The mutilated portion of my mantle caught the lanternlight.
My pulse stumbled. I stared at the scales Kallias had forged for me. They marked my station. They marked his devotion. And Tallon destroyed it.
Laughter burst from him, bright and vicious. He lunged forward and seized my arm, dragging me from the mattress. “Up. Get dressed.”
I sucked in a gasp as fire exploded along my spine. Darkness crowded my vision.
“Tallon,” Egath snapped, rising. “Allow me. If you wrench her about, she will collapse before dinner.” He crossed the space without waiting for permission.
Cool fingers slid the soiled fabric from my shoulders. His touch carried the chill of river stone. He kept the material clear of my back with careful precision. Shame should have flared. Revulsion should have followed as his gaze tracked my reflection in the mirror, sharp teeth hovering near my shoulder, breath grazing skin.
Nothing surfaced.
Emptiness settled where outrage once lived.
I was numb.
He loosened my belt and let the thin garment pool at my feet. When his hands reached for the white gauze, my eyes flicked toward Tallon.
The prince reclined against the pillows, watching his cousin with a curved smile. Possession radiated from him. Egath wanted me. Wanted my blood. Tallon knew it. He dangled denial like a blade between them. They might have been family—but they definitely weren’t friends.
I doubted the Velli knew the meaning of friendship.
“Lean against the dresser,” Egath murmured near my ear, guiding my palm to the dark wood. The surface felt cool and polished beneath my skin. “Don’t faint on me.”
A low chuckle left Tallon as Egath draped the white fabric over my body. Pristine cloth mocked my bruised cheek, my mottled arms, the crusted cuts circling my wrist and collarbone. Purity against ruin.
When the belt cinched tight, Tallon swung his legs off the bed and lifted the chains. Gold hung in a tangled snarl, twisted by careless hands. A broken sound rattled in my chest before I could stop it. Kallias would never have allowed such neglect. Ceremony mattered to him. The mantle symbolized honor. Tallon reduced it to a laughingstock.
“Give it here.” Egath reached out, but Tallon knocked his hand aside.
“I get to collar her.”
Like I was a prized hound. His property. A trophy. They squabbled over me as though I were livestock at auction.
I held still while Tallon fastened the collar around my throat. Metal kissed skin with a frigid bite. The key dropped against his jacket, hanging in plain view for all to see. With Egath’s reluctant assistance, the chains were sorted and draped along my frame. Scaled pauldrons settled on my shoulders, suspended by delicate strands that looked ready to snap under the faintest pressure.
Cold links dangled against my battered back. Relief and torment tangled together as metal soothed inflamed flesh, then caught against scabs and tugged. Chains circled my hips and fell toward my ankles, engineered to chime with every step, announcing me before I entered a room.
“He won’t be able to resist,” Tallon said, hunger curling through the words.
No admiration. No reverence. Only calculation of how he might harm others.
I gathered the fragments of my heart and what remained of my composure, bracing for whatever performance awaited. It waspainfully obvious that I wouldn’t turn Egath against Tallon. But perhaps I could still poison a king’s favor instead.
“One final touch.” Tallon’s grin widened as he produced a dagger.
My eyes locked onto the naked blade. I was so weak—but I could get it from him. I knew I could. But—then what? A hollow opened inside my chest, threatening to swallow me whole. Egath tracked every motion with predatory focus. Control defined him. I would never slip past that vigilance.
And if, by some miracle, I did?
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Velli crowded this palace and the lands beyond. The Craggs lay somewhere in the distance. Which direction? How far?
Hope withered. Despair settled across my shoulders as Tallon lowered the dagger to my skin.
There was no escape.
Steel pierced my shoulder. I watched without expression as he dragged the edge through flesh.
