I sunk the knife all the way through to his heart, inch by inch, until the hilt hit bone.A tear streamed down my face, and my body shook with a sob.
I loved him.
At least, I did once.
He was my first friend. My best friend when I had no others. When we were left alone by our parents for days or weeks at a time because they had state matters to attend to. Especially when Nyx and Kol stopped coming around. He was the only one there for me in my darkest hours.
I loved him for who he was and the potential I used to see. I don’t know where that was lost, or when he became a monster, but it was my duty to make sure the monster was never unleashed on the kingdoms. None of that made taking him away from me any easier.
His knees buckled, and I wrapped my other arm around him, cradling him in my arms and holding his gaze.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. Maybe had I paid more attention, I would have been able to help.” Another tear streaked down my cheek as life drained from his face.
Blood spilled over my hand and ran down his shirt, spreading out across the material. It almost seemed surreal.
He parted his lips, and his tongue was stained red. “You do this for her?”
“No, I do this for every soul in our Kingdoms.”
He grew lifeless in my arms, accepting his fate.
I hope he found peace in those last moments, because I never would.
He took a part of me with him to the underworld.
EPILOGUE
CALYTRIX
The temple bells rang a mournful lament as the First Flight breathed fire on the funeral pyre.
Arkyn was gone.
Given the full funeral rites of the Crown Prince, mourned by the entire kingdom.
Alaric stood at his father’s side during the prayers, head low and eyes glassy. But alone. Nova could not stand with him. They were still unmarried. Kol could not either. It was no place for a friend. So we watched, as our friend bore the farce alone, while the repugnant King made a show of grief for the loss of the son he thought would succeed him and felt pride in the one who now would.
Because, unknown to the fae of the kingdom, the King bore no grief for the heir who’d lost his way. He'd become hard to manage. It was only the lack of a suitable replacement that had prevented the King from turning his own dagger on his wayward son. But when Alaric took it into his own hands, the King saw something in him he could finally work with. A worthy heir who made hard choices for the future of the crown. Who took decisive action and did not let sentiment stand in the way of strong rule.
Alaric was a wreck. Going through the motions to satisfy his father’s terms.
Terms that would ensure no one ever knew he took his brother’s life and would one day see Alaric rule. But kept him bound to the King's every whim.
I always thought Nova would make the better queen. I just never wanted it for her. I'd resigned myself to the role and all it entailed so that she would never have to endure it. But Alaric was not Arkyn. She would be safe with him, even if there was no love between them. He was a decent male who'd proved it by ridding the realm of the poison his brother would have spread on the throne.
Arkyn was gone. I still hadn’t fully processed it. I would never have to stand his touch, or bear his offspring, or stand by while he damned the kingdoms to suffering through negligence or greed or just plain sadism.
I was better off. I was free. But I was not the only one who mattered.
Faolan had paid a stiff price.
Nova and I watched the dragons file off the field hand in hand. The King and Alaric remained to watch the pyre burn. But the crowds of mourners began to disperse.
The palace was a very different place for us in the days since Arkyn’s death. I was no longer watched by an army of handmaidens who'd been, as it turned out, under Arkyn’s orders, not the King’s. My rooms were empty, no longer my own. I still had a place in the palace, but it was no longer in the royal apartments.
I was free to move around the palace as I pleased, though. After all, my sister would be queen, and the guards held open the doors for us with bows as I walked Nova back to her rooms.
“I need to get out of these clothes,” she huffed.
