Chapter 72 #2
Cezar made a sound from inside the cage. It barely reached me, broken and muffled, but I heard it.
Viktor scoffed. “Ask him.”
My fingers tightened around the dagger Cezar made for me. A piece of him I had carried all the way here.
“Adelina…” Dorin’s voice pulled me from my overwhelming thoughts.
I swallowed down whatever threatened to surface and stepped toward Viktor with the dagger still in hand. I stopped in front of him as he remained on his knees, bloodless arrogance still clinging to him like perfume.
I rested the blade against his throat. He is so weak.
His eyes moved to the weapon. I leaned closer, my bloodstained body casting a shadow over him, making sure he heard every word.
“I will be your end to everything you hold dear, your power, your life. You have earned this death. So, tell me, Viktor, how does it feel knowing you are going to die?”
He opened his mouth to speak, and I stabbed him in the kidney before he got the chance. He choked on the sound, ugly and wet and beautiful.
I twisted the blade just enough to make him understand I could have done this slowly if I wanted. Part of me did want that. The girl who watched her world burn wanted to take him apart until there was nothing left. I wanted his death to be painful, but I didn’t have all day.
I yanked the weapon free, blood trailing down my wrist. “Killed by the very dagger your disappointment made.”
The fucking irony!
Viktor collapsed onto all fours, fingers scraping uselessly across the floor.
He tried to crawl away from his end. I had waited years for this sound.
When he rolled onto his side and the blood started to pool around him, the world went quiet—just the soft, steady rush of a life draining from a man already forgotten.
No one moved. It was finally over. Years of revenge ended in less than a minute, and I felt nothing. No peace or joy. No clean freedom dropping into my hands like a gift. Just Cezar behind me, trapped in a cage because of all of this.
Because of me.
Because of what we are.
Because of bloodlines we never asked for.
A noise came from the cage. Metal creaking.
A muted struggle followed by the scrape of wood against steel.
I turned, anger flaring all over again as Viktor’s final words remained, poisoning everything I had fought for.
He was dead at my feet, but all I could see was Cezar standing over my father’s body with blood on his hands.
Darius was staring at Viktor’s corpse. Codrin was staring at Cezar. I moved before either of them could speak, crossing to Darius and lifting the dagger to his throat.
Codrin surged forward as far as my people allowed, hands raised. “No. Please. Don’t. Not him.”
Darius didn’t beg. Good for him, I guess.
“Rose…” The word drifted out weak, barely loud enough for me to hear. A voice starved of humanity. Cezar had managed to tear the tape from his mouth so he could speak.
The safe word he had never used. Not when I hurt him. Not even when fear swallowed him so completely that his mind slipped somewhere I couldn’t reach.
Now.
For his brother.
“Please, Adelina,” he rasped. “No.”
The way he said my name was mesmerizing. Even now, even trapped, even after everything. I looked at him, and all the hatred I held inside of me cracked against the terrible, aching fact that no matter what, I still loved him.
“None of this was my brother’s fault.” Cezar swallowed hard, his neck forced painfully sideways by the pillory. “I killed your father.” The statement was so blunt that it fucking hurt.
Darius stared at me, tense under the knife.
Codrin seemed completely stricken, horror carving through his face as his attention bounced between his brother and the cage.
Even though I never intended to kill those two.
Probably. I moved closer and murmured, “You have no idea what Cezar has endured for you.”
They knew nothing. Codrin may have known fragments, enough to understand Cezar hurt, but not enough to understand the shape of it.
Darius looked at Cezar, his expression turning sickened as the truth sank in. I pulled the blade away.
“Put the brothers in the cellars for now,” I ordered. “Alive.”
My people moved.
Codrin’s eyes stayed on Cezar until he was dragged away. Darius didn’t fight. I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
I turned back to the room.
“Everything that belonged to my parents belongs to me now,” I said. “If you want out, leave. No one will chase you. No one will hunt you. But if you stay, you stay willingly. You give your loyalty to the Crimson Rose Syndicate. To me.”
Everyone stayed where they were.
I walked to the gaudy throne chair sitting against the wall and looked at the men nearest Cezar’s cage. “Find a room and wheel him in there.”
One of them nodded quickly.
“Do not let him out of the pillory.”
Dorin cut a glance in my direction.
“Give him water,” I added, my voice colder than I felt. “Food, if he can manage it. Then send everyone where they need to go. This place has to be empty by tomorrow afternoon.”
The cage started moving, wheels squeaking against the floor. Cezar fought the stocks, trying to follow me despite the way they forced him down. I didn’t look at him for long.
Couldn’t.
Not yet.
Dorin approached once the room began emptying. “What are you going to do?”
I looked at the dagger in my hand, Viktor’s blood glistening along the blade. “Hurt him like I’ve been doing, I suppose.”
The words tasted wrong as soon as they left my mouth.
Dorin looked concerned, though he was smart enough not to push too hard. Part of me knew something should have changed after tonight. That seeing Cezar should have felt different now. Instead, all I saw was the man I loved suffering because of me.
Why the fuck did it have to be Cezar?
For my entire life, revenge had been the thing keeping me alive. Viktor’s death had been the horizon. The throne was the destination. Everyone left behind with a rose on it led me here. And now my enemy was dead, and everything was mine again, but it remained unfinished.
I turned to leave when Dorin said. “Adelina… you did well. But what if they hadn’t listened?”
My pride warmed at the praise. I didn’t bother hiding it.
“I would’ve burned the kingdom to the ground,” I smiled. “If it wasn’t mine, it wouldn’t be anyone’s. It would have died, just like my parents did.” I walked over to him and gave him a quick hug as he watched me carefully.
“Still might,” I admitted.
Then I looked toward the hallway where they had taken Cezar down. And for the first time in my life, revenge was no longer the most important thing. I had gotten everything I fought for, and none of it mattered as much as he did.