Page 7 of His Eternal Claim

“I’ll teach you,” she says with authority, placing her hands over mine. “You’re very serious like your Papa. Mama says serious boys need soft girls.”

I stare at her.

She grins, missing a tooth. And for a moment, I think maybe she’s right.

Maybe I do need softness. Maybe I need her.

But I don’t say that.

I just nod. And she looks at me like I’ve given her the moon. “See?” she giggles. “We’ll be friends forever.”

She doesn’t know that promises are things adults break.

But right now, with her fingers wrapped around mine, with her laughter filling the room, with Mama crying downstairs, and Selene squeezing my hand as if she can keep all the darkness away.

I want to believe her.

I want to believe in forever.

Even if forever never believes in me.

Chapter 3

Veil

THE REQUIEM | Present

Aghost-finger tracing a path down my spine.

My Mother moves with a grace that defies everything I believe in.

I don’t have a clear memory of her death. It’s just that whenever I think of her, all I see is blood and death.

“You’re cold,” she murmurs, reaching out. And I am cold. I just don’t know what to feel anymore.

When her fingers touch my cheek, I do not find the chill of a corpse. I find warmth. Pulse. Reality. I let out a sound that isn’t a sob or a scream, but a jagged tear in my own throat. I lunge forward, falling from the bed into her lap, my fingers clutching at her waist as if I can anchor her to the earth before she evaporates again.

“You died,” I choke out, my face presses into the familiar scent of her… lavender, like I remember.

I recall the blood. I recall the fire. I buried her in the grave once, and in my mind every single night.

“Oh, my sweet, foolish girl.” Her hands smooth over my hair, yet there is a tightness in her hold that feels suffocating. “I never left you. I was kept from you.”

I pull back, my vision swimming, the hammer in my skull striking a fresh blow. “Kept? By who? Corvin said—”

“Corvin is the only reason you are safe now.” Her eyes search mine as she reaches for the small glass on the tray. “But your head is screaming, isn’t it? The fog is coming back. You need to take this, Stina. For your sake.”

The sight of the glass triggers a flicker of déjà vu. My hand trembles as I take it, the instinct to obey her overriding the spike of dread in my gut. I swallow the medicine, and almost instantly, the world softens at the edges.

“Why did you leave me?” I whisper, the medicine already making my tongue feel thick. “Why watch me suffer? He killed Adrian, Mama, he killed the man I loved.”

My Mother’s face shifts as I cry. The warmth doesn’t leave her eyes, but a shadow crosses them.

“Adrian?” She echoes the name. “Stina, Adrian was a tragedy.”

“He was my fiancé,” I argue weakly, the memory of Adrian like a faded photograph I’ve been told to cherish. “Zagreus… he killed him. He took me. He forced the ring on my finger.”

“Zagreus Vitale,” my Mother says, and the way she spits the name makes the room feel ten degrees colder. “That man is a plague. He didn’t just force a marriage, child. He planned the separation of a Mother and her child. He used his power and his blood to ensure I could never reach you. He wanted you isolated. He wanted you broken so he could be the only thing you had to lean on.”