Page 79 of His Eternal Claim

“Get out.”

“I can keep her alive.”

“Get out!”

The thunder outside shakes the walls. Neither of us moves. Then Zagreus straightens. The warmth vanishes from his face. The vulnerability disappears behind cold determination.

“You have a choice.”

My stomach drops. “I am not choosing anything.”

“You are.”

He walks toward the door. Each step feels like a countdown to the misery I chose the moment I thought he was capable of love.

“You can continue hating me.”

My chest tightens.

“You can refuse me.” His hand settles on the handle. “But understand something.” He looks over his shoulder. And in that moment he is like the stranger I met all those months ago: powerful, untouchable, dangerous. The heir to the underworld throne and not my Zagreus. “There are men outside who want your whole bloodline dead.”

Fear crawls up my spine. “I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to. But eventually you will have to decide.”

My throat closes. “Decide what?”

His eyes meet mine one last time. “Whether your hatred for me is greater than your desire to see your Mother again.”

The door opens. “No—”

But he is already leaving me alone with my grief. With my doubts. With the impossible choice he has placed at my feet. And as the door shuts behind him, something terrifies me more than anything else.

I don’t know what the right answer is.

Chapter 26

Ravage

THE MAESTRO | Present

The target is neutralized, Vitale. Your wife is in the hotel.”

Judas’s voice rasps through the phone, the faint click of his lighter echoing down the line.

“You should be thanking me.”

“For creating havoc?” I mutter, staring out through the windshield. “No thanks.”

“Collateral damage. You wanted a war, didn’t you? Now you have one. You’ll get the girl, you’ve got blood on your hands already, and by tonight the entire continent will know how insane a husband can go for his wife. Finish what you should’ve years ago.”

“You know I never wanted a war.”

My fingers curl around the phone so tightly that the plastic casing groans.

“Doesn’t matter what you wanted,” Judas says. “It’s done. Clean yourself up, King. I’ll see you in Corsica.”

The line goes dead.