Triumph.
Regret.
There’s nothing. My only reality is Miro in my arms, gripping my jacket. Holding me as tightly as I hold her.
Resh steps over Father’s body before lowering himself onto one knee before me. His elbow rests on his knee as he lowers his eyes. He’s covered in blood, several slashes across the backs of his hands. “My lord.”
The words settle over me with surprising weight. One of Father’s oldest lieutenants slides his sword back into its sheath. His eyes linger on the body at my feet before he bows his head and lowers himself onto one knee beside Resh. One after another they follow.
My father is dead. The House is mine. There is no victory in that realization.
My eyes sweep the office a second time before another truth lands. Kazren is not here. The coward has run. Of course he has.
He let other males bleed while he hid behind Father’s authority, and when that failed him he slipped away into the House, leaving everyone else to die in his place. He manipulated us both from the shadows,threatened Miro, and turned my own father into the shield he was too weak to be himself.
The anger that settles inside me is colder than anything I carried into this room. He won’t disappear. He won’t outrun me.
“Resh.” He lifts his eyes, his gaze steady. “Seal every exit from this House. Lock down every transport. I don’t care where Kazren’s hiding. Find my brother.”
Chapter Eighteen
ZAVIN
Ilook down at Miro, hating that I need to go so soon after… after…
Her slim fingers wrap around my wrist. “I’m coming with you.”
Every instinct rises in immediate protest.
She can barely keep her injured arm still. Blood stains the front of her shirt. She’s exhausted, bruised and one violent struggle away from collapsing. The only thing I want is to take her somewhere safe, lock the door behind us and make certain no one ever lays another hand on her again.
But there is no safe place.
Not while Kazren is still inside this House.
Only now do I take in the space around us. Father’s body still lies where it fell. Resh already has the surviving enforcers organized. The office is quieter now, but only because the battle has moved elsewhere.
Kazren is running. Every moment I waste here gives him another chance to disappear.
“No.”
The word leaves me without thought, driven by the same instinct that made me throw myself between her and my father. The idea ofletting her out of my sight now is impossible to accept. I’ve only just got her back.
Miro lifts her chin with that same quiet determination that’s carried her through everything this House has thrown at her. “I’m done being the female everyone leaves behind.”
I open my mouth to argue but she speaks before I can.
“Kazren wanted me because he knew you’d come for me. He played us both.” Her grip tightens around my wrist. “I’m not hiding while you finish this.”
Neither of us says what we’re both thinking. The last locked door hadn’t kept her safe. I’d left believing no one could reach her there, and within minutes she’d been dragged from my quarters and taken to my father. The certainty I’d built my life on had failed us both.
“Besides, I know the Warrens. I know which docks operate outside House records, which checkpoints can be bypassed and which routes disappear into the maintenance network. If Kazren’s running, he’ll head for somewhere he thinks no one else knows about, and… I know where those places are.”
I study her for a long moment before looking towards the surviving enforcers. “Clear the room.”
Resh nods once and begins ushering everyone outside. No one questions the order. The heavy doors close behind the last male, leaving Father’s office unnaturally quiet. The metallic scent still hangs thick in the air, but without the shouting and clash of weapons the space feels different now, as though the violence has passed and only the consequences remain.
“How do you know the layout of the Warrens?”
