Nadi looked at Raziel. He was staring at his siblings—at Mael’s furious eyes, at Lana’s terrified ones—with an expression she couldn’t quite read. Was he actually considering it? After everything they had done? After the coffin and the drowning and the endless betrayals?
Of course he was.
This was what he had wanted from the beginning. What Lilivra had seeded in his mind as a child and cultivated through decades of suffering. The throne. The power. The chance to tear it all down and start again.
“Raziel,” Mael said, his voice strained against Lilivra’s control. “Brother—you can’t—this isn’t you?—”
“Isn’t it?” Raziel walked forward, the silver sword gleaming in his hand. “This isexactlywho I am, Mael. This is who you and Mother and everyone else in this miserable family made me. A monster. A killer. The mad dog who delights in murder.” His lipscurved in a smile that was all teeth. “You should have just settled for killing me, dear brother. You really should have.”
He stopped in front of Mael, looking down at his golden-eyed brother with something that might have been contempt—or might have been pity.
“Any last words?”
Mael’s jaw worked, fighting against the compulsion that held him silent. When he finally spoke, his voice was a growl of pure hatred. “I should have cut out your heart when we were children. Mother always said you were broken. She was right.”
“Yes,” Raziel agreed. “She was.”
The sword moved in a silver arc. Mael’s head left his shoulders in a spray of dark blood, his expression frozen in that final moment of hatred. His massive body slumped forward, hitting the marble floor with a sound that seemed to echo forever.
Lana screamed—or tried to. The sound came out strangled, choked by Lilivra’s control over her throat. Tears were streaming down her face now, ruining her perfect makeup, making her look young and vulnerable in a way Nadi had never seen before.
“Please,” Lana gasped. “Raziel—please, my brother, my dear sweet brother—I never wanted—I was just trying to survive—youknowwhat she was like—what Mother expected of us?—”
Raziel’s voice was flat. “You helped Mael put me in that coffin. Youlaughed, Lana. I remember. You laughed as they sealed the lid. You laughed when I was in the bottom of that fountain.”
“I was scared! I was—I didn’t have a choice?—”
“There’s always a choice.” Raziel looked at Nadi, and something passed between them—an understanding that needed no words. “Do you want to do this one?”
Nadi stepped forward, the silver sword balanced perfectly in her grip. She looked down at Lana—at the woman who hadtraded in flesh, who had helped orchestrate so much suffering, who had smiled and schemed while people like Nadi’s family were hunted like animals.
“You were going to make an example of me,” Nadi said quietly. “Execute me publicly and use my death as a symbol.”
“Please—” Lana’s voice broke. “I can be useful—I know things—I can help you rule?—”
“No,” Nadi said. “You can’t.”
The blade sang as it cut through the air. Lana’s head joined her brother’s on the floor, her magenta eyes still wide with terror, her perfect lips still forming a plea that would never be finished.
Nadi stared down at the severed heads of Mael and Lana. And expected to feel something. Anything. Triumph. Victory. Relief.
Nothing.
Not even disappointment.
Raziel had a blank expression on his face. Likely thinking the same thing, if Nadi had to guess.
Maybe they really had nothing left in their black hearts to feel. Maybe they had just killed one too many people in their lives for these to matter.
“Good.” Lilivra drew their attention back to her. “Now that the ugly family situation has been dealt with, there is one more matter to address, Raziel, before you can ascend to your newfound glory.”
There it was. The other shoe was about to drop. Raziel stepped just slightly closer to Nadi. “Which is what, exactly?”
“Oh, sweet boy.” Lilivra’s words were soft with a gentle sweetness that did nothing to betray the nature of what was going on around them. “I’m sure you know what must be done.”
Raziel went rigid in front of her. “Spell it out for me anyway.”
Lilivra shrugged and smiled. “Now, of course, Nadi must die.”
