Page 71 of Fated for the Alien Fighter

If he’d wanted to harm Leah or anyone else, he would have admitted it.

Taryn didn’t detect any deceit in his energy, either. Though it was muted, almost hazy. So unlike the storm of emotions swirling around him when he’d been a youngling.

Every Zavorian on the ship had been able to read Rezal’s energy and he’d hated that.

Their father had hated it even more, and he’d always let Rezal know.

“You’ve learned to control it,” Taryn said.

“Not well enough, according to our father.”

“How is he?”

“Dead.”

Taryn’s Light gave a bitter pulse. He hadn’t expected it. He’d hated his father and his twisted ambition that mangled everyone and everything in his path.

And yet…

He walked to the table and sat down in front of his brother. As was tradition, Rezal, the youngest, took the bottle and poured the sweet liquid into the glasses.

“He doesn’t deserve peace,” Taryn said as he grabbed his glass.

“No. But may the Nines make him suffer enough so he can earn redemption.”

They raised the glasses at the same time and downed them in one gulp. Taryn closed his eyes as the liquid coated his tongue, flaring his senses.

This was the only thing he’d missed from the Zavorian ship.

“When?” he asked.

“Almost a yann ago,” Rezal said.

Taryn’s eyes bulged. He hadn’t heard a whisper about it. “How could you have hidden that for so long?”

“I had to. Things at home–”

“Your home.”

“–are complicated,” Rezal finished with a hiss.

“You know I have to report this to the Quillon elders.”

The death of the Zavorian king complicated things indeed. Taryn had no issue going against his father, but fighting the one brother he’d ever felt any attachment to was a task he’d never wanted to face.

“I sent them an official holo-vid before I came here,” Rezal said. “It is done.”

Of all the right things–“Why?”

“It was time,” Rezal said.

He was lying.

Of course he was. He’d been raised and corrupted by the best liar in the universe.

Rezal’s energy pulsed louder. The ambronin must have been doing its job; Taryn definitely sensed it coursing through his body, beating against his Light, trying to tear down his self-control.

There was only one way to find out.

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