Page 86 of Black Crown
“Lani’s still alive, you idiot.” I growled. “Your ‘people’ stand atherback, not yours. They have never stood at yours, never once done anything by your order. Kamini led the rebellion against your parents, not you. You think the Phaetyn willeverallow you to remove Lani from power?” I crossed my arms. “You’re power hungry and desperate, but you’re a moron, Kamoi.”
His eyes brightened, his lips pursing with anger. He strode toward me with a heavy stride.
My eyes flashed, shifting Drae, and I whipped my hand in front of me, feeling my fingertips grow into talons. I slashed at him, his perfect face hiding the ugliness within, marking him as a warning.
Kamoi gasped, flinching sideways as he covered his cheek with his hand. He pulled his extremity away and stared at the silver blood now staining his fingers and smeared on his face. Rivulets trickled down his neck as he turned to meet my gaze.
“Does Kamini know?” I asked after a heartbeat of silence.
He glared at me, clutching his cheek. “No. And she won’t. Your father has promised me your hand.”
My hand? I could guess our marriage was just a contingency plan for if Kamini’s rule didn’t work out. Or maybe Kamoi planned to usurp her too. The idea of marriage was laughable. If Draedyn meant it, he could shove it. I was mated. I turned my back on them and stepped away. I’d go puke in the bathroom and crawl back into bed for a thousand years. No way was I ever going to be within inches of Kamoi—
A rushing sound crescendoed, a roar echoing in my ears, and I began to turn, to face the emperor, but halted as Kamoi stumbled forward with a gurgling strangled sound. He hunched over, coughing.
Silver blood.
I blinked, but the image didn’t change.
Great mouthfuls of vibrant blood poured from the prince’s mouth, saturating his silver robes, and splattering onto the dark floor between us. Warm droplets splashed onto my bare feet.
“Kamoi?” I whispered. My gaze dropped to his stomach as he glanced up to the shining, dripping talons exploding through his stomach. And the black droplets dripping off their tips. Draedyn had cut himself. The wound was lethal.
Kamoi was only upright because my father stood behind him, the force of his deadly talons up against the solid bones in Kamoi’s torso. Clutching the Phaetyn’s silver hair, my father yanked Kamoi’s head up.
I stumbled away, crashing into the side of the bed and falling to the floor. I covered my mouth with both hands, and my vision tunneled. I gasped for air, dropping my head between my knees. One, two, three breaths later, I looked up, and my stomach roiled.
The emperor propped a hand between the prince’s shoulder blades and pushed.
Kamoi slid off the talons spearing him from back to front and fell to the stone, landing in a pool of his own blood, splattering me and Draedyn with death.
I retched, bile burning my throat as blackness oozed up the Phaetyn’s chest, streaks inching up over his face. The black spots widened and branched at a rapid pace until the prince was nearly covered with the stain of Drae-poison.
Kamoi’s sputtering spasms slowed. He blinked, his gaze locking on me, and reached out as if I could help him now. He mouthed words I’d never hear. And then his eyes turned glassy.
And all was still.
I stared at the Phaetyn prince, watching the last of his blood pool beneath him.
“You killed him,” I said dully, ears ringing. My feeling, my emotion disappeared. I couldn’t deal with Draedyn and feel. I couldn’t deal with death and hurt. I locked away my emotions, vowing to never let them out while I was in this black palace of evil. I couldn’t respond with sentiment, not now, maybe not ever again.
“I betrayed a betrayer,” Draedyn said simply. As simple as his clothing now stained with silver blood. As simple as the black stone floor which reflected the evidence of death. His power was simple, straightforward, easy to comprehend, and effortless. That was what this demonstration was about.
He shook his head, denying my conclusion. “There are dozens of other ways for me to demonstrate my power if I felt you needed further proof. I have merely killed your enemy, heir-daughter. Though,” he said, using his sack tunic to wipe the silver from his huge emerald talons, “I’d expected you to kill him yourself as retribution.”
I stared at the scratch I’d given the Phaetyn prince. Yes, he’d betrayed me and Lani and Kamini and the Phaetyn people. It might be easier to name those hehadn’tbetrayed. But dealing out his justice hadn’t been my responsibility. That had been up to Lani. By betraying us, he’d nearly ruined Lani’s rule before it began, but instead of ruining it, he’d united the Phaetyn behind her. His plan to marry me was bad, but it hadn’t happened. Even in his betrayal of me to Draedyn, I was still alive. I could still do something.
The creeping emerald darkness reappeared, crawling toward me, and I gathered Draedyn wasn’t impressed with my way of thinking.
“So that was my welcoming gift, huh?” I asked him, still dazed by the gory scene before me.
The emperor, my father, stepped over Kamoi’s corpse and ambled to the doorway. We might’ve been discussing the weather if not for the stench of blood and sweat lingering in the air of my bedchamber.
“A gift,” he said, turning back. His emerald gaze held mine. “Yes, you may think of it as a gift and a lesson.”
I watched him disappear out the door, my stomach churning. I might have been young, but I wasn’t a fool. That was no gift, and the only lesson was confirmation of his brutality.
I betrayed a betrayer.