“I do. Yet you would not give your own brother—yourblood—the simplest courtesy or respect?”
Dorian held up his hands and took a step closer. “Malcolm, you—”
“Don’t!” he roared. “Don’t you fucking move.”
Dorian stilled, catching Charlotte’s gaze once more.
A smile graced her lips, and a thin, watery voice, she said, “One percent, right?”
Dorian instantly recalled their conversation from the night of the battle at Estas’ place.
“I took a risk… You can call it reckless or a death wish or batshit crazy if you want to, but that won’t change how I feel. It won’t change the fact that I’d do it a hundred times over if it gave me even a one percent shot at keeping you safe.”
“Those are impossible odds.”
“One percent is still a chance, Dorian. One I’ll take over the alternative every damn night of the week.”
“What’s that, brother?” Malcolm asked. His eyes were crazed. Gone. The eyes of a feral beast who no longer remembered he’d ever had a soul.
There would be no talking to Malcolm. No convincing him to do the right thing—the humane thing.
He’d lost his humanity long ago.
Dorian let out a deep breath, and with it, the last of his love for his brother.
With one more glance for Charlotte, one more smile, Dorian blurred into them, the bone handle gripped tightly in his fist as the Blade of Azerius sank into his brother’s chest.
Malcolm’s eyes went wide, and in that moment, all the haze, all the insanity cleared.
“Forgive me, brother,” he choked out. “The only… way to… All the… And summon the…” His eyes flickered as Rudy’s had, and then he released her, collapsing to the ground.
Charlotte fell forward into Dorian’s arms, sucking in a strangled breath, the wounds in her back already knitting closed.
Dorian held her upright, damn near choking on his relief. He’d only just looked into her eyes again when he caught the movement behind her.
A white raven perched on an upended cocktail table.
And there at the base, his brother rose from the ground, the blade still protruding from his chest, his eyes the color of midnight oil.
“Who has summoned me, and for what purpose?” the creature formerly known as Malcolm demanded.
Charlotte gasped. “Rogozin… He said something about Azerius… Something about how he kills his brothers like Cain, andthat’swhen he comes. I knew it had something to do with the blade, but I didn’t… Dorian, you’ve…”
Dorian blinked rapidly, still not believing his own eyes.
It wasn’t Malcolm.
It was him.
Azerius.
The demon who’d claimed Charlotte.
Though his eyes were entirely black, Dorian sensed the shift of his gaze to Charlotte.
Dorian released his woman.
Without another thought, he grabbed the demon and blurred him up to the roof, far away from the people he loved.
