Page 126 of Hades

I froze.

My mouth was still open. The words hung in the air between us like smoke. Visible. Undeniable.

Fuck.

I hadn’t said heart attack.

I’d said oleander.

Brock hadn’t mentioned oleander.

Slowly, so slowly it felt like moving through water, I turned my head to look at him.

He was still watching me.

No shock on his face. No anger. No horror.

Just knowing.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Once. Twice. So hard I thought it might crack bone.

He knew.

He’d known before he walked in here.

This wasn’t a conversation. It was a test.

And I’d just failed it.

Or passed it.

I didn’t know which.

“Lettie,” he said quietly.

I stood up fast. The chair scraped loud against the floor. Cerberus lifted his head, ears back, sensing the shift in the room.

“I need to—” I gestured vaguely toward the counter. Toward the stove. Toward anywhere that wasn’t this table. “The tea. I should⁠—”

“Sit down, baby.”

It wasn’t a command. It wasn’t harsh. But it stopped me cold.

I looked at him.

He hadn’t moved. Hadn’t stood. Hadn’t reached for me. He just sat there with his hands around that mug, watching me with those dark, steady eyes that saw too fucking much.

“Please,” he added.

I sat.

My legs felt like water. My hands were shaking so badly I had to clasp them together in my lap to hide it.

Brock took another sip of tea. Slow. Deliberate. Like we had all the time in the world.

“You want to tell me about it?” he asked.

“About what?”