Radiant Sin(76)

Hermes grins and winks at Icarus. “We’ll have some fun.” In the face of her unrelenting cheerfulness, even Icarus manages a smile.

Minos laughs. “Without a doubt. Now, I do believe tea is ready to be served. I’ll go check on the status of that. Please make yourselves comfortable.” He strides out the door without looking back.

“Teatime. Of course. Why not?” Eurydice shakes her head and sinks down onto the love seat next to Charon. They’re sitting slightly angled toward each other so their knees touch, and the careful way he holds himself at a respectful distance while maintaining that not-so-casual touch makes me both glad for Eurydice and sad for my foolish brother.

Charon gives a faint smile. “You like tea.”

“Yes, I do. I’m also ready to go home. This wasn’t fun before Pan got hurt, and now I’m jumping at every sound. I thought staying was the right thing to do, but that was obviously the wrong call. We’re wasting our time here.”

Charon takes her hand and lowers his head, speaking softly enough that I can’t hear what he’s saying. By my best guess, they’ll be gone before dinnertime. Whatever Charon came here to find, if he hasn’t found it by now, I doubt an extra day or two would change that.

Speaking of…

I turn to suggest Cassandra take the opportunity to speak with Hermes, but she’s nowhere in sight. Both women are gone.





30


Cassandra

Hermes slips through the door as people start settling in for the coming tea, and I don’t pause to think. I go after her. I step into the hallway and find Hermes’s dark hair and bright yellow sweater disappearing around the corner.

Where is she going?

She’s already bypassed the bathroom conveniently located halfway down the hall, and she’s not heading in the direction of the stairs to the second floor. I frown and start after her. I reach the corner in time to see her duck into what appears to be a random door. Strange.

I glance back toward the living room. The temptation to check in with Apollo before going farther is nearly overwhelming, but I already told him I planned to talk to Hermes. This might not be going like I expected, but everyone in the house is in that living room and I hardly think one of the staff is going to harm me. Probably.

I really hope that isn’t the last thought Pan had, too.

Worry pricks me as I hurry down the hall to the door Hermes went through. I step inside and pause.

The room is empty.

“Hermes?” Her name comes out in a whisper, but I can’t make myself raise my voice. I look around the room slowly. It’s a mundane-looking bedroom, nowhere near as elegant as the guest rooms upstairs. The king-size bed is as simple as the dresser and nightstands. There’s not even a door to a bathroom. There’s also nowhere for Hermes to be hiding unless she’s under the bed.

I shudder, but I make myself cross over and crouch down to check. Nothing. No matter what her reputation, Hermes is flesh and blood. If she’s not in this room, there’s another exit. A secret door. I’m sure of it.

I straighten and examine the walls more closely. There’s no way she could have moved the dresser, so I bypass that and examine the mirror across from the bed. It’s not as ornate as the one in Ariadne’s room, but it’s still on a hefty frame and stretches a good seven feet from floor nearly to the ceiling. The perfect size for a door. I feel a little silly, but I hold my breath as I touch the frame.

It moves beneath my fingers.

“What the fuck?” I whisper. Again, I glance at the door, but my gut says that this is a limited-time opportunity and if I go back to loop Apollo in, whatever it is will pass.

If I can find answers, we’ll have no reason to stay here. We can leave, and that means he will be safe from whatever fate Minos might have planned for Zeus’s spy.

That, more than anything, decides me. I slip off my heels and tug the mirror open all the way. It leads into a hallway that’s dusty enough for me to see the faint prints of Converse shoes leading away from my position. I hardly need confirmation that Hermes came this way, and yet here it is all the same.

Following means leaving my own trail, but this is too good an opportunity to miss. I’ll deal with Hermes knowing what I’m up to later. I step into the dark hallway and tug the mirror mostly shut behind me. The space is narrow enough to make me feel vaguely claustrophobic, but the walls don’t actually brush my shoulders as I start forward.

Why would she bother with secret passageways right now? The house is all but empty and everyone who might be curious about what she’s up to is in the living room. It’s only as I take the narrow turn and blink into the darkness that I pause to wonder if Minos hired all new staff or if the people working here were inherited when he bought the house. He must have. Surely Minos is clever enough to realize that there would be people loyal to Hermes and only too happy to feed her whatever information they could acquire? So why did he allow this to happen? Unless… Suspicion takes hold.

Hermes wouldn’t.

She wouldn’t.

I pick up my pace as much as I dare and nearly run into the wall at the end of the passageway. I catch myself at the last moment, stopping just short of it. Now that I’m this close, I can see a faint outline of light around the doorway. It was all but invisible from even a foot away. I press my fingertips to it but hesitate.