Page 102 of On Brutal Thrones

My stomach sinks.

They’re identical.

Same dark hair. Same clothes. Same boots. Same powerful body moving with the same brutal grace. Even the strain on their faces is identical as they swing, block, and drive each other backward.

There has to be a difference.

I move closer, staring so hard my eyes ache. Come on. One of them has to be wrong.

As if sensing me at precisely the same moment, they both turn.

“Nyx!” the first shouts.

The second drives into him, knocking him sideways. “Don’t even fucking look at her.”

The hatred in his voice is so perfectly Thorian that my heart gives a painful jerk.

I look between them. Which one? Which one is my Thorian?

This is the man I love. The man who just asked me to marry him. The man who wants to build a life with me after all of this is over.

I should know him.

I should know him.

But I don’t.

The realization sends a wave of panic through me. I search their faces again, looking for anything. The wrong expression. A scar in the wrong place. A difference in the way one grips his sword.

Nothing.

I take a hesitant step toward the second Thorian, almost certain the possessive fury in his voice means he’s mine.

The first throws out his hand, panic flashing across his face. “Nyx, no! That’s not me. Come over here. Get behind me.”

“No, get behind me.”

My feet stop.

Oh gods.

The first Thorian snarls and launches himself at the second, and they crash into the sand. Fists fly. Someone grunts. A sword skitters away, and they roll together so quickly that I lose track of them entirely.

“No!”

I rush closer, panic climbing my throat. I have to help him. I have a dagger. I could change the balance of this fight in seconds.

Except I could change it in the wrong direction.

One of them breaks free and lunges toward a sword buried blade-down in the sand.

“Nyx!” he bellows. “Throw me my sword!”

My hand twitches toward it. Then stops. What if he’s not mine?

The other Thorian tackles him from behind, and they hit the ground again.

“Damn it!” I shout, tears burning behind my eyes.