Page 90 of His Eternal Claim

She leans down, her distant, sorrowful eyes burning with an intensity that terrifies me. She cups my face, her palms cool against my flushed cheeks. “Listen to me, Stina. He is your husband. In the eyes of the law, in the eyes of his world, your body belongs to him. Men like Zagreus… they grow vicious when they are denied what they bought. Right now, he is playing the patient suitor, but how long before the monster loses his temper?”

“He won’t hurt me,” I say, though the words feel flimsy.

“He already hurt you! He took your Father! He took your life!”

Mama’s voice cracks. She shakes me gently, her gaze boring into mine. “This world doesn’t care about you, Stina. It doesn’t care about a grieving girl. If you remain a ghost, he will simply consume you until there is nothing left. You have to survive him. And survival means playing his game.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I whisper, a tear slipping down my cheek.

Mama’s expression shifts, softening as she wipes my tear away, her thumb dragging across my lip.

“Then let me teach you,” she whispers, her voice a venomous hiss. “He wants you, Stina. He is obsessed with you.

“His patience is his weakness. Do you think he’s giving you time? No, he is waiting for you to break. So break him instead.”

I blink through the fog, my heart racing despite the sedative. “What do you mean?”

“Seduce him,” she commands softly.

“Give him exactly what he wants,” Mama continues. “Open your door. Let him into your bed. Give him your body, make him believe that his patience paid off, that he has finally tamed his wild little bird. Let him become drunk on you. Let him reach the absolute peak of his happiness…”

She pauses, her lips curving into a small, cruel smile that mimics the ghosts of the past. “…and then, take it all away.”

I stare at her, my breath stalling. “Mama…”

“Do what he did to you,” she gasps, her fingers digging into my shoulders. “He entered our lives, he showed us a glimpse of peace, and then he ripped the foundation out from under us.

“He killed your Father. He shattered our family. You must be cruel, Stina. The only way to destroy a man like Zagreus is from the inside out. Sleep with him. Make him worship you until he cannot breathe without your permission, and then use that power to cut his throat.”

“I… I can’t,” I stammer, the image of Zagreus’s dark, reverent eyes in the study flashing through my mind. The way he had kissed my thumb. The way he had promised to burn the world for me.

“Don’t be a fool, child. Do you think he sees a person when he looks at you? He sees a trophy won from a war. If you don’t take control of this narrative, he will eventually force his way into your room, and you will have nothing left but your pride.”

She pulls me against her chest, rocking me slowly as the rain beats a frantic rhythm against the glass outside.

“Go to his room tonight,” Mama whispers into my hair. “Or invite him into yours. End the separation. Give him his wife, Stina. And let the trap snap shut.”

Chapter 31

Abyss

THE MAESTRO | Past

Ican’t sleep alone.”

I stare at her. The fork in my hand stays halfway to my plate.

“You what?” I ask. My voice drops into the patient cadence I’ve been forcing myself to use with her for weeks.

She looks up at me, her eyes glassy, wide, and beautifully terrified. Her hands are resting on the edge of the table, and her fingers tremble unmistakably before she pulls them back, hiding them beneath the linen cloth on her lap.

“The winter is coming,” she says. “The room gets colder. It’s too large.”

My gaze tracks the frantic pulse point at the base of her throat, her chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven intervals. Colder. The heating in this fortress is state-of-the-art; the radiators are humming right now, throwing off enough warmth to bake the skin. We both know it isn’t the temperature of the air that’s freezing her out. It’s the dead space. It’s the silence.

She still loves me, no matter the hatred she bears. My Selene can never hate anyone.

Or at least, that’s what my mind wants to believe.