Darius was staring at Viktor’s corpse. Codrin was staring at Cezar. I moved before either of them could speak, crossing to Darius and lifting the dagger to his throat.
Codrin surged forward as far as my people allowed, hands raised. “No. Please. Don’t. Not him.”
Darius didn’t beg. Good for him, I guess.
“Rose…” The word drifted out weak, barely loud enough for me to hear. A voice starved of humanity. Cezar had managed to tear the tape from his mouth so he could speak.
The safe word he had never used. Not when I hurt him. Not even when fear swallowed him so completely that his mind slipped somewhere I couldn’t reach.
Now.
For his brother.
“Please, Adelina,” he rasped. “No.”
The way he said my name was mesmerizing. Even now, even trapped, even after everything. I looked at him, and all the hatred I held inside of me cracked against the terrible, aching fact that no matter what, I still loved him.
“None of this was my brother’s fault.” Cezar swallowed hard, his neck forced painfully sideways by the pillory. “I killed your father.” The statement was so blunt that it fucking hurt.
Darius stared at me, tense under the knife. Codrin seemed completely stricken, horror carving through his face as his attention bounced between his brother and the cage. Even though I never intended to kill those two. Probably. I moved closer and murmured, “You have no idea what Cezar has endured for you.”
They knew nothing. Codrin may have known fragments, enough to understand Cezar hurt, but not enough to understand the shape of it.
Darius looked at Cezar, his expression turning sickened as the truth sank in. I pulled the blade away.
“Put the brothers in the cellars for now,” I ordered. “Alive.”
My people moved.
Codrin’s eyes stayed on Cezar until he was dragged away. Darius didn’t fight. I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
I turned back to the room.
“Everything that belonged to my parents belongs to me now,” I said. “If you want out, leave. No one will chase you. No one will hunt you. But if you stay, you stay willingly. You give your loyalty to the Crimson Rose Syndicate. To me.”
Everyone stayed where they were.
I walked to the gaudy throne chair sitting against the wall and looked at the men nearest Cezar’s cage. “Find a room and wheel him in there.”
One of them nodded quickly.
“Do not let him out of the pillory.”
Dorin cut a glance in my direction.
“Give him water,” I added, my voice colder than I felt. “Food, if he can manage it. Then send everyone where they need to go. This place has to be empty by tomorrow afternoon.”
The cage started moving, wheels squeaking against the floor. Cezar fought the stocks, trying to follow me despite the way they forced him down. I didn’t look at him for long.
Couldn’t.
Not yet.
Dorin approached once the room began emptying. “What are you going to do?”
I looked at the dagger in my hand, Viktor’s blood glistening along the blade. “Hurt him like I’ve been doing, I suppose.”
The words tasted wrong as soon as they left my mouth.
