The Bran I met all those months ago would have looked down his nose at me, slashing out with his words.ThisBran turns with a growl, kicking out at the stone wall behind him. The impact cracks the stone.
My hands begin to tremble. He’s losing control. Slowly, I stumble to my feet, the world swaying as I battle vertigo.
The pieces begin to fall into place in my mind. “That’s why you made me wait to target the emperor until the Sundering Ball. Not because of the Sundering itself, but because that was the day the emperor removed Rorrik as his appointed successor.”
Bran smirks. I take a shaky step back, toward the crossbow. The mark on my neck flares as if rebelling at the mere suggestion of doing Bran harm. I can’t kill him while I’m still bonded to him.
I’m all alone. Trapped with a vampire insane enough to work with rebels to attack the emperor’s arena. A vampiresaneenough to create plans within plans—all of which have led to this moment.
My only chance is to buy time.“Tiernon!”I call, pushing everything I have into my silent scream.“Tiernon! I need you!”
Can he even reach me in time? The arena is little more than rubble, the seats below us almost impossible to climb.
“I don’t understand,” I tell Bran.
Keep him talking. Keep him talking. Keep him talking.
“Anyone!”I roar, attempting to keep my expression blank.
Bran leans against the wall at his back. “Vallius is furious with his sons. One of them wants him dead so he can take his place, while the other wants him dead so he can be free to live as he wishes. Neither of them shows the gratitude and respect he believes he deserves.”
“And the new law would make it possible foryouto take the throne.But I still don’t understand why the emperor would change the rules of succession.”
Behind me, something explodes in the arena. I flinch, but Bran doesn’t react, his gaze still on mine. “He’s considering breeding with his mistress. He understands the mistakes he made by creating one son who rivals him for power, and one who is far too popular among both the imperius and Praesidium Guard. If his sons ever worked together, this empire would be theirs. Thankfully, they hate each other even more than they hate their father. So it will be mine instead.”
“What makes you believe you could hold the throne?”
Bran stalks closer and I skitter away. He swipes my crossbow from the ground, waving it teasingly. “Because unlike my father, I will give the vampires the sun. And in gratitude, they will give me an empire.”
If not for his descent into madness, I might believe Bran could actually do it. Looking at him now … he could never take and keep the throne. His skin no longer has the flawless quality typical of vampires. His veins are visible beneath the surface of his pallid skin, pulsing with a sickly, blue-gray hue, while his cheeks have sunk in, until his cheekbones cast harsh shadows over his face. His eyes once made me shiver when he looked at me with that cold, predatory intensity. Now, they’re bloodshot, encircled with dark bruises.
Bran snarls at my silence. “You doubt me?”
Agony blazes through my body, unrelenting, stealing the breath from my lungs, the strength from my muscles. Dimly, I’m aware of hitting the ground, my head meeting stone with a dullthunk.
He stalks toward me, and the world darkens at the edges, until his face is all I can see. Panic and pain merge, twisting my insides. I can feel the remaining minutes of my life counting down. But Bran has always loved the sound of his own voice.
Just keep him talking.
“Why me?” My voice is little more than a groan, my nerves on fire. “Why choose me to kill your father?”
“I knew Tiernon wouldn’t be able to stay away from you. Not after he spent years sneaking into the Thorn to be with you.”
The worst of the agony recedes, and I swipe at the wetness beneath my nose. Blood. Whatever Bran is doing with our bond … it’s slowly killing me.
Wait.
Sneaking into the Thorn.
Bran’s words make it through the fog in my mind. The day we met, he told me he’d watched me fight. It was one of the first things he said to me all those months ago, and yet I didn’t pay attention, too focused on refusing his deal.
The last time I’d fought before the Sundering was during the Sands. Bran watched me fight. Watched Kassia die.
“You were stalking me before I ever stepped into the arena.”
“No one paid attention to me,” Bran snaps. “But the emperor’s sons? The ones heacknowledged? They ignored me as if I didn’t even exist. So I followed Tiernon to the Thorn. I watched and waited. For years. Then, when the time was right, I made sure the emperor learned just where his son was disappearing to. And that Tiernon was spending time with a sigilmarked whore who lived in the city’s slum.”
A hollow ache spreads below my ribs. All that pain. The years I spent alone. Tiernon’s torture. All of it, because of Bran.
