Page 183 of The King's Man
His eyes bulged and his hands scrabbled at his throat, while Gall merely pointed.
A moment later, Gall beckoned with that same finger, and the man—whose face was now beet red, his mouth opening and closing like a fish—pitched forward. No one touched him. Not a hand or body was raised. Yet he stumbled toward Gall like he’d been yanked on a rope.
He shook and twisted, blood smearing on his neck and hands as he tried desperately to claw free from an unseen noose tightening around his throat.
“I have been the subject of ridicule, and doubt every day of my life. That existence is now behind me!” Gall hissed then pointed to the stage and the man fell to his knees at Gall’s feet.
The low murmur of the crowd ceased as that crackling energy increased. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
“No more whispers. No more lies. You’ve questioned me for too long. Now is the time to speak. Breathe, you bastard, and tell your brothers the name of the King you whisper when you believe no one can hear.”
The man slumped, hands to the stage, his back arching with the force of the gasp as he drew breath for the first time, drops of blood spattering to the stage as he gulped at the air.
“Speak it!” Gall snapped.
“Melek!” the man croaked, his voice echoing around the Coliseum.
The crowd murmured and whispered, the advisors looking back and forth between each other, but Gall only took the step to put his feet under the man’s chin and glared down at him.
“Say it again,” he snarled.
“Melek,” the man croaked, shaking his head as if the word was torn from him against his will. My heart turned to lead. Yilan leaned into my side sending a rush of love and reassurance through the bond. “I believe… Melek is the… true… King. He conquered the… the continent and—argh!”
“I was there when the Centaurs gave up their bows,” Gall snarled through gritted teeth. “I watched as the lizards shrank back into hiding. I witnessed the wizards’ and the pigs’ defeat, and still you worship the name of the asshole who stole me from my father?!”
The man continued to shake his head frantically, to deny the accusation, but that invisible thread compressed his neck again and he had no air to speak.
Gall leaned down putting the pad of one finger under his chin and lifting it like a man to a child.
The man looked up, pleading, his eyes bloodshot and face purple, gasping.
“I don’t need a spear—or two—to kill you, you fucking worm,” he growled. “Your life is forfeit to mywhim.”
Then Gall hissed something I couldn’t make out and straightened as the man fell to the stage floor and convulsed.
But Gall ignored the flopping, bleeding man and turned back to the crowd. “If any of you still doubt, speak now. I will drop you where you stand without raising a sweat.”
As one, the entire Nephilim nation ceased to breathe.
Gall’s eyesglowedwith power.
I sucked in a breath and Yilan’s grip tightened.
“Are there any further questions?” he snarled
When no one spoke, Gall nodded, and my heart slowly broke in two.
“The rumors you have heard are true,” he muttered, and still the sound carried to everyone present. “I am Gallus Dann Falcyon, the son of Gaultes Falcyon.I possess the purest living blood of our kind, and am the closest descendent to the Fallen.I. Am. Your. King.Any other male who speaks a claim to the crown before you is an imposter—or a rebel. And he will be killed as swiftly and easily asthat.”
He pointed at the now still body of the man on the stage.
And a second later, a roar of approval rose from the Nephilim that was so loud it shook the wall under my belly and I had to block my ears.
Gall nodded and smiled, and it was so cold, it chilled my bones.
‘It’s time,’I sent to Yilan, the signal for her to shroud us so I could carry her out of here.
As the world blurred at the edges, and my heartbeat thudded in my skull, I stood and gathered my mate to my chest, holding her to me as I launched off the wall, the flapping of my wings covered by the roar of the crowd below.
