“Father!” I bellow, my voice echoing back to me. It’s weak. Pathetic. Desperate.
Faster,I tell my body until I’m there. I’m at my mother’s door, the wood splintered and hanging from its hinges. I gasp for air, searching for any sign that she hadn’t been here, that she could have gotten away.
A scream carries from some distant part of the castle. My heart sinks in my chest. It’s too late. I’m too late.
No!The hopeful part of me shouts.
Please. Please. Please.It’s a hopeless prayer sent to any god or goddess who will listen. I’d sell my soul to the devil himself to save her. No god answers. No one has come to my aid.
The doors to the meeting room have been thrown wide, my mother’s soft voice pleading with her husband. I reach the raven-carved doors just as my brothers, Bramwell, Ashton, Aeton, Casimir, and Zale do. All of them sprinting from different directions as they’d followed the shouting. Guards trail behind, watching curiously, but ultimately, they know... they know this is a show of the king’s fragile mental state.
Casimir casts one look over me as I rush past them, and his entire body tenses as he follows closely behind. Bramwell and Ashton both look as terrified as I do. They share a look between them. Aeton’s face is a cool mask of neutrality as he strolls into the room after Casimir, keeping proper distance. Zale only appears as if he is mildly interested and hovers near the door.
King Melic stands on top of his dais, his eyes still swimming with ink, and a blade poised at my mother’s neck. Her braid has come undone, the strands clinging to Father’s chest. She holds his weapon-bearing arm, struggling to keep the dagger from her throat. Her eyes widen as she sees several of her sons come running in after her.
“No!’ she shrieks. “Boys, leave!”
She cannot spare us this horror.
I stumble to the foot of the dais. Looking up at him, at his cold, cruel, calculated face, I hardly recognize him. This isn’t the man who has raised me to be his heir. This is a monster. A beast without emotion watches me.
“Let her go. Donotdo this.”
“Do not tell me what I should or should not do.” His lips don’t move, and the voice is bouncing off the walls around us. My brothers gasp behind me. I take a step up, moving closer, hand reaching for my mother’s arm.
“Merrick.” Her eyes are glassy, but her jaw is set. “I love you. I love your brothers. It’s okay.”
“Thisis not okay.” Emotion clogs my throat.
“Get back, stupid boy!” Father shouts again, and the noise forces me to close my eyes tightly again.
I take another daring step, my fingers brushing her arm. She’s so close. One more step and I’ll take his blade.
Every shadow in the room rushes from its corner and hugs my father’s frame. Wind ruffles my hair, dries every ounce of my sweat, and the room plunges several degrees, creating a shared shiver.
I slip from the step, my body toppling down the two steps and back to the shining onyx floor that threatens to swallow me up. A dull pain vibrates through my tailbone, and blood drips into my eyes. My fingers brush my forehead, pulling away crimson-stained. I gasp as I recognize the stinging sensation of split skin across my forehead.
The blade in my father’s hand shines with it.
He cut me. He shoved me from my mother and sliced his blade across my face.
Another scar. Another mark of his cruelty.
“Please,” I whisper like the pathetic piece of shit I am. I scurry to my knees, lower into a bow, ignoring the blood that drips from my brow. “Leave her out of this. Let her go. Take me.Take me.”
“Merrick,” Casimir hisses behind me. “Merrick, get up.”
“You are a prince to the Court of Darkness. Get. Up,” Father growls.
I don’t move. I can’t.
“Stand, you idiotic son of a bitch!” The room thunders with his hate.
“Merrick, get up,” Mother whispers. “Please, son, stand. Do not be sad for me. Do not bow for me.”
I lift my face, my lips quivering, eyelashes burning with tears that threaten to spill over. A prince shouldn’t cry. A strong man wouldn’t. Apparently, I am not a strong man. Weak. Stupid. Broken.
“Stand up,” she says softly. Her gentle voice is all that can guide me up. I dare to turn and look behind me.
