Page 115 of Savage Crown

As if his mind refuses to process what he just heard.

Then his breath shudders.

Faint. Almost imperceptible.

"You're lying."

Nhilian shrugs."Am I?"

A flick of his fingers brings a servant forward, placing a sealed letter on the table.

The seal is unmistakable.

Marchellion’s crest.

Rylan’s father. His non-biological father.

A chill crawls up my spine.

Nhilian leans forward, resting his elbows on the table, watching Rylan like he’s a spider toying with a fly caught in his web.

"He wrote it before his death,"Nhilian continues."A confession. Detailing the truth of your family's fall. Your real father—Argus—he dabbled in magic that should never have been touched. He became… something else."

Rylan’s breath stills.

I don’t dare move.

Don’t dare speak.

I see it—the breaking.

The slow, splintering of something deep inside him.

"Marchellion was given a choice: kill the monster his closest friend had become, or die alongside him. He chose survival. You were the only thing he spared."

The words hang in the air.

Suffocating.

Smothering.

Rylan doesn’t move.

He doesn’t blink.

But his fingers tremble.

So slight, I almost miss it.

Almost.

Nhilian leans back, gesturing lazily."Now you know. So, what will you do with it?"

I know what Nhilian wants.

He wants Rylan to break.

To become weak with grief, with doubt.

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