Page 68 of The Shadow King's Brother

"Don't–" I whisper.

And then she laughs. It's quiet at first—barely a chuckle, but there's something off about it, something that makes the hairs on my neck stand on end.

"Elio is here early," she murmurs, almost to herself, as she steps away from me. "Let's see how this plays out."

Her fingers twitch like she's anticipating something.

I can hear the car clearly now, the engine is a full-on growl as it skids to a halt outside. My heart races.

"Just remember," she says in a voice barely above a whisper, "this is all for us. Me, you and your father."

I hear her heels clicking away, the sharp rhythm fading down the hall. I blink, barely able to breathe, my thoughts still a jumbled mess of disbelief, betrayal, and rage. My mother's planning to kill Elio. To kill Celeste, Maria, Vinny. To destroy everything, and for what? Revenge? Power? Maybe both.

The room feels colder now that she's gone. But then, faintly, I hear it.

A murmur, muffled through the thick walls, the sound of Eddie's voice. It's not loud enough to make out the words at first, but it's enough to make me strain forward.

I shift, pressing my ear closer to a crack in the corner's cement wall, trying to decipher the conversation on the other side. I wish I could hear more clearly, but the words come in jagged bursts like broken glass being scraped along the floor.

"Galli in, Galli out," Eddie growls. I blink, my pulse picking up. There's something about how Eddie says it like he's trying to make it fit into some twisted puzzle.

Then I hear more.

Eddie's voice grows clearer and more confident as if he's speaking to someone else, but I can't make out who.

"She's not going to last much longer…." he says, a sickening edge to his tone. "...A new star rises." He pauses.

He's going to kill me?

My stomach clenches. I stumble backward, my mind spinning. No. No, this can't be happening. I press my hand against the wall, trying to steady myself. My breath comes in shallow gasps.

Before I can think further, I hear a faint sound—footsteps approaching. I stiffen, wiping the panic from my face. I can't let Eddie see my weakness. I can't let him know how much his words have shaken me.

The door creaks open, and I force a smile. It's not much, but enough to mask the storm raging inside me.

"Hello, dear Victoria," Eddie says, stepping into the room with that sickening grin of his.

I stare at him, my breath tight in my chest.

"Eddie," I reply, my voice like steel. “Please don’t ki—”

Before he can reply, the door swings open again, and my Mother strides back in, heels clicking sharply against the floor. Her expression is eerily composed as if this is just another business deal.

"It's done," she announces smoothly, dusting nonexistent lint from her sleeve. "I sent twenty men. Jackson, all of them—by now, they're either dead or they will be soon. Elio though—he will be captured. I want to see him suffer, like he made us suffer." She glances at me, tilting her head, watching me closely. "Now, we wait."

The words slice through me, cold and final. My breath stutters. Twenty men.

The walls seem to close in. Blood rushes in my ears.

"Perfect, my love," Eddie purrs, sliding into place beside her like a snake coiling around its master's throat.

And then—

A sharp, deafening crack splits the air.

The room tilts.

For a second, my brain refuses to catch up with reality.

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