Radiant Sin(83)

Apollo gently extracts himself from my hold. “Stay there.”

“Apollo—”

He reaches down to grab the fallen tire iron and presses it into my hand. “Guard Theseus.”

It’s a bullshit task and we both know it, but I can’t help the gratitude that wells up inside me. This man continues to protect me as best he can. I nod, not quite able to clear the burning from my eyes. “Okay.”

“Cassandra.” He catches my chin for the briefest moment. “Thank you. If you hadn’t intervened…”

A wet prickle at the corner of my eye betrays me. I can’t make my bottom lip stop quivering. You could have died. I can barely think it, let alone say it. I can’t comprehend a world without Apollo in it. “Check him,” I finally manage.

He hesitates now when he didn’t before. “Are you okay?”

“No. Not even a little bit.” The tire iron slips against my sweaty palms, forcing me to readjust my grip. “We have to know, Apollo. We have to end this.”

He finally nods. I watch him closely as he walks to Hephaestus. Apollo is covered in blood and is holding his ribs in a way that scares me. Surely he’d know if they were broken? Yes, but would he tell you the truth if they were? The answer to that is a resounding no. I can’t trust him to take care of himself if he thinks I’m in danger. “Apollo—”

“Fuck,” he mutters. “He’s dead.”

My stomach tries to revolt, but I fight through the nausea that hits me in waves. We were too late and now a man is dead. “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t—”

“It’s not your fault.” He pushes to his feet, swaying a little, and turns to face me. One of his eyes is swollen almost completely shut. “I have to call Zeus.”

I nod, too quickly. I can’t look at the man—the body—on the floor. “I’ll just…”

“Cassandra, I need you to stay in the garage where I can see you.” He walks to me and guides me to face away from the scene. “Don’t look, love. But don’t go anywhere. It’s not safe.”

Considering one of the culprits is groaning faintly a few feet away, I’m not certain it’s safe here either, but at least I’m neither alone nor defenseless. I tighten my grip on the tire iron and give a shaky nod. “Okay.”

“I won’t be long. I saw a phone near the entrance. I’ll stay within sight.” He moves in that direction, leaving me with the body and the murderer. To stand guard? Or because he’s between me and the entrance? Impossible to say, but it’s easier to focus on that than the scene behind me. I still can’t quite process that it happened at all. This…

I listen quietly as Apollo makes his calls. First to Zeus, explaining the situation. It goes about as well as can be expected. After he gives a quick report, there are a lot of low murmurs and apologies. It infuriates me. Apollo was sent here on a fact-finding mission. There’s no way he could have known what would happen. No one knew what would happen.

Except Hermes.

I can’t think about that too closely right now. I always knew what Hermes was capable of, but knowing in theory and seeing it play out are two very different things. She tried to protect me in her own way, but I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.

They’ll have one chance to keep this under wraps, and even then I don’t know if it’s possible. This isn’t like my parents. They were the only two who planned the assassination, the only two who acted on it. They didn’t have one of the Thirteen in their corner.

The Thirteen are still going to try to cover it up. It means more blood. More death. Maybe a fire this time instead of a car crash.

A broken laugh escapes my lips. I guess I have my answer on what Apollo would have done if he’d held the title when my parents attempted to assassinate Athena. Theseus got farther than my parents did, but he hasn’t been successful. He hasn’t completed the ritual required to trigger the clause.

Even as I think it, a faint groan has me turning despite myself. I don’t think Theseus is going to be in any shape to do damage in the near future, but if he’s already stirring, I’m not about to take anything for granted. “Stay down.”

He’s nowhere near as bloodied as Apollo. I stare at him, nauseous and my head swimming with adrenaline. He cracks open one dark eye and meets my gaze. I tense. “Don’t say a word.”

He rasps out a painful-sounding breath. “I claim Hephaestus’s title by right of might and the laws written upon Olympus’s founding.”

“No,” I whisper. I know what comes next. My parents rehearsed it often enough before their failed assassination attempt. “No,” I repeat, louder this time.

He ignores me. “Cassandra…” Another harsh breath. “You stand as my witness.”

The tire iron falls from my nerveless fingers.





33


Apollo

The nightmare only gets worse as time goes on. Zeus sends Ares. In the thirty minutes it takes her to arrive—she must have been waiting close by because there’s no way to reach this location from the city center in such a short time—Minos and his family have already tried to bully their way into the garage. Holding that door while it takes everything I have to stay on my feet… Well, the less said about it, the better.