Griffin got up, stretching and rubbing his eyes.
He looked at the empty space in his cot. Since meeting Ivan and truly understanding the depravity of Violencia, he hadn’t fucked anyone. The encounter had effectively taken every good piece of this country and sucked it into a wormhole.
Viktor couldn’t wait any longer. Pushing the door open, he rammed a square metal tablet into Griffin’s hands.
“Hey brother,” Griffin greeted Drago, most of his face filling the screen. But then he took him in, his haggard appearance, his sunken eyes.
“I tried to stop it. I’m so sorry,” Drago cried, the device in his hand moving down to show where he was.
Griffin took in the image. Of his brother sitting on…thethrown?
“Where is father?” Griffin bit out.
“Brother, you cannot return here. It will not be safe. Our father—he—”
The tablet fell in Drago’s lap, but Griffin didn’t think he meant for it to.
Drago picked it back up, and it was enough for Griffin to see the crown Drago wore.
“Our father is dead. Martha is dead. The King of Luscinia has claimed his Sacred Cherished.”
Our father is dead.
Our father is dead.
Griffin let the sentence cycle a few times, but it didn’t gain any traction. His mind unwilling to believe it true. “Claimed who?”
“With his death, there is no one to contest it.” Drago screwed his eyes shut.
“Who did he take?” Griffin needed him to say it.
“Your mother.”
The reality of everything fell around him. A bucket of acid pouring onto every piece of himself. The truth being uncovered in a moment of suffering.
The reason he was sent here was becoming clearer.
“I was never meant to come home.”
“No, brother. You weren’t. You were to stay there and gather an army. To take down the corruption that feasts on us in the form of a truce. A Sacred Trinity brought together through force. But that has changed. You must return, but not yet. Find your footing, choose your allies. Survive.”
There was a loud crashing and the tablet fell from Drago’s hands, bouncing a few times along the marble ground before shattering.
The device went black.
“Brother!”
But the screen was blank, and his brother was gone.
“Boss?” Viktor asked.
Griffin’s eyes flashed up to him, he steeled his nerves and hardened his shoulders.
“We must gather an army on this side.” He was beginning to understand it all.
From what he gathered, Violencia once was a beautiful place filled with happiness and joy. But no longer. Grypheem. Luscinia. They had come and robbed that bliss.
Planted their seeds. And stolen their freedoms. Hoarded their money. And hurt their innocents.
