Radiant Sin(23)

He has his children doing the initial entertaining. It’s not shocking. After the encounter with Theseus in Apollo’s office and watching the Minotaur during the competition for Ares, I don’t expect either of them excel at playing nice. Not like Ariadne apparently does. I can’t help wondering if Icarus takes after his sister or his foster brothers.

Apollo smiles down at her. “That sounds wonderful.”

She turns and leads us through the front doors into an echoing entranceway. It looks like something out of a movie with two staircases circling the space opposite the front door to meet overhead. I knew Hermes had a sense of the theatrical, but this looks like a cross between a Gothic mansion and some hideously expensive southern manor.

Ariadne heads up the stairs, leaving us to trail behind. The archway at the top of the stairs flows into a wide hallway. She motions at the doors studding the walls all the way down. “These are converted rooms. They’re essentially sitting rooms and will be open to whoever wants to use them throughout the day.”

I raise my brows. “How many people are coming to this party that you need half a dozen sitting rooms?”

She tucks her hair behind her ears. “They were, ah, used for a different kind of entertaining purpose by the last owner, and my father decided sitting rooms were a more appropriate conversion.”

A different kind of entertainment.

I look at the doors with new interest. Hermes’s sexual tastes are just as eclectic as her fashion. She’s kinky as fuck and a regular in the lower city where it’s rumored that Hades has an honest-to-gods sex club, though she never took me there when we were dating, understandable considering Hades was supposed to be a myth at that point. Another of the secrets she kept close to her chest.

Still… Six rooms?

“I see,” Apollo says faintly. I can’t tell if he’s actually surprised or scandalized or if this is information he already had filed away in that impressive brain of his.

“Dinner will be at seven tonight. Papa has a party game planned afterward.” Ariadne shoots us a sweet smile. “There’s an agenda in your room with details for the week. Dinner and lunch have scheduled times, but please feel free to have breakfast sent to your room. If you prefer to dine downstairs, there will be a small buffet available.”

I make a show of looking around as we reach a T in the hallway and take a right. “I don’t suppose there’s a map with that agenda.”

“No need.” Another sweet smile. Is this woman for real? “Just follow this hallway back to the entranceway, go downstairs, and everything is a straight shot to the main area downstairs.”

A straight shot doesn’t sound very Hermes. This house holds some tricks up its sleeve. I’m sure of it. The only question is whether Minos and his people know it or if Hermes kept those secrets to herself. I’d bet good money on the latter.

Ariadne opens a door halfway down the hall. “This is your room. Please make yourself comfortable and feel free to explore before dinner if you’re so inclined. The gardens are particularly lovely.”

I step inside first. I’m vaguely aware of Apollo following me into the room and shutting the door behind him, but the only thing I can focus on is the oversize bed. I had foolishly thought this might be a full suite, but while there’s a bathroom through the open door visible from my position, the only other furniture in the room is an antique-looking dresser and a pair of matching nightstands on either side of the bed.

Fuck.

I knew this was coming, of course. I just didn’t expect to freeze up at the reality of it. “Um.” Damn it, I can do better than that. I clear my throat. “About tonight, when we go to bed—”

“Hold that thought.” He narrows his eyes and motions toward the bed. “Sit and be silent. Please.”

I jerk back, a sharp reply on my lips, before my brain kicks into gear and makes the jump to what’s going on. He’s not telling me to be quiet. He wants to sweep the room for surveillance. I sit primly on the edge of the bed and watch him dig through his duffel bag for a piece of electronics I don’t recognize. It’s strangely difficult to stay silent as he goes over every inch of the room. The device dings three times. Once in the mirror over the dresser. One in the lampshade on the nightstand, and one tucked cleverly into the doorjamb. A fourth additional one dings from the bathroom.

I make a face. “Ugh.”

“Not done. Checking for cameras.”

I shudder a little. Obviously being watched and listened to was something we’d talked about before this. I’m not surprised when he pulls a tiny camera from the molding at the top of the mirror, but I feel vaguely violated all the same. “Gross.”

“Yes.” He deposits it in the small pile on the dresser and brushes his hands together. “That’s everything. About what we expected. I have a device that Hector can use to hack the system, but I need to be closer to the control room, which means we need to prioritize finding it.”

“Consider it prioritized.”

“Agreed.” He nods. “About the sleeping arrangements…I’ll sleep on the floor.” Apollo hauls my suitcases to a spot near the dresser and sets his on the other side.

“But—”

“Don’t argue.” He doesn’t look at me. “I know you’re not going to insult me by suggesting I’d allow you to sleep on the floor while I take the bed. And no, we’re not going to switch off. I don’t care about being fair, so that agreement won’t work.”