Page 122 of Crown of Wrath

My eyes take in what he’s done. An entire district has been turned into rubble. My stomach sinks as he continues. “They were slums, full of Wyrdlings and Lesser Fae without the strength to ascend the social ladder who thought they could live amongst the true Immortals. I rid Draenyth of everything they touched. Their homes, their businesses, and anyone connected to them. This city was not meant for the rabble. Let them live in squalor in their villages like cattle ready for the slaughter. This is how we make the steel strong again. It’s how we make the High Fae strong, like in my father’s time.”

I whirl at him. “You killed an entire district because they were too weak?”

“Sometimes I forget how soft and emotional your kind are,” he says and finally looks at me. There’s a vicious seriousness about him. “I will do whatever it takes to make this world the way it should be. I will crush anything or anyone who stands in the wayof it being the place it needs to be. The world deserves to survive, and this weakness must be purged.”

I can feel the anger welling up inside me, but I can’t lash out without control. Not this time. So instead of trying to bash his head against the railing or throwing him off the side, I smile at him. “Thank you for reminding meexactlywhy you need to die.”

He chuckles, but his laughter doesn’t touch the seriousness in his eyes. “If I was worried about losing a fight against you three, do you really think I would have allowed you to find me?” He glances at Casimir and says, “Did your son finally convince you to do something other than bow to me? You’ll both die because of it, but at least you’ll die honorably now instead of begging me to spare you.”

Flames explode from Casimir’s hand, and Gethin clenches his left fist in the same moment. Steel envelopes him in the blink of an eye—a second skin that moves with him, stretching and shifting with no resistance. Fire sputters uselessly against the steel, and Gethin laughs. The Steel Gauntlet. The thing that we’d all been worried about.

I can hear the madness in that laughter. It’s uncontrolled even though he’s facing the leaders of two different Houses. There’s no fear or worry in him.

Cole attacks, his blade coming in with a powerful slice to Gethin’s side. His sword clangs against the metal covering him and bounces off, ringing like a bell, and Gethin reaches out. His hand moves supernaturally fast—so fast that even Cole can’t react quickly enough. He grabs Cole’s sword by the blade and rips it from his hand.

Cole tries to hang on, but Gethin’s stronger than him. He kicks out as Cole’s body comes close enough, and Cole can’t keep a hold of his sword. As soon as Gethin wrenches the sword free from Cole, he slams the flat of the blade against his knee. A sickening sound bounces around the breezeway, and as if it weremade of wood, the metal cracks. All of us gape at the sword as Gethin slams it onto his knee again, and it breaks in half.

That was Nightforged steel. It’s supposedly unbreakable. Nothing else is going to get through his armor. That doesn’t mean he can’t be hurt, though. I let the power of Earth flow through me—so much more powerful now that I’m the Conduit—and I rush Gethin. I hit him squarely in the chest like a boulder rolling off the edge of a cliff.

He huffs as my shoulder connects with his sternum, and I slam him against the railing which holds. Barely. Then pain like I can’t remember sears through my shoulder. A single glance shows me my mistake. I’d assumed that Gethin’s lack of weapons would have let this become a wrestling match—something I might win.

But Gethin’s body can become a steel-coated weapon on a thought. A massive spike juts from my shoulder where his hand used to be. I scream as I feel it lengthening inside my body. The air inside my lungs suddenly goes away, and it’s like I’m underwater. He’s punctured my lung with steel, and I can’t heal with that much steel in my body. Not even slowly.

Over the hissing of air leaving my lung, Gethin’s maniacal laughter rises ever more pronounced.

It infuriates me, and I lose the final bit of control I had. I’m bent over, running out of air, and I don’t care. I slam my fist into Gethin’s shin as hard as I can. A sickening crack sounds, and his laughter ends immediately as he pulls away from me.

I swing again, trying to break his kneecap, but he’s gotten away from me by then. He’s also pulled that spike out of my shoulder, and my body’s already beginning to heal. I guess that my mother was right about claiming the Throne. I’d never have been able to heal from a wound that severe this quickly.

I suck in a deep breath and feel my lungs working like they should. Blood still runs down my back through the cracks inmy crystal armor as my body struggles to heal the wound completely. I guess the speed at which we heal is a significant difference between the Houses of Steel and Earth.

Gethin’s already standing on his leg again, the shattered bones mended completely in seconds. At least I know I can hurt him now. Maybe we’re going to have to wear him down. Cole’s already moving, no longer worried about using a sword against him. He may not sit on the Steel Throne, but he still has Steel bloodlines running through him. He slams stone covered fists into Gethin’s face over and over again. I can hear his knuckles breaking and healing with each strike.

I leap into action, moving behind Gethin as Cole does his best to pummel him to death with his fists. I wrap my arm around his throat to get him into a headlock so that he can’t escape the punishment that Cole is dishing out.

It goes on for minutes, and Gethin doesn’t even try to get away. I can’t see him through the steel that coats every inch of his body except his eyes, but the steel indentations only get deeper. His face must be a bloody pulp. Maybe that’s why he’s not trying to fight back. Have we won? Was the trick really just to beat Gethin to death?

No. Cole’s thought moves through the bond.Something is wrong.He keeps slamming his fists against Gethin’s face, and the sound of flesh and bone being crushed is all I hear. Flecks of viscera leave the holes in his armor for his eyes and fly into my face.

Still, the King of Steel doesn’t struggle. He doesn’t speak or try to fight back or to pull away. He just accepts his beating.

Then Cole hits him so hard that something truly unexpected happens.His head comes off.As soon as it leaves his body, the silvery steel that coats the rest of his body disappears, and I can see exactly what Cole’s done to his face. It’s a mess of brokenbone and crushed flesh. One of his eyes has been destroyed. It’s the most disgusting sight I’ve ever seen.

I pull away, his body slumping in front of me, and Cole rushes to me. “Is he…”

Cole looks from the destroyed head to the body on the ground, but he doesn’t answer. Casimir hasn’t moved, and still, he doesn’t say or do anything. All of us stand there for a few moments and just stare, not entirely sure what to do now.

We’ve killed Gethin. The war is won. I look into Cole’s eyes and see hope there. Is it all done? Then I look back at Gethin’s head, and it’s gone.

Casimir shouts, and flames explode around him as he flies toward us. Burning fingers press against the stone armor on my chest, and I fly backward. Cole’s body moves the same way, and both of us crash against the wall behind us.

Casimir stands all alone, half a sword blade lodged into his back. Gethin stands three feet away from him, and his head is attached to his body again, covered in that steel skin just like before.

Somehow, in seconds, he moved away from us, regrew his head, and picked up the sword blade to throw at Cole. Casimir had been watching, so he saw all of this happen.

Cole moves to his father’s side, and I put myself between Gethin and Casimir. Revulsion rolls through me, and shadows slip through the air between us. I watch in shock as Gethin pushes his fist into his stomach. The steel opens up for him, and when he pulls his hand out, I see the flaming stick in his hand. The Burning Brand.

Cole snarls, and I hear a grunt from behind me. Flames explode from the Burning Brand, and I slam a stone wall up in front of us to protect us from the fire. I don’t know how to fight him. I might be able to force him into the void, but my shadows are worthless when he has the Burning Brand. Cole andCasimir’s flames are worthless against that armor. I guess we can’t beat him to death since we literally decapitated him, and seconds later, he’s just fine.

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