Chapter 20 Zeus
Zeus
I watch Callisto deflate before my eyes.
Her shoulders slump. Her head bows. The only sign of the woman I’ve come to know is her clenched fists at her side.
We stand there in silence as Hades’s team finishes up and whisks from the room.
There’s a disturbance in the hallway, likely the second team acquiring Orpheus.
It happens so damned fast. Despite myself, part of me admires how effective he is.
If there’s a leader that I would have chosen to model myself after, it’s Hades.
But that ship has long since sailed.
With how tentative and tumultuous things are between Callisto and me, I hate to bring up what we need to do next. Unfortunately, hiding from the truth won’t make it less likely to kick you in the teeth. “Are you going to tell your mother? Or shall I?”
She lifts her head, her expression wan. “Do we have to?”
The look we share is full of so much acknowledged misery that I almost laugh despite myself. Only knowing I’ll soon be on the phone with Demeter herself, explaining to her how two of her beloved daughters were hurt under my watch, keeps my lips from curving. “You know we do.”
She tilts her head back and stares at the ceiling, obviously contemplating options that won’t require the phone call.
In that moment, I take the opportunity to survey her again.
For all she told me, her wound is just a graze, for all the doctor informed me that both her and the fetus are fine, it’s still hard to believe she’s okay.
Likely because she’s not okay. Getting shot is hardly a normal experience or without its trauma. Callisto showing even the slightest sign of buckling indicates that she’s significantly more affected than she appears.
Finally, she says, “You tell her. If I do, then it’ll become a fight, and I need my mother to listen when I see her next. I need her to see things my way.”
See things her way. Her sister said several things before being whisked out of the room.
I have questions about that—and the meeting itself.
Callisto was very careful to ensure I had no knowledge of it, and she didn’t even bring her trio of ever-present guards with her.
That seems to indicate a level of secrecy that has nothing to do with her ongoing plans to murder me.
I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.
I cross my arms over my chest. “I’ll call your mother and take the fall, on one condition.”
“Oh, we’re bargaining now?” She raises her eyebrow, seeming to settle a little bit more within her skin. “All right. Let’s hear it. What’s your condition?”
It’s a risk, but everything we do these days is a risk.
She already knows I feel enough for her to complicate things.
And if she doesn’t know, then it’s because she’s being intentionally obtuse.
Everyone else fucking knows. “After this call, once we get the all clear from your doctor, you’re coming home with me tonight.
And you’re staying there all night. Tomorrow, you’ll accompany me to the countryside. ”
She narrows those pretty hazel eyes. “Not to stay in the countryside.”
For all that her mother’s scheming is enough to keep even the most composed person up at night, Demeter cares for her daughters deeply and would throw herself in front of a tank to save them.
It would never come to that, of course. She has schemes within schemes within schemes, all designed to secure power and increase it.
If a tank threatened, she’d bribe the driver and turn it on her enemies.
If bribery didn’t work, she’d find something to blackmail them with.
She’s formidable in a way even my father was wary of.
There are few places safer for my wife than at her mother’s side.
But I don’t want Callisto so far from me.
Selfish. Foolish. Pick your insult. It’s all true and more.
I’m a damned fool for her; despite all her murderous impulses, I don’t want her to leave the city proper.
“Not to stay. Poseidon thinks Circe might be planning something in relation to the mountains. It’s possible she has knowledge of a pass through them that’s been lost in Olympian history.
I’m going to take some of Ares’s people and look into it.
You can use the opportunity to spend some time with your mother and Psyche. ”
“That’s…thoughtful.” It sounds almost like an accusation coming from her. She’s not entirely wrong to be suspicious. If she’s ensconced in her family’s bosom, she’ll at least be safe while I investigate the perimeter.
“Do we have a deal?”
She only hesitates a beat. “Yes.”
Now for the truly challenging part. I pull out my phone and dial Demeter before I can think too hard about what’s coming. I barely let her get a greeting out before I cut in. “There was an incident involving Persephone and Callisto. They’re both fine and expected to make a full recovery.”
“A full recovery.” I’ve never heard three normal words sound so threatening. Not even my father could quite pull off the same level of polite menace. “I am going to need more details than that, dear Zeus.”
I glance at my wife and then partially turn away from her.
I may take the fall for this, but she’s not fully free from blame.
“They were meeting on the banks of the River Styx. There was a sniper. They and their two guards were all wounded but not severely enough to endanger their lives. The worst was Orpheus, who needed surgery, but he came through just fine and is well enough to be transported back to the lower city, alongside Persephone and Medusa. That was the first order Hades issued upon arriving at the hospital.”
“He did what?”
Maybe I’m a coward, but if I’m willing to take the fall for my wife, I’m sure as fuck not for Hades.
If I can throw him to the wolf that is Demeter in the process?
All the better. Let him deal with her fury.
“He charged in here and took both Persephone and her guards to the lower city. I’m not sure that any of them were actually discharged. ”
She’s only silent for a moment. “And the extent of Hera’s injuries?”
“She has a graze on her arm that required stitches and a few bumps and bruises, but she’s otherwise perfectly fine.
I’m taking her home and keeping her there tonight, but I will bring her out to the countryside tomorrow for you to spend some time with and reassure yourself that she’ll make a full recovery. ”
“Very well. I’ll see her tomorrow and get full answers then. In the meantime, I have a certain lord of the lower city to call.” She hangs up without saying goodbye.
I turn back to find Callisto watching me with a strange expression on her face. Her lips curl the tiniest bit. “That was mean.”
“If he’s going to make dramatic statements and grand gestures, then he can deal with explaining why to Demeter.
” He’s not going to be any happier with her than he is with the rest of us, and it’s just as well.
The safest place for Persephone is in the lower city behind that barrier.
At least while it still stands. I have no doubt Circe has plans for it to be destroyed as well.
Personally, I could use Hades’s help, but it’s clear his priorities are his wife and the twin babies she carries.
I can’t fault him for that. Callisto doesn’t even know that I know she’s pregnant, and it’s everything I can do not to package her up and ship her away—or lock her in a room until this is over.
She’d hate me for either choice, but at least she’d be safe.
Except, no, she wouldn’t. The first chance she got, she’d be knocking down walls and scaling the side of the building to go cause more trouble. My wife isn’t one to be content on the sidelines. She’ll be at my side instead.
Callisto sighs and starts to run her fingers through her hair, only to find it matted with blood from the cut on the side of her face. She winces. “I suppose a shower wouldn’t be out of order.”
Even with all my power, I’m no Hades to whisk her out of here despite the doctor’s protest. I’d like my personal doctor to look her over just to be sure she’s fine, but I already know she won’t allow it.
Until she tells me that she’s pregnant, I have to tread carefully when it comes to her medical stuff.
It takes another thirty minutes before I have discharge papers in hand and am able to usher Callisto into the black SUV I called to pick us up.
She slumps back against the seat in a way that makes my stomach twist. I’m a man of action.
Give me an enemy to conquer, and I will dismantle it to the best of my ability.
Give me a dispute to navigate, and I’ll find the best way through, weighing the scales to ensure the fairest solution.
But with my injured wife, I don’t have the skills or the words to comfort her.
I’ve never felt so inadequate in my life.
Ultimately, she takes the choice from me.
We’ve only ridden two blocks when her eyes flutter closed, and her body goes limp, slumping down to rest her head on my shoulder.
Panic flutters in my throat, but her steady breathing reassures me.
She’s had a horrific shock, and an injury on top of that, not to mention the increasing amount of stress every citizen in Olympus is feeling—particularly the Thirteen. It’s no wonder her body shut down.
She’s still sleeping by the time we park in the garage in our building. I don’t hesitate to carefully scoop her up. Callisto is one of those women who’s larger than life in everything she does, but she curls so sweetly into my arms that it makes me sick with need.
The need to be a completely different person. One who isn’t the universally hated Zeus. One who she might want to marry for the man instead of the title. One who isn’t emotionally stunted and unable to provide the support she obviously requires.
She stirs as I walk through the front door. “I fell asleep?”
“Yeah.” I bypass the main living area and walk down the hall to the primary bedroom. I already know she won’t allow me to put her to bed until she’s clean, so I head into the bathroom and set her carefully on the counter. “Stay here.”
It’s a testament to her exhaustion that she doesn’t immediately rip me a new one. She merely sits and watches as I start the shower and then pull the first aid kit from beneath the sink. Only then does she speak. “I’m bandaged up just fine.”
“I know. But there’s a chance that cut on your face might reopen once we get it wet. And we’ll have to be careful of your arm.”
“Perseus…”
Hearing my name—my true name—on her lips stills me. I’m helpless to do anything but meet her gaze. I don’t know what I expect to see. I don’t know what she sees, but she looks just as conflicted as I feel. She shifts uncomfortably. “I can’t—”
I cut in before she can rip my heart out. Again. “I know this changes nothing. But just…let me take care of you tonight, Callisto. Please.”
I can actually see the warring thoughts behind her eyes. My wife is perversely independent and hates me. And yet she nods jerkily. “Just for tonight.”