I’m the King. Surely, I can bend the law.
When Shadow roars, Horus whimpers. He stumbles back a step, spilling his cup of wine down the front of his bare chest.
“Good girl, Shadow.” I push Freya behind me, and the demonic lions immediately flank my Omega protectively.
When I study Horus, however, I am shocked that he looks a mess. His crocodile leather outfit is stained. Although he is still smothered in peridot and emerald jewelry, it is the only sparkling thing about him.
Horus’ long, black curls are lank and tangled. His eyes are red-rimmed, as if he has been crying.
“Don’t talk to me,” I warn. “I don’t want to spill blood tonight.”
“You murdered our brother.” Horus sobs like he has been struggling to hold back his tears but can’t anymore. “Hypocrite. Wasn’t scarring him enough? Tonight, Sobek’s spirit is cursing you. And I swear that I will?—”
“Do swear treason in front of witnesses,” I drawl. “It would make my evening.”
Horus’ face scrunches up in distress. “Monster.”
“Well, that hurts. Actually, it doesn’t any longer. Ask yourself if you should be showing such disrespect to amonsterwho is no longer locked up by you in the dark? Who is no longer under your control, being tortured by you, Grand Mage?Who you failed to break?”
“We shouldn’t be quarreling.” Isis glides up behind Horus, fixing her son with an icy glare, which Horus appears more terrified of than he is of me. The Beta is tiny, but she still easily yanks the larger Alpha behind her. “Hor is drunk. I warned all you boys about the dangers of overindulging, but it is Hor who simply cannot control himself, whether with wine, blood, orOmegas. Look where it has led. But have mercy; he is grieving both the loss of his manhood and his brother.”
“I wonder which one you’re crying about losing the most?” Freya quirks her brow. “Knot or brother?”
I truly do have a vicious Omega. Freya is perfect.
Horus gapes at her. “Shall I slice off your pretty hand, before tearing out your fae’s throat? See whatyouweep over losing most?”
I growl in my throat.
“You know how we get on the Night of the Shades,” Isis placates, while tightening her hold on Horus’ wrist, until he hisses in pain. “I do hope, Lan, that you are able to grieve for your ancestors and our family, despite allowing their tombs to be desecrated at White Lotus.”
Isis wears her usual simple attire, with her only ornament being a malachite crocodile badge, which is fastened to her robe. Yet she looks immaculate, and her eyes are clear. She doesn’t have heavy bags underneath them like she hasn’t been able to sleep for weeks, unlike Horus.
“Aren’t you grieving your son?” I challenge.
“You mean the one you murdered?” Isis throws back, her lips thinning. “Sobek made a poor decision, which is regrettable.”
“I mean the one I executed.Sobek killed a Shadow Human — his Omega bond mate. He broke the law, which I personally set, that no harm must come to nest mates. If we do not protect our partners but abuse them instead, thenthatmakes us monsters and not Alphas. If we do not condemn such behavior, then our society has no right to judge itself as better than the tyrannical Dracanians. Yet Sobek did worse. He also tried to takemyfae Blood Lover.”
When Horus snorts, dread coils through me.
They are hiding something.
What is the House of Crocodile plotting?
I straighten my shoulders. “Nest mates should be more precious and important to a Blood than anything in their life. Mine have asked that there be no blood sacrifice performed tonight. So, there won’t be this year.”
“Won’t there?” Isis ducks her head, but not before I see the cruel amusement dancing in her eyes.
What does she mean?
Then it hits me.
Isis and Horus are distracting — delaying — me.
Isis is smiling at me now in that sharp way of hers that she always used when we were in public.
In private, she never smiled.
