Prue frowned. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to ask me what’s wrong. Or you were going to comfort me. But neither is appropriate right now. So please just stop.”
Her brows drew together. “What the hell are you talking about? We just went through a terrible ordeal. Of course they would be appropriate right now.”
Cyrus shook his head, then took her hands in his. His fingers were cold and trembling. “Just… just tell me whatIcan do foryou. Please. Let me be useful. Somehow.”
“You can be useful by being my husband and answering my damn questions.Talkto me, Cyrus. Is it Lagos?”
He flinched, indicating she’d hit her mark. Goddess, she hadn’t realized how fond he’d become of the demon. They must have truly connected in her absence.
The thought drove a dagger straight through her heart. She would have loved to see their friendship grow, just as hers had from the beginning. Lagos had been her first ally, her first true friend in the Underworld. And it both warmed and shattered her heart to know that Cyrus had experienced the same camaraderie with him.
“I’m grieving, too,” Prue said in a soft voice. “Lagos was?—”
Cyrus suddenly pulled away from her, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not justgrief, Prue. It’s—It’s… guilt, shame,horror.I don’t deserve to feel anything or to be comforted because it’smy fault.Lagos’s death is on my hands, and you should utterly despise me for it.”
She sucked in a gasp at the harshness of his words. “Cyrus, that’s not true!”
“Yes, it is!Ibrought him there.Icame up with the plan.Iassigned him to track you down while I distracted the Titans. Lagos was followingmyorders. All of this rests on me, Prue. So please spare me your pitying glances and your false sense of concern. It is wasted on someone like me.”
Frustration rose up inside her. Goddess above, she didn’t have the patience for Cyrus’s assumptions and orders right now. “Is that what you want?” she snapped. “You want me to hate you? To shout at you? Toblameyou?”
“Yes!” he shouted.
Prue’s head reared back as she stared at Cyrus. Was he serious?
Somewhere down the tunnel, someone hollered at them to be quiet, but they ignored the outburst. Cyrus stared at Prue, his eyes blazing with fire. He closed the distance between them, his expression full of rage. “Hate me. Strike me. Punish me. Do it all, Prue. I want your hatred and your fury. Take it out on me until I am on my knees begging you for mercy.”
She shook her head as something boiled within her. Everything inside her was so intense and volatile that she couldn’t hold it back much longer. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Cyrus. I’m not your subject. I’m not a puppet to be controlled. And I will not simply shout at you because it’swhat your masochistic mind craves. Go punish yourself. Leave me out of it.”
She turned away from him. A snarl ripped from his throat, and he grabbed her wrist, jerking her back toward him.
Without thinking, Prue slapped him hard across the face. The sound echoed in the cavern, and his head swiveled from the force of it.
Prue gasped and staggered backward. Shit. She hadn’t meant to do that.
Cyrus slowly turned to stare at her, his eyes wide and his cheek red from where she struck him. His mouth fell open.
“I—I’m sorry,” she said at once. “I didn’t?—”
“Do it again.”
She stiffened. “What?”
“Hit me again.”
“Cyrus—”
“Dammit,hit me,Prue!”
She made a frustrated sound and whacked him on the other cheek, just to shut him up. This time, he deserved it. She was sick of him telling her what to do.
He stumbled back, shaking his head violently. Now both his cheeks were red, and his eyes were wide and wild. “Gods, I needed that.”
“You’re insane, Cyrus.”
“I’mpoisonous,” he said. “Can’t you see that? Everything I touch dies. No matter how hard I try to be good, everything crumbles around me. The moment I fell in love with you, Vasileios stabbed you. Then, when I got you back, Kronos took over my body. You gave up your godsdamn life to saveme from Tartarus caving in. And then the Titans abducted you andcut off your ear.My most loyal subject died on my watch. I—I can’t do this anymore, Prue. It’s nothing but pain and more pain, and the guilt and exhaustion from bearing these burdens istoo muchfor me.”
