“You are a good, good man, Zai Aridam,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “Don’t thank me.”
I frown. “Why? Did you promise Hermes something in return?” I ask, suspicion making me watch him more closely.
“No.” He waves away my worry. “He came to me, actually.”
The hells he did. Why would Hermes do that? What possible reason? “Isn’t there anyone you would ask to bring back? Someone close to you?”
He shakes his head.
“Well…thank you from Boone and from me.” I put my palm against the glass, and Zai flattens his on the other side.
What else can I say?
“Thank you for asking me to be your ally,” he says. The smile he offers me is one I imagine old friends would share, full of understanding and acceptance and a need to be there for each other.
I like to think of him as a friend. Boone said I didn’t have friends, not because of my curse but because of the walls I put up. I didn’t with Zai, and he accepted me when he really never should have. Curse or no curse.
“I probably brought you more problems than solutions,” I say.
Zai’s smile widens to a grin. “I like solving problems.”
His expression is so endearing, I don’t bother to tell him the truth. Even if Zai wins the final Labor, I’m guessing he won’t win the Crucible. Not with one of his wins being a tie with Rima. Diego wins. No matter what. But I’m not going to point that out. The gesture alone is…enough.
It also gives me an idea.
Hades won’t like it. Charon, either, for that matter. It’s a betrayal of sorts. But it’s also the right thing to do.
“Zai…I have a favor to ask.”
“What favor?” he asks. No wariness. No suspicion. Only trust.
I truly did pick the best possible ally for this nightmare. “You’re not going to like it.”
100
There Can Be Only One
The fact that a brand-new uniform was delivered to my cell this evening with dinner was a good clue that the next Labor is soon. Tonight, most likely.
I ate. I dressed. And I’ve been sitting on my bed, waiting. I should rest or something, but the anxious energy of nerves and…well, too many nerves to figure out all the other emotions swirling around in there…won’t let me relax.
So I pace. And sit. And pace.
And through the night and into the next day, I watch the door, anticipating one face, hoping for another. I’ve put Zai in a tricky position, but I have absolute faith that he did what I asked. It took convincing, but he agreed.
In the evening, the door suddenly opens—I didn’t even hear footsteps on the other side—and I get to my feet, expecting one of the Daemones or maybe Hades to walk through and take me to my final fight.
Instead…a goddess enters. Dressed in a flowing pink chiffon dress, made up with glittering gold at her eyes and lips, she strolls casually through the door as if this is just a normal Tuesday.
“Hello, darling,” Aphrodite trills.
She doesn’t even glance at Zeles, who let her in. Instead, she looks around my cell, nose wrinkling.
“How very…drab,” she comments. “You must be so bored.”
“I get by.”
She pins me with a gaze sparkling with mischief. “I’d be happy to give you a mental orgasm just to lighten up your dreary day.”
Zeles stiffens where he still stands in the doorway.
Her back is to him, so he doesn’t see the way more mischief tugs at her lips. She’s fucking with the Daemon deliberately.
“I’m about to go into a Labor,” I point out.
Aphrodite hums deeply, suggestively. “It’s the best way to relax before battle that I’ve ever found.”
Battle? Is that a hint?
She raises her eyebrows at me, eyes wide and questioning.
I clear my throat around a chuckle lodged there. “No. Thank you, though.”
She twitches her shoulders in annoyance. “I can feel the unrealized sexual tension stretching from Hades’ home on the other side of Olympus to here.” Then she gives me a look that is insistent and pointed. “Are you sure you don’t want my help?”
