Juliette had never heard of the story, but it sounded completely disgusting.

“I don’t understand.”

She prayed to God that wasn’t how he was planning to end his game, by cooking her and feeding her to Killian.

“The moral of the story is how Tantalus treated the Gods, who were so good to him. They cared for him and no matter what he did, they forgave him and continued to give him their favor. But it wasn’t enough. He was greedy and selfish. In the end, it consumed him.”

No matter how much he said, he seemed to make less sense the longer Juliette listened. His riddles were only making her head hurt and she needed to focus in case she missed something important.

“That was how it all began, with Callum McClary betraying my father, ruining him and his reputation after my father made Callum what he was, for treating him like family. But it wasn’t enough. Callum got greedy. He sold my father out, got him arrested like some common criminal and thrown in jail. It didn’t matter what my father did after that. No one wanted to work with him. No one trusted that he could deliver. So of course my father was angry. He had every right to be.”

“Yegor Yolvoski,” Juliette whispered, not sure how she knew, but knowing without a shadow of a doubt.

Cyril’s head lifted, surprise stilled his drink halfway to his lips. “So you’ve heard the story.”

Juliette swallowed. “It was an accident. Callum didn’t call the authorities. They just—”

“They were tipped off,” Cyril cut in, taking up his drink once more and downing a large mouthful. “Someone told them where the ship would be. It was also highly suspicious that the minute Callum McClary broke their contract my father would get caught immediately after.”

“But that was so long ago,” she stressed. “Everyone involved is dead. Can’t you let it—?”

“They are dead because your boyfriend killed them.” He set his drink down with a deafening crack on the end table next to his elbow. “He slaughtered my entire family in a single night. Everyone, but me.”

His bitter hostilities towards that fact caught Juliette by surprise. It was as though the worst thing Killian ever did was let him live.

“Your father tortured and brutalized his mother and killed his father,” she pointed out. “Maybe it’s time to end this.”

“No!” Temper turned his cheeks a harsh, sunburned red. With his soft, pink suit, he reminded her of a fancy lobster. “His father betrayed mine. Mine got even. That is where it should have ended. It was over. Callum broke the code. My father let him live. That should have been enough. But Killian sought vengeance instead and I am amazed by how unperturbed you are by his viciousness while when I seek the same justice, you get upset. Is it because I want your life?” The genuine confusion in the question had his head cocking to the side. “Would you be less distressed if I were to take someone else in your place?”

Juliette gave her head a shake. “I don’t want it to be anyone. I just want to go home.”

“To him?”

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Yes.”

Even if Killian didn’t want her.

Cyril’s arm lowered slowly. The ice in his glass rattled softly as his hand settled neatly in his lap and he regarded her with open puzzlement.

“Is he home? That murderer? That … monster?”

“Yes,” Juliette whispered again. “He’s not the way you say. I know he’s not. Killian isn’t a monster.”

He stared at her. A faint dent appeared between his furrowed eyebrows and was shadowed by the wisps of hair that had escaped across his brow. There was a question in his eyes she didn’t understand.

“It was him,” he insisted at last, refusing to believe her. “I saw him with my own eyes, standing over my mother, drenched in my father and brothers’ blood. It was a sight I will never forget.” Pale lashes lowered. He peered at the glass in his hand like all his memories lay within next to the abandoned chunks of ice. “My father had been doubling security for weeks since the systematic murder of his men the last two months. He’d known it was only a matter of time before the threat came to our doors. That night, when the alarms sounded, my mother put me in a closet. She made me promise not to come out no matter what I heard. Then she kissed me, said she loved me, and left. That was the last time she would ever say those words to me.” The hatred in his eyes when they lifted to bore into her curdled the contents of her stomach. “I broke my promise and left the cupboard. I’d already heard my brothers being killed, heard the weight of their bodies hitting the ground, their screams … I’d heard my father begging for my mother’s life and I knew she was next. So, I ran to her, not caring if I was killed too. She was on the floor, surrounded by the bodies of my family. My eldest brother was pulled into her lap and she was sobbing like I had never heard before. The sound was horrible. I wasn’t even sure it was human. But Killian stood over her like an angel of death descending on my family. But I couldn’t let him have her, not my mother. I threw myself between them. I swore I would kill him if he touched her and he just stood there, staring at me with those black eyes, his face splattered with blood. I was so sure he would kill me too. But he didn’t. Even then, he was mocking me. It was a game to him, poetic justice. My father spared him, so he would spare me so I would live on knowing his pain.”

“No!” Juliette blurted. “You were a child. You had nothing to do with what happened to his mother. He would never have hurt you.”

“That was his mistake, wasn’t it?” Cyril set his glass aside. “He gave me ten years to study him, to learn his weaknesses, waiting for the day I would finally put an end to him.” His nostrils flared. “I lost everything that night and I will make him lose everything. Starting with you. Once I am satisfied I have tortured him enough, I will start all over again with his sister. I would have kept that fat cow of his for the same purpose, but she disgusted me too much.”

Juliette gasped. “You killed Molly?”

Cyril grunted, lips curling back. “Cutting into her was like slaughtering a pig. She practically exploded. Had a harder time with her husband. All bones,” he explained like that too was appalling. “Nevertheless, while it wasn’t exactly satisfying, I enjoyed watching Killian’s misery.”

You need help! Juliette wanted to scream.

“Killian will kill you,” she said instead. “If you hurt me or Maraveet, there won’t be anywhere you can hide.”

Cyril seemed unfazed by her declaration. He sighed quietly and turned his head away in clear boredom.

“What time is it, Delgado?” he asked the man on his right.

The man checked his watch. “Nearly one, sir.”

Cyril pursed his lips. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s get started.”

Juliette stiffened. “Start what? What’s going on?”

Cyril fixed his attention back on her even as Alcorn and Calhoun rose to their feet. “Our man inside has gone silent. While I don’t think we’ll be found here, I don’t relish being proven wrong.”

“Man inside?” Juliette mimicked, needing to keep him talking. “You mean Marco? How did you get him to work for you?”

“I didn’t. He used to work for my father. I found his name in my father’s old records. I knew one day, he might come in handy. Clearly, I was right.”

The heel of her boot nearly caught the carpet when she shuffled back a step, a pathetic attempt at putting distance between herself and the men closing in on her. Her heart drummed between her ears, a sound of panic and desperation that was clouding her thoughts.

“What … what about your mother?” she blurted. “Surely she doesn’t want this kind of life for you.”

All traces of emotion erased from Cyril’s face. Even the arrogance washed away. He stared at her with dead, doll eyes that seemed to drill straight into her.

“He killed her,” he stated evenly. “By destroying her family, he took away her desire to live. She ended the suffering three months later.”