Chapter 62. Are You With Me?

AURELIA

My eyes widened in shock, my heart racing. Whatever did she mean? Had something happened to Venus? That bastard Xerxes!

“What do you mean, danger?” I asked Vesta, a chill of fear gripping me. “What has happened?” I demanded, urgency dripping from my voice. Vesta’s sharp gaze shifted to me, as if silently asking, Why do you care?

A question I didn’t even have an answer to myself.

“Xerxes has been declared wanted,” she responded, speaking more to Julian than to me. “I fear he may harm my daughter when he’s being taken away. He’s a madman, with a mentality of, if I can’t have you, no one can. That’s why he tried to starve me to death in the North—he’d decided I was useless to him.”

From what I had observed of Xerxes the last time I saw him, I could tell he loved her in that twisted way, almost to the point of obsession. And I knew that she had never returned his feelings. His ego was hurt, and he wanted her and everyone else to suffer as much as he