Chapter Two

"How'd the wedding go?"

I didn't answer right away because I was almost honest with a straightforward response of yeah, it kind of stirred up some major trauma between me and my not-husband, but the music was nice.

"Great. Good food, nice music," I replied, absentmindedly fiddling with the pen on the desk in front of me.

I glanced up to see the agent Hadrian had gotten me, Niles of Annwn. He was a skinny little guy with cropped white hair and gleaming green eyes that skimmed over my recent reviews from people we'd worked with on shoots, from photographers to sound people to set people. I lost track of all the special jobs these people had, when all I saw them do was run around with things and tell me what to do.

Then again, that last part was a tough job.

"So, it looks like your debut is doing well," Niles started, but I could hear the but before he even said it, "But we are having difficulty selling you, if you get what I mean." I stared at him blankly and he offered me a patient smile.

"People are hesitant to hire someone who has a questionable background, and I don't actually mean what you've experienced until now. That's irrelevant to them, but it's the issue with your name that seems to be turning off further prospects in this industry," he explained. It took me a second to absorb all of that because I wasn't sure what he meant until he said name.

I frowned.

"My name?"

"Or rather, lack of," Niles explained gently, like he was talking to a fucking toddler, "They want an identity from you, something they can work with and make your selling point, but right now, the only things you have going for you are your looks and your position." I frowned.

"My position?" I asked. Niles smiled.

"A member of the royal family. It would be," he paused to glance up at the ceiling, trying to find the right word so he didn't offend me, "Inappropriate of us to let you go as a member of the royal family, so we're happy to work with you if we can at least come up with a stage name."

"Like, a fake name?" I asked. Niles nodded.

"I'll leave it up to you, since it's your career, but find something that'll make people want to look at you, notice you. Something unforgettable, but easily rolls off the tongue," he supplied.

I just sat there staring at him, because what the fuck kinda name did he want from me? I wasn't a fan of being called Three, but at the same time, that was all I knew and imagining another name seemed daunting.

"You have time," Niles offered quickly, going through the paperwork on his desk, "I received a special executive order from Hades himself that we are not to have you on set until your training in Olympus is complete, but that actually works out great for you, because it'll give you some time to create an identity for yourself." I didn't understand how I was supposed to do that or why I needed to change my whole personality, but Six and Hadrian insisted this job was going to get me stable in the outside world.

So I guess I had a new mission now.

"Okay," I said at last and Niles's mouth twitched a bit, like that wasn't the response he was expecting, but he was still forcing a smile to keep things professional, "Yeah. I'll do that. Thanks for your help, Niles, appreciate it."

"Of course, and good luck with your training," he said with a nod. I got up and headed out of Niles's office at the same time his phone rang. I shut the door behind me.

"Yeah, hey, Claire, I just talked to him, but if I'm being totally honest... I don't think this kid even wants to be here."

I walked away from the room and headed down the hallway, pausing to wait for the elevator. I glanced at a gaudy gilded mirror hanging on the wall by the doors.

I wasn't really that impressive, and I knew that. I was pretty average, and Hera had told me as much when I'd reached puberty.

"How... underwhelming," she'd murmured after witnessing my physical examination, and she walked around me while I stood there totally naked to her eyes. It felt like she was disapproving of everything she saw and I remembered feeling mild panic.

"He's too skinny," Hera commented, putting a hand on my shoulder to give it a squeeze, "His muscle mass is minimal. His strength is average. His magic display wasn't anything special either." She looked so disappointed that I felt my stomach shrinking in on itself as I looked over where our lead doctor at the time was taking notes, but he looked pissed the whole time.

Made sense. He had nothing, but a failure to present to Hera.

"He's literally twelve," the doctor muttered and Hera snapped her head around to pin the doctor with a cold stare that made both of us tense.

"Yes, and my Jasper was much bigger than this at twelve."

"Jasper had more time to mature and his genetics are different. He hails from two of the biggest creatures in existence. For fuck's sake, he's related to Hades, one of the biggest gods in history in terms of physical—"

"And this one also shares those genetics," Hera snapped, making the doctor stiffen, "He may have come from a separate branch, but he should still have more. He's too small, he's too weak, and his magic is nothing special. I pulled his genetics from Death himself and you're saying he doesn't even have potential for Beasthood?" She threw her hands up and backed away from me, turning away like she couldn't stand the sight of me anymore.

"You do realize our ability to edit their genetic sequence is still far beyond reach," the doctor said angrily, "If anything, the last two artificials have been fucking miracles. They may not have been born ruthless soldiers, but they will get there with time and training. You said yourself that when Zeus rescued you from that hellhole that it took years for them to train you to fight the Titans." Hera's eyes flashed with wrath and fury.

She marched to the doctor and slammed him up against the wall by his neck.

I remembered gasping and dropping down to cover my head, trembling as the cold air from the vents blasted Hera's magic right against my face, almost like a warning for me to stay down and out of their business.

"I was raised by a warrior, trained by a warrior, and tortured by a warrior," Hera ground out in the doctor's face as he choked for air, "I was powerful the moment we left that shit realm. It was my pathetic mistake for trusting a single male to rescue us all from misery." She shoved him against the wall again before stepping back, letting him drop to the floor, choking and coughing.

I froze, staring down at the floor, because I felt Hera's eyes on me.

Examining me.

"This one better improve, and quickly, Tenjin. I am growing steadily impatient with your progress," Hera muttered, then came over and put her hand on my head, ruffling my hair in a playful way that was very at odds with what she did to Tenjin, "Do not disappoint me, Three. You're already further behind than the others. Catch up fast or I will have to provide my soldiers with more Bait." I was so glad she couldn't see me quietly sobbing with my head down between my knees.

Though, I had a feeling she knew anyway.

She gave me one last rough pat on the head before departing, the glass door behind her closing so I was forced to look at the thin brittle excuse for a soldier in the reflection when I peeked up to see her leave.

I'd bulked up since then, done a lot of growing, and managed to at least get close to my goal weight, but it was never enough to impress Hera. Even the marriage to Six seemed to disgruntle her.

"Of all the fucking soldiers in this compound, you want to marry this one?" Micah looked annoyed as he glared down at the marriage application. I glared at him.

"Will Mother approve?" I demanded. Micah snorted as he took out his big red approval stamp, which made my shoulders relax to a degree.

"Absolutely not, but at this point, anything you do is gonna set her off," Micah told me, making me frown, "Are you absolutely positive you want to marry Six? I've had at least three other soldiers express their interest in marrying you, all of whom have high qualifications and potential to lead you further up the ranks."

I didn't care about that.

I wanted Six.

The person I fell in love with. Because he was so funny, so cute, kind and playful. The real Six, the one I knew, the one I fell in love with, was someone in my life who saw me.

Or so I thought.

"Alright," Micah sighed, slamming the stamp down, "Just don't come bitching to me when you realize you got saddled with a fucking crybaby." I ignored his comments, because I learned early on that challenging Micah spelled pain and torture.

I snatched the approved application to show Six.

The elevator doors opened and I snapped back to the present with a frustrated sigh, feeling one of those headaches starting up in my temples. It was enough to make me sick to my stomach and the bright lights of the building didn't help, so I shut my eyes as I stepped into the elevator and punched a button to head down.

I could've teleported, but I was so used to walking everywhere back at the compound that teleporting honestly was more of a headache. Plus it was a waste of magic and at a time when war was on the horizon, it was good not to waste magic on dumb shit like running home to hide under my blankets.

Besides, I knew the moment I got home, I would have to start packing to move to Olympus temporarily as we got all of our pieces into place to face Hera head on, once and for all.

That was the plan anyway.

So far, Hera wasn't making a move and when I had asked about Hera's reaction to the recent events with Jasper literally fucking eating her girlfriend, Tricho had met me with an amused chuckle.

"Like that," Tricho said flatly afterwards, "She just kinda smirked, then asked me if my mom was available for a date. I told her I'd ask."

"Did you?"

"I had to."

"Did she box your ears?"

"Holy fuck did she whoop my ass. You know the saying: don't kill the messenger? Yeah, apparently it doesn't translate to my native tongue cuz maman is always killing the messenger."

Leave it to Tricho to make a joke about that, and so laughingly. It was why it was a little hard to take him seriously sometimes. Even through the phone, I could tell when he was grinning like an idiot.

"So," I had asked Tricho after demanding that he stop making me laugh over something so serious, "She's not nervous or anything? What about the other artificials? And has Yhwhwa reached out to her regarding the discovery of the atisalum things?" There was a short pause, like Tricho was considering something and I frowned, because he usually didn't think before he spoke, unless he was nervous.

"Nothing she's revealed to maman yet, or me, or my connection to the other side."

"What's she even doing? Her girlfriend is fucking sewage by now, she lost Kali, Polly, and Elias. We've got the upper hand now that we know she's fucking around with a dangerous ancient prophecy to get one over on Hades. That's a lot of fucking moving pieces, but nothing actually happening. What is she hiding?"

"Maybe it's time you get to know the other side of the story," Tricho said at last and I scowled at his cryptic response. Sometimes Tricho had moments where he seemed to almost go into wise old sage mode, which was weird because last I checked, he was only a few years older than me.

"Other side of the story?" I asked dryly.

"What do you even know about Yhwhwa?" Tricho mused. I frowned.

"Uh, well. He's an ancient being who created the angel species and their various branches."

"Did he really create all angels?"

"I don't know what that means."

"Oh, I thought like... the antichrist things were technically created by an angel and a god, so isn't that, like, not his doing?"

"I guess. What, is that supposed to mean something?"

"I dunno. I just think we need to learn more about this Yhwhwa guy. Why was Hera able to find and play with that shit?"

"Well, Bethany, right? She was probably Hera's last link to Yhwhwa."

"Was she?" It took everything I had not to scream and of course, Tricho made up some bullshit about needing to go clean up one of his sisters' messes, completely ignoring my demands for him to call me back and tell me exactly what he meant by that.

When I asked again later, the fucker said he was just offering another route.

He kept steering me towards Yhwhwa, though, so clearly there was something there that I was missing.

What did I know about Yhwhwa?

Not much, considering he wasn't a major part of our studies at the compound. He was just another god with a major ego who created a whole species of creature called angels. They functioned as citizens of Heaven and the guardians of their Holy Paradise.

It was a lot of the same old shit that I had read before.

A god created his own posse, swooped in on the whole creating mortal craze, it backfired horribly like it did with everyone else, and he took off into hiding to be sad and pissy about it.

It seemed to be a running theme in this universe.

Someone thinking they could create a perfect world, but watching it crumble before their very eyes because at the end of the day, no one could control free will.

It was the first gift given to us by the Source upon the soul's birth within its vessel.

Free will could not be contained, for it was the one gift the Source gave to all its living creatures. To control free will was to control the Source and such a thing was impossible.

So, everyone scrambled to try and become their own version of the Source, to harness that free will and create perfection.

But at the end of the day, there was no such thing as perfection.

That was what the whole thing against Atlan had been about. It took fucking centuries for a lot of gods to finally start realizing that they couldn't control everything.

Obviously not everyone got the memo.

Still, that wasn't much to go on when it came to Yhwhwa. What set him apart from the other gods? Why was he having so much issue with the concept? Hera made sense, but Yhwhwa? What was the other missing connection between him and Hera? A Greek and a Paradisian?

If Bethany wasn't the only connection... then what the fuck were we missing?

All too soon, I found myself standing outside the apartment building I shared with Six and Hadrian.

In the beginning, I had been excited to move in with them. It felt normal. It felt right. We fell into a nice routine and things seemed to be getting better, but as the newness wore off and reality began to sink in, I think Six was starting to realize that he didn't actually love me.

At least, not nearly as much as he loved Hadrian.

The weird part was, despite the shit I gave him at first, it totally made sense.

Hadrian was everything that I wasn't. He was intelligent, kind, empathetic, understanding, loving, and he was focused so much on Six's quality of life, not just his life. He had the abilities, the connections, the knowledge to give Six everything he needed to be happy. I had seen it time and time again, and even when they disagreed on something, they just sat down and talked about it.

Whereas anything Six and I disagreed on, I felt like I needed to fight him to understand, or fight to understand him.

It was what felt normal for us, and that was why it wasn't something that was going to stop, especially with all the shit that was stirred up during our escape from the compound and arrival in Styx.

At the end of the day, what kind of person would want to willingly stay with their abuser?

Apologies only went so far.

And not far enough.

I headed upstairs to the apartment and I could hear Six and Hadrian upstairs, laughing and talking as they packed. I shut the door behind me, giving my boots a stomp to get the slushy dirty snow off. I heard the voices hush upstairs for a moment before I could hear Six coming down the stairs.

I knew his footsteps in particular, a bit heavier than Hadrian's and harsh, like he might be upset. I immediately stopped and stared at the end of the short hall downstairs, waiting as Six came into view of the hall.

My shoulders slumped in relief when he came to greet me with a big hug around the neck. I tried not to sigh as a wave of comfort washed over me, having him in my arms again. It was like cuddling a teddy bear and he seemed to be in a good mood as he kissed my cheek.

"Hey! How'd your meeting go with Niles? Did you get any new offers?" He asked, stepping back so I could take my boots off.

"Uh, yeah, it was good. He said there's a few companies that are interested in working with me, but I gotta finish this training shit first, thanks to Hades and his executive bullshit," I snorted, straightening so I could look down into those gleaming hazel eyes. He was so cute in one of those white cable knit sweaters without the sleeves and a nice little slit across the front so you could see his thickly padded pecs.

Perfect for nuzzling.

"Aw," Six wrinkled his nose and fuck he was cute when he did that, "Well, hopefully once this shit is over, we can get back on track again, right?" I nodded, wanting to just slump over onto his shoulder and snuggle him some more, but he was already heading back to the living room. I followed after him as he went to the fridge to get one of his protein shakes. I heard Hadrian coming down and looked up to see him walking in, somehow looking like a diva in just teal shortie shorts, a long sleeved crop top, and his hair coiled up with some kind of glossy cream on his cheeks.

"Self-care night?" I asked him as he came over to give me a smile of greeting. He touched my arm, his way of asking for permission if he could kiss me, and I gave him my cheek to plant a wet kiss on and I wrinkled my nose at the stickiness left behind from his face cream.

"He was red from packing and wanted to cool down," Six said with an eye roll, like he thought that was silly, and I agreed. Hadrian wasn't too good at making a lot of facial expressions to begin with, but he seemed particularly stiff, so it was probably one of those drying masks. So he kinda just stared at us blankly.

"No, it was red from being outside too long," Hadrian said, reaching up to gently touch his fingertips to his temples, "I don't want to get dried out. It feels icky." I smirked at that, wishing my problems were that bad. At least a face mask would feel better than having my face smashed in during a fist fight.

I didn't begrudge Hadrian his sheltered life.

I did at first, because it felt like the bastard was flaunting his shit, but then I realized the guy just had no concept of how truly evil the world could be. He'd been raised by a warm loving family, doted on and cherished. He just wanted us to have the same thing and that was... nice. It was weird to have someone be nice to me, especially considering everything that had happened between us.

"Have you eaten today?" Hadrian asked me, heading to the fridge to get out his little plastic container of cut up fruit with his name very boldly labeled on the front.

He'd made a point in not sharing his food with us directly and I thought it was weird until he explained something about a spectrum and not liking the idea of swapping germs and in the end, I didn't care.

It made things easier to find in the fridge anyway.

"No," I muttered, trying to remember the last time I'd eaten something that wasn't caffeine, cannabis, or breath mints.

I'd gone for a walk after ditching the afterparty. I had intended to come back, but the walk turned into pacing, which turned into overthinking, so to shut my brain off, I'd turned my attention to studies.

Studies, I thought with an eye roll.

It was a waste of time.

I wasn't a medic and I wasn't medic material. My healing abilities were nice and all, but they were just stronger than most.

Nothing special at all

If anything, Hades was going to be bummed he couldn't push his whole medical legacy thing on someone.

Still, it did help when it came to combat, so I talked myself into it and spent three hours hunkered down in some park, scrolling through textbook anatomy shit. I had expected a pretty basic introduction, but leave it to Hades to go full throttle.

The funniest part was half the textbooks were written by himself.

Was that where the saying god complex came from?

"Let's do takeout," Six burst out, making Hadrian arch a brow at the suggestion and Six grinned, "I want to have Santa Maria one more time before we go to Olympus. It might be a while before we're back." I tensed at that, because I didn't like the idea of being away that long, but it did make sense since it was basically war training.

"I'm okay with that," Hadrian agreed with a nod, returning his fruit for a moment, then seemed to reconsider it and got it back out, "I like their cheesy arancini."

"I love the arancini," Six gushed immediately, reaching for his phone so he could pull up the app he had for the local restaurant that made some kind of modern Roman-style menu full of cheeses and tomato-based sauces, "Oh, and I wanted to try their new take on cacio e pepe. Their gnocchi dish last time was amazing." He went to hop up on the counter, but I instinctively went and scooped him up, making him gasp and I placed him on the countertop.

He shot me a look and I just stepped back and put my hands up. He rolled his eyes and grabbed me by the loop in my jeans, dragging me closer so I could lean over and look at the menu on his phone.

My heart sang as he let me rest my head against his and honestly I didn't give a fucking shit what the menu said at that point. He was letting me snuggle him, which meant the wedding hadn't fucked up everything as badly as I had thought. I just wanted to keep touching him, keep inhaling the soft scent of his soaps combined with that musky undertone that was uniquely his.

"Oh, Three, you liked their carbonara last time, right? Or did you want to try something with meat in it this time?" Six asked, scrolling through the menu to find the pasta dishes.

"Mmhm," I murmured, loving the way his voice rumbled under me and I felt him making faces, "Oh, that one looks good." I almost went to tap his phone, but stopped myself and he added a little wave of his hand to make sure I stayed back.

It wasn't that I wasn't used to phones.

I just wasn't used to sensitive ass phones.

But apparently the ones we'd used at the compound were outdated, but it made sense. It was harder to trace older technology once it died out. It was a goddamn miracle Hera hadn't just made everyone use track phones from the quick creddy mart and floppy disks.

"Oh, that's the puttanesca. Sure, did you want a soup or salad?"

"Can I just have ice cream?"

"No, that's not an option," Six sighed, exasperated, and I rolled my eyes, not entirely sure why that was such a dumb question, but luckily he didn't dwell on it, "I'll put you down for their daily soup and tack on some cannolis, how about that?" I considered the options. Hadrian watched us, his eyes twinkling with amusement, his arms folded over his chest as he waited his turn.

"Okay, two questions."

"Shoot," Six replied, his finger hovering over the options.

"First, are the cannolis the ones that look kinda like—"

"Yes, Three, those are cannolis. Is that a yes or no?" Six pressed. I had no idea where the irritation was coming from now. I was just making sure because that was the only way I remembered them. I gave him a nod.

"Second, what is the daily soup?" I asked. Six scoffed, and I wasn't sure what that meant. He opened up the little drop down menu to reveal only two soups, Italian wedding something or some kind of green soup. Six didn't read them and just automatically chose the green one.

"You're getting what I get you," he said flippantly and I rolled my eyes, moving away from him now and fed up with his weird pettiness, "What'd you want, Hadrian?" It took everything in my power not to fucking gag at how sweet he got with Hadrian. I let the stab slide, but of course, Hadrian couldn't read a room to save his fucking life.

"Six, don't tease him so much," Hadrian said and Six actually looked up, a little surprised and I felt heat climbing up my neck. I wasn't sure why Hadrian speaking up on my behalf was so embarrassing, but it was and I felt it like a knot in my stomach. Maybe it was sensing the impending conflict it was going to draw.

Then I would get that creeping panicking sensation down the back of my neck, icy cold like a monstrous paw gripping my throat and squeezing until I blacked out.

The last thing I needed to do was black out around here, or ever again.

Six was living proof of what happened whenever I let that fear grab a hold of me.

It was why I couldn't bring myself to get defensive with him anymore. It felt like no matter what I did, he was always going to remember our fights and always remind me of it when I was getting insufferable.

I had no right to speak up at this point.

He knew a lot more about love than I did.

"I'm just getting him something substantial," Six said at last, his tone hushed like he wasn't sure why he was being reprimanded, "He always has to eat something sweet, or he eats too much of it and gets sick. Also, why the hell does everything have to be about dicks with him?" I couldn't stop myself from laughing and that apparently wasn't the right response, because Six kicked me in the butt. It wasn't hard, but it told me he didn't appreciate the laughter at his complaining.

"Because that's how I remember what cannolis look like," I exclaimed, making him scoff, "So it's dumb. At least it works."

"It's not a big deal," Hadrian decided, but the way he looked at me told me that he wanted to talk to me and me alone. I wasn't in the mood for what I knew was going to be him trying to have a heart to heart.

Not at the moment when I still felt oddly raw from Jasper and Wrenny's wedding.

Maybe it was seeing what actual love was supposed to be. Maybe seeing an actual wedding with support... Maybe seeing Six have a meltdown when he realized what I never gave him, what I did to him, and how fucked up it was.

It made sense, so I didn't stick around to tease Six anymore as he immediately changed the subject to whatever it was Hadrian wanted for dinner.

I snuck upstairs to change out of my street clothes, reaching for joggers and a tank. I could hear the sliding door to the bedroom open a short time later, but didn't turn around to face Hadrian. I knew it was him, because he always had to stare at me for the longest time before he spoke.

I wasn't sure if it was because he was thinking or because he genuinely liked watching my ass.

"Are you okay?" Hadrian asked.

It was a simple question, but for some reason, it felt like a huge weight had just dropped onto my shoulders. I stood like an idiot facing the bed with my arms halfway through the tank top I was going to put on, only to find myself struggling to answer that without making him worried.

His focus should've been on Six, but Hadrian still felt like he needed to be close to me.

And don't get me wrong; Hadrian was fucking amazing as a partner, and at sex, but at the end of the day, I don't think he loved me the way I loved Six.

I don't think Six loved me the way I loved him.

"Yeah," I said, finally finding my voice and I finished sliding the tank top on, "I'm fine."

"Can I give you a massage?"

"I don't need one."

"You look like you have a knot in your back."

"Is that what you were staring at?" I asked, turning to face him. Hadrian blinked at that, then gave me this curious stare.

"No, I was watching your joggers climb over your butt," he answered bluntly and I laughed at that, making him cock his head, "Is that okay?" He always had to ask if everything was okay with me. He didn't need to ask with Six, because Six loved everything he did or said. With me, it was almost like he was approaching a lethal animal.

Except Hadrian didn't think that way.

He was weirdly honest.

"Thanks, I work out," I replied laughingly. Hadrian wrinkled his nose for a second, which made him look downright adorable, so I paused beside him, to see if he'd let me give him a kiss and when he met my eyes to give me permission, I leaned down to kiss his temple, out of range of his sticky facemask.

"Oh," Hadrian seemed to realize the awkward angle, "My mask. I'll wash it off and meet you downstairs on the sofa for a massage."

"I don't need one."

"No, but you look like you want someone to hold you," Hadrian said with a shrug and I tensed at that, "I figured a massage would be more comfortable for you. If you would like, I can hug you or hold you instead."

"I'm not a child," I deadpanned and Hadrian frowned, clearly confused by the sharpness of my tone, "Also, my ass kinda hurts from yesterday, so I'm not really in the mood to get plowed right now."

"I meant just snuggling on the sofa, Three. Not everything is about sex."

"Oh. Well. No, thanks." I turned and left him alone to wash his face, heading downstairs at the same time I heard the doorbell ring. I watched Six leave the kitchen to answer the door and walked over to the sofa to plop down on the end, leaving enough space for Six and Hadrian to sprawl out together.

My phone dinged and I rolled my eyes, taking it out to see a message from Hadrian's agent, Claire. She was asking for a call back about the meeting, but I ignored it and started to pocket it, only for it to ding again. I cursed, taking out my phone and pausing to see the message.

Update. That was all I needed.

I got up and stepped out onto the balcony for privacy, even though it was fucking freezing balls outside. I grimaced as a blast of icy Helheim winter air came sailing over the city of Styx, slapping me right across the face as I hit speed dial and went to the steel half wall around the balcony to lean on.

"Good morning, beautiful," was Tricho's greeting when he answered. I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up, asshole, what's the update you got for me?"

"Wow, what crawled up your ass and died?"

"My dignity and self-worth. Is this your attempt at getting me to call you?"

"Maaaaaybe," Tricho replied teasingly and I was so glad he couldn't see the dumb grin on my face because how could a dude that was borderline seven foot be so damn funny? I shook my head, turning so I could face the inside of the penthouse to keep an eye out for Hadrian or Six walking in on the conversation.

"What's going on?" I asked at last. Tricho sighed, long and sad.

"Fine, down to business. Would it kill you to give me a giggle or something? I know you're smiling, but I want to hear you laugh."

"Shut up," I managed, embarrassed by that and feeling the heat flaming up to my ears, "Be serious for three seconds. Please." Tricho said something in that language of his and I only knew a few words from it, like when he called his mother maman or his sisters mimi. It sounded like he was saying some kind of ancient proverb with a fucked up French accent.

"There's been whispers about Olive Garden," Tricho said at last, making me frown and look up as he used the dumb code name for the Garden of Hesperides, "Nothing set in stone, but it sounds like there's going to be activity there. I don't know how they're getting into Olive Garden without anyone knowing, though."

"The snake wouldn't be letting them in, would he?" I asked. I didn't trust the demon for a goddamn second, especially those creepy eyes. Sure, he wasn't Hera's fan, but it looked like things were tense between him and Zeus, so what if he switched sides out of spite?

"Not a chance," Tricho answered matter-of-factly, so much so that I didn't question it, "In fact, it sounds like their method is going right under his nose, which is a bit unnerving. Isn't he an original?"

"So Mother has a way to get to Olive Garden without any interference."

"I didn't say she was moving anywhere."

"Is she sending someone else?"

"I don't know how without setting off some kind of alarm."

"So... Maybe there's already people there that have contact with her," I murmured thoughtfully, scratching at the ice crusted on the steel wall, "What about Ladon, the dragon shifter? He might be the one watching over the artificials. Maybe he's her connection to that realm."

"But how would he get information to her if he's been in the garden all this time?"

Right, Ladon had never left the Garden, as far as anyone knew. It made sense considering dragon shifters were an endangered species and didn't often venture outside their nesting locations.

It had to be someone who could pass in and out of the Garden withouting alerting attention.

"A spy?" I asked, dropping my brows down and straightening. It gave me a chill to think that someone was watching a lot closer than I thought.

There was a long pause from Tricho that confirmed my suspicions.

"We've been compromised," Tricho stated, his voice unfathomably calm despite the hammering in my throat, "I've already made arrangements, but it's going to be a tad difficult for me to do what I need to do, so I need you to be ready." I scowled, pushing away from the balcony and turning to go inside and see if Hadrian and Six had noticed anything peculiar in the inner circle.

"Ready for what?" I demanded. There was no answer, so I looked down at my phone with a scowl to see the fucker had hung up on me. I opened the door and ducked inside quickly, shuddering at the abrupt change from freezing cold to toasty warmth inside.

"Mmm," Six's moan made me look up to see him coming into the living room with our bags of take out, placing them on the table, "Three, can I have a bite of your food? It smells really good." He had to say it in that cutesy way like he thought he needed to beg me to do anything.

I just gave him an absent nod that he met with a kiss on my cheek before he started opening things. I sent a text to Tricho, demanding exactly what he wanted me to be ready for, but the message sat unread, so I forced myself to put my phone away.

I fucking hated it when he did that. I knew at the end of the day I could trust Tricho with my life, but he always had to be cryptic.

Hell, he was the only reason I had been able to save Hadrian in time. Chloe had demanded trustworthy soldiers to guard him and Karmen had suggested Tricho, because he told her to. Tricho had perfectly placed himself literally outside Hadrian's door. Of course, there was only so much he could do without his cover getting blown, but I'd made it in time to get him out. Thanks to Tricho, we'd even managed to get ahead of our pursers through the jungle.

It was stressful losing contact with him for a few weeks, but he'd told me before I'd gone in after Hadrian that he would find me.

He was right.

Again.

Shortly after Niko had woken up from his coma, Tricho had reached out by leaving a post-it note on one of Six's takeout orders. I had no idea how the fuck he knew I would be the one picking it up, how he knew where our new apartment was, but it wouldn't have mattered with the note being in code written in the form of a poorly translated ad.

Firecracker bomba, pretty boy dumpling, and sweet chili sauce.

Buy one, get one! Quality limited.

Fuckin' asshole.

Of course, after that, Tricho had used code a few more times to establish our connection before he got to work, feeding me everything I needed to know to get us ahead of Hera. So far, everything was working out almost exactly the way Tricho had predicted, except for the fact that Polly had died during her rescue and Bethany had been killed.

Tricho had predicted it would be dangerous and we might lose someone, but he didn't say who or how. He did warn me that Bethany was watching, but it didn't matter in the end since Jasper had been the one to dispose of her.

"By the way," Tricho told me after I'd shared the news of Bethany's passing, "Give Jasper a pat on the back and some Alka-Seltzer for me. I was so hoping one of you would find a way to get rid of her and knowing Jasper fucking ate her is just. The cherry on my sundae." I had laughed in agreement.

I didn't see much of Bethany around the compound, but what little I had seen of her drove me up the walls and I couldn't imagine Hera having the patience to deal with the whiny bitch. Apparently Hera had had enough of her as well, though, considering her reaction to Bethany's death.

If anything, Yhwhwa was more angry about Bethany's death than Hera was.

I waited around, hoping Tricho would see my text and respond, but he still didn't answer and when I sent a confirmation text that he hadn't been compromised personally, he didn't respond to that either. I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck as I stared down at my phone.

"We should probably finish packing," Hadrian suggested after dinner, clearing the table with Six.

"Mmm." I wasn't really paying attention, just staring down at my phone and waiting for some kind of sign from Tricho. I'd switch to social media apps every so often, but it was mostly just a flurry of dumb celebrity gossip that made no sense to me or news covering the possibility of war.

Possibility?

Try: first attack in preparation.

Until the time was right, though, we had to train.

"Three?" I tensed for a moment when I felt Hadrian's hands on my shoulders and I shut my phone off instinctively. His fingers dug into my shoulders at just the right angle and I felt my back bow towards it as I groaned.

"I don't need a massage," I mumbled, despite making no moves to get up and leave. I could tell Hadrian was smiling now as he gently began to work at my shoulders and upper back. He put his head down so he could touch his face to mine and I could smell all those scented perfumes and lotions that seemed to suit him very well.

"Looks to me like maybe you do," Hadrian murmured against my ear.

My answer was just a moan.

My stress over Tricho's message faded and I ended up getting down on the floor and sitting between Hadrian's knees so he could reach my back and neck better. His movements were repetitive, but gentle and firm. I had never experienced a massage myself until I met Hadrian, and I loved it.

At the same time, it was hard to ask for it because I wasn't used to asking for shit and I certainly wasn't used to asking for shit from someone else. Yet Hadrian seemed to always know when I needed it, when I needed some form of physical touch, even if I didn't say anything about it.

And his touch wasn't overwhelming like a bear hug or skimming all over my body, nothing intense like when we had sex, but the massage was just a nice gentle... piece of attention that Hadrian seemed more than happy to give me.

"Three?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you falling asleep?"

"Mm mm."

"You need to pack your stuff."

"MmmMMMm," I responded with a long groan as he ran his knuckles along my spine, making my back straighten so I was paying more attention to him. I felt his fingers trace along my collarbones, moving around to my neck. My skin tickled and I could feel heat starting in the pit of my stomach.

Hadrian's lips found my ear and his breath was a hot minty blast against my skin.

"Maybe we can loosen you up more before we finish packing?" His voice was rough and husky and I felt a tingle racing up my spine. I started to just nod, but Hadrian cupped my jaw from behind, tilting my head back until I was staring up at him.

Those glowing blue eyes flashed before darkening, a sexy little smirk quirking the corner of his lips. He brushed his thumbs at the corners of my mouth, coaxing my lips apart just a bit.

"I'll be gentle since we have some work tomorrow," he murmured, tracing my lips and I opened them wider out of instinct, so he could press his thumb against my tongue and I groaned before closing my lips down around his thumb, giving him a little suckle of approval.

Maybe I do need to get my ass plowed tonight.

So much for packing.