Page 8

Adrian

“Oh, you are so dumb,” my sister chastised, running her hands through her white-blonde hair, brighter than sunlight coming straight from Apollo's hands.

“I’m well aware, thank you, Persephone.”

My younger sister was only confirming what I’d been telling myself for the past forty hours. Forty hours and a handful of minutes, if I was being honest.

Fine, forty hours and twenty seven minutes.

I thought I knew what I was doing. I had this planned out down to the very last detail.

I just apparently hadn’t considered that all of that planning would mean jack shit if I lost control.

My instincts had clearly been looking out for me in avoiding Reyna my entire life. I’d chosen her for this in part because of her beauty. But seeing it up close, combined with the quips that fell so easily off her tongue, and thatsmilewas an entirely different situation.

Her hair was a deep brown, full of streaks of amberand caramel brown. Her eyes were a matching brown, soft and deep that sparkled beyond her brows and against her warm, tanned skin.

Standing on that patio, leaning up against the railing must have been some sort of optical illusion.

I didn’t feel emotion in any sort of particularly strong manner. It was almost like I chose which emotion to express before I even felt it, and could control the depth of it.

Nothing that would knock me off balance, making me act before I could even think about what I was doing. And there had been far too many moments forty hours and twentyeightminutes ago that I had acted without thinking.

Two quick passes of a hand in front of my face forced me out of the recesses of my mind.

Persy was perched in a chair in my living room, somehow curling her long limbs onto the cushion with her. “Were you thinking about how stupid you are? I hope so.”

I grumbled over my cup of coffee, shooting her a deadly look. I didn't normally need caffeine, which Persy loved to say was because it would be considered a weakness, but this morning I needed it. “This shit-stirring little sister act is rather old, don’t you think?”

Persy laughed lightly, shaking her head dramatically. “It’ll get old when you stop giving me reasons to tease you. And I promise you, this whole fake relationship thing is going to give me material for weeks.”

“If you care so much, you should give me pointers on how to make it look natural,” I said, leaning back into the cushion of my chair. My home was one of the few things that was a genuine extension instead of acarefully planned representation of the power of the gods.

Olympus itself was probably proof enough, a temple to honor the gods and a fully formed town all in one. It lived in the space between two worlds, one peak on the namesake mountain on the Greek peninsula and the other in the Dolomites on the Italian side.

When the Roman line popped up,myline, our power had allowed for the mountain tops to merge, able to access it on either side. As a fun little benefit, our power also fueled a rare host of mineral and gemstone production in the mountain, fueling countless industries.

I’d worked my ass off keeping those industries running smoothly when I took over and forced them to merge.

Although, it wasn’t that drastic of a shift. When I was younger, that was one of the many things my mother used to tell me to convince me that my birth was a product of Fate instead of a mistake.

How Olympus was split between worlds, instead of a Roman side cementing itself on an entirely different mountain. How that was simply laying the foundation for my parents to fall in love. For me to come along.

Persy hit me with a little zap of electricity, pulling me back from my thoughts again. I really needed to get myself under control. I didn’t getdistracted.

“I amnothelping you with this,” she said through a laugh and a slow shake of her head.

“I'm doing this to help us. To help the gods,” I countered. And fucking hell, did we need it. “And you’re in the business of helping people.”

Persy scoffed incredulously. “In case you needed areminder, I do not run a fake relationship boot camp at Prometheus. I’m too busy for that.” I wouldn’t be surprised if she had. She’d turned our most brutal prison into a facility that functioned in beliefs of recovery and redemption rather than punishment. Though, there was still space reserved for the worst of the worst, those far beyond help.

My urge tofixhad me asking, “How is everything?”

“Good. Normal,” Persy said, waving her hand to dismiss my question. “Everyone in the old cells are keeping quiet. The rehab center is doing quite well.” My eyebrows rose and Persy clocked my coming question in a second. “And before you ask, Nikolas is doing well. I’m going to update Lukas before I tell you anything, though.”

I let myself feel a moment of pity for Lukas. His brother had abdicated weeks after their father had died, leaving him with the responsibility of the seas. Then he turned around and let his drunken escapades reveal information that was instrumental in poisoning his fiancée for the past few months. Let alone building the resentment against the gods by dropping fish production to dangerous levels all summer.

“No, I respect that,” I said. “You should. And while you’re at it, make sure he’s dealing with the betrayal. He told me he was fine, but I don’t think the panic of finding out Nikolas helped poison Daphne has dissipated yet.” Persy had a way of cutting right to the core of people’s emotions in a heartbeat. She could help Lukas far more than I could in that regard.