Page 39 of A Touch of Chaos

“Come,” Hecate said, extending her hand.

Persephone could already feel Hecate’s magic, ancient and electric, curling around her. Her heart rose in her throat as she took the goddess’s hand and they teleported.

She half expected to appear before the ruins of Knossos but was surprised when she was brought to Hades’s office at Nevernight. Hermes lay on Hades’s desk while Apollo took shots of vodka from behind the bar. A mortal sat with his hands tied behind his back. He was an older man with a sharp nose, round wire glasses, and a mostly bald head.

“What’s going on?” Persephone asked. “Who is this?”

“I’m Robert,” said the man.

“He’s Robert,” Apollo and Hermes said.

They all spoke in unison. It made Persephone flinch.

“And who is Robert?” Persephone asked with more patience than she felt.

Hecate had just found Hades, and these two were…well, she wasn’t sure what they were doing.

“I’m an architect,” said Robert.

“He’s an architect,” Apollo and Hermes said.

They sounded bored.

Persephone exchanged a look with Hecate, who rolled her eyes before sending a surge of magic in both gods’ directions. Hermes shot up from Hades’s desk and landed on the hard marble floor, a sharp obsidian thorn in the spot where he had once lain. The vodka in Apollo’s glass turned to sand just as he shot it into his mouth. He spat it out quickly, choking on the dirt.

“What the fuck?” they said.

Hermes climbed to his feet from the floor, and Apollo searched frantically for something wet, settling on an open bottle of wine to gargle.

“My husband is missing, and Hecate tells me that he is at Knossos, and instead of taking me to him, she brought me to you,” Persephone said, her voice shaking with anger. “Oneof you tell me what thefuckis going on.”

Hermes and Apollo exchanged a look.

“I’m afraid that is why I am here,” said Robert.

Persephone’s eyes fell to the mortal.

“And what do you have to do with my husband and Knossos?”

“I am an architect,” he said.

Persephone could not keep a handle on her magic, and she didn’t want to. It flared to life, heavy and dark, as black spires shot from the tips of her fingers.

The mortal’s eyes widened, and he seemed to press himself farther into his chair.

She felt a hand on her arm and turned to look at Hecate.

“What the idiots are trying to say is that the ruins at Knossos are no longer ruins,” Hecate said.

“Theseus has been rebuilding the labyrinth,” said Apollo.

“So we thought we would find his builder,” said Hermes.

“Architect,” Robert corrected.

“But it turns out Robert here was just thefirstbuilder,” Apollo continued.

“Architect,” Robert said again.

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