Radiant Sin(75)
It makes me wonder if Icarus is just as unhappy with coming to Olympus as Ariadne seems to be. If one child is willing to work against their father, maybe the other is as well. I’ll ask Cassandra after this. If my instincts are occasionally wrong, hers rarely are. She sees things that I miss all the time. Perhaps now is one of those times.
“For our first attempt…” Minos’s smile goes sly. “Aphrodite, if you would be so kind.”
She stands gracefully. Today she’s wearing a pair of tailored black pants and a violet silk blouse that leaves her arms bare. Her dark hair hangs in a curtain down her back as she strides to Minos and turns around so he can slip a blindfold over her face.
“Now, of course, we won’t want to make it too easy. Shift yourselves about the room, please.”
Cassandra huffs out an exasperated breath as I follow her, moving to stand next to the fireplace, across from where we’d been. She doesn’t say anything, though. We’re too busy watching Minos carefully spin Aphrodite in place. Too many times, by my count, but I’m not the one running the game.
As it is, when he releases her, she stumbles. Not a single person makes a sound. It’s strangely eerie to watch her move forward with her hands outstretched. She finds Adonis first. He holds perfectly still as her hands come to rest on his chest. From my angle, I can catch her smile in profile. She coasts her hands up to his shoulders and over his neck to his strong jawline. He smiles as she explores his face with her fingertips.
Aphrodite laughs lightly. “I would know that smile anywhere, Adonis.” She leans up and presses a kiss to his lips.
Then she moves on. She’s better at the game than I would have reckoned. She mixes up the Minotaur and Theseus, but that may be because she seems reluctant to touch both. She also mistakes Eurydice for Artemis, which has Artemis glaring holes in her back. The rest of us, she guesses correctly, working her way around the circle until she stands before Pandora, who’s on my other side.
Though no one has confirmed or denied the guesses, she must know who it is she touches as she ghosts her fingers over the other woman’s arms and cups her face in surprisingly gentle hands. Aphrodite gives a wicked smile. “Only one way to say for certain.”
Then she kisses Pandora.
Without thinking, I look to Theseus. This is just another power play between him and Aphrodite, but I can’t help a shudder at the sheer fury in his eyes as he watches them. I hadn’t pegged his relationship with Pandora to be overly romantic, but they’re obviously close, and he’s undeniably enraged to see Aphrodite kissing her.
Aphrodite lifts her head, smiling. “Hello, Pandora.”
“Hi.” For her part, Pandora’s a little breathless.
And so it goes.
Each turn, Minos spins the blindfolded person and the rest of the guests rearrange themselves. I give up trying to stay next to Cassandra after the second round. There’s no reason to. She never leaves my sight.
The Minotaur does horridly, only guessing Theseus, Icarus, and Pandora correctly. Charon and Hephaestus only do slightly better. Dionysus seems to do poorly on purpose, though with him it’s impossible to say if that’s feigned or no. Adonis doesn’t seem to care at all, rattling off names the moment he touches a person, usually guessing incorrectly. Artemis does nearly as well as Aphrodite. Cassandra gets everyone but the Minotaur correct.
Hermes, of course, has a perfect round. She tweaks Theseus’s beard, plants a kiss on Dionysus’s forehead, flirts shamelessly with everyone she touches, and kisses Cassandra with a little too much gusto for my peace of mind.
My jealousy has faded, though, nowhere near as pointed as it was yesterday. It helps that a blushing Cassandra sends me an apologetic look the moment Hermes moves on, that her gaze lingers on me even as we move on to Eurydice, who gets about half her guesses correct.
Then it’s finally my turn.
While watching everyone else, I underestimated how disorienting it would be to be blindfolded. I try to listen for the movements of the others, but with Minos spinning me, it’s an impossible task. When he finally releases me, I haven’t the slightest clue where everyone has relocated to.
I hate this game.
I feel like an absolute fool as I stretch out my hands and move directly forward. I dislike having my senses distorted, and the sensation only gets worse when I gingerly touch a man. He’s built lean, and the moment I reach his beard, I know. “Dionysus.”
I move around the circle slowly. Most of these people, I would not consider friends, let alone someone I’d intentionally touch like this. I try to keep my hands up high enough that I don’t accidentally brush against something I shouldn’t, but it means that I end up bumping into Hermes’s forehead instead of her shoulder when I reach her. “Sorry, Hermes.”
I fumble my way through the rest of the guests. Though it’s tempting to rush, my pride won’t allow it. I guess as well as I can, finally ending on Cassandra. I know her the moment my hand closes on her soft shoulder. Still, I coast my touch up to cup her jaw and feel for her distinctive lips.
I smile. “Hello, Cassandra.”
She’s the one to remove the blindfold from my eyes, and she smiles up at me as I blink at the abrupt change. There’s no time to say anything—I’m not even sure what I would say, since this is just a silly game—because Minos steps into the circle. “We have a clear winner! Hermes, congratulations.”
Katee Robert's Books
- Electric Idol (Dark Olympus #2)
- Katee Robert
- The Demon's Bargain (A Deal With a Demon #4)
- The Kraken's Sacrifice (A Deal With a Demon #2)
- Electric Idol(Dark Olympus #2)
- Neon Gods (Dark Olympus #1)
- The Fearless King (The Kings #2)
- The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)
- Seducing the Bridesmaid (Wedding Dare, #3)