I freeze.
Alarm shoots through me. My heart speeds up.
Was this a trap all along?
Nebet knows me better than anyone. Better than my own family did.
She raised me.
Did she intend to allow these two new people into my nest close to me, only to hurt them, make me fear for them, then force me into one final assassination?
I ball my hands into fists. “I won’t. Relius is my best friend.”
Ruin snorts. “The Shadow Dragon King hates you.”
“Let him. He’s still my?—”
“You killed his brother.” Nebet sways closer to me.
“And because ofhisbrother, my entire family died.”
“Exactly. You’re enemies.”
I shake my head.
Nebet’s long fangs extend.
She reaches out to grab me by my hair and drag me closer. “Naïve outcast, clinging to a dream because Aurelius was the only one who gave you a single kind word. And that was only because he didn’t know just how much of a monster you were.”
“Maybe.” I duck out of her hold, smoothing down my hair. “But a single cup of water is like a well to someone who is dying of thirst in a desert. You don’t resent the cup of water but rather, the desert.”
“Do you still believe, beast, that your heroic friendmeantthe terms of his peace treaty? That after making you suffer for years, he suddenly was prepared to give up his Omega to you?”
Stop talking…
My heart is beating too fast.
I have thought through a million different possibilities. I don’t want to believe any of them.
“If you hadn’t been focused on saving that foul fae of yours,” Ruin waves his hand, “then you’d have seen the truth.” He walks forward, circling me. The hair on the back of my neck rises. “There have been reports by the Shadow Humans of a giant Golden Dragon flying over the kingdom during the day, heading for Sheut. Perhaps, it is no more than superstitious nonsense. After what happened to White Lotus, everyone is on edge. Yet what if Aurelius always intended to lead an attack against us, while our defenses were down…? Wipe us out like they did the fae?”
My pulse is roaring in my ears.
“He wouldn’t,” I insist.
Surely, he wouldn’t.
He’s not his brother.
“He’s the reincarnated Emperor Hadrian. The destroyer of realms. Let me show you what will happen if you don’t save us from him.” Nebet’s hand snaps out, pressing against my forehead before I can pull away.
I fall into the vision.
Instantly, I am wreathed in a world of shadows, blood, and bone. The air is filled with screams and the roar of dragons.
Then the realms are reduced to ash.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
