Page 160 of A Dance of Shadows

Linus waggles the broken wine bottle at him. “You think you can end it, do you? How long have you been scheming with her to put me down? I should have known you were too far gone. That treacherous bitch.”

Marc’s next words come out in a growl. “You will not talk about my wife that way.” He angles his blade with his next step. “You’re the one who’s too far gone. You’re the one spreading misery and doing everything you can to tear apart our empire. If Father had seen what you’d make of it?—”

Linus sputters a laugh. “What? You think he’d have given it all to you? He always knew you don’t have the knack for makingpeople actuallyhappy. You can’t just ride in and wave your sword around to get everything you?—”

With a roar, Marc springs at him. His dagger crashes against Linus’s bottle, completely shattering the glass.

Undeterred, Linus ducks and rams the top of his head into his brother’s gut, hard enough that Marc lets out an oof of breath.

While they grapple with each other, I bend over. Once I’ve tucked my knife beneath my armpit, I manage to scoop Coraya out of the cradle. She nestles into my embrace with a mild grunt of protest.

If I can just make it to the door…

The twins are wrestling several paces from my path there. I don’t know how they’ll react if I move to leave. But I have to try.

My legs tremble under me, more blood pooling between them. For a second, my head swims. I tighten my arms around my daughter to make sure I don’t drop her.

I take a step—and my knees buckle. They jar against the floor.

While I struggle to push upright again, the two men roll over on the rug. Marc is trying to hack at Linus with his dagger, but he can’t get any leverage with his twin so close. Linus keeps wrenching his brother’s arm away, throwing his strikes off balance.

A rough chuckle breaks from Linus’s lips. “You’re scared you’re going to lose, Marc. You know you’re nearly beaten.”

His gift—Marc told me he can pick up on people’s fears.

But the saner twin doesn’t appear fazed by Linus’s claim. He twists away from Linus’s flailing blows. His eyes narrow and then gleam with a knowing light.

Perhaps he’s used his own gift for sensing the weakest point on his twin’s body, because his tone steadies with perfect confidence. “And Aurelia must have given you quite a beating,weak as you like to pretend she is. She almost broke your ribs—did you know that? There’s the tiniest fracture already. Right?—”

He slams the hilt of his dagger down on the exact spot on Linus’s back where I kicked him. The crack that resonates through the air suggests at least one of those ribs is shattered now.

As I finally get my feet under me again, Linus’s body spasms around his groan of pain. He yanks at Marc’s legs, but his movements are shakier now.

Marc heaves himself away from his brother and shoves to his feet. Without hesitation, he drives his blade down into Linus’s side between the ribs he broke.

A dribble of blood spurts over Linus’s lips. His body sags against the rug.

Marc drops his dagger and backs up a pace, his chest heaving with the exertion—and maybe with a little lingering anguish over what his brother had become. Over the lengths he had to go to in solving that problem.

He pivots toward me. I freeze with my arms locked around Coraya, but Marc only… smiles.

The crooked angle of his lips and the light dancing in his eyes look as manic as Linus often did in his most dangerous moods. My pulse thunders in my head, dizzying me even more.

Marc’s gaze slides to my vanity, and a croak of a laugh bursts out of him. He snatches up the lantern.

“We’ll burn him right out of existence,” he tells me. “Like he was never here at all. It can be just you and me, like it always should have been.”

It doesn’t feel like an ideal time to point out that Linus isn’t the only obstacle blocking whatever happy ending Marc is imagining. When I attempt another step, a sudden flare of pain sears through my abdomen.

I press my lips together against a gasp. I need to get to the door. I also need to get off my feet before I completely collapse.

Great God help me. As soon as Marc turns his back…

He hurls the lantern to the floor by Linus’s askew legs. My jaw drops.

Gods help us all. He meant a very literal burning.

The flames leap from the broken lantern to lick at Linus’s boots and slacks. But they don’t stop there.

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