“I’m not responsible for Apollo’s choices,” Hermes argued. “And don’t pretend like this wouldn’t be more fun with alcohol.”
“Your right,” Lexa said. “Good thing I brought this.”
She withdrew a bottle of wine from inside a backpack she’d brought.
“Give me that,” Hermes snatched the bottle from her hands.
Persephone’s eyes widened. “Excuse me, aren’t you driving tonight?”
“Well yeah, but that’s for after.”
Except that somehow, Hermes had already managed to open the bottle.
“I hope you have more in that bag,” the god replied. “Because this one’s for the present.”
Lexa snorted, and the door in front of them finally clicked. Sybil’s voice echoed through the intercom.
“It’s open, come on up.”
Hermes started forward, but Persephone put her hand out to stop him. “You can get the dolly.”
“Why do I have to get the dolly? I’m carrying the wine.”
Persephone took the bottle. “Now I’m carrying the wine. Dolly. Now.”
Hermes shoulders slumped as he relented and trudged toward the moving truck. He returned wheeling the dolly.
Lexa giggled. “You look awfully mortal, Hermes.”
The god’s eyes darkened. “Careful, mortal. I’m not above turning you into a goat for my own enjoyment.”
“Your enjoyment?” Lexa cackled. “That would be the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The three went up the elevator and were let out in the middle of Apollo’s living room.
Persephone wasn’t sure how to feel at seeing the luxury Sybil had been living in the last few months since graduation. There was no denying being employed as an oracle was a lucrative job, and the goddess felt that seeing all this made Sybil’s situation even worse. It made it tangible. She would be going from living in a high-rise penthouse with floor to ceiling windows, wood floors, stainless steel appliances, and the fanciest coffee machine Persephone had ever seen, to occupying her and Lexa’s small apartment from now until the foreseeable future.
Despite the extreme change in lifestyle, Sybil seemed in good spirits, almost as if moving out of this space was lifting a burden from her shoulders. She popped her head out of an adjoining room. Her blond hair spilled over her shoulder in loose waves. Her pretty, make-up free face aglow.
“In here, guys.”
They filed into her room. Persephone expected to find that it had more personality than the rest of the house, but she’d been wrong. Sybil’s room was just as colorless.
“Why is everything grey?”
“Oh, well, Apollo doesn’t like color,” she said.
“Who doesn’t like color?” Lexa asked, plopping down on Sybil’s bed.
“Apollo, apparently,” said Hermes, falling on the bed beside Lexa. “We should trash the place before we leave. That would really piss him off.”
Sybil paled, eyed widening.
Persephone placed her hands on her hips. “You’re the only one who would think that was funny and the only one who would survive his wrath.”
“You would too, Sephy. Hades would cut off Apollo’s balls before he got within an inch of you. I’m tempted to do it just so I can watch.”
“Hermes,” Persephone said pointedly. “You are really not being helpful.”