“I’m not going to hurt her.” Athena stood still, her hand against her face.
“Of course you’re not. You need me.”
Odysseus narrowed his eyes from where he stood at Athena’s shoulder. “Don’t be so sure. Might be just as smart to get rid of you. At least then Hera couldn’t use you either. Level the field a bit.”
Cassandra felt the muscles in Aidan’s arm tighten. Odysseus was lucky Athena stood in his way.
A half-hearted, hurried knock broke the tension just before the door swung open and Andie and Henry burst halfway through, blinking in the sudden change of light from the dark parking lot. Cassandra looked from them to Athena and back again. They’d sworn they would stay in the car.
“You were taking so long.” Andie fidgeted. The way she looked at Athena and Hermes, Cassandra knew her friend could sense something was off. Even if she hadn’t known there were gods in town, she would’ve sensed it—that something was unnatural about these strangers.
Andie stared wide-eyed at Athena’s slightly shocked face. Her gaze dragged slowly down and then back up without blinking, like she could discover some secret behind the human costume.
“She looks less human than Aidan. Even with those tattoos. Why is she looking at us like that?”
“Leave them alone,” Cassandra warned.
“But you told them already,” Athena said. “Hector and Andromache. They look so much the same. Untamed. And he’s still so tall and broad-shouldered. He could help, if we woke them up.”
“Don’t touch them. Aidan, don’t let her touch them.”
Odysseus gestured to Henry. “They’ll kill him too, if they find him. They’re after Achilles. That means they’ll kill anyone who could possibly stand against him, and that means Hector.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you?” Henry asked. Andie backed into him to get him to shut up.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Aidan stepped just to the center. “That you should just get it over with. Wrap your hands around their throats and let Odysseus bring them back. Then you’d have two soldiers instead of a pile of questions. But it should be up to them. Let them decide. That’s justice.”
“Since when are you the authority on justice?”
Athena shifted her weight, her eyes on the lines of Henry’s muscles. Cassandra nudged Aidan’s side, and he stepped farther forward.
“Aren’t you tired of using them? Aren’t you tired of moving them around and spending their lives like pocket change? You’re a monster, but you’re also a god. Don’t you have any grace?”
Athena’s eyes snapped to his. “It’s not like we have the luxury of time. It’s a hard choice, but this is why I lead. No one else has the stomach to do the unpleasant things that sometimes need doing.”
Odysseus cleared his throat. “Do they really need doing? Look at him.” He nodded toward Henry. “You already killed him once.”
Cassandra’s eyes snapped to Athena. Odysseus had caught her off guard. She didn’t know what to say.
“Take them,” Athena said finally.
“Come on.” Cassandra shoved them out the door like children. Aidan followed behind, but she still glanced once over her shoulder, half convinced that she’d see Athena coming after them with hooked fingers.
* * *
Athena listened to the car peel out of the parking lot. She thought of the boy behind the wheel. Hector. Who was now called Henry. When she’d stared at him, he’d stared back with strong brown eyes. Shell-shocked for sure, but he didn’t run. He never ran. That’s why it had been so easy to trick him onto the battlefield to face Achilles.
I lied to him. I put on the disguise of an ally and said he was blessed. That he wouldn’t fight alone. So he came and stood face-to-face with a madman.
She still remembered the look on his face when he realized he’d been tricked. And later, the look in his eyes when Achilles drove the spear into his chest.
Odysseus was right. She’d killed him as surely as if she’d thrust the spear in herself. Back then, Andromache’s screaming could barely compete with her own laughter.
“Well, now what?” Hermes threw up his hands and collapsed on the bed with a bounce.
“Athena.” Odysseus moved in front of her.
“What?”
“Your face.” He stared at her cheek, which still tingled where Cassandra had slapped her.
Tingling. Almost burning. But she’s just a human.