Chapter 37
Eryx
“Idon’t know why you’re prepping to leave the boat, Eryx. You shan’t be permitted to go with them, just like last time.”
The longer I spend around Busiris, the more I want to punch him in the face.
“I’m not staying here,” I growl, gripping the rear mast of the Zephyr hard enough to make my hand hurt.
“We both know you’ll do whatever the captain tells you to do,” says a smirking Busiris, the black ink that lines his eyes cracking as his face moves. He’s the same height as me, but nowhere near as muscular.
I widen my stance, my heavy boots thudding on the deck, and advance on him. I feel some grim satisfaction as the smirk falls from his face.
When the scrawny idiot thinks it’s going to come down to a fight, he’s a lot less smug.
“Just do your fucking job, and leave me alone.”
Busiris backs right up, bending to coil ropes at a safer distance from me. His gleaming gold skin catches the light, his white toga tight around his lean body.
“One pretty face was all it took, huh? And she had you wrapped around her finger,” he says after a beat. “In what world did you really believe a pretty little girl like that could be interested in an ugly brute like you?”
I pull my boot off my foot in a swift movement, and launch it exactly as he looks up from the ropes in his hands. The golden half giant howls as it connects with his cheek.
“Fuck off, Busiris.”
His taunt is true. That’s why it stings. There is no way in Zeus’s Olympus I would ever admit that aloud, but it changes nothing.
There truly is no world in which Evadne could actually be interested in me. I’m not sure anyone will ever be interested in me.
I don’t fit with the giants, or the humans. I’m scarred, battered, and penniless.
And I’m a damned fool for listening to her for even one sentence, and everyone on the ship knows it.
“I’ll throw you over myself,” Busiris hisses, then launches my boot back at me. I sidestep it easily, then yank it back onto my foot.
The other three might be able to throw me overboard, but the threat is hollow from Busiris. He angers me so much more than the loud, immature brothers on the ship. He’s sly, and I don’t trust him. But my beloved captain does, so I’ll just have to do as I’m told. As usual.
I stomp away, putting as much distance as I can between myself and my crewmates. Stopping at the other end of the rear quarterdeck, I look past the railings of the Orion. We’re approaching Libra.
It’s one of my favorite realms in Olympus. It is made up of hundreds of flat, floating islands, clustered together in a loose sphere. Even from a distance I can make out some of the larger platform-like islands that hang together around the edge of the realm.
The thudding of footsteps announces my captain’s presence, and I straighten.
“Captain, please, I—” I begin as soon as Antaeus comes into view. The twins lumber behind him.
“You’re all coming,” Antaeus booms, cutting me off. Relief washes through me, and I work not to visibly sag. “Including you, Busiris,” he bellows. The half giant appears farther down the deck, a reluctant look on his face. “We don’t need anybody on the ship this time—there will be no drop-offs.”
Antaeus leans on the reinforced metal railings beside me, and together we watch as Libra slowly gets bigger.
The Orion will likely be the last to arrive, as it’s the slowest of the four ships. A fact I’m sure will continue to be an issue if we survive to take part in more Trials.
The sky around us is becoming grayer, streaks of blue and purple rolling like corkscrews around the giant ship as it chugs toward its destination.
Antaeus’s heavy hand falls on my shoulder.
“You’ll get your chance this time, brother. Just don’t let that girl anywhere near you.” My captain speaks quietly, and I feel my back straighten.
Yes. This will be my chance. Antaeus has always believed in me, where others haven’t. Always.
I’ll show Busiris, and Evadne, that Antaeus has not misplaced his belief.
This is our Trial to win, I’m certain.
Who better to defeat a giant, three-headed monster than a crew of giants?