Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
She crosses her arms. “Listen, I know you’re all about paying penance right now, and while I find immense satisfaction in having you crawl for me, you are still a person with thoughts and feelings and needs. Scenes end, Orpheus. Would you like to come with me, or would you rather stay here and wait for us to return?”
Part of me wishes she would make the choice for me. She’s already made it clear that she won’t though. I take a deep breath. Maybe it’s foolish, but I can’t shake the feeling that if I let her out of my sight, this will all end. Dealing with her sisters and their blatant hate is a small enough price to pay for spending time in Eurydice’s presence. “I would like to come with you, if that’s all right.”
She studies me for a long moment and finally nods. “Okay.”
Charon has his phone out and is typing away with his big fingers. “Medusa will be on your security detail. Are you going to see your mom as well or coming straight back?”
Eurydice sighs, and although the sound has plenty of exasperation, there’s more than a little fondness. “I was planning on coming straight back afterward.”
“Then I’ll send Minthe too.”
“Charon.”
He hesitates without looking away from this phone. “You know I worry about you.”
“Medusa is more than formidable enough to ensure I’m safe. If you put too many people on my security, you might as well signal that I’m someone important. You’ll make a target of me.”
She’s…manipulating him. She’s not exactly lying, but it’s clear that she has an agenda, and it’s equally clear that hers is at odds with what Charon wants. I can’t see a good reason not to have more security. As best I can tell, Eurydice hasn’t spent much time in the upper city in the last year, but she has access to all the same sources of news that we do. She has to know how dangerous it is.
Why is she trying to have less security?
I open my mouth to ask, but Eurydice shoots me such a venomous look that I snap my jaw shut. Oh yeah, she knows exactly what she’s doing. Curiosity unfurls inside me. She’s up to something, but she’s still willing to let me tag along.
Finding out what Eurydice doesn’t want Charon to know is more than worth the price of an uncomfortable lunch.
She pushes away from the bathroom counter and waves a hand at me. “You’ll need to wear something else.”
I don’t have anything else to wear. All three of us know it. Charon transfers his frown from his phone to me. “I think I have something that might fit.”
That startles a laugh out of me. “There’s no universe where we’re the same size.” We’re close enough in height, but he’s built much wider and thicker than I am.
Charon ignores me, turning and heading back into the closet. He reappears a few minutes later with a pair of pants and a button-up shirt. I want to argue, but Eurydice sends me another of those sharp looks. It’s not quite a command, but it might as well be. Which is how I find myself taking a quick shower and putting on Charon’s clothes.
The biggest surprise comes from the fact that…they fit. I don’t know if that means they don’t belong to him, or if at some point he was significantly thinner, but I don’t ask. In fact, I say nothing at all until Eurydice and I are leaving the apartment side by side. I wait two blocks before I ask the question that’s been burning on the back of my tongue. “What are you hiding from him?”
“What makes you think I’m hiding something?”
I smile a little, though it feels bitter. “You forget, Eurydice. I might’ve been a shitty boyfriend, but I’ve known you half of my life. You never answer questions with a question unless you’re trying to hide something.”
She glares. “You always do that. We might’ve gone to school together, but it’s not like we moved in the same circles. You don’t get to act like you’ve known me for that long; you didn’t even notice me when we were teenagers.”
That’s the thing that she’s never understood; she sure as fuck never believed me when I tried to explain it. I always noticed her, from the moment that she and her sisters walked through the front doors of our private school. It was the fall after her mother had become Demeter, and they brought a novelty that legacy kids like me rarely saw. Most of my peers treated them as the enemy, and I won’t pretend I didn’t go along with it at times, but Eurydice fascinated me from the first moment I saw her. Delicate and beautiful and positive in a way that I still don’t understand. When everyone around me was jaded, interacting with her always felt like a breath of fresh air.