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“Let the dance begin,” Razak muttered, then grinned and started forward.
“Greetings.” The guards dipped their chins. “You are to be searched for concealed weapons. Do you comply?”
Razak spread his arms, like a showman greeting his audience. “Please, go ahead.”
The second guard searched me, missing the pocket full of poison.
“Your belongings will be searched too, but not here.”
“Of course. What fool would bring a weapon into War?” Razak laughed, enjoying himself. He’d smuggled a blade into the Court of Love, but in all likelihood, the guards there had permitted it. He didn’t need a weapon here, not when I served that purpose.
Two aides joined us. They explained that our luggage would be brought along later and offered us a tour, which Razak declined, claiming the journey had been a long one and we’d prefer to rest up before the ceremony. Passing through the enormous wall into War’s palace was like stepping from the wasteland into an oasis. The palace sprawled far and wide, like a whole city within its walls. Terraces and open archways connected multiple levels, with waterfalls flowing between them. Splashes of verdant green drew the eye like emerald gems in a gold crown.
The aides escorted us to our rooms. Mine was connected to Razak’s by way of a private door that he immediately wedged open.
He joined me on the balcony, gazing out at the ocean of amber sand. “Why the sad face?” He smirked and leaned against the balcony rail, folding his arms. “This is a time of celebration. War and Love, united at last. A shame it won’t survive the night.”
Was the poison his only plan, or was there more to his visit he hadn’t told me? He knew I’d told Court of Justice everything about who I was. He wouldn’t trust me with vital information. He’d be plotting another play, another trick. One he’d keep from me.
“That coat looks good on you.” He stepped closer and tucked a loose lock of my hair behind my ear, pretending to care when we both knew he wasn’t capable. “You’re here as my brother, as a representative of the Court of Pain. Be sure to act like it.”
“You mean, I’m to bend whenever you get the urge to fuck someone over?”
He blinked, and I glared back, daring him to strike me. He wanted to. Violence burned in his eyes. But he laughed instead and moved away. I breathed a secret sigh as he plucked an apple from the fruit bowl on the sideboard and crunched into it. “We will rule these worlds, Zayan,” he said around chewing. “Take everything and anything we please. These people are nothing, the courts are nothing. They will learn soon enough how it’s easier not to defy us.”
“‘Us’?” I snorted. “Whatever you’re doing, I don’t want to play any part in it.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing whatyouwant has never mattered.”
“Why am I even here? Why are you here? What is any of this for, Razak?”
He strode over and muscled up against me, driving me backwards into the balcony rail. “You are here so I can fuck you when it’s done. I am here to claim War’s crown. And all of this?” His lips parted, and he tilted his head back, the lust in his eyes not for me but for power. “Dallin wasn’t a god, he was just a man, trying to disrupt the natural order of things.”
Yes, keep him talking…But where his body touched mine, it burned, making my skin crawl. “What natural order?”
“You’ll see, when the crowns are mine.”
“War will never let you get your hands on their crown, and if you think Justice is going to let you within ten lengths of their court, you’re delusional. They know you killed Ines.”
“No, they know she’s missing, and they may suspect my involvement, but they don’tknowI’ve done anything. Justice won’t make a move without evidence. By which time, it will be too late.” He grabbed my jaw. “Have some faith, brother. You’re about to witness the collapse of War. You should be fucking pleased, because after everythingyou’vedone—undermining Arin’s pathetic court—the only thing stopping them from killing you is King Ogden’s pride.”
“I thoughtyoubrought down his court, not me.” I sneered around his grip.
His laugh coiled around me and when he dropped his free hand, he grasped my balls and his wrist nudged my cock—half-hard from temptation. “Be angry, Zayan. I do like you more when you fight.” He pressed in, chest to chest, cheek to cheek. “When it’s done, I’m going to fuck you here, on this balcony.” His lips brushed my ear, setting free a cascade of shivers. “While all of War is buried beneath their endless sands, I’m going to fuck you until you smell like me, until I’m in your head and burned into every inch of your skin. You’ll forget all about your Prince of Love. There will be only me, your god among mortals. And you will fucking worship me, brother.”
He leaned back, his hand now tight but unmoving around my hard dick. It was wrong to want this pain, wasn’t it? Wrong to get hard from his threats?
“Ask me how I know this with certainty,” he said.
“How…?” I whispered.
“Because if you don’t poison the Court of War, then your little Prince of Hearts will be dead by morning.”
I clutched his arm, intent on pushing him off, but he stroked my cock through my trousers, and for a few crucial seconds I froze, didn’t push him away, didn’t even demand he stop. Then he was gone, backing away and laughing that horrible luscious laughter, and I was so goddamned hard I trembled with it. I was wrong, wasn’t I? Broken. Ruined. Tolikewhat he did to me. But it wasn’t Razak I desired, it was… the pain.
“Victory is going to taste so fucking sweet.” He crunched on his apple and sauntered out of sight through the chamber’s connecting doorway.
I turned, gripped the balcony, and gulped air, trying to center myself and stop the trembling.
