This is where they learn the difference between a ruler and a god.
I don’t rush. I don’t flail. I step forward and let the power roll off me like a wave. The ground trembles under my feet, subtle but undeniable. The air thickens, pressing down on them until their movements slow, like they’re trying to run through water.
One of them stumbles.
I grab him by the throat and lift him off the ground with one hand.
He claws at my wrist, eyes bulging. “You think fear makes you strong,” he gasps.
“No,” I say quietly. “Fear makes you obedient.”
I slam him down onto his knees.
The others freeze. This time, not by my doing, but from their own fear.
Good.
I look at Cassia over my shoulder. Her face is pale, but she’s standing. Watching. Not screaming. Not hiding. She’s seeing me now.
Not the man in the office. Not the one who argued with her about thrones and honesty. The King.
I turn back to the vampire at my feet.
“You want to test my rule,” I say, my voice carrying effortlessly through the alley. “Then watch.”
I snap his neck.
The sound is sharp. Final.
But I’m not finished.
I twist further, using his hair as a leash until his head pops free from his body. I toss it aside like an errant empty can.
His body collapses to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Cassia flinches, but she doesn’t look away.
I step back, blood splattered across my hands, my coat, the pavement.
The remaining vampires stare at me in stunned silence.
“This is your warning,” I tell them. “You challenged me openly. I answered. You live because I allow it.”
The female vampire swallows hard. “You killed him.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re letting us go?” Her voice cracks when she speaks again.
“Yes.”
Confusion ripples through them, quickly followed by something darker.
Resentment.
They wanted martyrdom. They wanted justification.
I deny them both.
