“And if she’s not? You can’t get an heir out of her anyway, not without killing her in the process. And if you’ve somehow managed to control yourself in that regard—which I highly doubt, considering your self-control where women are concerned—what will your father think of you diluting the blood?”
“My father and I aren’t on good terms if you’ve noticed,” he said wryly, sitting in his golden palace with treason across his forehead. “So what if I can’t get an heir from her? I shall merely have to recognize some bastards.”
“You sound like the father you’ve always hated.”
Maxim leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked into the distance, agitation set in his jaw. “This is the price I pay whether you understand or not. I know you don’t give a fuck about my people, but they are mine, my responsibility. Talia won’t be anything but ash if I don’t make some sacrifices. Having a bastard for an heir is one I will make.”
“Said like a true king,” I said sardonically.
“At least I’m not running from my responsibilities and handing them off to my brother.”
“You don’t have a brother.”
He gave me a sideways glance, exhaling some smoke. “Had one.”
I shook my head, agitated. “Bloody hell, man. I didn’t fuck your sister. Maybe if your father didn’t try to marry her off to some bastard twice her age, she wouldn’t have asked me to go along with the rumor of ruining her. She’s living the life she wants at that monastery she was sent to.”
“And the maid who said she saw you together?”
“Accomplice. She lied,” I said coolly. “Now you want to cry and hug this out or what?”
He lifted the cheroot to his lips, shrugging like he might, a small smile pulling at the corners.
I shook my head, some dry amusement rushing me.
“Sure the little witch won’t open the seal whenever it shows itself to her?”
I side-eyed Maxim, suspicion coursing through me. “Yea.”
“You have her blood, though. You could make it happen.”
I just took her virginity too. I had more power over her now than she probably understood, but it didn’t matter because I wouldn’t use it.
My suspicion suddenly grew, expanding in my chest. I let out a breath of disbelief. “Maxim? Haven’t you always been opposed to the idea? Your people are human.”
He shrugged. “Was thinking it might be all right to put the system on its axis. Might be the only way to get my people on the right path.”
Everything stilled inside me, so still. “You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with my brother lately.”
He said nothing, only lifted the cheroot to his lips.
And then everything came to the surface, blindingly hot, anger, pulsing under my skin. I had my forearm pressed to his throat against the terrace wall in a second.
A couple of noises of fright sounded from where the maids were making the bed.
I felt the pressure behind my eyes, above my eyeteeth, the boiling in my veins. “You know, I didn’t think my brother had it in him. He’s a whore for Titan, and opening the seal would only crumble its order. But you, I would never have thought you’d change your mind on this. Isn’t it what’s had us at each other’s throats for fucking years?”
Maxim’s eyes narrowed slightly but otherwise looked bored. “Five years is a long time.”
I pressed my forearm against his throat harder, an angry growl escaping my throat. “And the deal you made me to watch her for your vote, somehow seemed irrelevant to you now that I’ve already sent it to the council?”
When he didn’t say anything, I laughed darkly, shoving him before backing up. “This shit is why I always want to tear your arms from your fucking body, Maxim.”
He watched me, unmoved, bringing the fucking cheroot he still had in his hand up to his lips, before inhaling slowly.
I could already feel the nothingness associated with his death, how no sense of wrong pulled at me. How simple it would be.
He flicked the end of the cheroot over the terrace. “It just doesn’t sound right to me is all. You were all for the seal being open, and now that she has this . . . strong magic, you don’t want it open? What changed?”