“Melantho, please. Don’t.” Her eyes were bright with something like desperation. Or was it fear?
“Go on. Tell me.”
“Melantho—”
“Do it!” I was shouting now, traitorous tears burning behind my eyes, threatening to spill. “Tell me I’m crazy for ever thinking there was something more between us. I must be, right? If you have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“Melantho.”
I hated the way she said my name, filled with such regret.
I glared up at her, shame and anger and confusion and love all raging inside me, coalescing into something ugly and desperate.
“Justsay it. Tell me I’m delusional.”
Penelope’s silence was a heavy, unbearable thing, and I wanted to drown within its depths.
“You are not delusional, Melantho,” she finally whispered. “But you should marry Eumaeus.”
I blinked, vision blurring. “Why?”
Penelope eyes grew horribly distant, shifting away from mine, disappearing to a place I could never reach.
“Because I will never be yours, Melantho.”
Her words speared through me. The pain was so visceral I glanced down at my chest, as if I would actually see a wound opening there, spilling all that poisonous love and hope from my body.
“Melantho—” Penelope sounded pained, as ifherheart were the one breaking.
I shook my head, retreating a step, then another.
“Wait—”
I turned and walked away.
And Penelope let me go.
38
I nursed a cup of wine by the hearth.
Around me, the handmaids were talking, their chatter like a distant buzz at the back of my skull.
I stared at the fire, though I could not feel its warmth. I could not feel much at all, my body deliciously numb.
“What’s this?”
I glanced up to see Hippodamia enter, hands set on her hips.
“Why does everyone look so glum? Are westillmourning Achilles?”
“Not me,” Actoris muttered. “I’m bored stiff of everyone yappin’ on about him.”
Hippodamia swanned over with a smile. “Well, you’ll be delighted to know I heard some very exciting news today.”
“What news?” Autonoë perked up.
“Melantho and Eumaeus, of course! They are getting married!” Hippodamia clapped her hands, eyes sparkling with delight.
