Page 7 of Wild Hunt
He blinked at me. “I thought you knew.”
“I most definitely did not,” I said, hesitating as I thought back to Loki’s cryptic threat my first night at the Academy. “Actually… Loki might have mentioned something, but I wasn’t really listening.”
“Story of his life.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re saying they sell panaceas and none of the teachers have noticed?”
“No, I’m saying they sell panaceas and some of the teachers buy them,” he answered flatly.
“Of fucking course they do,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “This changes things.”
“How so?”
“For one thing, now I know what to sabotage.”
Dionysus gave me a wary look. “Just be careful. If you’re thinking of cutting in on Hades’ business, he’s just going to hate you more.”
“I’m counting on it,” I grinned. “Just leave the drugs to me. You’re on intel duty, and first, I want you to tell me the truth.”
“The truth about what?” he asked innocently, even though I was damn sure he already knew.
“We’re partners in crime now,” I reminded him. “And you know you can trust me. What the hell happened between you and Loki?”
He gave a heavy sigh and leaned back in his booth, abandoning his half-drunk tea. “It’s a long story without a lot of interesting details.”
“I’m not interested for gossip value,” I assured him. “I just want to know how badly we need to make him suffer when all this finally hits the fan.”
He smiled a little, but it faded once he seemed to decide he was going to tell me the truth. “It’s pretty typical. Freshman year, Loki and I had a fling. In secret, of course. He doesn’t want anyone to know he swings both ways. Certainly not his daddy and brother. Honestly, I’m not even sure if he’s told the Triad.”
“That’s a surprise,” I murmured. “I thought they shared everything.”
“With a few notable exceptions,” he scoffed. “Why? Thinking of using that against him?”
“No,” I cried, lowering my voice when I realized we were getting looks. “Of course not. I want Loki knocked off his pedestal just like the rest of them, but I’d never use someone’s sexuality as a weapon.”
This time, his smile seemed genuine. “No, I didn’t think so. But if you really want to get at him, there might be a better way.”
“I’m listening.”
“Loki’s always had a weakness for panaceas,” said Dionysus. “At one point, he went through them faster than Hades could sell them and it caused some friction in the group.”
“So the Triad’s not as unified as they’d like everyone to believe,” I said, thinking out loud. “That means it’s possible to split them apart.”
“Careful,” he warned. “They’re stronger together, but each one’s formidable in his own right.”
“I already made the mistake of underestimating them once,” I admitted. “I won’t do it again.”
I hesitated to ask my next question, since Dionysus already knew a bit about my interaction with Fenrir in the garden. “What about the wolf?”
“Fenrir?” He raised an eyebrow. “Honestly, you probably know as much as I do about him. He’s hardly ever in class and he mostly keeps to himself.”
“Then maybe he’ll be the easiest one to get to,” I mused.
“How do you figure that?”
“Because unlike Hades and Loki, he actually seems like a half-way decent person.”
“Technically, he’s only half a person at all.”
