“Griffin was selected before you were born based on his own potential merits,” Persephone explains, “and then enhanced to fit the future Origin’s needs.”
Griffin’s mouth twists in fury, and a horrible, sinking feeling carves through me, hollowing me out. The same fear I felt the day Piers betrayed us comes roaring back, this time doubly gut-wrenching because Griffin isn’t fooling himself anymore. I can see it in his face. His anger is terrible to behold.
He’s given me everything—command of Beta Team, the crown, his body, his devotion. His child. He’s loved me unconditionally, despite my many faults, because he convinced himself thatIwas made forhim, not the other way around. If that illusion somehow hadn’t fully shattered before, it has now. Persephone just crushed it and threw it to the four winds.
I stop breathing at the angry flush spreading across Griffin’s face.
“You waitedthislong to bring me to her?” His voice turns low and livid. “Why all this wasted time? I could have been healing her broken heart, protecting her, giving her a family! Do you have any idea how unsatisfying my life was without her? Without my missing piece?”
Stunned, I watch him rage.
“And you…” He turns to me, his eyes shockingly bright.
Goose bumps wash over me in a wave.
“If you still doubt me—doubtus—then clearly, I have things to prove.” The promise in his eyes is unmistakable. And scorching. “Because I swear to the Gods, you’ll never doubt me again.”
Pain laces his incensed words, and guilt slams into me like a hard punch.
Why did I doubt him?“What iswrongwith me?”
It’s only when Griffin answers that I realize I spoke out loud. “You still don’t trust yourself, and that makes you incapable of trusting anyone else.”
CHAPTER 16
“I trust you!” I cry, stung. No, worse—hurt.
“Insofar as you’re capable,” Griffin answers stiffly.
My jaw drops. I want to say something, but nothing comes out.Is he right? He’s usually right.
“You’re wrong!”Damn it!I slap my hand over my mouth.
Both Olympians abruptly disappear, apparently leaving us alone to fight. The magic that gets sucked from the air, vanishing along with them, is staggering. I didn’t realize how much it weighed on me until it was gone.
“You want to know why your magic doesn’t work?” Griffin asks.
I lift my chin, knowing I’m not going to like whatever he’s about to say, and that it’ll hit me straight in the heart. “Why, then?”
His eyes flash with gray fire. He doesn’t even try to contain his emotions, and Griffin without his usual calm in place is a formidable sight.
“It doesn’t work because you don’t trust yourself. Because you think it’s going to backfire. Because you’re so sure you’re going to hurt someone you want to protect!”
“Oh, and that’s never happened!” The sudden spike of adrenaline in my blood sets my heart to pounding. “The fire in the woods? Flynn under the arena? I burned a hole through his leg with a lightning bolt!”
Griffin reaches out and grips my upper arms, squeezing just enough to keep me still. “I am not Eleni. Little Bean is not Eleni. None of us are Eleni!” he thunders. “And what your mother did to her wasn’t your fault!”
My already hammering heart goes into overdrive. My throat tightens, closing over. Suddenly, I’m burning up and freezing cold, and the whoosh of blood in my ears is deafening. Pounding. It’s all I can hear. Weight seems to press down on me, crushing me from the sides, squeezing me all over. I don’t know if I’m going to pass out or throw up, but everything blurs, and I can only see one thing: Little BeanisEleni. She’ll just have black hair.
Black hair. Blood. Seventeen years old. A knife in her heart. Dead.
Panic beats through me in dark waves. There’s no air.
Griffin’s expression goes from fuming to anxious. “Cat?”
My chest squeezes painfully as I wrap my arms around my middle, caving in on myself and searching out Little Bean’s spark. She’s still there. And she’ll be here—until the day she’s not.
“I can’t protect her.” My pulse pounds too hard, too loud, too fast. My breath saws in and out. “I can’t protect her. She’ll die. She’ll die. She’ll die, and I can’t protect her.”
