Page 4 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

Sorley gasps for air as his eyes fly wide, his face rapidly filling with pain. “Get off me!”

“They were gentle!” My roar mingles with the song I keep singing, forcing his soul to remain in his body even as I consider every way I can break his bones and make him suffer. “Safra wasn’t a threat. Our mother wasn’t a threat.”

“But you are.” Sorley attempts to fight back, managing to get his hands up, his frost power blasting at my chest, strikes so powerful, they would knock any other fae across the room.

The impact jars through me, but Sorley’s frost merely shatters into snow against my body, sparkling in the air around us.

“Do you think I’m stupid, little brother?” Sorley rages up at me, writhing and fighting to get free. “Do you think I can’t see my frost power crushed against yours? I see your strength. I hear your songs. Your oath made me look weak!”

I loom over him. “You are weak.”

With a blast of ice across my brother’s chest, I rip through his tunic, visibly burning his skin. He passes out, allowing me to wrench him upward and drag him over to the silent bodies.

I drop him to the floor, face down, ram my knee into his spine, and wrench his head back, ready for when he comes to a moment later.

“Look at them, Sorley. Two kind souls.” I am quiet now. Dangerously so. “Two women who loved you. Do you feel strong now, brother? Do you feel like a king?”

Sorley spits blood onto the floor. “Get off me. It’s over. Time for you to give up and snap your own neck.”

Still, he believes in his supremacy. Despite his claim that he sees my strength, he’s still certain that he will ultimately prevail.

“‘Give up’?” My voice is calm, but my heartbeats are erratic.

Shattering. Over and over.

Snapping. Over and over.

I have never been heartless. I could never close off my feelings. I felt the world in all its music, dark and light, but I taught myself to find peace in the hum of air across stalactites dripping from frozen trees, the pad of wolf paws on snow, the calm beats of hearts I will hear no more.

And now I’m breaking.

“You took from me all that I ever loved,” I whisper. “I was ready to die for them. I would have died for them. You could have had the throne.”

Sorley’s gray eyes swivel to mine and a bead of sweat forms on his brow. I’m holding him immobilized. The heating element is located nearby, a warmth our mother needed, but it’s not the only reason my brother’s skin is clammy.

For the first time since I burst through the door, he seems to realize…

He is no longer the predator.

My lips twist as I command him, “Take a deep breath. It’s the last you’ll inhale without screaming.”

“No,” he gasps. “You’re weak. Emotional. As fucking soft as Safra was. You won’t⁠—”

His shriek of agony cuts the air.

Without mercy, I break his bones, one after the other, using my Voice, my frost, and my fists, closing my ears to his cries for mercy.

When his body surrenders to death, I sing again, sharply, turning death back into life. Forcing his consciousness into his mangled chest, his damaged mind, where all the pain and agony he deserves awaits him.

I don’t stop until I’m covered in blood and my hair is plastered to my face, and any love and kindness I felt before are gone.

Grabbing my brother by one ankle, I drag his broken body out from the Rose Room, smearing the pathways with blood as I make my way back to the snow-dusted arena, where my father and the crowd of onlookers have remained.

As I move past the soldiers, none of them tries to stop me. Most of them smirk. Not the reception I expected.

When I enter the arena, my father rises to his feet, resplendent in his gleaming, white fur, and extends his arms to me from where he stands on the dais, a welcoming gesture so unlike any he’s ever given me.

Suddenly, it’s sickeningly clear that my brother and I are so slathered in blood, and my hair so closely plastered to my face, a plastering that covers my pointed ears, and the belief that I would never prevail is so strong that even my father mistakes which of us is which.