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“You don’t need to be so aloof,” Pandora said, her voice still cracking.
“What?” Sol snapped.
“You pretend not to care. But you don’t have to.”
Something stirred in his dark eyes as he looked at her, but she couldn’t name the emotion. Before today, she thought she’d been able to read him so well. But he was an entirely different person now. They both were.
“If I care about one thing, then I’d have to care about everything,” Sol said softly. Then his gaze turned icy once more. “You forced that out of me, Trivia. You forced me to care. To remember her. And now, I—I’m broken again. The wounds have re-opened. Because of you.”
Pandora choked on a weak laugh. “You are not blameless either, Sol. You made that choice. Just as I did.”
Sol’s mouth pressed into a thin line, his eyes narrowing. But he didn’t argue. He knew she spoke the truth.
Just as she had chosen revenge, because it was the easier path, he had chosen ignorance. He chose this mask, wearing it for so long that he stopped remembering who he had once been.
Until today, when everything had come crashing back into him, smothering him with what he had suppressed for so many years.
A deafening boom shook the ground, and Pandora hissed against the pain of her body quivering from the impact.
“Shit.” Sol was on his feet, gazing upward. “We’re out of time.”
Slowly, Pandora turned her head to follow his gaze, and her heart dropped to her stomach.
The palace had fallen. Hunks of rubble fell over the cliff, crashing into the ocean below.
The castle of Elysium was nothing more than ruins now.
Pandora had done this.
Sol drew closer to the portal, not even glancing back at Pandora.
“So, you’ll just abandon Alexander?” she called after him. “All those villagers who worshiped you?”
Sol stilled, then glanced at her over his shoulder, his expression full of loathing. She thought she had seen hatred in his eyes before. The two of them had despised one another, after all.
But that, too, had been an act.
This, however, was raw and feral and real. The strength of his rage blazed in his eyes with the intensity of a thousand suns.
“If Alexander makes it, I know you’ll ensure he passes through,” Sol said. “Along with anyone else he can bring with him. But when this realm falls, I’ll be the only one who can guide the sun. I must step through to fulfill my responsibilities to my people.”
Pandora fell silent at that. Had Apollo been killed in the destruction? Or had he fled?
For so long, she sought his demise. And now, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
“I know it means nothing to you,” Pandora said. “But I am truly sorry. You’re right. These were my choices. I did this. And I can never atone for what I’ve done. But I didn’t realize how strong the curse was. How strong Pandora was. I thought I would be free. I thought…” She broke off, coughing and sputtering as her breath stuck in her throat. “I thought she would finally be free,” she finished in a low rasp. “But I was wrong.”
Sol’s gaze flickered, and the briefest glimmer of regret shone in his eyes. Pandora hated bringing up his lost love, reopening those wounds once more.
But this would be the last she would see of him. She had to say it.
“I wanted her to find peace,” Pandora went on. “I thought this revenge would bring that to her. I’m sorry it didn’t. And I’m sorry for the part I played in it.”
Still, Sol said nothing. He merely continued to watch her with that unreadable gaze.
Then, without saying a word to her, he turned and stepped through the portal.
A sob broke free, and Pandora turned her face, burying it in the sand as she wept.
