Chapter 25 Zeus #2
Helen curses under her breath. “She’s only one woman. I understand that we’ve suffered losses, but she’s human, not some supernatural boogeyman who will pop up when we least expect it. We just need to be prepared.”
I want to believe that. Truly I do. But evidence supports one truth: being prepared isn’t enough. I nod in the direction of the north. “Walk with me.”
She worries her bottom lip but nods. “Achilles. Patroclus. Would you mind getting the search parties put together? We’re running out of daylight, and I don’t want to spend the night out here.”
Neither one of them looks too happy to let her walk off with me, but I’m her brother.
Even if we haven’t always seen eye to eye, I’ve never wished her harm.
Yes, she would’ve married the winner of the Ares title if I had my way, but after seeing both Achilles and Patroclus perform in the trials, it was all but guaranteed one of them would’ve won if Helen hadn’t.
Except she did win—because she was the best—and fuck if I’m not so proud of her that it makes me a little ill.
We start to the north, skirting the edges of the foothills. I wait until we’re well out of hearing range before I speak. “What do you think of the Thirteen?”
Helen shoots me an alarmed look. “What kind of question is that?”
“Before she shot my wife, Hermes came to see me.” Easier to focus on Hermes as the source of the topic than the careful conversation I had with Callisto in the privacy of our bedroom.
Helen and Hermes used to be friends, before their relationship buckled under the weight of Hermes’s treachery.
I relay everything Hermes said before she disappeared.
Helen looks more and more concerned the longer I speak.
She barely waits for me to finish before she cuts in. “It won’t work. The legacy families would never allow the Thirteen to cease to exist. And what would she set up in place of it? A democracy? That’s not easy to accomplish, and it’s just as likely to be rife with corruption as our system.”
“If there were term limits, it would prevent a lot. As members of the Thirteen, we hold our positions until we step down or die, and the number of people who have stepped down is minimal. Most keep the positions until their deaths.”
“I’m aware,” she snaps. “Are you actually giving this credence? You were trained to be Zeus from the moment you were born. You’d walk away from that?”
“Eris did.” I speak the words we’ve so carefully danced around for months.
After Eris stepped down from the Aphrodite title, we never spoke of it again.
Not her and me. Not Helen and me. From the expression on my sister’s face, I suspect they haven’t, either.
I press forward. “She’s happier for it.”
Helen glances over her shoulder. I follow her gaze to where we can still see the silhouettes of her partners standing on the hill we left behind. “I fought so hard to become Ares. I almost lost so much.”
“I know.”
“Even if I were willing to hear Hermes out and entertain this idea, that doesn’t remove the threat of Circe. We have to deal with her before we can do anything else.”
She’s right. It’s the proper priority—not cowardice. Or that’s what I tell myself as I nod. “Agreed. We’ll shelve the conversation until this conflict is resolved.”
We keep walking for some time in silence, curving to the east with the mountains. We reach the edge of the encampment and are about to turn back when I catch sight of something strange. I grab Helen’s arm and tug her back a few steps. “What is that?”
“What is… What are those people doing?” Helen slides back alongside me, her attention narrowing on the pair of women skirting away from the tents, heading into the foothills.
They walk with purpose and no urgency…exactly how someone would if they were looking to fit in.
My sister frowns. “The citizens are under strict instructions not to wander because it’s so dangerous for people who aren’t familiar with this area. ”
“Let’s find out.” I start down the hill, taking an angle so we don’t lose sight of them. The hills are deceptive, as Helen said, and that makes it hard to navigate—or follow someone.
The change that comes over Helen is truly impressive to behold. She was already deadly serious, but even the way she moves changes as she slips down the hill next to me on soundless feet. “I’m taking lead. Stay behind me.”
“Helen—”
“Come on.”
I decide not to waste time arguing and follow her, albeit less silently. Our father taught all his children how to be predators simply by existing, but there are different flavors of that and Helen has always leaned toward the physical. It’s how she won the Ares competition.
We move forward carefully. If the hills were less deceptive, the two women would have lost us immediately, but the moment they’re shielded from sight of the camp, they turn toward the mountains. I want to keep them in sight, but Helen grabs my arm and keeps me back until they disappear from sight.
“What are you doing?”
“The ground isn’t frozen solid.” She nods behind us, drawing my attention to the faint outline of our footprints.
“With everything close to the camp trampled, there’s no way to know who’s coming or going, but there can’t be many tracks out here.
We’ve been focusing our efforts to the north and south, assuming Circe wouldn’t be so brazen as to send her people this close to the camp.
” She makes a face. “That was a mistake. I’m sorry. ”
“She’s done nothing expected from the moment she arrived.” I bump my shoulder against Helen’s. “Now you’ve joined the rest of us in being outsmarted by her.”
“Yeah, well, fuck that.” She waits a beat and then moves forward to where we saw the two women last. Sure enough, there are footprints in the dirt, faint enough that I wouldn’t have noticed the signs if I wasn’t looking for them.
Helen draws her gun and looks at me, expression serious.
“We don’t shoot them if we don’t have to. ”
I do the same, a horrible stillness settling over me. “Right. We need the information they have.”
She nods and starts forward, moving faster this time.
I shadow her footsteps, ice layering over me in waves.
By the time we crouch on the crest of a low hill and look down on the four women grouped together, nothing can touch me at all.
I’ll do what needs to be done, and if I have nightmares about it later, it’s a small enough price to pay for enacting my duty.
As we watch, they crouch down around a device, speaking in low voices.
None of them appear to have weapons, but surely they must. “We split up and come from both sides. I’ll take point and distract them, and you come up behind to stop any heroics. ”
My sister gives me a long look. “That’s more dangerous for you.”
I know. A danger I’m willing to take on to spare her. “Go.”
I wait two eternal minutes and then slip down the side of the hill and come at them from the side. The blond with a head full of curly hair and light-brown skin sees me first and shoots to her feet. I already have my gun out. “Hands up.”
For a moment, I think they won’t obey, but Helen steps forward from behind them, her gun drawn as well. “Try to be a hero, end up a martyr.”
The women exchange a look I can’t read and slowly raise their hands. I nod at my sister. “Pat them down.”
She makes quick work of it, tossing away two guns and four knives.
She also pulls out zip ties from her jacket and fastens their hands behind their backs, one by one.
It takes seconds. Helen places her hands on their shoulders and guides them to their knees, and only then does she give me her attention.
“Demeter needs to know, but I don’t like the idea of marching them back like this. ”
She’s right, and not only because there are four of them and two of us.
The last thing we want is to cause a panic.
“Call in Achilles and Patroclus and transport these three back to the city for questioning. I’ll take this one to Demeter.
” I jerk my chin at the blond, who glares up at me with a fury that makes my skin prickle.
For a moment, I think Helen might argue, but she finally nods and pulls out her phone. While she calls Patroclus, I crouch before the blond. “This is the beginning of the end for you and Circe. We have you right where we want you.”
If anything, her fury seems to grow. “Yeah, I guess you do.”
Helen hangs up. “They’ll be here in five. They aren’t far off from our position now.”
It’s the longest five minutes of my life. I want nothing more than to rush back to Callisto and whisk her to the city. I don’t care if she hates me; I’m shutting her in our penthouse until we get to the bottom of exactly how many of Circe’s people have infiltrated the civilian camp.
The moment Achilles and Patroclus arrive, out of breath and damn near sprinting, I slip out of my coat and drape it over the blond’s shoulders, pausing to zip it up.
It looks odd, but it’s less eye-catching than the zip ties.
I haul her to her feet. “Let’s go.” The sooner I deliver her to Demeter, the sooner I can get my wife to safety.