“Now, now, there will be plenty of time for that. Unfortunately, I do have a promise to your sister to uphold,” Umemri said.
I felt Samkiel rub against our bond in recognition. We’d both been right, and what Savees had told us was true. Apparently, not only was there a treaty in place with Nismera, but the King of the Otherworld was working with her. I felt Samkiel’s building apprehension. This was proof that she had her foot on the necks of everyone of any power in these realms. Our last resort may very well be The Eye, but the rebels had gone quiet since Samkiel’s light burned across the sky.
“I’ve heard,” Samkiel noted. “Why else would the Otherworld send their own to work with her? I assume this is some treaty, and she has probably thrown in promises that you will reign forever.” Samkiel chuckled darkly, and Isaiah and Kaden wore matching smirks. “I hate to break it to you, but once she gets what she needs from you, she will annihilate every single one of you. Then she will take the Otherworld for herself.”
“You’ve been gone a long time,” Umemri said, wagging a finger at him. “You missed the part where we now own everything, topside and below. This treaty maintains that status quo, and when she’s through making a mess of you, then I’ll get my turn.”
Kaden snorted. “You’re a fool to trust a godsdamn thing that comes out of her mouth.”
I glanced at him, surprised by the mirth behind his words, but even more by the truth. He meant what he said. Whatever had happened at Nismera’s palace had caused not only a fracture between her most loyal but an actual break.
Umemri did not back down, seemingly unconcerned. He looked between Kaden and Samkiel. “Does it ever bother you that everything you enjoy aboutyour wife, your brother taught her first?”
Samkiel’s body vibrated, and his muscles tightened, readying to lunge at Umemri. I slipped around him and pressed my hand against his chest, pushing him back a few steps.
Aeron’s feet slammed against the stone with the force of a quake as he stood, unsheathing his jagged twin blades with a deep growl. Morana rose like mist and uncoiled a hair-thin whip, letting it pool at her side. Through it all, Umemri laughed and laughed.
“I’ll have your tongue for that,” Samkiel said.
“I don’t think it’s mine you should be worried about,” Umemri said, tossing another smirk at Kaden. “And by the time Nismera is done with your pretty wife, you won’t even have a skull to fuck. I will have my vengeance, and you will pay greatly for it.”
Even with all my power, I could not stop the storm that threatened to rupture at Umemri’s crass threat. Only it wasn’t lightning that thundered under my hand on Samkiel’s chest, but raw Oblivion. The walls he used to contain the worst of it had fractured, and it snapped like a hundred starved snakes down our bond. My eyes widened as I looked up at my husband. There wasn’t about to be an Otherworld left.
“Samk—”
“You know, you speak highly of yourself for one who controls fucking insects,” Isaiah snapped, shocking all of us so much it snapped Samkiel out of that killing calm. Was Isaiah rallying in my defense or just picking a side in the battle?
Umemri’s face peeled back, revealing the same pincers his murrak wife had displayed. It wasn’t just some beast they had sold. It was his mate. And he wanted Samkiel’s head for it.
“My army is vast and everywhere. Word has already spread through her ranks of your attempts to dethrone her. Now, all the realms will know you for the failed attempt. What have you then, traitors to the crown?”
“Dethrone?”I sent down the bond that only Samkiel could hear.
“I doubt it,”the storm that was my husband rumbled back.“Whatever happened, Nismera would shape it in her favor, and both of them were already beaten when we found them in Whitcliff.”
“I say your army can burn as easily as you and the rest here,” Kaden answered, stepping to Samkiel’s other side. It was not lost on me how all of them now stood a fraction in front of me, or the fact that they sensed the growing threat in Samkiel and acted. I’d deal with all that later.
“Do it, then,” Umemri taunted. “Start a war with the Otherworld. You,” he said to Samkiel, “fallen king, do not scare me. You have no kingdom, no title, no crown, nor throne. What army shall you raise when none follow you? It would be like striking a wounded animal and claiming I slayed a beast. There is no honor or pride in that. Even the power you boast of is limited, like all power. None of you frightens me. If anything, I pity the once formidable sons of Unir.” Umemri scoffed before his eyes once more fell onto me. “She’s pretty, Samkiel. I’ll give her that. Prettier than most you’ve claimed, but you’re dumb to love, especially with all the enemies you have accumulated. You’ve put a target on her, giving them an image of your most perfect weakness.”
“You touch her, and there will be nothing left for your siblings to mourn,” Samkiel seethed.
Power pressed against the walls of this mountain like a growing hurricane. He would drown the entire world in his protective rage if I moved. Aeron, the large orc prince, growled in Umemri’s defence and crossed two of his massive, thickly muscled arms. A single large tooth protruded from his lips.
Kaden scoffed. Loudly. “Your intimidation tactics are lackluster at best. You wouldn’t even frighten an infant. Stop embarrassing yourself.” Kaden’s tone was cold, and every bit the man I remembered.
“What are you going to do, Umemri?” Isaiah asked, stepping in front of Samkiel and me, the cocky, unbridled arrogance in his voice echoing his brothers’. “Are you planning to send a swarm of flies at us next? A horde of beetles? You’re nothing but a pest, Umemri. A pest who got lucky. Your other siblings grew old and weary with age, and you finally managed to get an upper hand. Blow me. Actually, can Eryx resurrect your dead wife? Then I can have her do it for me. How do those pincers work? It would be new for me.”
Umemri seethed, his pincers snapping so quickly, I could only assume he was picturing Isaiah’s head between them.
Kaden laughed and folded his arms, watching the exchange with amused interest. “Isaiah. Don’t embarrass him. You know he will not strike first because, regardless of what armies he claims to have, he knows the damage they would all suffer if Samkiel unleashes Oblivion.” Kaden stepped even with Isaiah, his eyes boring into Umemri. “And trust me, he will. You touch her, you threaten her, you threaten us all, and he will destroy you and your realm. Something tells me a part of you fears that.”
Umemri and the others barked a laugh. “I see no ring, and from what I heard—”
Gasps erupted from the other princes as a blade made from Oblivion rose from Samkiel’s hand. It looked crafted from pure darkness, rimmed with a purple glow. I watched the power flow from his palm, feeding into the blade until it gleamed wickedly. If that sword had a voice, I knew it would be begging to be freed. Umemri tried his best to remain composed, but I saw the king’s throat bob.
“Go on,” Samkiel said, his voice thick and heavy, cutting through the room like a blade. “Threaten my wife and brothers again.”
I shifted beneath the overwhelming power in this room, and I wondered just how vicious the brothers would be if they got along. If they could manage to work together, they would release an overwhelming force into the world that none could rival. Nismera knew it, too. It was the reason she so desperately drove wedges between them. We barely tolerated each other and were only together because we had been forced. But for now, in this room surrounded by enemies, we were united and it was something that all should fear.
