Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“I see.” She motions and I hand her the bottle. “You aren’t like the rest of them.”
“Sweet words will get you everywhere.” The farther we travel from the hotel and the mess contained there, the better I can breathe. This is fine. This is better than fine. “Look, you’re cute and this is a fun little field trip, but I meant it about not knowing anything worthwhile. Also, not a single one of them will give even a penny in ransom.” Theseus doesn’t believe in ransom, though he’d come for me and kill everyone responsible.
Eurydice laughs. “Again, not kidnapping, torturing, or otherwise harming you. You just looked like you needed to get out of there. I understand that urge, so I thought I’d help you out. That’s all.”
She’s lying, but I don’t mind. Everyone lies. Once you accept that, you get really good at reading between the lines. “So you’re taking me to Hades’s famous sex club?”
“It’s hardly famous.” She makes a choked sound. “And that’s my brother-in-law you’re talking about.”
I twist in the seat to face her fully. I’d much rather talk about this than about myself. “You know, your sisters seem the overprotective sort, and that’s not even getting into your mother.” Talk about a nightmare. “I’m surprised they let their precious baby sister attend a place like that.”
“Oh. That.” She waves it away. “They don’t know.”
“What?”
“They don’t know,” she repeats. Eurydice smiles. “So, you see, now you have a secret of mine.”
Sharing simple secrets to promote the sharing of deeper secrets is a trick as old as time. I ignore the impulse to do exactly that; it’s just the alcohol talking. “Rumor has it that you’re living in the same house as your sister and Hades. How could they possibly not know that you’re playing tourist in his sex dungeon?”
She shoots a look at the back of Charon’s head. He doesn’t appear to be paying us the least bit of attention, but he’s too close to miss any of it. Eurydice clears her throat. “I’m not allowed to participate or go into the club without Charon as an…escort. I just get to watch on the nights Persephone and Hades aren’t down there.”
“I see,” I say slowly. That’s an interesting piece of information that I don’t bother to file away because I have no interest in helping Minos do whatever he plans to do to Olympus. Murder and mayhem and chaos. He’s a bastard and a half, and I have no doubt that he’d sacrifice Theseus at the altar of his ambition.
Theseus already got hurt. I don’t want him to get dead, too.
I take another long drink of the champagne bottle. My stomach isn’t feeling too great. Or maybe that’s because we’re crossing over the bridge to the lower city. Apparently there’s a barrier here similar to the one that surrounded Olympus, keeping it separate from the rest of the world. Magic or some fancy tech that might as well be magic? I have no idea. I suppose it doesn’t matter. The alcohol fuzzes my brain, making it hard to tell if it’s the same sensation I felt entering the city or if I’ve just drunk too much.
I mean, I’ve definitely drunk too much.
It doesn’t take long for the car to roll to a stop in front of a nondescript gray building. I frown out the window at it. “This looks like a place you take people to murder them.”
Eurydice gives a choked laugh. “The other entrance is in my sister’s house, and that will create more questions than I want to answer. Come on.” She slips out of the car, leaving me to follow.
I’m distantly aware of Charon coming around the car and following us up to the large door. I’m so far past buzzed that I start to list to the side, and he has to move fast to catch me. He slips an arm around my waist and keeps me on my feet. “You sure about this, Eurydice?”
“Yes.” She opens the door. “Come on.”
The room is kept atmospherically dim in a way I might appreciate on a different night. Not right now, when the strangely reflecting light on the ceiling makes me dizzy. I try to focus on Eurydice’s back, but everything is a bit watery right now. “I drank too much.”
“You’re safe here, Pandora.” She leads the way through a series of couches and chairs, circling a low dais in the center of the room. The place is packed, and the couples and throuples and moreples in various states of undress and sexual revelry only add to my dizziness. I’m pathetically grateful when Eurydice stops in front of a private booth tucked back against a wall. Charon helps me slide into it, but I keep sliding, slumping down against Eurydice. She laughs a little and helps me right myself. “She’ll be here soon. But let’s get you some water in the meantime.”