“My options are simple. I can watch the two men I’ve had as they cast me aside to pursue other women, or I can leave.”
My stomach hurt. A dull sympathetic ache because I knew what it was like to have no good options.
“I’m strong,” she said, “but I’m not strong enough to stay. Not if you’re here.”
I frowned, not liking how her tone seemed to have a threat laced to it. I took a final sip of the tea, set it down, and stared at her. “Will he let you go?”
She shrugged. “Royce and I are his two great failures. We never surrendered complete control.”
The statement hung for a long while, leaving us sitting in silence.
“Can I be honest?” I whispered. “This tea isn’t my favorite.”
She laughed with her whole body, so long I wondered what the joke was that I wasn’t in on. “The funny thing is I’ve always liked you.” She smiled, and her eyes gleamed. “You’re not afraid to say something direct.”
“Thank you.” My heart fluttered, causing a strange sensation. It was like I was running down a hill and my pulse couldn’t keep up.
“I don’t mind being direct either. There’s a third option I can consider. It’s one where you’re not in the picture.” Her face went so cold, it was nauseating. “Care to guess which one I chose?”
Visually, she was peeling apart, creating two Alices instead of one, and I blinked rapidly to try to put them back together. It didn’t work, and it didn’t make sense.
“I don’t feel right.” My heart was out of sync with my body.
“No, I wouldn’t think so.”
It was hard to make myself stand, and when I did, everything became much worse.
She rose to her feet as well, moving effortlessly. Like it was easy and the floor beneath her feet was stable. “I’ve been sitting down here for almost an hour, not sure if I was going to drink this tea or not. And then you showed up.”
Blood screamed in my ears, so loud it drowned out whatever else Alice was saying to me.
Wait—no. Hera, not Alice.
She was taking her role a bit too seriously. The jealous queen of the gods punished all the mortals Zeus slept with, even the ones who were unwilling. Except Macalister wasn’t Zeus.
“He’s the Minotaur,” I mumbled.
“What?” She stared at me like I was crazy, and maybe I was. Things moved around me in unexpected ways.
I stumbled away from the table. I’d only come downstairs for a snack, so I’d left my phone in my bedroom. Now it was so far away.
“What did you . . . do to me?” I tried to cross the kitchen, but the floor pitched and rolled like a ship in violent seas. It took all my effort, and when I reached the counter by the door, I clung to it and struggled to catch my breath.
She didn’t say anything.
Or maybe she did. The room was darker now and growing smaller every second. I hurled myself out the door and into the dining room, but all-new terrors waited for me in here. I saw the board members as the gods on Mount Olympus, eight feet tall and horrifying, and when I knocked one of the chairs over, pain shot up my leg.
I was going to throw up. Or pass out.
Or maybe die.
Time slowed and then lurched forward like an arrow pulled back in a bow and set loose. Hera didn’t seem to be here anymore. I’d made it out of the hellish dining room, and now I was in the entryway, facing the grand staircase, where all the lights had halos. At the top of the landing, the Hale family portrait watched me with their intense eyes, taunting me to come join them.
I climbed a million steps until my legs quit working.
And then I crawled.
The stairs grew steeper, and I clung to the carpet, worried I was going to fall.
Keep moving!
I slithered as Medusa up the next step, fighting for every inch and against my heavy eyelids that wanted to close. I had to get to my phone. I had to tell Royce again that I loved him and make sure no one was around this time so I could hear if he’d say it back.
I wasn’t to the landing yet, and there was still another flight of steps to go after that. I’d never make it. Tears welled in my eyes, and the pounding in my head was too powerful and crushing to go on.
I didn’t want to give up, but this was checkmate.