“Oh, now come, Mistress Breaker. Don’t you at least want to give your father a hug?”
I gathered magic around me, and I could feel it snapping. “Where. Is. Master. Dorian.”
“Master?” His chuckle had absolutely no mirth in it. “Master. Of course, the coward went into hiding. There is noMasterDorian here.”
Savion extended a finger to the middle of the room and pointed toward the people hanging inverted and headless. “There is, however, a king.”
My eyes snapped up.
Dorian was hanging there.
He still had his head.
“Wake up, your majesty,” Savion taunted. He picked up a small rock—no,bone, from the railing and threw it at Dorian. “Wake up. Mistress Breaker has come to rescue you.”
Naked, bruised, and scored with a hunting knife to make him bleed, Dorian barely stirred at Savion’s taunts. He almost flinched when the bone hit him.
“Come on, Dorian, play along!” Choosing a bigger projectile this time, Savion hit him in a massive bleeding bruise on the shoulder.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
“Let him down!” Roran barked and leapt off his horse.
There were six guns all pointed at Roran in the next moment.
“Come up here, daughter. Say hello to your father.” Savion cooed the words. “Come up here, or the lead goes right into your lover’s brain. And no one survives that.”
I took a deep breath, glancing at Roran, then Rilen. They could handle themselves. I knew they could.
But I had to get Dorian down. He was tranquilized, probably with the same crap they had used weeks before. Savion had probably used it over and over.
The chain that held him was probably made with lead as well.
“Kimber…” Rilen whispered.
“Trust me,” I hissed as I walked by him.
I walked up the stairs I had been thrown down and nearly murdered on. Savion, my father, was waiting halfway across the balcony, watching me.
“Well, well. You survived, I see.”
I paused. “Fuck off.”
Savion threw his head back and laughed, long and hard. “Just as spirited.”
“Let Dorian down.”
“No, my decoration stays.”
I stole a quick glance at him. “How did you manage that? He’s the strongest druid…”
“Strongest druid.” His voice was mocking. “First you tell me you have no idea he’s king, and now…” The chuckle was derisive. “He came through those doors much the way you did, my dear. I offered a story about you being my prisoner. A lovely little tale I spun about you dying if he tried to escape me.”
He walked closer and put a finger under my chin to study me.
“I had him convinced you were at the end of the sword. He had his blade at my neck, and because I told him you would die if I did, he put it down. Threethousandyears, one swing away from carrying out the death sentence he judged me to… and he couldn’t because ofyou. He was so convinced I would kill you.”
He’d given up the feud to save me. I could feel Roran and Rilen’s relief below.
