Shivering, I leaned against Ares, feeling a bit like a leach sucking the warmth out of his body. Ares kept Otrera talking. Before long, the two were exchanging stories about times they’d been freaked out. She’d eased visibly, moving her hands as she spoke, and I wondered if he even realized the effect he had. Was he just naturally good with people? Did he know the right thing to say at exactly the right time? Or was it something he’d learned over the centuries, comforting soldiers in the trenches?
He kissed my forehead, his hand stroking my back absently as he talked to Otrera, making no attempt to draw me into the conversation. It was exactly what I needed. How did he do that?
Medea walked through the door of the lobby, her arms crossed, shoulders slumped.
Otrera bolted up. “I thought you were telling the staff about—”
“I did.” Medea sounded tired. “But I donated some blood, too, so I went back to my place to rest for a bit. How’s she doing?”
My muscles slackened as tension eased out of my body. Not only would Medea’s blood cure Glauce, but her willingness to donate it disproved the horrible suspicion I’d felt earlier.
“They won’t tell us anything.” Otrera sat back on her bench.
Medea’s gaze hardened. “I’ll just see about that.” She strode over to the reception desk and exchanged words with the woman behind it. Moments later, a doctor strolled into the waiting room, followed closely by Jason.
Swallowing hard, I straightened, feeling Ares’s arm going rigid around my body. We could both tell by the look on their faces that whatever they said next wouldn’t be good.
The lights of the hospital framed Jason in a golden glow, illuminating the grief-stricken look on his face. “She didn’t make it.”
All the air in my lungs escaped in a whoosh. Glauce was dead? How could Glauce be dead? It happens, I tried to tell myself. People die. But I couldn’t stop seeing her face. I hadn’t even liked Glauce that much, but she didn’t deserve to die like that.
“What?” Medea demanded. She surged forward. “No, I donated—”
“It wasn’t enough,” Jason explained. “It wasn’t soon enough.”
The doctor cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, her heart couldn’t take the strain of the seizures. We have reason to believe she had an underlying—”
He broke off when Otrera let out a long wail. The other demigods waiting respectfully at the edges of the lobby surged forward. “Is she—?” they demanded in a cacophony of grief. “Did she—?”
“Did you even give it to her?” Medea demanded. “Or did you save it to create more of your precious weapons?”
Weapons? I went rigid to stop myself from looking at Ares. They used Medea’s blood to create weapons?
“Of course I gave it to her. It was just too late. Medea!” Jason reached for the weeping demigoddess, but she spun away from him and bolted for the door. He watched her go then drew in a deep breath, as if trying to collect himself. “Adonis. You met Orpheus last summer, right?”
Ares glanced up. “Uh, yeah.”
“I need you to pass along a message for me.”
Chapter XXXIV
Medea
I KILLED HER. I killed her. I killed her. Gods, how did that happen? She wasn’t supposed to die! I was going to fix her. For good. Not just the poison, but everything! The words on the page blurred. I leaned back on Elise’s porch, furiously blinking tears out of my eyes.
When was Elise going to get back from the hospital? I needed advice. This had all gotten so complicated. My plan had just been to get the pills, end the pregnancy, cure Glauce, clue Jason in to the fact that I knew about his affair, and magnanimously forgive him, assuming all my terms and conditions were met. No one was supposed to die!
Gods, how did this get so messed up? I killed her, I killed her, I killed her. I couldn’t stay here. Elise didn’t seem all that enamored with the island. Maybe I could convince her to come with me. The shield was weak enough to break through, now. I could sense it. She could introduce me to her god friends. If they promised not to hurt the people on this island, I could tell them where to find their missing people. All I’d ask in return would be a little help getting started in the mortal world.
Footsteps scraped along the dirt path leading to the cabins. Wiping my eyes, I closed my journal and stood, ready to beg Elise if I needed to.
“Thought I’d find you here.” Jason’s form was barely visible in the darkness.
“I don’t want to talk to you.” I spat out the word, hopped off the porch, and walked away from him. The level of sheer hatred I suddenly felt toward him was a cup that poured and poured. It defied the limits of reason.
“You did it, didn’t you?” he called after me. “I talked to the doctors. They said you asked them to call a pharmacy this morning for an off-island order. But how could you have possibly known the shield would be down long enough for you to get away unless . . .” He couldn’t even finish his sentence.
A cramp strong enough to make me see stars had me pausing, my hand gripping the skin just below my belly button as I waited for it to pass. “How does it feel,” I gasped, “to have my teeth in your heart?”
“Why?” His voice was raw with pain. “How could you?”
I ticked off the reasons with my fingers. “You slept with her. You cancelled my order. You manipulated and lied. And I’m still pretty sure you impregnated me on purpose to continue Zeus’s sick experiments—”
Dirt crunched beneath his feet as he drew closer to me. “You are so paranoid. Do you even realize how crazy you sound?”
“Hey, I have earned my crazy,” I snapped, hating that he was the one who’d taught me that. “It has been completely justified over and over again. You are literally using pieces of me to torture gods in a lab and mass-create weapons, so hell yeah, I’m paranoid. What happens to me when you run out?”
“I wouldn’t—”
Wind blew my hair out in front of me, and I yanked it back, disgusted that even that much of me would still reach for him. “Oh, don’t even bother, Jason. It’s not like I can believe a word that comes out of your mouth anyway.” I turned away and kept walking.
He hurried after me. “You can’t leave.”
“And you can’t keep me here.” I couldn’t keep the smugness from my voice. “How long before that shield fails, Jason?”
“You didn’t mean to kill her. I saw it on your face. But if you leave now, you’ve doomed us. Our shield can only hold so long, and you are it.” He moved in front of me and grabbed me by the shoulders, his fingers biting into my skin. “You are the only way we can possibly escape if things go badly.”
I wrenched backward, out of his grip, glaring at his shadowy form in the darkness. If there was a moon tonight, the omnipresent clouds covering the island shielded it from view. “This is your war, Jason. The one you’ve always wanted. Fight it without me.”
“If you want to hate me, hate me.” He reached for me, stopping when I backed away. “But don’t take it out on them. They’re your people, Medea.”
Were they? The sky opened up, dumping rain between us, with a crack of thunder so loud, I jumped. “I’ll give them the opportunity to leave when I do,” I decided, shouting over the rain to be heard. “You’re excluded from that offer, by the way.”
Jason shook his head and I could just make out the motion in the darkness. “I’m taking Elise’s advice. I’m going to try to talk to the gods. Adonis is arranging it. I just need you here in case things go south.”
“The gods are coming?” Maybe they could help me.
“To talk peace, supposedly.” Jason’s voice made it clear how likely he felt that outcome would be. “We’re not ready to face them yet, but with Glauce down and them right on top of us counting down to Chaos knows what, I have to at least try.”
Wiping
rainwater from my face, I mulled over this new information. “I’ll stay until the meeting. But the second our people are safe, I’m gone.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
Either he was beyond desperate or he had no intention of keeping his word. But either way, this was my chance. I didn’t have a shot out there in the real world without money, an education, or a paper trail. The gods had to have a way of getting around those issues. And if I really was more god than demigod, maybe they’d accept me as one of their own.
After all, I knew where their missing people were. And I was more than willing to negotiate.
Chapter XXXV
Aphrodite
“SO, I SAID I’D call Orpheus first thing in the morning,” Ares explained to the gods in the dreamscape we’d entered almost as soon as we got back from the hospital. “But before I do, we need to go over how that conversation’s going to play out.”
“Will Jason be listening?” Persephone asked, propping her arms up on the wicker table, green eyes flashing with interest.
“Oh, he’d be a fool not to,” Athena said.
“His terms were pretty specific.” I dug my feet into the cool sand beneath the table. “And he wants verbal confirmation on every point.”
“To lock us into promises?” Poseidon groused. “Absolutely not.”
“I mean, that’s a reasonable precaution,” Persephone admitted. “Nothing he’s requesting sounds out of line.”
“Except that we get no guarantees in return.” Artemis scooted her chair closer to the table, holding her ponytail so it didn’t blow in the wind. “What we say is binding, but they can go back on their word.”
“And yet we still have them at a disadvantage,” Hephaestus argued. “Promise them their safety for the duration of the meeting so long as they don’t threaten ours. Surely that’s reasonable.”
“I see no reason to deny them their assurances,” Athena agreed. “But since we all cannot attend, we should have no uncertainty on our side about what the outcome of this meeting must be.” Athena smoothed her taupe suit, cutting Poseidon a glare until the wind diminished. “The weapons must be destroyed and their destruction verified. They may keep their island, live their lives without our interference, but they cannot be allowed a means to harm us.”
“Well, I don’t like that the meeting is off-island.” The sun cast Persephone’s features in a worried shadow. “I mean, I get them not wanting us there, but there’s no good way to make sure Aphrodite and Ares are involved in the negotiations. They would probably allow ‘Adonis’ to be present at the meeting, since he arranged it. But as far as they know, we have no reason to ask for Elise. And I’d rather have you two both on hand to teleport out in case things go badly.”
“Ask for Adonis anyway,” I suggested. “I’ll try to convince Jason to send me along. But if he says no, at least—”
“Absolutely not,” Ares argued. “I’m not leaving you behind if I can help it.”
“How are you two doing on the power front?” Persephone asked.
“Nothing,” I said darkly, thinking of my failure to save Glauce. I picked at the white wicker of the table, prying apart the slim, wooden stems.
Ares shrugged. “I don’t have a way to safely test mine. I don’t think they can sense power signatures, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“Mine are back,” Artemis announced. “Mostly. They come and go in spurts, but I think if I was backed into a corner, I could manage. Ares should be in about the same shape. Aphrodite too, if it wasn’t for that whole maternity bond thing she’s got going with Adonis.”
I glanced up from my work mutilating the table. “We don’t know that. I got a much larger dose of the poison than you two.”
Persephone sighed. “I don’t like this. If you need help, we won’t know.”
“They can summon me,” Poseidon said, his gaze trained on the sea in thought. “The demigod’s shield is a joke now. I can get to them if they need me.”
“Assuming they can get close enough to the shield,” Persephone argued. “If they’re in danger, they might not have time to go for a swim. The demigods have Steele, that could—”
“I can make her immune to Steele,” Hephaestus announced, looking nervous.
Every head in the dreamscape turned to face Hephaestus, who was slouched against his wicker seat.
I regained the power of speech first. “What?”
“Frankly, this may be a good idea for Aphrodite either way.” He glanced at me. “We don’t know how long it’s going to take to work the Steele out of your system. And if your powers return before that happens . . .”
“I’ll still be better off than I was.” I’d figured out that my highs and lows on the cruise had more to do with how recently I’d had a bottle of poisoned water than anything else. If twenty minutes of not consuming Steele made the difference between me being barely able to walk versus actively running for my life, imagine the difference months would make.
“But you consumed more of it than Artemis or Ares and their powers are still unreliable,” Hephaestus reasoned, his fingers drumming against the table. “You can’t risk yours failing you when you may need them the most. Not if you’re going to continue working undercover.”
“So what are you proposing?” Athena asked.
“Marriage.” Hephaestus said the word so quietly I almost couldn’t hear him over the sound of the waves crashing to the shore.
I blinked, certain I’d misheard. “Wait, what?”
“Um . . .” Ares said at the same time. “I object?”
Hephaestus rolled his eye. “Not like that. I’ve been immune since I took the power of the original Steele into myself. I could give that to her.”
Gods exchanged power to create the marriage bond. In most cases, the power exchanged was just a token amount. Some gods, like Persephone and Hades, took that much further, offering all their power for the exchange and drawing from it equally. But there was a step between equilibrium and token bonds. Hepheastus was offering to share his immunity to Steele with me, and nothing else in exchange but for a token amount of my power to seal the bond. He wouldn’t benefit from the arrangement at all, since I didn’t have any abilities he lacked.
Hephaestus looked around the long table at the collection of incredulous faces. “It wouldn’t mean anything.”
“Not to me,” I said, feeling mean, but this was too important to risk any misunderstandings. “You get that, right? You and I . . . we’re not, I’ve never—”
“I know who you’re interested in.”
With anyone else, I might have pointed out that the gods aren’t typically monogamous. But I didn’t want to encourage Hephaestus. He was a good guy, a nice guy. I just didn’t think about him romantically. Maybe because of his face, though I’d like to think I wasn’t that shallow.
Glancing around the table, keenly aware of our audience, I fought for the right words to say. “That’s nice, but your feelings are a different matter entirely. If there is anything in you holding out hope that we—”
He shook his head. “Like I said before, I don’t think it was ever you I was interested in.” His lips twisted in a smile, as if he was trying to ease the blow. “You’re annoying, but I’d still rather you not die. I can stop that. If you’ll let me.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I didn’t know what to say.
Ares muttered something under his breath and settled back into his seat, a dark look on his face.
“That’s a nice offer, Hephaestus.” Persephone stepped in, saving me from having to respond. “But right now, a regular knife is just as dangerous to her as Steele. That’s as much a result of apotheosis as poison, right?” She glanced at Poseidon for confirmation.
The sea god nodded, looking far too amused for my liking.
“But that course is worth revisiting once the process of apotheosis is complete, or perhaps with another deity.” Athena tapped her perfectly manicured nails against the table. “Currently, we are down three gods when it comes to reliable powers. Given our low numbers already, regaining another would be beneficial, and that’s not even factoring in the benefit surprise immunity could grant.”
“The offer’s just for Aphrodite at the moment, since she’s in actual danger,” Hephaestus clarified. “I’ll do this to stop someone from getting killed, not to speed up an inconvenient recovery time.”
“That’s more than fair,” Persephone said before Athena could object. “We’re not forcing anyone into marriage today. We all clear on that?” She waited until everyone nodded. “Okay. Aphrodite, Ares, coordinate with Poseidon. I’d feel better with both of you off that island. We’ve got the real Elise and Adonis. I could just as easily slap a glamour on them so you two wouldn’t seem to disappear without a trace. We don’t want to raise any alarms.”
“Do we trust Adonis behind enemy lines?” I asked, skeptically.
“Nope. But I can lock him into some airtight guarantees.” Persephone stood, putting her back in line with the false sun of the dreamscape and casting her profile into shadow. “Poseidon, if things go badly, your job is to go in and get Ares and Aphrodite out of there. The rest of us will interrogate whoever we need to in order to find Hades. Either they agree to our terms, or their island might just cease to exist.”
Whoa. That didn’t sound like her at all. “Uh . . . Persephone.”
She gave me a tight smile. “Let’s hope things don’t go badly. Now let’s talk strategy. Athena? What do you suggest?”
Chapter XXXVI
Love & War Page 24
