The Atlan beast calmly picked the young man up and broke his neck with just one hand. Tossed him aside as his elderly mother screamed.
Paige followed the activity and gave a slight nod to the beast. He bowed his head, his gaze resolute. Loyal. As if he would do anything she asked, even defy Commander Zeus, if she asked it of him. Did they know one another?
“Thank you, Warlord Stohn.” Paige’s soft note was nearly a caress. I didn’t like her speaking to any male that way. That soft, grateful tone belonged to me.
“Kill. Traitor. Hurt Paige.” I’d never heard the deep rumbling tone of an Atlan in beast mode. The sound was like rocks rolling down a hill.
Fuck. They did know each other. What was he to her? Was that beast going to try to claim her? At least he was loyal. Or appeared to be. Wouldn’t stop me from killing him to keep what was mine. Paige was mine. I wrapped my hand around my weapon and hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Paige turned away from the beast and I could breathe again as she called out the next name. “House Reijoni.” No wonder the boy had run. He knew. The dead man’s sobbing mother was escorted out of the room along with her elder son and her elderly sister. Lady Reijoni’s husband had been dead for several years. Apparently, her sons had followed in their parents’ corrupt footsteps.
Holy fuck. So many traitors. How had Paige managed to find them all?
I could do nothing but stand ready to protect her as I watched it all unfold.
23
Paige
Everything was going accordingto plan. Commander Zeus was taking these evil traitors, one by one, to outer space and would turn them—and all the evidence Hermione, the brilliant house computer, gave me—over to the Coalition’s Intelligence Core. They would investigate further, punish them for their crimes, and, if there was anything left for me, send them back to Insuri for trial.
I didn’t really want to deal with that. I’d told Zeus as much. Let them all rot for the rest of their cold-blooded, cruel, baby-killing, mother-and-father-murdering lives in some prison spaceship. There was only one person I needed to take care of myself, and Zeus gladly left her for me.
She was family. My mother’s own blood. I couldn’t let her off so easily as a life sentence off planet.
No. She would pay, and pay where the entire planet knew what she had done. Who she was. How she’d fooled, tricked and used the entire planet.
Something dark and cold rose inside me as I studied Queen Alienor.
She’d taken everything from me.
Everything.
My parents. My identity. My history. My inheritance. She’d betrayed her own blood. Her own family. And for what?
Money? Power? Control?
I stood tall, my heart racing, but I forced myself to hold steady. The Coalition warriors moved with swift precision around the edges of the chamber. Their strange space armor gleamed black and gray under the ceremonial lights. Their armor lined with more weapons and gadgets than I ever could have dreamed up. I’d thought Insurians, and their high-tech cars and sentient house AI systems, seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi TV show, but my people had nothing on the Coalition warriors.
Each name I called–every single one had been memorized, burned into my brain–sent a ripple through the crowd, their gasps and whispers blending into a rising storm of disbelief.
It proved the deceit ran deep. How had all of these people remained innocent and free, so sure of their deception that they felt free to attend royal weddings, confident no one would learn of the part they played in corruption and a coup. These assholes came here to look me in the eye, smile, and congratulate me on marrying the son of the woman who had murdered my parents. Fucking cold-blooded scum. I had no mercy in my heart for any of them. Not one.
“House Vallen.”
I didn’t waver. Name after name I called felt like shedding a weight, like breaking chains I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying. These were the people who had betrayed my mother, the ones who had torn my family and my kingdom apart for their owngain. They didn’t deserve the titles they wore, the wealth they flaunted, or the trust they had broken.
Nobles shifted uneasily in their seats, their gazes darting toward the exits as if calculating their own odds of escape. I allowed my gaze to sweep the room, linger on the faces of those who still sat frozen in their chairs, their expressions ranging from shock to fear.
Fear. Those were the guilty ones. They knew what was coming for them.
Me.
And then there was House Natosi. Addan’s parents’ and his sisters’ expressions ranged from his mother’s approving smile to young Sorcha’s shocked excitement. Catriona gave me a slight nod of respect. Addan’s father was beaming like a proud papa. The nobles surrounding them preened and cackled with glee. My true allies. The faces I recognized from our brief introductions at Addan’s home.
Lady Natosi hadn’t invited a single traitor to her home that night. She was shrewd. Intelligent. A very strong ally. Since I fully intended to marry her son, it was a good thing I wasn’t going to have to arrest her.
Talk about problems with the in-laws.
