Noceo was silent a moment. “A iudex would have been boring,” he finally said. “I have no patience for fools making poor decisions and asking me for clemency. I probably would have formed a Guild for weaponry.”
Weapons again. “Does life need to be war, Noceo?”
This time, shock openly blanketed his face. She had used his name for the first time on purpose. “Itiswar.” His gaze didn’t waver. “The powerful win.”
And that’s all you’ve ever wanted to be. “What happens now? You take the throne and sit there until death?”
“I’ll have won. He’ll have nothing. And there’ll be no one above me.” He looked at her like he was saddened that she hadn’t understood. “A complete unfettering.”
Of you, she realized sadly.
A brow went up at her silence. Noceo’s mouth formed a dazzling grin. She hated him. She pitied him. She was so fucking tired. Perhaps Méherre was right, and people didn’t deserve the chance to change. Yet, she wanted to try a last time here.
“You sought me out.” A brilliant,genuinegleam of elation lit his eyes. “You’ve made your decision.”
“I have.” She approached him hidingbeshaz’s bright flare. Her placid mask, the shield that had kept her sane for so many years, kept her serene, armored as she faced him.
Noceo’s lips twitched before a deep laugh left him. “I wish I could see the look on Drenevan’s face when he realizes that I’ve stripped him of everything.”
“You can.”
She struck while his eyes were still narrowing. Gripping his hands, she sent magic beneath his skin to shred every major tendon. He staggered with a gasp of pain, lips parting to issue a Coercive order, when she pulled a blindfold from her pocket and gagged him swiftly.
Knocking him unconscious would only turn him madness-struck. She tripped him to the ground and pinned him,heraralready active on her armilla.
“I’m truly sorry for this,” she eked out between labored breaths. At the end of the day, Probing was a punishment. But it was time to have the truth out in the open.
She gripped his head. The world turned black and morphed into the library of Noceo’s mind.
Alright. She strode quickly through the incorporeal shelves of his memories, trailing her hands over them until she reached theE’s. A cobweb-covered book titledEscapewas the first book there. She frowned at the dog-eared one beside it.Poxtan.
Shelved out of order and beside Escape.She recalled Noceo’s infatuation with Parvine. It must have all gone wrong eleven years ago then. Foreboding moved like an ice cube down her throat. She flipped the book open. And opened her eyes to horror.
She only took one look before spinning around, hands over her mouth. Tears involuntarily sprung to her eyes, a choked sob of disbelief wedging in her throat. She dared turn around again and struggled to hold down her bile.
Parvine’s body lay on the rocky shore of the Chaboras River. Waves roared around her, splattering her with vicious spray. She would never feel it.
Sarai had only seen Parvine once in Noceo’s first memory of meeting Othus. A glossy-haired vivacious girl with friendly eyes. The mutilated body at Clevsin’s feet sitting in a puddle of blood and entrails looked almost nothing like her. Almost.
Kadra’s kills had been emotionless pieces of work designed to satisfy his father and inspire terror with a few knife strokes. This had been personal. The girl was missing her nose. And she was naked.
Clevsin nonchalantly kicked a tooth as one would a pebble. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
A sob several feet away. Sarai turned to find Noceo on his knees, strangled cries tearing from his chest. His face was ravaged, streaked with tears and blood. Clevsin strode to him, a crimson-drenched dagger in hand, and struck the hilt against his son’s head.
“You really thought I wouldn’t know you were trying to fuck some no-name whore?” He hit him again when Noceo sobbed like his heart had broken.
Sarai’s teeth cut into her tongue.
“She wasn’t going to hurt anyone,” Noceo wept. “We just went for a walk. Why would you come and—” He dissolved into a series of curses and screaming.
Clevsin snorted. “Well, she was a terrible fuck. On your feet. Get rid of the body.”
“Die!” Noceo screamed. “DIE! DIE!”
She winced at the brittle roar of power in his voice. It wasn’t enough. Clevsin shrugged it off and raised the dagger again.
She pulled out of the memory, shaking with silent tears.
