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The sound of my name immediately drew my attention, and I turned to find Atlas standing beside my chair. Everything else faded away, and all I could see were his eyes.
Those familiar dark brown eyes I had missed more than I could ever properly explain. Eyes that had haunted my thoughts throughout the journey. Through every dangerous choice, every impossible fight, and every single moment spent wondering whether I would ever see him again. They had been with me in the Labyrinth, in the Badlands, and on the battlefield itself. A constant reminder of what I was fighting to return to.
But the expression behind them now made my stomach tighten. Because whatever relief he felt at having me back was now competing with something else.
Concern.
Frustration.
A hundred unanswered questions that had been patiently waiting their turn while the fate of a kingdom hung in the balance.
Now, with Lazaros safe and the immediate crisis behind us, there was nothing left standing between Atlas and the conversation he had been denied since the moment I stepped back through the Rift.
His gaze held mine before he told me…
“Now we can speak alone.”
“Are you still angry with me?” I asked after Aster and Lazaros had finally left, leaving us alone in the quiet that followed.
The candlelight caught the tension in Atlas’s features, the tightness in his jaw, the fists clenched at his sides. He looked exhausted. Not physically, because I doubted there was much in this world capable of exhausting Atlas physically, but emotionally, well, that looked to be another story. Like someone who had been holding himself together for far too long and was finally running out of ways to keep it up.
“Angry?” he repeated. The word sounded almost disbelieving. “No. I’m fucking furious.”
I opened my mouth, prepared for the argument that was clearly coming, but his next words hit me so unexpectedly that they stole the breath from my lungs.
“Alexandra,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “I’m unsure how it is possible for me to be so fucking proud of you, yet at the same time, so disappointed in you.”
I stared at him, my mouth falling open in disbelief.
Disappointed?
Of all the things I had expected Atlas to say, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. Perhaps disappointed meant something entirely different in Theïkós. Perhaps I had misunderstood him. Because there was absolutely no way I had travelled across realms, survived monsters, labyrinths, wars, and god-like creatures, only to be told that he was disappointed in me.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“You put yourself in harm’s way,” he said, and though the anger was still there, I could hear something else beneath it now. Something raw. “Again… and Aster…” He paused to shake his head, “Aster allowed it to happen.”
The mention of Aster snapped whatever patience I still possessed.
I stood from my chair before I even realized I was moving, storming my way over to him before I jabbed a finger towards his chest.
“You need to stop blaming Aster.” The words came out sharper than I intended, fueled by what felt like weeks of watching Aster risk his life for me, while Atlas wasn’t there to see any of it.
“I have my own free will, you know. I make my own decisions. Aster didn’t want to come. He wanted me to stay behind and follow your stupid orders. He only followed me because there was no stopping me.”
Atlas’s expression hardened further. Anymore, and he would surely turn to stone.
“Then he should have stopped you.” The words came out sharp and uncompromising, and I actually laughed. Not because anything about the situation was funny, but because I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“And how exactly was he supposed to do that?”
“He should have locked you up if that’s what it took.” His voice cracked through the room like a whip, and the words landed like a slap.
For a second, I thought I had misheard him. Then the shock gave way to anger so quickly it almost made me dizzy.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Deadly!” he snapped, slashing a hand through the air as though the answer should have been obvious.
