Page 49 of Cruel Vampire King

“Greyson,” Luken rumbled, his amber gaze lingering on the elf. “You are not who you claim to be.”

Greyson’s grip on his sword tightened. He narrowed his eyes at Luken.

With a flourish, Luken turned to the waiting crowd. “This man is no elf. He’s half-elf, half-vampire. And he has been working with dark forces against me, against our kingdom. He’stried to destabilize us and bring about a reign of ruin. Haven’t you… brother?”

The guards who brought us our weapons backpedaled with shocked cries. I twisted automatically, shielding Thessa as Greyson lifted his sword. There was no denial on his lips, no anger in his eyes. A smile spread over his face as he eyed down Luken.

“How did you figure it out?” he asked casually.

The air seemed to thin around me. Brother? Greyson was the half-brother that Luken told me about, the one that had been imprisoned? My head whirled as Thessa’s cold fingers wrapped around my wrist, as though she wanted to pull me away from him. The entire colosseum was silent as they watched the confrontation.

“Your arrogance, for one,” Luken drawled. “But also… we captured some of your elf confederates alive. I’ll admit, your magical prowess caught me off guard. You’ve learned a lot to be able to use such advanced magic to change your features. I thought it might be a glamor, but you’ve done something deeper, haven’t you?”

Greyson grinned. “All except my fangs.”

The light seemed to blur about him for half a second. When it faded, a set of elegant fangs was in his mouth. My heart grew faster as I gripped my sword with both hands. What the hell was going on? Why would Luken’s brother enter the Blood Trials?

“What did they promise you?” Luken’s voice was so low I wondered if anyone else heard it.

“Everything. The Gods are tired of you, Brother,” Greyson snarled. Except, that wasn’t his real name. What was his realname? I couldn’t remember if Luken had told me. “They are going to strike you down and raise me up in your stead. I entered the Trails so that my own wish, to challenge you for the throne, would be granted. Even you can’t deny the winner of the Trials. And once I’ve killed them, I’ll kill you.”

Thessa whimpered.

Luken lifted a brow. “What makes you think you’ll win?”

“You can’t intervene. Not until the winner has been declared,” Greyson said, throwing his shoulders back.

Hot anger swept through me. Luken’s eyes didn’t move from his brother but I found myself understanding something. If this was the brother who had escaped his incarceration, if he was the one that sent the elf mercenaries after us in the forest… then four years ago…

“You entered the Trials under false pretenses,” I blurted, and Greyson’s head turned toward me. I straightened as I pointed my sword at him. “You aren’t Greyson, the elf. It’s against the law for vampires and half-vampires to participate in the Trials. Which means your entry is null and void.”

Greyson narrowed his eyes at me. “The Gods themselves decreed that I should be king. They gave me the plan to see this through. My participation was foreordained and blessed. Ask the oracle! They will tell the truth of my words.”

The oracle let out a high, keening wail. “The Gods do not interfere in the Trials. Nor do they give blessings to this man or that to give him power over others. They do not ordain the king, only ask for the respect that is owed to them.”

A startled look flashed over Greyson’s face. If I saw it, Luken must have, too. Was the oracle conspiring against him? He gave no indication he’d seen it or had any such suspicions.

“You have been trying to thwart me for years, brother. I have been kind. Generous.” Luken’s gaze hardened. “I let you live, and you have only worked against me. I should like to show mercy again… but what have you done to earn that mercy? My responsibilities are for more than my own conscience.”

Greyson’s jaw worked hard. “I… I’m not who you think I am. I’m not your brother at all. I was hired by a half-elf vampire to pretend. He promised me that he’d help me win the Trials and—”

“You’ve sent assassins after by blood donors for decades,” Luken interrupted. “You thought that by sabotaging them, you would make me weak. You should have stuck to the shadows.”

“I’m telling you, I’m not him,” Greyson insisted. “I was promised—I was going to open the way for the true king.”

Luken gave him a withering look. My heart slammed into my ribs as I tried to piece together my own feelings on the matter. Greyson was more than willing to take ownership of being Luken’s brother until the oracle failed to back him up. Was he really that much of a coward? Or was it true? Was he really not the one that Luken thought he was?

But more than that… sabotaging his blood donors? Did that mean what I thought it did?

The whole colosseum was silent, watching. It was quite the spectacle for them. This face-off between the brothers while Luken revealed Greyson’s identity to the whole world. If he was right. If Greyson’s backtracking now is just a desperate attempt to live to fight another day.

Beside me, Thessa’s fingers wrapped around my wrist. “He was after you. How did he manage to be part of our team? Did he bribe someone?”

She believed it, then.

“Your crimes haven’t just been against me.” Luken turned suddenly, starting directly at me. “You were behind the mercenaries that were sent to kill Elara Tideborne and her family. You were the one that had their inn burned down and the family slaughtered. All because you didn’t want me to have a new blood donor.”

I couldn’t look away from Luken. Though his face was impassive, his eyes were intense on me. Prickles washed over my scalp. There was a vulnerability to Luken’s intensity that I understood at once. He wanted me to believe. He wanted me to understand, to know that he wasn’t behind my family’s deaths after all.

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