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“Right. So we are supposed to trust her?”

“No! We are supposed to trust each other!”

A little scoff puffs my chest, my head drooping. “I can’t trust anything you tell me. You don’t think I ever found a way to listen in on your conversations with Ananke? We’re spies, Circe. Hunters. I heard you.”

“Heard what?”

“He’s a shell, a tool…Compartmentalize…Remember that he was your enemy,” I quote softly. “You regret lying to me all the time. You know you must keep me occupied and busy so I don’t fall out of line…”

“I—” she chokes, her body quivering.

“I want you out of my head. I want whichever life was implanted in my mind gone. And I hope it was the one with you in it,” I hiss.

Circe’s face falls, her eyes dropping to the floor. Two drops hit the table, splattering her grief.

My heart shrivels, my anger withering my soul to dust.

“Fine. You want it that way?” Her eyes harden, her shoulders stiffen. “This mission…is one I have been waiting a long time for. We are finally going to the US. To hunt down a lead on Dom Vipera’s assets. To find out where the feds are holding him. So I want you at your best. Focused. Behaving. Because I will not tolerate losing my only chance to kill the man who wiped out my family.”

“Do you even hear yourself? How insane you sound?”

Circe goes ice cold. “I’m sorry, Ero.”

A sick weight plummets in my stomach.

Her lips move, but I hear nothing. The world tips upside down, everything crawling to a halt. I want to cover my ears. To stop the rail spike that smashes into my skull.

Time kicks back in, I stumble backward, stopping myself against the kitchen counter. She’s right there, catching me before I fall. The woman of my dreams. Tears in her eyes.

“Ero …”

“What happened?”

“You almost fainted.”

“I did?”

“But I’ve got you … you’re safe.”

And I feel it, the embrace of her protection, the comfort of her arms. The soft caress of her lips. I let go and sink into her.

16

CIRCE

“?κροκν?φαιος.”

The word is toxic on my tongue. A word that Ananke made only for me. For an emergency like this.

Nauseating shame floods through me.

Ero’s eyes change, his pained expression fading. I saw him reset on the beach, up close. Nothing could have prepared me to be the one to do it.

I swore that I would never…

Cracks spread across my heart, dragging me down. I can’t face this.

But he’s right there, suffering. Our lips are magnetic.