Page 135 of This Divine Revelry

But the shout that echoes ahead chills me.

‘We’re over here! Help!’

Will there ever be a point where I don’t fear that voice? The repercussions it might bring, the power it wields over me? A point where I am so healed I can face him without the certainty that, if he chose, he could hurt me all over again.

With Dionysus beside me, that was easier to believe.

My teeth grind against one another. How – how does he get to do this? Keep his knife in me when I have worked so hard to cast it out. Twist it as he pleases.

I had everything and it still hurt. I gave it all up – sacrificed it to save the person I most care for and it still hurt. I am dead and it still fucking hurts.

There. There’s the rage. If he is to hurt me, I will hurt him tenfold.

I follow the voice and there he is – the man who started all of this. And finally, finally I can end it.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

MY LAUGHTER BURSTS OUT SO loudly it startles even me. Theseus is bound to a rock – a man I can only assume is Pirithous beside him. They are lashed on with layers of thick woven cords, stretching from their ankles to their necks and – in the case of Pirithous – even stretched across his eyes and mouth so he may not see or speak.

There is no torture beyond their confinement. No vicious justice. They did not even make it to Tartarus and that somehow makes it all the funnier. They tried to kidnap the queen of hell and she still decided they were so inconsequential she didn’t even need to concoct a brutal, threatening punishment. Just a place to hold and forget about them.

‘You,’ Theseus snarls.

‘Me,’ I agree. He thrashes against the cords but it’s clear that’s not going to help much. It’s all so … pathetic.

‘You’re dead,’ he says as he takes me in – probably catching the glow of the fires behind me through my skin.

‘Yes. Though it took a while longer than your best efforts intended.’

He swallows, pressing his lips tight. ‘I’m sorry. You must know that – you told me of Minos and the cruelty encased in that palace but I didn’t understand how it could work its way into your mind like that. Turn you into the monster. I was misguided. I –’

‘And before that? When you left me on that island? I’m sure you didn’t anticipate I’d survive it.’

He lowers his eyes. ‘I didn’t think. Don’t mistake my foolishness for cruelty. I never –’

‘Gods, do you truly think me so naive?’ I demand.

His eyes flash. ‘History says yes.’

Regret stills his features a moment later.

I smirk. ‘You’re bound to a rock and you still can’t grovel long enough to request I free you?’

It’s all so … so nothing.

I can feel the hurt fading – maybe not completely, maybe not ever completely. But maybe it will hurt a little less with each passing moment – and passing moments are all I have left.

‘So now what?’ he asks. ‘We must be able to come to some sort of arrangement. Free me and I’ll make offerings at your grave. I’ll allow a temple to your husband in Athens. I’ll –’

I lean against a larger rock, facing him. I have so much time, after all.

‘History also declares your word isn’t worth that much.’

He falls silent, waiting.

‘I could fetch water from the Phlegethon. Drip it over you.’ I shrug, mulling the option over.

Fear lights in his eyes – as though for the first time realizing this could become so much worse for him.