Maybe he could have had a real conversation with Sasha, if even just once.
Clover,
I killed my father. I tore his heart from his chest with my own hands. Then I held his body up before the court so they could see what kind of monster I become when provoked. You’d have been proud.
We haven’t announced any changes we’ll be making. I want you in on meetings to finalize what new laws we’ll announce, and which ones we’ll banish first. We’ll have to change the kingdom a little at a time, but by the time our child takes over, this will be a kingdom they are proud of.
The point of this letter is simple: you can come home. Please come home.
I have spent so long imagining the moment I stand beside you; not in secret or fragments of stolen moments, but out in the open where everyone can see.
For the first time in my life, he isn’t watching me through everyone else’s eyes, waiting for me to fail so he can break me again.
I should feel relieved he’s gone, but Sasha is gone too.
She’s alive, but to kill him without killing her, I had to break their bond. One moment she was with me, and the next she looked at me like I was a stranger. She would have killed me if I’d gotten too close, like I was just another man in this fucked-up world.
It’s a cruel joke, isn’t it? I killed the man who tried to break me my entire life, and in doing so, I lost the one who helped me get away from him. Now, I’m standing in a palace that finally answers to me, and it feels emptier than the cage he kept me in.
The people call me the Brutal King for the way I killed my father, or how they think I did. There was a gaping hole, already filled with flies where his heart used to be, and his arms and legs were bent at odd angles because they’d stiffened before I untied them. His sallow skin was grotesque and riddled with whip marks and cuts that were caked with dried blood.
I couldn’t find it in myself to feel remorse because he’d earned every stripe. Maybe that does make me brutal. I suppose the Brutal King is better than “Your Highness.”
I love you.
Brutally Yours,
Amos
PART TWO
BRUTAL QUEEN
23
Amos sat in his council chamber in the palace, drumming his fingers against the long table. His birthday was a week away, and he needed to leave for the border as soon as possible to reach Clover on time.
Rainer, Sariah, Ruth, and Lester talked among themselves about where Paul might be hiding. The snake had disappeared, along with four other highborn targets the day after Amos killed his father.
The only explanation was that Paul had figured out Amos the king was dead. Phillip had been in Amos’ room at Paul’s insistence, and when the king didn’t return the next morning, he must have realized his plan to have Amos killed for treason had failed.
Lester, who was an excellent strategist but preferred to observe rather than talk, finally spoke. “He knew there was evidence in your room to incriminate you in some way. Either he broke into your room and found the letters, took a lucky guess, or someone is feeding him information.”
Amos rubbed his forehead, trying to soothe the building ache. “I had the lock on my bedroom door made myself. The onlytwo people with keys are Alice and me. Even my father had to break the door to get in.”
“Is it possible Alice lost her key or someone took it from her room?” Ruth asked.
Alice never used her key, but he doubted she would leave it somewhere it could be stolen unless someone knew exactly where to look. “I sent her to Dragon Village with Jennifer. I’ll write to her and ask if she still has it.”
The thought of someone going through his things scampered across Amos’ skin like a thousand tiny insects. “If he did get his information from the letters in my room, then he has limited information. Only a select few were in my desk, and they didn’t speak of anything he’d care about other than Clover being my mate and living in the Human Kingdom.”
His favorite letters of hers were when she told him about the mundane things that would bore anyone else. Amos craved a glimpse into her day-to-day life that he had never been a part of.
Sariah took a long drink of water, setting the glass down with a sharp thud. “I wrote Clover and told her to be hypervigilant. She’s stronger than Paul and has royal glamour. He’s no threat to her now that he doesn’t have the king’s protection.”
“I asked her to come home,” Amos said, more than a little annoyed he hadn’t heard back. “She might already be in Dragon Village.”
“Clover isn’t coming home yet.” Ruth spoke carefully, like she was handling a wild animal. “She plans to go with Amelia to the Mountain Kingdom so your sister isn’t in a foreign land with strangers. I thought you knew.”
