Great Divine, Fake Rip is Slade’s damned brother.
They look so much alike. If it weren’t for the slight differences I can pick out like the darker green eyes, the narrower face, the difference in expression, and the lack of an aura, I’d think that he was Slade.
“Stop right there,” Midas orders.
Fake Rip and Digby pause short of the dais, two of the soldiers breaking off to detain them, while more shouts rise from the crowd. The people are still fighting as they’re herded out, but the guards push and shove, lined up like a human wall to force them out.
“Auren, come here right now,” Midas demands, finger pointed to the ground beside him.
“We’re leaving,” I declare, my determination fortified by the weight of my tone. I let my gaze skip to Manu—the queen’s brother and advisor. “You’d be wise to do the same.” A flicker of doubt flashes over his face as he shares a brief look with his husband.
“Auren,” Midas says threateningly.
“Oh, let her go, Tyndall,” Queen Kaila says airily, coming up to stand beside him. “It’s clear that her loyalty lies with Fourth Kingdom. Let her lose her favor. It’s what she deserves.”
Though Kaila’s words are meant to bite, they don’t leave their mark on me. Yes, I want to say. Let me go.
Troubled calculations war on Midas’s face as he attempts to scheme his way out of this.
“I’m done, Midas,” I say quietly. “It’s over.”
The last fragile string that tied me to him was the fact that I thought he’d saved me all those years ago. It was his one redeeming quality. But that too has been snipped away as the lie came to light.
He thinks he can throw me in a cage again and keep me drugged, but Slade will never let that happen, and neither will I.
I’ve put him on the spot now. Forced his hand, as he’s forced mine so many times. He’s out-magicked with Slade, has to keep up appearances with his new bride-to-be, and hopefully, I’ve cast enough doubt in front of the people that Fourth Kingdom won’t suffer for the death of Prince Niven.
It’s all there in my face as I watch Midas. The determination. The refusal. He didn’t overplay his hand, he just didn’t realize that there was another player at the table.
A long, tense moment passes, with only the shuffling sound of feet being funneled through the ballroom archway.
“You want to leave? To be the whore of King Rot?” Midas spits.
The low growl from Slade behind me sends a shiver down my neck.
My teeth grit at that word, but I don’t let it show on my face. “Better the whore to the man at my back than the favored to you.”
Midas moves forward, maybe to try and strangle me where I stand, but Slade steps in front of me so fast he’s just a blur of movement. “You take one more step, and I’ll rot you where you stand.” Tension roils off Slade’s shoulders, billowing black with the blight of his magic, and I know he means every word.
You say the word, and it’s done. I’d end him in a breath, in a room full of people who’d run screaming, with monarchs who’d band together against me. If you wanted me to do it, I would.
Slade’s words ring in my ears as loud as the croon of my creature.
Gently, I reach up and press a hand against his back, the tense muscles bunching beneath my touch. Slade turns to face me, eyes drawn in like shutters. “Don’t,” I whisper. “I won’t let him make you into the villain.”
A gaze as sharp as thorns hooks into me, holds me hostage. “I told you, I’ll be the villain for you.”
Resolve bolsters my spine. “Yes. But so will I.”
Chapter 48
AUREN
Maybe Midas is too bold, but he takes another step so he’s only a few feet away, gaze moving quickly from the last stragglers of the crowd and then back to me.
“You want to leave, Auren?” he asks, his quiet tone belying something sinister that simmers beneath the surface.
“Yes.”
His jaw grinds, mine locks.
Seconds, minutes, hours seem to pass as we stare each other down. The king and the pet, the crime lord and the painted girl, the liar and the fool.
He lifts his chin and jerks it up. “Then go.”
It takes a moment for me to comprehend what he said.
He walks over with hate in his eye, looking us up and down. “Let Ravinger’s pollution leave this kingdom,” he announces with open disdain.
Slade wastes no time turning to me and the others. “Let’s go.”