Page 56 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

“Have you come to kill me?” I ask.

He smiles, cruel and cutting like the blades whirling around us. “Do you think you deserve it?”

I shake my head. “No. I fell in love. I won’t apologize for that. Sarielle made her choice, too, and she has that right.”

“You told me as much outside the Court of Memory,” Jonavus says. “But of course, you don’t remember that now.”

“I may not remember much of recent years, brother, but what I do remember is that you were never malicious. Never devoid of morals.” I cock my head to the side, appraising. “Arrogant, perhaps. Entitled. But you had a good heart. Is it still in there anywhere?”

“Heart? No. I have no heart,brother.” He snarls the word as if it’s poison. “You broke it years ago when you let that dark creature kill our youngest sibling. And you shattered the fractured pieces left of it when you stole my bride.”

“So, you’ve truly hated me all these years? Ever since Tomyn died?” I haven’t spoken the name of my younger brother in centuries, and a shiver moves over me.

“How could I not? It’s your own vileness, your own dirty blood that killed him. The monster that lives insideyou.”

I feel an intense swell of sorrow in my gut, but also a release. A knowledge that there is no changing my brother’s mind. No going back. “I’m sorry it’s like this between us,” I say. “I’m sorry that you are my enemy.”

“Your choices led to this,” he growls.

“No.” I shake my head and tighten my grip on my sword. “It’syourchoices that led us here. You chose to hate me because of my blood. You chose to turn against me and Sarielle. And now you fight for Avonia, though I realize she controls you. The brother I knew before would never have given his crown to a traitor.”

“It doesn’t matter, in the end.” Jonavus eyes me with hot hatred. “We are here, and your illegitimate queen will be dethroned today.”

A swirl of shadows moves around me. “You must know I will never let that happen.”

“You can’t win this fight,” my brother growls. “You are vastly outnumbered.”

“Sarielle commands one of the most ancient nightmares in existence. She’s worth half your force easily.”

Jonavus smiles. “Oh, butisshe?”

The look on his face sends a spike of dread through my veins. I look up, my gaze spinning across the battle to see where Sarielle is. I’d been so distracted by my brother that now I realize the trap, and I pray it’s not too late.

But no sooner have the words moved through my head than I hear the sickeningtwangof a catapult.

A giant boulder flies through the air, released from the catapult that had been slowly wheeled up the path to the courtyard while we were all locked in battle. My heart stops as my gaze follows its arc through the air. And then I see the terminus of that arc, the giant winged beast that swoops down, oblivious to the threat.

“Sarielle!” I yell.

The boulder collides with Astherius, hitting her in the shoulder. She plummets from the sky, and I see Sarielle fall off sideways. They’re a good fifty feet above the courtyard. They fall, Astherius hitting first with a horrificboom, and Sarielle amoment later. I lose sight of her body as she lands amidst the throng of warriors locked in combat.

I lunge forward, but Jonavus blocks my path.

“Not today, brother,” he leers with a sick smile. “Ever the hero. But today, you havefailed. If she is still alive, which I seriously doubt, I will make sure she suffers unimaginably until she draws her last breath. I can promise you that.”

“And I promise you those will be among the last words you utter in this life,” I growl.

Twisting my sword, I thrust it toward him, but he sidesteps, whipping up his own blade to block me.

“We were always equally matched with a blade,” Jonavus says, the manic grin still on his face.

“That’s because I was holding back.”

I parry again, and this time I draw blood along his left shoulder. My brother’s eyes narrow slightly, and then he comes at me with everything he’s got.

We go round and round. The rest of the battle rages around us, but our battle seems the nucleus of it all, the black heart that beats for everyone in this courtyard. Images flash through my head. Jonavus, Tomyn, and I as boys, me as the eldest showing them how to fish. Sitting around the dinner table with our parents, Jonavus making a joke that our mother scolded him for. Riding our horses too fast through the mountain passes every day of summer.

It seems impossible that it has all come to this.

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