Chapter 71

Chapter

Seventy-One

ALYX

H is eyes are wide, filled with horror and shock and maybe a dash of relief as he stares back at me.

My brother, the boy I loved more than anything in this entire world.

He’s the man I grieved for years, dreamed of, loved, and sought revenge for, and here he stands behind my lover’s desk—no, behind my king’s desk, Joha’s crown on his head. He stands in Joha’s palace like he owns it, as though he deserves it after spilling my blood to get it.

Me, his sister.

“How?” His whisper fills the room, and I know my men are wondering the same. I can feel their eyes on me, but I cannot bring myself to look or I will break.

I have missed them so much, and even though my chest aches with the healing wound, I knew I had to be here when I heard of Crux’s movements.

“I saw you die,” Atlas whispers.

“No, you saw me fall. There is a difference. Here is a tip, brother. When you try to kill an assassin, make sure they are really dead. We have a terrible habit of surviving anything and coming for the ones who tried to end us.”

“The blade—your chest . . .” He shakes his head, stock still as he stares at me.

“Ah, yes, I’ll admit even for me that was a tough one to come back from.” I part my blouse to show the wicked, raw scar covered in an assortment of herbs and pastes thanks to the sailor who saved me. “I washed up on the southern shore, half dead and broken. An old sailor found me and saved my life, nursing me back to health.” I glance at Joha.

“I promised him a title. I hope that’s okay.” I grin before I glance back at my brother, and it drops. “When I woke up a few days ago, all I could think about was you and what you did to me. I came back here and planned while I healed. I learned that one from you. Nobody looks for you if you’re dead, and it makes your enemies lower their guard. I suppose I should thank you for that lesson.” I keep my eyes on his as a grin flirts on my lips. I’ll never let him know just how weak I am and just how close to death I was. I know I should be resting, since I am not out of the woods, but when I heard . . . well, I couldn’t let them have all the fun. Besides, a few snorts of that sailor’s old telf weed—a stimulant sailors used to keep themselves awake and alert—and I was good to go.

All I could think about was one thing—revenge.

“I was going to break in and kill you myself, but it seems someone else had the same idea,” I say with a suffering sigh. “You had to go and spoil my plan, didn’t you?” I wink at Crux, and he grins.

“Sister, you have to understand,” Atlas starts, his voice silky and cajoling. It’s the same one he used on me as a kid.

It used to comfort me, but now all it does is infuriate me.

He falls back into his chair from my sudden kick. “It’s Alyx to you. We stopped being family when you nearly spilled all the blood from my body. I hope it was worth it. I hope this was all worth it,” I tell him. “And no, I don’t understand. I don’t understand your greed or your madness, but you know what I realised as I lay there with nothing to do but look back on everything? I don’t need to understand. You made your choice, and now you must live with that for however long I allow you to.”

“Alyx, I did this for us, for our family, to make them all pay.”

“Really? Still pushing that one, are you?” I remark as I lean my hip against Joha’s desk. “Try again. It isn’t working.” I arch a brow and wait.

His face pinkens slightly as he watches me, the cogs in his head turning as he tries to think his way out of this one, but he is a fool if he thinks I would ever take his side.

I loved him once, and it made me weak. Never again.

I do not need his love, not when I have three men ready to go to war for me.

I don’t need him, maybe I never did, and I think that scares him. I think he knew that, and he decided to get rid of me before I saw the truth and turned on him.

“Join me.” He holds out his hand, his expression hopeful and shrewd. “Look at what we can accomplish together. We have all made mistakes?—”

“I call plunging a dagger into my heart more than a mistake. You are even more of a fool than I thought you were if you think that blatant manipulation will work. You care for no one or nothing. You do not want someone at your side. You want everyone under you. You want to control them, own them. I should have seen it when we were kids, your need for power and station, but I was blinded by love. Not anymore. Call this what you want, but it is not revenge and we both know it. Drop the act, we both know how this ends. One of us will die, and it will not be me. Not this time.”

He stares at me for a moment before he blows out a breath. “Fine, then let us do this.”

Relief fills me that he will not try to convince me, that he will not lie to me anymore. This is almost over.

He brandishes a dagger, but before he can thrust it towards me, I fling myself over the desk, uncaring about my wounds, adrenaline pumping through me. I want to end this quickly, so I kick out, sending the dagger flying into the air. Catching it, I arch my brow at him as he sits down heavily in his chair once more and peers at me.

“You won’t kill me,” he says, and everything else fades—the guards, the palace, the coup, even my men.

All I see is him, the perfect mix of my mother and father.

Once, he would have been right, but he threatened my men, the people who have been by my side through it all.

They are my family, not this traitor.

I was desperate for answers and revenge once, but everything I needed was right there beside me all along. They took the broken pieces of me and put me back together, and he tried to take that from me.

He tried to steal the only goodness I have found in this world.

“I might not have been able to kill you that night out of love, but not this time. All that is left in my heart for you is anger. You are not the boy I loved and idolized. You are not my brother. You are simply someone standing in my way, an enemy, and do you know what I do to enemies? I destroy them.” I point the dagger at him as he watches me, searching my eyes and seeing the truth.

“Alyx, let me,” Crux begs behind me. I do not spare him a look, knowing better than to underestimate this man like everyone else did.

“No, this is my fight. This is my family and my problem. I love that you want to protect me from this, but you can’t,” I tell him as I push from the desk, my booted feet hitting the floor. I expected a fight, I expected it to be a bloodbath, but as I press the dagger to his chest, he tilts his chin back, challenging me.

“Then kill me, little sister. If you can do it, then do it. It’s the only way I will stop. If you truly hate me that much, kill me.”

He’s gambling on my love for him.

Doesn’t he realise he carved that from my heart with one strike of his blade?

I see it in his eyes, the confidence that I will not be able to do it and he will win once more—right up until I push the sharp edge into his chest. I cut through his skin and slowly press it deeper.

He glances down at it then up at me, disbelief in his eyes. I do not look away, not even as I push it deeper, knowing the agony all too well.

As I split his heart, I split my own, and I know this is a wound I will never heal from, but I do it.

I spill my brother’s blood to protect the ones I love. I break my heart and soul to keep them safe.

Despite my bravado, it hurts as I plunge that dagger into his chest, like slicing open my own wound. I stare into my brother’s eyes, a man I loved, as I bury it to the hilt. Tears blur my vision and fall down my cheeks as I stand above him, my hand wrapped around the hilt still plunged into his chest.

His eyes widen, his lips parting on a gasp of agony as blood bubbles there. “Alyx, I’m sorry.” He lifts his hand and brushes away my tears softly, like he used to when I was a child.

“I know,” I murmur. The words are choked from me as my tears fall for everything we have lost, for the innocence that was stolen from us both, and for the fire that changed us. I cry for everything that could have been and what will never be as he starts to die.

Power corrupts, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t love me, even if it wasn’t enough in the end.

“I always loved you,” I whisper as I stare into his rapidly blinking eyes, his blood pumping over my hands, staining us both.

We both should have died that night in the fire, yet as the light starts to dim in his eyes, I know I survived for a reason, even if it hurts.

Pressing my forehead to his, I stare into those familiar eyes. “I’m with you,” I murmur. “I love you, brother.”

“I love you,” he chokes out, his voice thick as his body jerks and the light dies in his eyes, his body going limp.

He’s dead.

My eyes close for a moment, my throat thick as I swallow around my agony. “Goodbye,” I whisper just for him. Sniffing back my agony, I pull away, and with bloodied fingers, I slide his eyelids shut before I stumble back, hitting the desk.

I feel movement at my side, but I do not look away from my brother. I can’t.

“Alyx.” My name is a whisper.

“It’s done, it’s over.” My voice sounds strange, even to me, and when I turn my head, I see three worried faces. “He’s dead. I killed him.” I hiccup over the words. “It’s done.”

“Shh.” Crux wraps his arms around me, and I stiffen, fighting back the agony wanting to splinter me. I cannot fall apart.

“Leave us,” Orion orders, and there is shuffling and the sound of a door shutting, and then he holds my side. “It’s just us. They are gone.”

“You can break, my love,” Joha promises as he presses his head to mine in an echo of what I did to my brother. “We have you. We have you.”

I break, sobbing into their arms for everything I have been forced to do and everything I have endured.

I grieve the loss of my family, my innocence, and my soul.

They hold me through it, putting my pieces back together again, being strong when I can’t.

My eyes find my brother over their embrace, and I know the price I paid was steep, but if it lets me keep them, then it was worth it.

Everything was worth it.