What choice did she have when the world fought against her?
She was sofuckingtired.
The midday breeze couldn’t cool the bead of angry sweat rolling down her back, and the long ringlet curlscascading down her shoulders were too thick, too stifling on her skin. With trembling lungs, she sucked in a breath, steadying herself against the stone bench.
“From now on, you will not speak unless addressed,” she said sternly, not turning to face him. “Is that understood?”
“As you wish, my lady,” he replied.
Even the garden’s peaceful melodies couldn’t cut the dense wall of tension buzzing between them.
Chapter 6
Tethys was falling. Her stomach felt like it might drop out of her body and plunge into the darkness below. She glued her eyes shut, bracing for a long awaited impact.
When it didn’t come, however, she fought every instinct and cracked them open again. Only a darkness so black, so all-encompassing, met her terrified gaze, as if she’d been sucked out of the world and spit out here, in this nothingness.
She opened her mouth to relieve herself of the scream building pressure in her throat, but as she exhaled and her vocal cords rubbed together, there was still only silence. Silence and the violent whooshing of air—if that’s what filled this cavernous void.
She wriggled and writhed, instinctually reaching for anything to cling to.
There was nothing.
The dark collapsed into her as she rolled to her back, feeling the weight of her chest slam into her spine.
With outstretched hands, she continued her violent descent, tendrils of black hair wrapping themselves around herlike a cocoon. Black hair?
When finally she plummeted through a hazy, shimmering veil, the world illuminated around her in dizzying greens, blues, and lilacs. Her vision blurred, adjusting to the sudden instance of light.
“Save him! Save him! Save him!” a voice, stranger to her own, cried as she plummeted faster and faster and faster.“Bring him home!”
The ground below, blanketed in waves of emerald grass, raced to meet her. Tethys threw her arms over her head, bracing for the crater she’d surely make upon impact. As she squeezed her eyes shut, midnight fur blocked the final glimpse of light. Then, everything faded into.
Chapter 7
The next morning, awaiting Tethys’s return from her errands, was her husband. The impatient tap of his foot ripped her from the lingering memory of last night’s dream. While she hadn’t made sense of the dream just yet, Procyon’s arrival home forced something more daunting to the front of her mind. The stranger’s voice and foreign black hair would have to wait.
Tethys hadn’t expected him back so soon. In fact, she hadn’t expected his return until the rebel leaders were at least identified. Their father made it quite clear; Procyon’s priority was stabilizing the west.
Something bitter and selfish inside almost hoped the rebellion wouldn’t simmer. More tension and unrest in his realm meant more time away from her bed. The bruises hadn’t even yellowed before he’d returned.
Procyon would find her, even if she commanded the chariot driver to turn around and drive until they reached the edge of the continent—maybe even the edge of the known world, and regardless of what went on behindclosed doors, their union needed to stay strong. At least in the public’s eye.
The delicate threads of peace time wove through their marriage vows. There was no escaping him. Not now. Not until the end of time. And so as the chariot slowed to a stop, she willed her face to mold into unbothered contempt.
“Proc, I wasn’t expecting your return so soon,” Tethys said, planting her feet on the ground. Servants, collecting satchels and leather luggage, appeared from the manor’s entrance. Procyon’s jaw ticked with impatience as Tethys approached, like a handler toward its lion.
“You’re joining me in Canissa for a few weeks,” he said, his voice a blade’s edge against her.
It wasn’t a question.
Tethys straightened in the spring breeze.
“I’m sorry?” she asked, stunned by his request.
Araes’s presence loomed just over her shoulder. Yet another whom she’d desperately sought to be free of.
“For the autumn equinox. We’ll celebrate with the Canissaens as a united front.” Procyon’s reply was firm. She would be joining him. There was no other option. Phaon trailed the god, his arms loaded with Tethys’s effects.
