Page 111 of The Fallen Fae King

I give a sharp laugh. “And on my fangs, what a brother he was to you.”

Aurelius’ eyes narrow. “My claws are at your throat. Don’t you dare⁠—”

“Insult Tarq? I never could. But I had eyes. I saw how he controlled you with one hand, while comforting you with the other. Were you blind to how he ran the court? The army? The empire?”

Aurelius’ hand tightens around my throat. “Shut your fucking mouth, or I will let the light back into this cell.”

My heart races. “You won’t.”

“Is that why you killed him? Because you thought him a tyrant? Because you’d always resented him? Did you hate him because I was closer to him than I was to you?”

I flinch.

He’s right. I hated him down to the bones for that.

Aurelius’ gaze becomes mocking. “I knew that you were lonely. But not that you would kill another royal because of it.”

“One who had a cell like this one…enchanted chains like these…” I rattle my hands in his grip. “…ready for you since birth.”

Aurelius pales. “That was my uncle.”

“My rats hear secrets. Your parents and brother knew about the cell too. They all feared you. Feared that you would become Hadrian.”

“Don’t,” Aurelius whispers.

“But they still wanted to use you. Tarq knew about Caligo and the whippings,” I press. Aurelius looks shaken. “He knew about what Maximinus was doing to you.”

“I said, don’t.” Aurelius flings himself away from me.

His back hits the stone wall.

He is staring at me with wild eyes. “I don’t…it’s not…”

“He knew,” I insist, pushing myself up. I spin onto my front, ignoring the ache in my wrists and throat. I crawl toward Aurelius with predatory grace. “He was never on your side, Relius. He was always working with your uncle. I wish only that I had the opportunity to rip out his abusive, manipulative throat earlier than I did.”

“Tarq wouldn’t do that to me.” Aurelius looks like his whole world is collapsing around him.

I wish that I didn’t need to be the one to do this to him. On the Void, however, I can’t allow him to think that our friendship hasn’t been the one thing that I’ve clung to my entire life.

I am many things — but I am not a betrayer.

“Why did you go to the Silver Tower that night?” I cage Aurelius against the wall.

Aurelius looks lost. “It was where we played…where I was safe. Tarq tapped the code to me that meant we had a secret meeting there. I could never discover what it was about.”

I lean with my burned hand to push a strand of hair back from Aurelius’ face.

Finally, I can tell him the truth.

“And I never discovered why Tarq wished you to be assassinated,” I reply, softly. “But I have been punished severely twice for refusing to kill you. As I said, I would rather suffer eternally in the Void than break my oath to you. I assumed that you would have already worked this out.”

Aurelius flinches away from me. “You’re lying.”

“How did I cross the silver walls of the palace, if your uncle did not lower the magic to allow me entry?” I quirk my brow. “Why did your brother lure you to the tower at just the moment of the assassination? In secret? I shan’t repeat what he said about you when I arrived but…I knew that I had no choices. Assassinate your brother…or watch him assassinate you.”

Aurelius lets out a roar, shoving me back. His shadows roll out of him in agitated wings.

“W-w-hy?” He leaps to his feet, spinning away from me to try to hide his devastation but he can’t hide his clenched fists or the distress in his pheromones.