Page 73 of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

And yet, I got the impression that he already saw some piece of the truth.

I choked out, “Please.”

“He’s one of Tarkan’s guards.”

“Please.”

Begging. Pathetic. All I could think to do.

You have no brother,the voice reminded me, again.If his death is the Weaver’s will, it is the Weaver’s will.

And yet I—I couldn’t. Icouldn’t.

I hated when Atrius looked at me like that. That unrelenting steel stare, right through my gut. He did not ask who this person was. He did not ask why I wanted to spare him.

Something in his aura softened.

He didn’t say a word. He simply turned to Tarkan’s body, grabbed his hair, and hacked his head off with several wetTHWACKsof the axe.

He turned to me. “You were right,” he said. “This way was cleaner.”

Then he strode to the balcony, head in hand, to go claim his new city.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Yes, I had been right. Under other circumstances, maybe I would have been preening more that Atrius recognized it.

Tarkan’s city fell apart without him. The crumble was near-instantaneous. Atrius’s warriors were ready to sweep the city as soon as Tarkan was dead. They did so efficiently and, for the most part, bloodlessly. Few of Tarkan’s warriors were willing to fight for anyone but him, and if their survival wasn’t threatened, they were no threat to anyone else.

Within days, Vasai was firmly secured under Atrius’s rule.

I didn’t even feel anything when Atrius conceded this to me, or at Erekkus’s impressed whistles. I went through my tasks with rote mindlessness, and when I was free, I went to Naro’s side.

Atrius didn’t kill him. I didn’t know how to think about the fact that he spared him for my benefit. I knew Atrius was not a man made for mercy.

I put that question off for another day.

Instead, I sat beside Naro and waited.

My sedation should have worn off quickly, but he remained unconscious for days. Only the beginning of it was my magic. The rest, likely the after-effects of the drugs. He trembled and gasped in his sleep, sweat slicking the scar-dotted landscape of his forehead. Idabbed the sweat away with a cloth and dripped water down his throat.

I had never so strongly simultaneously hoped for opposite things: that he would wake up, and that he wouldn’t.

Near dawn on the first night, Erekkus came to the room and paused in the doorway. I turned, then hurriedly rose.

Atrius. I’d completely forgotten.

“I apologize,” I said. “I’m late to go to?—”

But Erekkus shook his head. “No. He sent me here to say he doesn’t need you tonight.” His gaze lingered on me, then on Naro, listless in the bed.

“You’ve found a pet,” he said.

“He’s not—” I bit down my objection. What could I say? I didn’t even know what the real answer was.

“I’m just watching over him,” I said.

Erekkus never did much to disguise his expression. He didn’t hide how confusing he found this situation.

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