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“Dead?”
“He’s not dead.”
Hercules eats more ice cream.
“Herc.”
He looks at me, spoon in his mouth, as if to say, what?
“Are you keeping tabs on Kenneth Coleman?”
He rolls his eyes and flips the spoon out of his mouth.
“Yes. Obviously.” My Greek statue of a brother frowns into his ice cream like he’s actually sorry for Kenneth Coleman. “It can be so tough to see someone grapple with the consequences of their actions.”
“You’re clearly having a hard time.”
He meets my eyes. Hercules has eyes that are oddly similar to Zeus’s and Artemis’s for someone who doesn’t share any of their DNA.
“I said it can be tough. Not that it’s tough for me. Hey, did you bring Ares with you?”
I make a point of looking around. “No? He doesn’t work at my office. I don’t keep him in my pocket.”
“It would be so cute if you did,” Hercules says in a sing-song voice. “I was just asking. I thought, what with the internet apocalypse, that he’d be here, too. Guy’s acting pretty suspicious lately.”
A scoff burbles out of my mouth. “He’s acting suspicious? You feel comfortable making that judgment call?”
“Super comfortable,” Hercules answers. “Guy’s got a secret he’s trying to keep from all of us. Guess that kind of thing runs in the family.”
“Shut up.”
Voices rise from the far end of the house—Castor and Pollux, shouting at each other. They get louder and louder until one of them lets out a weird shriek like a raptor. Laughter, then silence.
“Freaks,” says Hercules, almost warm.
“Why weren’t you at the photo shoot today?” I ask, mainly because I want the thoughts churning in my head to stop for a minute.
Hercules pauses, his spoon in mid-air. “The photo shoot for Daisy and Artemis?”
“For Daisy.”
“Artemis was in it too. Didn’t you know? They’re both going to be on the cover of Vogue together. Because of your engagement.”
“Why aren’t you going to be on the cover of Vogue?”
“What makes you think I’m not?” Hercules looks at me like he can’t believe I’ve said such a thing. “There are twenty different photo shoots for this production. The one for me and Daisy isn’t for another month.”
“That was rude of me. I shouldn’t have assumed you wouldn’t be on the cover based on today’s shoot. Everyone wants you on the cover of a magazine.”
“Yeah, and can you blame them?” He narrows his eyes. “Are you jealous? I know you’re usually the pretty one, but?—”
“Shut up.”
That was…more forceful than I meant for it to be.
Hercules blinks at my tone. “Woah, champ. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Champ. That’s a good one.”
