Page 46 of His Eternal Claim

Be good, Selene.

White walls.

Straps.

My wrists.

Blood.

So much blood.

A man screaming. A familiar voice. “RUN!”

All I can smell is jasmine and blood. Smoke.

Warm hands. Terrifyingly gentle. Dark eyes.

And my nightmare.

Zagreus.

Look at me. Fucking look at me!

The glass shatters and a scream tears out of me. It’s so raw and animalistic I hardly recognize it.

“NO—!”

I stumble backward.

Hands clutching my head. My skull feels like it’s splitting open. Like someone buried knives in my memories and twisted.

“Don’t touch me!”

Someone reaches for me, but I shove him. Hard enough that his chair crashes backward. The room explodes. Everyone stands. Chairs scraping. Voices rising. But I hear none of it.

Because all I hear is screaming.

My screaming. Years of it.

My knees hit marble as my nails dig into my scalp. My breathing comes in fractured gasps.

“Make it stop…” My voice breaks. “Please… please make it stop—”

“I knew something was wrong.”

My blood freezes as I tilt my head at the voice. And through my blurred vision, all I can see is Aris’s red lips pulled into a smirk.

She tilts her head. Looks at my Mother. And smiles wider.

“You’ve stopped taking the medicine, haven’t you?” Aris said.

I tremble, and everything in me screams only one word. Run.

Run.

RUN—

But I can’t move.