Zeus enters the room with Samuel and his loved one, a woman around his age. Even Boone sits back slightly when the god of thunder appears.
“On Aphrodite’s behalf, I welcome our new guests,” Zeus booms. The god is in his element, hosting people visibly in awe of him. “Aphrodite has taken the result of her Labor hard,” he explains.
“This is the Crucible,” Hera murmurs in a tone that sounds suitably saddened, though it’s paired with an expression that is anything but. “She knew the risks when she set that Labor up. She didn’t have to make the end so dire.”
Beside Hera, Amir’s face turns beet red. He can hardly make himself look at his patron goddess, facing instead to the older woman seated to his other side. One of his nannies, maybe? Given what he said about his family, I don’t think it’s his mother.
I move my gaze back to Hera.
The thing is, as cruel as it sounds, the goddess isn’t wrong. Aphrodite didn’t have to make death at the end be part of the rules. I get that the gods and goddesses love their ticking clocks, and death is certainly an incentive, but there are other ways. As for Hera’s blessing for Amir…now that we all know the consequences, no one is going to risk touching him. That right there is a brilliant move on her part.
The goddess’s timing in pointing that out could have been better, though.
Zeus shoots Hera a chastising look. “I will host in Aphrodite’s place. We would have postponed, but after all, our ‘guests’ are here only three days before the next Labor starts.”
Days only again? Ugh.
I mean, I guess they have a bunch to get through and only a month to do it, but still.
“First, I would like to congratulate Neve for winning today’s challenge, as she was the first to return with her sister.”
He offers her a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Your prize for winning this Labor—Eros’ bow and arrows—is already in your room.”
“Thank you,” Neve says politely. Though I’m guessing by her expression that the good manners are sticking in her craw hard.
“Now,” Zeus continues, “as we enjoy the sumptuous spread, I would like each champion to introduce their loved one.” He waves as he sits.
Awesome. My personal nightmare is reaching torturous levels—public speaking and trying to explain who Boone is to me. In front of the god I was kissing just this morning.
“Must we?” Hades drawls, leaning back in his chair indolently, expression bored.
Zeus glares first at him, then at me. “Can’t you do something about him, Lyra?”
The fuck you say. That was a calculated remark to get a rise out of one or both of us, and probably Boone, too.
Deliberately, I mimic Hades’ indolent posture and tip my head, looking not at Zeus but at Hades as if I’m studying him. “I don’t know. None of you have been able to do something about him in the several millennia since he was released from Cronos’ insides,” I say.
Hades’ mercurial eyes pin me to the back of my chair with a wild flash of satisfaction so violently fast, the only reason I know I saw it is the way I’m still reeling.
I clear my throat and force a steady gaze to Zeus, who is scowling petulantly. “I don’t know why you think I, a mere mortal, would have better luck.”
Zeus sits down hard. “We shall start the introductions,” he says with a dismissive shrug. “As you know, Dae’s person was his grandmother.”
The callous delivery drops the words into a vat of silence.
She’s sitting near enough to me, so I catch Rima’s whispered, “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than Dae’s boyfriend.”
Not hearing her, Zeus waves at Samuel, who gets to his feet.
Luckily, I’m not the only one not all that enthusiastic about this. The room has a subdued weight to it as the champions each quickly make introductions. Most aren’t too surprising. Samuel’s long-time partner is here, and Jackie’s older brother. Meike has her roommate. Trinica rescued her son. The woman with Zai is his mother, like I guessed. Diego’s wife is no shock, and Demeter, showing her mothering side, assures us their two children are being cared for by Diego’s parents. Rima’s husband is here as well.
Neve gets to her feet. “This is my younger sister, Nora.”
I slowly lean forward to look around Hades at the woman sitting directly beside him. She’s probably in her mid-twenties, so only a little younger than Neve. The Nora? The one who Neve was muttering about how she was going to be killed?
Boone gives me a low whistle—one the others don’t even notice, let alone understand. He’s using a pledge’s signals to ask me what I find interesting.
I whistle back the signal for nothing or not important.
Not true, of course. Nora looks a lot like her sister, only her hair is a darker red and her eyes more green than blue. Somewhere in between. She also has a sweeter smile…or smiles at all, come to that.
Neve’s chin tips up. “Our family are…important business owners in our community. Ares informed me that someone from outside the family has threatened Nora’s life if Ares becomes king, but now that I have her back from them…” Her eyes narrow, determination stamped across her features. “They will pay for that mistake.”
Wait. Is Neve’s business-owner family some sort of crime family, Canadian style?
Hard to imagine that accent being used during criminal acts, but that would explain a lot.
Boone taps a finger on the back of my hand to get my attention and raises his eyebrows in question. I shake my head.
He sits back as Dex gets to his feet and waves at the boy with him.
“This is Rafael…Rafe,” Dex says. “He is my nephew, my sister’s son, and he’s only ten.”
Ten? So young. I want to wrap the kid up and hide him away somewhere, or ask Hades to hide him, until the next Labor is over. Amir is already too young at sixteen. A ten-year-old shouldn’t be exposed to this.
“My dad died before I was born, and Mom is…sick.” Rafe speaks up earnestly, looking at Dex like the man is his hero. “Tío Dex helps raise me.”
