Like a wolf scenting blood, he circled me. “I have dreamed of all the ways to break you.” Breath seared across my cheek as he crouched low. “Like I said, beastie, we’re just getting started.”
What should have been a laugh came out strangled into coughs. When I caught enough air to shape words, I hissed, “Your worst is my foreplay. Even immortality won’t give you the strength you’re so clearly desperate for.”
His face flushed crimson but he played it off, stepping back, gesturing at me with a cruel sweep of his hand. “Yet here you are, the infamous Viper, her blood dripping from my fingers.”
Everything in me throbbed, but still I raised my chin. “Untie me, then. Let’s see how powerful you feel with your blood undermynails.” My head sagged back against the stone, what little strength my body lent me gone, eyes now begging to close. “You’ll never be more than a small, mortal boy, Reve. No magic will change that.”
His pacing broke its stride, knuckles whitening by his sides. “Shut the fuck up.”
So, that was the crack in him.
“Make me,” I spat, regretting the words instantly.
The lamp swayed, an ecru flicker catching the cut of his grin. “My pleasure.”
No invisible grip this time, no fists. He drew the steel at his hip and my stomach plunged as the dagger glinted, moving across my arm with its flat.
“King Obrann was right,” he whispered. “It’s almost poetic seeing you chained up like this. Fitting, even. Where should we start, beautiful?” The blade circled lazily over the cursed mark written into my shoulder. “Here?” Then down, lower, pressing into the thin fabric covering my chest. “Or here?”
I wanted to sneer, to spit something sharp back. But fear had already gripped its hold on me. He could kill me. And no one would stop him.
Worse, he’d stretch it out, savor every tremor.
And my death would have meant nothing. I had changednothingto help Elva. And that was where the fear was rooted.
Each frantic beat of my heart brushed the steel as the blade hovered just above it. On a last, hopeless breath, I reached for the ghost of the boy I once knew.
“Why are you doing this, Reve?” I let a tear slip, not for him, but for everything that had come before. Everything I’d already lost. It was the only one he’d ever see. “I thought you really did love me. At one point,” the words snagged on my throat, “I thought, maybe, I could’ve loved you too.”
He raised a brow, catching my jaw, thumb skimming my pulse. “Is that what you believe?” His eyes roamed my face, as if searching for truth. Or for the girl he’d already buried.
Lying, I said, “Yes.”
Now, move your head two inches lower please so the angle is perfect to shatteryournose next.
I wrenched free and he let me go, his hand falling to the chair’s arm, metal jingling at his hip as he angled closer.
“The delightful thing about immortality?” A pause as he inhaled. “I can smell the lies you’re choking on.” Godsdamnit. “And loving me isn’t the only one reeking off your skin now,” he murmured. “You know what else our king was right about?” My pulse faltered, but only for a breath. “The truth about those wretched Gods and their sacred chosen bloodlines.”
“Pick a damn side, Reve. You’ve prayed to those Gods your entire life.”
“I did, until Obrann taught me how they didn’t pick the rulers based on destiny or power. But chose the ones that would bend. Ones who shape the kingdomsexactlyhow the Gods wanted.”
I forced my stare up. “He’s wrong.”
He tapped one of the rings on his fingers, the metal humming. “I almost wish he was. The last thing Selvarra needs is Orion Morvath, God of death and war, deciding what’s best for our survival. But Orion isn’t who we should fear, is he?”
I threw my head back. “How should I know?”
“That’s exactly it.” He snapped his fingers. “You shouldn’t. Because all of your life, you’ve been lied to, led astray. Taught that Vivianna, our creator, had our best interests in mind.” He smiled, delighted by the tension he’d unearthed. “Obrann says the Gods feared her the most. That her Vyra—”
“Spare me the sermon,” I grumbled.
He tapped the ring again, teeth grinding together. “Thatherbloodline burned worlds before ever ruling them. So, you see?” He spread his hands in mock sympathy. “Our rulers weren’t chosen because they were worthy. They were chosen because they were obedient. And King Obrann? He’s going to fix the kingdoms.” His breath trembled with a believer’s conviction. “It’s whyhe’ll succeed where they failed. He’s not a rightful heir. Not a chosen ruler. He carries no divine leash. The Gods, they can’t control him. And that makes him the only one fit to free us from damnation.”
I let the lie choke on the air between us as I stared at him, trying to decide whether he was brainwashed or just naturally unhinged.
“You’ll believe anything, won’t you? They’ve twisted your mind six ways to the damn stars.”
