Focus. Remember what you are here to do.
Kol clicked his tongue. “I know. I am as distraught by all this as you.” He crossed his arms behind his back, shaking his head. “There is no place in our new world for those who would only wish to destroy it. Julian Laurent’s wife was a loyal follower, a respectable woman, a noble lady, and a loving mother. I feel compelled to exact punishment for her death alone.” His red-gold eyes blazed.
“But that is not all Lord Laurent has done. He engaged in behavior aimed at preventing my return. He acted in direct contravention to his Emperor God. And for that…he must pay the highest price.”
More gasps rippled through the room, colored with a fear that hadn’t been there before. Those at the front of the crowd took a step back, the gathered watchers growing restless and uneasy.
They were normally so willing to accept violence. Thirsted for it, in a way.
This, though, was not some common healer from a crossroad town. This was one of theirown. The highest of them—the head of an exalted house, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.
But power was fleeting. It only lasted until someone with more came along to rip it all away.
That dull thud ached again in Andrian’s mind. There was still something he was forgetting, something he was failing to see?—
You have always wanted vengeance. Now is your time to take it.
His grip on the sword tightened.
Kol’s gaze swept across the crowd. “I know, my people. I know. It is a heavy thing, to see one of our best drop so low. But our new world has no place for those who do not stand in support of it in all matters. Remember: the sun must rise.”
“The sun must rise,” the crowd echoed. Andrian’s rage tightened and curled.
“And as much as some might wish,” Kol said. A tinge of sadness seeped into his voice. “No light can compete with that of the sun.”
The crowd was still uneasy but fell back into silence. Fear and nervousness hung thick in the air. It clogged Andrian’s senses, swirling around him, tugging at his skin.
He shrugged it off, holding his wild focus on Julian Laurent.
He bound you like an animal. Severed you from your magic. Treated you as less than human, when it was you who was always superior to him.
Kol’s gaze burned the side of his face. “Justice must be served. Who better to dispense it than the one hurt by Julian’s betrayals the most?”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
“Andrian Laurent.”
Andrian was silent as a ghostly whisper as he stalked forward, feet finally loosened by the command.
A question itched and scratched at the back of his mind, that same thing he should know.
Should know but didn’t care to. Not now.
The dull thudding faded into oblivion as his anger and hatred swallowed him whole. All those feelings he’d harbored since childhood roared to the surface.
All he’d ever wanted was to impress his father. To prove that he was worthy of love and affection. No matter how hard he’d worked—how much he’d studied, how many blisters and calluses he’d given himself on the training yard—it was never enough.
Hewas never enough.
He was now.
His father had built a monster and trained a beast. But that was the problem with such things: sooner or later, the beast always turned on the master.
Andrian was just furious it had taken him so many years to reach this point. It was a fury that blended with the feeding whispers until all he knew was hate.
He halted before Julian Laurent. The lord—still kneeling—sat back on his heels, tipping his head to meet Andrian’s gaze. Black and golddeistaircuffs were locked around his wrists, snuffing out the flames running through his veins, but his golden eyes carried not a single trace of fear.
Instead, he looked at Andrian with something akin to resigned sadness.
