Page 85 of Aïdes the Unseen
Apollo’s avatar was still smiling like the sun never burned.
“Come on, Graven,” Oscar said brightly, sipping his coffee like we weren’t a breath from disaster. “You’re not jealous, are you? I mean, I know I’m prettier, but we can still share.”
Irina tensed beside me, and the puppy gave a faint growl, distinctly unfriendly and real.
“I don’t share,” I said, voice flat.
“Typical,” Kassian drawled. “Still guarding things you don’t understand. Still pretending you can keep the story from repeating.”
His eyes flared—just a flicker—but I saw the red behind the brown, thepossessionbleeding through the borrowed form. The hunger.
He was planning something. He always was. And Irina—Persephone—was exactly the kind of pivot he wanted to leverage. Not just as a symbol. Asbait.
“I understand more than you think,” I said, keeping my hands visible.Neutral. For now.
Oscar tsked. “This isn’t going to devolve into a pissing match, is it? We’re supposed to be the civilized ones.”
“You showed up uninvited,” I reminded him.
Never one to be dissuaded, Oscar flashed Hermes’ irrepressible smile. “I’malwaysinvited.”
“You’re always watching,” I said. “That’s not the same.”
That grin widened to cutting now. Almost cruel. “I watch when the stakes matter. And you’ve been playing the slow game, my friend. But that little spark she’s waking up with? It’s not going to wait for your tragic, broody pacing.”
He took a casual step forward and addressed Irina directly.
“Don’t let him treat you like glass, darling,” he said with a wink. “You’re a forge, not a figurine.”
Irina’s brows drew together, clearly trying to decode him.
But Kassian was already moving, circling just enough to make me want to move between them.
“You’ve grown,” he said to her, voice darker, hungrier now. “That strength. That edge.” A crooked smile twisted his mouth. “I liked you better in Carthage, though. There was fire in that version.”
I stepped forward, subtle but firm. “Back off.”
“Oh?Or what?” His eyes gleamed. “You’ll finally stop pretending you’re just her shadow?”
“That’s enough,” I growled.
The air around us buzzed. Too loud. Too sharp.Too many of them at once.
Irina didn’t realize what it meant that all three had shown up like this—on instinct, no coordination, justdrawn. The momentwas thinning. A threshold opening. That old thread of myth trying to snap back into place.
The cycle wanted to repeat. The damnable and fickle nature of the gods meant they were always hungry, even for a rerun.
Not this time.
Irina touched my arm again, barely, but enough to break the thread of tension inside me. “Graven,” she said quietly, “what’s really happening?”
I didn’t answer right away. The truth wasn’t safe to speak aloud yet. Not here. Not now. And absolutelynotin front of them. But my gaze never left hers.
When I spoke, I said it only for her. “They’re circling. They all want something from you. But I won’t let them take it.”
I won’t let them take you.
A ripple of movement caught my attention just beyond the street. Figures paused under neon awnings, drawn like moths to the static in the air.
