Radiant Sin(86)
I would spare her this if I could. It’s not likely to be a comfortable experience for anyone. I clear my throat. “I’ll ensure Zeus holds up his end of the bargain.”
At that, she finally looks at me. There are tear tracks beneath her eyes and she looks more exhausted than I’ve ever seen her. “I know.”
“Cassandra.” I glance at Patroclus, who’s doing his very best to pretend he can’t hear us, and then back at her. “Please come home with me. At least until we get this figured out.”
She looks like she wants to argue but finally gives a jerky nod. “Okay.”
We don’t speak again until Patroclus pulls the SUV to the curb outside my building. It’s only then that I realize we’re both a mess and Cassandra has nothing to change into. I clear my throat. “I’ll send someone to your place to get your things.”
“Thanks.” It’s a testament to how rattled she is that she doesn’t argue. That she barely looks around as we head through the lobby and take the elevator up to the top.
All the members of the Thirteen who reside in the city center—Zeus and Hera, Ares, Athena, and myself—have what’s come to be designated living spaces. The title of Apollo owns this entire building; I inherited that income as well as the penthouse itself when I took over the position. I’m so used to seeing it that I try to look around through Cassandra’s point of view…but I’m too exhausted to make it work.
It’s too much. That’s about what it amounts to. Too much chrome. Too much marble. Too much money spent on things that hardly matter beyond aesthetics. But it’s as safe as any place in Olympus, so it’s home.
I lead us through my front door, not pausing in the open space that is my living room and kitchen, instead pressing my hand to her lower back and guiding her down the hallway to where my bedroom and home office are. She stands there silently as I turn on the shower but bats my hands away when I reach for her zipper. “I can do it.”
“Cassandra, let me take care of you.” I pause. “Please.”
She hesitates and finally nods. “Only if you promise to let me bandage you up after we get clean.”
Truth be told, I’m not certain there’s anything to bandage. My eye is swollen and that side of my face throbs with each beat of my heart. Theseus got me several times in the ribs, and I have no doubt my skin is a rainbow of bruises, but I’m moving well enough now that I don’t think anything’s broken. But if it will make her feel better to see for herself, I’m hardly going to tell her no. “Okay.”
I strip her slowly, letting her presence ease the fear still thrumming through me. She’s safe. The situation might not be, but she’s safe. I have never, not once, put my personal feelings or relationships above this city.
I did that today.
I have to live with the guilt of that. I don’t know if it would have made a difference, but I don’t know that it wouldn’t.
Cassandra steps out of her panties and turns to me. “There’s nothing you could have done.”
“Are you a mind reader now?” I try for a smile but drop the attempt halfway through.
“No.” She shakes her head, dark eyes serious. “But I know you. We were operating with the information we had at the time. If not for Hermes all but inviting me to eavesdrop, we wouldn’t have saved Artemis, either. Even with the attack on Pan and our theories, we didn’t have all the facts.”
Rationally, I know she’s right, but it’s nearly impossible to look at things from any shade of positive light. “A man is dead because I failed.”
“A man is dead because Minos orchestrated a plan to get multiple members of the Thirteen into one place and then his sons attempted a triple murder.” She frowns up at me. “Lay the blame where it deserves to be, Apollo.”
She unbuttons my shirt slowly and then carefully peels it away from my body. Cassandra hisses out a breath at the sight of the bruises already blossoming beneath my skin. “Promise me that you don’t think it’s worse than bruising, or I’m going to take you to the hospital right now.”
I cover her hands with mine. “It’s not worse than bruising. I’ll be hurting tomorrow, but there’s no sharp pain or difficulty breathing that would indicate something more serious.”
She stares at me for several beats and then nods. “I want to get cleaned up and then…”
I wait, but she doesn’t continue. Carefully, I take her chin and guide her back to look into my eyes. “And then?”
“Would it be okay if you held me for a while?” Her lower lip quivers a little and she makes a visible effort to still it. “I don’t think I’m doing as okay as I’m acting.”
My heart twists painfully in my chest. I would do anything to have saved her from this experience, from witnessing the very act that had such a horrific impact on her life twelve years ago. “Of course, love. Anything for you.”
34
Cassandra
I can barely look at Apollo’s body without the fear of what-if seeping in around the edges, the idea of a world without him so cold and dark that I can’t stop shaking. He thinks I’m rattled because of witnessing a murder, and I won’t pretend I’m remotely okay with that. Or the reminder that this isn’t all that unusual for him. How can he live like this? How can any of the Thirteen?
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)