“Brax,” Akir tried to get up but his brother kept him pinned down.
“Don’t kill him. He’s our father.”
Akir tried to get up, tried to call out a warning but it was too late. The king was behind Brax, jaws coming down on his arm and hauling him backwards. Braxtyn screamed as he was hauled through the air and slammed into the ground. His father loomed over him, angry jaws gaping open. Braxtyn screamed.
Everything after was a blur of moving bodies. Akir jumped up and ran to his brother’s aid. I gasped, a sob already heaving it’s way out of my chest. But Akir was fast and it was as there was some silent communication between him and the others. He rolled on the ground, landing in a crouch just below his father, putting himself as a barrier between the hybrid and his younger brother. And then Lex was kicking the fallen sword towards him. It slid harshly against the tiles, the hilt straight into Akir’s awaiting palm.
He gripped it tightly and in one swift move, rammed it up into his father’s neck. He let out a fierce cry as he twisted the sword. Blood dripped down onto his face, painting his skin like that of a warrior.
He pulled it out with a cry and back away just as his father fell to the floor.
Dead.
There was silence for a long stretch of time. Our breaths hitched harshly and I wasn’t exactly sure why no one spoke. If we were waiting for more of them to appear. If we were waiting for Akir to say something, to let what just happened sink in. He’d killed his father to protect his brother.
Braxtyn scrambled up and Akir followed much more slowly. Blood covered nearly every inch of them. Their father’s blood. Brax looked down at his hands, at his palms before tightening them into fists. And then he was on his brother, swinging a punch that landed square on Akir’s jaw. I made a move to go forward but Kael was beside me, holding tightly to my waist in warning.
“You killed him!” Braxtyn shouted, throwing another punch. Akir dropped the sword and held his hands up, blocking his brother’s blows. “You killed him! You son of a bitch, you killed our father!” He hit and hit until his arms seemed to weaken. Akir lowered his arms and Braxtyn shoved him softly, keeping his palms splayed against his chest. “You killed him,” he sobbed.
And then Akir was pulling his brother towards him in a crushing hug. The sight was too intimate, too sad to bear but I couldn’t bring myself to look away. Akir held his brother to him by the back of the neck. Braxtyn’s shoulders shook as he sobbed into his older brother’s chest.
“He would have killed you,” Akir said. “I couldn’t let him. I couldn’t.”
Together, they grieved. I gave them a few minutes of silence before I reached for River. I needed someone solid, someone to help me hold onto reality. He leaned his heavy weight on me but I didn’t mind it.
The brothers finally broke apart. Braxtyn didn’t meet any one of our gazes.
“We need to leave,” I said tightly. “Now.”
Akir nodded his agreement.
Braxtyn finally looked up. “We need to destroy this place first.” He looked down at his father, gulping. “He was the last one. I saw it on the cameras. We need to destroy everything here so that no one else can ever bring the hybrids back.”
All the information, gone. No more hybrids meant we could finally live free, free of our fear of them. They would be no more.
I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
***
It took but a few moments. A few moments to set the building on fire and watch it spread. When it was big enough, we walked outside and stood, watching the flames engulf the lab entirely and flicker towards the darkening sky.
The bodies had been left in there. We had no way to know who they were, anyway. It wasn’t like we could take them back to their families. Not as hybrids. So this was the closest thing to a funeral we could give them.
We wouldn’t be going back to the other clans with this information, with what had transpired here. What were the odds that they’d believe us, anyway? It hurt, knowing they’d have no body to mourn, that the disappearance of their leaders was a total mystery. But it was for the best.
We watched the building begin to crumble, watched it fall to ashen pieces. River was leaning against me for support. He was trying to be strong but I knew his leg was paining him.
“Was this all for nothing?” I wondered aloud. The flames crackled, filling the spaces between the silence that followed.
Finally, it was Lex who answered. “No,” he said with surety. “We destroyed a great evil.”
I sighed. “Even if we didn’t find the cure, at least we found out who was behind it all.” I had hoped that if I said those words out loud, that I’d actually believe them. But all they left me was a hopeless feeling in my chest.
“Who was behind it?” Akir asked.
I tensed. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him. Hadn’t told him that it was his own brother who had wreaked havoc and destruction on our already Broken World. Braxtyn and I shared a look and for once, we were in complete understanding.
I took a deep breath because what I was about to say sure wasn’t going to be easy. I recounted the events to Akir. I told him who had been behind the attacks, told him what his brother had done. His breath hitched but once the entire time but otherwise his face remained entirely impassive. Hard lines and planes as he stared at the fire. Orange and yellow glow of light flickered against his face. He stared at the flames long after I finished telling him the story.
Finally, he asked, “He’s dead?”
I gulped. “Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
I realized I’d left that part out. Left him out from hearing the pain of his brother’s death. Of knowing that I was the one who killed him. Would he hate me for it? Would he hate me for the phantom stains I carried on my hands?
“I did.”
I jerked my head to look at Braxtyn, at his false confession. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Akir and his eyes were mirrored hard lines, daring to be questioned.
Akir didn’t, though. He didn’t question his brother. He believed him, nodded and looked back to the fire.
Braxtyn looked at me then, our gazes locking. I had a million questions I wanted to ask him in that moment but I knew he wouldn’t answer them now. Maybe not ever. So I let it be. He was saving his brother from a terrible knowledge. And he was saving me as well.
Braxtyn Murtaugh was not a man I admired. He wasn’t kingly or compassionate. He was ruthless and angry and willing to do whatever it took and take down whoever got in his way, for the sake of what he believed in. But in that moment, something shifted between us. Our relationship was suddenly changed as he lifted a heavy weight from my own shoulders and onto his.
I knew it would be a bumpy road ahead. We all needed time to heal. We needed time to think on our next steps. We’d all lost something. And we had to be prepared to get back up again. To slay those beasts, no matter how hard and move forward.
We waited a few hours more until the flames died down and there was nothing left but the charred remnants of the lab before us. A gust of wind blew ash at our feet. We stared down at it a moment longer.
“We should go,” I suggested quietly. We needed to get back. I needed to see my mom before we had to do the inevitable. We couldn’t keep her in a cage and we couldn’t set her loose, either. I knew what we had to do and it was not going to be easy. “I’d like to see my mom,” I confessed. Holding back my feelings now, after everything we’d been through, seemed silly. We’d seen each other at our worst. What was a few more moments of honesty? “I’d like to say goodbye before she loses herself.” My voice cracked with emotion and I cleared my throat.
“Goodbye?” Braxtyn asked.
I nodded. “We’ll have to—” I paused, shaking my head. The words were too hard to say out loud. “Without a cure, it’s hopeless.”
Braxtyn reached into his back pocket. “Princess,” he pulled something out. A black, plastic stick that I didn’t recognize. “There is a cu
re.”
We all froze and stared at him. “Don’t lie,” I gasped. I couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear the heartbreak if it wasn’t true.
He shook his head. “I searched through the computer and I found it. Cole had it the entire time so I downloaded it. The cure is here.” He handed the thing—the cure— to his brother. “Your mother can live, lass.”
Chapter Nine
It took a few hours to get back to the city. The minute we got there, Akir and Braxtyn hopped out of the vehicle and went to their lab, to give the cure to their scientists. They never looked back at me once.
They would need time. Both of them. I couldn’t imagine their anger, their desperation. It was why Braxtyn had tackled Akir to the ground, had tried to prevent him from killing their father in the first place. Why he’d been so angry afterwards. Because he’d had the cure the whole time. But now their father was gone. And they’d never get the chance to see him again.
I was ridden with guilt at the thought. That my mother would get the cure, that she’d become human again while they lost their father and brother in one day. I felt so guilty, that I couldn’t even go see her, days after we had already arrived.
I had no idea if they’d given her the cure, if the information Braxtyn had downloaded from Cole’s computer was even valuable. I shut myself in, away from everyone. Akir hadn’t bothered to come see me, too busy running his kingdom, speaking with his brother and avoiding me. I wondered if it would hurt him to look in my eyes, to know that I was the lucky one in this entire situation. I knew it would hurt me.
So I stayed in, taking a room far away from Akir’s. A servant brought me all my meals but otherwise, I saw no one. Kael had knocked at the door and tried coaxing me out from the other side. When I didn’t reply, he gave me no information, no news. Instead, he’d left.
It wasn’t until a week later that the door to my room opened. I looked up from the bed to see River limping in. He closed the door behind him and leaned heavily on a wooden cane. I blinked at it and then back at him.
He shrugged. “Kael insists I use it for the time being. Of course, he also insists that I stay in bed but I’m tired of being coddled.”
I sat up, scooting to the edge of the bed and letting my legs dangle down. “How are you feeling?” I asked, eyeing his legs. He wore jeans and at first glance, everything seemed perfectly normal. But I knew better.
“Tired of being treated like a damn cripple.” He grunted as he walked forward and took a seat next to me.
“No more self pity?” I asked with a tinge of tired sarcasm.
“A little self pity is healthy,” he retorted. “And let me ask you this, Keanna, what the hell are you doing?”
I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
He gave me a stern look. “What the hell are you doing? It’s been a week and you’re still locked up in here. Why?”
I shrugged, suddenly finding the strings on the quilt beneath me much more interesting. Then I felt the painful tug at my ear and snapped up, swatting River’s hand away. “Ow!”
He glared at me. “You’re shunning your duties, your Highness.”
“Blah,” I stuck my tongue out. “Royalty can do whatever the fuck they want.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure your mother would disagree.”
The mention of my mother had me tensing up all over again. But River knew me so well, was atune to my every reaction. “Keanna,” he whispered.
And because I couldn’t take it, couldn’t take the sadness in his voice, I groaned, flinging myself back onto the pillows. “I’ve made a giant mess of things, haven’t I?”
“Afraid so.”
I groaned again. “I can’t go out there, Riv. I can’t look at Akir, I can’t look at any of them knowing that they’ll never have their king again while I get to have my mother. How is that fair?”
“Would you rather your mother be dead?”
I sat up ramrod straight to glare at him. “Of course not,” I snapped. “But the guilt is eating me alive. What if we would have waited a bit longer? What if we wouldn’t have attacked? What if Braxtyn had shown up sooner to let us know? Their dad would be alive right now.”
River sighed and slowly leaned his cane against the side of the bed and stretched his legs out in front of him. “What if,” he began. “What if Kael couldn’t have saved me?” I opened my mouth to reply but he cut me off, voice rising slightly. “What if Akir died at his father’s hand? What if Cole hadn’t been born bitter and crazy? What if Lex had never left a note in the first place?”
My face heated. “What’s your point?”
“My point is you can’t live your life according to ‘what if’s’, Keanna. Because the reality is different. Things happened and we can’t change what they did and why would you want to? We wouldn’t even be who we are without everything that happened to us. Would you really want to change it?”
I picked at the strings on the blankets for a brief second. “Are you saying that you wouldn’t give anything to get your leg back?” I nodded at his prosthetic one.
He reached a hand over and pat his knee. “I can’t say I won’t miss it. But I lost it saving your life.” He looked at me then and there was a burning intensity in his dark gaze that heated me all over. “I’d gladly lose any part of me if it meant you got to live another day. So to answer your question, no, I would not change anything.”
The tears fell down my cheeks before I even felt them at the backs of my eyelids. I swiped them away with annoyance. “The others may not think the same.”
River smiled and reached a hand out to ruffle my curls. “You’ll never know unless you talk to them. Besides, we both know what Kael will say…”
I smiled and we said in unison, “We all went with you willingly.” I burst out laughing, feeling the pain and a bit of the guilt ease with the action.
“I think it’s time for you to emerge, Princess.” River’s fingers passed over mine, a tickle of feeling against my skin.
I knew he was right, knew that I had to face the masses someday. If I was to be married to Akir, if he still wanted to, if I wanted to, I was going to have to face his people. My people. I needed to show them, to show him that I was capable. The time for self pity was over.
“Thank you,” I whispered, letting my fingers thread through his.
“I live to serve, your Highness,” he joked.
I rolled my eyes. “If you live to serve, then come here.” I tugged lightly at his hand. “I’m not ready to leave just yet.” River smiled at me as I pulled him down to the mattress so his body covered my own. “Besides,” I added with a smirk, “you still haven’t shown me what you did to make the baker’s daughter scream so much.”
He chuckled, placing his palms on either side of my head to keep himself upright. His dark curls fell over his forehead and I reached up to brush a lock aside, my hand lingering. His breath on the skin of my wrist was warm and comforting.
“Keanna,” he whispered against my flesh. The sound of my name on his lips made a shiver slide slowly down my spine. He flexed his arms, the cords and muscles moving. I smiled and turned my head to press a kiss against his wrist. He groaned. “Keanna, are you sure?” He asked with uncertainty. I saw the doubt cloud his eyes and there was fear there as well. “I’m not—I mean, do you want to? I’m not exactly what I once was…”
I putt a finger to his lips, silencing him, then leaned up to show him just how much I wanted him. Our lips touched, my own parting his to taste and feel the texture of his tongue. The warmth of our breaths mingled, urged me on. I nipped and sucked, causing River to groan. When I felt his hand slip to my lower back, I pressed myself up against him, putting pressure to my core.
I broke away gasping. “You know I’ll never stop wanting you.” I slid my hands down the front of his chest as he held me in place. I let them roam over his shirt, down his sides, to his hips. I stilled there, locking gazes with him. “This,” I rubbed my hand down his thigh, the one holding the prosthetic
leg. “This changes nothing, Riv.”
He gulped and just like that, he was kissing me, pushing me against the mounds of pillows to settle his weight over me. I welcomed his heavy warmth, parting my thighs as he settled between them.
He bent down low to press a warm kiss to my lips. More. I wanted more. But then his mouth was dipping lower, pressing opened mouth kisses to my throat. I fell apart in his arms, groaning at the sensations he was causing, at the way his mouth warmed me down to my very core. I lifted my hips up to meet his, feeling the restrictions of clothing press up against me, causing me momentary relief.
His hands slid up my shirt, teasing at the skin around my stomach, the calluses on his fingertips were rough against the softness of my own skin and I welcomed the scrape of it. My shirt lifted with his movements, slow, so slowly he pulled it from my body, tossing it aside. I was bared before him and his eyes darkened as if he were seeing me for the first time. As if he couldn’t quite believe that I was under him, my body so responsive as his fingers traveled higher to skim across my nipples.
Our relationship had always been princess and her guard. But it had been more than that. We’d been best friends. Our relationship had been about flirtation, about knowing each other more deeply than we knew ourselves. And it was about competition. It was so simple, what we shared and ever since we’d started our journey to come to the Ruined City, the boundaries of our relationship had changed immensely.
Maybe it was because all the other males around me. Maybe River had strived to compete since day one. But flirtation became something more. We suddenly had the boldness, the courage to take what we’d wanted all along.
And River took.
His head dipped again to press a kiss down to my collar bone, mouth moving lower, slower as if he had all the time in the world. He was dragging out the foreplay. He knew I wanted him, knew my thighs were screaming as I grinded harshly into him. But still he took his time to savour every bit of me. He moved lower, tongue flicking out to brush against my nipple. I groaned at the brief contact. More. I wanted more. My fingers found my way to his hair, nails scraping against his scalp. His chest rumbled with deep laughter a second before his tongue was out again, the warm rasp of it against my breasts, tightening my nipples to a painful peak. He went from one to the other, showing both equal love. He kissed and teased and explored, hands raking over the entirety of my exposed skin.
Freeing the Beasts (The Hybrid Trilogy Book 3) Page 9
