That sent a wave of fury through him that his cousin, Neville, had been allowed to continue on with his life in happy bliss. Spawning children and living in luxury.
Through the blood of Bastien’s family.
His vision turned dark as he left the children in peace and headed away from them, back into the palace toward the bedrooms. It was the only place left that Barnabas could be.
And he wasn’t there alone.
The moment he entered the master bedchambers, Bastien ground his teeth at the sight of a girl who couldn’t be any older than fourteen. She was in tears.
Half-dressed, Barnabas turned on them with a growl. “What is this? I didn’t request security!”
Bastien glanced over his shoulder to Brand.
She immediately locked the door behind them.
Barnabas went pale. “Open that door!”
Bastien tsked at him. “You know the hardest part about finding you? The eight palaces my father frequented … you changed up when the emperor occupied them.” He pulled his helmet off.
Barnabas’s eyes narrowed threateningly. “You! You don’t scare me! You were never anything more than your mother’s pampered brat.”
Bastien nodded. “I was that. And I cherished every moment of it.” He waited until Cin had the girl out of harm’s way and isolated in a corner. “You should have never gotten greedy, Uncle.”
“None of you deserved to rule. And none of you will!” He lunged at Bastien.
Bastien caught him with his fist. And he’d intended to continue it with his fists, until Barnabas pulled a blaster from his boot.
He grabbed Tasi and held it to her head.
Ember gasped.
Bastien went cold. A part of him was pissed that he’d allowed Barnabas to get the drop on them.
It wouldn’t happen again.
“You don’t want to hurt her,” Bastien warned.
“You don’t order me around.” He glanced about frantically. “All of you! Out of my way!”
Bastien nodded at them to obey. “I’m not the same boy I was, Barnie.”
“Don’t you dare call me that!”
Bastien held his hands up. “Fine. Asshole works better for me, anyway.”
A palace alarm sounded.
“You know what that is?” Barnabas laughed. “It’s all of you heading for your executions!”
He was wrong. It was the countdown on his life. But the bastard was too stupid to realize it.
Bastien shook his head. “Do you remember what I said to the Overseer?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
His guards began pounding on the door with a battering ram.
Barnabas smiled even wider. “They’ll be through it in a minute, and when they are, you’ll all be arrested.”
“What are we doing?” Kindel asked in a panicked tone. “Shouldn’t we be running?”
“No,” Ember said calmly. “They’ll catch us. Just wait here.” She gave him a knowing look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking and doing and that she was behind him completely.
“For what?” Cin held a hysterical note in her voice.
“You’ll see.” Ember smiled.
“What I see is all kinds of crazy!” Brand glared at Ember. “Do something with your husband!”
Ember screwed her face up as she watched Bastien closely. He had a plan. She didn’t know what, but she trusted him. “It’s okay.”
“Not okay,” Ash said with a note of panic in her tone.
And still Bastien was completely calm.
Even when the door splintered and guards poured into the room to surround them.
“Arrest them!” Barnabas shoved Tasi toward the guard nearest him.
The instant he did, Bastien let fly his axe, faster than anyone could blink.
Faster than a single guard could shoot.
With unerring aim, it embedded straight between Barnabas’s eyes.
Tasi shrieked as his blood splattered all over her.
The guards took aim for Bastien.
“Drop it!” he snarled at them. His regal Cabarro tone was filled with so much inherited command that they obeyed instinctively.
He glared at them. “Now you will bow before your monidar. Long reign His Royal Eminence Bastien, High Monidar Cabarro!”
They hesitated.
Until Ember’s sisters took up the chant and bowed to him. The others followed suit immediately.
Bastien held his hand out to her. “My monidara?”
That title sent a chill down her spine. And she had no idea how to address him in turn.
But she took his hand.
He tucked it into the crook of his elbow, then turned toward the captain of his uncle’s guards. “Get the body out. Call housekeeping and have this room cleaned and fumigated.” He jerked his chin toward the girl. “Call her parents and make sure she’s returned to them safely. I’ll have my attorneys contact them in the morning. Round up the rest of the former tyrant’s family and bring them to the throne room. If Neville so much as sneezes, kill him with impunity. And find the bitch Alura Cabarro.”
With those words, he led Ember and her sisters to the throne room.
Every step of the way, she kept waiting for someone to stop them.
They didn’t. In her heart, she knew that he was their leader. Rightfully so.
Still, this was terrifying.