Marina braced herself as he reappeared within arm’s length and lunged for her.
Her legs gave way against his collision, slamming her down on the rooftop.
She grunted from the impact and flung her arms up. Darkness gushed from her fingertips, banding together in the shape of a long, thin dagger. Its pointed end slammed against the solid shield of his divine power. Like a nail to a piece of marble, it rebounded and dispersed back into smoke.
Marina tensed the muscles in her abdomen to raise up. Feeling her strain, Acacius locked his knees around her waist and pinned her in place.
She swung her fist at his face. He caught her knuckles in his palm, securing her wrist in between his index and middle finger.
She threw out her other hand. His thumb wrapped around her other wrist, and he braided both of her hands together in the steely grasp of his long fingers.
She bucked her hips against his pelvis, pulling against the hold he had on her arms.
“Enough of this!” He slammed the back of her hands down above her head. “Fight me, Marina!”
The sound of her name wrapped in his voice took her by surprise. NotRina, but her full name, like a plea.
She halted in his hold, lost in the fury twisting on his face, the vehement desperation in his shout, his tone cracking on his words.
He slumped forward, shaking his head. Pieces of his pale hair stuck to his neck and cheeks, marred in ruby and soot. “I’ve seen you bring gods down to their knees with a look. You are holding back. This is not you.”
Marina held his gilded gaze, hard and furious, hating that she resonated with the agony trapped inside of them.
“Why do you need this fight?” There was an edge to her voice, a leak of agitation. Because even more than she loathed herself, she loathed him for noticing the emptiness in her.
Acacius lowered down to her cheek, his breath fanning over her ear. “Because it is all I have.”
8
RESONANCE
Acacius
“I do not careabout anything anymore.”
He cringed at the way she said it, dull and dead, as she stared straight through him. Her ferocity completely drained away. Compared to the version of her that set foot in the Land of the Dead alongside him only months prior, he no longer recognized her.
“So, as I said before, Acacius,” she continued, “do your worst to me. It will not make a difference.”
What a load of shit.
Her self-loathing made him hate her even more.
He needed this—neededher—unmerciful and full of malice. Just as he was. Without his vengeance, all that awaited him was misery.
Did she truly believe nothing affected her?
A grim chuckle shook out of him, convulsion hot in his chest. “And let you off so easily?” He reared back his elbow and drove his fist through her sternum. Theripof her flesh was loud, satisfying against the choking of her breath.
“Nothing matters to you anymore?” he challenged, her blood coating his forearm as he locked his grip around her heart and constricted the pulsating lump in his palm. “We shall see about that!”
Marina’s scratchy laugh scraped up the sides of her wet throat. Blood wept out of the corners of her smiling mouth. “You are pathetic,” she croaked.
Acacius squeezed his fingertips deeper into the fluttery organ, pushing the squishy meat under his fingernails. “Your mother has fallen.”
Her body convulsed beneath him.
“The sister you despise so much sits on a throne in the Council.”
