“Of course it means something,” I say. “But there’s nothing we can do about that now. Our brother is still alive, and we can still help him. We need to look at the bigger picture—”

“The bigger picture? Is that what you told yourself when you helped Momma kill Titan?”

He grabs for the vial again. When I block with the flask, he knocks it out of my grasp, sending it clattering to the metal floor. We both freeze as whiskey pools around our feet, realizing how easily that could have been the vial in my other hand. I take a step back.

“I had no idea what we were transporting,” I say, trying not to erupt and provoke him even further. Neither of us are thinking clearly right now, and there’s a dangerous look in his eyes. I’m talking to my brother—but I’m also talking to a Titan soldier. I need to remember that. “I doubt Momma did, either, or she would never have been on the surface when it went off.”

Corvus stares at me. His eyes are hollow, hard. “If not for you, she wouldn’t have been.”

“What?” I stare at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You stole that vial,” he says, nodding toward the weapon I’m still holding behind my back. “It made Momma change the terms of the deal. Made Altair suspicious.” He pauses, as if trying to hold himself back, but the words come out anyway. “That’s why he insisted she go with them to test the weapon. That’s why she didn’t escape with us.” He takes a breath. “She chose to let me stay. To go with him alone.”

Guilt hits me so intensely it nearly knocks my legs out from under me. Tears spring to my eyes despite my best attempt to keep them down. Stars, I really know how to fuck things up. All of this is my fault. And yet—

“You… You knew that this whole time?” I ask. My voice starts as a whisper, but soon climbs louder. “You knew back on Titan and didn’t say anything?”

“You wouldn’t have listened. You would’ve panicked.”

“So instead of trying, you decided to hurt Apollo? To let us wait long enough for him to get infected by that thing?” I’m shouting now, tears running down my face, but I can’t stop myself.

“None of you listened to a word I said until I hit him,” Corvus shouts back. His fists clench at his sides, though the rest of him stays still. “None of you listen—”