“How dare you speak to me like that,” she said, sounding breathless.
“Can you blame me?” I countered. “All you do is orchestrate from behind the scenes, using all our lives as pawns. Do I need to reiterate the part about what you did to your own daughter? Necros could have killed her. He damn near—”
“Grigory,” Valora interjected on a whisper, reminding me that she and Adrik stood just behind me. “Please.”
“Please what?” I asked, rounding on her. “You want me to stop berating our mother for what she’s done to you? What she’s trying to do to me? Does no one else see how insane all of this is? She gave you up to a monster, Valora. And she intends to do the same to me. The only difference is, I can protect myself against Napia. You had to grow into your powers to defeat your betrothed, and what did that cost you?”
“The cost was heavy,” she agreed softly. “But I won in the end. I wouldn’t change a second of what happened to me, knowing it would have risked the future I achieved.”
“There had to have been another way,” I replied.
“There’s always another way,” my mother put in, walking around me to stand beside a glowering Adrik.
His ire wasn’t meant for me but for the female flaring with regal power beside him. Valora might have forgiven my mother; however, he hadn’t. And if I were being honest with myself, neither had I.
“I’ve told you to provide me with another candidate for consideration,” my mother added, sounding as haughty as ever. “You haven’t. Therefore, the engagement to Napia stands.”
“Why do I need a bride to ascend?” I demanded. “Oh, right, because my power requires balance. Yet you’ve somehow handled the mantle on your own. Or is Lucifer helping from the shadows?” He was Valora’s father, after all.
My mother’s consort was the literal devil.
The strongest being in all the kingdoms.
At least he wasn’t my father.
My dad had died when I was only two years old, so I never really knew him. The circumstances of his death were suspicious at best, causing many to believe my mother killed him. Given what I knew of her methods, I believed the accusation. She wouldn’t have killed him directly, just via an orchestrated accident brought on by one of her many mindfucks.
“You clearly need a more mature counterpart in your life as well,” my mother retorted.
I snorted. “Yeah. Napia is certainly that, isn’t she?”
“You’ve barely given her a chance.”
I just stared at the woman who created me. If she couldn’t see Napia’s venomous exterior, then I had nothing left to say on the matter.
She sighed. “Grigory, I—”
A bellow from the hallway cut her off, followed by the doors flying open to crash against the walls as three guards spilled into the room. I frowned at them, surprised by their crude interruption, until I spotted the black blood all over Oliver’s uniform.
“What’s happened?” I asked, falling into my role as future leader in a breath.
“Yakariah,” Oliver breathed, his chest heaving and falling in a manner that told me he’d run here. “He’s dead.”
I gaped at him. “What?”
“Show us,” my mother demanded. “Now.”
I shared a look with Adrik before following Oliver and the other guards through the palace toward the guest quarters. We moved in silence but were met by additional security along the way, all of their expressions grim.
“This isn’t good,” Adrik muttered to me.
“No. It’s not.” Because Zaya would be the prime suspect.
I really hoped she’d remained in my quarters.
And all hope of that died upon finding her at the scene on her knees, hands behind her back in a pair of iron handcuffs. “Grigory, I swear—”
“Quiet,” I snapped, not even wanting to hear it. She was covered in blood, and a very dead Yakariah lay slain a few feet away. Apparently, she hadn’t believed me when I told her he wasn’t involved that night. “Fuck, Zay,” I muttered, rubbing my hand over my face.