I didn’t want to tell Kaithar that father and I are more alike than I care to admit. I know him better than anyone else in the empire, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that Valdon Duthriss is always plotting the endgame.
Whatever it is, I will not be used in his machinations.
Never again.
If the North and its people are to survive and prosper, I need to consolidate my power here.
Father is getting old, and sooner or later, my brother will inherit the throne. Ansar must learn to fear me more than he already does, because one day, he will be emperor.
By the time he realizes how prosperous Tyron truly is, he will also understand that these lands are well and truly out of his clutches.
I need to play this game as cunningly as my father would.
There’s only one problem.
Oh, Hecoa damn-it.
“Finley.” Another man speaks. The newcomer. His voice drops to a whisper, but with my enhanced hearing, I can still make out the words clearly. “Why aren’t you inside the castle? What are you doing out here with a Vikurian? And dressed like that. Stupid girl. Didn’t you listen to a single thing I told you?”
“Father…”
My left eyebrow twitches in annoyance. It appears Finley’s father has arrived. This Baron Solisar. I heard him as he arrived at the gates; pompous, arrogant, demanding to see me at once.
How did this man manage to gain an audience with my father? The Emperor of Rahava doesn’t pay much heed to minor nobles.
Surely Kaithar can handle this situation.
Finley’s voice wraps around my awareness, threading through my hunger like finely woven silk. She’s trying to convince Kaithar to allow her to speak with the baron first.
After all, she’s his daughter.
She can be quite the persuasive one, it seems. Even with a hardened soldier like Kaithar.
“Father, listen to me, please.”
But now she’s pleading, and I don’t like the desperation in her voice.
“Quiet.” He’s still whispering. “Go back to your chambers and dress in something more appropriate. Quickly, before I lose patience. It’s because of you that I had to come all the way out here. Because you manipulated my sons into coming after you. From now on, you will shut the hell up and do whatever Archduke Duthriss demands of you.”
My brows draw together in irritation. This idiot dares to presume what I want? He dares to speak to her in that manner?
Arranged or not, she’s my betrothed.
“Watch your tone,” Kaithar growls menacingly.
“Kaithar, please. Don’t. Let me handle this. Father, just listen.” Now there’s steel in her voice. “It’s about Rick.”
“What is it, Finley?” The baron’s tone changes, becoming cold and dangerous. “What about Aderick?”
I hear footsteps; Kaithar stealing across the cold ground. My commander is perceptive. He’ll want to be closer to her, in case the baron tries anything stupid.
Before I realize it, I’m moving, too.
I surprise myself.
I don’t really know what I’m planning to do, but I just don’t like this.
“Father, I beg of you. You mustn’t do anything in haste. Aderick… it isn’t good news. He’s been badly hurt.”
“What?” The baron makes a strange sound; a strangled cry of rage. “This is all because of you…”
Slap.
The sound of an open hand hitting flesh resounds loudly in my ears.
“That’s enough.” Kaithar steps in. There’s a scuffle.
Finley’s father roars as Kaith restrains him. “Get your hands off me, you fucking filthy Vikurian.”
Kaithar just chuckles. He’s got the patience of a saint, really, and he’s well able to handle himself, but still.
Nobody talks to my commander like that.
Nobody gets to treat Finley Solisar like that.
Anger surges through me, so intense it burns white-hot. My head swims. A faint red haze descends across my vision, and I’m overcome with a sudden urge to kill that man.
It’s that old battle-lust feeling, because the shadows of war have never left me.
But there’s something else, too.
A certain madness.
This is the part of me I’ve tried so hard to keep suppressed.
It’s been there since the change; barely understood, always lurking beneath the surface, threatening to strip me of everything that makes me civilized.
He hit her.
More than that… he’s drawn blood.
Her blood.
The scent slices through the air like a finely honed blade, obliterating every single thought in my consciousness. It wraps around my soul and pulls me away from this mundane existence, transcending life and death.
I feel impossibly light on my feet. Power surges through me. I could kill that man with a single hand, wrapping my fingers around his feeble neck, crushing his throat, extinguishing his life in an instant.
The world around me becomes a blur as I move faster than even I thought possible. I fly through the doors; down the corridors, passing a couple of servants who don’t even see me.
All they would feel is a rush of wind; a disturbance in the atmosphere.
I couldn’t care less.
I can’t think straight anymore.
Her blood draws me to her. I just want to devour her, and destroy anything that dares to touch what is mine.
16
FINLEY
Pain shoots through my lower face as my hand flies to my mouth. My fingers come away stained with fresh blood—my blood.
He’s split my lip.
I can’t believe you!
Father’s always been stern and demanding; prone to violence when he’s angry, unpredictable at times. He’s lost his temper with me many times… but he’s never hit me in public.
And now a big Vikurian warrior has him pinned to the ground, his knee pressing into his back, and I can’t stop staring at them, because nobody has ever dared challenge my father like this.
“Get off me, filth,” my father snarls. “You dare treat me this way? Your master’s going to have your head for this.”
Kaithar says nothing; he just chuckles softly, as if this sort of thing is nothing to him.
I should be begging for leniency on behalf of my father, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
For the first time in my life, it feels like someone’s on my side.
Father’s eyes dart back and forth as he searches for his men. “Dobson, Negus, do something about this.”
The Ruen knights stand several feet away, their eyes wide, uncertainty flickering across their grizzled features. The older one, Negus, hesitantly starts to draw his sword.
Kaithar pins the man with a dark stare and raises his eyebrows, as if to say: are you really going to try?
Because even though he’s unarmed, the Vikurian stands a head taller than them, and he radiates raw power from every inch of his body. The speed with which he put father down was astonishing.
The ease with which he keeps him down is terrifying.
And the warrior has the nerve to throw me a good-natured glance.
And then he winks.
Honestly, now.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Finley. I suspect he’ll be here any moment now. I can only apologize that I wasn’t fast enough to stop this idiot from striking you. Took me by surprise, to be honest. You see, I never could have imagined that anyone who calls himself a father could do that to his own child.”