Are you fucking kidding me—Wait, what?
Dorin shot me a look. Even he didn’t understand where this was going. Viktor was pointing to what looked like a box draped in a heavy tablecloth.
Dread hit before I understood why.
“Stop dragging shit out,” I demanded.
Viktor’s eyes gleamed. “You came looking for someone, didn’t you?”
No.
I gestured to the closest man. He stripped the cloth away in one clean motion.
A steel cage sat beneath it, wheels locked, frame reinforced. In the center was Cezar, trapped in a medieval pillory, wrists and neck secured inside the wooden stocks. Tape hung loose at one corner of his mouth, evidence of a failed attempt to work it free.
My Zar.
I had to look away as the hall recoiled. Gasps rippled through Viktor’s own men. Codrin went white so fast I thought he might pass out. Darius didn’t move at all, his stare fixed on his brother like his brain refused to understand what his eyes were showing him.
Now they could see how much of a monster he truly is.
Cezar looked ruined.
My body wanted to run to him. Every instinct screamed for it. Instead, I forced myself to look at Viktor because as soon as I let myself touch Cezar, I knew nothing else in that room would matter.
My pulse was so loud I couldn’t think. “What do you meanhekilled my father?”
Cezar made a sound from inside the cage. It barely reached me, broken and muffled, but I heard it.
Viktor scoffed. “Ask him.”
My fingers tightened around the dagger Cezar made for me. A piece of him I had carried all the way here.
“Adelina…” Dorin’s voice pulled me from my overwhelming thoughts.
I swallowed down whatever threatened to surface and stepped toward Viktor with the dagger still in hand. I stopped infront of him as he remained on his knees, bloodless arrogance still clinging to him like perfume.
I rested the blade against his throat.He is so weak. His eyes moved to the weapon. I leaned closer, my bloodstained body casting a shadow over him, making sure he heard every word. “I will be your end to everything you hold dear, your power, your life. You have earned this death. So, tell me, Viktor, how does it feel knowing you are going to die?”
He opened his mouth to speak, and I stabbed him in the kidney before he got the chance. He choked on the sound, ugly and wet and beautiful.
I twisted the blade just enough to make him understand I could have done this slowly if I wanted. Part of me did want that. The girl who watched her world burn wanted to take him apart until there was nothing left. I wanted his death to be painful, but I didn’t have all day.
I yanked the weapon free, blood trailing down my wrist. “Killed by the very dagger your disappointment made.”
The fucking irony!
Viktor collapsed onto all fours, fingers scraping uselessly across the floor. He tried to crawl away from his end. I had waited years for this sound. When he rolled onto his side and the blood started to pool around him, the world went quiet—just the soft, steady rush of a life draining from a man already forgotten.
No one moved. It was finally over. Years of revenge ended in less than a minute, and I felt nothing. No peace or joy. No clean freedom dropping into my hands like a gift. Just Cezar behind me, trapped in a cage because of all of this.
Because of me.
Because of what we are.
Because of bloodlines we never asked for.
A noise came from the cage. Metal creaking. A muted struggle followed by the scrape of wood against steel. I turned,anger flaring all over again as Viktor’s final words remained, poisoning everything I had fought for. He was dead at my feet, but all I could see was Cezar standing over my father’s body with blood on his hands.
