Page 117 of A Sword of Ice
Ba-dump.
Ba-dump.
His father’s fist came crashing down against the table in his provincial meeting room. The wood splintered beneath his knuckles and split the skin on his hand. He didn’t seem to notice or particularly care, as he slammed his fist down a second time.
Like this could somehow prove a point and show Valerio just how displeased he was with his actions.
It was not new.
His father was always displeased with him. From the very moment Valerio had been born into existence, he had been nothing but a disappointment to the great king.
Oh, perhaps there had been a time when he had been loved by the man, but if such a time existed, it was one Valerio did not remember.
It was the love of his mother he recalled the most. Before that too had been tainted by the darkness in King Amos’ heart.
“The orders I gave you,” the king began, low and deadly. “What were they?”
“Your Majesty—”
“What were they, boy?” He did not need to raise his voice to a shout. Not when the venom came across on a whisper just the same.
Valerio had long since stopped flinching when facing his father. A prince never flinched. A prince never showed weakness. Even when faced with his own creator.
So he stood tall and let out a soft, quiet breath. “To find the Elementals.”
“What else, boy?”
“To not go to the camps and release the Fae.”
“You deliberately disobeyed my direct orders.”
Valerio tried not to grit his teeth. “When I discovered the truth, I had to save them.”
The king sneered at him. “Oh? Why is that?”
“Because I am their prince.”
“But I am your king!”The words echoed off cold stone, pulsing in dangerous vibrations. King Ashera sighed and pushed himself away from the table, swiping away the blood on his knuckles with his fingertips. “You are a blight in my life, boy prince,” he continued. “Disobeying the orders of your king brings with it consequences, as you well know.” His cruel, black eyes found Valerio’s. Eyes that were a reflection of his own.
He wondered if, when people looked at him, they found the same things Valerio saw in his father. If they saw a well of cruelty and obsession, a willingness to draw blood and do whatever it took to gain what he’d lost.
The thought almost pained him, because he knew the truth. He knew it was exactly what he was like. He had become his own father, molded himself into that image, and still it was not an exact replica.
“What are those consequences?”
He just wanted to hear Valerio say the words, to balk at them with fear.
What King Ashera did not know was that Valerio did not fear the words any more than he feared his devil of a father. For words were just that. And he’d suffered a crueler fate at Mana’s hands by having this monster’s blood running through his veins.
“The consequences are death.”
He could feel Uric behind him shaking with barely concealed dark energy. He would be a fool not to know what it meant, and his own body tensed a fraction. He knew what Uric would dare to do if the king came at Valerio with a blade.
His friend would kill the king before he even got that far.
Just thinking the words were treasonous. One never placed the words “kill” and “king” next to each other unless it was to discusswhothe royal meant to kill. Not the other way around. He was lucky Weylyn was not here to pry through his thoughts.
He would consider himself even luckier if Uric decided not to do anything stupid.
