Page 69 of Dark Restraint

He’s coddling me, but I can’t stop shaking. “How much time do we have?” Surely the barrier is about to come down. If it does before we’re ready…I don’t know what happens.

“The lines, sweetheart.” He lifts his voice. “Icarus. Get Poseidon up here. We can toss him into the water once we’ve made a clean escape, and he can swim back to shore.” A neat solution. One that doesn’t require yet more deaths tonight.

I scramble to the first line on the side opposite where my brother is. The boat seemed absurdly large standing next to it, but now that I’m onboard, I wonder how we’ll manage the seas on it. I have to trust Asterion. He said he can sail, and I believe him. We just have to get the fuck out of this marina.

My fingers are clumsy with fear. It takes me three tries to get the first knot undone. I can’t see what’s going on. Someone is shouting, but it’s hard to tell who over the roaring in my ears. I want nothing more than to rush back to the other side of the boat and see what’s going on, but doing that won’t help. It won’t get Icarus and Asterion and me out of this alive.

Resolve steadies me. There are entirely too many things that I can’t afford to think about right now. Action is easier. I get the second knot undone on the first try and then rush back to the other side of the boat for the last two.

The third knot is just as easy as the second, but on the fourth, I pause. If we’re entirely unmoored, how likely am I to drift away before they can jump aboard? I don’t fucking know. I don’t know a goddamn thing about boats. If I do something to fuck up our ability to escape, I’ll never forgive myself. And I already have more than enough to never forgive myself for.

Movement draws my attention just as I unravel the last tie. Poseidon elbows my brother hard enough to send him stumbling back a step. It’s all the opportunity the big man needs to spin and level a punch to my brother’s stomach, folding him in half. Even though he doesn’t say a word, it’s as if his people heard a rallying cry. They rush down the dock toward us.

“Icarus!” I scream.

Asterion rushes to my side. “Fuck!”

Poseidon turns to us. He’s as composed as ever, as if he wasn’t just held hostage by my brother. “Surrender. There’s no need for more violence.”

I can see Asterion weighing the growing distance between the boat and the dock. The engine hums softly behind me, but it’s the water itself to blame. We’re drifting. If he jumps, the space will increase dramatically, and I don’t know how to sail. He could probably swim back to me, but it’s a risk.

It’s one I’m willing to take.

I get one foot on the bottom rung of the railing before Icarus sways to his feet behind Poseidon. “Go, Ariadne,” he shouts. “I’ll find you when this is all over.” He ignores my scream of protest and takes Poseidon down in a flying tackle that sends them over the edge of the dock and into the dark water.

They surface almost immediately and then go under again, fighting in the water. My brother knows how to swim, but he’s not a fighter, and he’s nowhere near as large as Poseidon.

He’s going to drown.

“Asterion! We have to go back for him.”

But Asterion isn’t listening to me. He grabs my arm and pulls me away from the railing toward the steering wheel or whatever it’s called on a boat. “He made his choice, sweetheart. He’ll find us when this is all over.”

I stare at him in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. My brother—”

“Made his choice,” he repeats firmly. He does something to make the engine’s sound increase, and suddenly we’re moving with purpose away from the dock. “Just like you did when you made your deal and left us wondering what happened to you. Let him have this, Ariadne.”

My knees give out and I sink to the floor. “But…” But he’ll be hurt. Maybe killed. Even as the thought crosses my mind, the boat eases around the dock so I can get a straight line of sight to where Poseidon hauls himself onto the dock, dragging a soaked Icarus behind him. My brother falls to his hands and knees, his head bowed. But he’s breathing.

A sob wrenches from my chest. He’s alive, but for how much longer? “This is a mistake.”

“Trust him.” Asterion guides us away from the docks and out toward the bay. Even in the dark, I can see the faint shimmer of the barrier still in place.

It makes me laugh, the sound gaining a hysterical edge. We’ve come so far, sacrificed so much, and yet we’re still trapped. “What if it doesn’t come down?”

“It will.”

We sit in silence as we cut through the water, sailing closer and closer to the barrier. I don’t know how much time has passed, but surely we’re beyond the hour Hermes promised. It defies belief that so much tragedy could be packed into such a short time. “I killed my father.”

Asterion looks down at me, his dark eyes sympathetic. “You were saving your brother. He was going to shoot Icarus. Maybe I would’ve got there in time. Maybe not. But you made sure your brother was safe.”

My throat goes tight and hot. I hadn’t been thinking when I pulled the trigger. I just wanted all this to stop. “Only for Icarus to end up hurt anyway.”

“His. Choice.” He crouches down in front of me and grips my chin. “I would’ve done the same damn thing to protect you if he hadn’t gotten there first. You’re allowed to have your feelings about that, Ariadne. But at least they have reason to keep him alive. Poseidon’s too smart and cautious to kill him out of hand. Icarus is smart enough to work any situation to his advantage eventually.”

I don’t know if he’s telling the truth or giving me a comforting lie. I don’t know if it matters. Going back now defeats all the sacrifices my brother made. Asterion is right about that, at least. “I’m not happy about any of this.”

“I know, sweetheart.”