Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(34)

She sucked in air, frozen, staring at his face. His strong jaw and hooded grey eyes. The handsome warmth she loved was gone, replaced by a mask. The same hard, menacing mask he gave to everyone else—but now he was using it on her.

“Marcus, stop it,” she jerked against the scarves binding her wrists and ankles. “You’re scaring me.”

“Good,” he rumbled, and it was the first time since he’d tied her up that she’d seen anything resembling emotion enter his eyes. His finger trailed down her bare leg, making it twitch. Reminding her she was bound and naked. Not that she needed a reminder. “You should be scared.”

He circled the bed and set his drink on the side table. Hands in his pockets, he studied her. His shadow cut over her body. “My sister was scared—when your father’s goons snatched her off the streets, threw her in a dirty room and violated her.”

All the oxygen left the room. Cora’s ears rang, her vision dimming, narrowing on Marcus’s hard face. “What?”

“They tied her up...just like this. She was a good girl. Sweetest soul on the face of this planet. She loved everybody. Never took a step out of line. And he killed her in cold blood. Your father.”

Cora jerked her head and body from side to side. “No. No, you’ve got me mixed up with someone else. My dad died in a car accident and my mom—”

“Your mom took you into hiding when you were four years old to protect you from me,” he sneered. “But then after all these years, what do you know, a girl who’s the spitting image of Demi Titan comes waltzing back into my city, except instead of brunette, she’s got her daddy Titan’s blond hair.”

Cora’s mouth dropped open. No. What he was saying couldn’t be true. But the look in his eye, the cold fury—the hatred—he certainly thought it was true.

Cora’s mind raced with all he was telling her. Could it—? Had mom really hidden away for all those years to protect her from—

Cora’s eyes shot to Marcus, sitting so smugly above her. Even if what he was saying was true, she couldn’t imagine it, but even if it was— “I didn’t do anything to you or your sister. This is the first I’m hearing of any of it.”

Marcus shook his head and took up his drink, swallowing the dregs before setting it down with a thunk. “Do I look like I give a fuck?”

Cora flinched at his harsh curse. He’d never used such language around her.

“My sister didn’t do anything either. I live by a Code.” He reached down and cupped Cora’s cheek and she jerked away from his touch. He let her.

“Under my Code, you would have been untouchable. But your family violated all that is sacred the night they took Chiara. And there’s only one way for the scales to be leveled. And before I killed your father, I looked into his eyes and told him that his little baby girl was next.”

Cora felt her eyes go so wide she didn’t even dare blink. Her father hadn’t died in a car accident. Marcus had— Marcus had killed— And she was—

“Are you going to kill me?” she whispered.

Marcus’s lip quirked up on the side, the smile she’d loved only a half hour before. “No, angel. What fun would that be?” His fingertips skimmed her cheek. “Why would I kill you when I could keep you?” She fell into his gaze, drowned in it.

“No,” he murmured. “You don’t get a death sentence. You get a life sentence. Death is quick. But suffering...suffering can go on forever.”

The air left her lungs. Cora panted as her body tightened, turned to concrete.

“Breathe, baby.” Marcus settled a large hand on her chest. “You gotta breathe.”

She inhaled, compelled as she stared into his dark grey eyes. There was something about Marcus she had to obey.

“I don’t want you to hurt me,” she whispered.

“I know, angel.” For a second his face softened, conflicted. “I didn’t want to hurt you, either.”

Cora’s heart leapt with hope. “But why—”

“There’s an order to the universe. Everything has its place.” He settled beside her, lecturing like a professor. “Everything’s weighed on scales,” he raised two hands, palms up. “Things gotta balance. Light and dark. Day and night. Good and bad.” He dropped his hands. “Crime and punishment.”

Cora’s mouth worked but no sound escaped. She met Marcus’s gaze and drowned in it.

“When your father,” his voice vibrated under the weight of his rage, “did what he did, things got out of order. Out of place. There need to be consequences. I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time.”

“But I didn’t do anything.”

He looked away. “You aren’t hearing me. Someone’s gotta answer for what they did. I found my sister...” His eyes closed, and Cora’s heart cracked. Because it was still Marcus. And the pain on his face was so real. “Her eyes were open. Her body broken. They did things to her. Things that should never be done. Angels wept…”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It slipped out. Not apologizing for herself, but because it was what you said when you hurt for someone you loved.

He tied you to the bed! He hates you!

But she…she’d spent the last two months loving him. It didn’t just disappear. She didn’t know how to turn it off.