His teeth flashed. “You forget who I am, Selene. Guilt isn’t something I allow to bear fruit. And if Lazaros is the problem, there’s an easy enough remedy.” He swaggered toward her with a sharp, cutting glint in his eyes. “I’ll slit his throat within the hour if that’s what it takes.”
A smile spread across Augustus’s face that was all teeth, one he reserved for his enemies. The ones he knew, undoubtedly, he would beat. He’d used it on Cassia a time or two. His mother hadn’t taken it, and neither would she.
Selene stood firm against his storm, a barrier of stone and sand to his tempest. “As if that would solve all our problems.”
“I have no problems, save one. Getting you away from here before things get worse.”
Selene gaped. “I’m not a ragdoll you haul over a shoulder and cart around wherever you wish.” She turned and spoke to an invisible crowd. “Everyone stop what you’re doing”—she shot him a glare—“I might get mydress dirty.”
His responding chuckle was dark. “Are you under some illusion that after a few months of training to be a weapon, you’re suddenly ready forwar? Because that’s where this situation is likely heading. Could you even take a life if it came to it? Be honest.”
Augustus might as well have struck her—it would have felt the same. Was he wrong? No, but that didn’t take away the sting. All those months together at sea, she’d battled constantly for him to save lives while he would turn himself over, under, and backward for a reason to kill a man. It was one of their more glaring differences, and while they could usually find a middle ground, she wasn’t sure this was one they’d ever reach.
Before she could even formulate a response, he deflated. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s what you think, and you shouldn’t have to apologize for that. I won’t apologize for caring, either.”
Selene started for the exit before he saw the tears lining her eyes, or worse, she said something she couldn’t take back.
“Don’t leave,i psychi mou. I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight.”
Shepaused, torn, face to face with an opportunity to let him have this. Accept his apology and swallow her feelings. She’d let him define so many lines before now. What was hers, and what was his. What wastheirs, even. He decided how close she was allowed into his heart and mind.
And that had been okay before now because he’d followed her into the mouth of this storm all those months ago, joining the search for the heir when he’d wanted to sail in the opposite direction entirely. If not for her, he wouldn’t have left his parents and the fleet to begin with. He never would have lost his ship or his friends or his mother. He’d acquiesced his freedom—his entire way of life—to stay here…for her.
He may not let guilt bear fruit, but she’d been harvesting rot for months. Her part in this kept her up at night because Augustus wasn’t the only unhappy one here. Dimitrios looked lost and alone every single day. She would never forgive herself if anything were to happen to him.
Selene swallowed the lump in her throat and faced him.
His shoulders hung low, and his gaze darted swiftly over her face, searching…searching… Could he see the divide she straddled?
“Augustus.”
His steps ate up the space to her, and he carefully took her hands, his mouth shaping into that smirk she loved so much. “Today has been tense, and we got swept up in it. I should have realized how personal this is for you—if I had, I wouldn’t have said so many stupid things.”
“But you still feel them.” It wasn’t a question. Augustus never said things he didn’t mean, cruel or indifferent as they could sometimes be. “You’re only sorry you said them out loud.”
Augustus dropped her hands and stepped away. “Yes. Fine. I’m a villain, and you’re the incorruptible soul who got trapped into living every life with me.”
His words were a blade slicing straight to her bones. The hot tears she’d been holding in came flowing out, and her throat was too tight to let a response free.
“I need to go,” he said. His shoulder bumped hers on the way by. “I have a crew to hire, and we’re beyond all common sense right now. We’ll talk when you’re ready to stop setting fires we can’t put out.”
After everything she’d said, he still hadn’t heard her. He would still forge forward with the plan to sail away and leave all their friends—herfriends—to fight this battle alone. Did he think she would do that with a smile on her face?
He was halfway out the door before she managed to find her voice.
“Augustus.”
He paused to look at her, brows raised.
“I’m staying in Perean. I need to help Dimitrios.”
Augustus’s jaw muscles flared as his gaze flew elsewhere. Without a word, he stormed from the room and slammed the door behind him.
TheEntia’s deck burned beneath Augustus’s boots, sunbaked and dry. The wind was stiff and salt-heavy, snapping through the rigging, rattling the taut ropes overhead. Below the hull, the tide slapped sluggishly against the ship.
Augustus should have been below deck, lost in the rhythm of stowing the crates, but another wave of fury pummeled through him. Instead, he stood enthralled in another repeated memory, his tight hold on the crate biting into his palms.
