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“It doesn’t matter what I say,” Petyr hissed with pain. “My sentence is death either way.”
“Yes, I know. But I like to give everyone a chance for redemption before facing the afterlife. I’d hate to travel to the Realm of the Dead with guilt on my shoulders. Nothing I can do to you here will compare with what you face there. It’s best to clear your conscience.”
Petyr’s laugh was maniacal, but there was no repentance in his words. “She deserved everything she got from me—the human and her whelps that didn’t have an ounce of power. I don’t even think they were mine. You’ll get everything you deserve one day. I curse you with my dying breath, Julian of the Belgae, for your time in power will soon end. I’ll see you in the Realm of the Dead, Archos.”
“Yes, you will,” Julian said.
Petyr’s body fell to the floor like a rag doll. There was a moment of silence before a great whoosh filled the room. Fire engulfed Petyr’s body, and he turned to ashes in front of my eyes.
All I could do was stare in disbelief. I’d been witness to some horrible things in my line of work, but I’d never seen another Drakán with the ability to kill with just a thought. Dragon fire had to come from a dragon’s breath. Didn’t it?
Icy claws of terror scraped at my belly, and I stood up quickly, only thinking of the need to escape. To survive. I couldn’t take my eyes from Petyr’s ashes.
“I’m tired. I think I’ll go to my room now,” I said, backing slowly toward the doors.
“Come now, Rena, surely you’re not so squeamish. I know your father, after all.”
The way he’d said, “your father” was rather snide, and I wondered if there was something personal between Alasdair and Julian of which I wasn’t aware.
“No, I’m not squeamish. I just wasn’t expecting your methods. How do you manifest fire without your dragon form?”
He smiled, but didn’t answer my question. “I don’t delay justice when it is needed. A swift punishment is the best way to keep things in order.”
“Unless he was innocent. But you only asked for his repentance, not if he was actually guilty.”
“Your sense of fair play is very…human,” Julian said with distaste.
I almost made a comment about how human blood also ran through his veins, but I remembered it didn’t. Not really. His mother had been a Descendent from another clan and his father was one of the banished warriors, so Julian had very little human blood in him at all.
“What about the Council? You didn’t ask their permission to kill.”
“I don’t need permission from the Council. As my power has grown, I’ve become my own Council. They can no longer defeat me and they know it.”
Which meant Alasdair had known Julian couldn’t be defeated, and he’d sent me to find him anyway. The evidence was stacking against Julian. He was the Descendent of two different lines of Drakán and his power was unmatched by even the Council. I couldn’t imagine anyone else being more suited to the title of Destroyer.
I could tell he’d chosen that moment to read my mind again because his eyes turned to blue ice, and he stood slowly from his chair. I made a conscious effort not to take a step in retreat, but it was hard. Really hard.
“This is my clan, Rena Drake. And anyone who questions my authority is welcome to challenge me. My word is law and my decisions final.”
“All societies thrive when there is true justice,” I said, much more bravely than I felt. “For you to dole it out as you see fit simply makes you a tyrant, no better than the other Archos who mistreat their own clans.”
“There is a difference in how I provide for my people and how your father abuses your own. Do not get our ways confused because you were witness to the event. I could have tortured him, prolonged his pain. That’s what your father would have done.”
“And he listens no better than you do. No one wishes to live their lives in fear of being condemned to death before they ever have a chance to live. I know the people who live with this fear. And making them live that way is its own cruelty.”
“You know nothing, Enforcer. Petyr brutally murdered his human mate and left their two children to starve—twin boys nearing puberty who have shown great promise in their powers. There were witnesses to her murder, but it doesn’t matter. I am linked to all my people, even the human mates, through a blood oath. I know every thought and deed that crosses their minds. I know when they feel joy. And I know when they suffer. Does a man like Petyr deserve for me to draw out his death just so I can hear his endless excuses? I would never show such weakness.”
His explanation caught me by surprise. When he put things in that perspective I could understand his reasoning. I’d never heard of an Archos tying himself to his people through a blood oath. And I wondered why Alasdair didn’t do it with our people. I wondered if he even knew he could.
“What happens when someone in your clan merely disagrees with your methods or your rules? Is it instant death or are they allowed to voice their opinions? All of our people should have a choice in how they live. And if they make the wrong choice there should be consequences, but the choice should be theirs.”
“But we aren’t people, are we, Rena? We’re monsters with the instincts of an animal, even though we have many human traits. And what you might think are simple choices could possibly affect our entire race. I am their executioner, just as you have come to be mine, but I am also their greatest protector.”
He looked at me with an intensity I couldn’t decipher, as if he wanted me to understand something I wasn’t quite grasping. I couldn’t think of anything to say. It was a rare moment for me to be rendered speechless.
“Xana,” he called out.
Xana appeared once again in the doorway of the dining room in her black leather, only this time there was a whip coiled at her side. She stood silently, waiting for instructions.
