“You gave me this power,” I mock. “I should thank you.”
The door is narrowing by the second. Emmett and Rhion need to go. “Now! Please!” I yell over Bram’s shoulder at them.
Emmett uses his shoulder to knock a guard off his feet, then kicks his legs out from under him.
With all the strength he has, he lunges at Bram. “Do not touch her.”
Guards have us both pinned to the ground in seconds. The door shrinks to nothing but a sliver of light and then winks out of existence entirely.
“No!” I shout through tears. “You fool, you idiot. You should have saved yourself.”
One guard shoves Emmett’s face into the dirt and digs his knee in between Emmett’s shoulder blades as he wrenches his hands behind his back.
Emmett licks blood from his split lip and gives me a grin. “Save myself? That’s not what we do.”
Prince Emmett De Vere
I’m locked in my office for two days before the summons from Bram appears.
It comes, as they always do, as a note slipped under my door.
Fencing, noon, this one reads, in handwriting that isn’t even Bram’s. He’s dictated it to a servant like I’m not even worth getting ink on his hands.
On the rare occasion that Bram was in the Otherworld, we often met for various sports. We spent our time playing tennis, or horseback riding, or hitting croquet balls in the garden. There was one summer Bram magicked the wickets to run away, which was particularly annoying, but these were the times it was easiest to imagine the boys we once were in London.
I didn’t expect to ever receive a summons like this from him again.
For the last two days, I’ve been out of my mind with worry for Ivy. I’ve torn apart my office, searching every book for anything that could help me save her, but I’ve come up empty. Every day, trays of food arrive, and in that regard, it’s been unlike my previous stay in the dungeons, but I’ve never felt more like a caged animal.
My breakfast arrives with a set of fencing whites. I dress and sit on the edge of my bed, my brain wearing out the same thought over and over—How do I save her? How do I save her?There aren’t any clocks in the Otherworld, so I don’t know how long I wait until my door unlocks and swings itself open magically.
Two guards flank me on either side, so I’m unable to run to Ivy’s room or the dungeons, but there’s an air of inevitability about this meeting. I’m looking forward to facing Bram, all veneer stripped away, and, for once in our lives, being honest with each other.
Bram is waiting for me in the gymnasium, tugging on his white gloves, his nose tipped up in the air arrogantly.
“Just tell me if she’s alive.” My voice is little more than a snarl. It’s taking every inch of self-control I have not to launch myself at him and pummel my fists into his face.
Bram gestures to the bench where my gloves and saber lie. “We can talk while we spar.”
Seeing no other choice, I pull on my mesh mask and join him on the mat.
Bram lunges at me, but I parry, blocking him. “This is beneath you, Emmett,” he drawls slowly, like this is just some brotherly spat we’ll be over before dinner.
“Is she alive?” My tone is desperate, and I don’t care. Let him know how desperate I am. He sidesteps my thrust, then parries back lazily, as if we are boys again and none of this matters.
“Yes, she’s alive. Why do you care?” he snaps. “She’s intolerable, and unfaithful, and you lower yourself by loving her. Do you not want to rule as my regent? You’d give all this up forher?”
“Yes.” It comes out as nearly a shout. “I’d do anything for her, do you not see that?” It’s foolish, perhaps, to admit, but he must knowby now, and I see no sense in hiding it. If Bram is going to kill me, then I want to die with the truth on my lips. “It was always about her, everything I’ve done.”
“No, you loveme.” Bram lunges again, something newly ferocious in his movements, and this time his saber strikes my torso with force enough to sting, even through my jacket. “We were brothers, weren’t we? That’s what you needed when I first met you. You were so small and weak, barely more than a child, and all you wanted was a family.Igave that to you.Ibecame what you needed. In exchange, you were supposed to be loyal to me.”
“I would have been.” I feel equal parts rage and heartbreak at Bram confirming that our brotherhood was never anything more than another manipulation tactic. The worst part is, he’s not wrong. Idolove him, but I hate him more.
I lunge again, my slash crisp and precise as my old training returns to me. Bram and I had the same fencing master, once upon a time. “Are you going to kill her?” I ask.
Bram’s maneuvers are sloppy, disdain and arrogance in every swipe of his saber. “She’s going to die at some point. Your lifespans are so short, what does it matter if it’s now or later?”
He waves his hand and knocks my mask off my face with magic. I block, but he flicks his saber up and slices a cut down my cheekbone. “You’re all so fragile.”
