Neon Gods (Dark Olympus #1) - Katee Robert Page 0,102
across the bridge toward her sister, running faster than I have in a very long time. Not fast enough. I know that as I reach the halfway point.
Eurydice’s attacker throws her to the ground. She hits with a thump that makes me sick to my stomach, but she doesn’t lie still. She doesn’t even look back at him. She just sets her eyes on her sister and starts crawling toward the bridge.
“Eurydice!”
Persephone’s agonized cry gives me wings. That and the man looming over her little sister. His face is twisted into a fierce scowl. He doesn’t yell, but his words carry over the distance despite it. “Call for your sister, Eurydice. Scream for her.”
I suspected that Zeus is behind this; the man’s words confirm it. I don’t remember pulling my gun, but its cold weight is in my hands as I reach the pillars on the upper city side of the bridge. “Get away from her!”
He finally, finally looks at me. “Or what?” A flash of metal in his hand as he leans down and grabs Eurydice by the hair. “You’re on the wrong side of the river, Hades. Touch me and there will be consequences.”
“I know.” I pull the trigger. The bullet hits him in the wrist of the hand holding the knife, sending him spinning away from her.
One look at Persephone’s sister, and it’s clear Eurydice won’t be able to cross the distance between us. There’s a scarily vacant look in her eyes that I recognize too well. I used to see it in the mirror when I was a child. She’s gone somewhere internal, driven there by fear and violence.
The street seems deserted, but I know better. Zeus has his people watching his side of the river, same as I have my people watching mine. If I step off this bridge, it’s all over. War will come to Olympus.
The man sits up, clutching his wrist to his chest, his expression ugly. Eurydice gives a broken kind of sob. Just like before, I don’t remember making a decision to do this. One blink and I’m shoving him to the ground and hitting him in the face. Fuck, I’m not thinking at all. The only thing that matters is removing the threat. Each punch feeds something dark in me, as if I can hit this asshole hard enough that the monster in Dodona Tower will feel it. Another, and another, and another.
“Hades. Hades, stop.” Persephone’s scream stops me cold. My hands ache. There’s blood everywhere. He’s long since stopped moving, though his chest rises and falls. Alive. I twist to look across the bridge. Charon still has Persephone pinned to his chest, but they both look shocked.
They both look horrified.
What the fuck am I doing?
I leverage myself off the man and crouch next to the sobbing woman. “Eurydice.”
She flinches away from me. “Don’t touch me.”
“Eurydice, your sister is waiting for you.” I don’t have time to be subtle. I grab her chin and move out of the way so she can see Persephone on the other side of the bridge. My bloody knuckles hardly give a reassuring image, but it’s too late to take it back now. “Can you walk?”
She blinks big dark eyes, her fear so large, it threatens to swallow us both whole. “I don’t know.”
“I’m going to carry you. Don’t fight me.” I don’t give her a chance to brace for it, simply hauling her into my arms and hurrying back across the bridge. I was on Zeus’s territory a grand total of two minutes, but I’m not naive enough to think it won’t count. Even if he didn’t orchestrate this—and all evidence suggests he did—he will take advantage of the opening I just gave him.
I brace for Persephone’s fear. She just saw me lose my shit and violently beat a man. She stares up at my face, looking at me as if she’s never seen me before. “Hades…”
“We’ll talk when we get back home.” I maintain my hold on Eurydice and start for the car. “Get in. Now.”
For once, Persephone doesn’t argue. She slips into the back seat ahead of me and takes her sister’s hand as I set Eurydice carefully beside her. Her hazel eyes are shining. “Thank you, Hades,” she says quietly. “I know the cost.”
“Take care of your sister. I’ll meet you back at the house.” I shut the door before she can argue and motion to Minthe. “Take them back. Lock the whole house down. No one in. No one out.