Surging fury within my poisoned heart fills me with the overwhelming need to drive my axe through Hadrian’s throat. To fucking tear him apart.
“What have you done to Thyra?”
“She needs you, Antony.” Hadrian watches me with a piercing gaze as he begins a slow pace back and forth. “If you want to save her, you’ll have to give up your place in this kingdom. Victor can’t be king. The highborn can’t stand to look at him. And it seems you’ve done Cassia the kindness of allowing her to fuck off. Whichleaves me.”
My voice is a dangerous snarl. Low. Soft. “What. The fuck. Did you do to Thyra?”
“I told her the truth.” A gleam of anticipation grows in my brother’s eyes as his blades slice even deeper, spilling more blood. “Your worst truth.”
I drag in a breath.
A sudden, sickening horror fills my mouth, but I swallow it down. Deny it.
Hadrian can’t know what happened.
Anyone who knew is dead.
He licks his lips, trailing his hands back and forth in the air, causing the blades to slowly slice back and forth…
“Our poor father,” he says. “He had such glorious plans to rid himself of both you and Aeliana that night, but she saved you.”
Hadrian’s steps swish in the grass as he draws closer.
Dangerously close to me.
“She was actually trying to kill you, though, wasn’t she?” he says. “Your own mother. So fucking terrified of you that?—”
I launch myself forward, ramming the assassin’s knife at my brother’s stomach while my axe cleaves the air toward his throat.
Perfect strikes.
He responds far faster than I thought he could, darting backward while punching both of his hands forward. The compression of iron across my chest knocks me back the scant inch it takes for my blades to miss their marks.
Within seconds, Hadrian swings at me with fists now covered in congealing iron dust, forming metal gloves.
Iron that doesn’t appear to be burning him.
“I will no longer be overlooked!” he screams as his iron-covered fists collide with thedeepest wounds across my chest, one after the other in breathtaking succession, driving the air from my lungs.
I’m stunned at how fast he moves.
As fast as me.
In that split second before my reflexes kick in, a realization streaks through my mind that shakes me to my core: Hadrian is as strong as a king.
I duck and evade as he continues to hit at me, his fists now barely missing me.
He roars at me as he moves, his words nearly unintelligible, “It took only days for Thyra to burrow into your life. Mere fucking days for her to matter to you. But me? Your own fucking brother? I’m less than a smear of shit beneath your boots. For her, you’d tear yourself apart. But for me… You’ve never protected me. Never looked out for me.Galla hurt me, too!”
I leap back, and this time, he stops coming at me, his chest heaving, fists falling to his sides, eyes glistening with furious tears.
The corners of my mouth turn down. “Hadrian…”
He tips his chin. Drags in a breath. Snarls at my outstretched hand, rejecting it.
“There’s a part of me that understands.” He nods. “This power Thyra has. She’s nothing to look at, but the way sheseesyou… Right into your fucking soul. It’s so fucking enticing. Even now, I wish she’d fly back to me so I could wrap my hands around her neck, crush her ribs, cut her a little?—”
Any regret I felt vanishes.
