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Rose had the same idea, leaning back into the couch in a forced move of surrender and grumbling something under her breath. It was a concession.

Sebastian looked incredibly pleased with himself.

“How did you even get in here?” I snapped.

Sebastian stared at me, his gaze parallel with the bow pointed at me. “Your boyfriend’s voice carries.”

I knew what he meant. I’d heard that same yell mere feet away from me the night before. “So you have yetanotherperson working in Lukas and Daphne’s court?”

“No, actually. You know this is a great story,” he said, the grace and poise of an expert storyteller descending on his shoulders. It probably would have been a captivating show of his godly prowess in any other situation. “Or maybe I should call it a coincidence. That Piper, who by the way, absolutely still believes she has a shot with Lukas and at becoming Lady Poseidon, I might add. Gotta respect the delusion on that one.Well, she overheard Adrian saying that I was a dead man and thought to do the right thing and inform me of thatthreat.”

Rose scoffed loudly. “You know, you two would be perfect together. She’s a bitch and you’re clearly the prince dick of all dicks. Match made by the Fates themselves, really.”

Sebastian turned to face Rose slowly. “And here I thought you had a thing for assholes.”

Rose smiled, full and bright. “Call my husband that again and see what happens.”

Sebastiantsked, shaking his head. “Your threats don’t hold any fire when you’re not the one in control.”

Rose scowled at him, hiding the fact that she did, in fact, have an advantage over him.

“What. Do. You. Want?” I growled out, feeling half a second away from spontaneously developing powers and lighting the room on fire with Sebastian in it.

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed on me. “We’re going to wait until we have all the members of our little party before I reveal all my secrets.”

Adrian, I realized.

No. No, that wasn’t happening. He wasn’t getting anywhere near him.

But the force with which that statement rang through my head was ultimately trapped in my body, serving only to pump my blood hotter through my veins. Because I could do nothing but stare down the barrel of a crossbow and wait.

Sebastian got an idea in his head, looking over at the open space on the arm of the couch next to me. “Wait, can you move over a little? I want the best view of Adrian when he comes back.”

And that was when I decided that Rose was wrong.I’dbe the one to kill him.

Chapter 32

Adrian

“Can you stopcrying,for the love of Zeus,” Daphne said, struggling to get a good grip on her weeping patient's arm. “I told you this wouldn’t hurt.”

“The tattoo hurt,” Antonio cried, shying away from the needle Daphne was pressing into his skin.

Antonio, the guard who’d facilitated Reyna’s kidnapping, had been crying like a baby since the second he’d been dragged—rather nicely, I might add—by one of my spies into Daphne’s office twenty minutes ago.

One of the favors I’d asked Rose for—the easiest one—was for her to watch over Reyna while I was stuck underwater. I felt stifled down here. My skin rubbed against my suit and my power felt trapped, too on edge around this much water.

I also had a nagging urge to get back to Olympus, which only made Antonio’s incessant crying more annoying.

“Hey,” Lukas snapped from his chair on theperimeter of the room, letting Daphne work but still keeping watch. “She’s the nice one. Do you want me holding you down?”

Antonio blanched at Lukas, pointedly staring at his enormous frame, full of thick, threatening muscle. His body relaxed slightly, enough for Daphne to find a vein and press the syringe of fluid into his arm.

I held my breath the entire time, trying not to let any foolish hope creep in. I trusted Daphne and she’d told me this would work. But I didn’t believe things unless I saw them with my own two eyes.

Antonio slumped into his chair a moment later, his body going limp and his eyes falling closed.

“Did he pass out?” I asked, the words completely unemotional. He kidnapped Reyna. He could croak for all I cared. But I knew that it was also a possibility he was manipulated or promised something to get involved, like that guard Avery, and so I chose to try the route of redemption first.