[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.]
Marin’s fingers tightened slightly before the other woman let go. Hecate took a slow, deep breath, trying to steady herself.
“I understand,” Marin said, and the words crashed down on Hecate like waves over breakers. A shudder racked her and a raw, bitter laugh was ripped from her throat.
“Do you?” She asked, regretting the question as soon as it had passed her lips. Marin just smiled weakly.
“I’m trying to, at least,” she said.
You can’t ask more than that, can you? Especially now that you’ve denied that she can truly understand—how do you know that she couldn’t?
Because no one murdered her family in front of her. She didn’t spend hours kneeling in their blood only to be taken from the only home she’d ever known, still soaked in the lifesblood of her kin. She wasn’t forced into a marriage she didn’t want to a man who delighted in tormenting her.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
Hecate took another breath. Steady. Focus. “How long do we have before Leviathan comes for me?”
“Comes for us,” Matt corrected softly. Hecate bit her lip. “You’re not facing this alone,” he reminded her gently. “I promised you that much.”
“I know, but your family—”
“My family will understand.” He looked to his sister, who nodded.
“He’s right,” Marin said. “Though I’ll admit that my hope is that it won’t come to that. I was hoping you two had a plan.”
Hecate blinked. “A plan? A plan for what?”
“You knew that he wanted you, that he was going to come for you,” Marin said. “I was hoping you’d come up with a plan to outsmart him, something.”
Her stomach crashed through the floor and she knew the color had drained from her face again. She felt sick, light-headed and queasy.
How was she going to tell Marin that there was no plan beyond giving in to the bastard?
“We did,” Matt said, the words shaking her to her core. “But god only knows if we’ll be able to pull it off, especially now.” He let go of her and leaned forward, elbows against his knees. “But maybe we’ll be able to pull it off.”
“I’m sure as hell open to suggestions,” Marin said, shifting her sleeping infant from one arm to the other. “What do you have?”
Matt smiled. “We set a trap for the bastard and beat him at his own game.”
