Melek’s free hand gripped my shoulder, that arm trembling with the force he used to keep me pinned to the floor, the other hand holding the knife to my throat. Our eyes were locked, both pinched with pain, and the wary focus of soldiers a hairsbreadth from death.
I gripped his wrist at my shoulder with both hands, and had the advantage of the lowest center of gravity and leverage to pull him off balance—but with the knife in play, I’d be dead before I could tear him down. We both knew that.
We had both been here before. Weknewhow this ended.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was our heaving breaths.
“I wouldn’t kill my best friend… mybrother,”Melek muttered through clenched teeth. “...but my enemy? Jann, if you truly choosethatbastard over me, I’ll have no choice. So, this is your final chance. What’s it going to be? Lucifer, or your life?”
Fury roared through my veins—right alongside a tidal wave of fear.Of courseI’d never choose Lucifer over Melek—but there was no way he’d convince me that if Lucifer got his claws intohismate, if Lucifer could endhislife, and the life of his child in a heartbeat, that our roles wouldn’t be reversed.
“No weapons, huh? You’re a fucking hypocrite,” I spat.
Melek shook his head, his eyes hooded with dark disappointment. “No, Jann. I’m not. I need you tothink.”
I blinked as something in his gaze changed. A light came on behind his pained eyes. “I’m telling you, that Fallen fuck doesn’t hold the power that you think he does. It’s only your fear that’s giving him that leash on you and your family. Stop denying the truth!” he snapped. Then caught himself, and shook his head again. “Or don’t. And I’ll bleed you out right here.”
The rage that rose in the face of his self-righteous pride, threatened to rip me from my moorings as Ifought.Then something inside me tore open.
41. Brother, Rival, Soldier, Friend
~ MELEK ~
My heart pounded painfully in my chest, thrumming in my ears, and making my skin pulse. Gazes locked and bodies straining, I held a knife to fuckingJann’sthroat, and he snarled like a pinned wolf. Growling, snapping, moving against the hand I used to pin him—but never actually attacking, because he knew the moment he tried to flip me, I’d open his veins. He’d be dead in seconds. We both knew it.
Fucking submit, Jann… please!
As if he felt my silent plea, his eyes screwed tightly shut, and his lips peeled back from his teeth. His growls became muttered protests that broke my heart, even as they revealed his.
“…You wouldn’t evenhavethat claim to the crown without me!”
“I always gave you that credit. Trusted you. Brought you with me—”
“So fuckingarrogant,thinking you can outwit and outplay an immortal? You’re delusional!”
His tone was dark. Derisive—but I saw the tears shining in his eyes and felt the searing gaze of his mate, Diadre, standing to the side, hands on her mouth, tears painting her cheeks.
“Listen to me,” I muttered. “What I’m telling you is true. The grip he has on you—it’s because you’ve entertained him. You’ve listened. You’vebelievedhim. He’s a fucking liar and a thief—”
“And amurderer!”
“Only by the hands of others. Only those who give him a position he should never have—”
“So fucking noble. So fuckinggood,aren’t you Melek? Not all of us have the luxury tochoose. Not all of us carry the backing of fucking armies. But you’re just as bad as him—here you are, knife to my throat—God curse your soul if you take me from my child, Melek! What happened to your honor? What happened to yourdivine favor?Your visions of building families and healing this land? You’re just a fucking murderer like the rest of them—just one more betrayer—”
“You’re the one who betrayed that ideal—by giving your power to the fuckingFallen,and helping him corrupt my son!”
“Gall didn’t need my help with that,” he spat.
I panted with fury, my hands shaking with the urge to kill him on the spot fordaringto accuse me and Gall of the very things he’d done himself. “I called youbrother,I trusted you. I gave you every strength and resources available to me—”
“Except the one that kept my family safe!You walked me under the eyes of our enemy and asked me to play his game, then disowned me the moment he usedhispower to keep me under his control. There is no winning here for me, Melek, can’t you see that? There are no good options left.”
“Then it sounds like you have two shitty choices. But you have to make one. So which is it going to be—death with me? A heart that’s free and a legacy of light? Or life in the shadow of thefuckingdevil,and all the power you want… poisoning your veins, your mate, your child… everything.”
Jann shook his head, snarling at me, but I didn’t waver.
‘Melek… surely you wouldn’t trust him now?’
