I hadn’t been enough.
“You know, twin,” Dimi started, leaning over my kneeled form to keepTarriouspressed firmly against my neck. “Aurora saidyou’dgrown soft.Weak, even.”
He let out a menacing chuckle before adding, “But I guess she didn’t see this side of you in all her time spent among thefilthof the South.”
Knowing that if I tried to speak, I wouldlikely shiftthesword,I stayed silent. I was still shaking so hard that I felt the sword against my neck begin to slice through my skin anyway—without Dimitri even needing to press further.
“All that power was wasted on you, though,” he sighed. “We could have been the most powerful of the entire realm—together.”
Suddenly, Dimitri gripped my braided hair and pulled my head backwards, better exposing my throat.
“I… didn’t want it to come to this, you know,” he said, his voice a breath softer before it hardened again. “But nothing can stand in my way. Even you, Viva.”
There.
The twin I knew was still in there, buried deep under layers ofhurt.
And if I died today at his hand, at least I knewI’dgotten to hear a glimpse of him one last time.
I stared up at the still frozen clouds overhead, my body screaming at me to let go—though I still refused.
I’dmeet the Stars with my fists still clenched if I had to.
I would give my people my final moments.
It was all I had left to offer.
And as I felt Dimitri shift his weight slightly,likely readyinghimself to spill my lifeblood, I decided I wasalrightwith that.
Then, my brother’s form went rigid behind me as a voice, one dripping with hatred and fury, spoke slowly from behind him.
“Drop the sword, Dimitri.”
The voice belonged to somebody I would always recognize.
Byn.
ChapterThirty-Nine
The tip of a sword pressed into the space between my wings. Shifting either way would likely cause damage to them, and pushing backwards wasn’t an option. The only way out was forward, but with the hold I had on my twin, it wouldn’t be simple—at least not if I didn’t want to lose the leverage I had over her.
In that split second of hesitation, though, I made a miscalculation.
I had assumed that with Viva holding back the efforts of over a hundred weather wielders,she’dbe too exhausted to fight back. Instead, though,it seemed hearingher husband’s voice sparked life back into her once again as the back of her head connected with my nose in a nastycrunch.
Before the blood could even flow from my broken nose, I flung a tether out toward a shadow near the edge of the tower roof we stood on, trying to avoid falling into the sword at my back. I solidified a connection in a near instant, my body dissipating into shadows as I speared toward the edge. I was intrigued that my nosedidn’tache while within theshadows, buttucked that observation away for another time.
Returning to my physical form, I could feel the blood now gushing from my nose.It fell down my face and clothes, butI didn’t bother trying to stop it before reaching my hands up and swiftly setting it back into place.Ididn’tflinch,didn’twince—I simply stared at those who were on the other side of the roof from me.
King Thorntier—Robyn—had thrown himself before my twin, cupping her face in his hands with a gentleness Iwasn’tsureI’dever seen before. He was speaking low enough that Icouldn’thear him, but I saw her shaking her head in response to whateverhe’dsaid.
Seeing such softness at another male’s hands caused me to look down at my own bloodied ones.
Had I truly been ready to take the life of my sister just a mere moment ago?
The same female who I had cared about more than anybody else—andpossibly stilldid. Would I have been able to do it?
And if so, who—orwhat—did that make me?
