Born of Defiance

Lorens quirked a curious brow.

“Let me have him in the Ring. Five minutes. That’s all I need to legally put him out of everyone’s misery. Forever.”

A calculating gleam darkened Lorens’s gaze. “You up to a fight that brutal?”

Talyn scoffed. “You seriously underestimate me, Commander. Trust me, both legs and one arm broken, I could still hand-feed that quim his entrails.”

“Then I will see it done. Now go home, Talyn. I don’t like hearing the sound of my sister weeping in my ear. We’ll figure something out about the contract. If anyone catches you in the condo, just say I sent you there under orders to protect her after her attack.”

Talyn stepped back and gave him a sharp salute. “Yes, sir!”

As he walked toward the gate where transports usually waited to pick up soldiers, he slid his gaze toward the brig where Anatole had been taken. C’mon, Lorens, don’t fail me with those orders. If WAR wanted to bring down the royal house, Talyn was more than willing to personally escort Anatole straight to their gods. That only left three others from that generation who could inherit the throne.

Jullien, Merrell, and Nyran.

They should have never made this personal. Never threatened Felicia. But now that they had…

There would be a party at the Batur house all right. One that wouldn’t end until there was blood on the walls and three hearts in Talyn’s fist.



Jullien went ramrod stiff. “What do you mean, Chrisen’s been arrested?”

Merrell raked a sneer over Jullien that, had it been witnessed by anyone else, would have caused Jullien to have him punished. Cousin or not. But since they were alone, he allowed the insult to pass. “That whore he went after? She happens to be the youngest daughter of Saren ezul Terronova.”

Jullien cursed that unfortunate luck.

“Exactly. And after the attack on his other daughter and son, Terronova’s demanding Anatole blood from Eriadne. And this time, he’s notified everyone, and made sure he had an audience when he made his demands. Bastard’s learning. We were blindsided so badly, there was no way to do damage control.” Merrell paused with a frown. “What are you doing here, anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be at your father’s?”

Jullien growled in anger at the reminder of what had brought him back to Andaria. Last thing he’d expected to hear from his secretary on arrival was that his favorite cousin and cohort was currently jailed, and there was nothing he could do to get Chrisen out.

Making sure the guards were out of hearing range, Jullien closed the distance between them so that he could whisper and only Merrell would hear. “I saw the bastard. He still lives.”

Merrell had the same reaction Jullien had in the restaurant on Verta. He went pale, then his cheeks turned bright red with his fury. “What?”

“It gets better. He was with Kiara Zamir. Having lunch in an Andarion restaurant, of all things. In broad daylight.”

“The Gourish princess?”

Jullien inclined his head to him. “I don’t dare contact her father, personally. He hates me. So, I came back for you to light a fire under her father’s ass and get him to execute the hybrid before someone else realizes who and what he really is, and rains bombs all over our parade.”

Merrell leaned in to whisper in the lowest audible tone possible. “What are the odds of anyone recognizing him as your brother?”

Jullien clenched his teeth tight and spoke furiously through them. “He looks just like our father. Anyone will know at this point. You can’t miss it. Even with the scars on his face. It’s worse now than when we were in school with him.”

Merrell started to step back, but Jullien caught his arm to keep him by his side and finish his report. “There’s more.”

“What?” Merrell growled.

“He was dressed in Sentella gear. He’s one of them.”

“That explains the hard-on they’ve had for us for so long.”

Jullien nodded. “Doesn’t it? And that’s why I came home. We have got to get rid of Nykyrian, one way or another. The last thing we need is for that bastard to hook up with the Gourish princess. We would lose everything.”

Merrell growled low in his throat as he digested what Jullien was telling him. Damn it all. Why was Nykyrian still alive? Their grandmother had paid well for his childhood demise.

Now…

“The Probekeins still have a contract out on Kiara’s life, and her father is dealing with that distraction already. We can use some of our special guard to attack and make it appear as if they’re the ones after Kiara.”

Jullien nodded. “I can contact Bredeh – I went to school with him and his brother, Arast. He wants the bastard dead even worse than we do.”

Merrell dug his index finger into Jullien’s shoulder to emphasize his point. “You do that. Because if your mother or aunt ever learns that hybrid is still alive…”