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“I will allow you only one failure,” Peter said, his tone laced with warning. “And you already used it on Imara. Fail me again, and I will make sure you’re there to see Tyrell sit on the Mortisian throne, with Mia as his wife.That, Grayson, is a promise.” He turned on his heel and stalked from the room without looking back.
Grayson twisted to face Carter, who watched him with banked wariness. “Mother asked me to give you a gift.”
Rage blasted through him at the mention of the queen. What she’d done to Mia . . . Grayson’s skin felt too tight, and his pulse thudded in his ears.
Carter’s brow furrowed. “Aren’t you going to ask what it is?”
“No. I don’t want it.” He didn’t want anything from his mother. He prayed to the fates he and Mia would be gone before Queen Iris tried to corner him to learn the details of Liam’s death.
He didn’t trust himself to be in the same room with his mother right now.
Carter’s lip curled. “I don’t know what she sees in you. Whatanyof them see. Father, Mother, Peter . . . they look at you, and somehow they don’t see the rabid dog you are. If I could, I would eliminate you.”
Grayson’s brutalized face throbbed. After everything, his temper rode dangerously close to the surface, and the powder Devon had given him swam in his veins, making him feel strangely invulnerable. And that, perhaps, made him reckless.
He took a step forward.
Carter—predictably—shrank back.
When Grayson smiled, he knew it was not a good smile. “Do you ever wonder what they see in you?” he asked.
Carter’s face tightened. “I’m loyal.”
“You’re weak. Pathetic. Malleable. Everyone knows it.”
Carter’s hands fisted at his sides. One forefinger was shorter than the other because Peter had cut off the tip years ago. That was the day Henri had made his rules for the Kaelin brothers: no killing, and no severe maiming. Only scarring was allowed.
“At least I’m reliable,” Carter said. “The others all come to you because they think you’re the strongest of us. But I know that relying on you is a mistake.”
“Why don’t you warn them, then?”
Carter only glowered.
Grayson’s cold smile stretched wider, and he ignored the flash of pain along his jaw. “Ah. Youhavewarned them. They just don’t believe you. Or, more likely, they simply disregard you.”
“I don’t trust you,” Carter said, his voice thin. “You should watch your back.”
He really should. He should let this go. Playing with Carter did nothing—not when he and Mia were leaving.
That didn’t keep him from stepping closer. He didn’t stop until he was right in front of Carter.
To his brother’s credit, he didn’t fall back this time.
Grayson kept his voice low. “We both know you’re too cowardly to ever stick a knife in my back—or even slip some poison in my food. You’re too afraid that the others would find out, and you’d be next.”
Color rose in Carter’s cheeks. “You’re not invincible, Grayson.”
“No. But my weapons are sharper, more direct, and much more deadly than yours. You should remember that.”
His older brother visibly seethed. “One day, the others will see what I do, and you will no longer be useful.”
Grayson stared at him. Saw the mix of hatred and fear in his eyes. “I never wanted to fight,” he said quietly.
Surprise twisted Carter’s face, along with a spark of confusion.
To be honest, the admission had surprised Grayson, too. But he found himself continuing, “I didn’t want to be like any of you. But when I resisted, all of you tortured me. So I learned, and I learned well. I am what you made me. It’s not my fault if you don’t like the nightmare I’ve become.”
Silence stretched. Grayson wasn’t entirely sure what he saw in his brother’s eyes now. It couldn’t be regret. It couldn’t be shame. And that spark—there and gone so fast he barely saw it—could not be longing; a wish that their pasts had been different.
