Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I could…make a difference. I think I even want to.
“We’re done here.” Zeus spins on his heel and stalks to where Bellerophon and the others wait by the railing. He stops halfway and looks back at us. “If they give you any trouble, kill them.”
“Absolutely not.” I’m speaking before I can fully process that I’ve stepped forward—stepped between Zeus and the Aeaeans. “No one is touching them.”
Zeus turns to me. The survivor in me, the one who will do anything to save his own skin, screams that I need to do something to draw his attention away from me. But that survivor isn’t the only voice inside me. These are my people. I don’t recognize the feeling of those words, but they resonate in a way that snaps my spine straight.
“I will not risk Olympus because of your misguided heroism,” he snarls.
I laugh. I can’t help it. “I’m no hero. But I will hold you to your word. Or is that as changeable as your father’s was?”
The calculated words hit their mark. He doesn’t react, other than to turn away. “Get them out of my sight and bring the ship round by morning.”
“We’ll see it done,” Poseidon says quietly. He places his hand in the middle of my back as we watch Zeus stalk away. As soon as the blond man vanishes from sight, Poseidon turns to me. “You should talk to them.”
“What?”
“The crew.” He watches me carefully. “They recognize you, the same way the person down in the cabin did.”
“I have a recognizable face.” The words are right, a perfect side step, but I can’t help turning to the crew. It’s easy enough to pick out the leaders among them. They’re the people the others crowd around, the ones who move with a little more steadiness, trying to bolster everyone’s courage. It’s false bravado, but I respect it.
One of them holds my gaze, a man with light-brown skin weathered from the sun and years, his short hair long since gone gray. “What happens now?”
“We are going to get you home.”
He laughs bitterly. “For all the good it will do. We don’t get our wages until the end of this disaster. What home do we have to go back to?”
He’s right, and yet it doesn’t sit well with me. I look around at the people gathered. There are easily fifty of them. “I’ll pay you for your lost wages when we return to Aeaea.”
Instead of looking comforted, the man crosses his arms over his chest. “And what of the others?”
“The others?”
“The other crews,” he supplies. “They sailed off without accomplishing their goals. No doubt Deo Artino and the others will use that as an excuse not to pay them for the work they did.”
I glance at Poseidon, but he’s simply watching me, letting me take the lead. I could use some of his deep well of confidence now. There’s none to be had inside of me, but I’ve always known how to fake it. “That sounds like something Deo would do. He’s a bastard like that.” I shrug. “Then I’ll pay their wages, too.” My father was the kind of rich that borders on absurdity. It’s an easy enough promise to make.
“Why?”
I blink. “Why?”
“Yeah. What’s in it for you?”
It’s a fair question, and one I don’t have an answer to. “It’s the right thing to do.”
The man laughs again, even harsher this time. “Since when has an Aeaean noble cared about the right thing to do when it comes to people like us?”
I have to fight down the tremble that threatens. He’s right. My father and his ilk are selfish creatures who hoard their money and are only concerned with getting more. I’m just like them…but that doesn’t mean I have to be. I could…choose to be different? “Since now.” My voice is even steady as I say it.
“We need to get moving,” Poseidon says softly. “We don’t have long to get them to safety.”
“Right.” I meet this stranger’s eyes. “Stay here. We’re going to travel outside of Olympus’s waters and then the crew will be freed, but if you cause trouble, I can’t save you.”
“I understand.” He sinks back down to speak in a low voice with the others gathered around him.
A couple of Athena’s people stand over the crew with guns held easily in their hands, but they look significantly more inscrutable than Zeus was, so I’m not worried about them panicking and shooting someone—or killing them out of anger. They’re true professionals, because of course they are; they work for Athena, after all.
Poseidon leads me up to the bridge. We’re alone for the first time since we left his apartment, and the relative silence feels so fucking loud. He scrubs his hands over his face. “Okay. Okay, next steps.”
Next steps. “We need a way to get my people back to Aeaea.” I already meant for it to happen, but after seeing the crew on this ship, having it driven home exactly how fucked over they’ve been by every single person in power.