“I can walk.”
“Okay.” He loops his arm through mine and turns us in the direction of his building.
It takes half a block for my feelings to get the best of me. “Eros—”
“Not here.”
Right. Not out on the street where anyone can overhear. I should be smiling up at him like the newlywed I am, but I can’t manage it.
As long as I’m moving, I’m okay, but the second we get back into Eros’s penthouse and he closes the door behind me, my knees give out.
He catches me before I hit the floor. Of course he does. Eros scoops me up and takes me into the bedroom that’s become ours. Only then does he sit me on the bed and crouch before me. The ice is still present in his eyes, but the way he holds my hands is soft and sweet. “Breathe, Psyche.”
“I am breathing.” Except my voice is too high and thready. And I can’t stop shaking. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Adrenaline letdown.” He rubs my hands gently. “It will pass.”
Of course he would know. He’s been in dangerous situations over and over again. I’ve only done it twice, and the feeling bubbling up inside me after the assassination attempt in the parking lot was nothing compared to this.
My throat is too tight, but I have to get the words out. “I’m sorry.”
He frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry. You told me to stay here and I couldn’t. I couldn’t let you bear the burden of hurting her. She’s your mother.”
“She’s a monster.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t love her.”
He sighs and moves to join me on the bed. “No, that doesn’t mean I don’t love her, if you can call it that. I…” He curses. “I’m fucking furious with you. You put yourself in danger. You didn’t fucking talk to me. I thought I was going to show up and find you dead. I can’t… Psyche, I don’t care what burdens I have to bear; they’re more than worth it if you’re safe.”
I reach out tentatively and sink my fingers into his curls. “I had things under control.”
“In hindsight, I’m aware of that, but there were so many variables.” He shakes his head, the move tugging on my hold a little. “You were faking it, weren’t you? Being that scared.”
I shudder to think back to the moment I was crouching on the ground, staring down the barrel of a gun. “Only partly.” I swallow hard. “She needed to think she’d won. She’s too vain not to say all the ugly stuff out loud, and I needed that on the video.”
Eros stares at me. “You’re terrifying. Do you know that? Absolutely terrifying.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
“Neither can I.” He leans down and presses his forehead to mine, a grounding touch that eases some of the tension in my chest. “So. A month left.”
Just like that, it’s back. “That’s what Zeus said. I expect he doesn’t want anything to detract from the narrative he’s going to spin, and once he announces the engagement with Callisto—” I break off. “I can’t believe she did this.”
“Really? I can.” He carefully extracts my hands from his hair and links his fingers through mine. “Your sister is going to be Hera.”
“It seems that way.” I can barely comprehend what that will look like. The last Zeus went through three Heras over his time with the title. Rumor is that he killed at least two of them, but no charges were ever leveled at him. As a result, the title of Hera has become something of an empty one. It technically still has duties and an area to rule like all the other Thirteen, but the last three people to hold it were overshadowed by Zeus. I don’t know what my sister will do with the title, but I can guarantee she won’t be the easy, biddable wife that this Zeus is no doubt hoping for.
But I don’t want to talk about Callisto.
I take a slow breath and stare at our linked hands. “So much of this has been pretend. From the very start, we’ve been lying to the public.”
“I’ll give you a divorce.”
That stops me short. I lift my head and blink at him. “What?”
“A divorce.” The winter night outside the window is warmer than Eros’s voice. “You married me to keep safe from my mother. She’s no longer a threat, and I know this isn’t what you would have chosen for yourself. When the month is up, I’ll get the divorce papers written up. You can have whatever you want. You’ve more than earned it.”
I have to take my hands back from him to avoid doing something I’ll regret. “Eros.”
“Yeah?”
“Will you let me finish before you sprint to leap on your own sword to save me from big, bad you?”
Now it’s his turn to blink. “I’m as much a monster as my mother. That’s empirical fact.”