One of his mind games.
Like Scarven, my father had also been a lion Shifter. Every time I looked at it, I saw Scarven tearing Father’s head from his body.
I approached the door to his chambers and steeled my nerves, slipping into the part I was forced to play: his willing and faithful servant, his sword and shield.
I opened the door.
Lounging in a burgundy wingback chair in front of the fireplace was a man dressed in black, swirling a glass of amber liquid in his hand. Firelight flickered off his sharp features, his high cheekbones and chiseled jaw. Those ice-cold black eyes lit with intrigue when he turned to stare at me. His lips twitched into a smirk above his trimmed, clean-cut facial hair.
“Hello, brother.”
5
Nox
Igave him a stiff nod. “Scarven.”
“You certainly took your time,” he said, his full, rich voice rolling over me.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I drawled. “As you asked.”
Being in his presence always made my stomach tense, my insides knotting with hatred. He looked more like our father every time I saw him. They had the same dark brown hair, the same gray streak on the right side, the same sharp chin and pointed nose.
Kane Scarven was the son of my father and an older woman Father had an affair with seven years before I was born. As Father was next in line for governor at the time, the Dumas—my grandparents—couldn’t afford a blemish on his otherwise perfect slate. They paid the woman handsomely and let her keep the child, but refused any claim to young Kane. My father never saw him again. Caius Duma married a respectable woman who bore both myself and Vera. We were the only valid heirs to the province, or so they led everyone to believe.
Until Scarven turned twenty-one and decidedhedeserved to sit in his rightful seat as firstborn of Caius Duma.
I hadn’t known of his existence until the challenging. After Father died, my mother told me the whole story of my bastardhalf-brother. The boy who came from nothing and took everything with one swipe of a paw.
I flicked water from the shoulder of my cloak, then rolled my head along my neck. About a foot away lay a black and silver rug leading to the fireplace, with large sconces on either side of it. A liquor cart stood next to his burgundy chair.
“Let’s hear it, then.” He brandished his glass toward me. “The Emberfell rebel leader?”
“It was quick,” I said.
“Ah, your specialty.”
“Well, I assume you don’t just keep me around for my good looks.”
He leaned back in his chair, propping one foot on top of his knee. I had to hide the way my features tightened at the motion—I knew how similar we looked. How similar our mannerisms were. And Idespisedit.
“It helps to make them suffer sometimes, brother,” he said as casually as if we were talking about the weather. “Teaches them a lesson.”
“I think seeing the dead body at their feet made the point quite clear.” I kept my voice passive. This wasn’t the first time we had a conversation like this. Whenever he sent me off to do his dirty work, to “send his messages,” it was always the same.
This time, he had sent me to Emberfell, our neighboring province to the north where the Lightbenders lived—people who could create and manipulate light. Scarven had ordered some of his men to the border to act as guards, harassing those who tried to cross into our province. He was staunchly against free travel among the provinces, not wanting to “muddy the waters” between our people and theirs.
Emberfell, naturally, was pissed. Rumors of an uprising at the border had reached Scarven’s ears. Their little group of rebels was planning a siege on Drakorum’s patrol stations, and he wantedmeto put an end to it.
Scarven nodded. “I don’t need those Lightbendersthinking they can strongarm me into anything. What did you do with the body?”
“Burned it.” The words tasted like ash on my tongue.
“Good. They have a habit of raising their dead up like martyrs. It’s better this way. Cut the rot before it spreads, you know.”
I swallowed, forcing my features to remain neutral. He could never know the truth of what I did on these missions. “Do you need anything else?”
His lips tugged into a smirk. He lowered his leg and slowly stood to his full height, barely an inch shorter than me, although his frame was slightly larger. “Join me for a drink, brother. It gets rather lonely around here, you know.”
