It was quiet. Cold. Clear.
I looked Sloane up and down—head to heels—and for the first time since she slithered through my door; I didn’t feel like prey.
I felt pissed.
“You know what I think?” I said, voice calm in that terrifying way right before the storm hits. “I think you didn’t walk away. I think he kicked you out.”
Her eyes narrowed. Just a flicker.
So I pressed deeper.
“I think you thought you could handle him, but what you really wanted was to tame him. And when he didn’t fold to your perfect little power trip, you ran.”
Sloane’s posture stiffened, but I wasn’t done. Not even close.
“You come in here like you still matter, like you’re the blueprint, but let me guess…” I stepped forward, matching her energy. “He didn’t come crawling back. You did.”
The color drained slightly from her face, but that mask—she tried to hold onto it.
“You think because you knew him first, you own a piece of him?” I laughed, low and sharp. “That’s pathetic. No wonder he needed a clean break. You don’t rattle me, Sloane. You reek of desperation.”
She moved before I saw it coming.
A sharp crack of skin against skin, and pain exploded across my cheek. My lip split open under the force of the slap, the taste of copper flooding my mouth.
I staggered back a step, hand flying to my face, breath catching?—
And then I smiled.
Slow. Bloody.
Sloane froze like she hadn’t expected me to smile. Like she’d expected tears.
Big mistake.
She turned toward the door with a smug little toss of her hair. “Be a good little dog, Persephone,” she said, her voice full of venom.
But I was already on her heels.
“That’s Mrs. Sinclair to you,” I snapped, spit and blood in my mouth but fire in my chest.
She paused.
Didn’t turn around.
And then, without another word, she left.
The door slammed shut behind her.
And I stood there, bleeding—but victorious.
Chapter 20
Hades
I shoved through the front door, adrenaline still humming beneath my skin from the game, ready for silence. Maybe her anger. Maybe those eyes that looked at me like I was both the problem and the solution. I was used to that now.
What I wasn’t ready for?—
