Page 184 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

Rowan placed a slim hand on my arm, equal parts cautious and comforting, like she knew exactly where my mind had gone. It was enough to stay my hand. But barely.

Winning requires patience.

My father’s voice resounded in my head. It was the first thing he had said to me when I sat down for my earliest lesson on strategy, hardly tall enough to see the map he had spread across the table.

Acting on your emotions is the fastest way to wind up dead.

He had been a monster then, too, but I hadn’t known it yet. All I had seen was the duke who was respected by his entire clan, the father who was proud of me.

The war hero.

Regardless of what else he had been, though, he had been an unparalleled strategist. That much was true. So I took a breath, and then another, refusing to turn to acknowledge the man who pretended to be king. If I looked at him now, I would kill him. And if I killed him, my lemmikki would pay the price.

Besides, I didn’t just want him dead.

I wanted him defeated. And for that, I would need to bide my time a little longer.

I walked on leaden footsteps to my father’s corpse, pulling the dagger from his throat and shielding his body from view. Maybe he didn’t deserve his pride, but I would be damned if Iiro gloated even more over the destruction he had wrought.

His footsteps sounded closer behind me, but I still didn’t turn. Instead, I used my free hand to pull the blankets from the bottom of the bed, wondering who could have possibly caught him unawares enough to murder him in his own bed.

Wouldn’t he have been suspicious if Iiro had come here? Or had he already been sleeping, spent from the energy he used hiding his decaying mind day in and day out.

I paused once I had pulled the blankets up to his shoulders, my fingers brushing against the skin-covered bone. It felt frail.Hefelt frail, like his body had deteriorated right along with his mind, and I was too stuck in my memories of him to notice. It was jarring, so at odds with the warrior—themonster—I knew him to be.

“It was her. That’s her dagger.” Ava’s voice was even more grating than usual, a serrated blade dragging along the insides of my mind.

She would be next. Once Iiro had been broken, his plans destroyed, once he had lost everything the way he had tried to take everything from me, I would find a way to make sure my stepmother followed.

“There will be an investigation immediately,” Iiro announced, sounding for all the world as though he was surprised by this turn of events. “Everyone is to adjourn to the throne room.”

I finally turned to look at him. His face was carved into a serene authority, his hand outstretched for the dagger. But his eyes glinted with triumph.

“Give me the weapon.”

Every part of me rebelled at handing thataaliomy wife’s dagger. It belonged with her, where she could use it to remove his favorite body parts if he dared to come within three feet of her with his threats and his unreasonable hatred for the woman who refused to be a pawn in his games.

But the dukes were watching, and my refusal would only make this worse for her. So I held out the weapon, only narrowly resisting the urge to grant him the same death he had so graciously arranged for my father.

Winning requires patience.

And vengeance, even more so.

Iiro lounged on the throne like he had any right to it, each self-righteous drum of his fingertips adding kindling to the endless inferno of my fury.

I needed a plan, but it was hard to think through the crimson haze of my anger, especially when he had the nerve to look at my wife.

“Lady Stenvall—LadyRowanStenvall. Do you confirm this is your dagger?” he asked, eyebrows raised in a pretense of inquiry.

She took a breath, features unwavering as she lifted her chin confidently.

How does it feel to know she is still not afraid of you, even now, you pretentious, miserable svoloch?

“Yes, but it went missing this morning,” she answered in a clear voice, not allowing theaalioto cow her.

He gave her a thin, cold smile. “How convenient. I assume you reported this to someone.”

No one would have reported it to someone. It was a flimsy way to refute her claim, though the claim itself had little backing.Still, I wondered what his game was, aside from the show he was putting on.

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