His silence was all the confirmation I needed. Dorin understood what I meant. My entire life, my name had felt tainted. Something hidden and dangerous. Yet Cezar said it as if it belonged to someone worth loving.
Dorin’s hand settled against the back of my head carefully. “What’s he going to do?”
“He’s going to get himself killed.” The words came out panicked. “He is going after Viktor.”
“All right.” He grabbed my face, halting my spiral. “Breathe.”
I clung to his wrists.
“We were almost ready to take your throne back anyway,” he continued. “Maybe the priority has changed a little.”
I huffed out a laugh. His thumb brushed away another tear before he looked at me more seriously.
“You love him?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without thought. Not my throne. Not revenge. Not Viktor. Cezar. Just Cezar. Dorin nodded once like that confirmed everything he needed to know.
“Okay then.” He gave me a firm squeeze. “Let’s go save your man.”
A hint of mischief surfaced.
“And bonus if Viktor dies in the process.”
CEZAR
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
Every step in that direction felt like a march to my own execution. If my brothers weren’t inside, I would’ve torched the whole fucking house—just like he torched my life. And hers.
The night he took something I could never get back.
The night he made me into this.
The smell of alcohol hung on me like gasoline. If I was going to do this, why the hell would I be sober? Still, I wasn’t going to let him rob me of my death—that was hers to claim. My Petal’s. When she knew the truth, I would meet my end.
But first, he had to.
The guards stiffened when they saw me, but none of them mattered. The only thing in the world that made sense was killing him. The only clear thought I had was murder.
Fueled by liquid courage and twenty-something years of hate, I slammed the door open so hard the hinges screamed.
“VIKTOR!”
He stormed down the stairs, already tense. Maybe something else had gone wrong while I was gone.
Darius and Codrin crept around the corner, their attention fixed on me, the same way people watched a feral dog about to bite.
“You are such a fucking piece of shit.” I sneered, my voice splintering beneath the weight of every year I’d swallowed my hate. “I hate you. I hate everything about you. You are nothing, Viktor. Just another dead man waiting to be added to my list.”
I took another step, teeth bared and rage demanding blood. “And when you die, you’ll die alone. No one will mourn you. No one will speak your name again. No one will give a single fuck. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll erase every trace of you from this world until you’re nothing but a warning about what a father should never fucking be.”
Viktor’s gaze snagged on the gaping line of my shirt where a button had popped. For a flicker, his eyes narrowed to the carved rose blooming raw across my chest.
“What the hell is this?” His tone was dangerous. “Do you mock me with this?”
I scoffed, spreading my arms wide so my brothers could see too—the bloom permanent on my skin. “Come on. You say I never take anything seriously, that I need to be more committed. Well, look at me now.”
