Page 102 of Unexpected Redemption

She taps her fingertip over her pillowy lips. “Not really. If we’re being literal, it’s Irena. Symbolically, it could be Katia or something else he’s tied to or perhaps committed to.”

Klein stiffens his frame. “Let’s move on and talk about the minotaur since that’s the reason Daedalusis part of the story. And since he leads us to Icarus, it’s more direct to Yuri’s riddle, in my opinion.”

“Cue the bestiality,” Mia jokes, flipping back to the first page on the easel. “I’ll let you take this one, stud, since you’re oddly fascinated by it.” She narrows her eyes to thin slits. “Which is only moderately concerning.”

Chuckles dance around the room as Mia takes her seat, opening the space beside the easel for Klein.

“There are a lot of bulls in Greek mythology. We’ve already heard about the one who killed Androgeus. This next part of the story has a few more. Buckle up. It’s about to get weird.” Wearing a bemused grin, Klein shakes his head as if dispelling an amusing thought. “This story happened before the war with Athens.”

When he pauses, I urge him on. “Got it. Go ahead.”

“There was some drama about whether King Minos was the rightful ruler of Crete. As kings are known to do, he prayed to Poseidon for something to validate his claim to the throne. All too happy to oblige, Poseidon sent Minos a majestic white bull. He did this with the understanding that Minos would later sacrifice the beautiful beast to the gods, thus returning the bull to Poseidon, where it belonged.”

“Did it work?” Lettie’s nose scrunches up. “I mean, how does a bull make him the legit king?”

“It definitely worked,” Klein responds, barely holding back a laugh. “The people were like... wait, wait, wait. So this bull is whiteandmajestic as fuck? Done deal. King Minos is our guy.”

Lettie shakes loose of my hand to splay both palms out dramatically. “That makes about as much sense as a one-legged pole dancer. How did they figurethatmade him king?”

“BecauseMythology,” Mia coos while wiping her hands over her head in the shape of a rainbow.

A guffaw that’s been brewing in my chest finally shakes itself free.

“Okay, focus people.” Klein claps twice, bouncing from foot to foot. “Unfortunately, Minos was so taken by this majestic bull that he sacrificed adifferentbull to Poseidon. Just a regular boring bull as if the god wouldn’t notice. Selfish fuck that he was, he wanted to keep the white one for himself. A decision he wouldsoon come to regret. This subpar sacrifice seriously pissed off Poseidon, who punished Minos by putting a curse on the King’s wife, Pasiphae. It made her crazy with lust for this bull.” His tone steadily grows shaky as he fights his laughter. “Shehadto fuck this bull. One way or another, she was gonna get thatD. She tried several times to presenther offeringsto the beast, but the animal wasn’t interested. But Pasiphae was no quitter.”

Lettie rubs her palm over her forehead while fighting back her hysterics. “Heavens to Betsy. This story is so friggin’ out there. It gives a new meaning to BDE—BullDick Energy.”

Everyone laughs, making me glad the door is closed, or else my support staff would think we were fucking around.

When the cackles fade, I tap Lettie’s thigh. “Listen to the rest of this story. It gets worse, sugar bear.”

Klein continues. “She needed help. Someone who could fix this problem for her. Enter the great inventor who Yuri told us about,Daedalus. Also known as Icarus’s father.”

“Oh no. What did he do?” Lettie asks with a visible cringe.

Her reaction makes perfect sense since this is one of those questions you have to ask to satisfy your curiosity, but you also don’t want to know the answer.

“He built her a wooden apparatus shaped like a cow. With a hole at the back where she could stick out her naked”—he widens his eyes and waggles his brows—“you know what. That way, the bull would see this beautiful wooden cow, and Pasiphae could finally get that BDE.”

Through ever-growing giggles, Lettie quips, “If there’s anything that’ll get a bull’s attention, it’s a wooden cow. Everybody knows that.”

“And there’s nothing weird about Daedalus’ reaction to the queen’s request either.Makes perfect sense to me,” Mia jokes. “Oh, you want tobang a bull? I got you, your majesty. Wooden cow suit. Bam. It’s Inventing 101.”

Once the laughter ebbs, Klein attempts to bring it home.“All right. Enough of that salacious disgusting shit. So she gets pregnant by the bull, as you’d expect. And gives birth to the minotaur of legend. Head and tail of a bull and body of a man.”

“Ah, Mother Nature,” Mia trills, making the rainbow shape once more.

“Let me take it from here,” I announce, anxious to finish this.

Klein rolls his eyes, stepping back a few feet to yield the floor to me.

I rattle the rest in a rush. “After Pasiphae gave birth to this abomination, King Minos contracted our dear inventor friend and his son to build the labyrinth. It was meant to be a prison for the minotaur.”

Under her breath, Mia tosses, “Prison. Nursery. Barn. Same difference.”

Not letting it devolve further into joke fodder, I keep going. “All right. We have the minotaur in the labyrinth. As he grew, so did his appetite. Hence, when the war with Athens started, Minos seized the opportunity to feed it the yummy children of Athens. And that’s why he made King Aegeus send him some over every few years.”

“Wow. He was such a noble and forgiving man to have fed and housed his wife’s bastard abomination,” Lettie deadpans.

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