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“Fuck you.” I clenched my teeth. “This isn’t over.”
A soft, bitter laugh echoed down to me. “Oh, but it is. At least for you.”
But even as despair threatened to take hold, a part of me clung to hope. I wouldn’t let this be the end. Not here, not like this. I’d get back to Kael, no matter what.
The twisted delight in my mother’s eyes shone brighter than any torch as she looked down at me, ensnared in her trap. “Impulsive. Weak,” she purred, her voice dripping with condescension. “I never understood what your father saw in you.”
I growled in response, trying to keep my emotions in check, but the mention of my father fanned the flames of my rage. “He saw hope, something can’t understand.”
She chuckled, a rueful sound. “Hope? Hope is what led you here, into my trap. It’s a weakness. Just like he was.”
I tried to lunge at her, but the metal net held fast, my efforts only causing the metal to dig deeper into my flesh. “I’ll kill you for what you did to him.”
She feigned a yawn, looking unimpressed. “Big words from a trapped prince. Tell me, Theron, how do you plan to make me pay? By glaring at me to death?”
As I gritted my teeth, a soft sound echoed in the distance. The faint scuff of footsteps, growing steadily louder. Nyana’s predatory gaze flickered, scanning the room’s shadows.
From the darkest corner, Oz stepped into the light, revealing a crossbow in one hand.
Nyana’s confident smirk wavered. “What are you doing here, boy?”
“Waiting for you, Aunt Nyana.” He motioned down the tunnel where I could just make out a pile of bodies. “I found your guards. Good thing I came prepared.”
With a swift movement, Oz released a bolt, missing her by a foot and forcing her back a step.
“Fool,” she sneered.
His smile was feral in the dark. “I’m a Rorel, remember?” He shot another bolt, forcing her further back into the darkness, away from her escape. “I used to be embarrassed by my House words. ‘A fool’s wrath.’ Who wants to be a fool? I’d secretly repeat the Axidor words, pretending they were my own as a child.” She tried to inch forward and he held his bow higher. “But I understand now. Your soldiers taught me as they pursued me and my sister for weeks through the forest and desert. As I watched Zora starve and weep when she thought I’d fallen asleep.” His expression was harder than I’d ever seen it. “’A fool’s wrath’ doesn’t mean being quick to anger. It means claiming vengeance, no matter what it takes. Any cost, however foolish, you pay it.” Her eyes widened as he took a step closer. “And you’ll know my wrath.”
The next bolt he released wasn’t aimed at Nyana but above her. As it struck, a cascade of weighted nets unfurled, trapping her in their ensnaring embrace.
She thrashed, but the more she struggled, the more entangled she became. “You bastard!”
Oz crouched beside her, eyes growing colder as he watched her struggle with detached interest. “Not a day goes by that my mother doesn’t miss her brother,” he growled. “She weeps for him on every holiday, mourning the life he should have had. You took him from our family.” Oz stood, his face hard as stone. “It’s time to pay for what you’ve done.”
Oz pulled me up from the depths of the trap and helped me out of the metal netting, trying to avoid cutting me as much as possible.
“Thanks, coz.” I checked over my injuries, but none were deep enough to distract me from my mission. It was time to end this.
Nyana’s laughter was grating, echoing ominously around us. Even ensnared, her confidence was unnerving. I watched in horror as she cut through the netting, a narrow bone knife clutched tight in her fist.
She stood tall; her dress tattered, but her regal demeanor untouched. Her cold eyes locked onto mine. “You think you can kill me, your own mother?”
“I think,” I began, drawing my weapon, the blade gleaming in the dim light, “that you stopped being my mother the moment you betrayed my father. When you locked me in the dungeon. When you gave me to Rhazien to torture.” I lunged, Endbringer sliding against her narrow dagger. “You werenevermy mother.“ With every swing of my blade, every lunge and parry was filled with the culmination of years of pent-up anger and heartbreak.
Memories flashed before my eyes—my father’s loving smile, the nights I’d spent yearning for a family torn apart by her treachery. Each memory added weight to my resolve as I struck harder and harder.
Oz watched from the sidelines, ready to intervene if I needed it. Our blades clashed, the sound echoing through the cavernous tunnel. We moved as shadows, dancing in the dim light, each trying to find an opening, a momentary lapse in the other’s defense.
Nyana lunged forward, her blade descending in a vicious arc. I sidestepped, using her momentum against her. With a swift move, I disarmed her, sending her weapon clattering to the ground. She looked at me; her face a mask of shock and realization.
For a moment, our eyes met. There was no love there, only years of pain and betrayal. With a last thrust, I drove my blade through her heart.
She gasped, a look of disbelief on her face. “Theron...” she whispered, blood trickling from her lips. I twisted the blade, shredding her heart. Her body went limp, collapsing to the cold, hard ground.
My stomach lurched at the sight of my former tormentor, fallen before me with limbs askew. It didn’t seem real. Oz came to my side, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“She had to be stopped,” he murmured, his voice filled with a mix of relief and sorrow.
