Page 48 of A Crown of Lies

So, Ieduin put his bow aside and drew the hunting knife, thinking he might slit Durlan’s throat.

Durlan’s eyes snapped open, and he sprang out of his bed, reaching for his club. Ieduin screamed and slashed through the air, slicing open Durlan’s arm, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. The club crashed into the side of Ieduin’s face, and he went down. Pain throbbed in his ears and darkness pulsed in his vision. He tried to rise, but he was too dizzy. He turned his head and threw up on the floor.

Calloused fingers closed around his hair. Durlan jerked him up to his knees, yanking the hunting knife away. “Thought you could kill me, did you, whore? Look at you. Pathetic. You’re not even worth pissing on.” He dropped Ieduin and readied the club.

Ieduin screamed and launched himself at Durlan, ripping, tearing, biting like a wild animal. With a curse, Durlan shoved him away. It was pure luck that Ieduin’s hand closed on the handle of the blade when he fell, and instinct that he turned and drove the point into Durlan’s chest.

The Jotki leader let out a wheezing breath and stumbled back, staring down at the knife sticking out of his chest in disbelief. A shaky hand closed around the handle, and he yanked the knife out, casting it to the floor.

Durlan fell to his knees.

Bruised and bloodied, Ieduin fought to his feet and picked up the bloody knife.

“Whore,” Durlan spat.

“So what if I am?” He wiped an arm under his nose. “There are worse things I could be. I could be you.”

Durlan grinned, showing bloody teeth. “You think you’re better than me, whore? You think that one day you’ll escape all this?”

“I will!” Ieduin spat. “One day, I’ll be rich! I’ll be a king, and you’ll be dead.”

He let out a wheezing laugh. “You’ll never be anything, whore. No matter how nice you dress, no matter how much money you’ve got, that’s all you’ll ever be. Once a filthy whore, always a filthy whore.”

Ieduin slit his throat and stood over him, watching the life go out of him. Killing him hadn’t seemed like enough. Someone would just bury his head and send him into the afterlife. The idea of Durlan at peace—even in death—was too much. Ieduin’s fingers closed around Durlan’s club.

He made sure there wasn’t enough of Durlan’s head left to bury. Then he took all the money and valuables he could find in the Jotki headquarters and started over.

He hadn’t thought about that day in years, not until he heard Durlan’s voice come out of Tofi’s mouth.

Ieduin wiped a hand over his face as the storm rumbled outside Greymark Castle. He turned to check on Rowan, only to find the bed empty, and his heart sank. The last thing he wanted was to be alone with that memory and the feeling of blood on his hands.

Where the nine hells was Rowan, though?

Maybe important business had pulled him away. Even though it was the middle of the night, kings were never off duty. He should’ve known better than to expect Rowan to be there when he woke up.

With a sigh, Ieduin climbed out of bed and gathered his discarded clothes. His shirt was torn beyond use, but he shrugged it on anyway to make the walk back to the room he shared with Rixxis.

Gods below, she was probably worried sick about him.

Fuck, what was he going to tell her? Would she be mad at him for sleeping with Rowan? Maybe, if he was quiet, he could slip into bed next to her without waking her.

The room was dark, quiet, and hot when he pushed open the door. Rixxis was sound asleep with her back to him, facing the wall. Normally, he didn’t go to bed half-dressed—especially with Rixxis—but the ruined shirt would just get tangled, and it was too dark to find another. He discarded his shirt by the door and slid into bed, making as little noise as possible.

There was a beat of silence before Rixxis’s voice broke it. “Were you working?”

Ieduin frowned into the dark. Might as well test the waters to see how she felt about it. “I was with Rowan.”

“Oh,” she said, and he couldn’t tell if it was a surprised oh or a hurt one.

He turned his head, looking at the back of her neck. “If you tell me to stop seeing him, I will.”

He’d hate it, and it would be difficult, but no amount of sex—no matter how good it was—was worth losing his friendship with Rixxis over. Not even with Rowan Sullivan.

“Do you want to stop seeing him?” Rixxis asked.

A distant clap of thunder rolled through the sky.

“No,” Ieduin replied at length. “But I don’t want it to upset you.”

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