Page 185 of Red Ruin

I can only rage at him while Kyorgos heals.

We aren’t done.

Azrid ignores me and drops to a crouch. While Kyorgos is clocked out, he runs a finger under the bastard’s collar. “Pity. Liches have very little blood.”

I gag. “If this is like the time I caught you drinking that dead centaur…”

Azrid was so fucking out of it, he thought I was trying to steal his hooves. We fought for days.

We always do.

Racing to the edge of that last rampage.

We’re too strong to die easy.

“That never happened,” Remy says absently. He’s still fucking with the lich’s collar.

“Really? Lucky you.”Wish I could forget the bad shit.

Iris keeps fucking power-washing my soul. I can breathe, I can think, but some shit is better left buried.

I kick Kyorgos onto his back. My claws hover, dripping with flames. No matter how much I want to crush and burn his all-skull face, Iris saidno killing.

I wouldn’t disobey her.

I alsocan’tdisobey her, but it’s all the same.

I want to be her good boy.

“Finish your monologue,” Azrid says, tugging at the lich’s thinned-out hair.

“What?” I never know what the fuck to do with the bat when I’m mostly sober and he’s still on his weird shit.

“What pisses you off?” He plucks a hair from Kyorgos’ scalp, flicks it to the ground, then pinches off another strand. “I’d like to know. For absolutely benign purposes.”

I snort so hard that steam comes out. “Nobles. That’s the whole list. House Azrid near the tippy fucking top.”

Nothing can shake Trezzoran from most-hated in my heart, but Kyorgos is comingso fucking close. “This grub-sack thinks he deserves her.”

“None of us could,” Azrid says darkly. “Different bloodlines. Same monster.”

Fuck.

“I’m not like him.” My claws drive into my clenched palms. “I’m not likeyou.”

Theyobeyed.

Both good little Sentinels, following in their daddies’ boot-steps to serve the empire.

“You would’ve been.” Azridtsks. “If you’d had a choice.”

I fireball his face.

Azrid deflects. My hellfire booms against his shield.

Before I can take a second shot, Kyorgos stirs.

The lich’s eyes are finally refocusing.