“Stop calling me that.” She should have given more thought to her emotional state before rushing from her quarters. Not only did she look a mess, but she also had no patience for kindness or civility.
Roman stood and reached as if to touch her.
She flinched.
With a sigh, he lowered his arms and allowed her a little bit of distance. “What’s wrong? Did someone?—?”
“No.”
The word cracked her open, jagged as glass. So many someones to blame for this. So many choices. And the gods… They wrote their prophecies in blood and left her and Augustus to deal with the stains.
A sob broke from her chest, and she collapsed into the abrupt emptiness.
Roman caught her. Held her. Rocked her. He brushed her back with slow, small circles. “I’ve got you,” he whispered, then kissed the crown of her head.
She inhaled out of habit, and instead of sun and wind and sea, she breathed in campfires and forests ravaged by storms.
Selene wrenched out of his arms. “Stop. You have to stop.”
Roman’s full lips dipped in the corners. “There was a time when I was the one you sought for comfort.”
“I don’t know you.”
Her mind knew that to be true. Something pulsing and deep within her said otherwise.
“You’ve been very careful to avoid trying,” he said. “I hoped you might start asking questions.”
Selene rolled her eyes. “Now that you aren’t beholden to Aspasia’s rule of law, I’m supposed to care? Half your people tried to kill me for simply existing. I want nothing to do with any of you. Who we ever were centuries ago doesn’t change who we are today.”
“I chose to fight in this war for you, Eva. We all did.”
“For me, but not Augustus.”
Roman’s nose flared on a sharp breath. “Michail isn’t who you think he is. There’s a reason we?—”
“I don’t care!” she screamed. “I don’t care, Roman. I love him despite all reasons not to. You can’t begin to imagine what we’ve been through together, and he’s been there for all of it.”
“Has he? All of it?” He pointed to her scar. “Was he there when this happened? Where was he when that man beat you in the street and kidnapped you?”
Selene shrank back. The secrets Augustus kept back then threweverything into question, and she hated that. But she’d be damned if she shared any of that with Roman. “Augustus can’t be with me every second.”
“Why did the color just drain from your face, then? What happened?”
“What happened,” Blaze cut in, “is none of your fucking business.”
The Ranger strode up behind, a smile like a blade stretching ear to ear. His presence didn’t ease the moment—it sharpened it.
Selene didn’t want his help.
Blaze was outfitted similarly to Roman, only his shirt was tucked, and his boots were laced to the tops of his calves. The spark in his eyes, the slant of his grin, the slight stubble of beard growth…exactly Augustus’s type. He was the one person she had to worry about where Augustus’s loyalty was concerned.
“I’ll let you two fight amongst yourselves,” she said and started away.
Blaze took her carefully by the elbow as she passed and dipped his head to whisper. “Can we talk?”
She couldn’t even look him in the eye. “I have nothing to say to you.”
She’d trusted him—had let him in without a second thought—and he’d kissed Augustus at the first opportunity. Worse, he hadn’t fought to save Augustus when they’d been docked in Warian Bay. He’d sided against her and, in turn, Augustus.
