21 PRISCA
“Cousin,” Zathrian said, that wide grin never leaving his face as he ran his gaze over me. “Was this disguise truly supposed to work?” His gaze drifted to Lorian, and I stepped closer to him, noting the way Lorian’s ears had already begun to turn pointed, the way his cheekbones were beginning to sharpen. But something that might have been surprise flickered across Zathrian’s face when he spotted Kaliera.
“No,” I said. “I merely wanted to visit. And something told me you wouldn’t allow us to stroll through the gates otherwise.”
Eadric snarled. “Kill them.”
Crossbows were suddenly pointed at us from all directions. Lightning cracked the sky as Lorian tensed in response.
My mind suddenly threw me back to that moment outside Lesdryn, when Regner’s men had pointed crossbows of their own at us. Lorian had made them very, very sorry.
Orivan held up a hand. “This is not the way of our people,” he said to Zathrian. “If you were to kill the only other heir to the hybrid throne without a fair fight, things would not go well for you. In fact, I would wager that you would find it very difficult to convince these regiments to march beneath your flag.”
“You are a traitor. And you will lose your head for this,” Eadric vowed. But most of the guards dropped their crossbows and swords at Orivan’s words, many of them staring intently at me. Zathrian’s grin turned tense around the edges.
“Cousin,” I said. “I challenge you.”
“You challenge me?” he laughed. “And am I to believe that the fae bastards next to you won’t become involved the moment it looks like you’re about to die?”
I smiled at him. “Lorian, Marth, Galon,” I said, never taking my eyes off Eadric’s, “this is the man who killed Cavis.”
Three feral snarls sounded behind me. “I challenge you,” they said in unison.
Movement beside me. Lorian was slowly turning his head. Galon rolled his eyes, waving a hand. “Fine.”
Marth had gone still, and his gaze was stuck to Lorian’s.
“He’s mine,” Marth said.
“I don’t think so.”
Eadric’s eyes glittered, as if this was all just too much fun. But tense lines bracketed his eyes as two of the most powerful fae in existence jostled for the pleasure of killing him.
He’d been more than happy to torture me and Cavis when we were chained. When we were imprisoned.
Lorian leaned over and murmured something to Marth. Marth stiffened. But after a long, tense moment, he nodded.
My own gaze slid to the man standing a few footspans behind Eadric. The man who had weakened both Cavis and me until we hadn’t had a chance.
Soltor.
I gave him a slow smile. He attempted to ignore me, his eyes darting away, but the color had drained from his face.
“A true challenge must be fair,” Orivan said, drawing my attention. Several soldiers nodded firmly. “That means no use of your power.” He waved his hand at Lorian and me, then flicked his gaze to Eadric and Soltor.
“Fine,” I said quickly. No one needed to know I currently didn’t have any power available.
Orivan looked at Lorian. Lorian nodded. “I agree.”
Zathrian’s grin widened as he stared at me. “This is truly how you want to die, cousin?”
Lorian angled his head. A predatory gleam entered his eyes, his expression tight with feral wrath. The air around us seemed to go still.
For a long moment, it felt as if he wasn’t human, fae, or hybrid. As if he were some other strange, lethal creature that was longing to be unleashed.
Behind us, Marth let out a low, threatening growl.
My cousin’s smile had disappeared.
Lorian addressed Eadric. “Will you face the repercussions of your actions?”
Eadric sneered at him. “Out of all the fae I’ve killed, and I’ve killed many—” he winked at Marth, who took a step toward him “—your death will be my favorite.”
This man…this man had made me watch while Soltor cut into Cavis. He’d ensured my friend’s last moments were filled with fury and pain and fear.
I wished I could be the one to kill him.
“In that case,” Orivan said. “Step into the arena.” He glanced at me. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he murmured.
I hoped I did too.
Galon leaned close. “I wouldn’t let you do this if I didn’t know you could kill him. And you can. I know you can do this, Pris.”
Galon’s steadfast confidence helped. Blowing out a shaky breath, I nodded. Lorian leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to my temple.
“Remember what I told you when we traveled to the hybrid camp the first time, wildcat.”
“When it comes to your survival, you cheat. You cheat and you lie. You fight dirty. And you do whatever else it takes to stay alive.”
I squared my shoulders. I might not have access to my power, but Zathrian would have nulled it anyway. And this? This was personal.
I could sense Lorian’s fear. Not for himself. For me. But I knew he believed I could do this. And he knew I had to do it. For our people.
“Make them pay,” Marth muttered, slapping Lorian on the back. He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. And then I was following Lorian into the arena.
The word had spread while we were talking. Soldiers had gathered, standing shoulder to shoulder along the outside of the arena. They jostled for space, their eyes wide. I saw several passing each other coin, betting on the outcomes of the challenges. Likely, the odds of me winning weren’t considered high. Good. I hoped whoever bet against Zathrian raked it in after this.
Lorian and Eadric stepped to one side of the arena. Eadric said something I couldn’t catch to Lorian, his voice a low taunt. Lorian just smiled. A pleasant, unconcerned smile.
I shivered.
“You came here to take my army,” Zathrian said when our eyes met once more. He drew his sword.
I said nothing, merely drew my own.
“I was trained from the moment I was born for that throne. I had time magic. I was supposed to be king.”
I watched him. He held his sword loosely, his stance easy. My only chance was to use his confidence against him. “Your parents wanted my grandmother and parents dead so you could rule. And you would have happily allowed such a thing?”
“They had ignored the threat Regner presented for decades,” he hissed, swinging his sword. His arms were thick slabs of muscle, and his taller height would give him more reach. If it came down to pure strength, I was dead.
I was fast, but I was betting he was too. He had decades of training on me. I knew how to fight dirty, but he likely did too.
And if I let myself continue this line of thinking, he would take my head before I got close to killing him.
He was cool. Calm. He watched me with relaxed certainty. I had to shake him up. Unnerve him.
“So, Regner was the threat, and your parents decided to allow him to invade. That sounds like some clever thinking right there.”
He lunged at me, swinging the sword. I whirled away, but the lunge had been a chance for him to study my footwork. And he’d watched closely.
Zathrian sneered at me. “Do you know what happened when my parents realized I wouldn’t be king? That your mother could become pregnant after all? My father almost killed me.”
My breath caught. Did this mean I had another, older sibling?
Zathrian leaped at me, swinging his sword again and again. Across the arena, I heard Lorian let out a low grunt. But I couldn’t afford to glance his way.
“Don’t worry, cousin, this fight for the throne remains between us. That baby died before taking its first breath.”
Something in my chest wrenched, but I shoved the emotion down to address later.
“How could your father have possibly thought it was your fault?” The question was partly to unnerve him, but another part of me simply didn’t understand it.
“He wasn’t like your father. Your father would have loved you if you were completely powerless. Mine wanted to rule our kingdom through me.”
“I’m sorry.”
I…was. It must have been awful, growing up like that. It didn’t justify any of Zathrian’s choices, didn’t give him the right to ally with Regner and attempt to take my crown. But maybe, if not for his father, Zathrian would have been a better man.
His laugh was hollow, and he gave me an incredulous look. “You’re sorry? Just when I finally began to get the elders to listen to me, they learned you were alive. I’d spent my entire life honing my magic and planning for how I would save our people from Regner, and the moment they learned you existed, none of it mattered.”
He attacked again. His sword slammed into mine, the force of it making my arm ache. I couldn’t continue to meet his strikes with my own sword. But I needed a better tactic. He was too strong.
“Do you think I wanted this?” I snapped. “I wanted to give the crown to you the moment I learned it was mine. I never wanted to be queen. All I wanted was family. Even if the elders hadn’t chosen you, I would have supported you. I would have abdicated the moment our people were safe.”
His mouth dropped open, and for a moment, he looked truly stunned. I let out a hoarse, bitter laugh. “But you never came to me. Instead, you killed the man we sent, let Eadric work with Regner to kidnap me, and made sure he killed my friend. And then…then you killed Lorian. Even if I could forgive everything else, I could never forgive that.” Rage curdled in my gut as memories assaulted me. Zathrian, standing on that ship, holding up that fucking mirror. Lorian, shattered to pieces, along with my ability to reason.
Zathrian’s expression hardened. “Then let’s finish this, cousin.”
He struck fast and hard, his sword slashing in a wide arc. But I’d been expecting that. Galon had, after all, prepared me for such attacks over and over, until my response was rote. I leaned backward, the sword whistling above my head. And then I dived low, slashing out at his thigh.
He bellowed a curse. My blade gleamed red with his blood.
“You want to know what I think? I think you’re a coward. A weak-minded brat who could have had family but chose power instead. It didn’t have to end this way. But it will. And Demos and Telean and I will never think of you again.”
Zathrian snarled at me. He struck fast, bringing his sword down on my left. I had no choice but to meet it with my own blade.
But he was strong. So, so strong.
And I dropped my sword.
Fuck.
Zathrian’s eyes lit with triumph. “Do you know what I’m going to do to your brother? I’m going to make your death look peaceful compared to his.”
I laughed at him. The sound was difficult to force out with my lungs frozen, my heart galloping in my chest. “We both know Demos will kill you. All the guards in the world won’t stop my brother from taking your head.”
Slash, slash, slash. Zathrian swept his sword toward me, and I dodged each strike, until it looked like I was running from him. I had a sudden memory of another arena and another man who’d been certain I would never be the hybrid queen.
That time, I’d used my power.
This time, I would prove I didn’t need it.
Sliding to the side, I shoved Zathrian’s sword arm away from me and punched him in the throat. It was a perfect punch, my first two knuckles sinking right into the spot Galon had taught me. My cousin gaped like a fish on land, one of his hands clutching at his neck. But he recovered faster than I’d expected, thrusting out one leg to trip me.
I went down. But I took him with me.
He lost his own sword. Together, we rolled several footspans to the right, almost slamming into Lorian and Eadric.
And Soltor.
The crowd roared. I’d blocked out everything but my cousin, well aware that Lorian could more than handle himself and I was the one who was most likely to die here.
But there had been no chance of Eadric fighting fair. Not against Lorian. And Lorian was sticking to the plan. If he came in and used his power to kill Eadric and Zathrian, there was almost no chance that the hybrids here would follow us.
I couldn’t help but watch as Soltor opened up a deep slice across Lorian’s neck.
And I was suddenly standing in that cell again.
It wasn’t Lorian being sliced to pieces. It was Cavis.
Cavis who was bleeding and dying.
“Prisca!” Lorian roared.
Hands clawing at my throat. Zathrians hands.
I took a frantic gasp of air and swung my elbow, smashing it into his chin. He cursed, and I used his moment of inattention to wiggle free, making it to my knees.
Until he viciously pulled my hair.
“Hair-pulling?” I snarled, kicking out at him like a mule. “Seriously?” He dodged my first kick, but my second caught him in the chest.
There wasn’t much power in it, though. And he’d grabbed my hair again, yanking my head back. If I lived through this, I was cutting it all off.
He leaned over me. His eyes had turned crazed. Time seemed to stop as Zathrian stared down at me, and for one moment, his eyes cleared.
And then they narrowed.
Eadric began to laugh. Soltor was hurting Lorian. I didn’t have to glance to my right to know that much. Lorian would never use his power here after agreeing not to.
But Zathrian glanced to the right. Still holding my hair in his tight fist, ignoring the punch I slammed into his nose, he leaned down, his hand groping for his sword.
Every time I’d escaped certain death, every person I’d killed to save my own life, every near miss and lesson learned…all of them had led up to this.
It was me or him.
I moved the fastest I’d ever moved in my life, sweeping my dagger from its sheath.
And I plunged it into his gut so hard, the cross guard bruised my knuckles.
For a second, our eyes met. And something that might have been betrayal slid through Zathrian’s gaze. But it was immediately followed by a chilling acceptance.
“Do better than me, cousin. Be the ruler I wished I could be. Bring our people home.”
He closed his eyes.
His body began to slump backward, his hand releasing my hair.
I could hear someone screaming in my head. Someone who sounded a lot like my grandmother. The screams were wordless, horrified, enraged.
I made it to my feet. My head spun. And against all of my best interests, against all sense of logic…it was my turn to begin screaming. For a healer.
Distantly, I was aware of several healers rushing toward Zathrian. But I was already turning, desperately looking for…
Lorian was covered in so much blood, it took me a moment to recognize him. The soldiers had stopped cheering at some point, and a hushed silence had claimed the arena.
Soltor opened another deep cut along Lorian’s neck. It poured blood. He didn’t react, but I knew it had to be hurting him. Weakening him.
Eadric laughed. “No longer the Bloodthirsty Prince. Now you’re just bloody.”
He slashed out with his sword. Lorian stepped to the side, the movement casual, inconsequential even. But it was still breathtakingly fast. Fast enough that Eadric stopped laughing.
He waved his hand, and Soltor slashed out at Lorian again.
A cold, unrelenting rage slid through every inch of my body. Freezing my bones. Numbing my skin. Dancing across my nerves.
I picked up one of the knives Eadric had dropped.
And threw it at Soltor.
I had none of Asinia’s power. None of my own. But it was as if the gods themselves guided the blade.
And lodged it straight into Soltor’s neck.
His eyes met mine. “That’s for Cavis,” I said.
Soltor gaped. The light left his eyes. And his body hit the ground.
Something tight in my chest unraveled, and it felt as if I could take a full breath once more.
Lorian looked at me. His wounds were likely agonizing. But he waited.
Yes, I’m fine.
His eyes glittered with joy and relief. And he turned back to Eadric.
Eadric barreled at Lorian, his face a mask of loathing. Lorian stepped to the side again. The movement easy.
And I understood.
He hadn’t finished with Eadric yet because he’d wanted to make an example of him. He’d wanted every hybrid watching to see that even with Soltor cheating, Lorian would refuse to use his own magic.
Because he didn’t need to.
He slashed with his sword, his speed and aim breathtaking as the tip of his sword cut a path across Eadric’s face. Eadric screamed, clutching one hand to his ruined cheek.
“This is also for Cavis.”
As Lorian carved into him, again and again, the way Soltor had cut both Cavis and himself, Eadric’s words played through my head, his voice a low taunt.
“You’re sitting there, half drugged, clamped in fae iron, yet you’re actively planning my murder, aren’t you?”
Lorian sliced Eadric’s arm. Eadric roared and launched himself at him.
“You just don’t know when to yield, do you?”
Lorian smirked, his sword easily parrying Eadric’s. And as he pushed the other man’s sword away, he reversed the movement, carving his blade through Eadric’s thigh.
Eadric howled.
“I willbreak you.”
Lorian gestured for him to attack again. Eadric hesitated. Glancing around at the soldiers watching, he launched at Lorian once more.
Lorian raked his sword along Eadric’s ribs. Another shallow wound. But I knew from experience just how much it would sting.
“I don’t just mean physically. I’ll break your mind. Break your spirit. It’s the least you deserve.”
Lorian glanced at me. Whatever he saw on my face made his expression crease with concern. Eadric took advantage of his distraction and swung his sword, opening a wound of his own along Lorian’s sword arm.
“There’s no limit to the pain you will suffer. The pain your lover will suffer. We will heal you again and again and again, and it will be your mind that breaks before your body. It’s far more enjoyable that way.”
Lorian was moving. I heard Eadric scream. But I was back in that cell. And Eadric was pointing at Cavis.
“Hurt him. Hurt him so badly, she has no choice but to tell us what we want to know.”
“I don’t like when my time is wasted. So that little lie is going to cost you.”
“If you’re going to act like an animal, you’ll be treated like one.”
And then Cavis was moving toward him. His expression peaceful. Filled with acceptance. “Tell them I love them, Prisca.”
I choked on a sob, and it was enough to bring me back to the present. I couldn’t fall apart here. Not in front of the people I was hoping to lead.
So, I raised my head and watched. And slowly, methodically, Lorian took Eadric apart.
Whoever said vengeance didn’t help was lying. Watching Eadric stumble and gasp was delicious. When his eyes widened and he realized he was about to die, something within me began to heal.
It wouldn’t bring Cavis back. But all of us could look his daughter in the eye and tell her the men who had killed her father were dead. And that they had suffered.
But Lorian’s expression had turned cold. Remote. Something within me ached. “Finish him, Lorian,” I said.
His blade was a blur. And Eadric’s head rolled from his body.
Exhausted, I raised my gaze.
“As you wish, Your Majesty.” Lorian’s voice echoed over the crowd.
He dropped to one knee, bowing his head.
And so did everyone else.