Page 153 of A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty

For a long moment, I wondered if I was seeing things.

Then Lorian burst into the room, stepping close to me, Cavis moving next to him.

Thol’s expression turned blank. “Tell your Bloodthirsty Prince I’m not here to challenge him,” he said bitterly.

Across the room, Demos pushed off the wall, threat dripping from his every movement. I cut him a warning glare and scanned his body. Healthy. Safe. My chest cracked open, but my heart still pounded. This room was far too small.

Thol was filthy, covered in healing scabs and a few new scars.

“What happened?” I got out.

His eyes were bitter as they met mine. “Youhappened.”

Lorian prowled toward Thol, murder written across his face, and I shoved my hand out, slamming it against his chest.

“Stop it,” Asinia snapped. We all looked at her, and she met my eyes.

“Regner learned you’d visited your kingdom,” she said, her voice tight. “In retaliation, he sent his iron guards to our village.”

“No.” My denial was instant, but grief twisted Asinia’s expression. Demos stepped toward her as if he couldn’t help himself.

“Everyone is dead,” Thol said, voice empty. “Everyone except me.”

His words punched into me, like a fist to the gut. My vision spiraled, and numbness swept over my face.

His eyes were still on mine. My throat locked up, and I fought to get the word out. “Chista?”

Thol’s face crumpled. His sister was dead. Asinia crossed the room to him, wrapping an arm around him to lead him to the bed. “Sit,” she said.

He sat. Now that he’d said the words, it was as if he had nothing else left. He looked drained.

“They came in the middle of the night,” he said quietly. “I’d gone hunting and was on my way back. I heard the screams and ran.”

I could picture him desperately sprinting through the forest to get to our village. There were two kinds of people—those who heard screaming and ran in the opposite direction, and those who ran toward it to help. Thol had always been someone who helped.

“I tripped on a fucking rock,” Thol said, his eyes hollow. “I hit my head. I can’t have been out for long, but when I woke up, there weren’t so many screams.”

It had been night in the forest, and he’d been running as fast as he could. A dangerous task for anyone. But Thol would blame himself for tripping for the rest of his life.

Something broke in my chest. And the pain made it impossible to speak.

This was my fault. I should have known. This was what Regner did. He’d proven throughout his history that he had no problem targeting innocent people to make his enemies suffer.

I should have—

Thol ran a hand over his face. “Chista…Chista tried to run. I found her body near the bakery. The guard she was in love with had attempted to protect her. They’d both been cut down.”

The horror of it choked me, until all I could see in my mind was our village, the people dead. Our friends…

They weren’t my friends anymore. Likely hadn’t been since the moment they heard I wascorrupt. But none of that mattered.

“Kreilor was still alive when I got there. He’d tried to buy the others time to run, and the guards had tortured him.”

I closed my eyes, attempting to block out the vision that appeared in my mind, but it was no use.

“Kreilor said they let a few of them go at first. And then hunted them through the forest for sport. My father was the first to die. Apparently it was his fault that the corrupt had been allowed to flourish in our village.”

Every word he said was like a hammer inside my mind. My head spun, and the ringing in my ears was so loud I could barely hear his next words.

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