by Susan Harris
Rage lit a spark in my veins; I was simmering. “It was you,” I whispered.
“What was me, Ryan? Say it.”
“You were the traitor. You let the rogues into our home. You killed dozens of your own people because you were jealous. You murdered my parents.”
Anatoly smiled. “I did. Let me tell you how they died. It was only supposed to be you and your mother; Tristian was supposed to survive. But as Imogen saved Katerina’s life, I drove a rogue sword right through her heart. She wasn’t even surprised, your mother; she simply looked behind me as I withdrew the sword. She was watching your father.”
My heart stopped beating. My lungs no longer worked.
“Then he rushed forward, and I had no choice but to drive the same sword through your father’s stomach. Your father went to his death hearing me promise that I would have you join them in Eden. I sent the rogues to kill you, too, but you are just like your mother, seeing ghosts and bewitching those around you. Maxim was a fool to fall for it, and so is my son.”
A shadow emerged from the darkness; however, Anatoly was oblivious to the vampire who stood just downwind of him. Anatoly’s focus was totally on me, and I needed to hear him say it again.
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “Tell me again.”
His laughter filled the silence. “I drove a blade through your mother’s heart as your father watched. Then I ran him through like a pig. Even when I knew they were dead, I stabbed them over and over again just because I could.”
23
“What the fuck did you just say?” Nickolai’s voice was coiled anger as he stepped forward to glare at his father.
Anatoly’s gaze shot to Nickolai, then slid coolly back to me. “Clever girl. Now if I kill you, I’ll have to kill my son as well. Aren’t I lucky to have a spare heir lying around?”
I recoiled in horror at Anatoly’s words as he angled his body so he could keep an eye on the both of us.
“Explain it to me, Anatoly. Explain to me why you betrayed your family and the crown. Explain it to me now, or I will cut you down where you stand.”
Anatoly smirked. “You would never understand. You are the golden child, the heir to the kingdom. As soon as you were old enough, I was ousted to give you time to learn from your mother. I became a prop. People lost respect for me and saw me as a mere consort. King had no bearing anymore.”
Nickolai’s hands clenched and unclenched. “I don’t care about your petty insecurities. Tell me how you were responsible for the massacre that killed so many of our people.”
I was utterly sickened at the slow smile that crept over Anatoly’s lips.
“Maxim Smyrnoi and I were friends when he was overlooked to marry Mia. He genuinely loved her and she him. But like a good little female should, she shut her mouth and opened her legs. I helped Maxim and Mia meet up on occasion, and when Mia stopped going to him, Maxim turned rogue.
“He reached out to me,” the king continued. “He knew that I was amassing a force to overthrow your mother and asked if I wanted help from vampires who were not bound by court rules and politics. The raid was a distraction to take out the two people whom Katerina turned to for counsel, so she would depend on me more. If she hadn’t, then I would have poisoned her and taken the crown.”
Nickolai punched his father square in the jaw and Anatoly went down in the grass, but he didn’t stay down long. He got to his feet and laughed, and Nickolai growled in fury.
“Tristian and Imogen were doing their jobs, protecting you and Mom. And you killed them for it.”
“I killed that sanctimonious bitch for free. Your mother was in love with her and followed Imogen around like a puppy. Just like you with her, Nico,” he said, gesturing toward me. “I gave you Natalya, and yet you still chose to wait for that little whore. Like mother like son, I suppose.”
Anatoly’s sneer was the last straw. I launched myself at him, but Nickolai snagged me around the waist.
“I promise you will get your vengeance, but now I need as much from him as possible.”
I relaxed in Nickolai’s arms and then stepped back to glare at Anatoly.
“It still amazes me,” Anatoly said to no one in particular. “You are like a cockroach. You survive everything thrown at you. I was just about to slit your throat when Jack stormed in to carry you away from your parents’ bodies. There was the explosion, Maxim’s little pet fae, even when you ran away to your father’s birthplace and hid out for the day. You managed to stay well-enough hidden that the rogue I sent to kill you couldn’t find you. You just won’t die.”
A feral snarl erupted from Nickolai’s lips. “And what do you hope to do now, Father?” he spat, saying the word father like it was a curse. “Enlighten me on what the plan with the rogues was. What did you hope to achieve?”
Anatoly held out his hands. “This should have been mine. I was destined to become king, and I would have changed the laws so you might never have received the crown. I would choose my successor, like the kings of old, on my deathbed many years from now. With your mother out of the way, Nico, you could be free to do whatever you want. I’d even let you have the witch if you never contested my rule.”
“I’m listening.”
Anatoly blinked in surprise, not knowing his son well enough to recognize what the flat, emotionless tone of his voice meant. Nickolai was merely humoring his father to get more information.
“You could travel the world after you relinquished any claim to the throne. Then the rogues could have a seat at the table, and we would swell our ranks. Instead of sending princes to integrate with humans, we would reveal ourselves to the world and take what is rightfully ours as the supreme species.”
By Eve, Anatoly had drunk the rogue Kool-Aid and honestly believed what he was saying.
“In a couple of decades, once you’ve lived a life other than the one forced on you, then I would announce you as my heir. You would have to hand the guard back to me, and then I would replace O’Reilly as captain because he would never bow to me.”
I knew by replace Anatoly meant murder, and I was certain Nickolai did, too.
“You see, Anatoly, that’s where you’re wrong.” Nickolai had an eerily calm smile on his face. “The role of king was never forced on me; it’s who I was born to be. I was never playing a role; I will be king. Whether tomorrow or years from now, I was destined to rule and rule I will. While you were plotting treason, you failed to notice that I was slowly growing into that role.”
Nickolai straightened his tall frame and squared his shoulders. “You have committed treason against the crown, Anatoly Mikhail Dimitri Petrov, and once you have given evidence to the queen, you will be put to death.”
Anatoly snarled at the sound of his former clan name, one he had given up to become a Romanov and thus, end his clan. To have Nickolai take the royal name from him was a fate worse than death—Anatoly would never receive a royal burial. As a traitor, he would die and become ashes on the wind without any ceremony.
“You do not have the power to renounce me yet, Son.”
“Then let us go find mother and explain to her how you murdered her best friend and planned to kill her as well.”
A car drove into the compound and stopped halfway down the path. Kristoph and Nattie got out of the car and came toward us. My heart broke for Kris, having to hear all this about his father and knowing that his father was responsible for the murders of innocent people.
“Whatever is the matter?” Kristoph asked.
Nickolai turned his eyes to his brother. “Our father is a traitor. He is the one who let the rogues into the compound ten years ago. He murdered Tristan and Imogen Callan himself so he could be king.”
For a moment, there was absolute silence—not a single sound broke through the darkness. I watched Kristoph’s face, expecting to see shock, horror, even revulsion. Yet, his face remained stoic for a couple of heartbeats, and then… he laughed.
It was a harsh bark of sound that oddly mimicked Anatol
y’s own laugh. Beside Kristoph, Nattie smirked at me as she held Kristoph’s hand tightly. Kristoph rolled his eyes, and I no longer saw the young vampire who was always smiling and ready to banter.
Instead, I saw a miniature version of his father.
“Is that all? Really, Nico, it was quite obvious. What Father is trying to do is change this archaic rule where a monarch’s firstborn rules our every move. You are the golden child, the one who can do no wrong, and me—I’m the spare heir.”
Nickolai paled and shook his head. “No, Kris, no. I have never once treated you like a spare heir. You are my brother, and I love you.”
“Do you love me enough to give me the crown?”
“That’s not the way it works, Kris.”
“But you were willing to give it up for her,” Nattie spat. “I heard Jack and Atticus talking one night, and they said you would give up the crown for Ryan. You’d give everything up for her but not for Kristoph, your own brother.”
I took a menacing step toward Nattie. “Nattie, hush. The grownups are talking.”
She shot me a glare with a hint of something dangerous in her eyes, yet I ignored it, turning back to the family dispute that was about to break the royal family apart. There was no coming back from this.
“I played the part of little brother, of second prince, all my life. Mother never saw me. She only saw her future heir. She made plans for you, Nico. She would never have indulged me to go off into the human world and go to school. She would never have given me the choice to marry the girl I love, yet she was willing to give you that choice.”
Nickolai huffed in frustration, and I wanted to take him in my arms and tell him everything would be alright. That we would get through this together. I was surprised at how remarkably calm I was. I had discovered the person who’d killed my parents, yet he was still breathing.
Certainly, I was livid; I could feel the anger under my skin, but I couldn’t move my feet. It baffled and amazed me that I could let him live, but I knew couldn’t take his life. Not yet.
Anatoly clapped Kristoph on the shoulder. “You see, Nico? Kristoph knows all about what happened, and he doesn’t care. He understands that the order in which you are born or the family you were born into should not determine your ability to rule. Before Anastasia Romanov, kings and queens took the crown by force. And that is what Kris and I will do. Even Natalya has shown what a good queen she will someday be.”
“What, because she can sit quietly and do as she’s told?” I spat. “She’s not a queen; she’s just a pretty doormat.”
Nattie hissed at me, and I grinned. Then she blurted out, “Who do you think was in contact with Maxim? Who do you think fed the rogues information? I was the reason Maxim knew you were alone when that stupid human got herself murdered.”
A gust of wind blew through our group as Krista appeared and shoved Nattie, sending her flailing backward in surprise.
I chuckled. “The stupid human says, ‘fuck you,’ Nattie.”
“Ryan,” Krista said, “I told Edison that you and Nickolai needed help. He’s on the way.”
Then Krista vanished as quickly as she’d appeared, and I wondered how in the hell she and Edison were communicating.
Nattie shot me a look of distain, and that’s when I saw it—the sharp beak of her nose, the slant of her eyes, hell, even the color of her hair. She glared at me with a familiar expression that made me gasp in shock.
“Maxim Smyrnoi is your fucking father.”
Nickolai had the good graces to look horrified if not surprised. Nattie swept her hair off her shoulders, and I jerked forward and gripped her chin to look into her eyes. There was no hint of red, no rogue blood-eyes. Maxim was Nattie’s father, but she was not a rogue. Yet.
Nattie put her gloved hand on my face and shoved me away with what little strength she had. I dismissed her with the wave of my hand.
“Natalya Smyrnoi, dissed and dismissed by even her own father. I mean, come on Nattie, the old man has put more effort into seeing me in the last few months than he has you.”
Nattie snarled as Anatoly held up his hand. “Enough of this. Here is what is going to happen, Nickolai. You can leave this compound now, and I will tell your mother you relinquished the crown to me, that is your wish. She will be heartbroken, but I will convince her of the need for another child. That should keep her quiet for a while.”
Shaking my head, I braced myself for a weaponless fight with the constraint that I needed to protect Nickolai at all costs. That was my job. Right now, he was my future king, and I could not dwell on the fact that only hours ago, we had finally gotten together.
“You and Ryan can walk away right now,” Anatoly continued.
“And behind Door Number Two?” I asked, my tone even and my fists clenched.
“I kill you both now, and we blame the rogues.”
Nickolai growled and took a step forward when Kristoph held up his hand. He went to his father and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Alas, dear father, there is also a third option.”
We were so focused on Anatoly and Kristoph that we neglected to keep an eye on Nattie. Never in a million years would I have believed it, but I saw it all happen in slow motion before my eyes. A glint of familiar silver made my heart lurch at the very moment Nattie drove my sai into Anatoly’s heart.
The king’s eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the weapon protruding from his chest. My hands trembled, and I reacted before I could gather my thoughts. My fingers gripped the hilt as Nickolai shouted my name, and I yanked the sai out as the king dropped to the grass.
Blood dripped from the sai, and I looked down at it in horror. The king took one shaky breath, and then he stared up at us with dead eyes. Anatoly was dead and would never be punished for his crimes. Nattie had killed him using my weapon—one no other vampire in this court wielded.
Why?
“Ryan, catch.”
I acted on autopilot and then found myself holding both of my mother’s sai in my hands. I lifted my eyes to where Kristoph and Nattie stood.
“I’m sorry it had to go this way, Ryan. I was always quite fond of you. But you killed the king in a fit of rage. It was to be expected, considering your mind was broken at the hands of a fae who implanted it into your mind that the king killed your parents. It’s a tragedy, really.”
The coldness in Kristoph’s tone made me release a shuddering breath as I glanced down at the sai in my hands. I wanted to snap that Nattie’s fingerprints would be on the sai as well, but I looked at her gloved hands and knew; knew the plan all along had been to frame me for killing the king.
I spun to lunge at Nattie, but Nickolai stepped into my path.
“Ryan.”
He said my name like it was a prayer and a curse rolled into one. His eyes were determined, and I held my breath as he turned to Kristoph.
“And what happens when I tell them exactly what happened this night?”
Kristoph waved his hand in the air. “Oh, poor Nico. So in love with the girl who murdered his father. Blinded by love, his word cannot be trusted. And in the end, I will get what I’ve always wanted.”
“And tell me, what is that Brother?”
“I become king and choose my queen.”
Nattie laughed and kissed Kris on the cheek, and I was ready to kill them both.
“Ryan.”
I tilted my head slightly to Nickolai, and the first crack in my recently reconstructed heart appeared as I saw the sadness in his eyes.
“Kristoph is right,” he said. “They will blame you. They will kill you. You need to run. You need to run like you’ve never run before until I can convince them of your innocence.”
I didn’t want to leave. I had promised Nickolai I was done running. I was all-in; I couldn’t leave him to fix this mess by himself. We were in this together, right? I didn’t want to be alone again.
“Come with me,” I whispered as Nickolai took my face in his hands.
“I would run away with you
if I could. I meant what I said—I love you. Believe me when I say it. I need to stay here and make sure the truth comes out. If I run, they win and get exactly what they want.”
I began to argue with him, but then Nickolai was kissing me, a desperate hungry, claiming kiss that was all teeth and tongue and weak knees. When he pulled back, I held out my sai.
“Take them. You will need them to keep yourself safe.”
I heard the familiar sound of the safety being taken off a gun, and I whirled to see Kristoph pointing a gun directly at my head. “Run, Ryan. I will give you a little head start before I start shooting. Or maybe I should just shoot Nico and claim self-defense.”
I hesitated for the briefest of seconds as Nattie smiled at me like she’d won the goddamn lottery, sucked in a breath, and screamed like she was in mortal danger. The sound rang in my ears as she collapsed to the ground screaming, makeup streaking down her face along with her fake-ass tears.
I darted across the grass of the compound as the doors of the house finally flung open and the royal guard spilled out into the night. They crossed the lawn in a hurry, still with ground to cover as Nickolai dove for Kristoph and the gun went off.
For a horrific minute, I feared Nickolai had been shot, but then I saw him roll Kris over onto his back. Kris hit him with the gun as I leapt onto the ledge of the wall surrounding the compound. Shouts rang in my ears, but I drowned them all out.
Realizing I’d never told Nickolai exactly how I felt about him, I yelled Nickolai’s name, needing him to hear it. When his eyes found mine, I took a deep breath and yelled, “I love you, too.”
A sad smile ghosted his lips as Kristoph got to his feet and pulled the trigger again.
Turned out, Kristoph was one hell of a shot.
The bullet tore through my thigh, and I staggered backward, free-falling off the wall and grunting as I hit the ground with a thud. Pain screamed in my thigh as I scrambled to my feet and took off limping as fast as I could. With every step, my leg burned in agony, and I groaned.
Hiding my sai in the pocket of my hoodie, I dragged myself into the shadow of the trees. I had promised I wouldn’t run, yet here I was running—or rather, limping—away. I’d told destiny she could bite me, and now, by Eve, destiny had sucker-punched me right in the heart.
