Page 185 of Fearless

The king smiles, and it’s joyous enough to tell the heir it isn’t meant for him. “Because I am finally able to put an end to the Resistance.”

The prince thinks on this. His face slackens with surprise. For the first time since he was a boy, the man before him suddenly becomes just that. Behind the facade of a grand king, a god of Elites, there lies a single-minded man. Kitt has always thought his father strived for more than just the eradication of Ordinaries, more than a single kingdom of Elites.

That perfect, powerful image of Edric Azer begins to melt away, leaving a child who is oddly disappointed by the mediocre sins of his father. He has always expected more from the man who so flippantly raised him. If Kitt and Kai had endured their loveless lives for something truly great, it might have been worth it all.

Because that is the truth of it. Kitt has never learned how to love, and yet, he somehow stumbled into it with his brother. But everything else, every hopeless attempt for his father’s favor, is born of obsession. That alone is what the king has taught him.

“That is all you want, Father?” The heir clears his throat, intensity building behind that green gaze. “A truly Elite society within Ilya alone?”

“What more could I ask for?” the king snaps. “And if I meet my end before it is finished, you shall continue my legacy. Wipe out the Ordinaries for good. As it was always meant to be.”

Kitt blinks sluggishly. That is all his father wants of him? All that is expected of him after everything he has endured?

“Did you hear me, boy?” The king’s booming voice does not make Kitt wince. “I have plans for you.”

The heir nods. He has plans as well.

Kitt will become so much greater than his father. Then, he will have earned his approval. Become worthy of a love he never understood.

Later, Edric will speak with his daughter again, spinning each word to seem as though she is influencing his sons. Each jab is intended to spur her toward spending more time with Kitt—the heir discreetly doing his father’s bidding. Soon that boy would become a king, and with the crown comes a discovery of the truth. The letter Edric leaves his son is a reflection of the one Landan left him. And so the secret of the great Plague is passed on.

As for Kai, well, the king does not care for the budding relationship between his Enforcer and forgotten daughter. Nor does he care for the spare who is not truly his. The king revels in Kai’s power as much as he despises it. Because, in truth, it was not born of him, making Edric hate how something so strong is not his to claim. This is why he pushes the boy so hard, spills his blood in training and hardens the heart that pumps it. He equally loves and loathes his Enforcer’s power, and it drives an immense darkness between them.

Kai does not understand the extent of his father’s indifference toward him or why he suffers so heavily at the hand of his king.

Paedyn does not understand the extent of her birth and how it is connected to the king’s loathing of her.

Kitt does not understand the extent of his father’s hatred toward Ordinaries, but he does not need to. No matter the reasonings, it is inferior to everything the king has put him through. The heir will no longer tolerate being unremarkable in his father’s eyes—he will overwhelm every hope and dream Edric has for Ilya. Kitt Azer determines to be the greatness his father never was.

In time, they will come to see what was hidden from them. Every lie brought to light, every secret unraveled.

But the king, dear Edric, will never know the truth behind that rose on Iris’s jewelry box.

CHAPTER 69Paedyn

It is six days after Kitt’s death when we gain the courage to gather the stack of bloody letters.

Most are unmaimed by the king’s death, having shied into a dark corner of his desk drawer. Ink smears across the pages of some while blood stains the others, leaving words to gasp beneath the large splotches. Each letter plucks apart a different piece of Kitt. Some anger and grief, others calculating or lonely.

Not all are addressed to someone. Most are just a scribble of consciousness or spillage of emotion.

But there is no shortage of tears.

Kai weeps for his brother. I weep briefly for the boy I used to know. Kitt Azer was at war with himself, the pen his weapon and the parchment his foe. The battle that raged behind his eyes was one he fought alone until the very end.

The brothers are lost without each other. Kitt, because his Enforcer is no longer his. And Kai, because his king has died in his arms.

So he weeps.

Kitt is gone, and a piece of Kai with him.

Father is still dead. She killed him.

I’m not sure what else to say, or write, or do.

I can still see his severed neck when I shut my eyes, so I don’t sleep.

Paedyn is gone. The girl I trusted is now a traitor to the crown. A killer.

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