Page 168 of Of Nine So Bold

The noise dwindled, though it definitely didn’t die. Rumblings of confusion still came from the giants, while Norbert and the duke glared like they wanted to peel the flesh from my bones.

“This young man isn’tonlythe heir of our late king,” Ignatius announced. “The time of the Nine has come. And ifanyone—”he fixed his eyes on Norbert and the duke briefly, “—should harm the heir or his friends, they risk our entire world.”

“The hell I do,” Norbert snarled, yanking out a knife he’d gotten from the gods knew where.

He charged straight at me.

43

ROAN

Ididn’t think. Didn’t wait.

I just let go.

The shift roared through me in an instant, transforming me into the massive form of the demon.

Yet unlike every time before, the demon didn’t shove my awareness into a dark and foggy abyss. Instead, I remained at the forefront, the demon riding with me behind our shared eyes. We were distinct, yet joined. Two personalities, two minds within our changing body.

And both of us agreed this bastard Norbert needed to die.

“Protect the king!” Dex called behind me. The others drew in, bracing themselves to defend Niko.

My brother.

The thought made me shudder, but there was no time to let it sink in. Raising a short, rusty knife, Norbert lunged with a deranged battle cry.

My claws shredded his arm. My other hand shredded his throat.

Giant or not, he was no match for what I’d become.

Norbert’s weapon went flying as his bloody corpse toppled to the ground. The crowd screamed.

“Monster!” The duke snatched up the blade that had clattered away from the idiot who tried to hurt my brother.

Oh, gods, I had abrother…

My chest ached, my longing for that to be true so strong it was physically painful. But now that entitled asshole was?—

Brock crashed into the duke. With a swift motion, the younger man disarmed Duke Ensid and took control of the knife. Spinning it smoothly in his grasp, Brock slammed it through the man’s heart.

Duke Ensid stopped cold, his mouth gaping. His hands rose, clutching at Brock’s tight grip on the weapon buried hilt-deep in his chest. “Y-you… you…”

Brock’s face was like ice, and his tone was too. “To disrespect the king is punishable by death.” With a jerk, he yanked the blade from the duke’s chest, sending the dead man toppling to the ground.

The duke’s few remaining henchmen skidded to a halt. Their eyes darted from me to Brock and then to my friends. Quickly, they held up their hands. “H-hail King Niko,” stammered the one in the lead. His buddies echoed the words, suddenly appearing eager to be anywhere but here.

Brock looked past me at Clay and Lars, but since the demon and I both struggled to read people on a good day, neither of us had a chance in hell of interpreting his expression now.

Meanwhile, my friends just seemed stunned.

And behind them was… mybrother.

My entire body shuddered. How could Niko be related to me when I wasthis?

I wanted it to be true, though. Gods, Ineededit to be. I’d lost my childhood family, and I’d spent years fearing that, if the truth about my nature was revealed, the new family I’d built with my friends would be destroyed too. And when mybeautiful, precious treluria Gwyneira came along, that fear had only grown.

But things had changed. I’d learned I could stay in control. My demon side and Ibothcould. Right now it even felt like the demon was taking our bargain one step farther, letting me stay in control and at the forefront of our shared mind in this form. Like it was giving me a peace offering, trying to prove it reallycouldbe trusted, even when we were likethis.

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