I would not lie like a vacant corpse beneath him, letting him abuse my body in whatever ways he pleased. If I were to stoop to such a low as sharing Eurymachus’s bed, I would do it onmyterms.
Iwas the master of his desire. His lust wasmineto wield.
Eurymachus reached a hand up to brush my lips. I bit down on his fingers, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to make him jolt with surprise. I took the opening, utilizing all Skaris’s training to spin myself around, using Eurymachus’s weight against him to knock him sideways.
He huffed a delighted laugh as I straddled him. “I knew you had a bite to you. Such a vicious little creature.”
“I want to look upon the future king of Ithaca as I pleasure him,” I said, reaching beneath his robes.
“Future king.” Eurymachus’s breathing hitched as I took him in my palm. “I like the sound of that.”
“That is what you shall be, is it not?” I goaded as I worked him, encouraging a shivering gasp of pleasure. I could instantly feel his control unraveling as his pitiful lust took over. “Well?Willyou be king?”
“Yes.” He gulped down the word.
I stared at his face twisting with desire, longing to claw it off.
“Say it. Say you will be king,” I demanded, quickening my rhythm.
“I will be king,” he panted, his eyes rolling back in his head.
“And you will sit upon Ithaca’s throne.”
“I will.”
“And you will rule this land.”
“Yes,” he cried out. “Gods, yes.”
“Tell me when. Tell me when I can kneel at your feet.”
“Soon.”
My grip tightened, making his entire body spasm. “When?”
“When—” The words caught in a groan.
“When?”
“When I kill Telemachus.”
I faltered, just a momentary break in rhythm, but it was enough to cut through Eurymachus’s lustful haze. Before I could even register what was happening, his hand was in my hair, pulling my head back with sickening force.
“Did she send you?” he snarled. His free hand shot beneath the pillows, pulling out a concealed dagger. “She sent her whore to seduce me. Is that it?”
“Penelope knows nothing of this,” I gasped, hot fire shooting over my scalp as Eurymachus’s grip tightened. “I have no loyalty to her. Not anymore. I swear it.”
He pulled my face down to his, voice lethally quiet as he hissed, “Prove it. Convince me, and maybe I will let you walk out of this room alive.”
As I felt the sting of cold metal against my throat, a horrific vision flashed in my mind—Penelope finding my naked corpse inhisbed, my useless soul floating beside her, trying desperately to explain:It is not what it looks like.
No.I refused to die like this, to have Eurymachus’s face be the last I saw, to have his hands be the last to touch me.
An idea frantically clawed its way through the fog of my fear, andI knew that to survive this night, my betrayal would have to cut even deeper.
“The shroud is a lie.”
Eurymachus’s grip loosened, just a fraction. “What?”
