“Why? For a facile existence of wetting your prick in myriad holes? You pathetic little deviant. You are not a child any longer.” He snatches his hair and finally Tharsus’s rebellious fa?ade cracks. The hint of terror he let slip earlier gives way to a storm of it.
“Don’t kill him,” I say. “We need him to get into the darkzone.”
“Kill him?” Apollonius looks back at me, seeing my apprehension. “An ear is just an ear. But a life.” He shakes his head. “He’s my brother.” He looks back to Tharsus. “My brother who betrayed me. My brother who left his beloved kin to rot.” He squeezes his hair, pulling tighter. “My brother who wished to be an only child.”
“I didn’t…”
“Didn’t what?”
“I didn’t want to die…” Tharsus says pitifully. “He said he would kill me if I didn’t comply. But if I did, the Valii-Rath name would live on. Mother and Father gone…I didn’t know what to do….”
“Of course you didn’t. You need me,” Apollonius says soothingly. “You need your big brother.” He releases his hold and gently strokes Tharsus’s hair. “All this time by yourself. All these decisions. What horrible loneliness your ambition has brought.”
Tharsus closes his eyes, sinking into the touch of his brother.
“I am sorry….”
“I know.”
“If I could take it back…”
“I know. But amends must be made. A pound of flesh taken.” He strokes Tharsus’s face as the younger man’s eyes, filled with tears, open to look at him in terrible fear. “No, not from you, brother. There’s only two of us left in all the worlds. And what pleasure would there be there in witnessing the rise of our house if I am alone? I forgive you, my darling.” Tharsus looks like he doesn’t understand. Apollonius leans forward to kiss the tears from his brother’s face. “I forgive you, Tharsus. For your sins. For your nature. For everything.”
Tharsus bursts into drunken tears.
The display does not warm my heart. It shows the vile, maggoty innards of this family. I feel tainted being here with them, breathing the same air, and want nothing more than to be done with this. To be home with my family, to feel real love, not this weird tapestry of domination and cruelty they’ve woven. Poor Tactus. What chance did ever he have?
Sevro looks sickened by the display, and I feel heartbroken knowing I’ve taken him so far from his girls, from Victra, into this pit of devils. Maybe Victra was right. Maybe I should have left him behind. Then Wulfgar’s blood would not be on his hands, nor mine, and we would not have to share air with these men.
“Thank you, Apollonius,” Tharsus says. “Thank you. But why are you here? Why with…them?”
“Because our pound of flesh must be taken from the man who turned brother against brother. Soon, the Ash Lord will die. That is the cause that binds the Reaper to me. And you, my beloved, will deliver him to us.”
“How?” Tharsus asks.
“You’ll gain us an audience,” Sevro says. “Get us in nice and tight.”
“But…the Ash Lord hasn’t had an audience in three years. He reigns in solitude.”
“Three years,” I repeat, not believing it. “That’s absurd.”
“Nonetheless, it is true.”
“How the hell is that possible?” Sevro asks.
“There was an assassination attempt, so the rumors say.”
“By whom?” Sevro presses. One of Victra’s? None of mine got even close.
Tharsus looks perplexed. “I assumed by you. No? If anyone wishes to see him, they must go through his daughter, Atalantia.” He looks to his brother, something passing between them, some unspoken knowledge that I don’t like. It was a risk in letting them reunite. Men with unspoken bonds like the one Sevro and I have are always the most dangerous. “But Atalantia has vanished,” Tharsus says.
“What does that mean?” I ask. “A woman like that can’t just disappear.”
“It means I don’t know where she is. If the Carthii or the Saud know, they aren’t telling me. I’ve been frozen out.”
“Is the Ash Lord cloistered on Gorgon Isle?” I ask, hoping Republic Intelligence was correct about the darkzone. “At least tell us that.”
“Yes.” Tharsus nods. “But you cannot approach the island without a summons. The place is a fortress.” Sevro looks over at me. “The air around the island is restricted to House Grimmus aircraft for two hundred kilometers. It will be defended by an army. His Ash Legions. You’ll never get in.”
“Not unless we bring an army of our own,” Apollonius says with a smile.
I RUSH TO CASSIUS AS DIDO sends her men to bring in the safe. He’s fallen to the floor. Color has fled his cheeks. I shake him. “Cassius…wake up!” Holding him now, I feel how limp he’s gone, how much blood of his has stained the white marble. “Stay with me,” I whisper, checking his pulse—so faint I can barely feel it. “Cassius!” His eyes open a sliver.
“Julian?” he murmurs.
I hestitate. “Yes,” I say. “Yes, it’s Julian. Stay with me, brother. Stay with me.”
He blinks up at me, clarity coming to him. “Lysander.” I smile, happy to be seen. “Lysander, what have you done?” Tears leak out of his eyes. “What have you done?”
The accusation puts me on my heels. Robotically, I turn to Dido. “He needs a surgeon.”
“And he’ll have one when I’m satisfied.”
“No, he’ll have one now. His life for the safe.”
“Already making demands? Perhaps you really are a Lune after all.”
Seraphina kneels to feel his pulse. “Mother.”
“Very well.” The woman motions her attendants to collect the man, but Diomedes steps in their way.
“The Olympic Order will take custody of him.”
“Do you not trust me?” Dido asks.
He ignores her. Seeing the worry in my eyes, he says, “Our surgeons will do what they can. If he dies, it will not be by their hand.” I nod in thanks. The stoic man motions two Olympic Knights to carry Cassius out. They hoist him up and pass unmolested through the crowd to disappear through one of the stone doorways.
He will survive. He has to.
Lost in thought, I flinch as the safe slams to the ground in the center of the blood-soaked marble. Dido’s men back away from it. “Your turn, young Lune,” Dido says. “Prove who you are.” I pass Seraphina without looking at her on my way to the safe, conscious of the hundreds of eyes that watch and judge not just me, but the worth of my blood.
I bend before the safe and numbly turn the dial through the combination. My hands are shaking so severely I have to try twice until the tumbler thumps inside the safe. The lock unlatches, then the secondary lock, and the door swings open. I back away, Cassius’s words echoing. What have you done?
I’ve made a choice. The right choice.