Page 48 of Dark Restraint

“A couple hours. They aren’t early risers, so it’ll be after noon.”

Not long. I would have liked a few extra days to ensure I’m not missing anything, but such is life. “Text me when you’re about to leave. I’ll meet you somewhere and pass you the information I find before then.”

“No.” He keeps going before I can protest. “I’ll come to you. That fiancé of yours already knows that we’re working together, so he can give me access. There’s no reason for you to risk yourself.”

He wants to come here. Again. With permission this time. I look around the ridiculously luxurious room and feel a strange stab of guilt. “I’ll talk to him, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“You’ll figure it out.” He hangs up without saying goodbye.

I glare at my phone, my irritation at the way he ends calls almost enough to override the anxiety that swells in response to this new information. Things were always dire, but now the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. For once, I’m not even worried about myself.

Hundreds of people go through the doors of Dodona Tower on any given day. Maybe upward of a thousand. Maybe more. Multiply that by every building in the immediate vicinity, and we’re talking about catastrophic losses.

I can’t let it happen. I refuse to.

I drag in a breath and pull a robe on. Dionysus came home sometime in the early hours of the morning. He tried to be quiet, but I haven’t slept well since arriving here—aside from the night he put a sedative in my wine. It’s impossible to ignore the danger I’m constantly in. I have no doubt that he doesn’t want to hurt me…just like I have no doubt that if Hera decides I’m more trouble than I’m worth, Dionysus is going to step aside and let her people cut me down.

His room is the one part of the penthouse that I haven’t investigated, so it feels strange to pad down the hallway and knock lightly on the door. When there’s no answer, I sigh and bang on it. “Dionysus! I need to talk to you.”

“Come in.”

I hesitate, but only for a moment. His room is bathed in shadows, courtesy of the blackout blinds pulled down over all the windows. I suppose it makes sense, seeing as how he’s a night owl. Even so, I’m not walking into that darkness. “Can I turn on the light?”

“Hold on.” He curses and there’s the sound of him fumbling around for a moment before a lamp flicks on.

Dionysus’s bed is startlingly normal. I don’t know why I’m so surprised. It’s a standard king, and though the thread count is no doubt exceedingly high, the comforter and sheets—both gray—are downright mundane.

He rubs a hand over his eyes. “As much as I adore your lovely face, this had better be good.”

Just like that, I remember why I sought him out. “It’s actually really bad.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” He motions for me to continue. “What’s gone wrong now?”

I know it’s not technically my fault, but I can’t help feeling guilty as I relay what Asterion told me. I finish in a rush and then swallow hard. “He doesn’t want me meeting him out in public right now because it’s not safe, so he requests that you allow him up here.”

“Requests.” Dionysus snorts. “More like he gave an order and probably threw in a threat of violence for spice.”

I flush because he’s mostly right. “Well, uh, more or less.”

“Okay.” He curses again. “Okay, give me thirty minutes to pull myself together. Can you get coffee going?”

I don’t know why I expected him to just hand this problem off to someone else. Dionysus might be a bit flighty and irreverent, but he seems to care more than most beneath all the intentionally distracting trappings. I back out the door. “Of course.”

“Ariadne.”

I stop. “Yes?”

“We’ll figure this out, one way or another.” He makes a face. “I doubt the solution will be one anyone is particularly happy with, but we’ll ensure that building doesn’t come down with all those people in it. I promise.”

I want to believe him. Truly, I do. Unfortunately, I’ve seen what my father and his people are capable of. Even with Asterion working against him, there are no guarantees. But arguing with Dionysus won’t accomplish anything. Maybe he’s even right. Maybe this will all work out and there’s some simple solution that I just haven’t thought of.

Maybe.

I back out of the room and shut the door softly behind me. Exactly thirty minutes later, a freshly showered Dionysus appears, wearing his dressing robe and slippers. He catches me looking and shrugs. “I’m awake, but there’s no reason I can’t be comfortable.” It takes me a few minutes to doctor his coffee just how he likes it, and then he sits across the kitchen island from me. “Okay, first order of business. If the Minotaur gives his word that he’s not going to murder me horribly, he can have access to the penthouse. Today.”

I don’t miss the limit he puts on it, but I don’t hold that against him. If I were him, I wouldn’t want Asterion coming and going freely from my personal residence, either. “Thank you.”

“You understand that I have to call Hera and the rest of them in. Or at least update them. We might have been willing to stand by and allow that tower to come down, but without the ability to get innocents out, this changes things significantly.”

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