I shot to my feet and the tent poles shook as I shoved past the heavy flap and came to an abrupt stop. Theron stood at the threshold, as though he had been waiting for the exact second I emerged.
He leaned against the post, arms folded, the faint glow of sigils still clinging to his skin. His eyes slid lazily to mine, a grin spreading across his mouth. “Looking for someone, Your Majesty?”
“You,” I snarled.
His grin widened, quick and feral, toying with me as much as it threatened. His gaze flicked past me through the crack in the cover, and I didn’t need to turn to know what he saw, Achilles sprawled in the tent’s shadows, unmoving. When his eyes returned to mine, they glittered dangerously, as if he’d thrown the last die and fate had landed squarely in his favor.
“I really don’t see the appeal,” he said, wrinkling his nose like Achilles’s entire existence offended his senses. “So serious. So … noble. It’s exhausting just watching him.”
My teeth ground together. “Better noble than whateveryouare.”
“I mean,” Theron continued as if I hadn’t actually said anything, leaning forward and lowering his voice like we were sharing a secret, “don’t mistake me—he’s built like a statue someone very inspired once carved. But statues don’t laugh. Or flirt. Or whisper wicked things into your ear just to see if you’ll blush, Your Majesty.”
I narrowed my eyes, ignoring the strange twitch in my gut. “Do you ever stop talking?”
Another grin cut across his face, bright with charm and danger. “Not when I’m having this much fun.”
I studied him in the dying firelight, searching past the grin. It always looked effortless, tossed on like a mask. His body slouched, his tone all idle drawl, but his eyes … they were never still. They always were watching and measuring, noting every movement, every weakness.
Menelaus had asked far too few questions of this man, and nothing that Theron did could make me think otherwise. There was nothing that powerful creatures liked less than cages. And I was never going to believe that Theron had stepped willingly into one.
I drew myself taller. “You’re playing a game,” I hissed. “And I’m tired of not knowing the rules. Why are you here?” His grin twitched, but I pressed on. “What do you want in Sparta?”
His gaze dipped, not lewdly, but deliberately enough to make heat crawl up the back of my neck. It wasn’t the searing, burning fire Achilles stirred … but something lighter. Quicker. A flame made of friction.
He wasinfuriating.
“I’m here because of your company, of course,” Theron said, pushing off the post with an easy stretch that reminded me of Menelaus’s lion stretching after a nap.
“Don’t toy with me,” I growled. “Enough lies. Enough smirks. Tell me why you’re here!”
For the first time, his grin faltered. His eyes, usually glinting with that maddening amusement, softened at the edges. “I haven’t been lying,” he said, and the words carried none of his usual play. “Iamhere for Menelaus.”
The breath rattled in my throat. “What do you want with him? I know it’s not to be histoy.”
That grin returned, faint but sly. “I want what everyone wants, my queen. To know how your husband cast out the gods.”
The admission caught me off guard.
“Have you come any closer to figuring that out?” I asked after a moment, trying for sarcasm. It fell flat, because the question was real, and I wanted the answer just as much.
Theron’s mouth twitched, though his eyes stayed dark. “Some days,” he murmured, his voice low. “Some days I think I have.”
Even as the words left him, the sensation struck again. My chest tightened with that strange feeling. A weight pressed inward, until it felt as though the very air had lodged itself beneath my ribs. The rhythm returned, a thrum that did not belong to me, a second heartbeat pulsing under my sternum.
I pressed a hand against my breast, fingers spread wide, but it did nothing to ease the pressure. Each pulse reverberated outward, uncanny and insistent, as though the world itself were tugging at me. Calling.
“What are you doing to me?” I growled.
Theron tipped his head slightly, his eyes tightening as a flicker of confusion passed over his features. “I’mnot doing anything,” he murmured, but like the last time it had happened, it felt like he was hearing it too. As if he were listening to that borrowed rhythm through me.
I frowned, not believing him as the rhythm in my chest abruptly cut off, leaving only silence where the second heartbeat had been. My own pulse stumbled in its wake, as if it too had been caught off guard.
He blinked, his breezy smile sliding right back into place. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Your Majesty. There’s still time for me to do something, you know.”
I lifted my chin, forcing steel into my voice. “Be careful what you do with that time, Theron. I’ve had enough of being twisted for someone else’s ends.”
His brows arched in mock surprise, grin widening again. “Whatever my queen commands.”
