Radiant Sin(92)

Not to mention Minos’s benefactor. They’ve really set the stage to destabilize us and leave the city ripe for the picking the moment the boundary falls.

Athena and Ares will have their hands full.

We’re all going to have our hands full.

“I’ll be careful. I promise.” I try for a smile. “I’ll have your belongings retrieved from Minos’s house and delivered here tomorrow.”

She nods once and then she’s gone, walking out of my life without looking back. I sit at the curb well after she disappears through that rickety door. She might not be staying in this place much longer, but I make a mental note to track down the owner and insist on the door being replaced so the next occupant doesn’t have to deal with what Cassandra has.

I head to Dodona Tower. It’s late enough that there’s little traffic, and I make good time. It’s only been a little over a week since I was here last, but it feels strange to step out of the elevator and into the doorway-studded hall that leads to the ballroom. That’s not my destination tonight. Instead, I head to the previously mostly unused boardroom halfway down the hall. The last Zeus preferred to keep the Thirteen as separate as possible, but our current one has a different, more unified goal for the group.

I’m the last one to arrive. The rest of the Thirteen sit around the table. All except Hephaestus. Guilt surges through me. I didn’t like the man; he was an active foil again and again to our current Zeus’s attempts to bring the Thirteen into one balanced alliance. That doesn’t mean he deserved to be murdered, though.

I sink into the chair between Ares and Poseidon, a giant white man with red hair and beard and a permanently furious expression on his brutal face. He hates these meetings the most out of anyone, preferring to stay in his shipping yard running the imports and exports out of Olympus.

Zeus sits at the head of the table, Aphrodite on his left and Athena on his right. The latter is a beautiful Black woman with black curls cut short on the sides and longer on top and a bearing that makes people take notice of her when she enters the room. She’s as ruthless as she is brilliant. She flicks a quick look at me, taking in my bruised face. “I see you got your hands dirty, Apollo.”

“Something like that.”

Demeter sits on the other side of Poseidon. She has the look of her elder three daughters, a white woman in her fifties who projects the persona that she’s all too ready to step in as a mother figure for anyone she comes across. Only a fool would underestimate her.

For once Dionysus looks entirely sober, and he’s inched his chair away from Hermes. She doesn’t appear concerned, though. She’s got her chair balanced on the back two legs, her hands behind her head and her gaze on the ceiling. Personally, if Artemis was looking at me with that expression on her face, I wouldn’t be so relaxed.

Hades and Hera occupy the end of the table opposite Zeus. They’ve become another pair that’s a large pain in Zeus’s ass, though they’re usually subtle in how they dig in their heels and fight him. Hades is a brooding white man with dark hair and a neatly trimmed dark beard who favors black on black suits, like he’s wearing today. Nothing shows on either of their faces.

Zeus clears his throat. “I had hoped to get ahead of this, but there’s no help for it. Theseus has killed Hephaestus and claimed right of might. The title is his.”

“The fuck it is.” Artemis shoves to her feet. “Being a member of the Thirteen doesn’t make him untouchable. I’ll kill him myself for what he did to my cousin.”

“You will do no such thing.” Zeus doesn’t raise his voice, but the bite in it cuts her legs out from beneath her and she drops back into her chair. “The press has picked up the story.”

“How strange,” Hermes mutters.

I had assumed Minos was responsible for the leak, but… “Do we have you to thank for that as well?”

“Who, me?” She rights her chair and gives me a long look. “Everything I do, I do for Olympus.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Artemis spits out. She’s so furious, she’s practically vibrating. “I know you told that bastard about the assassination clause. How does that help Olympus?”

Hermes looks around the table. “Minos didn’t come here on his own. He’s answering to someone more powerful.”

Zeus looks like he wants to press his fingers to his temples but manages to resist the motion. “That information would have been helpful several weeks ago. Why not speak up before we instated him as an Olympian citizen? Why pass him information that allowed his son to infiltrate our highest body of power?” His voice is so cold, the temperature in the room seems to drop several degrees.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

“That’s bullshit, Hermes.” Ares twists to pin her with a look. “With one move, he’s effectively destabilized the entire city.”

“That remains to be seen.” Hermes shrugs. “Maybe we need to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.”

“Hermes.” This from Hades. His voice is low with a faint rasp. He rarely speaks in these meetings, but I’ve seen how he runs his territory. He’s a good leader. The lower city is arguably better off than the upper city when it comes to its citizens’ individual lives. “You know I have no love lost for the rest of the Thirteen.” He looks around the table. “But this is impulsive, even for you.”