“I just spent nine hours peeling skin off a traitor who gave up your dirty little secrets. This?” I gesture to the blood. “Is the only thing keeping your empire from falling the fuck apart.”
He clenches his jaw.
“I don’t give a shit about your reputation. I’m not here to impress your rich friends. I’m not here to make small talk and shake hands. I kill for the Sovereign. I torture for the Sovereign. I keep the ghosts off the Vault’s fucking doorstep. So unless you want a fresh corpse on the table to pair with your wine, back the fuck off and let me drink.”
He finally waves me off, like swatting a fly. But I see the tremor in his hand. The way his throat bobs.
He’s afraid of me.
He fucking should be.
As the meal drags on, I drown my disgust in bourbon—glass after glass of numbing fire that barely takes the edge off. The conversations at the table are the usual bullshit—politics, power plays, the kind of small talk that makes me want to carve someone open just to feel something real.
Senator Kelly leans toward me, his teeth yellow behind his smile. Grease in a suit. His slut of a wife next to him, doing everything she can to avoid looking me in the eye like she didn’t swallow my cum an hour ago.
“So, Priest. You’ve got quite the legacy to live up to. Your father is a true force. You ready to fill his shoes?”
I stare at him and toss a mint into my mouth. Let it crack between my teeth. Then I smile. The kind that makes men piss themselves.
“No. When I lead, you’ll be the one on your knees.”
He chokes on his drink, spluttering like a little bitch. “E-Excuse me?”
I don’t blink. I don’t raise my voice.
“When. I. Lead. You. Will. Be. On. Your. Fucking. Knees.”
Sterling’s knife slams into his plate with a sharp clang. I don’t look at him. Kelly’s face turns a shade redder than the wine he’s holding. His hands tremble.
“Ever heard of the blood eagle?” I ask. “You slice open the back. Snap the ribs from the spine. Pull the lungs out, stretch them like wings. By the time you get to the lungs, the man’s already dead, but you get the idea.”
I pop another mint into my mouth, the crunch echoing through the sudden silence. “I watched my first one when I was six. Performed it when I was nine.”
Kelly’s lips part in horror. Sterling’s breathing has gone sharp and shallow beside me.
“Priest, enough! You’ll regret this,” Sterling hisses next to me.
I grin wider. “I don’t regret shit.”
I glance back at Kelly, letting every ounce of violence I’ve ever committed bleed into my stare.
“Your days of stuffing your cock in Sovereign power are done. When I lead, the Sovereign won’t bow. We’ll burn everything you’ve built and piss on the ashes. All your political fuck-buddies can kiss the days of the Sovereign catering to their bullshit goodbye. You’ll kneel, or you’ll find your lungs laid out across your fucking spine.”
The room’s gone silent. Dead silent. Even Dalton and Alistair have stopped smirking, their half-chewed food on display in open mouths.
I push back from the table. The sound of the chair screeching across the polished marble floor slices through the room. Sterling reaches for my arm, but I dodge his grip, leaning in close instead.
“I’m not your lap dog. And I’m not your goddamn son. You should have killed me, Sterling. Now you have to live with it.”
I stand, turning to the rest of the table. “Fuck this. I’m done here.”
Without another word, I stalk out of the room. I don’t need Sterling’s bullshit.My fatherwanted a soldier. What he got is a rabid fucking god.
My eyes skim the grimy warehouse hosting tonight’s fight. It’s dimly lit, the air thick with sweat, blood, and the sour tang of stale booze. A makeshift ring is set up in the center with a crowd pressing in close, all of them shoving to catch every bloody punch and grunt. At the back, a bar’s serving cheap drinks to anyone who shoves cash forward.
“Here, A!” Roxy holds a bag of potato chips out. “Not many food options in a place like this.” Her drink sloshes over the rim as she gestures around with it.
“Thanks,” I mutter, taking the bag, even though my appetite’s dead. I force down a few anyway.
