“Foreveryreason!” Noceo roared. “She would have taken my freedom. Told the world about her sister and hunted me for the rest of my life. While she’s alive, the past willalwaysfollow me.” He advanced forward, relishing the way his brother stumbled back. “I don’t kill without cause. But you? Clevsin barely had to instruct you. You will walk away from innocent bodies. You will leave them to fester, because you have his soul. You’ve always been—”
A thunderclap rent the sky accompanied by a male roar of pure fury. Startled, he nearly dropped his weapon. Madness swirled in his brother’s eyes as he raised his good hand. The pine needles still clinging to the trees quivered. Steel-gray clouds seethed above, limned by moonlight.
“I warned you that it would rain.” Drenevan brought down his hand.
Noceo froze.
Lightning arrowed to the earth in thin, terrifying streams, warping into a cage around him. Drenevan bared his teeth, straining as he shaped it.
The blood rushed from Noceo’s head. This was beyond Clevsin’s power. This was beyond anything he had ever seen. The bars crept so close that he screamed at the heat.
“You won’t.” He threw every ounce of power he possessed into the command as the cage closed around him. “Youwon’thurt me.”
“There’s nothing I won’t do.” The quiet, murderous boy he had known was gone. In his place was a commanding madman with lightning at his fingertips. The cage sealed shut around Noceo. It was too late. He had gambled and lost everything.
Drenevan had won.
His brother stepped back.
No.“Drenevan, don’t do this,” Noceo whispered. “I was wrong. Don’t do this,please.”
Silence. Then, another step away.
“Don’t youdare!” Noceo snarled. “Or you’ll pay for this all on your own. You can’t hide what you are, and the world will see it.” He scoured his depleted reserves of magic for some vestige of power. “If the gods exist and are fucking fair, you won’t know anounceof peace for this! You will never thrive! You will never succeed!”
His brother turned and walked away. To a future Noceo would never see.No. Please.
“Don’t leave me! Gods, don’t leave me, Drenevan!” Noceo threw the last of his strength into it. His last arrow. One final compulsion.
Drenevan’s figure vanished into the night.
Alone among the pines, Noceo wept.
It was hours later when Dalvia found him and Bridged him out of the lightning cage. He had time to weave his story then. About how Drenevan had threatened him, dragged him from the manor and intended to use his voice to complete his escape. He’d crafted better lies than this, but his mind had kept veering toward the same horrific conclusion over the hours he had stood in that forest. He couldn’t examine it. It couldn’t be true.
He didn’t know how he returned to his half-burned room, but he was sitting on his bed so it must have happened. The door creaked open. Dalvia’s pale shock of hair floated past the jamb.
“Go the fuck away,traitor,” he hissed. “I’ve already lost everything.”
She watched him solemnly. “You lied.”
“Leave.”
She stumbled back into the doorway but gripped it tight. “You betrayed him,” she noted with uncanny insight. “You could have been free if it weren’t for that.”
Furious, he seized her hands. “Heleftme, but you won’t, will you?” he bit out. “You’ll stay. Youwon’tleave.”
“Noceo, stop!” She paled, wriggling in his grasp, and he ordered her again and again until her eyes glazed and she burst into tears. Then, he let her flee the room.
He raked a hand through his hair. This wasn’t his fault. It couldn’t be. Insensate with pain, he staggered to his feet and faced the mirror. “None of this was your fault,” he whispered to his reflection. “Drenevan abandoned you. Hestolewhat should have been yours. You never attacked that girl or him. You did nothing wrong.Youwere the victim.”
The anguish in his chest eased, so he said it again. Then, again. Memory and torment softened with every repetition until his eyes lost their raw, glassy sheen.
Then, he began to plot his vengeance.
Sarai wrenched herself from the memory, winded by the breadth of agony she had witnessed. Ice, horror, and sheer rage melded in her chest. She allowed them reign. Pulling herself out of Noceo’s head, she gripped him by the collar.
“You absolute fuckingcoward!”
