“Still noble. Still playing savior to lost causes. You always did mistake loyalty for love.”
His voice dripped venom.
“Shut your mouth.”
“You defend him even now? How tragic.” His voice curved into laughter—low, silken, cruel. “Yourbrotheris nothing but a dying animal, and you’re the fool dragging his carcass through the fire.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Don’t I?” His tone twisted with mirth. “I’ve seen the truth that lingers beneath that fragile smile. I’ve heard the thoughts he never lets you near. Tell me, Lazarus—has he told you what hedidbefore the trials? Whose blood does he carry on his hands?”
My breath caught. The chamber pulsed with heat, the walls bending closer.
“He lies to you,” Severen whispered, quieter now—sliding straight into the marrow of thought. “Every word he’s ever spoken drips with deceit. You think you’re saving him, but you’re the one he’s killing.”
“Enough,” I rasped.
“He’s already chosen, Lazarus.”
The hiss brushed my spine. “He’ll let you bleed first. He’ll watch. He’ll eventhankyou for it. That’s the kind of man you call brother.”
“Shut up,” I growled. My throat tore with the effort.
“He’s waiting,” Severen went on, voice sharpening into something vicious. “Counting your steps. Measuring your strength. He’ll strike when you stumble—because he knows what’s coming.”
My heart hammered. “Knows what?”
“The truth,” Severen said, the words soft, delighted. “The kind that doesn’t just break you—itdestroysyou. Leaves nothing but ash where love used to live.”
I spun, eyes searching the dark, but there was nothing. No shape. No shadow. Only the silence—thick, choking, alive.
And then I felt it—his voice coiling around my throat like a serpent, invisible and cold.
“He envies you, Lazarus. Resents you. You burn too brightly, and he’s spent his whole life choking on your light. You think he follows you out of loyalty? No. It’s hunger. He feeds on what you are because without you, he’s nothing.”
“You’re wrong,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Wrong?” The voice melted into silk, low and coaxing. “He’s already dreaming of the moment you fall. Already wondering whether he’ll feel guilty as he watches your body break. But hear this—he won’t. You’ll die for him, and he’ll build his throne on your bones.”
“Shut up!” The shout tore from me.
The silence that followed pressed against my ears.
“Do you truly believe he’d die for you?”
I hesitated.
And in that breath, Severen smiled. I couldfeelit.
“Exactly,” he whispered, soft with malice. “You know the truth. One of you must fall for the other to rise. And you?—”
His tone thickened, dripping with dark delight?—
“You have the bloodline. The strength. The gift. Why waste it on a dying man who would drown you just to breathe?”
My throat locked. I dragged in air that burned like fire.
“He’s my friend,” I said, forcing each word past the weight in my chest. “He’s family.”
