JAWBREAKER

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣

Warren and Percy were on their way out when she spotted Hermes in a side courtyard of the palace. He was staring at an Iris-message in the mist of a fountain.

She glanced at Percy. "I'll meet you at the elevator."

"You sure?" Then he studied her face. "Yeah, you're sure."

Hermes didn't seem to notice Warren approach. The Iris-message images were going so fast she could hardly understand them. Mortal newscasts from all over the country flashed by: scenes of Typhon's destruction, the wreckage their battle had left across Manhattan, the president doing a news conference, the mayor of New York, some army vehicles riding down the Avenue of the Americas.

"Amazing," Hermes murmured. He turned toward Warren. "Three thousand years, and I will never get over the power of the Mist... and mortal ignorance."

"Thanks, I guess."

"Oh, not you. But Percy, perhaps, turning down immortality."

"It was the right choice."

Hermes looked at her curiously, then returned his attention to the Iris-message. "Look at them. They've already decided Typhon was a freak series of storms. Don't I wish. They haven't figured out how all the statues in Lower Manhattan got removed from their pedestals and hacked to pieces. They keep showing a shot of Susan B. Anthony strangling Frederick Douglass. But I imagine they'll even come up with a logical explanation for that."

"How bad is the city?"

Hermes shrugged. "Surprisingly, not too bad. The mortals are shaken, of course. But this is New York. I've never seen such a resilient bunch of humans. I imagine they'll be back to normal in a few weeks; and of course I'll be helping."

"You?"

"I'm the messenger of the gods. It's my job to monitor what the mortals are saying, and if necessary, help them make sense of what's happened. I'll reassure them. Trust me, they'll put this down to a freak earthquake or a solar flare. Anything but the truth."

He sounded bitter. George and Martha curled around his caduceus, but they were silent, which made Warren think that Hermes was really really angry.

Warren probably should've kept quiet, but she said, "I owe you an apology."

Hermes gave her a cautious look. "And why is that?"

"For not believing in Luke the way you did," she admitted.

Hermes's expression was miserable. "It is I who should apologize. I knew of Luke's future and yet..."

"You were a good dad," Warren said. "You wanted to save him from this fate, in any way possible."

"A fool's errand," he muttered. "Even gods cannot rewrite the Fates design."

"I'm sorry I couldn't save him."