The smug bastard was still attempting to claim her home? To claim her? Despite her traitorous heart shrieking for her to give in so that she could have him again, Ereshkigal was not about to let him get away with that. If she did so, he would forever be thinking that he had the ability-- no, the right-- to treat her thus. And that simply would not happen. They would be equals, or they would be nothing.
But she had faith in him. She just needed to show him that she was as strong as he was. That she was as capable as he was. That she was as intelligent as he was. They would share the throne, and he would be her husband. As soon as he stopped being an ass.
"If I presume to order you like a dog," she said with saccharine sweetness as he almost imperceptibly moved. But she saw it. She knew that this might be her only opening. So even as he shifted his weight, she finished, "it is only because you have acted like one!"
Her voice rose to a deafening scream with her final three words, leaning forward a bit to give emphasis to how angry she was. Ereshkigal was counting on that keeping his attention on her face, even as the movement caused his blade to slide subtly against her skin. The sharpness of the weapon was still enough to cause a tiny slice in her skin, but she never felt it. Because the second the last word left her mouth, faster than a blink of an eye, she was arcing the hook she held in her free hand up between their bodies to catch at the sword. She heard the metallic clang and felt the contact reverberate down her arm, even as she put all her weight into throwing the blade away from her body. As soon as it was clear, the hook she had tucked between his legs would be brought up to his throat, and then he would know what it was like to be at her mercy.
But a tiny voice in the back of her mind, one she was desperately ignoring to stay focused on her fight with Nergal, kept whispering: Why didn't he know how to say good-bye? What did that mean? Was it because he'd not wanted to say it at all? Did he possibly love her as she did him?
These were not thought she should have been having in the middle of a battle.