“What happened?”
“Arienna made herself the face of the coup.”
I stop. “What?”
“I have already informed Evangeline.”
My pace quickens, each step a growing urge to get to my wife. “No, what do you mean she’s the face of the coup?”
“She sat Prince Nicholas Morningstar on her left. Then she laughed while she butcheredWarress Stephanie Goav Orliaina Du Staabmai, asserted her dominance by vomiting directly into her mouth, then ripped out her intestines and shook them in the air. Afterwards, she looked at the prince, slid her finger across her throat, and said, ‘You’re next.’”
My blood runs cold at the thought of her finally breaking. “Where is she?”
“Your chambers.”
Spreading my wings, I take to the air. Within a minute, I’m outside my door. Marabel opens it right before I reach her, so I don’t even have to break stride. Echo disappears as the door closes behind me.
“You were supposed to protect her,” I snap at Jace. I toss him Evangeline’s leg as he rises from the sofa. My eyes flick to the bathroom at the sound of the shower running full blast. I start to move towards it, my pace quick and verging on frantic.
“She’s fine,” he says. “She doesn’t have a scratch on her.”
“You saw how she was after Lief! She isn’t fine.” My heart hammering, I slip into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. The stall looks empty at first glance, but then I see her crouching down rather than standing tall. Stripping as I make my way to her, I try desperately to think of what to say. But nothing I said to my sister made a difference to her mental health.
Each death she meted out killed her bit by bit.
Until she begged me to end her misery.
I wasn’t enough for her to want to carry on living.
“Arienna?” I rasp as I open the glass door, bracing myself for the dead look in her eyes when she lifts her head.
But she doesn’t raise her head as I enter. She flings her entire body at me instead. I wrap my arms around her and lift her up. Her chastity belt presses into my stomach as her legs go around my waist. At the feel of it, I crumble.
She still wants me.
Closing my eyes, I sag to the ground with her on my lap, the hot spray cocooning us from the rest of the world. “Talk to me,” I whisper against her hair.
“What?”
“Talk to me.”
“Taco…?” She lifts her head to look at me. “You want tacos?” Her eyes widen. “Of course! You haven’t eaten.”
“No. What? No.” Realising she can’t hear me well over the spray, I say a bit louder, “Arienna,talkto me.”
“But I am talking.”
Despite myself, I feel relief. She might be trembling and on the verge of panic, but she’s not broken. Yet.
But how long until my world kills her?
“Tell me why you stabbed Stephanie,” I press.
Trembling, she pushes her head into my shoulder. “She kink-shamed Nicholas. In public. He looked so sad, and Jace couldn’t stab her even though he wanted to. And I knew you would’ve done it if you were there, but you weren’t there. And I wasn’t there for Fabia, so I wanted to be there for Nicholas.” She looks up at me.
“But I didn’t mean to stab her so much. I swear. I only meant to do it once, like you did with Lief, but she kept moving. She movedsomuch. I couldn’t get her to stay still so I could line the knife back up with the original hole. She was bleeding out. I was trying to help her. But she wouldn’t stop moving. Or screaming.”
My heart twists at the pain on her face. The horror in her eyes. “She’s still screaming,” she whispers.
