She’d noticed his weakness immediately and took advantage of it, just as Ruelle had done.
His heart bled, and his malice for both her and himself flared like the smoke of Moros under his skin.
He materialized behind Marina and bent forward, whipping his arm around to grasp her by the throat.
“I must say, Rina, your manipulation knows no bounds.”
“You think you are any different?” She stiffened in his hold, her pulse stammering against his fingers. “You have been doing everything you can to ruin me.”
“You are the one who started this!” He ripped her up off the sofa by her neck and slammed her back against the wall.
A grunt pushed out of her from the impact. The portraits around her slipped from their hooks and crashed into the floor, cracking their wooden frames.
Bring her pain,his Ruin whispered.
He considered it—lowering the internal barrier of his disillusionment and giving it permission to attack her like a nest of invisible parasites. But the disapproval tugging in his gut prevented him from doing so.
Instead, he squeezed her throat until she fought for breath, her eyes bloodshot and wide, snapping her hands up to grab his wrist and break the bone.
That disapproval in his gut twinged harder at the sight of her struggle.
Infuriated by his own stupid, weak heart, he leaned in closer until his breath touched her lips. “You are truly ruthless, Rina.”
She let out a furious growl and hauled her knee up in between his legs. Pain exploded low in his stomach, and he coughed out, releasing her and staggering backwards.
“Enough of this, Acacius!” Her figure distorted and fabricated in front of him, a rush of onyx smoke curling around them and blowing air across his cheeks.
She invaded his space, her blank expression shattering into one of frustration. “You blamemefor a truth you do not wish to swallow. If you need to hurt me, hurt me. Beat me. Chain me away. Bring suffering upon me. Whatever you desire, do it now! Butstopblaming me for Ruelle’s death whensheis the one who weaved her own threads of Fate!”
Momentarily stunned, Acacius searched her face, amazed by the fiery pool in her dark irises. He was equally proud as he was irritated by her display of emotions.
However, as her words sunk into his brain, he knew that she was right.
Back when he found her in the Pit, he could’ve saved the trouble of fighting and sent her to the same place Torin was now, a place where she would repeat each day trapped in the void of Tavora with his Daemons dining on her entrails.
But Acacius had walked for thousands of years in this vessel as a High God. His strengths were second nature, and yet, a part of him had held back with her, never inflicting the torture he was capable of. Bringing her pain had never really brought him honest satisfaction.
She was not the one he wished to cause pain to.
It was Ruelle.
Marina was simply a diversion from his pent-up rage, from the reality that he spent centuries pursuing a goddess who never truly loved him.
Acacius ran a tired hand over his face, the pillars in his chest gradually crumbling to the weight he could no longer hold. “Do you think I do not know that?” He dropped his hand and looked at Marina. “I was the one who had to watch her cut her own thread. Ruelle was heartless when it came to what she desired most, none of which was ever me. But like you, Marina, I too only ever wanted to be loved.”
The ball of animosity in his chest lightened as the truth finally exited his lips.
Marina frowned up at him. The pitiful emotion on her face, it was refreshing and devastating all at once.
“Not everything was a lie, Acacius.” She gestured to the space between them with her hand. “I meant it when I apologized for what I did back in the Land of the Dead. But I will not apologize this time.”
His nostrils flared, and he lifted his arm, lightly swiping his thumb over the corner of her mouth. Even now, still furious with her, he despised the look of sorrow on her face. “Do you think I am naive to your hatred of Naia? Of all that she has? Why would you work with her?”
Marina slipped her fingers up the back of his hand and rested her cheek in his palm. “I was taught to hate Naia, and without the influence of Mira over me, I have realized that animosity was not my own.”
He removed his hand from her face. “The deities are uneasy because of her power, as they should be.”
“It isyouwho stirs the Chaos among them.” An accusatory flame danced in her tone.
