Page 11

CIRCE

Y ou’ve got something on the edge of your mouth…

My hand is halfway to my lips to wipe it away when I realize what she’s saying. Scowling, I flick a middle finger at the empty seat across from me.

Don’t be gross, Arty.

Don’t slut shame yourself. It was delicious, wasn’t it? I knew you were a secret little pervert. Just. Like. Me.

This time I smirk, rolling my eyes and dismissing her haunting memories.

Twat.

Always busting my chops for not indulging in…anything, actually.

After our night together, things feel different with Ero. I’m having second thoughts. Dangerous feelings bubble up every time I think of him, those eyes, his raven hair. Just thinking of him touching me sends me into a tailspin.

I used him the other night. Just like we’re using him for Ananke’s schemes. Just like she’s using me. Only, I’m a willing participant. Mostly.

I’m eating my breakfast when a bold, intrusive presence enters the room. Pristine, manicured from toes to tits to uncomfortably symmetrical face. Ananke always struck me as unnatural, somehow.

Not that I am one to judge. She’s a great woman. She’s done so much for me.

I keep telling myself that as her gaze bores a hole through me.

“Circe, darling, so good to see you bright, awake, and…indulging. Careful, all that cream and fruit will make you pudgy.” Her smile borders on a sneer.

“I’ll do a few extra laps.” That’s about as much sass as I dare.

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit your complexion, child. Did you do as I asked?”

“Yes. He’ll be ready.” I nod toward the window. Ananke glides to the other end of my quarters, her hands clasped behind her back.

“Mm. Quite ready, indeed. Fit too.” Her eyebrows arch slightly. I definitely do not clench my teeth. Or reach for my butter knife.

At a subtle flick of her hand, I rise, joining her at the window.

Below in the courtyard, Ero spins through a maneuver, sparring with a few of the guards.

Graceful as ever. And deadly calm. Even when he’s clearly holding back to avoid crippling the two huge men gasping and sweating as the circle him.

One of the brutes rushes him and he deftly steps to the side, straight-arming the opponent down into the dirt, face-first. I catch a little glimmer of his eyes twitching up, right at me. He rolls his shoulders, flexing in the morning sun.

Show-off. Of course he’d sense us watching.

I’m not impressed or blushing. Nope.

“Something to share?”

“No.” I mostly cover the hitch in my voice. I’m not embarrassed. But she also doesn’t need to know about…

“What do we need to ensure your lover continues to cooperate?”

Dammit. How does she always…

“Training. Exercise. Development. Keeping him busy will be key. He thinks too much.”

“Two of a kind, then, the two of you. A match made in…well, somewhere.”

This time I can’t hide my grimace. She knows just how to grind my gears.

“I apologize, dearest. That was not meant to be a jab. I merely see the bond between you. Well, the bond that used to be. Use it, if you can.”

“I don’t like lying to him.”

“You’ve been a liar your entire life, my dear, you’ve been an assassin and a tool your entire life. This shouldn’t be any different. Stay the course and all will be restored, renewed.”

Tell her to go fuck herself. Nothing can bring me back to life. Or your kids. Or your marriage. The rest of your family.

I—I know. But it’s so much easier to just believe. To hope.

To let her make you forget. Artemis sneers, disgusted.

“Remind me how you’re going to accomplish that,” I utter, almost under my breath. “I don’t feel re-anything.”

Ananke’s head swivels toward me, her mask coming off in her hand as her entire posture changes. One instant she’s a regal, poised noble, the next she’s a menacing, almost haggard beast. Her shoulders arch back, her neck thrust forward.

“I’ve had enough of your petulant insubordination lately, Circe.”

“I—”

“No. You do not get to demand anything or deserve answers you haven’t earned. Simply know that I am in control, that I know what is best for you.”

Taken aback, I fumble for a response, trying desperately not to wince or cover my face at the onslaught. How does she do that? Why am I shaking?

Terror drills into my sternum, taking my breath away. How does she make me feel such utter panic?

“S-sorry. Please forgive me. I forget myself.”

“Sorry, indeed. Perhaps you need to be reminded of how things work around here.”

“No, I apologize for even asking. I know you’ll tell me what I need to know when I need to know it.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Cover your ears! Artemis’s voice shrieks in my mind, but I react too late.

Her lips move, a single word. Something like a concussion detonating underwater claps in my brain, against my ears.

Ananke’s displeasure batters my senses, her rage and disappointment stabbing through me with physical pain. Her raised hand never strikes, but I feel the blow a thousand times over.

“Ungrateful cunt! I have given you everything. Returned you to life where you would have suffocated in your grief, succumbed to your injuries. I am trying to set the world right, balance the scales of the wicked and the righteous. And all you can do is pout. Gripe. Whine .”

Wrath showers down around me, a palpable deluge of red-hot needles in my skin.

And through it all, I cannot remember why she’s angry. What did I do?

I must have deserved this.

Fog creeps across the pathways, blinding me to where I’ve been, what I’ve said and done.

The only certainty aside from knowing I failed my mistress, is the fact that she has done this to me before.

An instinct similar to my reflexes in the field tells me that I’m fractured, damaged. Not by injury but definitely by trauma.

Yet none of it matters.

Pain and shame take center stage and all I want to do is make them go away.

“I’m sorry. It’s just so hard sometimes. The memories…the missing pieces.”

“Which is exactly why you should trust me. I saved your life, I promised you that I would do everything I could to heal your mind. You have to give it time. My doctors are hard at work as we speak. Like you should be.”

I open my mouth to ask another question, but she snaps her fingers in warning. Then she moves her lips again, only this time, a fog settles over the fear and debilitating remorse.

“No more doubts. Remember, Circe, the sands trickle faster in the sunlight. ” The words echo in my head, rattling around empty space. “Back to your baseline, darling.”

I nod, my eyes watering, blurring my vision. “Yes, mistress.”

“That’s my girl.” And I suddenly feel elated, relieved. “Now, go train with our new weapon. I have so much work for the two of you.”

“Thank you, Ananke.” I take a breath, closing my eyes.

An instant later, I can’t remember why I felt relieved, why I felt scared. What were we just talking about?

“Finish your meal, dear.”

I start to answer, glancing up from my seat at the table. Blinking a few times, I swallow, my throat dry. The food is cold, like I’ve been sitting there for a long time. My coffee is stale.

This has happened before. I’m not sure when, but I am sure it has…

A tremor of frustration and apprehension drives me to my feet, into my closet. Slipping on a sports bra and a formfitting pair of leggings, I race toward the door, downstairs and to the courtyard below.

I need to let loose.

As soon as I see Ero, another feeling takes over, drowning out the sour sickness from moments before. Heat and fire blossom in my stomach. Without a second thought, I sprint toward the center of the court, launching myself at him.

Ero turns his head from the wooden practice dummy he’s battering with his forearms just in time to see my foot flying at his face. His eyes widen a fraction before he snatches my calf. With a sudden heave, he swings me away, tumbling through the air.

Twisting in mid-flight, I round off into a crouch, my fingers digging furrows in the dirt as I slide to a stop.

“Good morning,” Ero grumbles, cracking his neck from side to side with an audible pop.

“Decent. Good to see your instincts are sharp as ever,” I snap.

“They have to be. It’s barely midmorning and you’re already trying to kill me.”

“Try to make it to lunchtime, if you can.”

But I’m the one on the ropes a second later when he kicks dirt up, arrowing through the haze from my left. He was just?—

How the fuck did he get over there?!

I barely dodge, flicking my hair to the side to distract him and redirecting my side flip into a low spin. My heel catches his foot, tripping him up. Hopping over the stumble, he turns toward me just in time to take my scything elbow to the sternum, knocking him back with a gust of breath.

Something almost like a laugh shudders as the wind blasts out of him.

The sound is so shocking I almost miss his recovery. Flinging back his hands as he falls, Ero catches his weight, bent fully backward, and kicks his legs back in a snap. The momentum launches him back to his feet.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I growl, backing away as I block a flurry of blows from his fists, his feet. It’s like the more danger he’s in, the better he gets.

And goddamn it, it challenges me like nothing else.

“I shit you not!” he barks, ducking back as I arc into a split backflip, my first foot missing his chin, my second clipping him enough to sting.

My feet hit the ground and he’s there, slipping a hand through my reach, twisting my arm behind me. Ha. Got him.

“My turn!” I shift with the flow of his grapple, bending farther than he can, using his arm as a fulcrum, tucking my knees and hooking one leg around him as I drop like a deadweight, overbalancing him. Bracing against his shins, I drag him with me, flipping him onto his back.

Dust settles, and I’m straddling him, a knife to his throat.

“Now that was spectacular.” He grins through the blood smearing his teeth.

Fucking. Audacity.

“Try topping that.”

His eyebrows twitch upward right before an explosive lunge lifts both of us off the ground and through the air. It all happens so fast I barely have time to process.

All I know is that I’m suddenly on my back, with his hands pinning my wrist. With my mind racing in all sorts of directions, all of them filthy.

“I’d rather top you ,” he retorts, his eyes smoldering.