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)
The moment she turns the corner in the hallway, we all wilt a little bit. Thanatos shakes his head and runs his fingers through his thick black hair. “For the longest time, I didn’t understand what they saw in each other, but I get it now. She’s just as scary as he is when she’s riled.” He turns to Eurydice, and his smile takes on a new level of warmth. “Hey, there.”
“Hey, Thanatos.” She smiles too. “Wild day.”
“You can say that again.” He turns to Minthe, and then he’s all business. “How bad is it, really?”
“I keep telling them,” she says through gritted teeth, “it’s barely more than a scratch. I might need a stitch or two, but that’s the worst of it.”
Thanatos shakes his head. “Yeah, well, we’ll see when the doctor checks you out. Come with me.”
Calypso turns to Medusa and Ariadne. “Let’s head to the kitchen while we wait. I bet Georgie is cooking up a storm right now. If she won’t let us help her out, then maybe she’ll let us taste test.” It’s very clearly an effort to remove the lost expression from Ariadne’s face. It’s an effective one. They head off in the opposite direction, leaving me and Eurydice alone.
Her smile falls away in an instant. “Those people were clearly professionals. They’ve managed to avoid Charon for weeks, which is no small feat. He’s in danger.”
I don’t know what to say to comfort her, because I’m not comforted right now at all. “Charon is one of the most capable and dangerous people we know. He’ll come home to us.”
“If you hadn’t reacted so quickly, I might not be coming home to us tonight. Anything can happen.” She worries her bottom lip. “Maybe we should—”
“Who’s Thanatos?” I ask the question in a rush, determined to get ahead of whatever suggestion she’s about to make. Because if she wants us to sneak out and go after him, I’ll be helpless to do anything but exactly that. And, damn it, I know that’s not the right answer.
Instead, I pick a fight, following the thread of jealousy that curled through me at the familiarity between Eurydice and Thanatos. I’m honestly surprised to feel it; I don’t mind our duo becoming a trio with Charon. If I felt jealousy there, it’s a dual thing—jealousy in that he gets to touch her and she gets to touch him, where before I was only able to watch.
That’s not the same sensation I’m getting with Thanatos.
The way Eurydice takes a step back and won’t quite meet my gaze only makes the feeling more pronounced. “Oh, uh, he works for Hades, but I met him for the first time a little while ago at the club.”
“The club,” I repeat. “You mean Hades’s kink club.”
“In the lower city, when people refer to the club, they’re only speaking of one place.” She actually shuffles her feet. “Look, we had a tiny kiss, it doesn’t mean anything, and I already got read the riot act by Charon. It was before you came across the river.”
I don’t ask the other question bubbling up behind my teeth. Ultimately, it’s none of my business. I only meant to ask about it to distract her from climbing out a window and going after Charon. Still, it does bring up one question I hadn’t even realized I had. “We’re a trio, right? Which means we’re polyamorous.”
“Yes,” she says slowly.
I feel silly and I haven’t even asked a question yet, but I lick my lips and force the words out. “Does that mean we’re open?”
“Do you want to be open?”
No. Absolutely not. But I’m afraid to draw that firm a line when things between us still feel so new. “I asked you first.” It’s a dodge, and not even a good one at that.
Eurydice studies me for several beats. “Ultimately, that’s something to discuss with the three of us. We’ll figure out our boundaries together, just as soon as Charon comes back to us.” She goes back to worrying her bottom lip. “Would you like to see the library? It’s almost big enough to get lost in; it’s a really nice room. We can wait for him there.”
It seems almost childlike, the way we avoid speaking our fears, as if to say them aloud will make them real. I’m not going to be the one to burst that bubble. I nod and hold out my hand. “Show me the library.”
33
CHARON
“You should’ve waited back at the house.” It’s the same thing I’ve said several dozen times in the last fifteen minutes. And just like every other time, Hades ignores me. He taps the screen of the tablet in his hand, his expression intense. Thanks to Orpheus’s quick thinking in calling me, we were able to catch the van on cameras and use that network to track them to where they’re headed.