Page 109 of A City of Flames

It’s my fault. I should have left long before, warned Darius enough; instead, I’d pushed it all to the back of my head, dancing, drinking, and freeing myself with shifters. “How did—”

“Glad to see that even after years you kept your promise of one day capturing me,” Darius cuts me off, directing his words to Lorcan with a weak breathless laugh.

My brows knit together as I glance at Lorcan. He keeps quiet, rage pouring off him like silken blood before I shift my gaze to Darius, and my veins turn to ice as he adds, “Brother.”

* * *

The word brother clings onto every part of me. My lips part, but nothing comes. Just deep exhales as I look between them.

They’re brothers.

How is this possible?

“Are you not going to come and greet your brother?” Darius lilts casually, but Lorcan doesn’t answer. He glances at the floor and grinds his jaw. “Last time you’d tackled me to the ground, now you can hardly look at me.”

I still can’t form a sentence or the courage to question it, not now, not like this.

Darius laughs again, weak but not without his teasing edge. “Pity really, remember when we were kids, and you’d beg for me to tell you stories—”

“Enough,” Lorcan’s voice sharpens, unlike ever before, as he turns and storms up to Darius. The shivers running through me don’t stop. It freezes to the point of pain as I watch Lorcan point his index finger at Darius in a harsh promise. “You and I will never be brothers.”

If any of the venators knew this, they hid it well; their faces now ripple in severity—a warrior stare. Darius’s golden skin pales by the second even as his lip tugs up at the corner in response. Although it fades too soon as he looks to his left, and the general, along with the queen, emerges from the woods, both with a pleased look on their faces.

Sarilyn spots me straight away, and all my strength evaporates before her as my eyes roam her red ruby gown, similar to Noctura night. It slides among the grass like a river of blood and shimmers as if she’d sourced it from the tree of Neoma.

“Naralía, darling, so glad to see you aren’t hurt.” Her hand skims over my shoulder as she walks around me, and I shiver at the fiendish smile shaping her lips. “If it weren’t for you, we would have never found out what a simple tree could do to weaken and drain a dragon of its powers.”

My gaze flickers over Sarilyn’s shoulders to Darius. Hurt flashes his eyes, and I shake my head, starting towards him. “I didn’t—”

“Who knew the youngest child of Nathaniel’s would prove useful to us.” The general’s spiteful voice stops me. Even as I look at him, the disgust on his face matches his tone.

Sarilyn chuckles. Whatever kindness I’d seen in her at first has long been gone since the dungeons. “Now, Erion, Naralía has always proven she has what it takes to become a venator. Her brothers will be so proud,” a cruel whisper as she smiles. She knows how to get to me. She’d threatened me with my brothers in the dungeons, and she will carry on doing it as much as she pleases.

My fingernails curl into my palm, and it trembles. My entire body does. Is it fear? Worry? I can no longer seem to hide it.

She lets out a breath of satisfaction, glancing over at Darius. “Shackle him.”

“No, don’t!” I protest without thinking, steadying my arms out as if that will stop every venator.

“Nara.” Lorcan proceeds forward, his tone a warning before Sarilyn raises her palm in the air and he halts.

“No need.” Her eyes stick to me. “Do you object to this Naralía? I thought we already established whose side you were on.”

You threatened me.

You made me kill a fledgling.

You used me.

“They’re not any different from us,” I whisper through clenched teeth, and her gaze tears through mine. It’s like she’s digging and twisting a blade to find another answer.

“Well,” She breathes as the whistle of the breeze breaks her out of her scrutiny. “If you believe that, perhaps you should join him.” Her eyes shift behind me, and a venator grabs me by the elbows, forcing them behind. I struggle and notice Darius light up with such fury, attempting to break free as the venators’ grips dig into my skin.

It’s like he is trying to reach for me, even in that state, weakening by the second.

“She doesn’t,” Lorcan says, and my head swivels in his direction as he cuts a pointed gaze at me, hoping I’ll agree. “Right, Miss Ambrose?”

Silence electrifies the air. My gaze jumps from Lorcan to Darius, and our eyes meet for a split moment before he bows his head. I’ve broken his trust, no matter how I truly feel about his kind.

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