Page 117 of His Eternal Claim

I tease, backing away toward the center of the room.

I snap another photo just as the wind catches the curtains, obscuring him for a brief second. When the sheer fabric relaxes, Zagreus moves through it.

“Come here,” he commands, a dangerous smile breaking across his face.

I gasp, then dissolve into giggles as I turn on my heel and try to dodge him. I run around the bed.

“You have to catch me first!”

I dare him, looking over my shoulder as I snap one more blurry, chaotic picture of him chasing me.

Zagreus doesn’t bother running. As I try to loop back toward the balcony doors, his large hand shoots out from behind the swaying white curtain. His fingers wrap firmly around my waist, and he hoists my back flush against his bare chest.

“Caught you,” he rasps against my ear.

I laugh, dropping the phone onto the soft mattress as he twirls me around in his arms, lifting my feet off the floor. The white shirt shifts on my shoulders.

He lowers me onto the center of the bed, his body instantly following me down, pinning me into the sheets. He hovers over me, his dark hair falling loose across his forehead.

And I realize, there’s no universe where I don’t belong to him.

“You’re a menace.” His hand comes up to brush a wild curl away from my face, his thumb tracing the soft line of my jaw.

“I’m your wife,” I correct softly, my breath hitching as I look up at him. For a second, everything vanishes. There is only him. Only us.

I reach up, my fingers wrapping around his neck, pulling him down just a fraction. I pout, looking at him with wide, pleading eyes. “Make a pout for me, Zagreus. Just one picture, please.”

“Absolutely not, Dolcezza. I have an empire to run. I am not making a pout.”

“Please?” I whisper against his lips. “Just for me. No one else will ever see it.”

Zagreus stares at me for a long moment, his eyes full of a love so deep and consuming it feels almost tragic. Slowly, with an exaggerated sigh that makes me burst into another fit of giggles, he softens his jaw and mimics an unsure pout.

I don’t even care that the phone is lying face down on the mattress. I don’t need a camera to capture this. I print the image of his beautiful, stubborn face directly into my heart, memorizing the way his grey eyes crinkle at the corners, the way the golden evening sun paints his skin, and the exact rhythm of his heart against mine.

“I love you,” I whisper into the quiet space between our lips.

“I know.” His mouth slams down onto mine, capturing my laughter and turning it into an achingly sweet kiss that consumes me, both of us oblivious to whatever future awaits us.

Chapter 41

Monolith

THE REQUIEM | Past

Something is wrong with this house.

Everything was so perfect and beautiful a week ago, but ever since we came back from the penthouse to our main estate, I can’t shake the sensation of being watched. It’s a constant, prickling heaviness on the back of my neck, a shadow that lingers just out of sight in the long corridors. Even when I sleep at night with Zagreus, invisible eyes follow me into the dark.

Outwardly, our lives have simplified. We sleep together every single night. He’s even started opening up to me, murmuring about what happens in the business, explaining the shifts in the Cosa Nostra, and sharing things he used to lock away. He is trying. He is giving me the transparency I begged for.

“Selene.”

Everything should be perfect. I am even taking the calming pills Mama gave me on time, never missing a dose. But these nightmares are not stopping. They are getting more vivid, bloodier, suffocating me until I wake up drenched in cold sweat. I can’t tell Zagreus because I don’t want him to think I’m insane. I know it’s just my imagination, but I don’t know why every time I am inside this specific house, it becomes worse.

Even now. The dining room feels too vast.

Should I see a doctor? Should I tell Mama the pills aren’t working anymore?