Page 78 of Blood and Thorns

My neck jerked to the side, her slap stinging my cheek.

“Bas?” Caden lifted his fist, his knuckles knocking me back hard enough my teeth clashed together. “I need you to stay with us. Seriously, we don’t know it’s her.”

Langdon was frantic in my peripheral, but I couldn’t concentrate on him while this energy beat inside my head. The memory calling for pain. For vengeance for my family that were nothing but ghosts.

“The photograph could be fake. Dad said she was dead, that he dealt with it himself,” Caden insisted. His knuckles were red from where he’d just hit me, and I needed the pain again, because when I closed my eyes all I could see was my father’s mistress holding that knife.

“You spoiled little brat,” Margot snarled at me, blood trickling down her lips. Her eyes were dark when she slashed down my face, pitch black.

Pain erupted, so sharp before she did it again, then again.

“Margot, stop!” Dad cried, his voice scratchy from screaming.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I couldn’t open my eye, the skin around it already beginning to swell. I swayed on my knees, my body feeling hollow. Empty as I struggled to stay awake.

But I had to, for Noah and Beau.

“Why didn’t you pick me?” Margot cried, her once beautiful face made uglier with despair. “You should’ve picked me, Mael. We could’ve ruled this empire together, but now, you’re just going to watch everything you love burn.”

Another blow to my jaw, forcing me back into the present. Caden swore beneath his breath, shaking his hand out with a wince. “Bas, you good?”

The rage choked me, all consuming as I tried to force the memory of the woman who destroyed my family to the back of my mind. She was once the nanny, but behindclosed doors my father was promising her a life where she could run his empire beside him. When in reality she was nothing but a hole he’d toss away once bored.

He’d done it before, I knew, being the eldest. My mother knew too, and I saw how each woman he took to their bed broke her heart just a little bit more. So I’d begun to hate him long before I watched my mum be raped, and then my brothers beaten until they no longer moved. All because of him.

I felt nothing as his throat was slit, my chest hollow as the man who I’d planned to kill left his children alone to defend against his fucking mistress.

It was my brothers’ cries that broke me, their smaller bodies fighting with everything in them. All while Margot watched, laughing. Then she set them alight, forcing me to watch while I bled out.

A blur flashed to my right, and I caught Caden’s next hit in my hand. Dropping his fist, I turned to Langdon, who stood stiff, an edge to his eyes that worried me.

“We need to tighten everything up,” I gritted out, ignoring how my palm ached along with the welt on my jaw.

His nod was stiff, his hands coming up to sign. “No mistakes.”

“Agreed.” Caden stepped towards us, clamping a hand on Langdon’s shoulder. “And if she’s back, then we take her out.”

“Same page,” Langdon signed.

“Same fucking word,” I snarled, feeling this wrath pulsating inside my chest. “And call Alexander to meet us. I think it’s time he explained what the fuck happened.”

Chapter 35

Arabella

The city below carried on, oblivious to my existence. Which shouldn’t surprise me, considering I wasbarelyexisting when I was down there anyway.

Knees pulled to my chest, I sat at the studio window and watched the world shrink into ant-sized figures, too distant to recognise. Still, I liked to imagine they were thriving, living full, vibrant lives while I remained locked in my tower.

Trapped with my books.

Once, that sounded like a dream. Reading all day with no real responsibilities. But in reality, it was suffocating. A quiet kind of madness that crept in with every passing hour of stillness.

The lift dinged, and I found myself jumping up. I was almost excited to see Sebastian, not that I would ever admit that out loud, because at least he was here.

Picking up my book, I walked out to find Chip stepping out of the lift. “Oh, hi. You’re here late,” I commented, pleased to see him because holy fuck someone talk to me before I start losing my mind.