Page 98 of Reign of Light
His face twists into a terrifying smile. “You know what? I actually like this idea better.”
Weston’s shoulders sink almost imperceptibly, and I know exactly what he is feeling, but he doesn’t want to show it.
Relief.
He doesn’t want Dane to see how his change of heart has affected us both, because it would only prove to him how much control he has over us. Weston doesn’t want to give him that power.
“Where are the keys?” Dane asks, glancing between the faces of the surrounding guards. Park steps forward and produces the keyring, placing it over Dane’s outstretched fingers. Turning his back on Weston, Dane steps in front of me, reaching down to grab my manacles and proceeds to shove the key in the small hole. The iron clanks as it falls open, and Dane tosses it to the ground at my feet.
“Yes, this will definitely be better.” Dane grabs my arm, his grip crushing as he jerks me forward and leads me up the steps to the dais until we are standing just before my throne.
Dane’s voice softens to a dangerous coo. “He never got any punishment for the role he played in all of this. I accept your offer, Lennox. I’ll let him live.”
My knees threaten to give out beneath me as his words sink in. Gratitude isn’t a feeling I ever thought I would feel toward this man, not after everything he’s done. But at this moment, I do. He’s agreed to spare Weston’s life, and the cost means nothing to me. I would gladly give up my title and my throne if it means he can live.
We will do exactly as Weston said, and disappear forever, and I can only hope that the gods will give this evil man everything he deserves for as many people that he has harmed. Maybe our actions, giving him exactly what he wants, will put an end to his immoral behavior. Even if I can never see my mother again, I know after reading her words and hearing Weston’s stories, she would never want me to succumb to Dane’s wrath.
“I think it’s a perfect punishment,” Dane continues, his voice louder this time so not only I can hear it. “Fitting, for all the havoc he’s caused for me and all the opportunities he took away.” He reaches up and gently swipes a lock of hair off my face, and I try not to cringe beneath his touch. His head tilts to the side as his face breaks into a joyous grin. “The only punishment worse than dying is to watch you die.”
“No!” Weston roars from somewhere behind me in the same moment that Dane’s hands wrap around my throat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Time slows, and the world around me falls out of focus, everything except the gleam of pure hatred and glimmer of success in Dane’s cold, amber eyes.
While my father could hardly ever look at me because all he saw was the face of my mother, it’s obvious now that Dane does not. He looks at me and sees something entirely different: my father, or simply the person who was supposed to give him what he wanted, but now is standing in his way.
Dane has done nothing but take from me. My mother and father, my childhood, my chance at saving her, and now he’s trying to take my life. I will not let him take any more. I will not let him win.
I am going to stop him, or die trying.
His grip tightens around my throat, his thumbs pressing in, and crushing my windpipe. He lifts me off the ground, and my eyes widen, the weight of my body worsening the pressure and making my mind scream for air.
I grip his hands, clawing at his fingers, trying to pry them from my skin.
Air. I need air.
I kick my legs wildly, trying to land a blow, anything that will get him to drop me, but his reach is too long, and my boots barely brush his body. Tears stream down my cheeks, and my mouth opens with noiseless gasps. Nails digging into his skin, I scratch and scrape, but he only squeezes harder, his sneer widening as he watches my panic set in.
“Lennox!”
Weston’s roar sounds muffled, from somewhere far behind me. His cry is so feral, it’s unlike any sound I’ve ever heard him make. He yells, again and again, but the noise in my ears dulls, covered only by the slowing beat of my heart.
My vision blurs, my view narrowing as darkness bleeds into the sides.
I need to breathe.
Ican’tbreathe.
Booms. Thuds. Grunts. Screams. There’s no indication of anything happening in the throne room around me, except for Weston’s roars.
Focus on him. He is the only one I want to hear in the end.
Because this is it. This is the end.
This is how I die.
At the hands of someone who once convinced me he loved me, and I loved him. At the hands of someone whose hatred of my family precipitated this lifelong plot to tear us down, and steal what he claimed was his. At the hands of someone whose evil has ruined the lives and hopes of the people I call my family.
