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Galleghar parries the blow, the blades sparking at the force of the hit, then he’s gone again.

I vanish to darkness, sensing him reforming above me. I coalesce back into a man only for my father to dissipate into shadow once more. Now he’s behind me, now he’s across the room. I chase him, weaving through the battlefield around us. Malaki bleeds from his abdomen, and Janus is holding his arm close.

Temper might be the least hurt, but her eyes have started to glow; the sorceress is losing her mind and will to her power.

And Callie, Callie is facing off against the worst monster of them all. I have doomed her to him. Even now I quake at the thought of—

Galleghar reforms in front of me. I manifest in front of him, my blade poised. He aims his sword for my stomach, and my swing becomes a defensive strike, knocking his weapon aside.

Galleghar laughs. “You cannot kill me.Nothingcan kill me.”

“Is that why you bound yourself to the Thief? So you could never die?”

A question hardly worth asking. Of course the fool picked the most malevolent being to cobind himself to.

“Secrets are meant for one soul to keep,” Galleghar says.

I nearly drop my sword. My mother used to say that to me when I was a boy. When the sleeping soldiers began to whisper it, I wondered why.

Galleghar strikes out again, and I meet the blow with my blade.

“That bitch who whelped you said that to me.” Galleghar says behind our locked blades. “Did you know that? Over and over she’d whisper that into my ear like a taunt. But the joke’s on her because she’s dead and the only miserable thing she cared about will die a horrible, grisly death.

“My little spy,” Galleghar continues. “The Thief sees her from time to time. Has he told you that?”

Cold-pressed rage drips into my veins.

If what he says is true …

“He loves to torment the dead, and even for our kind, his attentions are uncommonly wicked.”

The two of us are still locked by our blades, the metal grinding against each other.

“At least your mother will get a break soon,” Galleghar continues. “Once I kill your mate, the Thief’s attention will be wholly occupied. I almost pity that slave of yours. He will make her do things that would make even whores blush.”

I feel my icy hatred expand.

“He might even make you watch.”

I shove Galleghar’s weapon back, our swords unlocking. There is nothing I’d love more than to run him through. But I haven’t survived this long by giving into my temper.

Several sleeping soldiers break away from their fighting when they notice I haven’t disappeared. They leap into the air, their wings unfurling, their weapons pointed towards me. I disappear and reform only long enough to kill each one.

The soldiers’ lifeless forms fall from the air, and I heave several breaths, my body bloody, as I approach my father once more.

Galleghar’s eyes flick briefly to the falling dead.

“All that power,” he murmurs, “I’m almost proud to see how strong my blood flows.”

“You could’ve spared yourself all of this,” I say. “I’m only fighting because you wish me dead.” Because he learned of his fate, and thus made it his mission to kill every last one of his offspring.

Galleghar laughs, like I’m some fool, rather than a seasoned king and criminal.

“Don’t delude yourself,son. That is not the only reason.”

I scowl at him.

“Don’t you feel it?” he asks. “Our brutality is right there in our magic, simmering through our veins. If I’d chosen a more peaceful path, I’d still have died by my broods’ sword. We are a poisoned lot.”