There was no doubt, not anymore. We could take him down with zero hesitancy. Destroy the realm and build anew.
Now we just had to show Eve that we weren’t like him because, at the end of the day and despite everything, we wanted—needed—her to stay.
I trusted Oros to show her what she needed to choose us.
Father calling me was just a consequence of what we had done. He did this when we were younger, trying desperately to drive a wedge between me and Oros. He had caught on quickly that I was the more impulsive one. Oros could never be swayed. She would come in stone-faced and cold.
I am the weak link.
Eve tried to convince me I wasn’t, but there was no need to lie. I knew in my heart that Oros was better than me. More efficient. Calmer.
Theselittle meetingswith my fatherwere just proof of that. I would be a liar if I said his tactics didn’t work, especially when I was a young and impressionable demon. But that all changed after I found Mother. Her blank stare and gaping mouth made up an image that would haunt me forever.
I knew Father was the one behind it all. I just didn’t know why.
“Do you remember the uprising that happened thirty years ago in that little town near our border?” Father asked as he sat down across from me, crossing one leg over the other as he awaited my answer.
“Pagnella,” I murmured, dropping my facade.
“Right,” he said with a smile. “They didn’t make it very far. I wouldn’t even call it anuprising. Their leader was beheaded the moment he stepped foot outside their border.”
“The rest beheaded a few days after, with demons from all realms called to watch you take out your revenge on them,” I added coldly. It had been brutal, and I had hated every minute of it. Mother had tried to stop him, but Father had ignored her.
“Revenge? I don’t have a need for revenge. That’s for theweak. As a king, these… displays of violence arereminders. Examples for all those under my rule. Do you understand?”
I leaned forward, my claws digging into the chair.Reminders.This felt like more than the little meetings we had when I was younger. This one feltserious.
“Are you threatening me?”
His body shook with laughter.
“Not at all,” he said. “I’m just wondering how many deaths will be on your hands if you continue peddling the lie that I killed your mother.”
“Is it really a li?—”
“They will revolt, you know? They loved her. And as king, I will have no choice but to make anexampleout of them.”
“Yet yourexamplesfall short when it comes to people you’re close to. Like Zag.”
Father tilted his head to the side, appearing to be deep in thought.
“I wonder who would be the first to step up once you spouted your lie. A mere cook? A maid? A realm ruler?—”
“What are you getting at?—”
“Or maybe even your own sister. She seems to hold nothing back, and I have evidence that it was her who distributed those flyers.”
His words had me freezing.He wouldn’t.But the seriousness in his eyes told me he would.
“Maybe that human plaything of yours.”
“What do you want?” I all but spat out.
“For you to know your place,” he growled, lurching forward and grabbing my chin with his clawed hands. “Knock it off and take the money I give you, the luxuries, and do something else. Is that really so hard to do?”
His threat was clear and had me frozen to my spot. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think about anything other than hishand ripping through Eve’s chest as he made Oros and me watch helplessly. As he made us want to die too.
He would do it.The crazed look in his eyes told me he was already at his breaking point.
