Page 23

“Locked me up?” I repeated. “Are you actually hearing yourself right now?”

Atlas’s jaw tightened hard enough to make the muscle jump beneath his skin, but he didn’t take the words back. If anything, the stubborn look settling into his eyes suggested he stood by every single one of them. There was frustration, fear, and a lingering fury that hadn’t fully burned itself out since discovering the risks I had taken. And well, he didn’t even know half of it yet, which wasn’t exactly getting me all fired up to tell him the rest, that was for damn sure!

I closed my eyes as the pain of his words started to bring back memories I didn’t want to face, like the memory of the man who had hunted me. Who had consumed my dreams. Who took my friend captive in exchange for me. Who had captured me on horseback and had made decisions for me. The man who believed he knew what was best for me, regardless of what I wanted.

“Trying to make me a captive again.” A statement, not a question, my voice rising despite my efforts to control it. “That’s your solution? Lock me away because I won’t do what I’m told like some naughty child?”

“That’s not what I said.” Atlas’s voice was low, but the dangerous edge beneath it sent a shiver down my spine. His eyes flashed as he stared back at me. Frustration and fear warring behind them in a way that made it painfully obvious this argument had very little to do with control and everything to do with how close he had come to losing me. His jaw remained clenched, his shoulders rigid beneath the dark fabric of his jacket.

He dragged a hand through his hair, the movement sharp enough to betray just how thin his patience was becoming.

Unfortunately for him, mine was rapidly disappearing too.

“But that’s exactly what you said.”

The frustration that had been building inside me since returning to Theïkós finally broke free.

“Well, congratulations,” I snapped, taking a few steps away from him. “Looks like you’re still the same controlling, asshole general who came through the Rift to begin with!” The flinch that crossed his face lasted barely a second, but it was enough to twist something painfully inside me.

I regretted the words immediately.

The truth was, I hadn’t meant them. Not really. Somewhere along the way, I had learned how wrong I had been about Atlas. The man standing in front of me now wasn’t the same man who had entered the Rift all those years ago.

Unfortunately, my pride wasn’t about to let me admit that.

“If that’s what it takes to keep you safe, then so be it.”

“You sound like Riley,” I shot back, and the moment the words left my mouth, they were yet again words I wanted to take back.

The basement rushed into my mind like a living nightmare. Riley standing over me, justifying every terrible thing he was doing. Insisting he was protecting me while taking away every choice I had left.

Atlas went completely still.

His eyes burned with a fury that made my stomach drop.

“Don’t you ever compare me to him.” His voice was barely audible, making them sound almost threatening. “Especially after what he did to you!”

“But you’re being ridiculous,” I argued, refusing to back down even as every instinct told me I had crossed a line. “I literally saved your brother’s life. I stopped you from making a mistake you would have regretted forever. I stopped a fucking war for you!” I screamed the words at him, and the force of it made him jerk back slightly. Seeing that reaction was enough to make me suck in a sharp breath, forcing myself to hold on to the fragile thread of control before I asked,

“Why are you being like this?”

Atlas closed the distance between us in a single stride.

“Why?” he gritted out. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

The disbelief in his voice hit almost as hard as the anger. Instinctively, I started backing away, needing space between us before this argument spiraled any further out of control. Unfortunately, Atlas appeared to have very different ideas. Every step I took backwards was matched by one of his own, his gaze never leaving mine as he continued advancing.

The room seemed to shrink around us.

I took another step.

So did he.

And another.

Until my back eventually collided with the wall behind me, leaving me nowhere else to go, while Atlas stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I could see the storm raging behind his eyes. Feel it like static between us.

Apparently, space was one thing he had absolutely no intention of giving me.