Page 100 of Sigma

It was a long, sleepless night. Apollo didn’t come back until just before dawn. He’s in the same clothes as yesterday. He’s tired-looking, as if he hasn’t slept any more than I did. His jaw is heavily stubbled, and his eyes reflect turmoil. Now that I’ve seen the man behind the iron mask he wears, I see the pain in his eyes, the turmoil. The doubt.

He leans against a window, staring out at the approach to the castle, as if he can see something out there I can’t—orsomeone.

His phone rings, and he pulls it from his back pocket, glances at the screen, then at me. “Valentine Roth. And Mrs. Roth I presume.” His voice is something I barely recognize—not just icy, but zero-Kelvin cold, and hard and sharp as obsidian’s edge.

A pause, to listen.

A glance at me again. “I’ll bet you do.” He gestures at me with the phone. “Say hello, darling.”

There’s no discernible verbal emphasis on the “darling” but there need not be. The word’s existence on his lips at all says everything there is to say. Teases, taunts, tortures my parents. I can hear it, feel it.

He’s on a path, and he doesn’t know how to get off.

Maybe he knows this can only end in his death—and he’s welcoming it.

He’s never been hugged.

Never known love.

Yet…there are glimmers of someone else inside him. Hints of something more.

And something inside me calls to him.

It’s crazy. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know anything except I can’t let him die, and I can’t let him do anything to Mom and Dad. I mean, obviously. But for him, too. There has to be another way out of this.

“Quitposing, Apollo,” I snap, my voice betraying the host of emotions inside me.

He frowns at me, but then someone on the other end is speaking to him—I can tell by the way his gaze goes unfocused to listen, darting away from me to the road out the window, as if he could see them from here. He shifts the phone to speaker.

“…mefor Rin. I’m the one who killed Gina, anyway. Take me. You can do what you want with me. Just let my daughter go. She’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Mama, no!” I cry.

“I think not, Kyrie Roth,” Apollo says in that quiet, cold voice. “Both of you. Walk down the road you’re on. My men will not disturb you as long as your hands remain visible at all times. When you come to the castle, you will be approached by my second, Tomás. He will bring you in, at which time I will see that Corinna is delivered to your men.”

“Do you think we’re that stupid, Apollo?” Daddy snarls. “Try again, and do better, or I’ll rethink my attempt to solve this without killing anyone.”

“Oh, please do.” Apollo sighs as if he’s giving up something huge, out of the kindness of his heart. “Very well. I will meet you with her out front.”

“Apollo, don’t,” I say, daring a few steps closer to him. “Just end it. There’s nothing to be accomplished. Not anymore.” I allow softness in my voice. Let him hear the real me, the me he saw in that bed, hours ago.

“Can I talk to my daughter, please?” Mama says, from the phone’s speaker.

“It’s Mommy Dearest,” Apollo says, handing the phone to me and putting space between us.

“Mom?” I put strength into my voice. She can’t worry, or she’ll do something rash. “I’m okay. I promise.”

“What’s going on, Rin?” Mom’s voice is shaky. “Something is going on. I know it.”

“It’s not what you think,” I whisper. I don’t want him to hear. I don’t know why.

“What isn’t?” Mama asks.

“Any of this! It’s not what you think.”

“Enough.” Apollo’s voice snaps over me, and he snatches the phone away. “The trade—we are agreed?”

Daddy’s voice. “We are.”