Page 48 of The Last Strike

“Khalil, please don’t do this! Please!” Grace pleaded with wet eyes, struggling against the constraints.

“It is already done,” he said flatly, turning and walking out of the room.

“Khalil!” Grace screamed after him but he refused to stop.

He had always done what needed to be done—no matter the price. He had never allowed his personal feelings to get in the way. It became easier over time to detach from his emotions.

That had been Alila’s parting gift to him.

Asher

Make decisions you can sleep with.

King Martin’s voice was so clear in Asher’s mind he could’ve sworn his father was seated beside him.

But he wasn’t. Jesse was, and James and Reed were across from them, looking at the television.

Asher held the commander’s reports from the border. No one was winning, but they were all losing.

Santina had lost one hundred men overnight alone. One hundred men who would not return home to their families. Sons, husbands, fathers, friends.

Asher’s throat tightened. He was responsible for this; he had sent them to their deaths.

His hand went to his throat.

“Breathe,” Jesse said, his voice barely audible.

Asher felt like he was drowning in blood.

His lungs burned and his vision blurred, but he made himself look at the names—made himself read every name on the list. Their sacrifice would not be for nothing.

Asher drew a deep breath. He tasted metal, but knew it was not blood, rather his imagination reeling in his mind.

“There’s a royal announcement,” James said, changing the television channel.

King Khalil sat in front of the Adani flag.

“Adani, our kingdom is being attacked, and I will not stand by and let King Asher take Adani. Do you think he will stop there? No—he is a man of greed, and he will not stop until he takes all the kingdoms. But I will not let that happen to Adani. Asher had a network of spies in our land, but we have dismantled that network, and I have captured the organizer of this network: Grace, Asher’s aunt. Today will be a lesson for all who so much as think of betraying the Adani people. At dawn, in Alila Square, Grace and her cohorts will be executed.”

Asher’s eyebrows lifted and he looked to James. For once, his face told Asher what he was thinking. He hadn’t expected this either.

The footage cut to display a photograph of Grace shaking hands with King Martin. Asher was in the edge of the frame. He sifted through memories, but couldn’t recall when this was taken. It looked to be a few years ago at least.

“Well, that solves the problem of Aunty Grace,” Asher said.

James nodded. “If you play with snakes, it’s only a matter of time before they bite.”

Khalil didn’t realize it, but he’d just given Asher a gift. While Grace was alive, she was always in the back of Asher’s mind—the temptation to go after her was always there. But if Khalil eliminated her, that temptation was gone, and Asher could think more clearly.

A photograph of Alila Square was shown next. It was a large square comprised of white stone tiles with a sculpture of Queen Alila in the center. Asher barely remembered meeting the queen, but he doubted she’d be honored by these executions in an area bearing her name.

Soon the tiles would be stained red. Khalil was about theatrics, and this would be a good distraction from his own bad behavior. It was perfect timing for the king.

Asher supposed Grace had become a liability to Khalil since her identity had been revealed and she couldn’t move around Santina to provide intelligence. Asher was sure she still had her spies, but with increased security, she obviously wasn’t feeding as much information as Khalil would’ve liked.

Either that, or she’d made some other mistake that had caused Khalil to take action. If Grace had killed Alila and Khalil hadn’t known about it ...

He looked to James. “Is there any chance someone in Adani knows Samuel has been looking into Alila’s death?”

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