Radiant Sin(8)

He sits back with a tired sigh. “You’re aware that Minos and his people now have Olympus citizenship.”

“Kind of hard to miss it.” The gossip sites have gone wild with the news. I’m sure it has to do with them covering the same players and same families since the city was founded. New blood is rare enough, let alone an entire new family to gawk and poke at. The last time that happened was when the Dimitriou family moved into the city proper when their matriarch became Demeter, but even then, they were still Olympians, if country ones.

Minos and his people are decidedly not.

“I’ve been invited to a house party he’s hosting.” Apollo’s full mouth twists. “To celebrate.”

“Sounds like you’re going to have a ton of fun.” The sarcasm flicks off my tongue without my thinking about it. What am I supposed to say, though? He’s Apollo. Part of the job is hobnobbing with powerful assholes and getting close to people he hates because they have information he needs. Information Zeus needs.

He chose to take the title. No one forced it on him. I will not pity him, no matter how miserable he looks right now. He could always say no. He won’t, but he could, which is more than most people in this city can manage if the Thirteen start meddling in their lives.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“No.”

He gives me a long look. “Will you hear me out before telling me no?”

“Let me think.” I glance at the ceiling and then back at him. “No. You have that scheming look about you, and I don’t want any part of it.”

“Cassandra.” There’s a rare edge in his voice. Theseus must have really gotten under his skin. “Hear me out. Please.”

I could walk out. Refuse to hear him out. I could…but I don’t. My second mistake of the day, and one I’ll no doubt come to regret.

He doesn’t wait long to prove me right. “Minos has ulterior motives for being here, but I can’t figure out what they are.”

“I know that.” Apollo has been muttering about it for weeks, ever since Minos’s party showed up and two of them competed for Ares.

“He had bargained with Zeus to trade information for citizenship, but so far everything he’s offered has been too vague to be of use. I’m sure that’s intentional.”

“Probably.” If it’s his only bargaining chip, he’ll want to squeeze out every bit of its worth. It seems foolhardy to want the attention of the Thirteen on you, but what do I know?

“This house party is going to be my best opportunity to find those answers. It will last for a week, which would theoretically give me plenty of time to dig around for evidence. Someone bankrolled his trip here, and if I can find out who it was, we won’t need Minos.”

Apollo is something of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to information. His title is technically Keeper of the Lore, and he does that by preserving records of Olympus’s history. But he’s also more than a little bit of a spymaster, sourcing information for the Thirteen and his own purposes constantly. Even after working for him for five years, I’m still not entirely sure how he comes by some of the info he finds. But it’s always accurate.

A week in Minos’s house should be more than enough time to get to the bottom of this mystery. I frown. “Why do I sense a but coming?”

“But…” He sighs again. “You’ve worked for me long enough to know my strengths. I am more comfortable with data and archives than I am scrying out people’s motives.”

It’s true. If Apollo has one failing—and I’d hesitate to qualify it as such—it’s that he’s too honest. His brain doesn’t work in the twisty, deceptive ways required to understand the layers beneath layers of plots that play out in this city. He’s not naive; he knows the plots are there—he just can’t divine the shape of them instinctively. “You’ve survived this long. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Cassandra.” He gives a rueful smile that makes my chest ping. “You know better. I’m only as strong as my team, and I won’t be able to have you all there with me. If I can only bring one, I want you.”

I want you.

Not going to think about how those words make me feel. Not even a little bit. “Well, you can’t have me. Ask Hermes. She’s good at this sort of thing.”

“Hermes plays her own games and you know it.” He shakes his head. “And I’m not on her level. I can’t whisk in and out of rooms like magic.”

What Hermes does isn’t magic, though anyone who’s walked into a locked room and found her rooting through their shit might believe otherwise. Most people don’t pause long enough to realize breaking and entering is basically her love language and that she only does it to people she likes, but if I say that, then I have to explain how I would know such a thing, and I’m not about to get into my exes with anyone, let alone Apollo.

“You’re very good at what you do, but no one is on Hermes’s level,” I finally say. “You’ll have to find another way.”

“Agreed. I have another way.” He levels a look at me. “Come with me. Play the part of my date. You see things I don’t, and I need that perspective to successfully navigate this.”

Come with me.