Page 34 of Dark Restraint
“I can’t. We almost got caught yesterday. There will be press there. If I’m photographed with you…”
“Then I guess you better be careful. Do you remember what I said in the dressing room?”
“That you would fuck me at a party in front of all of Olympus.” Her voice wavers a little bit, as if she can’t decide if she likes it or not. “But, Asterion—”
“Be ready for me, Ariadne. Or I’ll bend you over the table right in front of your fiancé and all those cameras.”
She squeezes her thick thighs together in response to my words. Yeah, she likes the thought of that a lot. She might not trust me entirely, but she eats up the fact that I want to claim her in front of everyone.
It pisses me off that the only thing she’ll take from me is sex, but at least she’s not running screaming into the early morning darkness. I’m trying to see that shit as an improvement. More, she came to me when she was upset. Just like she used to. Maybe she doesn’t understand the significance of that, but I do.
I really want to believe it is significant and I’m not looking into things that aren’t real.
I watch her walk toward the door, moving slow enough that it’s obvious she’s not eager to leave. “Ariadne.” I wait for her to turn and meet my eyes before I continue. “Don’t trust Hera. Or Dionysus. Or any of them. They’re playing benevolent captor now, while you’re doing what they want. The second you push back, that will change.”
She smiles, but her dark eyes are sad. “I know.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her to stay. To say, Fuck everyone, we’ll figure this out on our own. She’s gone before I have a chance.
I sit there for a long time. I’m not one to doubt. At thirteen, I set my eyes on the girl and knew she would be mine. Knew that, in a way, she already was. As soon as I realized whose daughter she was, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But this? This feels like standing in a pit of vipers. I haven’t been bitten yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
There’s no way forward but through. The steps of the plan haven’t changed. The tower comes down; the barrier quickly follows. I take Ariadne and get the fuck out of here. We can figure out the rest once we’re free of this place and her family. She’s not going to be content to leave her brother behind, so I guess he’s coming, too. I don’t exactly relish the thought of spending more time in close quarters with Icarus, but Ariadne will never forgive me if something happens to him.
It’s a lot easier to kill people than it is to keep them alive.
I spend the day going through the motions. I meet with Aeacus, but his plan is heavily dependent on the blueprints that we don’t have yet. I check in with Minos and sit on the phone with him for ten minutes while he rants and raves. Theseus has cut him out completely, to the point where he won’t even entertain a visit. I’m proud of the fucker despite myself. He might be wearing Eris’s collar now, but it seems like he welcomes it. With him gone, Minos has lost what little leverage he had with the Thirteen. They’ve cut him off completely. I’m pretty sure continuing to get close to them isn’t part of the plan; he just doesn’t like to be told no.
By the time I manage to get him off the phone, the sun is sinking toward the horizon. I send a quick text to Hermes, but she leaves me on read. Typical.
Then I change into one of my rarely used suits and head for the restaurant where Ariadne will be tonight. Pan’s restaurant, the Dryad, in fact. It’s a small miracle that Dionysus is still allowed through the door after what he let happen, but that’s just Olympus. They take the old saying of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer to heart in a way I’ve never seen before. Not even on Aeaea.
I don’t bother to come to the front door. I’ll be turned away for sure. Instead, I slip in through the kitchens. The head chef turns with a vicious look on his face, but I hold up a wad of cash before he can order me out. He stalks to me, a tall, lean Black man with dark-brown skin and a shaved head. “I’m not giving private shows. Get out of here. I’m busy.”
“I don’t want any trouble.” I hold up the cash again. “A friend of mine is having dinner here tonight, but she’s on the anxious side, so she’s not likely to eat if left to her own devices. I just want a chance to feed her.”
The chef narrows his eyes. “I know who you are.”
Everyone seems to these days. At least he doesn’t accuse me of coming here to murder him. “Like I said, I’m not here to make trouble. You have my word.”
He doesn’t seem like he believes me, but he grabs the cash out of my hand and shoves it into the back pocket of his pants. “All of the individual dining rooms are claimed tonight. The only thing I have to offer you is my office.”
Hardly a romantic location, but at least it’s guaranteed to be private. “That will work.” Guess that shit this morning did fuck me up, because I’m determined to show Ariadne that I’m good for more than fucking. That I’ll take care of her better than anyone else in this fucked-up world. And if anyone dares to threaten her? Well, killing is what I do. What I’m good at.
It would be a privilege to kill for her.
18
Ariadne
Dinner at the Dryad is horrendous. Not the food. It looks lovely and smells appetizing, but I can’t bring myself to do more than push it around on my plate. My stomach is tied in knots and my tongue feels too thick in my mouth. Luckily, it seems my presence is the only thing that’s required tonight. They might as well have brought a cardboard cutout for all that the people present expect me to engage in conversation.
I try to focus on the discussions around me, swirling faster than a raging river, but it’s all white noise. Every single member of the Thirteen is here… Well, except for Hades. He hasn’t crossed over to the upper city since erecting the barrier along the river. But the other twelve? They’re here. Even Hermes.
Some of them—Artemis, the new Hephaestus, the new Aphrodite—watch me as if they expect me to pull a gun out and start shooting. Or as if they’d like to push me into traffic. Demeter and Hera lean close to each other and speak so softly that I can’t pick up their words. It’s enough to make me wonder if Demeter is aware of what her daughter’s plotting. With that family, it’s difficult to say.
Ares is here with her two partners, Achilles and Patroclus. The trio is beautiful enough to make my eyes hurt, and they all watch me warily. Zeus sits between his sister and his wife, and yet he might as well be on the moon for all he appears to be present. His cold blue eyes are watching something a thousand miles away.
Next to me, Dionysus and Hermes chat easily, belying the tension I picked up from him when he mentioned her previously. There are a couple of other partners here; Apollo has brought his fiancée, Cassandra, and Athena has Atalanta at her side, though I can’t tell if she’s there as a bodyguard or a girlfriend.