They dropped like puppets with cut strings, their knees hitting the marble floor in perfect unison. Their eyes were wide, terrified, but their bodies refused to obey anything except Lilivra’s command. They knelt there, frozen, as helpless as the humans Raziel had controlled so many times before.
Mael and Lana.
Mael’s golden eyes were blazing with impotent fury, his massive frame straining against invisible bonds. Lana’s face was a mask of terror, her magenta eyes darting frantically, searching for an escape that didn’t exist. And Zabriel…Zabriel looked like a man who had just watched everything he believed crumble into dust.
It was an expression that seemed perfect to be the last one he ever made, as his head rolled cleanly from his shoulders. Nadi hadn’t even seen Lilivra pull the two silver short swords from her gown.
They were beautiful—slender blades not much longer than daggers made of silvered steel that caught the light and threw it back in a thousand glittering fragments. There were runes carved into the hilts that Nadi recognized from the deepest parts of the Wild. Fae runes. Ancient words of power.
One now dripped blood onto the floor.
“A distraction.” Lilivra nodded with satisfaction. “Now then.” She turned back to Raziel and Nadi, and her smile was warm—almost loving. “Come forward, my child. Mychildren.It is time to claim what is yours.”
“My gifts to you.” Lilivra held them out like offerings. But it wasn’t just the swords she was giving Raziel. “Take the throne that was always meant for you.”
“Raziel—” Nadi reached for him. This felt wrong.
Thiswaswrong.
But the opportunity to kill Mael and Lana?
Raziel looked down at her, his expression a tangled mix of fury, panic, uncertainty,joy,something manic she couldn’t even name. “We have to do this, Nadi. Wehaveto.”
He rolled his shoulder before taking her hand in his and squeezing it gently before pulling her up to her feet. It was his injured arm. Vampire healing. She was jealous of it, honestly. But it wouldn’t get them out of this situation.
Together.
She squeezed his hand back silently.Together.
Raziel stepped forward first. His expression carefully blank as he examined the sword, testing its weight, running his fingers along the flat of the blade.
Nadi followed, her wound still throbbing but her mind strangely clear. The sword felt right in her hand—like it had been made for her. Like it had been waiting for her all this time.
“This is your birthright,” Lilivra said, addressing Raziel. “You were always meant to rule, grandson. Not as a puppet of your mother, not as a rival to your siblings, but as the king of all vampires. The one who tears down the old order and builds something new. Somethingbetter.”
She gestured at the kneeling figures before them. “These two stand in your way. They always have. Mael, with his political games and his dreams of empire. Lana, with her schemes andher cruelty. They have done nothing but hold you back from your true destiny.”
“You want us to execute them,” Nadi said flatly.
“I want him to take his rightful place.” Lilivra’s starlight eyes met hers before she turned her attention back to Raziel. She smiled. “Kill them, and the throne is yours.”
This was wrong.
Very wrong.
But to have their deadliest enemies served up on a silver platter…?
How could they say no?
How could they walk away?
They should.
They absolutely should.
Lilivra was…
This was all too much.
