Page 109 of His Realm

Balon led a charge into the room, followed by his loyal guards, and I had to wonder who was supposed to have secured Decimus’s second-born son and his men after they’d tried to kill me and the others in the stairwell. But as I knew firsthand, there were secret corridors in the walls of the castle, so it was no surprise they had escaped.

People ran into me, Isabella, and Keres, separating us all, most importantly creating a chasm between me and the queen, jostling us off in different directions.

There was fighting everywhere, and when I checked on Varic, I saw that he didn’t shift to fight Ødger, instead using only his sword, his razor-sharp, masterfully made katana, feinting left and right as he was charged and slashed at, none of the strikes reaching him.

Hadrian was cleaving through the men who’d come behind Balon, and it struck me as sad because they probably thought they were defending Ophir from insurrection, while Hadrian, of course, was there to protect the prince. If only Varic had been able to speak to everyone before the attack, how many lives might have been spared?

I lost sight of Varic as I was bumped and knocked down, nearly trampled, and I knew why Zev and my guards weren’t there to help me, to watch over me—they were engaged, as was everyone, keeping at bay the horde of people who had entered the hall. So many had followed Balon, and Hadrian was now in the thick of it with Zev at his side.

People were screaming, fighting, running, and looking around, everywhere for the threat, finally, I saw Decimus in the gallery above us, where people must have sat to listen to him speak centuries ago. I jolted when I realized he was holding an enormous broadsword, because that made no sense. He wouldn’t even be able to lift a weapon that massive. He was weak, fragile, barely clinging to life, rotting from the inside out.

But as I watched, I saw him tear the bandages away from his face and all at once, in that moment, I understood how thoroughly I’d been played. The man beneath the blood-smeared-and -crusted wrapping was completely unmarked by any but age. He was just as handsome and virile as the king, looking, I was certain, exactly as he had the last time Varic had laid eyes on him.

He’d poisoned his sons but not himself and that betrayal was far more monstrous than I’d originally thought. He was a horrible man, and an abomination of a father.

Leaping from the gallery, he landed solidly on straight legs and began his advance—not on me, he didn’t spare me even a glance—toward Isabella.

I was hit then, and getting up was hard. I was far more tired than I thought, and something else, something slowing me down, making me feel sluggish, and even more, the ache of the past few days, deep in my bones, that I couldn’t put a name to but that I remembered from being in combat. That hopelessness of loss. But it wasn’t my life at stake, it was one far more precious to me. The queen was in danger.

She was powerful, and I knew that, but not like this. Not against brute strength. She was a chess player, a master of plotting and intrigue, and her grounding magic and endless compassion had served her well over the centuries. But the man coming for her was going to cut her down with raw, physical power and steel. She was at his mercy and I could not allow that.

Someone collided with me then, and I was knocked hard to the floor, the stampede of people nearly crushing me before I could get back on my feet. It was hard to get through the sea of bodies, like moving against a dangerous undercurrent trying to grab hold and pull you down.

I could see Isabella moving back, not wanting to hurt anyone, and when I looked for Decimus, I saw the anger on his face, the frustration as he tried to shove people out of his way. He couldn’t get to her any faster than I could, which was definitely good for me. I resorted to moving people with my shoulders like a battering ram against a wall. When I finally burst free into the pocket of space she was in, I rushed over to grab her arm, intending to drag her after me to safety. Even though retreating into the castle was risky, it was better than facing Decimus alone, just the two of us. Glancing around though, I quickly saw that there was nowhere to go as more soldiers joined those already fighting, surging in from every archway leading into the cavernous throne room.

“The queen is mine for the killing!” Decimus roared, finally announcing his intentions for the world to hear as his loyal soldiers reached him and began moving people aside to clear the way to us.

I had nothing, no weapon, all I could do was shield her with my body. I called on my barrier but it was as useless as it had been that night when I tried to save Nerilla.

“You will not touch the queen!” I yelled at him, glancing behind me to find only soldiers of Ophir who were not attacking us solely on Decimus’s word.

His laughter made my blood run cold, but I stood my ground as he closed the space between us and raised his sword for the killing stroke that would take both my life and Isabella’s.

I was hit hard, thrown back as the edge of his blade caught Zev’s who had shoved me out of the way to intercept the blow. Isabella and I both went down, but I recovered quickly and got her to her feet.

“Of course,” Decimus announced with a sneer of contempt as he took a step back, his lips receding from his teeth in some twisted semblance of a smile even as his eyes showed nothing but seething fury and hatred. “My traitorous son.”

“I’m no son of yours,” Zev spat as he readied his stance.

“No, you are not,” Decimus agreed, and his voice was icy. “You have the queen’s stench all over you, boy.”

I wouldn’t have thought the katana would hold against the broadsword but it did as the two powerful men fought. There was pushing around me and Isabella and I lost sight of them for moments before Brenna was at my side, then Eris, and finally Kamari and Sibel. Of course they had followed Zev, they always did.

The soldiers of Ophir attacked, and my guards defended us as I looked for somewhere to go but found nowhere to run. Returning my attention to Zev, I saw the wide swing of Decimus’s sword and knew he meant to sever his head from his shoulders, but instead, he was hit from behind by Sibel. Her weight threw off Decimus’s balance, so the blow that was intended to be deadly, removed my champion’s arm instead.

Decimus howled in anger, turned fast, like the strike of a coiled snake, an instinctive move he must have used on the battlefield a thousand times, and sliced off Sibel’s head as cleanly as he had Zev’s limb.

My vision tunneled down to my dead friend and I screamed. I’d lost people dear to me before, the same as now, in front of me where I was powerless to do anything, and it gripped me just as it had then like a punch in the gut that took every drop of air I had.

“Jason, we have to get to Zev,” Isabella shouted, and going toward Decimus seemed wrong but there was no other choice.

Snapped from my horror, I made a hole in the crowd that Isabella followed me through, sliding in his blood when we reached him. I pulled off my belt and used it quickly as a tourniquet, pulling it tight as Isabella began quickly chanting over him, placing her hands on him, which instantly stopped his convulsing.

Decimus came for us, but Kamari was there, ready to defend, a dagger in each hand, stabbing his legs and stomach, making him bleed just as Eris, similarly equipped, leaped over us and pierced him in the chest hard, causing him to stagger back.

My attention turned to Zev, making sure the tourniquet was tight enough to control the bleeding, when suddenly there was a cry like an animal dying before I looked up and found Brenna standing over me a moment before Eris dropped to the floor in front of us cleaved in half.

I hadn’t seen Decimus slash at her, too focused on Zev, but I saw the end he’d made for her. My friend, my companion, was dead and bleeding. Brenna lowered into a crouch to charge but I grabbed her arm. When she turned to me, her eyes were wild with pain and fear.