Page 27 of Tears of Gold

Smiling, I return his squeeze.

Chapter Eleven

Erritt

Anik saunters into the center of the room and smiles at me, but there’s no merriment in his hard eyes.

Oh fuck!

I drop my plate onto the sideboard and go down on one knee before my older brother. “Your Royal H-Highness.”

Dressed in festival finery, my brother looks every part the crown prince. Besides his royal circlet, gold threads braided through his long hair sparkle with every movement and thick lines of gold paint highlight his bright brown eyes. His wide crimson pants flare at the bottom, the royal nines embroidery matching his red and white tunic, which drips with gold chains and a collar of black opals.

Anik sweeps me up and down with an icy glare. "You look like a commoner. And you've sent away your Elite guard?” He scoffs. “Is this how you represent the crown?"

Since he hasn't permitted me to be at ease, I remain on one knee, sweat breaking out through my hairline at his condemnation. “I came to . . . blend in. I did not plan to . . . v-visit the palace.”

His face curls up like there’s cajiou milk on his tongue instead of words for me. “You even talk like a commoner! You're a disgrace to our name!”

I lower my head but keep watching his feet. “Y-yes, Your High . . . ness.” Qi Lords! My nerves are thickening my tongue worse than ever! Being in Anik's presence always makes me feel pathetic. An uncomfortable, oily sludge oozes through my chest as I consider what’s likely to happen next.

“Y-Yes, Your H-Highness,” he parrots, tilting his head mockingly and sending light scattering from the gold death charms wrapped around both his ears. “Is that all you can say?” He moves toward me, and my pulse races, thumping in my neck.

No, I don’t want to play his games. This is the man who ordered a fellow elemental to kill Ava, and the same one who inadvertently caused my death. My brother killed me. I raise my head to meet his eye.

The moment I do, he seizes my tunic and hauls me up, one hand closing around my neck. “Getting cocky, now?”

Gazing into his quivering face, I realize that while he takes after mother's appearance, I look most like our father, which he no doubt resents. But is that enough to fuel his burning hostility?

“Why do . . . you h-hate me?” I ask softly.

His eyes widen, and he grunts, tightening his fingers in my throat. “You have no idea what you've done, do you? Vanrey was to be my Elite. He is the most promising bodyguard in two generations, and now he's wasted on your wretched ass! I begged Father not to do such a thing, but no; his pathetic baby boy got himself injured and needs a babysitter! You're a waste of air, you limp dick excuse for an elemental!”

I wonder if telling Anik I actually died would make any difference, but he would just say it’s because I’m too weak or he wished I’d stayed that way.

So Vanrey was intended to be Anik's aide? It begins to make sense why he volunteered so quickly to serve me, since I know he bears no love for my brother. Vanrey’s opinion of the crown heir is so low he cherished secret hopes I might become the royal heir instead, a dangerous idea to even think. I squashed that thought right away, of course. However, Vanrey would have known Anik watched him as he went through the Elite schooling, so what would he have experienced, training to serve a man he didn’t care for? A softening sensation blooms in my chest as I consider Vanrey and I have helped each other out.

But none of that changes Anik’s malice. I shift, trying to relieve the pressure on my throat. “And you feel . . . no remorse at all for . . . sending an . . . assassin after me?”

He slaps my face hard enough to make my ears ring, and I lurch sideways, his tight grip the only thing keeping me upright. “Watch who you’re accusing! I did no such thing.”

“Of course . . . not,” I say, letting a hint of sarcasm slip through as hot pain flares across my cheek. I mustn’t be in my right mind speaking back to him, but my thoughts are a mess of worry and frustration. “You only provoked an elemental until he wanted revenge against all Exerins.”

Anik’s rage comes to a boil, searing itself into my awareness through our skin contact. “Perhaps whatever mischief you are getting up to with humans and running around the countryside led to his hatred of you!” He leans his face close to mine, tightening his grip. “Father qi lashed me because of you! Me, the crown prince! Punished because the runt can't hold his own against some commoner!”

I jerk with surprise. Father punished Anik? On my behalf? I cannot recall a single time Anik has been punished—instead everyone around him gets punished for causing the first prince grievance. So why now? Is it because he seriously endangered me or caused an elemental to side with the Davinas? I wish I knew what Father was thinking.

Anik bears down on my essence. “I think it's time to return the favor!” His face twists with a familiar crazed rage, and I clench my hands and squeeze my eyes shut tight to block out the sight. I cannot strike the crown prince of Exerin, no matter what he says to me. I know this rage, and it doesn’t bode well, but I still don’t want to take it in silence.

“I guess Father found Chengan’s sister then.”

Anik yanks his hand back and strikes me so hard I sprawl across the room, slamming my head on the desk leg. I wrap my hands around my skull, trying to escape the ache that blooms instantly.

This fucker!

I swallow down a whimper. It’s wrong of me to resent the Crown heir. His existence represents the might of our glorious empire and the continuation of the Exerin dynasty, but deep in my heart, hidden under layer after layer of careful self-discipline and royal rhetoric, my revulsion simmers.

The fine clothes and symbols of his statehood house a petty, overindulgent man who brutalized my innocence in more ways than one, a man who, despite his powerful qi, has a character I can never respect. And if I can’t revere the infallible right arm of the Exerin royal family, what kind of prince am I?