Page 71 of His Eternal Claim

Before I can answer, a movement jerks in my peripheral vision. Selene launches herself at the door. Her palms slam against the tinted glass so hard the impact rattles through the cabin.

“No!” she screams, voice raw enough to tear straight through skin. “Stop the car! Let me out!”

She pounds against it again. And again. The heel of her hand strikes the metal frame. Then her fists.

“Selene—”

“Don’t touch me!” she shrieks. Her knuckles crack against the reinforced glass until her skin splits and bright blood streaks over the black door.

My entire focus narrows to her.

The way she’s shaking.

The blood on her hands.

The way she keeps hitting the damn door like she can break through steel and outrun grief.

I hang up without another word and throw the phone aside.

“Open this!” she screams, hitting it again. “Open it! My Mother is still there! My Father—”

Her fist slams down. Blood spatters across the leather.

I grab her wrists as she cries out and thrashes violently, nails digging into my forearms, knees driving toward my ribs.

I catch both wrists in one hand and yank her toward me.

“Stop.”

“Get off me!” she spits.

My tie is still hanging loose around my neck. I rip it free.

Her eyes widen with fury when she sees it.

“Don’t you dare—”

I pin both wrists together and wrap the silk around them in one sharp knot. She jerks, trying to wrench free.

“Bastard!”

I drag her fully against me before she can throw herself back at the door. Her tied hands are trapped against my chest. My arm locks around her waist. She thrashes so hard that the entire seat shakes.

“Let me go!”

“No.”

“You killed him!”

The words hit harder than bullets.

“You murdered him and burned everything and took me and I hate you!”

“I hate you, Zagreus. I hate your face. I hate your hands. I hope they put you in the ground and leave you there to rot—”

“Enough.”

“No!” she screams right in my face. “You don’t get to tell me enough! You don’t get to touch me after what you did!”