who could stop me. Apollo is a good man, and while that’s benefited me to this point, it won’t hold if I have to keep doing what’s necessary to protect the city.
“I understand.” I hang up and quicken my pace, but it’s not fast enough to outrun the insidious voice tucked into the back of my brain. Your father never would have let this get so out of hand. He would have killed Minos the moment he realized something was off about the man, without giving a fuck about the consequences. He was too damn charming to actually see consequences…another way you’re failing.
It would be a lot easier to banish that voice if it didn’t speak truth. One of the first things I became aware of as a child was how I’d never be as good as my father. Though good is a strange word to use, considering the violence and destruction he subjected anyone under his control to. He killed three of his wives, including my mother.
Well, two of them. Circe was the shortest marriage of the three, only lasting a week after being forced to say, “I do.” He saw her on the street and had to have her, a magical story of love at first sight, according to MuseWatch. The truth is significantly less romantic. My father was a conqueror; he couldn’t stand the thought of something beautiful existing outside his control.
And Circe was beautiful. I don’t remember her well—I was in my early twenties and wanted nothing to do with the prospective stepmother who was only a few years older than me—but I remember that. She was a lean white woman with dark hair and a spark in her green eyes that made me sick to my stomach. Because I knew exactly what my father would do to that spark, how he would crush it out of existence and leave her a shell of the person she’d once been. At least until he grew tired of her rebellion and she suffered an unfortunate accident.
But even I didn’t expect him to come back from the honeymoon a widower.
Despite his monstrosity—or maybe because of it—Olympus ran smoothly under his rule as Zeus. I can hardly say the same, for all my determination to create a better world than the one he controlled. The longer I hold the title, the more I wonder if my father wasn’t onto something with how he conducted himself.
He never had to deal with assassination attempts, an unruly Thirteen who refused to vote to benefit the city, and a godsdamned siege.
My phone rings as I step through the doors of Dodona Tower. It’s early enough that the receptionist behind the massive counter is still blinking blearily as they sip their coffee. Their eyes go wide when they see me, but I wave them off as I dig my ringing phone out of my pocket. “Yes?”
“We found where she made landing.” None of the exhaustion weighing me down is evidenced in Athena’s cool voice. She’s been working herself to the bone, same as I have, but it never seems to touch her.
Another way you’re proving yourself to be an inadequate Zeus.
I ignore the inner voice. “Tell me.”
“They killed Poseidon’s sentries and there are half a dozen boats cleverly hidden in a copse of trees a few miles north of the bay. It’s inside where the barrier once stood, but only just. She could have just as easily cruised another half mile north to coastline we aren’t able to cover with our numbers. She wanted us to find them, but not to find them fast. They weren’t visible until we actually went into the trees.”